Good morning, everyone. This is a very important day for us. There are temporal markers that our founders, poets, and others have used over time to place us in time to emphasize the importance of time. Because everything is about time. It,we use it, how we mark and today is an important day. Today is the day that we name the managers who go to the floor to pass the resolution to transmit the articles of and,chment to the senate later in the day, when we have the endorsement, the march of those articles of impeachment to the United States senate. As i have said, it has always been, our founders, when they started, in the course of human events when it becomes Abraham Lincoln, fourscore and seven years ago, thomas payne, these are the. Imes that bind us ,gain and again, even our poets longfellow. Remember . Listen, my children, and you will hear the Midnight Ride of. Aul revere remembering that famous day and year. Its always about marking history. Using time. On december 18, the house of representatives impeached the president of the United States. And impeachment that will last forever. Impeachment that will last forever. There have been questions about when we will send the articles over. We had hoped that the courtesy would have been extended to see what the process would be in the senate. Short of that, time has revealed many things since then. Time has been our friend in all of this. It has yielded incriminating evidence and more truth into the public domain. Since we have passed the articles on december 20, two days later, new emails showed that after 90 minutes a phone call showed Presiden Zelensky in showed thatce there was a direction to hold off on ukrainian aid. Had aning director effort in finding justification. Important,this is the alarm called was within the administration. January 2, newly unredacted raised serious concerns by the Trump Administration officials. They were concerned about the legality of the president s hold on aid to ukraine. January 6, a former Trump National security advisor said that he would comply with a subpoena to testify that he has new, relevant information. January 13, reports emerged that the russian government hacked a Ukrainian Gas Company as part of the ongoing effort to influence u. S. Elections in support of president trump. Just yesterday, the house committee, two of our chairman here, chairman nadler of the judiciary, chairman schiff of intelligence, chairman eliot engel of foreign affairs, and chairwoman maloney of government they released new evidence pursuant to a house , youena that lev parnas know who that is, associate of rudy giuliani, further proves the president was the central player in the scheme to pressure ukraine for his own benefit in the 2020 election. This is about the constitution of the United States. Its important for the president to know and for Vladimir Putin ,o know that the American Voter voters in america should decide who our president is. Not Vladimir Putin in russia. So, today am very proud to present the managers who will which we have in great confidence in terms of impeaching the president in his removal. But this further evidence insists that we wouldnt be in this situation had we not waited. Insists that there be witnesses and that we see documentation. And now you see some of that change happening on the senate side. I hope it does, for the good of our country and to honor our constitution. So, today on the floor we will pass a resolution naming the mentioned,s i appropriating the funds for the trial, transmitting the articles of impeachment of the president of the United States. From trying to influence a Foreign Government for his own, personal political benefit. Chair adam schiff of california, lead manager, chairman schiff, as you know, chair of the permits on committee on intelligence, is serving his 10th term in congress. Before congress he was a california state senator and served as a federal prosecutor in los angeles for six years. Most notably prosecuting the First Federal fbi agent ever to be indicted for espionage. Nadler, chair of the house Judiciary Committee, is serving his 15th term in congress. He served as the top democrat in the subcommittee on constitution, civil rights, and Civil Liberties for 13 years. Before congress he served in the new York State Assembly for 16 years. , houseofgren administration, with jurisdiction over federal elections, a Senior Member of the Judiciary Committee. She is serving her fit 13th term in congress. This is her third impeachment. As a Judiciary Committee staffer in the nixon impeachment, as a member of the Judiciary Committee under the clinton impeachment, and now as a manager in this impeachment of president trump. Isir jeffries of new york the chair of the House Democratic caucus and is currently serving his fourth term in congress. He is a member of the house Judiciary Committee. Before being in congress he served the assembly of new york for six years. An accomplished litigator in private practice before running for elected office. Honorable for the howard bear junior of the new York District court for the Southern District of new york. Congresswoman demings of florida, she is a member of both the House Permanent Select Committee on intelligence and the house Judiciary Committee. Serving her second term in congress. As congress she served with the Orlando Police department for 27 years. Part of that time as the First Woman Police chief in orlando. Congressman jason crow of colorado is a member of the services committee, serving our country bravely as an army ranger in iraq and afghanistan before running for congress. He was a respected litigator in private practice in colorado. Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia of texas is a member of the house Judiciary Committee and before congress she was serving in the texas state senate. She was the director and presiding judge of the houston municipal system and was elected city controller. She was later elected the first hispanic woman to be elected in her own right to the Harris County commissioner work. As you can see from these descriptions, the emphasis is on litigators. The emphasis is on Comfort Level in the courtroom. The emphasis is on making the strongest possible case to protect and defend the constitution, to seek the truth for the American People. I am very proud and honored that these seven distinguished members have accepted this serious responsibility, again, to protect and defend for the people, defending our democracy. I will leave here and a little bit later at noon i will go to the floor and pass a resolution naming the managers officially. I wanted to say more about them here and say that the decision to come down in favor of litigators is necessitated by the clear evidence that we should have witnesses and should have documentation and we have to make the strongest prosecution not only of our very strong case, but of all of the information that has come forth since. We are going to take a few questions. Why did you rush to have the vote before christmas and then why stretch this out longer . I will yield to the distinguished chairman, but i will say that we had a strong case for impeachment and removal of the president. Anything more and i will yield to the chairman. We have always felt a certain urgency about this impeachment, given that the president was trying to get foreign help and cheating in the next election, but as soon as we took up the articles, Mitch Mcconnell made it clear he didnt want witnesses or two here at trial in the senate or want documents. This time has given us the ability to show the American People the necessity of a fair trial. The extent to which the president is turning a trial into a sham. That time has been i think very effective in not only bringing new evidence to light, and the evidence was already overwhelming, but forcing senators to go on record. Do they want a trial that is fair to the president and the American People . Or are they going to participate in a coverup . It has been very effective and as you see additional evidence coming to light that has not only bolstered this overwhelming case, but has put additional pressure i think on the senate to conduct a fair trial. The last thing i will say is Mitch Mcconnell has taken to saying that the senate should only consider the closed record that comes from the house. Butf this is not a trial, an appeal for a trial. The senate, the framers had in witnessesl trial with and evidence. If mcconnell makes this the withoutial in history witnesses, it will be exposed for what it is, the to cover up for the president. To cover up for the president. Why didnt we wait to get more testimony . We have sought the testimony of don mcgahn, the president s yearr, since april of last. We still dont have a final court judgment. Yes, we could have waited years to get further testimony from president has the been obstructing, but that would essentially completely negate the impeachment power, allowing the president by virtue of obstruction to prevent his own impeachment. On acceptable course, particularly when the object of the president s scheme was to cheat in the election, the ordinary mechanism for dealing with a corrupt presidency. Discouraged to see Mitch Mcconnell signon to a resolution dismissing the case. To me, that dismissal is coverup. Dismissal is coverup. Jerry . Let me answer that. ,here is an overwhelming case beyond any reasonable doubt, that the president betrayed the country by withholding federal funds appropriated by congress, inaking the law in doing so, order to extort a Foreign Government into intervening in try to embarrass a potential political opponent of his. There is overwhelming evidence of that. We couldnt wait. Some people said let the election take care of it. Hes trying to cheat in that election. So, it is essential that we bring this impeachment to stop the president from trying to rig not trying, from rigging the next election. From conspiring with a Foreign Government, as the russian government attempted to rig our last election. The evidence is overwhelming. The latest evidence, with giuliani, makes it even more so. It makes sense to wait a while butore evidence piles up, we have to proceed. The integrity of the election is at stake. Let me add one other thing. This is a test of the constitution. Trying to rig an election, stonewalling congress in saying that no one may testify because i can have a coverup despite congress. Its a test of the constitution now. The senate is intended by the constitution to conduct a fair trial. That atican people know a trial, you permit witnesses. You present the evidence. If the senate doesnt permit the introduction of all relevant documentsand of all the house wants to introduce, because the house is the prosecutor here, then the senate is engaging in an unconstitutional and disgusting coverup. The question is, does the senate, the senate is on trial as well as the president. Does the senate conduct the trial according to the constitution to vindicate the republic . Or does the senate participate in the president s crimes by covering them up . Madam speaker, madam speaker . Thank you. We talked about the push. What do you see as the options for making the best case it you can and trying to go down that route. As Abraham Lincoln said, public sentiment is everything. 70 of the American People want to see a fair trial. They want a fair trial with witnesses and documentation. In october fort the next couple of months. We havent seen the rules in the senate. The American People have come down in favor of a fair trial, for which they always wanted, but it would entail having witnesses, as well as documents. Anyone else want to speak to that . Evidence is overwhelming that donald trump corruptly abused his power by pressuring a Foreign Government to target an american citizen ,or political and personal gain by withholding 391 million in military aid to ukraine without justification. There is a mountain of evidence in that regard. In america, no one is above the law. That is why the house proceeded with great leadership from to hold thisi president accountable. Our constitution required it, our democracy required it. Given the evidence built today,he American People to date the mayor can people deserve a fair trial. Democracy deserves a fair trial. The constitution deserves a fair trial. We will follow the evidence and present the truth to the American People. Speaker pelosi has given the space for the American People to weigh in over the last few weeks, leading at least four senators, the magic number, to publicly indicate that in their view a fair trial does include the presentation of documents and witnesses. We certainly hope that is what will take place. Add, reallyd just quickly onto this, i thank chairman jeffries, i want to underscore the importance of documents. We spent a lot of time talking about witnesses. Witnesses may or may not tell the truth, but documents dont generally lie. In the documents we submitted to the judiciary last night, you see the importance of documents. Included among the parnassus documents is a letter from giuliani from the parn ess documents is a letter from giuliani, including the investigation that the president wanted ukraine to undertake of his political opponent. There has been speculation from time to time that maybe the president or his allies will throw mr. Giuliani under the bus. It makes it clear that giuliani and with at the hast the knowledge and consent of the president. There is no stopping this off on others, the president is the architect of this scheme. These documents are important. We have only obtained a small sample of the universe of documents the president s withholding. If mr. Mcconnell wants to follow the clinton model, as he is professing, all of the documents were provided before the trial and they should be demanded by the senators. If the senators want to see the evidence, they should demand to see the documents and not participate in an effort to stonewall or cover up the president s misconduct. Witnesses, too. The other profound distinction between now and the clinton case is that the witnesses the house manager sought in the clinton trial had already testified. Their testimony was known. The question for the senators was do we want to hear them again . Another question not present here, do we want to hear witnesses talking about sex on the senate floor . Thats not the issue before us. Does the senate want to hear from witnesses who have never testified . People who have firsthand information. Unless the president is willing to concede everything the house , these witnesses are pertinent and relevant. Its a profound distinction between the clinton trial and where we are today. Madam speaker, [inaudible] opening up witnesses for the defense [inaudible] are you, the managers, prepared for that . Would you like to speak to that . We are prepared, but the relevant question is relevance. In any trial, you call witnesses who have information about the allegations, about the charges. The allegations, for which there is a mountain of evidence, is that the president he trade his country by trying to extort the ukraine by withholding 390 million in military aid that congress had voted on in order to get ukraine to announce the investigation of a domestic political opponent. Thats the allegation. Any witness with information about whether that was true or not true is a relevant witness. Anybody, like hunter biden, who has no information about any of that, is not a relevant witness. Any trial judge in the country would rule such a witness as irrelevant and inadmissible. If someone is accused of robbing a bank, witnesses who say that we saw him run into the bank, we saw him someplace else, are relevant. A witness who says he committed forgery on some other document is not relevant to the bank robbery charge. Thats the distinction. Me just say that what is at stake here is the constitution of the United States. This is what an impeachment is about. The president violated his oath of office, undermined our national security, jeopardized the integrity of our elections, tried to use the appropriations process as his private atm machine to grant or withhold inds granted by congress order to advance his personal and political advantage. That is what the senators should be looking into. This is a president who said the second article, article two, says i can do whatever i want. It does not. Hes undermining the system. A beautiful, exquisite, brilliant genius of a constitution, the separation of powers, by granting to himself the powers of a monarch, which is exactly a republic, if we can keep it. This is a very serious matter and we take it to heart and it is a very solemn way. It is about the constitution. It is about the republic, if we can keep it. And they shouldnt be frivolous with the constitution of the United States, even though the president of the United States has. The president is not above the law. He will be held accountable. He has been held accountable and has been impeached. Night and very proud of the managers that we have. I believe they bring to this case in the United States senate great patriotism, great expect for the constitution of the United States, great Comfort Level to the constitution. There are others bringing their intellectual resources and knowledge to all of this. I think them for accepting this responsibility. I wish them well. It is going to be a very big commitment of time and i dont think we could be better served than by the patriotism and dedication of the managers that i am naming here this morning. Thank you all very much. [industries conversations] when the impeachment trial continues this weekend, or is a look at the legal team representing president trump, cipoll,use counsel pat alan dershowitz, robert rayone, sekulow and ken starr