Democrats accuse White House of wrongly concealing evidence about Pence that supports the impeachment case

AlterNet logoDemocratic lawmakers accused the White House of improperly classifying a piece of impeachment evidence related to Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday.

That evidence, from Pence aide Jennifer Williams, has been the subject of a dispute between the House impeachment investigators and the vice president. House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff has said that “there is no legitimate basis for the Office of Vice President to assert that the information” relating to a Sept. 18 call Pence had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should be classified, but it remains undisclosed to the public.

As I explained in December:

Though the vice president’s office, along with the rest of the administration, has stonewalled the impeachment inquiry’s requests for documents, Schiff’s committee obtained information about the Sept. 18 call through Jennifer Williams, a Pence aide who has already testified. Initially, Schiff explained, Williams testified about Pence’s call and did not assert that any part of it was classified. When she testified publicly, however, she said Pence’s office had since determined that the call was classified. She later sent the committee a “supplemental submission” after reviewing “materials” that refreshed her memory about the call — and it’s that supplemental submission that Schiff would like to see declassified.

Continue reading.

‘That’s not what you said then!’: Alan Dershowitz crashes and burns when confronted with his own words on impeachment

AlterNet logoProminent attorney Alan Dershowitz has thrust himself back into the spotlight for President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial as he plans to present a constitutional argument to the lawmakers urging them to vote for acquittal. The White House doesn’t seem to mind that Dershowitz is tainted by his ties to Jeffrey Epstein; two women who say they were trafficked by Epstein have said they were made to have sex with Dershowitz, which the attorney denies.

And as all this hangs over his head, Dershowitz is making increasingly strained defenses of Trump. When Trump was facing accusations based on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report of obstruction of justice, Dershowitz made the argument that a president simply cannot obstruct justice. Now that Trump has been impeached on charges of obstructing Congress and abuse of power, Dershowitz says that these charges, too, are not sufficient for impeachment.

While he’s previously defended Trump by suggesting the president can only be impeached for actual crimes, he now seems to be reverting to the bizarre and unexplained position that the charges have to be “crime-like.” Continue reading.

McConnell drops two-day limit on opening arguments

The Hill logoSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), in the face of strong criticism from Democrats, is backing off his proposed requirement that House impeachment managers and President Trump’s lawyers each fit their opening arguments into two-day windows.

McConnell amended his organizing resolution for Trump’s impeachment trial at the last minute to give each side three days to make their opening arguments, which can last for up to 24 hours, the same amount of time given to the prosecution and defense during the 1999 impeachment trial of President Clinton.

The GOP leader made another significant amendment to his resolution by allowing the House impeachment inquiry to be entered into the Senate’s official trial record — subject to hearsay objections — something McConnell declined to greenlight in his initial proposal. Continue reading.

House managers accuse McConnell of setting up ‘rigged’ trial

The Hill logoThe team of House Democrats arguing their case for impeachment in the Senate are slamming the trial resolution put forward by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), describing the compressed schedule as an attempt to cover up President Trump‘s conduct.

The resolution, circulated by McConnell on Monday night, would give the House Democrats 24 hours over the course of two days to make their opening arguments to impeach and remove Trump from office over his contacts with Ukraine. The same time constraints would be placed on the White House team defending Trump.

“A White House-driven and rigged process, with a truncated schedule designed to go late into the night and further conceal the President’s misconduct, is not what the American people expect or deserve,” the impeachment managers wrote in a statement. Continue reading.

Poll: Most Americans want Trump removed from office by Senate

51 percent of respondents support the Senate convicting Trump on articles of impeachment

A majority of Americans want the Senate to convict and remove President Donald Trump from office, according to a new poll conducted by CNN.

Fifty-one percent of respondents to the poll want the Senate to convict Trump on the impeachment charges brought by the House, which would lead to his immediate expulsion from office. Meanwhile, 45 percent of respondents said they don’t want to see the president removed. The poll was conducted from Jan. 16-19 and released Monday, on the eve of the Senate impeachment trial, which gets underway Tuesday, though senators were sworn in last week.

The numbers are the most favorable for removal since another CNN poll in June 2018. Approval for impeachment and removal has generally hovered between 36 and 47 percent, peaking at 50 percent in polls from October and November 2019, once impeachment proceedings were underway in the House. Continue reading.

Parnas attorney asks William Barr to recuse himself from investigation

The Hill logoA lawyer for Lev Parnas, an associate of President Trump‘s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, is asking Attorney General William Barr to recuse himself from an investigation into alleged campaign finance violations against Parnas.

Joseph Bondy made the request in a letter sent to Barr and filed in New York federal court on Monday, CNN reported. In it, Bondy argues that Barr has a “conflict of interest” in the matter and that he should appoint a special prosecutor from outside the Justice Department to handle the case.

“Given the totality of the circumstances, we believe it is appropriate for you to recuse yourself from the ongoing investigation and pending prosecution of Mr. Parnas,” wrote Bondy.  Continue reading.

Trump may have ‘dictated’ part of his impeachment defense because arguments are ‘not legally sophisticated’: Former Nixon White House Counsel

AlterNet logoJohn Dean is a veteran of the Watergate era who has been offering insights on President Donald Trump’s many scandals. After having a lot to say about former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, Dean (who served as White House Counsel under President Richard Nixon) has recently been weighing in on the president’s Ukraine scandal. And Dean, during an interview with CNN’s Ana Cabrera on Sunday, speculated that Trump might have “dictated” some of his impeachment defense brief because the arguments used are “not legally sophisticated.”

The 81-year-old Dean told Cabrera, “I actually thought Trump might have dictated part of this brief like he did the letter that (White House Counsel) Cipollone sent to Congress that said that what they were doing was not proper. It’s of that vernacular. It’s not legally sophisticated. It actually plays to the base.”

In the impeachment defense brief, Trump’s attorneys argued that none of Trump’s actions with Ukraine amounted to impeachable offenses and asserted that Democrats are attempting a “brazen and unlawful” campaign to hurt his chances of being reelected in November. Continue reading.

Democrats push back on White House impeachment claims, saying Trump believes he is above the law

The Hill logoHouse Democrats on Monday hammered the White House’s impeachment defense heading into the Senate trial of President Trump, describing their historic effort as necessary to protect the country from a man who they say believes he is above the law.

In a nine-page memo, authored by the seven Democratic impeachment managers set to prosecute the case, the Democrats refuted “every allegation and defense” presented by the White House in its own trial preview, released over the weekend.

The Democrats also seek to pin responsibility on the GOP-controlled Senate, saying that a fair trial is contingent on their ability to call in witnesses and receive documents that the White House has so far blocked. Continue reading.

Trump lawyers urge senators to swiftly acquit Trump in impeachment trial

The Hill logoPresident Trump’s lawyers on Monday filed a brief urging the Senate to “swiftly” reject the impeachment charges against him, casting the articles as “flimsy” and accusing House Democrats of a partisan effort to damage Trump ahead of the 2020 election.

“The Articles of Impeachment now before the Senate are an affront to the Constitution and to our democratic institutions. The Articles themselves—and the rigged process that brought them here—are a brazenly political act by House Democrats that must be rejected,” Trump’s lawyers, led by White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Trump’s personal attorney, Jay Sekulow, wrote in a lengthy brief filed Monday afternoon.

The 110-page filing accuses House Democrats of crafting two articles that do not allege impeachable offenses and using impeachment as “a political tool to overturn the result of the 2016 election and to interfere in the 2020 election.” Continue reading.

Georgetown law professor explains why Alan Dershowitz’s legal argument will crumble under Senate questioning: ‘No sound basis’

AlterNet logoGeorgetown law professor John Mikhail suggested on Sunday that the portion of President Donald Trump’s defense which is being covered by Alan Dershowitz is destined to fail because it has “no sound basis” in history and law.

“There is no sound basis for Alan Dershowitz to claim that abuse of power is not an impeachable offense. In addition to being at odds with common sense, this claim is contradicted by a clear and consistent body of historical evidence,” Mikhail stated.

The law professor cited the impeachment of Warren Hastings in the 1780s. Continue reading.