White House prepares for impeachment defense

WASHINGTON, D.C. (CNN) – The White House is shifting its sights to the Senate as the impeachment inquiry against President Trump picks up steam in the House of Representatives.

On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she asked the Judiciary Committee to draft the actual articles of impeachment.

At the same time, the administration is indicating it will mount a robust defense if the process moves to the Senate.

Fresh from his NATO trip in London, President Trump asked House Democrats to speed their impeachment inquiry along, tweeting: “… if you are going to impeach me, do it now, fast, so we can have a fair trial in the Senate…”

But a hurried impeachment process was condemned by the House Republicans’ sole witness in Wednesday’s Judiciary Committee hearing, Washington Law School Professor Jonathan Turley.

“Fast and narrow is not a good recipe for impeachment,” Turley said. “You’re trying to remove a duly elected President of the United States. And that takes time, it takes work.”

That was echoed by Senior Counselor to the President, Kellyanne Conway. “If you’re going to do something as serious and as unusual, indeed somewhat unprecedented as impeaching a president of the United States, you can’t rush it,” she said.

According to sources familiar with the matter, White House attorneys have spent weeks preparing for a Senate trial, crafting the president’s legal defense, which White House Counsel Pat Cipollone will lead.

Conway said, “I think if you go to a trial, that will be more familiar and we’ll be… and we’re very ready for that.”

The president laid out part of their strategy on Twitter, saying he wants House Intel Chair Adam Schiff, Speaker Pelosi and Joe and Hunter Biden to testify in the Senate trial.

“If they have nothing to hide, then they should be happy to come and testify,” Conway said.

Amidst the impeachment fight, Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani finds himself in Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian lawmaker, who posted on Facebook that he met with Giuliani in Kyiv.

The lawmaker, who, like Giuliani, is known for publicly pushing the debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 U.S. election, was part of a pro-Russia political party and attended a KGB academy when he was younger, according to his website.

The next impeachment hearing at the House Judiciary Committee has been set for Monday. That’s when committee members will hear evidence from congressional staff counsels.

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