State Dept. condemns arrests, repression in Russia

GOP senators say Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to propose a delay of former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial when he pitches a framework later Thursday to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. 

The delay is designed to give the still-emerging Trump legal team time to prepare.

Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., said it's his understanding from a conversation earlier in the day that the trial will not start "until sometime mid-February due to the fact that the process, as it occurred in the House, evolved so quickly, and that it is not in line with the time you need to prepare to prepare for a defense in a Senate trial."

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told Capitol Hill reporters, “I think, in fairness to anybody who's accused of impeachable offenses, there needs to be some fair process."

-ABC News' Trish Turner and Allison Pecorin

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who did not attend Biden's inauguration and was one of the leaders of the effort to overturn the election results in the House, says she has filed impeachment articles against Biden and that the case against him "is vast and detailed."

ABC News has asked Greene's office for the text of the impeachment articles but has not heard back.

Any member can file impeachment articles, however they are not guaranteed a vote on the floor or in the House Judiciary Committee.

-ABC News' Ben Siegel

The House has passed a waiver allowing retired Gen. Lloyd Austin to serve as defense secretary, if confirmed by the Senate. The retired four-star general retired from the Army in 2016, short of the requirement that commissioned officers be out of the service for seven years before taking a civilian post.

The Thursday vote to grant Austin a waiver, which passed 326-78, was bipartisan, with a handful of Democrats voting with dozens of Republicans against the waiver, citing abiding concerns with permitting a second career military officer to run the Pentagon in the place of a civilian.

--ABC News' Benjamin Siegel

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the Biden administration is committed to bipartisan solutions on passing a coronavirus relief package, but would not say whether the president supports efforts to get rid of the Senate filibuster.

"(Biden) was involved even before yesterday, having conversations with members of both parties. Picking up the phone and having those conversations. He saw, of course, members of both parties. He invited leaders from both parties to join him at church. Obviously, that wasn't really a discussion about specifics of the bill, but they did -- he did have an opportunity to talk about his agenda and working -- working together on his agenda moving forward," Psaki said in response to a question from ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Mary Bruce.

"But I think you will see him quite involved in the days ahead. But you will also see the vice president quite involved. You will also see policy leaders, like Brian Deese and others in the administration quite involved in having conversations with both Democrats and Republicans," she added.

Despite being pressed by reporters on whether the president would support Senate Democrats removing the filibuster in an attempt to pass additional legislation if Republicans refused to back the administration's efforts, Psaki refused to say.

"The president has been clear he wants to work with members of both parties and find bipartisan paths forward. And I don't have any more conversations to read out for you at this point in time," Psaki said.