Tag: Trump abuse of power

Emotional Schiff Speech Goes Viral, Delighting the Left and Enraging the Right

New York Times logoRepresentative Adam B. Schiff took a risk in telling senators they must convict and remove President Trump because “you know you can’t trust this president to do what’s right for this country.”

WASHINGTON — Senator James M. Inhofe, a conservative Republican from Oklahoma, has made clear that he intends to vote to acquit President Trump. But after Representative Adam B. Schiff’s fiery speech Thursday night calling for the president’s removal, Mr. Inhofe felt compelled to give his fellow lawmaker some grudging respect.

“I have to say this,” Mr. Inhofe told reporters Friday morning in the Capitol. “Schiff is very, very effective.”

Mr. Schiff, a California Democrat who steered the impeachment inquiry into Mr. Trump and is the lead prosecutor in his Senate trial, has long been a hero to the left and a villain to the right. But never has he aroused as much passion as he has during his closing arguments in the president’s impeachment trial. Continue reading.

Schiff closes Dems’ impeachment arguments with emotional appeal to remove Trump

The Hill logoHouse Democrats leading the impeachment trial of President Trump wrapped up their opening arguments Friday night with an emotional warning to the Senate and the country beyond: A failure to remove Trump from office would pose a long-term threat to America’s very democracy.

Equating Trump to a corrupt monarch, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the leading Democratic impeachment prosecutor, accused the president of violating this oath by putting his personal interests above those of the country in his dealings with Ukraine — and said he remains a danger to do it again.

Appealing to the senators who will act as judge and jury in the trial, Schiff urged them to put aside partisan politics and consider both the nature of Trump’s actions, and their responsibilities to uphold the Constitution. Continue reading.

CNN poll: 51% say Senate should remove Trump from office

CNN — About half of Americans say the Senate should vote to convict President Donald Trump and remove him from office in the upcoming impeachment trial (51%), according to a new CNN pollconducted by SSRS, while 45% say the Senate should vote against conviction and removal.

Nearly seven in 10 (69%) say that upcoming trial should feature testimony from new witnesses who did not testify in the House impeachment inquiry. And as Democrats in the Senate seek to persuade at least four Republican senators to join them on votes over allowing witnesses in the trial, the Republican rank and file are divided on the question: 48% say they want new witnesses, while 44% say they do not.

The poll is the first major national telephone poll since the articles of impeachment were sent to the Senate, formally launching Trump’s trial there. They are also the first such poll results since Soviet-born businessman Lev Parnas, an associate of Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani, publicly implicated the President in the Ukrainian pressure campaign during a series of television interviews. Continue reading.

A Really Long List of Evidence McConnell Wants to Cover Up

A trial without documents or witnesses is a cover-up. This isn’t about a handful of papers; it’s about multiple first-hand witnesses and a paper trail that will provide critical information about the charges against Trump.

Americans want and deserve a fair trial. But just look at all the directly relevant evidence that Trump and McConnell are trying to sweep under the rug:

These witnesses…

  • Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton said he is willing to testify before the Senate, but Republicans refuse to let him.
  • At Trump’s direction, his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney directly coordinated the plot to withhold Ukraine’s security assistance and White House meeting until Ukraine announced an investigation into Trump’s political opponent.
  • Michael Duffey is a key witness to Trump’s abuse of power, and he must testify before the Senate. Duffey, a political appointee at OMB, has intricate knowledge of the military aid freeze that Trump demanded.
  • Robert Blair was a top aide to Trump’s acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who coordinated Trump’s pressure campaign against Ukraine. Blair followed Trump’s directive not to comply with the impeachment investigation and has refused to testify, but we need to hear from him.

White House documents related to these events and issues…

  • The White House’s internal meetings discussing the Ukraine scheme, including the firing of Ambassador Yovanovitch.
  • Trump’s request for investigations into interference in the 2016 presidential election and his political rival.
  • Trump’s direct communications with President Zelensky.
  • Trump’s unlawful hold of the $391 million of military aid.
  • Concerns of White House officials reported to NSC legal counsel.
  • The Intelligence Community Inspector General Whistleblower complaint.

These State Department documents…

  • Emails from Ambassador Gordon Sondland regarding Trump’s demand that Ukraine announce political investigations. Those emails were sent to some of Trump’s top aides and advisors, including Mulvaney, Pompeo, and Rick Perry.
  • Notes from Ambassador Bill Taylor, who described a “little notebook” in which he would “take notes on conversations.”
  • Contemporaneous memos written by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent about conversations he’d witnessed related to the aid freeze.
  • The first-person cable Ambassador Taylor sent to Pompeo expressing concerns about the aid freeze.
  • Records related to Pompeo’s communications with Rudy Giuliani.
These OMB documents…
  • 20 emails the White House is refusing to release between Robert Blair and Michael Duffey.
  • Documents collected in the White House review, including communications between officials in the White House, National Security Council, OMB, and the State Department that reportedly paint an “unflattering” picture of the administration’s response as the White House tried to find “an after-the-fact justification” for Trump’s hold on military aid.
  • Michael Duffey’s June 19, 2019, email to DOD that “the President has questions” about the security assistance.
  • Robert Blair’s July 12, 2019, email to Michael Duffey stating that “the President is directing a hold on military support funding for Ukraine.”
  • Michael Duffey’s email—less than two hours after Trump’s July 25 call with President Zelensky—instructing DOD to continue to “formalize” the hold on security assistance.
  • An August 2019 memo drafted by OMB’s National Security Division, International Affairs Division, and Office of Legal Counsel to Acting OMB Director Russell Vought about Ukraine security assistance.
  • Michael Duffey’s August 30, 2019, email to DOD stating that there was “clear direction from POTUS” to continue the hold.
These heavily redacted documents released late last week…
  • New York Times’s Ken Vogel: “NEW DOCS: At 11:58pm, the @WhiteHouse released nearly 200 pages of OMB emails related to Ukraine, including a bevy of emails to/from the officials Senate Dems want to subpoena. On quick read, they are so heavily redacted as to be almost indecipherable.”
And so many more that we don’t even know to ask for.

Democrats worry Trump team will cherry-pick withheld documents during defense

The Hill logoDemocrats are sounding the alarm that President Trump’s legal team may seek to selectively incorporate undisclosed documents as part of its defense, just months after the White House refused to release such records to House impeachment investigators.

Senate Republicans this week shot down Democratic efforts to prevent Trump’s lawyers from cherry-picking previously unreleased documents to make their case. Now, as the president’s defense team is set to take center stage in the Senate trial on Saturday, Democrats say they fully expect Trump’s attorneys to do just that.

“You know that’s exactly what they’re going to do,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii). “This whole trial is calculated to not provide any relevant evidence that the White House should have provided, not provide any witnesses that the White House prevented from being deposed. And the whole thing is to try and just push this through.” Continue reading.

Democrats cap impeachment arguments with focus on Trump stonewalling

The Hill logoHouse Democrats launched their final round of arguments in President Trump’s impeachment trial on Friday, shifting their focus to the president’s blanket stonewalling of Congress’s inquiry into his Ukrainian affairs as another basis for his removal from office.

Democrats say Trump trampled on Congress’s legal authority to act as a check on presidential power when he adopted an across-the-board refusal to cooperate with House investigators examining his dealings with Ukraine last year.

While their case has centered on allegations that Trump abused his power, the third and final day of the Democrats’ opening arguments will focus on the second impeachment article passed by the House last month: obstruction of Congress.  Continue reading.

‘This ends badly for Trump’s lackeys’: MSNBC’s Morning Joe warns GOP senators they’re doomed for opposing impeachment

AlterNet logoMSNBC’s Joe Scarborough ripped Senate Republicans for selling their souls to President Donald Trump — and risking their political careers.

The “Morning Joe” host praised Rep. Adam Schiff’s impassioned plea to GOP senators in the impeachment trial, but lamented that his appeal likely fell on deaf ears.

“It’s a fear of those who follow Donald Trump, who follow Donald Trump in the Republican Party,” Scarborough said. “It’s a fear of losing a primary election, and, then, yes it is a fear for many of these people, and I consider it to be extraordinarily weak of them, of Donald Trump criticizing them, or tweeting attacks at them.” Continue reading.

America Is Watching Trump’s Trial

It is my habit, and my ethical obligation, to disclose a fact of my marriage when failing to do so could mislead you or diminish your trust in me.

Circumstances and subject matter dictate when this is necessary. If I’m writing about our two rescue dogs, my husband’s profession is irrelevant in his utter devotion to them. Likewise, his job has nothing to do with my insistence that no husband should speak for his wife without her permission, and by “permission” I impose the strictest of boundaries. Saying, “Yes, Honey, go ahead and order the curry for me,” does not mean my husband may start any sentence with, “What my wife meant to say…”

Fortunately, like all good men, he understands the difference. Continue reading.

Democrats Seek to Pre-empt Trump’s Defense in Impeachment Trial

New York Times logoThe House impeachment managers sought to undercut the central elements of President Trump’s defense, wading into a detailed defense of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

WASHINGTON — House Democrats sought on Thursday to pre-emptively dismantle President Trump’s core defenses in his impeachment trial, invoking his own words to argue that his pressure campaign on Ukraine was an abuse of power that warranted his removal.

On the second day of arguments in the third presidential impeachment trial in American history, Democrats sought to make the case that Mr. Trump’s actions were an affront to the Constitution. And they worked to disprove his lawyers’ claims that he was acting only in the nation’s interests when he sought to enlist Ukraine to investigate political rivals.

In doing so, they took a calculated risk in talking at length about Mr. Trump’s targets — former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.and his son Hunter Biden — and underscored the political backdrop of a trial that is unfolding only 10 months before the election and is likely to reverberate long after the verdict. Continue reading.

White House snubbed watchdog agency seeking info on Ukraine aid

The Government Accountability Office later concluded the White House violated the law by freezing the military aid.

The White House declined to provide documents to a congressional watchdog investigating President Donald Trump’s decision to withhold military aid from Ukraine, according to documents released Thursday by Sen. Chris Van Hollen.

The White House responded to the Government Accountability Office’s inquiry with a one-page letter on Dec. 20, citing a legal memo from the Office of Management and Budget that defended the hold on military aid as necessary to ensure spending the funds wouldn’t “conflict with the President’s foreign policy.”

“The White House does not plan to respond separately to your letters,” wrote Brian Miller, a senior associate counsel to Trump, who indicated that the GAOinquiry was meant for acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House counsel Pat Cipollone. Cipollone is now Trump’s lead attorney in an impeachment trial that centers on his decision to freeze Ukraine’s military assistance. Continue reading.