ABC News reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday formally set in motion the process of sending the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate, triggering a historic trial set to begin on Thursday [January 16, 2020]. The Washington Post reported that:

The House on Wednesday delivered articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate and approved seven Democrats to serve as prosecutors in the third trial of a U.S. president.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) signed the articles at a ceremony in the Capitol, hours after she named a team of managers led by two trusted lieutenants, Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.).

The managers then walked the articles across the Capitol and presented them to the chamber led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has repeatedly characterized the House case as weak.  

The Business Insider noted that only three US presidents have faced impeachment before him – Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 were both impeached, while Richard Nixon resigned before he could be impeached in 1974.

“The first article charges him with abuse of power for pressuring Ukraine to assist him in his re-election campaign by damaging Democratic rivals. The second article charges him with obstruction of Congress for blocking testimony and refusing to provide documents in response to House subpoenas in the impeachment inquiry.”

According to the Wall Street Journal:

The Senate opened the impeachment trial of President Trump on Thursday with Chief Justice John Roberts swearing in the senators, who pledged to deliver impartial justice, and the formal reading of the two charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Hours before the senators took their oath, the Government Accountability Office, a watchdog agency, determined that Mr. Trump’s administration violated the law when it withheld aid to Ukraine, an issue at the heart of the impeachment case against the president.

Democrats allege that Mr. Trump, a Republican, improperly withheld the aid to pressure Kyiv to launch investigations that would help him politically in the 2020 election.

Mr. Trump has denied wrongdoing, calling the case against him a “big hoax” on Thursday. He is the third president in U.S. history to be impeached.

In another post, The Washington Post examined the politics behind the delay in the transmission of the articles to the Senate from when House impeached the President on Wednesday December 18, 2019, arguing that it paid off hugely for Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The Business Insider agrees.