Members of the United States Senate signed the "oath book" to assume the role of jurors on Wednesday afternoon, set to begin the impeachment trial for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. After the formal process of convening a court of impeachment, however, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) addressed the upper chamber and confirmed he would attempt to prevent the trial from taking place.
The norm-breaking, duty-abdicating move by Schumer and Senate Democrats upsets 227 years of congressional history.
In his remarks from the Senate floor, Schumer said he would make two motions, one to dismiss each of the two articles of impeachment passed by the House earlier this year: the first article deals with the DHS secretary's "willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law" and the second article addresses Mayorkas' "breach of public trust."
The majority leader said seven points of order would be allowed on the motion to dismiss the first article but only one point of order would be allowed on the motion to dismiss the second article. Both motions would have 60 minutes of debate, Schumer outlined. Schumer said he would then move to adjourn the court of impeachment with just four minutes of debate on that question.
