Exclusive: Rep. Bradley Byrne Moves to Censure Pelosi for Holding Up Impeachment

Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-AL) will introduce a resolution on Thursday to censure House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for obstructing the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.

Byrne, who is vying for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate this year from his native Alabama, believes the speaker has broken congressional precedence by refusing to send the articles of impeachment to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“Speaker Pelosi’s decision to hold the articles of impeachment against President Trump in a pathetic and unconstitutional attempt to extract concessions from the Senate is an unprecedented abuse of power,” Byrne told Breitbart News in an exclusive statement. “House Democrats made the misguided decision to rush through the most legally unsound and factually unsupported articles of impeachment in the history of this country, and they can’t now insist that the Senate fix their shoddy, incomplete work.”

The congressman stated that the House’s role in the proceedings was over, and only Pelosi and her allies were left, most notably Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Adam Schiff (D-CA), to “present the lackluster case they assembled to the Senate and let the president finally exercise his right to defend himself.”

“Until then, the leader of this attempt to throw out constitutional norms to remove our president must be held accountable,” Byrne added.

The move comes as Pelosi is holding up the articles in an effort to push the Senate to adopt rules seen as favorable to Democrats for the impeachment trial. In particular, the speaker was rumored to be holding out for an agreement by McConnell to have former National Security Adviser John Bolton testify. The Senate GOP, for its part, seems to not be buying the ruse, with McConnell announcing on Wednesday his caucus would remain united in the face of Pelosi’s tactics.

It is unclear if Byrne’s resolution will receive bipartisan support in the House, especially as a number of high-profile Democrats have already signaled that Pelosi’s stalling effort on impeachment is wearing thin.

“If we’re going to do it, she should send them over,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Thursday. “I don’t see what good delay does.”