Opening arguments in the Senate impeachment trial for Donald Trump on the charge of incitement of insurrection for the Capitol riot will begin the week of February 8.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced the schedule late on Friday (Saturday AEDT) after reaching an agreement with Republicans.

Under the timeline, the House will transmit the impeachment article against Trump late on Monday, with initial proceedings on Tuesday.

From there, Trump’s legal team will have time to prepare the case before opening arguments begin in February.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Friday the nine House impeachment managers, or prosecutors, are “ready to begin to make their case” against Trump. Trump’s team will have had the same amount of time since the House impeachment vote to prepare, Pelosi said.

Pelosi said she will send the article of impeachment against Trump to the Senate on Monday.

Democrats say they can move quickly through the trial, potentially with no witnesses, because lawmakers experienced the insurrection first-hand.

One of the managers, California Rep. Ted Lieu, said Friday that Democrats would rather be working on policy right now, but “we can’t just ignore” what happened on January 6.

“This was an attack on our Capitol by a violent mob,” Lieu said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It was an attack on our nation instigated by our commander in chief. We have to address that and make sure it never happens again.“

Trump, who told his supporters to “fight like hell” just before they invaded the Capitol two weeks ago and interrupted the electoral vote count, is still assembling his legal team.