Pelosi Transmits Impeachment Article to Senate After Biden Inauguration

On January 25, 2021, exactly two weeks after the House voted to impeach Donald Trump and five days after President Biden’s inauguration, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi transmitted the single article of impeachment—charging Trump with “incitement of insurrection”—to the Senate. The nine House impeachment managers, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, walked solemnly from the House chamber to the Senate to formally present and exhibit the article of impeachment against now-former President Trump. This transmission marked the beginning of the first impeachment trial of a former president in American history, raising unprecedented constitutional questions about the Senate’s jurisdiction to try someone who had already left office.

The delay in transmitting the article—twelve days after the House impeachment vote—was strategically timed to allow President Biden’s administration to get established and begin Senate confirmation of key Cabinet positions. Pelosi emphasized that both the House managers and Trump’s defense team would have equal preparation time for the trial proceedings. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had negotiated a pre-trial schedule that would push the actual trial start to the week of February 8, giving both sides additional time to prepare their cases. A McConnell spokesman stated the Kentucky Republican “is glad that Leader Schumer agreed to Republicans’ request for additional time during the pre-trial phase.”

Jamie Raskin’s Leadership Under Extraordinary Circumstances

Speaker Pelosi’s selection of Rep. Jamie Raskin as lead impeachment manager was both strategic and poignant. Raskin, a three-term congressman representing Maryland’s 8th district, brought formidable credentials: he had taught constitutional law at American University for over 25 years, served as chair of the Oversight and Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, and served as vice chair of the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution. Raskin had personally drafted the article of “incitement of insurrection” in the immediate aftermath of the January 6 attack.

However, Raskin was leading the impeachment effort while carrying profound personal grief. Just days before the Capitol riot—on December 31, 2020—Raskin’s 25-year-old son Tommy died by suicide after years of battling depression. Tommy Raskin had accompanied his father to the Capitol on January 6, seeking safety during what they thought would be a routine electoral vote certification. When Speaker Pelosi asked Raskin to lead the impeachment prosecution, he described it as “a solemn and awesome responsibility” and explained that pursuing accountability was essential “for the country to process this trauma, and get through it, we have to remember it.” Raskin promised to carry his son “in my heart” throughout the trial, transforming his personal tragedy into a commitment to constitutional accountability.

The Impeachment Management Team

Pelosi assembled a team of eight additional managers alongside Raskin, each bringing legal expertise and prosecutorial experience: Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado, Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas, Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, Rep. Ted Lieu of California, Rep. Stacey Plaskett of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado, and Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania. Many had backgrounds as prosecutors or private practice attorneys. Speaker Pelosi characterized their selection as guided by “their great love of country, determination to protect our democracy and loyalty to our oath to the Constitution.” Rep. Val Demings praised Raskin’s ability to make “principled arguments rather than political arguments,” framing the trial as a matter of constitutional duty rather than partisan politics.

Constitutional Precedent and Trial Timeline

The transmission initiated an unprecedented constitutional process. The agreed-upon timeline included the formal exhibition of the article on January 25, followed by the swearing-in of senators as jurors and issuance of summons to Trump on January 26. Trump’s legal team would file their answer to the article and the House would submit its pretrial brief by February 2. Trump’s pretrial brief would be due February 8, with the House’s replication to the answer and pretrial rebuttal brief following, allowing the trial to begin on February 9.

The fundamental constitutional question looming over the proceedings was whether the Senate possessed jurisdiction to try a former president. No president had ever faced an impeachment trial after leaving office, though there was historical precedent for impeaching other federal officials after they had resigned. Legal scholars were divided, with some arguing the Constitution’s impeachment power existed specifically to remove officials from office and bar them from future service, while others contended that allowing presidents to escape accountability by resigning would create a dangerous loophole. This jurisdictional debate would dominate the trial’s opening day.

The transmission also represented a test of the Senate’s ability to balance multiple urgent priorities. Schumer faced the challenge of conducting an impeachment trial while simultaneously confirming Biden’s Cabinet nominees and advancing the new administration’s COVID-19 relief package and legislative agenda. McConnell, now minority leader after Democrats gained control through Vice President Kamala Harris’s tie-breaking vote in the evenly split 50-50 Senate, had negotiated the delayed timeline partly to give Trump’s legal team preparation time, but the delay also served McConnell’s political interests by allowing him to argue Trump could not be convicted because he was no longer in office—a jurisdictional argument McConnell himself had helped create by refusing to reconvene the Senate for a trial while Trump was still president.

The solemn walk of the impeachment managers to the Senate chamber, occurring “exactly one week after the attack on the Capitol” as Pelosi noted, underscored the gravity of the moment. The House had fulfilled its constitutional duty to impeach; now the question turned to whether the Senate would fulfill its duty to hold Trump accountable for what many constitutional scholars considered the gravest presidential offense in American history: inciting an insurrection against the government he had sworn to protect.