The Senate may consider the impeachment of incumbent US President Donald Trump after the end of his presidency. The Washington Post reported this on Friday, citing a memo issued by the Senate’s Republican Party Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

According to this document, the Senate will not convene before January 19 to discuss any serious issues that require a vote. Instead, this can be done only with the consent of all 100 senators, TASS reported.

But if there is no such unanimous decision, then if the House of Representatives approves the impeachment articles against Trump and appoints the respective accusers, the Senate will adopt them and receive the articles only on January 19 or 20. It will be able to start the actual impeachment process only on January 20 or 21 at 1pm local time. Trump's term in office, however, ends on the afternoon of January 20 when President-elect Joe Biden will officially take office.

Thus, Trump’s impeachment process at the Senate will begin on January 20, after the end of Trump's presidency, or 24 hours later, on January 21, according to McConnell’s memo.

This means that the impeachment will not be carried out by Mitch McConnell, but by the Senate leader of the Democrats, Chuck Schumer, whose party gained control of the Senate after the recent election results.

In addition, it remains unclear who will chair this impeachment process, if it takes place, the memo states. The current rules dictate that in the case of the incumbent president, it should be chaired by the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, John Roberts; but at that time Donald Trump will no longer be considered the incumbent president.