Senate GOP resolution calls Pelosi’s impeachment delay a ‘flagrant violation’

More than two dozen Republican senators introduced a resolution Thursday ripping House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for delaying sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate, calling it a “flagrant violation of the separation of powers.”

The resolution, spearheaded by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), comes as Republicans are growing increasingly frustrated by the delay in the impeachment trial for President Trump.

“It is our job as Senators to dispose of the articles that were lawfully passed. The Speaker’s attempt to shape or delay the trial is unprecedented. It cannot stand,” Graham said in a statement.

“What the Speaker has been doing is inconsistent with the Constitution and unfair to the President and the American people,” he added. “I hope and expect that this constitutional standoff will end soon.”

The resolution would throw the Senate’s support behind calling on Pelosi to “immediately appoint impeachment managers and transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate for disposition consistent with the Constitution of the United States.”

It characterizes her decision to delay the articles as a “gross infringement on the constitutional authority of the Senate,” while calling it “unprecedented for presidential impeachments” and a move that “is resulting in the denial of President Trump’s day in court.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is among the two dozen Republicans who are supporting the resolution, though the GOP leader has not indicated it will get a vote.

Graham began circulating his resolution earlier this week, including handing it out during Tuesday’s closed-door policy lunch.

McConnell told Republicans during Thursday’s closed-door caucus lunch that they should expect the Senate trial to start next week.

A spokesman for the GOP leader said his comments were not based on conversations with Pelosi, who has not specified when she will send the articles, but indicated on Thursday that it will be “soon.”

“I’m not holding them indefinitely,” Pelosi said during a press briefing in the Capitol. “I’ll send them over when I’m ready, and that will probably be soon.”