In a Senate trial there is only one way a President can plea bargain.

[shockey80]

Resignation.

In normal trials where the evidence is overwhelming the accused will plead guilty to get a lighter sentence. Trump is not going to plead guilty. He will either say I'm not guilty and then face conviction and removal or he will resign.

The jury, the Senate will be presented a case that is impossible to defend. A vote saying Trump is not guilty will show those jurors to be liars who refused to uphold the constitution and rule of law.

Many of the Republican jurors will not want this trial to happen. They will not want to take a vote. That's how I see it.

[tinrobot]

1. Isn't that what Nixon sort of did?

The leaders of the Senate came to him and said the evidence was overwhelming and they couldn't guarantee enough votes. He resigned and was pardoned. Not sure if the pardon was part of the deal... but...

I would suspect if things turned sour, McConnell would offer him a chance to save face. Not sure if he'd accept it.

[LexVegas]

2. Based on your past predictions, I go with 'he will not resign and is not convicted in the Senate'.nt

[rzemanfl]

3. Bookmarking. n/t

[LexVegas]

4. ...

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211749399

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=11300784

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. This is not a criminal trial, so maneuvers like plea bargains don't really apply.

The Senate has no power to cut a deal; they can only acquit or convict. Fat Nixon has the same choice that Old Nixon had: Resign or take his chances with the Senate. But most the GOPers in this Senate are not likely to convict him unless something is discovered that's even worse - much worse - than what's known so far. They are less afraid of looking like compromised idiots than they are of being primaried.

There's one angle, though: A vote to convict must be by two-thirds of those present. If all Senators vote, 67 are needed to convict - but what if the chickenshit Senators who are afraid of their base just didn't show up? If 20 of the most lily-livered Senators didn't show up and didn't vote, only 53 (2/3 of 80) Senators would be needed to convict. There are 47 Democrats in the Senate, so only six GOPers would have to be persuaded to vote to convict. The 20 non-voters could tell their MAGAts that they didn't vote because they didn't want to participate in and thus validate the so-called kangaroo court. It's a very unlikely scenario but I kind of like it.

[shockey80]

7. Yes you are correct, but you get what I mean.

Resignation is like a plea bargain in this case. I like you idea about Republicans not showing up to vote. That would work for me.

[Aristus]

6. I have to admit, I'm still skeptical that this Senate will ever, ever vote to convict.

It's nice to be optimistic, but I'm convinced this passel of rich, old, white men is in the corner of this other rich, old, white man. They're not going to abandon one of their own. Not for anything. Ever.

[LastDemocratInSC]

8. The "much worse" items discussed up-thread could come from the unredacted Mueller information.