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riversedge's JournalMcConnell: In 'total coordination' with White House for impeachment trial
Source: USA Today
WASHINGTON- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Thursday that he will be in "total coordination with the White House counsel" as the impeachment into President Donald Trump presses forward.
During an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, the Majority Leader said that "everything" he does "during this, I'm coordinating with the White House counsel. There will be no difference between the president's position and our position as to how to handle this, to the extent that we can."
More:Gaetz brought up Hunter Biden's substance abuse issues at impeachment but it backfired
"We don't have the kind of ball control on this that a typical issue, for example, comes over from the House, if I don't like it, we don't take it up," McConnell stated about an impeachment trial. "We have no choice but to take it up, but we'll be working through this process, hopefully in a fairly short period of time, in total coordination with White House counsel's office and the people who are representing the President in the well of the Senate."
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/12/12/mcconnell-total-coordination-white-house-impeachment-trial/4416518002/
https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1205487097395712000?s=20
On impeachment, McConnell vows ‘total coordination’ with Team Trump
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/impeachment-mcconnell-vows-total-coordination-team-trump
12/13/19 08:00 AM—Updated 12/13/19 08:30 AM
By Steve Benen
In late September, as Donald Trump’s Ukraine scandal started to come into focus, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) demurred in response to reporters’ questions, explaining that she’d likely be “a juror” in the president’s impeachment trial. To draw conclusions about Trump’s guilt or the merits of the allegations, the senator said, might suggest she was “prejudging” the accused.
There are, of course, key qualitative differences between an actual trial in an American courtroom and a presidential impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate, but in a broad sense, senators do serve as jurors. In theory, they have a responsibility to weigh the seriousness of the allegations, consider the evidence, and decide the fate of the accused.
But as Trump’s impeachment process advances, some Republicans are comfortable abandoning the pretense of independence and impartiality. USA Today reported overnight:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Thursday that he will be in “total coordination with the White House counsel” as the impeachment into President Donald Trump presses forward.
During an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, the Majority Leader said that “everything” he does “during this, I’m coordinating with the White House counsel. There will be no difference between the president’s position and our position as to how to handle this, to the extent that we can.”
Oh. So despite weeks of GOP senators occasionally sidestepping questions about the White House scandal, claiming that they’re jurors who want to maintain the appearance of neutrality, Mitch McConnell – in effect, the jury foreman – is coordinating with the defendant’s lawyers............................
Finally something a woman can do that a man can't
Finally something a woman can do that a man can't
This settles it
:: Peace Mass Transit Lekki Trump
:: Friday the 13th Davido
https://twitter.com/IamFemiBright/status/1205388346165469184?s=20
Happy #ImpeachmentDay #Trump-it is Friday, the 13th. dah
Don't walk under a ladder Donald.
https://twitter.com/KevinMKruse/status/1205480605389086720?s=20
https://twitter.com/roseydoolub/status/1205382679568535552?s=20
Trump administration heavily redacted documents concerning their withholding of Ukraine aid
Source: raw story
Published 11 hours ago on December 12, 2019
The Trump administration has refused to disclose how key officials at the Department of Defense and the White House Office of Management and Budget reacted to President Trump’s decision to halt military aid to Ukraine.
On Nov. 25, federal district court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered the administration to produce records reflecting what these officials said to one another about the legality and appropriateness of Trump’s order. The Center for Public Integrity sought the information in Freedom of Information Act requests filed in late September.
On Thursday afternoon, however, as the House Judiciary Committee was voting on two articles of impeachment against Trump, Public Integrity received 146 pages of documents that had been almost completely redacted by the government. Every substantive exchange between officials at the agencies was blacked out. Public Integrity is planning to file a motion Friday challenging the government’s response.
“We are deeply disappointed that the public won’t have access to this important information at the heart of the impeachment process. But we will continue to fight to ensure that the documents see the light of day,” said Public Integrity’s chief executive officer, Susan Smith Richardson..............................
Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2019/12/trump-administration-heavily-redacted-documents-concerning-their-withholding-of-ukraine-aid/
Is the Kremlin running the Trump War Room twitter account too?
Is the Kremlin running the Trump War Room twitter account too?
Are there strategy meetings on how best to further embarrass the U.S. and the Office of the Presidency or does this just come naturally to them at this point?
https://twitter.com/AlexandraChalup/status/1205372368509702144?s=20
Democratic congresswoman uses Sharpie to explain Trump's phone call with Ukraine
Source: cnn
3 hr 6 min ago
Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, tweeted a photo today showing an annotated print out of a line from President Trump's phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25, which is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.
Scanlon, who is part of the House Judiciary Committee debating amendments to the articles of impeachment against Trump today, printed out a photo of Trump telling Zelensky, "I would like you to do us a favor though."
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Read Scanlon's tweet below:..............................
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/impeachment-inquiry-12-12-2019/h_abec4b2bf69367ff4dd53041fb300cb6?utm_source=twCNNp&utm_content=2019-12-13T00%3A29%3A06&utm_term=image&utm_medium=social
https://twitter.com/RepMGS/status/1205167591926444032?s=20
https://twitter.com/RandyResist/status/1205212885426683904?s=20
https://twitter.com/LDCDee/status/1205190659860250627?s=20
Looks like bone spurs will keep him [#Trump] out of the 2020 debates, too....
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1205280225225060353?s=20
https://twitter.com/arappeport/status/1205270770819178496?s=20
Jennifer Rubin @JRubinBlogger
·
42m
Replying to
@arappeport
@maggieNYT
and
@anniekarni
No, he is skipping it because he is afraid to debate and look foolish.
Andrew T. Lessman
@andrew_lessman
·
33m
Plus he is rapidly deteriorating mentally and physically
By Editorial Board, WashingtonPost: There is abundant evidence of the president's abuse of power on
https://twitter.com/PostOpinions/status/1204487869030699009?s=20
The Post’s View
The case for impeachment
There is abundant evidence of the presi
dent’s abuse of power on Ukraine.
(Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
By Editorial Board
December 10, 2019
The House of Representatives is moving toward a momentous decision about whether to impeach a president for only the third time in U.S. history. The charges brought against President Trump by the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday are clear: that he abused his office in an attempt to induce Ukraine’s new president to launch politicized investigations that would benefit Mr. Trump’s reelection campaign, and that he willfully obstructed the subsequent congressional investigation.
Because of that unprecedented stonewalling, and because House Democrats have chosen to rush the impeachment process, the inquiry has failed to collect important testimony and documentary evidence that might strengthen the case against the president. Nevertheless, it is our view that more than enough proof exists for the House to impeach Mr. Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, based on his own actions and the testimony of the 17 present and former administration officials who courageously appeared before the House Intelligence Committee.
We believe Mr. Trump should receive a full trial in the Senate, and it is our hope that more senior officials will decide or be required to testify during that proceeding, so that senators, and the country, can make a fair and considered judgment about whether Mr. Trump should be removed from office. We have reserved judgment on that question. What is important, for now, is that the House determine whether Mr. Trump’s actions constituted an abuse of power meriting his impeachment and trial.
What follows is a summary of the evidence that we believe justifies charges against the president.
A White House meeting for investigations
According to testimony by State Department officials, a top priority of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky following his election in April was obtaining a meeting with Mr. Trump at the White House. Mr. Trump, either directly or through his personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, made the meeting contingent on an announcement by Mr. Zelensky of investigations into charges that Ukraine intervened in the 2016 presidential election, and that former vice president Joe Biden sought the dismissal of a Ukrainian prosecutor to aid his son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.
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The House Intelligence Committee’s report rightly warns that “this unprecedented campaign of obstruction” poses a serious threat to U.S. democracy. “The damage to our system of checks and balances .?.?. will be long-lasting and potentially irrevocable if the President’s ability to stonewall Congress goes unchecked.”
Congress prepared an article of impeachment against President Richard M. Nixon for a less comprehensive refusal to cooperate. Mr. Trump’s actions demand that Congress again act to protect a foundation of U.S. democracy.
More from Opinions:
Sergio Peçanha: The Trump impeachment inquiry, told with maps and dancing Rudys
Dana Milbank: Trump just assured his own impeachment
Ruth Marcus: For impeachment, quick and narrow is the way to go
Marc A. Thiessen: Democrats’ impeachment obsession is backfiring
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Doug Collins must be having PMS (Panicking Man Syndrome).
Men are just too emotional to be in politics. They just don't have the temperament. Doug Collins must be having PMS (Panicking Man Syndrome).
https://twitter.com/BridgetSterli19/status/1205252280015937536?s=20
Everytime I see this Trump photo, I think that Trump is standing like a grown gorilla .......
a sick gorilla at that!
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/11/judge-putin-trump-notes-082600
white house
Judge rejects government’s motion to toss suit over missing Trump-Putin meeting notes
Two watchdog groups charge that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo violated the Federal Records Act.
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin
President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. | Chris McGrath/Getty Images
By CAITLIN OPRYSKO
12/11/2019 04:39 PM EST
A federal judge on Wednesday rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to toss out a lawsuit over missing notes documenting President Donald Trump’s face-to-face meetings with President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
American Oversight and Democracy Forward, a pair of left-leaning nonpartisan watchdog groups, sued Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the State Department, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the archivist of the United States in June over the missing notes. The groups charge that Pompeo violated the Federal Records Act by allowing Trump to reportedly confiscate meeting notes prepared by State Department employees and for failing to preserve them.
In a ruling from the bench on Wednesday, Judge Trevor McFadden of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied the government’s motion to dismiss the case.
The order by McFadden, a Trump appointee, means that the lawsuit will be allowed to move forward and gives the government until Jan. 10 to say whether Pompeo complied with federal records law or show why he was not obligated to do so. Pompeo will then have until the middle of March to produce the State Department’s record of evidence.
The Washington Post first reported in January that Trump had gone to “extraordinary” lengths to conceal the details of his meetings with Putin, seizing the notes of his interpreter after the leaders’ first meeting in 2017 and ordering the translator not to disclose details of the discussion. Furthermore, The Post reported that no detailed record of Trump’s communications with Putin existed, prompting a flurry of document requests from Congress and outside groups.
Both President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about Russian interference in U.S. elections at a news conference on July 16 in Helsinki. (The Washington Post)
By
Greg Miller
Jan. 13, 2019 at 7:30 a.m. CST
President Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, including on at least one occasion taking possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructing the linguist not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials, current and former U.S. officials said.
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