(Bloomberg) -- House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi will hold her weekly news conference Thursday amid the standoff over sending the impeachment charges against President
Donald Trump to the Senate.Here are the latest developments:Top House Democrat Says It’s Time for Trial (7:55 a.m.)House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith added his name to the list of
Democrats publicly urging Speaker Nancy Pelosi to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate.“I understand what the speaker is trying to do,” Smith told
CNN Thursday of the delay. Pelosi is “basically trying to use the leverage of that to work with
Democratic and
Republican senators to try to get a reasonable trial, a trial that would actually show evidence and bring out witnesses.”Smith, from
Washington state, said that while it was legitimate for Pelosi to retain the articles to try to gain leverage with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ahead of a
Senate trail, “at this point it doesn’t look like that is going to happen.”“I think it is time to send impeachment to the Senate and let Mitch McConnell be responsible for the fairness of the trial,” Smith said. “He ultimately is.”Some Democrats Ask Pelosi to Let Trial Begin (6 a.m.)Several Democratic senators are pressuring Pelosi to transmit the impeachment articles and let the Senate trial begin, and one said the trial could start next week.“If we’re going to do it, she should send them over. I don’t see what good delay does,” said Senator Dianne Feinstein, Pelosi’s fellow San Franciscan.Pelosi said she is holding back the articles of impeachment adopted by the House last month until Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sets out his rules for the trial. But Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut suggested the House has little leverage in the matter.“My expectation is that we’ll be able to start this trial next week,” Murphy said. “The leverage over
Republicans exists in the votes we take inside the trial.”Senator Joe Manchin of West
Virginia also said it’s time to send the articles to the Senate.“Now that we have
John Bolton saying he wants to testify, she’s accomplished something” by withholding the documents until now, Manchin said. Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, said Monday he would testify if subpoenaed by the Senate.McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, dismissed Pelosi’s attempt to negotiate the terms of trial. “We will not cede our authority to try this impeachment,” he said. -- Billy HouseCatch Up on Impeachment CoverageKey EventsThe House impeachment resolution is H.Res. 755. The Intelligence Committee Democrats’ impeachment report is here.Gordon Sondland’s transcript is here and here; Kurt Volker’s transcript is here and here. Former U.S. Ambassador to
Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch’s transcript is here and here; the transcript of Michael McKinley, former senior adviser to the secretary of State, is here. The transcript of David Holmes, a Foreign Service officer at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, is here.The transcript of William Taylor, the top U.S. envoy to Ukraine, is here and here. State Department official George Kent’s testimony is here and here. Testimony by Alexander Vindman can be found here, and the Fiona Hill transcript is here. Laura Cooper’s transcript is here; Christopher Anderson’s is here and Catherine Croft’s is here. Jennifer Williams’ transcript is here and Timothy Morrison’s is here. The Philip Reeker transcript is here. Mark Sandy’s is here.To contact the reporters on this story: Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.net;Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman, Kathleen HunterFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.