NEW YORK CITY, December 15. /TASS/. Republicans in the Congress upper chamber expect to put an end to impeachment process of US President Donald Trump as soon as possible. This was announced on Saturday by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who is also Chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
"This thing will come to the Senate, and it will die quickly, and I will do everything I can to make it die quickly," the South Carolina Republican said answering questions from CNN at a business forum in Doha, Qatar.
In late October, Graham introduced a resolution condemning Democrats' attempts to remove the US President from power.
When asked if it was appropriate for him to be voicing his opinion before impeachment reaches the Senate, Graham replied, "Well, I must think so because I'm doing it," CNN reported.
"I am trying to give a pretty clear signal I have made up my mind. I'm not trying to pretend to be a fair juror here," Graham said.
"What I see coming, happening today is just a partisan nonsense," he added.
"If you don't like President Trump, you can vote against him in less than a year. It's not like a politician is unaccountable if you don't impeach them," Graham said.
The Senator also expressed confidence that Trump had good reason to ask Kiev "to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, who was on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company (Burisma gas company - TASS).
"His son was receiving $50,000 a month from a gas company run by the most corrupt guy in the Ukraine and about two months after they raided the gas company's president's home, they fired the prosecutor," Graham told CNN.
Impeachment procedure
On Friday, the House’s Legal Committee approved two charges against Trump as part of impeachment. Representatives of the Democratic Party accuse him of abusing his power and obstructing Congress by thwarting the House's investigative efforts. The House will review the charges next week. If the charges are approved, the indictment, prepared as a result of the investigation in the Legal Committee, will be transferred to the Senate, where the procedure will turn into a trial. It will be led by the Chairman of the US Supreme Court. In this case the House of Representatives actually acts as a party to the prosecution, and senators play the role of a jury. For impeachment to take place, at least two-thirds of the votes of senators are required (at least 67). For this reason, with the current line-up of the Senate, the probability of voting in favor of impeachment is virtually reduced to zero. Since the beginning of this year, Republicans (based on the results of the November midterm elections) have 53 out of 100 seats in the upper house of Congress.