US House to vote on Trump impeachment articles

WASHINGTON

The U.S. House of Representatives will vote this week on whether President Donald Trump's impeachment articles will be transmitted to the Senate, multiple reports said Tuesday.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi privately told House Democrats the vote will be held Wednesday during a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill. The House will also vote on naming lawmakers who will prosecute the trial in the Senate, Pelosi said, according to reports citing anonymous Democratic sources.

The vote will bring to an end a month-long spat between Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell regarding the articles.

Pelosi has been withholding them since December in a bid to ramp up pressure on the majority leader as Pelosi sought to win concessions on the rules of Trump's trial, and whether witnesses would be called. But McConnell has held firm, refusing to budge on any matters before they are sent.

The Senate has yet to vote on the rules of the trial, but Trump is almost certain to be acquitted in the Republican-held chamber. Democrats would need 67 votes to remove him from office, but none of the Senate's 53 Republicans have indicated they would support Trump's removal.

Trump was impeached in December when the House approved abuse of power and obstruction of Congress articles against him.

They are tied to Trump's multiple requests to Ukraine to publicly declare criminal probes into Democratic front-runner Joe Biden, as well as his refusal to cooperate with the House's proceedings and his directive that top officials toe the same line.

McConnell and Senate Republicans are reportedly conferring Tuesday to debate rules that will guide the proceedings, and it is unlikely Senate Republicans will back a simple motion to dismiss the articles as Trump has suggested.

Chief Justice John Roberts will preside over the proceedings, which will see Trump become only the third president in U.S. history to face a Senate trial.