President Trump has recently discussed the possibility of impeachment proceedings with his legal team, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
According to the Post, Trump has consulted recently with his personal lawyers about the probability of impeachment proceedings. The Post reported that White House aides and counsel Don McGahn, who is expected to leave his position this fall, have cited the likelihood of impeachment in order to convince the president against doing things that they believe would hurt him.
{mosads}Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani told the Post that he and Trump have “talked a lot about impeachment at different times.”
“It’s the only thing that hangs out there. They can’t [criminally] charge him,” Giuliani told the Post.
The paper also reported that, while Trump talks to his advisers about impeachment, he sometimes is angered when someone floats what he calls “the i-word” as a possibility.
According to the Post, Trump’s advisers are concerned that the president lacks the staff and legal strategy to defend himself against a potential Democratic sweep of the House, which would likely result in a number of subpoenas against Trump’s administration or the commencement of impeachment proceedings.
Sources told the Post that Trump and some of his advisers have considered adding defense attorney Abbe Lowell, who represents Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, to the president’s legal team should impeachment charges arise. Advisers have also discussed bringing in “experienced legal firepower” to the Office of White House Counsel, the paper reported.
The prospect of impeachment moved to the center of the midterm debate last week when Trump’s former longtime attorney Michael Cohen said in court that then-candidate Trump had directed him to make payments to two women to keep them quiet about alleged affairs with Trump ahead of the 2016 presidential election, considered illegal campaign contributions.
The same day that Cohen implicated Trump in a felony, Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was convicted on eight felony charges of bank and tax fraud.
The charges against Manafort were brought by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, which is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, including whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Moscow, and possible obstruction of justice on the part of the president.
Democrats, as of Wednesday, have about a 75 percent chance of winning back the House, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Trump has said he should not be impeached, saying in an interview on “Fox & Friends” last week that he doesn’t know “how you can impeach someone who’s done a great job.”