usatoday--2020-01-24--Fact-checking the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump

Wednesday , the House Democrats began formal arguments in the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump .
A number of people involved made not-quite-accurate claims over everything from Trump 's phone call July 25 with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the Obama administration 's aid to Ukraine .
One of the managers , Rep. Sylvia Garcia , D-Texas , spent her presentation Thursday outlining allegations of potential corruption by former Vice President Joe Biden and his son , Hunter , were false .
Garcia argued that President Donald Trump urged Ukraine to investigate Biden based on a debunked theory @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Biden was leading polls as the Democratic contender to challenge Trump .
“ The entire premise of the investigation that the president wanted Ukraine to pursue was false , ” Garcia said .
“ There is simply no evidence – nothing , nada – in the record to support this baseless allegation.
” Garcia recited the history that Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma Holdings in 2014 , at a time when the Ukraine gas company was under investigation because of its oligarch owner .
Viktor Shokin became Ukraine ’ s prosecutor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ investigation to go dormant , Garcia said .
In late 2015 , Joe Biden called for the removal of Shokin because he was widely perceived as ineffective and corrupt , Garcia said .
Shokin ’ s removal was also sought by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund , Garcia said .
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators sent a letter Feb. 12 , 2016 , urging Shokin ’ s removal .
Shokin was fired a month later .
George Kent , who was the second-in-command at the U.S. embassy in Ukraine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lavishly than his government salary would allow and covered up crimes .
“ Biden called for removal of the prosecutor at the direction of U.S. policy because the prosecutor was widely perceived as corrupt , ” Garcia said .
But in a phone call July 25 , 2019 , Trump urged Ukraine ’ s new President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the Bidens and Burisma because he had heard “ horrible ” things about potential corruption in Ukraine .
The call came after Trump hadn ’ t pursued anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine in 2017 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when Biden was leading in polls to challenge Trump , Garcia said .
“ He pushed for an investigation in 2019 because that is when it would be valuable to him , President Trump , ” Garcia said .
“ He had good reason to be concerned.
” As USA TODAY has explained , Biden pushed for Shokin ’ s ouster because the prosecutor wasn ’ t pursuing corruption by Ukrainian politicians .
Furthermore , USA TODAY spent a week in Ukraine and reported “ the message from two dozen government officials and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ allegations against the Bidens are entirely lacking in evidence.
” And , the notion that it was Ukraine -- rather than Russia -- who interfered in the 2016 presidential election , is a debunked theory , one of a handful of debunked theories Trump has espoused , USA TODAY has reported .
But one of the lawyers representing Trump in the trial said Thursday evening that the House managers ’ focus on Joe Biden throughout their hours of presentations earlier in the day “ opened the door ” for Trump 's team to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their rebuttal on behalf of the president .
“ For the last five hours , it 's been a lot about Joe Biden and Burisma , ” Jay Sekulow said , “ They kind of opened the door for that response so we 'll determine as a defense team the appropriate way to do it.
” Sen. Ted Cruz , R-Texas , agreed , arguing that the House managers ’ decision to focus on Biden and Burisma had several consequences , including making Hunter Biden , the vice president ’ s son , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now critical.
” And , Sen. Lindsey Graham , R-S.C. , said when Democrats claim that allegations against the Bidens have been debunked , he isn ’ t so sure .
Graham thinks more questions should be asked about why Hunter Biden was hired by Burisma and why he was hired after then-Vice President Joe Biden was put in charge of the government ’ s portfolio dealing with Ukraine .
“ I do n't know .
Does n't pass the smell test to me , ” Graham told reporters Thursday .
Graham said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of corruption , but saying that more questions about the activities of both Bidens in Ukraine are warranted .
“ I do n't know anything about the Biden connection to the Ukraine , ” Graham said .
“ So when the managers tell me this has been looked at and debunked , by who ?
” During the trial Thursday , House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler , D-N.Y. , challenged the argument from President Trump ’ s defenders that impeachment must allege a violation of statutory law .
To make his point , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lindsey Graham , R-S.C. , who was a manager 21 years ago in the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton .
The Constitution allows impeachment for “ high crimes and misdemeanors , ” a term that has been debated during the Trump investigation .
“ What ’ s a high crime ?
” Graham asked in the well of the Senate in 1999 .
“ How about an important person hurting somebody of low means ?
It ’ s not very scholarly , but I think it ’ s the truth .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by high crimes .
Doesn ’ t even have to be a crime .
It ’ s just when you start using your office and you ’ re acting in a way that hurts people , you ’ ve committed a high crime.
” Republicans have challenged the accusations of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress as vague and not grounded in established law .
For example , during the Dec. 18 debate by the full House on the articles of impeachment , Rep. James Sensenbrenner , R-Wis. , who was a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ impeachment trial said : “ the Constitution says that any civil officer , including the President , may be impeached for treason , bribery , or other high crimes and misdemeanors .
Unlike the Nixon and Clinton cases , there are no allegations that the President has committed a crime .
We have had almost 3 years of nonstop investigations .
We have had the Mueller report , we have had the Schiff investigation , we have had the Nadler investigation , and at no time has there been any evidence that indicates @ @ @ @ @ @ @ statute of the United States.
” “ This view is completely wrong , ” Nadler said Thursday of the Republican argument .
“ It has no support in constitutional text and structure , original meaning , congressional precedents , common sense or the consensus of credible experts .
In other words , it conflicts with every relevant consideration.
” Nadler quoted two constitutional scholars who testified at a Dec. 4 hearing in the impeachment inquiry .
Michael Gerhardt , a law professor at the University of North Carolina , said the Constitution “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of law for impeachment .
“ Everything that we know about the history of impeachment reinforces the conclusion that impeachable offenses do not have to be crimes , ” Gerhardt said .
“ We look , again , at the context and gravity of the misconduct.
” Jonathan Turley , a law professor at George Washington University , submitted written testimony that said : “ it is possible to establish a case for impeachment based on a non-criminal allegation of abuse of power.
” During a break Thursday , Sen. Mazie Hirono , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hear a rebuttal from Trump ’ s legal team that goes beyond saying abuse of power isn ’ t an impeachable offense .
“ I am not particularly interested in legal arguments such as abuse of power is not impeachable because that has been rebutted by real constitutional scholars , ” Hirono told reporters .
Trump switches up dates of Schiff ’ s version of Zelensky phone call President Donald Trump repeated one of his frequent factual errors Wednesday about Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff ’ s exaggerated version of the phone call @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said the White House released its partial transcript of the call in response to Schiff ’ s rendition , but it was released the day before , on Sept. 25 .
Speaking during an Intelligence Committee hearing on Sept. 26 , Schiff did a `` parody ” of Trump ’ s words on the call , and the president reacted by accusing him of treason .
“ I ’ d watch his lies , ” Trump said in a Fox Business interview Wednesday .
“ I watch where they ’ ve actually played @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t even do , it was so bad , where he goes before Congress , and he makes a statement that I made , and it was a total fraud .
I never made it .
“ That ’ s why I released the conversation , because if I didn ’ t release it , people would have said that I made the statement that he made .
This guy is a fraud , ” Trump said .
The president made a similar claim during a news conference in Davos , Switzerland , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that conversation , all hell broke out with the Democrats , because they say , 'Wait a minute .
This is much different than Shifty Schiff told us . '
`` Trump is correct that Schiff ’ s version was not totally accurate , relative to the summary of the call released by the White House , but the administration could not have released the call summary in response to Schiff .
Rather , Schiff ’ s version was based on the White House 's summary .
Schiff gave `` an embellished rendition @ @ @ @ @ @ @ July phone call , '' FactCheck.org said .
`` As we ’ ve explained before , Schiff said he was recounting 'the essence of what the president communicates ' and 'in not so many words . '
`` Schiff : In 2016 , Russia hacked Democrats after Trump ’ s 'Russia , if you ’ re listening …' Schiff , the lead House impeachment manager , said Wednesday , “ In 2016 , candidate Trump implored Russians to hack his opponent ’ s email account , something the Russian military agency did hours @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hacked his opponent ’ s campaign.
” Schiff referred to a remark Trump made July 27 , 2016 , during a news conference in Florida where he said he hoped Moscow could locate emails associated with his rival Hillary Clinton : `` Russia , if you 're listening , I hope you 're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing , '' he said .
`` I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press . ''
The report on Russian interference in the 2016 election issued by special @ @ @ @ @ @ @ approximately five hours of Trump ’ s statement , [ Russian military intelligence ] officers targeted for the first time Clinton ’ s personal office , ” including 15 email accounts at a specific domain , one of which belonged to a Clinton aide .
As noted by The New York Times , the events of that day in the summer of 2016 were part of an indictment against a dozen Russians charged with hacking by the Justice Department .
In written responses provided by Trump during the Mueller investigation , the president @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if you ’ re listening … ” remark “ in jest and sarcastically , as was apparent to any objective observer.
” Although federal prosecutors said in the hacking indictment that the Russian hackers corresponded with several Americans , a top Justice Department lawyer said in unveiling the indictment that there was no evidence that the Americans were aware they were corresponding with Russian intelligence officers .
Cruz : Obama administration sent 'blankets and MREs ' to Ukraine During a break in the trial Wednesday night , Sen. Ted Cruz , R-Texas , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and MRE 's '' to Ukraine , `` but they would n't give lethal aid . ''
`` I traveled to Ukraine in 2014 , came back and urged Barack Obama to give lethal military aid to Ukraine .
The Obama administration refused to do so , '' Cruz said .
`` Instead , they sent blankets and MRE 's . ''
Cruz 's remarks echo others by fellow Republicans .
Trump said Obama provided Ukraine with `` pillows and sheets . ''
In 2015 , Sen. John McCain , R-Ariz. , said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and we ’ re sending them blankets and meals .
Blankets don ’ t do well against Russian tanks.
” Milk or water : For senators at Trump impeachment trial , there are only 2 beverage options : milk and water The Obama administration provided hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Ukraine , according to CNN and PolitiFact.com .
Cruz is correct that lethal military aid began to be provided to Ukraine only during Trump 's tenure .
`` The first lethal deliveries came from Trump , '' Jim Townsend @ @ @ @ @ @ @ European and NATO Policy during the Obama administration , told PolitiFact .
Were Republicans , Trump allowed to participate in the House inquiry ?
In a wide-ranging pair of speeches on the Senate floor Tuesday , Jay Sekulow , a private lawyer for Trump , and White House counsel Pat Cipollone accused Democrats of seeking to remove Trump since he was elected .
Sekulow said Schiff committed a “ trifecta ” of improprieties by denying Trump access to evidence , counsel at hearings and the right to cross-examine witnesses during the House inquiry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a trifecta that violates the Constitution of the United States , ” Sekulow said .
Alexander Hamilton : Rep. Adam Schiff opens Trump impeachment trial arguments with a quote from Alexander Hamilton House Democrats on three committees held closed-door depositions during the inquiry , but Republicans were allowed to attend and ask questions .
The Judiciary Committee invited Trump 's lawyers to attend and participate in hearings by questioning witnesses , but the White House declined to participate in what Cipollone called a `` baseless and highly partisan '' inquiry .
GOP @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and the White House lawyers representing the president declined to participate in the House Judiciary Committee hearings , as detailed by PolitiFact .
What the Mueller report found on obstruction of justice Sekulow said Tuesday that “ there was no obstruction , ” referring to the special counsel ’ s report on Russian interference .
The report detailed 11 episodes of conduct by Trump that might have constituted obstruction , but Mueller refused to make a firm conclusion on the issue .
As USA TODAY explained , “ In leaving that issue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an offense nor exonerated him , leaving the next moves up to Congress.
” FactCheck.org said that in punting on the question , the Mueller report pointed to “ difficult [ legal ] issues ” involved in indicting a sitting president , including concerns about violating the constitutional principle of separation of powers as detailed in an October 2000 legal opinion by the Justice Department .

Bart Jansen, Jeanine Santucci, Savannah Behrmann and Martina Stewart, USA TODAY

Fact-checking the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump
Show Caption Hide Caption Impeachment: Democrats make abuse of power case On Thursday, House Democrat impeachment managers laid out their case for abuse of power, the first of two articles of impeachment against Pres. Trump. USA TODAY
Wednesday, the House Democrats began formal arguments in the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.
A number of people involved made not-quite-accurate claims over everything from Trump's phone call July 25 with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the Obama administration's aid to Ukraine.
Democrats focus on delaying aid, after Trump claims Ukraine got funds ‘long before schedule’
As Democratic House managers wrapped up their presentation about the first article of impeachment alleging abuse of power, Manager Jason Crow, D-Colo. said President Donald Trump’s defenders might argue that the suspension of $391 million in military aid to Ukraine wasn’t important because it was short-lived and the money was eventually released.
“This defense would be laughable if this issue wasn’t so serious,” said Crow, a former Army Ranger. “No, the delay wasn’t meaningless. Just ask the Ukrainians sitting in trenches now.”
Ukraine needed the funding because it had been invaded by Russia and was fighting for its territorial integrity. Crow played a video of Jennifer Williams, a State Department aide assigned to Vice President Mike Pence’s office, who attended a Sept. 1 meeting between Pence and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“President Zelensky explained that equally with the financial and fiscal value, that it was the symbolic nature of that assistance that really was the show of U.S. support for Ukraine and for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Williams said, in her testimony during the House inquiry. “He was stressing that to the vice president, to really underscore the need for the security assistance to be released.”
Crow argued that Trump only released the money to use it as leverage to pressure Ukraine into investigating his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.
“The scheme was unraveling,” Crow said. “He only released it after he got caught.”
Earlier this week, Trump said while speaking at a news conference in Davos, Switzerland that Ukraine got the “money long before schedule.”
“That’s false,” FactCheck.org said of Trump’s claim. And the Associated Press concluded Ukraine “got the money months late.”
USA TODAY and the AP both point to the fact that the hold was lifted by the Trump administration after a complaint was submitted by a whistleblower. And FactCheck.org writes that the White House was “under pressure from members of Congress and administration officials” when the money was released.
Furthermore, FactCheck.org points out that Congress had to grant an extension to make sure the aid could be spent past the deadline originally set by Capitol Hill, adding that a Pentagon official said earlier this week the Defense Department had “‘executed 99.8% of the funds’ for Ukraine and was ‘working to obligate the remainder.’”
Finally, a government watchdog agency recently concluded that the Trump administration violated federal law when it withheld the funds intended to help Ukraine. "Faithful execution of the law does not permit the president to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law," the report by the Government Accountability Office says. "OMB withheld funds for a policy reason, which is not permitted" under the law.
Watchdog: White House budget office violated federal law by withholding Ukraine security funds
A spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget disagreed with the GAO’s conclusion.
– Martina Stewart and Bart Jansen
The Bidens, Burisma, a Ukraine prosecutor and a debunked theory
One of the managers, Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, spent her presentation Thursday outlining allegations of potential corruption by former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, were false. Garcia argued that President Donald Trump urged Ukraine to investigate Biden based on a debunked theory and at a time in 2019 when Biden was leading polls as the Democratic contender to challenge Trump.
“The entire premise of the investigation that the president wanted Ukraine to pursue was false,” Garcia said. “There is simply no evidence – nothing, nada – in the record to support this baseless allegation.”
Live impeachment trial updates: Trump says Saturday TV ratings for his team's opening arguments will be like 'Death Valley'
Garcia recited the history that Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma Holdings in 2014, at a time when the Ukraine gas company was under investigation because of its oligarch owner. Viktor Shokin became Ukraine’s prosecutor general in 2015 and he allowed the investigation to go dormant, Garcia said.
In late 2015, Joe Biden called for the removal of Shokin because he was widely perceived as ineffective and corrupt, Garcia said. Shokin’s removal was also sought by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, Garcia said. A bipartisan group of U.S. senators sent a letter Feb. 12, 2016, urging Shokin’s removal. Shokin was fired a month later. George Kent, who was the second-in-command at the U.S. embassy in Ukraine, testified that Shokin routinely lived more lavishly than his government salary would allow and covered up crimes.
“Biden called for removal of the prosecutor at the direction of U.S. policy because the prosecutor was widely perceived as corrupt,” Garcia said.
But in a phone call July 25, 2019, Trump urged Ukraine’s new President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the Bidens and Burisma because he had heard “horrible” things about potential corruption in Ukraine. The call came after Trump hadn’t pursued anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine in 2017 and 2018, but at a time when Biden was leading in polls to challenge Trump, Garcia said.
“He pushed for an investigation in 2019 because that is when it would be valuable to him, President Trump,” Garcia said. “He had good reason to be concerned.”
As USA TODAY has explained, Biden pushed for Shokin’s ouster because the prosecutor wasn’t pursuing corruption by Ukrainian politicians.
Furthermore, USA TODAY spent a week in Ukraine and reported “the message from two dozen government officials and anti-corruption investigators quickly became clear: The allegations against the Bidens are entirely lacking in evidence.”
And, the notion that it was Ukraine -- rather than Russia -- who interfered in the 2016 presidential election, is a debunked theory, one of a handful of debunked theories Trump has espoused, USA TODAY has reported.
But one of the lawyers representing Trump in the trial said Thursday evening that the House managers’ focus on Joe Biden throughout their hours of presentations earlier in the day “opened the door” for Trump's team to concentrate on the former vice president in their rebuttal on behalf of the president.
“For the last five hours, it's been a lot about Joe Biden and Burisma,” Jay Sekulow said, “They kind of opened the door for that response so we'll determine as a defense team the appropriate way to do it.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, agreed, arguing that the House managers’ decision to focus on Biden and Burisma had several consequences, including making Hunter Biden, the vice president’s son, “not only relevant. He is now critical.”
And, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said when Democrats claim that allegations against the Bidens have been debunked, he isn’t so sure. Graham thinks more questions should be asked about why Hunter Biden was hired by Burisma and why he was hired after then-Vice President Joe Biden was put in charge of the government’s portfolio dealing with Ukraine.
“I don't know. Doesn't pass the smell test to me,” Graham told reporters Thursday.
Graham said he wasn’t accusing Joe Biden of corruption, but saying that more questions about the activities of both Bidens in Ukraine are warranted. “I don't know anything about the Biden connection to the Ukraine,” Graham said. “So when the managers tell me this has been looked at and debunked, by who?”
– Bart Jansen, Christal Hayes, Nicholas Wu, and Martina Stewart
Must an impeachable offense involve a statutory crime?
During the trial Thursday, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., challenged the argument from President Trump’s defenders that impeachment must allege a violation of statutory law.
To make his point, Nadler played a 1999 video of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who was a manager 21 years ago in the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton. The Constitution allows impeachment for “high crimes and misdemeanors,” a term that has been debated during the Trump investigation.
“What’s a high crime?” Graham asked in the well of the Senate in 1999. “How about an important person hurting somebody of low means? It’s not very scholarly, but I think it’s the truth. I think that’s what they meant by high crimes. Doesn’t even have to be a crime. It’s just when you start using your office and you’re acting in a way that hurts people, you’ve committed a high crime.”
Republicans have challenged the accusations of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress as vague and not grounded in established law.
For example, during the Dec. 18 debate by the full House on the articles of impeachment, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., who was a manager during President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial said: “the Constitution says that any civil officer, including the President, may be impeached for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. Unlike the Nixon and Clinton cases, there are no allegations that the President has committed a crime. We have had almost 3 years of nonstop investigations. We have had the Mueller report, we have had the Schiff investigation, we have had the Nadler investigation, and at no time has there been any evidence that indicates that Donald J. Trump violated any criminal statute of the United States.”
“This view is completely wrong,” Nadler said Thursday of the Republican argument. “It has no support in constitutional text and structure, original meaning, congressional precedents, common sense or the consensus of credible experts. In other words, it conflicts with every relevant consideration.”
Nadler quoted two constitutional scholars who testified at a Dec. 4 hearing in the impeachment inquiry.
Michael Gerhardt, a law professor at the University of North Carolina, said the Constitution “plainly does not” require a violation of law for impeachment.
“Everything that we know about the history of impeachment reinforces the conclusion that impeachable offenses do not have to be crimes,” Gerhardt said. “We look, again, at the context and gravity of the misconduct.”
Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, submitted written testimony that said: “it is possible to establish a case for impeachment based on a non-criminal allegation of abuse of power.”
During a break Thursday, Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said she would like to hear a rebuttal from Trump’s legal team that goes beyond saying abuse of power isn’t an impeachable offense.
“I am not particularly interested in legal arguments such as abuse of power is not impeachable because that has been rebutted by real constitutional scholars,” Hirono told reporters.
– Bart Jansen
Trump switches up dates of Schiff’s version of Zelensky phone call
President Donald Trump repeated one of his frequent factual errors Wednesday about Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff’s exaggerated version of the phone call between Trump and Zelensky.
The president said the White House released its partial transcript of the call in response to Schiff’s rendition, but it was released the day before, on Sept. 25. Speaking during an Intelligence Committee hearing on Sept. 26, Schiff did a "parody” of Trump’s words on the call, and the president reacted by accusing him of treason.
“I’d watch his lies,” Trump said in a Fox Business interview Wednesday. “I watch where they’ve actually played a rerun, which they shouldn’t even do, it was so bad, where he goes before Congress, and he makes a statement that I made, and it was a total fraud. I never made it.
“That’s why I released the conversation, because if I didn’t release it, people would have said that I made the statement that he made. This guy is a fraud,” Trump said.
Live impeachment trial updates: Trump attacks Democrats in morning tweet storm
The president made a similar claim during a news conference in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday. “When we released that conversation, all hell broke out with the Democrats, because they say, 'Wait a minute. This is much different than Shifty Schiff told us.' "
Trump is correct that Schiff’s version was not totally accurate, relative to the summary of the call released by the White House, but the administration could not have released the call summary in response to Schiff. Rather, Schiff’s version was based on the White House's summary.
Schiff gave "an embellished rendition of the White House memo of the July phone call," FactCheck.org said. "As we’ve explained before, Schiff said he was recounting 'the essence of what the president communicates' and 'in not so many words.' "
– Jeanine Santucci
Schiff: In 2016, Russia hacked Democrats after Trump’s 'Russia, if you’re listening …'
Schiff, the lead House impeachment manager, said Wednesday, “In 2016, candidate Trump implored Russians to hack his opponent’s email account, something the Russian military agency did hours later. Only hours later, they hacked his opponent’s campaign.”
Schiff referred to a remark Trump made July 27, 2016, during a news conference in Florida where he said he hoped Moscow could locate emails associated with his rival Hillary Clinton: "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," he said. "I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press."
The report on Russian interference in the 2016 election issued by special counsel Robert Mueller noted that “within approximately five hours of Trump’s statement, [Russian military intelligence] officers targeted for the first time Clinton’s personal office,” including 15 email accounts at a specific domain, one of which belonged to a Clinton aide.
As noted by The New York Times, the events of that day in the summer of 2016 were part of an indictment against a dozen Russians charged with hacking by the Justice Department.
In written responses provided by Trump during the Mueller investigation, the president said he made the “Russia, if you’re listening …” remark “in jest and sarcastically, as was apparent to any objective observer.”
Although federal prosecutors said in the hacking indictment that the Russian hackers corresponded with several Americans, a top Justice Department lawyer said in unveiling the indictment that there was no evidence that the Americans were aware they were corresponding with Russian intelligence officers.
– Martina Stewart
Presidential impeachment: Clinton, Johnson, Nixon test U.S. democracy Presidents have been impeached, but none have been removed from office due to impeachment. Confusing? Here's how. Just the FAQs, USA TODAY
Cruz: Obama administration sent 'blankets and MREs' to Ukraine
During a break in the trial Wednesday night, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said the Obama administration "sent blankets and MRE's" to Ukraine, "but they wouldn't give lethal aid."
"I traveled to Ukraine in 2014, came back and urged Barack Obama to give lethal military aid to Ukraine. The Obama administration refused to do so," Cruz said. "Instead, they sent blankets and MRE's."
Cruz's remarks echo others by fellow Republicans. Trump said Obama provided Ukraine with "pillows and sheets." In 2015, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said, "The Ukrainians are being slaughtered, and we’re sending them blankets and meals. Blankets don’t do well against Russian tanks.”
Milk or water: For senators at Trump impeachment trial, there are only 2 beverage options: milk and water
The Obama administration provided hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, according to CNN and PolitiFact.com.
Cruz is correct that lethal military aid began to be provided to Ukraine only during Trump's tenure. "The first lethal deliveries came from Trump," Jim Townsend, deputy assistant secretary of defense for European and NATO Policy during the Obama administration, told PolitiFact.
– Martina Stewart and Savannah Behrmann
Were Republicans, Trump allowed to participate in the House inquiry?
In a wide-ranging pair of speeches on the Senate floor Tuesday, Jay Sekulow, a private lawyer for Trump, and White House counsel Pat Cipollone accused Democrats of seeking to remove Trump since he was elected.
Sekulow said Schiff committed a “trifecta” of improprieties by denying Trump access to evidence, counsel at hearings and the right to cross-examine witnesses during the House inquiry.
“That’s a trifecta, a trifecta that violates the Constitution of the United States,” Sekulow said.
Alexander Hamilton: Rep. Adam Schiff opens Trump impeachment trial arguments with a quote from Alexander Hamilton
House Democrats on three committees held closed-door depositions during the inquiry, but Republicans were allowed to attend and ask questions. The Judiciary Committee invited Trump's lawyers to attend and participate in hearings by questioning witnesses, but the White House declined to participate in what Cipollone called a "baseless and highly partisan" inquiry.
GOP lawmakers were a part of the depositions, and the White House lawyers representing the president declined to participate in the House Judiciary Committee hearings, as detailed by PolitiFact and FactCheck.org.
– Bart Jansen
What the Mueller report found on obstruction of justice
Sekulow said Tuesday that “there was no obstruction,” referring to the special counsel’s report on Russian interference.
The report detailed 11 episodes of conduct by Trump that might have constituted obstruction, but Mueller refused to make a firm conclusion on the issue.
As USA TODAY explained, “In leaving that issue unanswered, Mueller neither charged Trump with an offense nor exonerated him, leaving the next moves up to Congress.”
FactCheck.org said that in punting on the question, the Mueller report pointed to “difficult [legal] issues” involved in indicting a sitting president, including concerns about violating the constitutional principle of separation of powers as detailed in an October 2000 legal opinion by the Justice Department.
– Martina Stewart


usatoday--2020-01-24--Trump unveils new Space Force logo, draws comparisons to 'Star Trek' Starfleet Command

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump revealed the official logo for the new U.S. Space Force , a branch of the military that the administration created last year .
But to many , the logo seemed more than a little familiar .
The logo bears a striking resemblance to the insignia that represents the fictional Starfleet Command in the `` Star Trek '' franchise .
Pointing to threats from China and Russia and the nation ’ s reliance on satellites for defense operations , Trump has long pressed for the branch .
He finally saw it through in December as part @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s armed forces are more powerful than ever , '' Trump said at the time , `` and growing even stronger . ''
Trump argues that U.S. adversaries are weaponizing `` Earth 's orbits with new technology targeting American satellites , '' expanding the need for a space-specific military branch .
China and Russia have explored military expansion into space and France has also announced its own version of Space Force .
Trump has received ridicule for the focus he has placed on Space Force since his campaign .
Many were perplexed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this month in a camouflage print .
The answer ?
Most service members will be working on the ground , not in space .
More : Space is pitch black , so why will US Space Force members wear camo uniforms ?
But the Starfleet was the first thought for many as Trump tweeted out the new logo , which he said was consulted on by military leaders and designers .
The original series ' Hikaru Sulu himself chimed in .
`` Ahem .
We are expecting some royalties from this , '' @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conservative analyst John Noonan , an aide to Sen. Tom Cotton , R-Ark.
, pointed out , the logo is a modified version of a pre-existing Air Force Space Command logo .
( `` Star Trek : The Original Series '' predates that command , too . )

Trump unveils new Space Force logo, draws comparisons to 'Star Trek' Starfleet Command
Show Caption Hide Caption President Donald Trump reveals Space Force logo President Trump reveals the Space Force logo. GeoBeats
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump revealed the official logo for the new U.S. Space Force, a branch of the military that the administration created last year. But to many, the logo seemed more than a little familiar.
The logo bears a striking resemblance to the insignia that represents the fictional Starfleet Command in the "Star Trek" franchise.
Pointing to threats from China and Russia and the nation’s reliance on satellites for defense operations, Trump has long pressed for the branch. He finally saw it through in December as part of a defense bill.
“America’s armed forces are more powerful than ever," Trump said at the time, "and growing even stronger."
Trump argues that U.S. adversaries are weaponizing "Earth's orbits with new technology targeting American satellites," expanding the need for a space-specific military branch. China and Russia have explored military expansion into space and France has also announced its own version of Space Force.
After consultation with our Great Military Leaders, designers, and others, I am pleased to present the new logo for the United States Space Force, the Sixth Branch of our Magnificent Military! pic.twitter.com/TC8pT4yHFT — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 24, 2020
Trump has received ridicule for the focus he has placed on Space Force since his campaign. Many were perplexed when Space Force uniforms were unveiled earlier this month in a camouflage print. The answer? Most service members will be working on the ground, not in space.
More: Space is pitch black, so why will US Space Force members wear camo uniforms?
But the Starfleet was the first thought for many as Trump tweeted out the new logo, which he said was consulted on by military leaders and designers.
The original series' Hikaru Sulu himself chimed in. "Ahem. We are expecting some royalties from this," said actor George Takei.
Ahem. We are expecting some royalties from this... https://t.co/msYcJMlqjh — George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) January 24, 2020
Trump just announced the new logo for the Space Force. The other is Star Trek Starfleet Command. pic.twitter.com/S7NeYdjR4C — Jim Acosta (@Acosta) January 24, 2020
Space Force logo and its two main influences. pic.twitter.com/rDBXXzeIdA — Eric Roston (@eroston) January 24, 2020
Space force: “hey can I copy your homework?”
Star Trek: “Yea just change it up a bit so it doesn’t look the same.”
Space force: “ok” pic.twitter.com/hvdglpgnpH — my cat & i are pro-choice (@non_fele) January 24, 2020
But as conservative analyst John Noonan, an aide to Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., pointed out, the logo is a modified version of a pre-existing Air Force Space Command logo. ("Star Trek: The Original Series" predates that command, too.)
For those excitedly tweeting that Trump stole the Star Trek logo!!!!, the patch on the left was the existing Air Force Command logo.
The same one I wore as a Lieutenant in 2005. pic.twitter.com/mYb60YioBP — John Noonan (@noonanjo) January 24, 2020
Review: Patrick Stewart soars high in stellar 'Star Trek: Picard'
Contributing: David Jackson


usatoday--2020-01-25--Lofgren: Nixon allowed witnesses to testify, unlike Trump - Trump impeachment trial latest

The Senate impeachment trial has resumed .
Refresh this page for updates .
WASHINGTON – How much has President Trump stonewalled Congress ?
None of the other presidents who faced impeachment took the “ extreme step ” of stopping witnesses , argued California Rep. Zoe Lofgren , one of the House impeachment managers .
Even President Richard Nixon let his senior staff testify , she said .
She displayed a quote from Nixon saying all members of the White House staff would appear voluntarily , when requested , and will “ answer fully ” all proper questions .
Trump , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ invalid and directed executive branch employees to defy subpoenas , she said .
“ No president ever used the official power of his office to prevent witnesses from giving testimony to Congress in such a blanked and indiscriminate manner , ” Lofgren said .
“ There is no telling how many government officials would have come forward if the president hadn ’ t issued this order.
” For example , Lofgren said , Trump stopped the testimony of officials in the budget office who were at the center of the president ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ukraine .
“ If the Senate is prepared to accept that , ” Lofgren said , “ it will mean that not only President Trump , but all presidents after him will have veto power over Congress ’ ability to conduct oversight.
” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo used the `` F-word '' and other expletives after a testy interview with a National Public Radio host on Friday , the news outlet said Friday .
Pompeo unloaded on NPR 's Mary Louise Kelly after an interview in which she questioned him on Ukraine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other hot-button issues .
He grew extremely irritated by Kelly 's Ukraine questions , according to NPR .
`` 'Do you think Americans care about Ukraine ? '
'' Pompeo apparently shouted at Kelly after the interview .
Pompeo is scheduled to travel to Ukraine next week for a meeting with that country 's president , Volodymyr Zelensky , a central figure in the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump .
Ukraine is a pivotal U.S. ally in the effort to counter Russian aggression .
The State Department said Pompeo is going to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ukraine ’ s sovereignty and territorial integrity . ''
The Eastern European country is at war with Russia .
In an account released with the interview transcript , Kelly said she was taken to the secretary of State 's private living room after the interview , where Pompeo was waiting for her .
`` He shouted at me for about same amount of time as the interview itself .
He was not happy to have been questioned about Ukraine , '' Kelly said .
She said he used the F-word and `` many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Americans cared about Ukraine .
He then asked her if she could find Ukraine on a map .
`` I said yes , and he called out for aides to bring us a map of the world with no writing .
I pointed to Ukraine , '' she recounted .
Then he said : `` 'People will hear about this . '
'' Texas Democrat Sylvia Garcia , one of the House Impeachment managers , made a point Friday of enunciating each letter of the acronym FOIA , which stands for the `` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the much shorter and commonly used `` FOIA '' ( pronounced foy-ya ) .
She used the acronym in her presentation about attempts to obtain documents from the White House and other federal agencies related to Trump 's impeachment investigation .
It may have been to prevent any confusion with the phrase “ lawyer lawsuits , ” which became a thing on Tuesday after a rant by White House lawyer Jay Sekulow .
`` And by the way — lawyer lawsuits ? ''
Sekulow said during Tuesday ’ s 11-hour debate about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lawsuits ?
We 're talking about the impeachment of a president of the United States , duly elected , and the members — the managers are complaining about lawyer lawsuits ?
The Constitution allows lawyer lawsuits .
It 's disrespecting the Constitution of the United States to even say that in this chamber — lawyer lawsuits . ''
His comments , which drew blank stares , arched eyebrows and quizzical looks , came in response to a presentation by impeachment manager Val Demings , D-Fla. , who mentioned “ lawsuits under the Freedom @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lawsuits.
” In his rebuttal to Sekulow , lead impeachment manager Adam Schiff ( D-Calif. ) , said he had no clue whatsoever about what Sekulow meant .
While some observers posited that Sekulow had confused “ FOIA lawsuits ” with “ lawyer lawsuits , ” White House legislative affairs director Eric Ueland told reporters that Sekulow did not make a mistake .
The recording of President Donald Trump appearing to want to get rid of Marie Yovanovitch , the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine , reignited the Senate debate Friday about whether @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s impeachment trial .
House Democrats have argued that Trump removed Yovanovitch , who was heavily criticized by the president ’ s personal lawyer , Rudy Giuliani , to clear the way for Ukraine to investigate his political rival , former Vice President Joe Biden .
The recording published Friday by ABC News was of Trump with Lev Parnas , an indicted associate of Giuliani .
“ I want to ask about the recording that has been released today because President Trump has said that he didn ’ t know Parnas and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with him about taking out one of his ambassadors , ” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand , D-N.Y. “ We obviously have a right to that information .
Hopefully we will have access to it.
” The recording : Recording shows Trump called for firing of former Ukraine ambassador , report says Gillibrand said two witnesses she wanted most to hear from are former national security adviser John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney .
Other officials have said Bolton opposed the pressure for Ukraine investigations and Mulvaney said such @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I would like to hear directly from him when he understood that , under what context and how many conversations he had with President Trump about it , ” Gillibrand said .
“ I do think we ’ re getting closer to witnesses.
” Sen. Dianne Feinstein , D-Calif. , said Friday it was more likely that witnesses would be called .
“ Yes , ” she said .
Republicans such as Sen Lindsey Graham , R-S.C. , have said more witnesses aren ’ t necessary .
The Senate rejected subpoenas for Bolton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , although more votes could called after opening arguments from House Democrats and Trump ’ s legal term .
Schiff to senators : 'The next time , it just may be you ’ California Rep. Adam Schiff , the lead manager in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump , tried to get senators to put themselves in the shoes of Joe Biden and Marie Yovanovitch , the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine .
How would they feel if the most powerful person in the world were asking a foreign nation to conduct @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would they react if , like Yovanovitch , they had devoted their life to public service , served in dangerous places around the world , only to be hounded out of their post ?
Schiff asked while speaking on the Senate floor Friday .
“ Because I will tell you something , ” Schiff said .
“ The next time , it just may be you.
” No matter how close a senator may be to Trump now , he prodded them , do they have any doubt that Trump would investigate them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interest ?
“ If somewhere , deep down below , you realize that he would , you can not leave a man like that in office , ” he said .
“ It shouldn ’ t matter it was Joe Biden .
It could be any of us .
It may be any of us.
” Schiff : Trump 's policy is 'Trump first , not America first' The lead House impeachment manager , Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff , D-Calif. , summarized the accusation that President Donald Trump abused the power of his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from Ukraine hurt an ally , emboldened an adversary in Russia and undermined efforts to fight corruption abroad .
“ This is Trump first , not America first , ” Schiff said .
“ The Constitution does not permit it because that conduct is the quintessential abuse of power , ” Schiff added .
“ The use of official power for personal gain , putting personal interest over the national interest and putting personal benefits over our nation ’ s security.
” Schiff said Americans might not understand why Ukraine , a small @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But he argued that Ukraine is hungry for reform after emerging from the former Soviet Union , which collapsed in what Russian President Vladimir Putin called the greatest catastrophe of the 20th Century .
Trump ’ s willingness to pursue a political investigation of his rival , former Vice President Joe Biden , rather than the U.S. interest in helping an ally maintain its independence from Russia justifies removing the president from office , Schiff argued .
“ If someone sacrifices the national interest in favor of his own , and is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is in jeopardy .
It ’ s just that simple , ” Schiff said .
“ The grave consequences of President Trump ’ s misconduct demand our attention.
” Explaining the importance of Ukraine to national security interests , Rep. Adam Schiff , D-Calif. , brought in an interesting voice .
Schiff played a clip of a television interview with the late Sen. John McCain , whom he called a war hero and statesman “ who is no stranger to this body.
” McCain , Schiff said , recognized the threat posed when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ We are all Ukrainians , ” McCain said at the time .
In the TV clip Schiff showed , McCain said that it would make Russia very nervous if Ukraine is able to thrive .
Showcasing McCain may have been an attempt to appeal to Republicans who were close to him .
One of those Republicans , South Carolina ’ s Lindsey Graham , has been one of Trump ’ s most vocal defenders .
During the video of McCain , Graham seemed to show some emotion .
He looked down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ video , before looking up towards the ceiling and blinking several times .
Republican senators were mostly stone-faced during the video .
Sen. Kevin Cramer , R-N.D. , told reporters the video strengthened a Democratic point that Republicans did n't need .
“ I don ’ t think they need to convince us that Ukraine is really important , ” Cramer said .
“ I think it ’ s all to play for TV . ''
Sen. Any Klobuchar , D-Minn. , also a Democratic presidential candidate , said the video had a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ I kept thinking if John McCain was in the chamber today , or if he had heard the aid had been withdrawn , it might have been a different story , ” she told reporters .
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries , D-N.Y. , raised the specter that someone directed the National Security Council ’ s top lawyer to put a transcript of President Donald Trump ’ s July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on a secure server .
Did anyone senior to attorney John Eisenberg direct him to hide it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ server even after this so-called error was discovered ?
Jeffries asked rhetorically .
“ Who ordered the cover-up of the call record ?
” he asked senators .
“ The American people deserve to know.
” Jeffries , who is helping make the House manager ’ s argument that Trump obstructed Congress , said there are many outstanding questions because Eisenberg refused to testify .
Other officials testified that Eisenberg ordered that access to the transcript be restricted after he was told what it contained , Jeffries said .
That strongly suggests , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to conceal , rather than address , Trump ’ s misconduct .
The cover-up continued , he said , after a whistleblower filed a complaint about the call .
That prompted a two-part strategy to block Congress and the public from learning about the call while trying to convince Trump to lift his hold on military assistance to Ukraine before anyone could find out what was happening , Jeffries argued .
After Eisenberg and White House counsel Pat Cipollone reportedly briefed Trump on the whisteblower ’ s complaint , Jeffries said , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Council issued a secret opinion concluding that the complaint did not have to be shared with Congress .
Democratic House impeachment manager Jason Crow , D-Colo. said President Donald Trump ’ s defenders might argue that the suspension in $ 391 million in military aid wasn ’ t important because it was short-lived and the money was eventually released .
“ This defense would be laughable if this issue wasn ’ t so serious , ” said Crow , a former Army Ranger .
“ No , the delay wasn ’ t meaningless @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trenches now.
” Ukraine needed the funding because it had been invaded by Russia and was fighting for its territorial integrity .
Crow played a video of Jennifer Williams , a State Department aide assigned to Vice President Mike Pence ’ s office , who attended a Sept. 1 meeting between Pence and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky .
“ President Zelensky explained that equally with the financial and fiscal value , that it was the symbolic nature of that assistance that really was the show of U.S. support for Ukraine and for Ukraine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Williams said , in her testimony during the House inquiry .
“ He was stressing that to the vice president , to really underscore the need for the security assistance to be released.
” Crow argued that Trump only released the money to use it as leverage to pressure Ukraine into investigating his political rival , former Vice President Joe Biden .
“ The scheme was unraveling , ” Crow said .
“ He only released it after he got caught.
” House Democrats prosecuting the Senate impeachment trial against President Donald @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the final day of impeachment managers ' opening arguments , they 'll focus on the charge of obstruction of Congress , and how rejecting witnesses in the trial would further obstruct Congress .
The lead manager , Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff , D-Calif. , said if Trump or his legal team claimed executive privilege to block testimony from witnesses such as former national security adviser John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney , that would add to the obstruction .
The Senate rejected proposals to subpoena witnesses before the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to 47 .
The rules from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Ky. , call for more votes on witnesses after the opening arguments from the House and White House lawyers are over , and after up to 16 hours of questions from senators .
Schiff urged senators not to reject witnesses at that point .
Trump and some congressional Republicans have said he could block testimony from top aides such as Bolton and Mulvaney under executive privilege , to protect confidential advice for future presidents .
But Schiff said executive privilege can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The House managers are expected to finish their argument about abuse of power by early afternoon and then conclude their opening argument on its third day with a discussion of obstruction of Congress , Schiff said .
Trump team to begin defense Saturday at 10 a.m. EST Right before the House managers began their final day of arguments , Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Ky. , announced that the president ’ s team would begin its defense at 10 a.m. EST on Saturday and the session will run “ for several @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the defense team has up to 24 hours spread over three days to make their case .
Jay Sekulow , one of Trump ’ s private lawyers , later told reporters his team will stop around 1 p.m. EST Saturday , at the request of senators , and resume Monday .
“ The Senate asked for an accommodation , ” he said .
“ We were prepared to go as long as they wanted us to go tomorrow.
” Sekulow said he hasn ’ t determined how much overall time they ’ ll @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he added .
“ There ’ ll be plenty to cover.
” Rep. Jim Jordan , one of eight House lawmakers who are part of Trump 's defense team , told reporters Friday that the team is “ very confident ” because all of the facts are on the president ’ s side .
“ I think this case is open and shut for the president , ” Jordan said .
The witness question : Senators worry that asking for new impeachment trial witnesses could create lengthy executive privilege debate Sen. Lindsey Graham @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for former Vice President Joe Biden .
Sort of .
The staunch Trump ally questioned his former Senate colleague ’ s judgment for allowing his son , Hunter , to join the board of Burisma Holdings in 2014 as the Ukraine gas company was under investigation because of its oligarch owner .
“ As much as I like Joe Biden — and I do respect him and I do admire him .
I ’ ve traveled the world with him , '' Graham began .
`` I think it ’ s bad foreign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be in charge of dealing with corruption in Ukraine , that your son hook up with the most corrupt company in the Ukraine and turn Ukraine into an ATM machine , ” Graham said during a Friday morning news conference on Capitol Hill .
Biden has often cited his role in rooting out corruption in Ukraine during the Obama administration .
When you put your family member in that situation , it ’ s not good folks , ” Graham continued .
“ The vice president said he didn ’ t know @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hard he was looking.
” One of the impeachment managers , Rep. Sylvia Garcia , D-Texas , spent her presentation Thursday trying to poke holes in that Republican argument .
She argued that Trump urged Ukraine to investigate a debunked theory that Biden was protecting his son from an anti-corruption effort because Biden was leading polls as the Democratic challenger to Trump .
“ The entire premise of the investigation that the president wanted Ukraine to pursue was false , ” Garcia said .
“ There is simply no evidence – nothing , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this baseless allegation.
” Alexander says he 'll wait to decide on witnesses , documents Sen. Lamar Alexander , R-Tenn. , a potential Republican swing vote on subpoenaing witnesses and documents , said Friday that he 'll wait to decide on whether additional evidence should be compelled until after the first stage of the trial .
Speaking after a briefing with health officials on the coronavirus outbreak , Alexander said that once the initial presentations from both sides are over , his question would be “ do we need more evidence ?
Do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we need more documents ?
And I think that question can only be answered then.
” “ As the house managers have said many times , they presented us with a mountain of overwhelming evidence so we have a lot to consider , ” he said .
Republicans control the Senate by a 53-47 majority , meaning at least four Republicans would have to join all Democrats to vote to call more witnesses and documents in the trial .
Alexander is one of a handful of GOP senators that Senate Minority Leader Chuck @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he made a pitch to allow more witnesses and documents .
“ We ’ re seeking the truth at a momentous time in the American republic , ” Schumer said .
“ It is on the shoulders of four Republican senators to join us in demanding it .
We ’ ve made the argument forcefully .
The American people have made the argument forcefully that they want to truth .
Will four Republican senators , just four , rise to the occasion , do their duty to the constitution , to their country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did not name names , but the Republican senators seen as potentially open to more witnesses and documents include Alexander , Susan Collins of Maine , Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah .
Trump not happy with Saturday TV slot for his team 's opening arguments WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump 's beef with the impeachment schedule ?
His lawyers must start presenting his case on a Saturday – a bad day for television ratings .
In one of a series of Friday morning tweets slamming the Senate impeachment trial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rep. Adam Schiff , D-CA , and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer , D-NY , but the timing of his side 's arguments .
`` After having been treated unbelievably unfairly in the House , and then having to endure hour after hour of lies , fraud & deception by Shifty Schiff , Cryin ’ Chuck Schumer & their crew , looks like my lawyers will be forced to start on Saturday , which is called Death Valley in T.V.
, '' Trump said in an early morning round of tweets Friday .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ no novice when it comes to understanding television ratings .
`` Right matters .
And the truth matters .
Otherwise , we are lost . ''
With those words , House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff Thursday night tried to drive home the abuse of power charge the House filed against President Donald Trump that 's at the center of the Senate impeachment trial .
The trial resumes Friday at 1 p.m. with the California Democrat and other House managers laying out their case for the second impeachment article : obstruction of Congress .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ already voiced opinions do 'impartial justice ' at Trump impeachment trial ?
Closing words : What was the Senate chamber like while Rep. Adam Schiff made his final Thursday speech ?
In his closing speech Thursday , Schiff drew from U.S. Army Col. Alexander Vindman ’ s gripping testimony that he delivered to the House in November .
In that hearing Vindman , a National Security Council official expressed deep concerns about the president 's efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rivals , including Joe Biden .
“ If right doesn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t matter how good the constitution is , ” Schiff told the rapt chamber .
`` The framers could not protect us from ourselves if right and truth don ’ t matter .
And you know what ( Trump ) did was not right . ''
House Democrats will focus on the accusation that President Donald Trump obstructed Congress when they resume and complete their opening argument Friday in the Senate trial .
The seven prosecutors , who are called managers , spent Wednesday outlining the two articles against Trump and detailing the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ abuse of power and obstruction .
They spent Thursday outlining the legal and constitutional reasons that they said the evidence justified the charge of abuse of power .
Impeachment player : The middleman : How Lev Parnas joined Team Trump and became Rudy Giuliani 's fixer in Ukraine On Friday , the managers will explain how the law and Constitution apply to the evidence for obstruction .
Schiff , the lead manager , said Thursday that the arguments condensed hundreds of hours of depositions and testimony , but that there might be repetition @ @ @ @ @ @ @ provided .
“ We will now show you these facts and many others and how they are interwoven , ” Schiff said .
“ You will see some of these facts and videos therefore in a new context , in a new light , in the light of what else we know and why it compels a finding of guilt and conviction .
So there is some method to our madness.
” The third session of up to eight hours will complete the opening argument from House Democrats .
Trump ’ s legal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to 24 hours of opening argument spanning three sessions .
“ We ’ re going to respond of course to what the House managers have put forward , ” Jay Sekulow , one of Trump ’ s private lawyers , told reporters Wednesday .
“ And we ’ re going to make an affirmative case defending the president.
” “ There ’ s all kinds of allegations that have been thrown up in the air and so they 'll have a chance to lay out their timeline , their version of events , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In focusing on abuse of power Thursday , another manager , Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler , D-N.Y. , said Trump could have been impeached just for asking Ukraine to investigate his political rival , former Vice President Joe Biden .
But Nadler said Trump went further , withholding $ 391 million in vital military aid and a White House meeting .
`` Since President George Washington took office in 1789 , no president has abused his power in this way , '' Nadler said .
`` No president has ever used his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ help him cheat in our elections . ''
Nadler said the accusation of obstruction stems from Trump directing his administration to defy all subpoenas for testimony and documents during the investigation .
“ The articles are overwhelmingly supported by the evidence amassed by the House , notwithstanding the president ’ s complete stonewalling , his attempt to block all witnesses and all documents from the United States Congress , ” Nadler said .
“ It puts even President Nixon to shame .
”

Maureen Groppe, Bart Jansen and Ledyard King, USA TODAY

Schiff ends Democrat arguments with warning, Trump's lawyers to state case Saturday - impeachment trial latest
Show Caption Hide Caption Adam Schiff quotes 'head on a pike' threat to GOP Senators In closing, Rep. Adam Schiff quotes a CBS report that a Trump confidant threatened GOP Senators with 'head on a pike' if they vote against Trump. USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – House Democrats completed their three days of opening arguments in the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump by itemizing his alleged misconduct, but without clearly recruiting Republicans to support subpoenaing witnesses or convicting the president to remove him from office.
The lead manager, Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., charged that Trump abused the power of his office by withholding $391 million in vital military aid for Ukraine in a scheme to cheat in the 2020 election by pressuring the country to investigate his rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.
But Schiff warned that the second accusation of obstruction of Congress will echo beyond impeachment – if Trump isn’t convicted and removed from office – because the president defied all subpoenas during the House inquiry.
“In the history of the republic, no president ever ordered the complete defiance of an impeachment inquiry,” Schiff said. “Ukraine will survive and so will we, but that will be an unending injury to this country because the balance of power that our founders set out will never be the same.”
Trump’s defense team will have up to 24 hours spread over three days to make their case starting Saturday. Jay Sekulow, a private lawyer defending Trump, said the team will refute the Democratic arguments and make an argument supporting the president.
“We’re going to put on I believe without question a compelling case,” Sekulow said.
Trump’s conviction has always been unlikely because it would require a two-thirds vote in a chamber with 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats. But Democrats had hoped to win support from at least four Republicans joining them in a 51-vote majority to subpoena witnesses such as former national security adviser John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.
Votes on witnesses are expected after the Trump team’s presentation and then up to 16 hours of written questions posed by senators to both sides. But no Republicans stepped forward to support subpoenas after the arguments from the seven House prosecutors, who are called managers.
“I’m not going to be requesting any additional witnesses, especially when they say the evidence is overwhelming and the facts are undisputed,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. “In the world I've grew up in, that means there's no need for additional witnesses.”
Rather than take more time in the trial to call witnesses, Republicans turned their attention to acquitting Trump and moving on.
“I personally am in favor of a motion to acquit or convict," said Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind. "I think the former is what’s going to happen because the case has not been made."
– Bart Jansen
GOP senators slam Schiff speech
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., made an impassioned plea to Republicans to put country over party and to think about their own values rather than politics, but some of his points drew mixed reactions from the senators.
When Schiff referenced a CBS report that a Trump confidante had told senators not vote against him or "your head would be on a pike," Republican senators audibly voiced their disapproval, one of the first times in the trial.
"That's not true," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, could be heard saying, along with several other senators.
She shook her head in disapproval.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., laughed at the remark, pulled out his fidget spinner, and started twirling it.
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., denied that Republicans had been told by Trump that their heads would be on a pike.
“That is completely, totally false,” Lankford said. “All of us were shaking our heads.”
Lankford said it was an example of Schiff weaving facts and fiction together for his narrative of the case.
“To cap it off that all these Republicans live in fear of the president, that their head will be on a pike,” Lankford said. “Not true.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, told reporters that Schiff "lost me there" when he brought up the pike comment, according to National Public Radio. But she said she did not mean that Schiff had lost her vote on whether to call witnesses or on the verdict. She said she is waiting to hear Trump's defense team before making her decisions.
Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat from West Virginia, said Schiff “could have used a different metaphor.” He said all his friends and colleagues across the aisle said it was not true, so “I believe them."
– Nicholas Wu and Bart Jansen
Schiff expects to be attacked by defense team
When President Trump’s team takes the floor, Rep. Adam Schiff expects the defense to go after Schiff’s dramatic representation of Trump’s July phone call that he gave during a House hearing on the whistleblower complaint.
In Schiff’s closing remarks Friday, he said the defense team will likely attack the impeachment managers as terrible people, “especially that Schiff guy” who “mocked the president.”
Schiff said he learned something significant by distilling Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into what he called “the essence of what the president communicates.”
“For a man who loves to mock others, he does not like to be mocked,” Schiff said. “Turns out he has a pretty thin skin. Who would have thought it?”
After Schiff’s rendition at that September hearing, Trump suggested that Schiff should be arrested for “treason” and charged with “lying to Congress.”
Schiff told senators that when they hear attacks on him and other managers, they should ask themselves “from what do they want to distract my attention?”
What they don’t want you to do, Schiff said, is to “consider the president’s misconduct.”
- Maureen Groppe
Thune: 'neither side wants any kind of closed session'
During a break in trial proceedings, Republican senators suggested closed sessions would be kept to a minimum next week.
The resolution setting up rules for the trial allowed for senators to deliberate behind closed doors.
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the number-two Republican, told reporters, “neither side wants any kind of closed session.”
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he hoped there would be no closed sessions.
“Going into closed session sort of invites suspicion and skepticism,” Cornyn said. “I think one of the advantages of this process compared to what the House did is, everything's transparent and the American people can see everything.”
- Nicholas Wu
Lofgren: Nixon allowed witnesses to testify, unlike Trump
How much has President Trump stonewalled Congress? None of the other presidents who faced impeachment took the “extreme step” of stopping witnesses, argued California Rep. Zoe Lofgren, one of the House impeachment managers.
Even President Richard Nixon let his senior staff testify, she said. She displayed a quote from Nixon saying all members of the White House staff would appear voluntarily, when requested, and will “answer fully” all proper questions.
Trump, by contrast, called the impeachment inquiry invalid and directed executive branch employees to defy subpoenas, she said.
“No president ever used the official power of his office to prevent witnesses from giving testimony to Congress in such a blanked and indiscriminate manner,” Lofgren said. “There is no telling how many government officials would have come forward if the president hadn’t issued this order.”
For example, Lofgren said, Trump stopped the testimony of officials in the budget office who were at the center of the president’s efforts to block congressionally approved aid to Ukraine.
“If the Senate is prepared to accept that,” Lofgren said, “it will mean that not only President Trump, but all presidents after him will have veto power over Congress’ ability to conduct oversight.”
- Maureen Groppe
After interview, Pompeo cursed at NPR reporter, yelled
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo used the "F-word" and other expletives after a testy interview with a National Public Radio host on Friday, the news outlet said Friday.
Pompeo unloaded on NPR's Mary Louise Kelly after an interview in which she questioned him on Ukraine, Iran, and a host of other hot-button issues. He grew extremely irritated by Kelly's Ukraine questions, according to NPR.
"'Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?'" Pompeo apparently shouted at Kelly after the interview.
Pompeo is scheduled to travel to Ukraine next week for a meeting with that country's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, a central figure in the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. Ukraine is a pivotal U.S. ally in the effort to counter Russian aggression.
The State Department said Pompeo is going to Kyiv to "highlight U.S. support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity." The Eastern European country is at war with Russia.
In an account released with the interview transcript, Kelly said she was taken to the secretary of State's private living room after the interview, where Pompeo was waiting for her. "He shouted at me for about same amount of time as the interview itself. He was not happy to have been questioned about Ukraine," Kelly said.
She said he used the F-word and "many others" when he asking her if Americans cared about Ukraine. He then asked her if she could find Ukraine on a map.
"I said yes, and he called out for aides to bring us a map of the world with no writing. I pointed to Ukraine," she recounted.
Then he said: "'People will hear about this.'"
- Deirdre Shesgreen
You say FOIA, I say...lawyer?
Texas Democrat Sylvia Garcia, one of the House Impeachment managers, made a point Friday of enunciating each letter of the acronym FOIA, which stands for the "Freedom of Information Act," instead of the much shorter and commonly used "FOIA" (pronounced foy-ya).
She used the acronym in her presentation about attempts to obtain documents from the White House and other federal agencies related to Trump's impeachment investigation.
It may have been to prevent any confusion with the phrase “lawyer lawsuits,” which became a thing on Tuesday after a rant by White House lawyer Jay Sekulow.
"And by the way — lawyer lawsuits?" Sekulow said during Tuesday’s 11-hour debate about trial rules and procedures.
"Lawyer lawsuits? We're talking about the impeachment of a president of the United States, duly elected, and the members — the managers are complaining about lawyer lawsuits? The Constitution allows lawyer lawsuits. It's disrespecting the Constitution of the United States to even say that in this chamber — lawyer lawsuits."
His comments, which drew blank stares, arched eyebrows and quizzical looks, came in response to a presentation by impeachment manager Val Demings, D-Fla., who mentioned “lawsuits under the Freedom of Information Act, a.k.a. FOIA lawsuits.”
In his rebuttal to Sekulow, lead impeachment manager Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), said he had no clue whatsoever about what Sekulow meant.
While some observers posited that Sekulow had confused “FOIA lawsuits” with “lawyer lawsuits,” White House legislative affairs director Eric Ueland told reporters that Sekulow did not make a mistake.
- John D’Anna
Trump recording reignites debate on witnesses
The recording of President Donald Trump appearing to want to get rid of Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, reignited the Senate debate Friday about whether to subpoena witnesses or documents in Trump’s impeachment trial.
House Democrats have argued that Trump removed Yovanovitch, who was heavily criticized by the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to clear the way for Ukraine to investigate his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. The recording published Friday by ABC News was of Trump with Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Giuliani.
“I want to ask about the recording that has been released today because President Trump has said that he didn’t know Parnas and obviously he’s in a conversation with him about taking out one of his ambassadors,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. “We obviously have a right to that information. Hopefully we will have access to it.”
The recording: Recording shows Trump called for firing of former Ukraine ambassador, report says
Gillibrand said two witnesses she wanted most to hear from are former national security adviser John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. Other officials have said Bolton opposed the pressure for Ukraine investigations and Mulvaney said such pressure is routine in diplomacy.
“I would like to hear directly from him when he understood that, under what context and how many conversations he had with President Trump about it,” Gillibrand said. “I do think we’re getting closer to witnesses.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Friday it was more likely that witnesses would be called. “Yes,” she said.
Republicans such as Sen Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., have said more witnesses aren’t necessary. The Senate rejected subpoenas for Bolton and Mulvaney on party-line votes of 53-47, although more votes could called after opening arguments from House Democrats and Trump’s legal term.
- Bart Jansen
Schiff to senators: 'The next time, it just may be you’
California Rep. Adam Schiff, the lead manager in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, tried to get senators to put themselves in the shoes of Joe Biden and Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.
How would they feel if the most powerful person in the world were asking a foreign nation to conduct a sham investigation into them? How would they react if, like Yovanovitch, they had devoted their life to public service, served in dangerous places around the world, only to be hounded out of their post? Schiff asked while speaking on the Senate floor Friday.
“Because I will tell you something,” Schiff said. “The next time, it just may be you.”
No matter how close a senator may be to Trump now, he prodded them, do they have any doubt that Trump would investigate them if he felt it was in his interest?
“If somewhere, deep down below, you realize that he would, you cannot leave a man like that in office,” he said. “It shouldn’t matter it was Joe Biden. It could be any of us. It may be any of us.”
- Maureen Groppe
Schiff: Trump's policy is 'Trump first, not America first'
The lead House impeachment manager, Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., summarized the accusation that President Donald Trump abused the power of his office by arguing that withholding military aid from Ukraine hurt an ally, emboldened an adversary in Russia and undermined efforts to fight corruption abroad.
“This is Trump first, not America first,” Schiff said.
“The Constitution does not permit it because that conduct is the quintessential abuse of power,” Schiff added. “The use of official power for personal gain, putting personal interest over the national interest and putting personal benefits over our nation’s security.”
Schiff said Americans might not understand why Ukraine, a small country, is important to the U.S. But he argued that Ukraine is hungry for reform after emerging from the former Soviet Union, which collapsed in what Russian President Vladimir Putin called the greatest catastrophe of the 20th Century.
Trump’s willingness to pursue a political investigation of his rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, rather than the U.S. interest in helping an ally maintain its independence from Russia justifies removing the president from office, Schiff argued.
“If someone sacrifices the national interest in favor of his own, and is not removed from office, our democracy is in jeopardy. It’s just that simple,” Schiff said. “The grave consequences of President Trump’s misconduct demand our attention.”
- Bart Jansen
Schiff plays John McCain interview on Ukraine
Explaining the importance of Ukraine to national security interests, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., brought in an interesting voice.
Schiff played a clip of a television interview with the late Sen. John McCain, whom he called a war hero and statesman “who is no stranger to this body.”
McCain, Schiff said, recognized the threat posed when Russia took over parts of Ukrainian Crimea.
“We are all Ukrainians,” McCain said at the time.
In the TV clip Schiff showed, McCain said that it would make Russia very nervous if Ukraine is able to thrive.
Showcasing McCain may have been an attempt to appeal to Republicans who were close to him.
One of those Republicans, South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham, has been one of Trump’s most vocal defenders.
During the video of McCain, Graham seemed to show some emotion. He looked down at his desk and up at the video, before looking up towards the ceiling and blinking several times.
Republican senators were mostly stone-faced during the video. Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., told reporters the video strengthened a Democratic point that Republicans didn't need.
“I don’t think they need to convince us that Ukraine is really important,” Cramer said. “I think it’s all to play for TV."
Sen. Any Klobuchar, D-Minn., also a Democratic presidential candidate, said the video had a “strong” message for her colleagues.
“I kept thinking if John McCain was in the chamber today, or if he had heard the aid had been withdrawn, it might have been a different story,” she told reporters.
- Maureen Groppe and Nicholas Wu
Jeffries asks: 'Who ordered the cover-up?'
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., raised the specter that someone directed the National Security Council’s top lawyer to put a transcript of President Donald Trump’s July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on a secure server.
Did anyone senior to attorney John Eisenberg direct him to hide it? Why did it remain on the server even after this so-called error was discovered? Jeffries asked rhetorically.
“Who ordered the cover-up of the call record?” he asked senators. “The American people deserve to know.”
Jeffries, who is helping make the House manager’s argument that Trump obstructed Congress, said there are many outstanding questions because Eisenberg refused to testify. Other officials testified that Eisenberg ordered that access to the transcript be restricted after he was told what it contained, Jeffries said.
That strongly suggests, Jeffries continued, that senior officials attempted to conceal, rather than address, Trump’s misconduct. The cover-up continued, he said, after a whistleblower filed a complaint about the call. That prompted a two-part strategy to block Congress and the public from learning about the call while trying to convince Trump to lift his hold on military assistance to Ukraine before anyone could find out what was happening, Jeffries argued.
After Eisenberg and White House counsel Pat Cipollone reportedly briefed Trump on the whisteblower’s complaint, Jeffries said, the White House’s Office of Legal Council issued a secret opinion concluding that the complaint did not have to be shared with Congress.
- Maureen Groppe
Presidential impeachment: Clinton, Johnson, Nixon test U.S. democracy Presidents have been impeached, but none have been removed from office due to impeachment. Confusing? Here's how. Just the FAQs, USA TODAY
Democrats stress importance of delaying aid to Ukraine
Democratic House impeachment manager Jason Crow, D-Colo. said President Donald Trump’s defenders might argue that the suspension in $391 million in military aid wasn’t important because it was short-lived and the money was eventually released.
“This defense would be laughable if this issue wasn’t so serious,” said Crow, a former Army Ranger. “No, the delay wasn’t meaningless. Just ask the Ukrainians sitting in trenches now.”
Ukraine needed the funding because it had been invaded by Russia and was fighting for its territorial integrity. Crow played a video of Jennifer Williams, a State Department aide assigned to Vice President Mike Pence’s office, who attended a Sept. 1 meeting between Pence and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“President Zelensky explained that equally with the financial and fiscal value, that it was the symbolic nature of that assistance that really was the show of U.S. support for Ukraine and for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Williams said, in her testimony during the House inquiry. “He was stressing that to the vice president, to really underscore the need for the security assistance to be released.”
Crow argued that Trump only released the money to use it as leverage to pressure Ukraine into investigating his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.
“The scheme was unraveling,” Crow said. “He only released it after he got caught.”
- Bart Jansen
Final day of Democrat's opening arguments begins
House Democrats prosecuting the Senate impeachment trial against President Donald Trump resumed their arguments Friday.
On the final day of impeachment managers' opening arguments, they'll focus on the charge of obstruction of Congress, and how rejecting witnesses in the trial would further obstruct Congress.
The lead manager, Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said if Trump or his legal team claimed executive privilege to block testimony from witnesses such as former national security adviser John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, that would add to the obstruction.
The Senate rejected proposals to subpoena witnesses before the opening arguments on party-line votes of 53 to 47. The rules from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., call for more votes on witnesses after the opening arguments from the House and White House lawyers are over, and after up to 16 hours of questions from senators.
Fact-check: Fact-checking the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump
Schiff urged senators not to reject witnesses at that point.
Trump and some congressional Republicans have said he could block testimony from top aides such as Bolton and Mulvaney under executive privilege, to protect confidential advice for future presidents. But Schiff said executive privilege can’t be used to hide misconduct.
The House managers are expected to finish their argument about abuse of power by early afternoon and then conclude their opening argument on its third day with a discussion of obstruction of Congress, Schiff said.
- Bart Jansen
Trump team to begin defense Saturday at 10 a.m. EST
Right before the House managers began their final day of arguments, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced that the president’s team would begin its defense at 10 a.m. EST on Saturday and the session will run “for several hours.”
Like the House managers, the defense team has up to 24 hours spread over three days to make their case.
Jay Sekulow, one of Trump’s private lawyers, later told reporters his team will stop around 1 p.m. EST Saturday, at the request of senators, and resume Monday.
“The Senate asked for an accommodation,” he said. “We were prepared to go as long as they wanted us to go tomorrow.”
Sekulow said he hasn’t determined how much overall time they’ll need.
“Trust me,” he added. “There’ll be plenty to cover.”
Rep. Jim Jordan, one of eight House lawmakers who are part of Trump's defense team, told reporters Friday that the team is “very confident” because all of the facts are on the president’s side.
“I think this case is open and shut for the president,” Jordan said.
--Maureen Groppe
The witness question: Senators worry that asking for new impeachment trial witnesses could create lengthy executive privilege debate
Graham: ‘I admire Joe Biden’ but …
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., had some kind words for former Vice President Joe Biden. Sort of.
The staunch Trump ally questioned his former Senate colleague’s judgment for allowing his son, Hunter, to join the board of Burisma Holdings in 2014 as the Ukraine gas company was under investigation because of its oligarch owner.
“As much as I like Joe Biden — and I do respect him and I do admire him. I’ve traveled the world with him," Graham began.
"I think it’s bad foreign policy, if you’re going to be in charge of dealing with corruption in Ukraine, that your son hook up with the most corrupt company in the Ukraine and turn Ukraine into an ATM machine,” Graham said during a Friday morning news conference on Capitol Hill.
Biden has often cited his role in rooting out corruption in Ukraine during the Obama administration.
When you put your family member in that situation, it’s not good folks,” Graham continued. “The vice president said he didn’t know anything about it. That questions how hard he was looking.”
One of the impeachment managers, Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, spent her presentation Thursday trying to poke holes in that Republican argument.
She argued that Trump urged Ukraine to investigate a debunked theory that Biden was protecting his son from an anti-corruption effort because Biden was leading polls as the Democratic challenger to Trump.
“The entire premise of the investigation that the president wanted Ukraine to pursue was false,” Garcia said. “There is simply no evidence – nothing, nada – in the record to support this baseless allegation.”
- Ledyard King
Alexander says he'll wait to decide on witnesses, documents
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., a potential Republican swing vote on subpoenaing witnesses and documents, said Friday that he'll wait to decide on whether additional evidence should be compelled until after the first stage of the trial.
Speaking after a briefing with health officials on the coronavirus outbreak, Alexander said that once the initial presentations from both sides are over, his question would be “do we need more evidence? Do we need to hear witnesses? Do we need more documents? And I think that question can only be answered then.”
“As the house managers have said many times, they presented us with a mountain of overwhelming evidence so we have a lot to consider,” he said.
Republicans control the Senate by a 53-47 majority, meaning at least four Republicans would have to join all Democrats to vote to call more witnesses and documents in the trial.
Alexander is one of a handful of GOP senators that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer presumably was appealing to Friday when he made a pitch to allow more witnesses and documents.
“We’re seeking the truth at a momentous time in the American republic,” Schumer said. “It is on the shoulders of four Republican senators to join us in demanding it. We’ve made the argument forcefully. The American people have made the argument forcefully that they want to truth. Will four Republican senators, just four, rise to the occasion, do their duty to the constitution, to their country to seek the truth?”
Schumer did not name names, but the Republican senators seen as potentially open to more witnesses and documents include Alexander, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah.
– Nicholas Wu and Ledyard King
Impeachment: Democrats make abuse of power case On Thursday, House Democrat impeachment managers laid out their case for abuse of power, the first of two articles of impeachment against Pres. Trump. USA TODAY
Trump not happy with Saturday TV slot for his team's opening arguments
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump's beef with the impeachment schedule? His lawyers must start presenting his case on a Saturday – a bad day for television ratings.
In one of a series of Friday morning tweets slamming the Senate impeachment trial, Trump took aim not only at Rep. Adam Schiff, D-CA, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, but the timing of his side's arguments.
"After having been treated unbelievably unfairly in the House, and then having to endure hour after hour of lies, fraud & deception by Shifty Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer & their crew, looks like my lawyers will be forced to start on Saturday, which is called Death Valley in T.V.," Trump said in an early morning round of tweets Friday.
After having been treated unbelievably unfairly in the House, and then having to endure hour after hour of lies, fraud & deception by Shifty Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer & their crew, looks like my lawyers will be forced to start on Saturday, which is called Death Valley in T.V. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 24, 2020
The former star of The Apprentice is no novice when it comes to understanding television ratings.
– David Jackson
'Truth matters': Schiff sets up Friday arguments
"Right matters. And the truth matters. Otherwise, we are lost."
With those words, House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff Thursday night tried to drive home the abuse of power charge the House filed against President Donald Trump that's at the center of the Senate impeachment trial. The trial resumes Friday at 1 p.m. with the California Democrat and other House managers laying out their case for the second impeachment article: obstruction of Congress.
Unbiased jury: Can senators who have already voiced opinions do 'impartial justice' at Trump impeachment trial?
Closing words: What was the Senate chamber like while Rep. Adam Schiff made his final Thursday speech?
In his closing speech Thursday, Schiff drew from U.S. Army Col. Alexander Vindman’s gripping testimony that he delivered to the House in November. In that hearing Vindman, a National Security Council official expressed deep concerns about the president's efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, including Joe Biden.
“If right doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter how good the constitution is,” Schiff told the rapt chamber. "The framers could not protect us from ourselves if right and truth don’t matter. And you know what (Trump) did was not right."
Friday's argument: Trump obstructed Congress
House Democrats will focus on the accusation that President Donald Trump obstructed Congress when they resume and complete their opening argument Friday in the Senate trial.
The seven prosecutors, who are called managers, spent Wednesday outlining the two articles against Trump and detailing the evidence they gathered for the accusations of abuse of power and obstruction. They spent Thursday outlining the legal and constitutional reasons that they said the evidence justified the charge of abuse of power.
Impeachment player: The middleman: How Lev Parnas joined Team Trump and became Rudy Giuliani's fixer in Ukraine
On Friday, the managers will explain how the law and Constitution apply to the evidence for obstruction. Schiff, the lead manager, said Thursday that the arguments condensed hundreds of hours of depositions and testimony, but that there might be repetition in the presentations as more context is provided.
“We will now show you these facts and many others and how they are interwoven,” Schiff said. “You will see some of these facts and videos therefore in a new context, in a new light, in the light of what else we know and why it compels a finding of guilt and conviction. So there is some method to our madness.”
The third session of up to eight hours will complete the opening argument from House Democrats. Trump’s legal team is expected to begin Saturday up to 24 hours of opening argument spanning three sessions.
“We’re going to respond of course to what the House managers have put forward,” Jay Sekulow, one of Trump’s private lawyers, told reporters Wednesday. “And we’re going to make an affirmative case defending the president.”
Republican senators eager to hear from Trump’s defense team.
“There’s all kinds of allegations that have been thrown up in the air and so they'll have a chance to lay out their timeline, their version of events,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.
In focusing on abuse of power Thursday, another manager, Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said Trump could have been impeached just for asking Ukraine to investigate his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. But Nadler said Trump went further, withholding $391 million in vital military aid and a White House meeting.
"Since President George Washington took office in 1789, no president has abused his power in this way," Nadler said. "No president has ever used his office to compel a foreign nation to help him cheat in our elections."
Nadler said the accusation of obstruction stems from Trump directing his administration to defy all subpoenas for testimony and documents during the investigation.
“The articles are overwhelmingly supported by the evidence amassed by the House, notwithstanding the president’s complete stonewalling, his attempt to block all witnesses and all documents from the United States Congress,” Nadler said. “It puts even President Nixon to shame.”
Contributing: David Jackson


usatoday--2020-01-24--A look at Bill Clinton's impeachment trial in 1998 vs. Donald Trump's in 2020

Discover the similar charges and differing reactions to the impeachment trials of President Bill Clinton and President Donald Trump .

Impeachment trials: Comparing Bill Clinton to Donald Trump
Discover the similar charges and differing reactions to the impeachment trials of President Bill Clinton and President Donald Trump.
USA TODAY