Trump huddles with House GOP leaders to discuss Biden impeachment strategy: report

Former President Donald Trump is talking with House GOP leadership about a strategy for impeaching President Joe Biden, reported Politico on Tuesday.

Trump, "Has been speaking weekly with House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, who was the first member of Republican leadership to come out in support of impeachment." The pair spoke most recently Tuesday, shortly after McCarthy announced the impeachment investigation would be moving forward.

Stefanik, a longtime Trump ally who burst into national prominence after a tirade in Trump's defense during his first impeachment, is not the only prominent House Republican conferring with Trump. According to the report, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who has become increasingly close with McCarthy, dined with Trump at his Bedminster, NJ, club on Sunday night.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

Trump's private discussions with Republican leaders around the impeachment efforts, said the report, "shows the influence he continues to wield inside the party as its likely presidential nominee" — and it gives the Biden circle more ammunition to attack the proceedings as a partisan process.

McCarthy's announcement of support for impeachment proceedings comes even after he repeatedly said such an action would require a full vote of the House to move forward. He now claims that his predecessor Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) created a precedent that lets him move forward without it.

All of this is moving forward at the same time Trump is facing four separate criminal indictments from Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith and prosecutors in New York and Georgia.