WASHINGTON.— On Monday, Congress resumed its work divided on the calendar for the political trial against President Donald Trump for abuse of power, and with the challenge of preventing an escalation of tensions with Iran after the assassination of a general from that country the last week.
The two issues are among the priorities of Congress this week. Everything indicates that the political trial against Trump remains in limbo because the Democrats have not yet sent the Senate the two charges approved by the House of Representatives on December 18.
According to legislative sources, the president of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, plans to send them this week, while some Republican senators try to dismiss them. Pelosi demanded on Monday again the appearance of witnesses who refused to participate in the hearings last year.
https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1214250869983793163
The Republican senator from Missouri, Josh Hawley, plans to present a resolution today to overturn the charges, arguing that the Democrats have delayed their shipment due to lack of evidence.
The resolution would allow the Senate to dismiss "for lack of prosecution" charges for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress if the House of Representatives has not transmitted them for at least 25 days.
https://twitter.com/SenHawleyPress/status/1214203408384704513
Only the Senate was also in recess since the lower house approved the two charges, and its submission would make the resolution invalid.
Meanwhile, the Republican senator from South Carolina and president of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Lindsey Graham, has suggested that he try to unilaterally change the rules to accelerate the political trial, even without holding the charges.
In this case, however, Graham would need the support of at least 67 of the 100 members of the Senate to change the rules, and for now he doesn't seem to have them.
Once Pelosi sends the charges, the Senate - under Republican control - must establish the parameters of the Trump trial, and take a vote to acquit or remove him from power.
With the approval of the charges without any Republican support, Trump became the third president in history to face a political trial.
Continuous divisions by trial
Several Republican senators, including the majority leader, Mitch McConnell, have made it clear that they would acquit Trump, regardless of the evidence presented by the opposition. The Democrats, meanwhile, maintain their demand that the trial include testimony from several key White House advisers.
The former National Security advisor, John Bolton, said Monday that he is willing to give testimony if the Senate asks for it through a subpoena. Bolton held the position for more than a year until last September, several weeks before the scandal was uncovered by pressure on Ukraine.
https://twitter.com/AmbJohnBolton/status/1214227975262146561
From his Twitter account, Trump repeated his complaint today that the political trial - known in English as impeachment - is a “farce” and continues the “witch hunt” that began before the 2016 elections, and asked that the process "Finish soon."
"It is a scam that Democrats play to help in the elections" next November, Trump argued, insisting that he did not pressure the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to investigate the former vice president and possible rival in the presidential race, Joe Biden
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1214193106423369728
The Democratic investigation, which generated the formulation and approval of the two charges against Trump, revolved around a call on July 25 in which the US president asked Zelenskiy to investigate Biden, and his son, Hunter.
The Trump Administration conditioned military aid for about $ 400 million and a possible state visit at the White House to Zelenskiy publicly announcing an investigation against the Biden and another on the alleged interference of Ukraine in the 2016 elections, according to the Democratic indictment.
Iranian threat
To his well-known explanation that he did not commit anything illegal, Trump has now added another: that the trial is a "waste of time and energy" when there are other pending tasks that are very important to the country.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1214194843246829569
Trump repeated a message from Graham last weekend that Democrats have allegedly delayed sending charges to the Senate because they are "weak and pathetic."
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1214179198056697856
He also warned that "investing time in this political farce at this time in our history, when I am very busy, is sad!"
It was his clearest allusion to the other storm that consumes his Administration: the threat of escalating tensions with Iran, after Trump ordered the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani last week.
With no public events on his agenda, Trump held closed meetings today to discuss his options at Iran's warning that he will retaliate against US military targets to avenge Soleimani's death.
Soleimani died in an air raid near the airport in Baghdad, days after a group of protesters tried to break into the US embassy in that city. In addition, an American military contractor, not yet identified, was killed in an attack at an Iraqi military base in the town of Kirkurk.
Apparently, the Pentagon presented the murder of Soleimani as the most remote and extreme option. In fact, other presidents, such as George W. Bush and Barack Obama, dismissed it because of the danger involved.
Although the political consensus is that Soleimani was a terrorist who threatened US national security for years, his death dangerously brings the country closer to another armed conflict in the Middle East, with unpredictable consequences.
Trump said last night that, in the face of a reprisal from Iran, he and his team have drawn up a list of 52 Iranian targets for new attacks, including cultural sites, many of which are considered by UNESCO as a cultural heritage of humanity.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1213593975732527112
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1213593974679769093
According to Trump, if Iranian forces can place bombs to attack Americans, or kill, torture or maim them, then their Administration could attack their cultural sites.
His detractors point out that attacking cultural sites would be a war crime and add more fuel to an already quite volatile situation in the region.
Therefore, Pelosi announced on Monday that he will vote in the coming days a resolution to restrict Trump's field of maneuver to order more military actions against Iran.
In a letter distributed among the Democratic bench, Pelosi said that the attack last week was not only "disproportionate" and did not have the permission of Congress, but has jeopardized the safety of US soldiers and diplomats in case of a "Serious escalation of tensions with Iran".
Pelosi's resolution is similar to that presented in the Senate by the Democratic Senator for Virginia, Tim Kaine, and reaffirms that, if the Administration does not request or obtain authorization from Congress, it must cease its military actions within 30 days .
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