‘He’ll claim it was a witch hunt’: Democrats fear Trump will be ‘emboldened’ if he survives impeachment trial

Senior politicians warn against ‘rigged’ trial in favour of president in Republican-led Senate

Democratic senators are worried Donald Trump will be emboldened if he survives the upcoming impeachment trial and will use an acquittal as momentum for his 2020 re-election campaign.

Sixty-seven votes are needed to convict and remove the president from office but that result seems unlikely in the Republican-controlled Senate, where Mr Trump’s party holds a 53-47 majority.

A number of senior Republicans have already signalled they intend to prevent Mr Trump’s conviction, with Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, pledging to work in coordination with the White House throughout the trial.

“We all know the president,” senator Dick Durbin, the Democratic Senate minority whip, told The Hill.

“If there are not 67 votes to convict in the Senate, he’ll claim that it was a witch hunt and that he was exonerated.”

Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator for Connecticut, raised similar concerns to the newspaper.

“No matter what we do, the president is going to say he did nothing wrong,” he said.

Mr Trump became the third US president to be impeached in December when the House passed two articles – abuse of power and obstruction of Congress – over his dealings with Ukraine and his response to an investigation into his conduct.

The votes fell largely along party lines, with all but three Democrats voting for both articles and every Republican voting against them, and senators fear a similarly divided result in the upcoming trial.

On Sunday, Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen suggested Mr McConnell was attempting to “rig” the trial by working closely with the president.

“We keep hearing President Trump saying he's going to be exonerated. Look, if you have a rigged trial there's no exoneration in acquittal,” Mr Van Hollen told ABC’s This Week, suggesting that Democrats would not accept an acquittal based on a short, partisan trial.

Mr McConnell and senior Democrats have been locked in a stand-off over the rules of the proceedings, with disagreements over the length of the trial and plans to call more witnesses.

Democrats have sought to call additional witnesses to testify, such as former national security adviser John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, and requested Ukraine-related documents that could be used as evidence.

However, senior Republicans have signalled they would prefer a quick trial which may not include any new witnesses.

One plan suggested by Republican senators would see representatives from Congress present the case against Mr Trump and the White House defence team present its defence before moving straight to a vote on the articles.

Senator Christopher Coons, a Democrat for Delaware, recently told NBC’s Meet the Press he was “gravely concerned” about what Mr Trump would do between the end of the Senate trial and the 2020 election if he is acquitted.

“If he is ultimately exonerated in the Senate, if the Senate Republican majority refuses to discipline him through impeachment, he will be unbounded,” Mr Coons warned.

Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader, has also said Mr Trump could be “further emboldened” by a trial which avoids serious scrutiny and warned against allowing the president to avoid “any serious trial by withholding facts, withholding witnesses, [and] withholding documents.”

If Mr Schumer and Mr McConnell cannot come to a bipartisan agreement on the trial rules, the proceedings could be decided by a simple majority of 51 senators with a procedural motion.

Democrats fear Mr McConnell could use this tactic to force through his own rules with votes from Republicans.

Nevertheless, although Mr Trump is expected to be acquitted, some senators hope the trial will produce enough evidence to convince voters that he is unfit to be the president.

“I think the evidence speaks for itself,” Mr Durbin told The Hill.

“I believe [most people] will come to the same conclusion that no president should be allowed to misuse or abuse the power of his office for political or personal benefit.”