The White House legal team is preparing for a rapid impeachment trial that acquits President Trump in a matter of days without calling witnesses.
At times, Trump and senior aides have discussed a longer trial with witnesses that they believe would produce a definitive not-guilty verdict. At other times, they have put their weight behind a swift dismissal that would kick out the charges before either side laid out their case.
Now, as the Senate prepares to host Trump’s impeachment trial, a senior administration official said the lack of prosecution evidence meant the case would last no more than two weeks — making it the shortest impeachment trial in history.
“I would say I think it’s extraordinarily unlikely that we’d be going beyond two weeks,” he said. “We think that this case is overwhelming for the president, and the Senate is not going to have any need to be taking that amount of time on this.”
Trump is the third president to be impeached. President Bill Clinton’s 1999 trial lasted a month while President Andrew Johnson’s trial in 1868 took 11 weeks.
The White House has yet to announce its defense team, but it is expected to be led by White House counsel Pat Cipollone.
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said it did not matter if the trial was short or long but that it was “full and fair.”
“What he wants is what he’s going to get, which is to be acquitted and exonerated and not convicted, not removed from office, and reelected,” she said.
