Republican Senators who are supposed to be impartial jurors in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump were seen meeting with the former president's defense lawyers after House managers' arguments wrapped up on Thursday.
Tweeted CNN's Manu Raju: “Several GOP senators just met with Trump's defense attorneys, including Cruz and Graham. Lee also spotted going in. Graham refused to talk about it after. ‘See you tomorrow,' he told me. Schoen told us there's nothing inappropriate about meeting with jurors in impeachment trial. ‘We were discussing their legal strategy and sharing our thoughts,' Cruz said. I asked Trump lawyer David Schoen if it was appropriate to meet with senators who are jurors, and he said: ‘I think that's the practice of impeachment. There's nothing about this thing that has any semblance of due process whatsoever.'”
CNN's Anderson Cooper commented on the meeting later: “Again, these three men are jurors in a trial. So ethics aside, it's pretty much an indication that the fix is likely in. And the Democrats seem to know that.”