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Sen. Hawley proposes rule change to dismiss House's 'bogus impeachment'

Sen. Hawley proposes rule change to dismiss House's 'bogus impeachment'

A group of Republican senators led by Josh Hawley of Missouri put forward a resolution on Monday that would allow the upper chamber to dismiss the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump if the House continues to delay sending them over.

The resolution would amend the various rules that govern the Senate's impeachment process in order to allow a senator to offer a motion to dismiss House-approved impeachment articles "for failure by the House of Representatives to prosecute such articles" if they aren't sent to the Senate within 25 calendar days of the House's adoption of the articles. Dismissal would require a simple majority vote, under the terms of the rule.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said that the House can't send the articles of impeachment over to the Senate until she knows that it will be a "fair" process. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has previously said that the Senate can't do anything with the matter until the articles are sent over, thereby leaving the process in apparent limbo for the time being. On Friday, McConnell said that the "fantasy that the Speaker of the House will get to hand-design the trial proceedings in the Senate" is "obviously a non-starter."

“Speaker Pelosi started this bogus impeachment by claiming President Trump was an urgent ‘threat to democracy’ who had to be removed now," reads a statement from Hawley put out with the resolution.

"Now she wants to prevent a Senate trial, perhaps indefinitely," Hawley adds. "But the Constitution gives the Senate sole power to adjudicate articles of impeachment, not the House. If Speaker Pelosi is afraid to try her case, the articles should be dismissed for failure to prosecute and Congress should get back to doing the people’s business.”

The proposed rule change was cosponsored by GOP Sens. Rick Scott, Fla., Mike Braun, Ind., Marsha Blackburn, Tenn., Ted Cruz, Texas, Steve Daines, Mont., John Barrasso, Wyo., Tom Cotton, Ark., Joni Ernst, Iowa, David Perdue, Ga., and Jim Inhofe, Okla.


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