San Jose congresswoman will serve as a House impeachment manager
Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Wednesday the seven members of the House who will serve as impeachment managers. Photo by Elizabeth Mendez.

WASHINGTON. D.C. — Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced early Wednesday that San Jose congresswoman Zoe Lofgren will serve as one of the House managers in the Senate impeachment trial.

Lofgren will serve along with the six other managers from the House of Representatives: Adam Schiff (CA-28), Jerry Nadler (NY-10), Hakeem Jeffries (NY-8), Val Demings (FL-10), Sylvia Garcia (TX-29) and Jason Crow (CO-6).

This is Lofgren’s third time working on the impeachment of a U.S. president. As previously reported by San José Spotlight, Lofgren worked as an aide on the House judiciary committee on the impeachment of President Richard Nixon, and she was on the judiciary committee in 1998 when the House impeached President Bill Clinton.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren during a press conference on Capitol Hill where the House Speaker announced Lofgren would serve as one of the impeachment managers. Photo by Elizabeth Mendez.

When asked about serving as an impeachment manager on Tuesday, Lofgren refused to comment. But on Wednesday as she left a press conference swarmed by reporters, the veteran legislator said she felt “determined and honored that the speaker asked me to take this role.”

“I’m pretty familiar with the law of impeachment and the constitutional issues as a member of the judiciary committee,” Lofgren added. “We went through the evidence in considerable detail.”

Although she has considerable experience with impeachment, Lofgren has never served as an impeachment manager, whose role is to prosecute the case in the Senate. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, will preside over the trial.

“I think one challenge is to see if the senators comply with their oaths to be fair arbiters of the truth,” Lofgren said,

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has indicated in recent weeks that he does not plan on calling witnesses, arguing the Senate shouldn’t procure any new evidence that wasn’t discovered in the House investigations. Democrats in the Senate, including California’s Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, have said it is crucial to hear from witnesses such as White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.

Lofgren told reporters she hopes Justice Roberts would support the call for witnesses.

“The decision will be made by the chief justice in the Senate but we hope that our persuasive pile of evidence will lead them to that conclusion,” Lofgren said.

Former national security advisor John Bolton issued a statement last week saying he was ready to comply if a subpoena is issued for his testimony.

A spokesman for McConnell says the impeachment managers will be invited to deliver the two articles of impeachment to the Senate on Thursday.

Contact Elizabeth Mendez at [email protected] or follow @izziemae on Twitter.

 

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