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Meet The House Managers Laying Out The Case To Impeach Donald Trump
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As former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial unfolds, a group of nine House Democrats will have the task of prosecuting the case before the Senate whose members will serve as jurors.
The impeachment managers, selected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will lay out their case in the Senate chamber alleging Trump incited his supporters to launch an attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. The assault came as lawmakers were working to certify President Joe Biden's electoral victory. The attack left five dead, including a Capitol Hill police officer.
House impeachment managers are expected to rely on lawmakers' personal experiences during the riots to build the case against Trump.
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland will serve as the lead impeachment manager. He is a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform where he also serves as chairman of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. He previously served in the Maryland State Senate and taught constitutional law at American University's Washington College of Law for more than a quarter century.
Raskin also co-wrote the single article of impeachment against Trump.
On a personal note, Raskin experienced tragedy at the end of 2020 when his 25-year-old son died by suicide on New Year's Eve after battling depression.
Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado has served in the House since 1997. She is a member of the Natural Resources Committee as well as the Energy and Commerce Committee. On the latter, she serves as the chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Previously DeGette served in the Colorado State House and was a civil rights attorney.
Before the impeachment proceedings got underway, DeGette said the case against the former president is clear.
"Here's a situation where the entire crime is either on video or on social media," she said, according to the CBS affiliate in Denver.
Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island serves on the Foreign Relations and Judiciary committees, and is chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law. Now in his sixth term, Cicilline was previously a two-term mayor of Providence, his state's capital, and a public defender in the District of Columbia.
Shortly after the attack on the Capitol, Cicilline reported a high volume of threatening calls to his office, according to The Providence Journal.
Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas is in his fifth term in Congress and serves on the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Education and Labor committees. Prior to serving in Congress Castro served five terms in the Texas legislature. The San Antonio Democrat is a second- generation Mexican American who studied at Stanford University and earned his law degree from Harvard Law School.
His identical twin brother, Julián Castro, is a former Democratic presidential candidate and previously served as the secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the Obama administration.
Rep. Eric Swalwell of California is a member of the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees and is chair of the Subcommittee on Intelligence Modernization and Readiness. He is also an outspoken critic of Trump. Swalwell ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination last cycle. He earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Maryland and formerly served as a prosecutor in California's Alameda County District Attorney's office.
Late last year the top leaders of both parties in the House received a briefing from the FBI regarding Swalwell's ties to a suspected Chinese spy that dates back to 2015. Those allegations led some House Republicans to call for his removal from committee assignments.
Rep. Ted Lieu of California is also a member of the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees and is a former active-duty officer in the U.S. Air Force, where he served as a prosecutor in the Judge Advocate General's Corps. He is currently a colonel in the Reserves. The fourth-term congressman also is whip of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and a vice-chair of the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus.
Lieu is reported to have raised the issue of impeaching Trump as the insurrection was still taking place, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Del. Stacey Plaskett of the U.S. Virgin Islands sits on the House Ways and Means, Budget and Agriculture committees. The Brooklyn-born Plaskett was a prosecutor in the Bronx District Attorney's office and served as senior counsel at the U.S. Justice Department. As a non-voting delegate to the House, Plaskett could not vote to impeach Trump, but told The Associated Press that her role as an impeachment manager will resonate for residents of American territories.
"Virgin Islanders are always looking for space to be part of this America and try to make it better, even without a vote," Plaskett said to the AP.
"I'm going to make sure that their voice and the voice of people from territories representing four million Americans – Puerto Rico and other places – are actually heard."
She is also was a former student of lead impeachment manager Raskin.
Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania is in her second term in Congress and serves on the Judiciary Committee. Prior to that she served in the Pennsylvania legislature and before that was an attorney in private practice. She also is from the same Pennsylvania county as Bruce Castor, a member of Trump's defense team.
Prior to her career in public service, Dean spent a decade teaching in the English Department at LaSalle University in Philadelphia, according to her congressional biography.
Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado is in his second term and serves on the Natural Resources, Climate Crisis and Judiciary committees. He is also the first African American to be elected to Congress from Colorado. Prior to serving in Congress, Neguse was appointed by former Gov. John Hickenlooper to his Cabinet as executive director of Colorado's consumer protection agency.
At 36, he is the youngest member of the House impeachment manager team.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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