White House backs full Senate trial if House impeaches Trump

Top White House officials and Senate Republicans agreed that a full trial should be conducted if the House impeaches President Donald Trump, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

A group of Republican senators met Thursday morning with White House counsel Pat Cipollone, counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner to discuss impeachment strategy.

Two attendees said that the White House wants the Senate to hold a trial of some length and not immediately dismiss any articles of impeachment with the GOP's majority, as some Republicans have suggested.

The White House and Trump's GOP allies decided instead “they want some kind of factual affirmative defense on the merits," said one attendee.

One attendee noted that the White House wants to show a commitment to due process, particularly since Republicans have criticized House Democrats for how they've conducted their impeachment proceedings.

Senators also informed the White House that there simply aren't the votes to approve a motion to dismiss the trial; it would take just three Republicans to block any impeachment vote on the Senate floor.

“Different people have different opinions of what to do but the main message [is] that a motion to dismiss won’t fly,” said a second attendee. “They understand it because we’re hitting the House on lack of due process. Most trials you at least hear the evidence first.”

The move puts the White House on the same page as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has previously expressed skepticism about a swift dismissal of the charges and warned his caucus at a GOP lunch last week against putting up motions that could divide the party.

The Republican senators who attended the meeting Thursday were Mike Lee of Utah, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.

House Democrats are moving quickly in their impeachment inquiry, which centers on evidence that Trump abused the power of his office by pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political rivals.

Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine