Clinton wants to avoid the humiliation of a Senate trial. One option is to attempt to muster a majority vote to adjourn the trial before it really gets off the ground. Another is to forge a deal resulting in a censure, but no conviction. The Senate can, for example, opt to end the trial at any time with a simple majority vote, says Allan J. Lichtman, impeachment scholar and chair of the history department at American University. The Constitution requires the initiation of some kind of proceeding.
Senators can make deals.
They can plea bargain. Lichtman points out that the Senate didn't vote on eight of the 11 articles brought against Andrew Johnson, the only other president to have been impeached by the House. Lichtman says back-room dealing gave Republicans what they wanted, making removal unnecessary. Clinton's case got a shot in the arm when presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter argued in an op-ed piece in the New York Times, that the Senate should opt for censure rather than a trial. The president also has legal options.