A Democratic push to force Republicans to accept witnesses at President Trump’s impeachment trial in the U.S.

Senate appeared to be flagging on Wednesday, raising the possibility the president could be acquitted as early as Friday.

As senators spent the day posing questions to both the Trump legal team and the Democratic managers of the trial, the White House objected to the planned publication of a book by former national security adviser John Bolton in which he is said to have depicted Trump as playing a central role in pressuring Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden.

U.S. Senator John Barrasso, the No. 3 Republican in seniority, said it was possible the trial could end on Friday without Democrats achieving their goal of having witnesses called to testify.

“The momentum is clearly in the direction of moving to final judgment on Friday.

That vote will be Friday. We still have a couple members who said they want to listen to the answers to questions, but that’s where the momentum is,” Barrasso said.

Asked when on Friday the vote might take place to settle the debate over witnesses and move to either acquit or convict Trump, Barrasso said probably Friday afternoon or late that day.

Other Republican senators were predicting a similar outcome in conversations with reporters during breaks in the trial on Wednesday.

Democrats have sought to persuade at least four Republican senators to vote with them in favor of witnesses to assure a majority vote in the Republican-controlled 100-seat Senate.

The Democratic-led House of Representatives approved the two articles of impeachment in December.

Removing Trump from office would take a two-thirds majority. None of the 53 Republican senators has publicly advocated removal.

Trump lashed out at Bolton on Twitter on Wednesday, saying Bolton “couldn’t get approved for the Ambassador to the U.N. years ago, couldn’t get approved for anything since, ‘begged’ me for a non Senate approved job” and added that “if I listened to him, we would be in World War Six by now.”

Trump added that Bolton “goes out and IMMEDIATELY writes a nasty & untrue book.

All Classified National Security. Who would do this?”

….many more mistakes of judgement, gets fired because frankly, if I listened to him, we would be in World War Six by now, and goes out and IMMEDIATELY writes a nasty & untrue book. All Classified National Security. Who would do this?

— Donald J.

Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2020

Trump has said he fired Bolton. Bolton, who served as a temporary “recess appointee” as American ambassador to the United Nations under Republican former President George W. Bush, has said he quit.

Reuters contributed to this report.

This article was sourced from Foxnews

https://thefederalistpapers.org/opinion/president-trump-acquitted-senate-impeachment-trial-soon-friday