By Blake Haas

NORMAL – After House Democrats delivered articles of impeachment – abuse of power and obstruction of Congress – to the Senate, one Illinois State University Professor said the trial could go as long as a month.

Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics and Development, Dr. Kerri Militia, explained why House Speaker Nancy Pelosi waited to sign and deliver the articles of impeachment.

“What she was concerned with is that the Senate would either immediately dismiss the motion, which they still can do, this could be over in a matter of hours, unlikely but it could happen,” Dr. Militia told WJBC’s Scott Miller. “I think it’s just the House wanting to make sure the Senate was going to hold a trial and Democrats would have some say in who testified. Democrats would have some say in who would testify, which was a gripe that the Republicans in the Senate had when the House was going through all of this.”

With the Senate trial officially underway, Dr. Militia said now it’s a waiting game.

“My best estimate, I would be very surprised if the trial lasted less than a week, that would be unheard of,” Dr. Militia added. “We have only done this three times; this is our third time doing it, so we don’t have a big sample size to generalize from… I’d honestly be surprised if it went longer than a month.”

The House voted 229-198 to charge President Trump with obstruction of Congress and 230-197 with abuse of power.

Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].