A group of Republican senators has met with White House officials to discuss Senate proceedings regarding the impeachment of US President Donald Trump, The Washington Post reported on Friday, citing sources
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd November, 2019) A group of Republican senators has met with White House officials to discuss Senate proceedings regarding the impeachment of US President Donald Trump, The Washington Post reported on Friday, citing sources.
The newspaper said that the senators were in favor of a two-week long trial to give the process enough legitimacy before casting a vote, which is likely to be in Trump's favor.
According to the impeachment process laid out in the US constitution, if the House of Representatives presses charges against a US president, the Senate becomes a judiciary body that carries out a trial and casts a vote of whether or not to remove him or her from office.
The two houses of Congress are divided the House is in the hands of Democrats who are likely to press charges against the Republican president for his actions with Ukraine, while the Senate is majority Republican and can exonerate Trump and leave him in office.
The newspaper cited sources as saying that Trump and some White House officials want the Senate to wave off any trial proceedings immediately. The Republican senators in question, however, are in favor of going through the motions of a fair trial but wish to limit it to no more than two weeks.
Trump's desire to avoid trial, which the news outlet said that he expressed in private to aides, contradicts a White House statement released earlier on Friday, which said that the US leader wanted a trial and demanded that former Vice-President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden and the whistleblower, who first reported Trump's phone call with the Ukrainian president, also testify.
Since the impeachment hearings began last week, several US diplomats and State Department officials have confirmed that Trump and his attorney used military aid as leverage to force Ukraine's president to announce an investigation into business dealings of the Bidens.
Trump has repeatedly denied that there was a quid pro quo and has characterized the impeachment process as a witch hunt aimed at overturning the results of the 2016 presidential election.
