Senate Republicans emerged from a closed-door caucus meeting on Tuesday voicing renewed confidence that they will bypass a nasty witness fight in the impeachment trial.
“The consensus is that we’ve heard enough and it’s time to go to a final judgement,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told reporters.
Asked if the trial proceedings should go past Friday, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), another member of Senate GOP leadership, said it “shouldn’t.” Continue reading.
Over the weekend, Maggie Haberman and Michael S. Schmidt reported in the New York Times that former National Security Adviser John Bolton — in an unpublished manuscript of his new book, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” due out March 17 — asserts that President Donald Trump and his allies directly tied military aid to Ukraine with an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. This was the “quid pro quo” that House Democrats alleged during their impeachment hearings last year and continue to allege in Trump’s impeachment trial before the U.S. Senate. And legal writer Jerry Lambe, in an article for Law & Crime, reports that the Bolton’s assertion might subject Trump’s lawyers to criminal exposure.
“The threshold question is whether the president’s attorneys were aware of the information contained in the manuscript,” Lambe explains. “According to a letter from Bolton’s attorney, Charles J. Cooper, the White House was made aware of the book on December 30. The bombshell revelations reportedly therein could not only change tenor of the Senate trial by forcing the chamber to hear from witnesses such as Bolton — they may place the president’s impeachment attorneys in a precarious position.”
On Sunday night, attorney Mark S. Zaid tweeted, “At least some members of Trump’s legal team also likely knew of Bolton’s knowledge which, if so, potentially subjects them to criminal perjury charges or legal disciplinary actions for their statements before the Senate.” Continue reading.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said on Monday that he believes it is more likely other Republican senators will support subpoenaing former national security adviser John Bolton in the wake of an explosive New York Times report.
Romney said it’s “increasingly apparent” that the Senate should hear from Bolton after the Times reported that he claims in his forthcoming memoir that President Trump tied Ukraine aid to help with investigations into Democrats.
“It’s pretty fair to say John Bolton has relevant testimony,” Romney told reporters. “I think it’s increasingly likely that other Republicans will join those of us who think we should hear from John Bolton.” Continue reading.
Former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s book, “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,” isn’t due out until March 17, but Maggie Haberman and Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times are reporting that according to an “unpublished manuscript” of the book, Bolton asserts that President Donald Trump and his allies tied military aid to Ukraine with an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. And in Axios, journalists Jonathan Swan, Mike Allen and Alayna Treene are reporting that Trump’s Republican supporters are seriously worried that the “floodgates” will open if Bolton testifies at Trump’s impeachment trial.
Trump and his allies have vehemently denied that there was ever a “quid pro quo” when it came to a Bidens investigation and military aid to Ukraine, while the House Democrats who led the impeachment inquiry against Trump last year have maintained that there most certainly was a “quid pro quo.” And according to Haberman and Schmidt’s report, Trump’s former national security adviser is confirming in his book that House Democrats are right.
Axios quotes a “top” White House aide as saying that if Bolton testifies during Trump’s impeachment trial, things can only get worse for the president. Continue reading.
Republicans in the Senate are facing new pressure to subpoena key witnesses on the impeachment trial of President Trump.
The Senate was headed into the second week of the trial facing a pivotal vote on the subject, and it looked like Democrats would almost certainly not win the four GOP votes needed to subpoena new witnesses.
But that was before a report Sunday night in The New York Times. Continue reading.
The president is itching to close out a bruising chapter of his presidency — with a victory lap to maximize the political value of his expected acquittal.President Donald Trump is already itching to broadcast the series finale of his impeachment.
In recent days, he and top White House aides have been considering how he should celebrate his presumed acquittal by the Republican-controlled Senate and whether he should deliver a rare Oval Office address to mark the occasion, according to three senior administration officials.
Trump has not settled on a specific plan yet, but the internal machinations show the extent to which the president remains focused on the details and optics of his ongoing impeachment trial — from the TV slot in which his lawyers argued his case to the performance of his legal team to the look and feel of a speech or ceremony marking the end of the months-long saga. Continue reading.
Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka announced the push Friday.Under Minnesota law, you don’t need to bring your ID with you when you vote, but state senate Republicans are hoping to change that.
On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka (R-Nisswa) released a video statement declaring that a Voter ID law would be a “high priority for Republicans in the Senate”:
Minnesota Senate Republicans✔@mnsrc
WE NEED VOTER ID: We care about keeping elections secure in Minnesota, that’s why we will pass legislation to require a photo ID when you vote.
Pretty simple, right? #mnleg
Gazelka says it’s something “the people of Minnesota want us to do.” Continue reading.
Republicans appeared unmoved by Democrats’ arguments for Trump’s removal and reiterated that the Senate shouldn’t seek new evidence.Senate Republicans on Sunday defended President Donald Trump and panned calls for witnesses to testify in the Senate impeachment trial, ahead of the start of the second week.
In interviews on major networks, Republicans appeared unmoved by House Democrats’ opening arguments for Trump’s removal and reiterated that the Senate should not seek new evidence.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a strong Trump ally, warned on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo” that calling in witnesses would create only more havoc. Continue reading.
At the beginning of a video released Saturday by an attorney representing Lev Parnas, we see a hallway. At the end of the hallway is an arch with a dark-colored backdrop, in front of which two people appear to be posing for a photograph. Behind the person on the left is what looks like an American flag.
That shot establishes what we’re looking at: footage captured during a fundraising dinner on April 30, 2018, for the group America First Action, which was held at Trump’s D.C. hotel. That shot is definitive because it’s trivial to match that distant scene with one we’ve seen from a much closer perspective, thanks to material released by the House Intelligence Committee. In one photo from the committee, for example, we see Parnas and President Trump standing in front of an archway with blue curtains, flanked by American flags.
Parnas would become tightly integrated into Trump’s circle, though the distance at which he was kept varies depending on whom you ask. Trump insists Parnas, an eventual business associate of Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani, was only given access to the president because he’d contributed to Trump’s campaign or to America First. Parnas, the argument goes, was simply one of hundreds of such people who take photos with the president. To hear Parnas tell it, though, his work for Giuliani in late 2018 and in 2019 was well-known by Trump and was integral to the effort to get Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden, a possible opponent of Trump’s in the upcoming election. Continue reading.
After three days of House impeachment managers’ brilliant prosecution of President Donald Trump – and “prebuttal” of the arguments the president’s team was expected to make – White House attorneys Saturday morning began their defense of President Trump.
It’s not going well.
Deputy White House Counsel Mike Purpura (photo) has been making the majority of today’s arguments – they have decided that not enough people will be watching on TV so Saturday’s defense will last not eight but just two hours.
Purpura is not doing a good job – unless his job is to lie to U.S. Senators and the American people. Continue reading.
