Some Republicans are secretly confessing that President Donald Trump committed an act of extortion to Ukraine.

A Washington Post report revealed that some Republicans are admitting that Trump committed the “quid pro quo,” chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told the press weeks ago. The Republicans don’t want to lose the presidency, however, and may not be ready to say that the “quid pro quo” was illegal.

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Quid pro quo is a Latin phrase that describes bribery, which is listed as one of the “high crimes” in the Constitution as an example of an impeachable offense.

“But the shift among Senate Republicans could complicate the message coming from Trump as he furiously fights the claim that he had withheld U.S. aid from Ukraine to pressure it to dig up dirt on a political rival, even as an increasing number of Republicans wonder how long they can continue to argue that no quid pro quo was at play in the matter,” The Post reported.

During a Senate lunch focusing on how to rally to Trump’s defense noted that a quick trial could backfire on them if Americans see it as a nonsense attempt at a trial.

Some Trump loyalists are trying to skirt the crime by inventing as many conspiracy theories around it as possible.

“He honestly believes that there may have been corruption in Ukraine, and before he turns over $400 million of American taxpayer money, he’s entitled to ask,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said, later adding, “The issue to be litigated … is going to be: Did the president have a good-faith reason to believe that Hunter Biden may have been involved in corruption? And if I’m correct in my analysis, then there will be a lot of time spent on what Mr. Biden did for the money.”

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Trump and his family have tried this excuse before, when Donald Trump Jr. was found by special counsel Robert Mueller to be too stupid to have knowingly committed espionage.

“Indeed, a strategy that includes acknowledging a particular kind of reciprocity with a foreign government would almost certainly unnerve moderate Republicans such as Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), who faces reelection next year in a Democratic-leaning state and has said it was ‘completely inappropriate’ for Trump to invite China to investigate Joe Biden, which the president did after the Ukraine controversy began. Collins has repeatedly declined to comment on Ukraine, arguing that she probably would be a juror in a Senate trial of the president,” The Post also said.

Read the full report from The Washington Post.