Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will use the great latitude given to the Senate to conduct impeachment trials to either quickly dismiss the charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas or hold a cursory trial before the Senate votes to acquit, the New York Times reports.
With the House impeachment managers expected to deliver the charges to the Senate by the end of February, Schumer will work to gather support to dismiss the charges through a traditional motion to dismiss the charges, typically done as the managers finish prosecuting their case; a simple majority vote would dismiss the charges and would not require Mayorkas to mount a defense. There’s no chance that the necessary two-thirds of the Senate will vote to convict Mayorkas, with all Democrats and many Republicans questioning the rationale of House Republicans for using trickery to vote through the article against the Secretary.