Schumer Expected to Dismiss Mayorkas Impeachment

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is expected to swiftly dismiss the impeachment charges against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas after House impeachment managers deliver them to the upper chamber next week, Senate aides told The Hill.

According to one Republican Senate aide, Schumer is expected to schedule a vote on a motion to dismiss or table the charges on April 11 — one day after they’re presented.

While Schumer could refer the matter to a special evidentiary committee, Senate Democrats reportedly are worried that doing so could lend credence to the two counts Mayorkas faces.

“There’s not going to be a trial,” a Senate GOP aide told The Hill. “I don’t think we’ll even get a resolution” to govern the floor process.

A simple majority is all that’s needed to pass a motion to dismiss or table the charges against Mayorkas. Democrats currently hold a 51-49 majority in the Senate.

A motion to dismiss the impeachment articles may receive some support from the handful of Republican senators who are skeptical that the House GOP has proven its case against the DHS secretary.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has said that Mayorkas seemed to be “carrying out the policies of the White House,” but, because she would serve as a juror in any impeachment trial, would not reveal to The Hill how she might vote.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said the time spent fighting over Mayorkas’ fate would be “a detour from the important work that’s going on.”

In February, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said he likely would seek to have the charges against Mayorkas dismissed.

“If there is a policy difference, it’s with the president, not the secretary that reports to him,” he told CNN at the time.

Schumer has denounced the House impeachment effort as lacking evidence that Mayorkas committed the high crimes and misdemeanors called for by the Constitution as the standard for impeachment.

“There’s no evidence that he’s committed any impeachable activities or actions, and I think it’s absurd,” he told reporters last month.

Though he frequently bucks the conventions of his party, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has described the impeachment of Mayorkas as “ridiculous” and said he wants “to get rid of it as quick as possible.”

The impeachment proceedings are expected to take up at least two days in the Senate, The Hill reported, citing Schumer’s office.