Prosecuting Trump: Pelosi picks Bay Area Rep. Zoe Lofgren for impeachment trial
WASHINGTON — Rep. Zoe Lofgren of San Jose was already assured of a role in the nation’s all-consuming political drama as she walked through a Capitol hallway Wednesday evening with six other House Democrats to deliver the impeachment case against President Trump to the Senate.
Earlier in the day, Lofgren and her colleagues were named by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to be the House’s impeachment managers, the prosecutors who will try to persuade two-thirds of the Republican-controlled Senate that Trump should be removed from office.
The managers delivered the case after the House voted along party lines to forward the two impeachment articles for trial. Pelosi, D-San Francisco, signed the articles and handed out ceremonial pens to Lofgren and other Democrats.
Lofgren, a longtime ally of Pelosi, is one of six attorneys on the House team and offers a unique perspective: She is the only member of Congress to play a direct role in all three modern impeachment inquiries, from Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton to Donald Trump.
“It is their responsibility to present the very strong case for the president’s impeachment and removal,” Pelosi said as she introduced Lofgren and the others at a morning news conference. “The impeachment managers represent the patriotism, pluralism and vibrancy of America.”
The House vote to forward the articles ended a 28-day impasse between Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky over rules for the trial, which is expected to start Tuesday.
Pelosi and other Democrats wanted promises that the Senate would call witnesses who did not testify before the House’s impeachment inquiry. Whether Republicans, who hold 53 of the Senate’s 100 seats, will do so is still up in the air.
Crowds arrive early on opening day of the Golden Gate International Exposition. Feb. 18, 1939.
The chances that enough Republicans will desert Trump to convict him are minuscule, but Lofgren and the other House managers have a second job: making Democrats’ case to a nation that remains sharply polarized over impeachment.
“There’s never been an impeachment where there were no witnesses,” Lofgren said in an interview Wednesday. “We want a fair trial. We want the truth to come out. And we want justice to be done.”
Trump is accused of abusing the power of his office by withholding military aid to Ukraine while pressuring its leader to announce investigations that could damage former Vice President Joe Biden and call into question whether Russia interfered in the 2016 election. He is also accused of obstructing Congress’ investigation by blocking witnesses from testifying and withholding subpoenaed documents.
How trial could unfold
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he has the votes among his fellow Republicans to adopt rules for President Trump’s impeachment trial, which could start as soon as Tuesday. He says the trial would closely follow the 1999 Senate proceedings against then-President Bill Clinton, who was accused of lying about an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky and obstructing Congress’ investigation.
Here’s how that trial was conducted:
<factbox_bullet class="macro" displayname="factbox_bullet" name="factbox_bullet">House members were given 24 hours to argue the case for why Clinton should be convicted.
<factbox_bullet class="macro" displayname="factbox_bullet" name="factbox_bullet">Clinton’s legal team was then given 24 hours to argue his defense.
<factbox_bullet class="macro" displayname="factbox_bullet" name="factbox_bullet">Senators then had a total of 16 hours to ask questions of both sides.
<factbox_bullet class="macro" displayname="factbox_bullet" name="factbox_bullet">Afterward, the Senate decided whether to call witnesses. Senators agreed to have the House impeachment managers depose Lewinsky, White House aide Sidney Blumenthal and a Clinton ally, attorney Vernon Jordan. Eventually, the Senate viewed video excerpts of the depositions.
<factbox_bullet class="macro" displayname="factbox_bullet" name="factbox_bullet">Both sides then gave closing arguments, and senators were given 15 minutes each to speak.
The Senate ultimately acquitted Clinton of the two articles of impeachment.
Trump will get his own defense team, led by White House counsel Pat Cipollone. The White House and Trump’s Republican defenders in Congress say the president withheld aid because he was legitimately concerned about corruption in Ukraine and the possibility that Biden’s son, Hunter, had been installed on the board of a Ukrainian energy company to curry favor with former President Barack Obama’s administration.
Lofgren serves on the House Judiciary Committee that drafted the impeachment articles. She has been more measured than some members of her party who have bitterly sparred with Republicans over impeachment.
“This is not something I sought or relish,” she said in a statement Wednesday. “Impeachment is a grave and solemn matter. It’s a stress test for our democracy.”
Democratic colleagues have often said Lofgren’s lawyerly approach bolsters their argument that the trial isn’t driven by partisanship.
“That reluctance gives her a unique credibility,” Huffman said. She “felt that if we eventually had to impeach, the country needed to know it was a very reluctant impeachment.”
Lofgren’s first foray into impeachment politics came in 1974. She was a law student and came to Washington to work as an aide to South Bay Democratic Rep. Don Edwards during the inquiry into Nixon.
Lofgren worked with the Judiciary Committee and helped draft an article of impeachment over Nixon’s authorization of the secret bombing of Cambodia in 1969-70. The committee didn’t adopt that article, but Nixon later resigned over the Watergate scandal.
Lofgren was elected to the House in 1994 and served on the Judiciary Committee during the impeachment case against Clinton in 1998, when he was accused of lying about his affair with an intern. Lofgren argued that Clinton’s conduct didn’t threaten the constitutional balance of powers and voted against impeachment.
In the Trump case, Lofgren was one of the last House Democrats to support an impeachment inquiry. Her hesitancy faded as more facts about Trump’s conduct related to Ukraine emerged.
“I’ve made it clear throughout this investigation that I didn’t want to be part of a third impeachment inquiry,” Lofgren said during a hearing in December. “But the direct evidence is very damning.”
She says his refusal to allow witness testimony or release documents to the House threatens the balance of power and the constitutional order, creating a dangerous precedent for any party in the White House.
“I hope every senator is prepared to seriously consider and vote honestly with an open mind for the future of our democracy,” she said Wednesday.
Dustin Gardiner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner
By: Dustin Gardiner
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Next Article Previous Article