The Washington Post revealed in a report that the outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump and a number of his supporters in the Republican Party have intensified their contacts to stop the Democrats' attempt to remove him from office in the coming days.
The newspaper quoted familiar sources saying that behind closed doors, Trump, his son-in-law and chief adviser Jared Kushner is encouraging allies to address potential accountability that may lead to impeachment, by issuing statements or posting tweets on Twitter confirming their condemnation to this step.
Democrats in the House of Representatives are due to introduce legislation on Monday calling for the outgoing president to be held accountable, with the support of around 200 lawmakers, to impeach him.
The impeachment draft accused Trump of "inciting violence against the United States government" in an effort to overturn the election result that he lost to Joe Biden.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also asked members to prepare draft legislation aimed at invoking the 25th amendment to the U.S. constitution, which allows the president to be removed from office if he becomes unable to perform his official duties.
Pelosi said Trump had "committed a very serious matter that warrants prosecution," according to excerpts from an interview she had with the CBS news network.
Trump had called on his supporters to go out and rally in parallel with a congressional session last Wednesday to certify Biden's victory, but the crowds stormed the capitol and controlled it for a short period before they were expelled.
A police officer and four others were killed during the confrontations that shocked the world.
But impeaching Trump through democrats's move remains an unlikely possibility for any trial in the House of Representatives will lead to a trial in the Senate, which is still in recess and will not convene until January 19.
A source familiar with the matter said that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had sent a memo to his Republican fellows in the House indicating that any trial of Trump would not begin until he was out of power. It also needs a two-thirds approval in the Senate.
The Democrats will take control of the Senate later this month, after Georgia approved the results of a run-off election for two seats won by the Democratic Party.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the White House pushed the chief federal prosecutor in Atlanta to resign before the Georgia Senate runoff because outgoing President Trump was upset that he had not done enough to investigate his allegations of election fraud.
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