After House Impeaches Trump, Timing of Next Steps Is Unclear

Pelosi weighs delaying delivery of articles of impeachment to Senate until Republicans set trial rules she considers fair.

The morning after the House voted along party lines to impeach President Trump, it was uncertain when and under what procedures the Senate would conduct his trial.

The House on Wednesday approved abuse-of-power and obstruction-of-Congress articles against Mr. Trump in the wake of his pressing Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. Nearly all Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), supported the charges, while the chamber’s Republicans rejected them, saying Democrats failed to show that Mr. Trump had committed a crime and that they had managed a flawed process.

Mr. Trump will now be the third president to face a trial in the Senate, where a two-thirds vote would be required to remove him from office. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) has said he sees no scenario in which Mr. Trump would be convicted.

But the timing of that step depends on when Mrs. Pelosi chooses to send the impeachment articles across the Capitol.

At a news conference after the votes Wednesday night, Mrs. Pelosi raised the prospect of delaying sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate until Republicans there set trial rules that she considers fair. She also said she would hold off on naming impeachment managers, who would act as prosecutors, until she sees how the Senate plans to conduct its trial.

“It’s difficult to determine who the managers would be until we see the arena in which we will be participating,” Mrs. Pelosi said. “So far we haven’t seen anything that looks fair to us.”

Mr. Trump criticized the prospect of a delay on Thursday. He tweeted: “Now the Do Nothing Party want to Do Nothing with the Articles & not deliver them to the Senate, but it’s Senate’s call!” The House determines the timing.