In an attempt to prevent the Democrats from trying to drag out President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial for weeks, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is reportedly seriously considering setting a rule that the case can be dismissed quickly after some evidence has been given, Fox News reported on Monday.
“I am familiar with the resolution as it stood a day or two ago,” Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri told Axios. “My understanding is that the resolution will give the president’s team the option to either move to judgment or to move to dismiss at a meaningful time.”
Hawley said he is concerned that if Trump doesn't have the ability to move to dismiss or move to judgment then Rep. Adam Schiff, the head prosecutor in the trial, would have too much control over it, leading to, as he wrote in Twitter, an “endless circus.”
McConnell has until Tuesday, when the trial starts, to announce the final version of his resolution that sets its rules.
Democrats have expressed frustration that McConnell was keeping the rules for the trial secretive, with one source telling Fox News that “The House managers have absolutely no idea what the structure of the trial two days before the trial begins.”
Moderate GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said, according to Fox News, that she wants to ensure there is a procedure that would let senators "really hear the case" and ask questions "before we make that determination as to, what more do we need. I don't know what more we need until I've been given the base case."