How the House will pick its managers

In case you hadn’t heard, President Donald J. Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives late Wednesday night. As has been expected for weeks, the House agreed to two articles of impeachment, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, on largely party line votes. 

Now, the impeachment process moves to the Senate where a trial will be held to decide if President Trump will be convicted and removed from office. Much is still to be decided as to the trial procedures the Senate will adopt, such as how many (if any) witnesses are to be called or even how long the trial will last. 

But even though the chamber has impeached the president, the House is not quite done with their impeachment work. The House must appoint members to serve as trial managers, or those responsible for arguing the Democrat’s case for removal in front of the Senator jurors. The impeachment managers are appointed by a simple House resolution, and since Democrats have a clear majority, Republicans will have no say as to who is tapped. Democrats have full say in who and the number they choose to send to the Senate. For historical reference, there were seven House managers in the Andrew Johnson trial, while House Republicans sent 13 managers to make their case against President Clinton.

The Democrats are still discussing which members will serve as their most effective managers, and rumors are swirling that Republican-turned-Independent Justin Amash may be picked to give the team a sense of bipartisanship. In fact, after the impeachment vote on Wednesday night Speaker Pelosi said that her pick of managers was dependent on what final trial procedures are agreed to in the Senate. That is, if the Speaker and Democrats don’t decide to hold off on sending the articles to the Senate.

Once the caucus has decided on their team of managers, the House will adopt another resolution that informs the Senate they have adopted articles of impeachment against the president and authorizes their chosen managers to prosecute the trial in the Senate. The resolution will be privileged in the Senate, forcing the chamber to vote on the matter, or more likely agree to the resolution by unanimous consent.

And then the trial can procedurally commence!