US senate fixes next week Tuesday for Trump impeachment trial

US President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate is set for next week Tuesday after key players have been sworn in.

According to majority leader Mitch McConnell, the House of Representatives will deliver the articles of impeachment against Trump to the upper chamber today.

“We believe that if that happens—in all likelihood—we’ll go through preliminary steps here this week which could well include the chief justice coming over and swearing in members of the Senate and some other kinds of housekeeping measures,” McConnell told reporters.

“We hope to achieve that by consent which would set us up to begin the actual trial next Tuesday.”

The 100 senators will be judge in Donald Trump’s trial after being accused of abuse of office.

John Roberts will on Thursday or Friday sworn in as the Supreme Court Chief Justice. He is to preside over the trial, which is expected to last at least two weeks.

Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat House speaker, called for a fair trial and demanded the Senate subpoena witnesses and documents from the White House that will be crucial in the trial.

“The American people deserve the truth, and the Constitution demands a trial… The president and the senators will be held accountable,” she added.

If the trial goes on as expected, President Donald Trump will become the third president in US history to go on trial. However, he is unlikely to be convicted given Republicans’ 53-47 control of the Senate, and the two-third vote required to find him guilty.

Donald Trump was impeached on December 18 by the House of Representatives who voted to charge him with abuse of power.

The US president is accused of holding up aid to Ukraine to pressure Kiev into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden, who is gunning for the Democratic party’s 2020 presidential nomination.