US Congress impeaches self | 254 comments (254 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: US Congress impeaches self: D2 (none / 1)

Roll Call | Impeachment news roundup: Jan. 22

The Senate voted along party lines to approve the rules for the trial, after a long night of debate that stretched to nearly 2 a.m. Wednesday [22 Jan].
Senators adopted the updated resolution, 53-47, shortly before 2 a.m. Wednesday morning.
[...]
The change means the trial days, which start at 1 p.m., will likely now conclude around 9 p.m. and could extend the trial by two days.
[...]
Schumer offered a series of amendments -- all rejected on roll call votes, mostly along party lines -- that would have instructed Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to subpoena acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, former National Security Adviser John Bolton and other administration officials, as well as certain White House, State Department, Defense Department and Office of Management and Budget* documents pertaining to the impeachment charges.
2 p.m. | Flooded phone lines: Thousands of constituents called into the offices of GOP senators in swing states Tuesday imploring them to vote to allow witnesses at the Senate impeachment trial, according to analytics provided to Roll Call by Stand Up America, a political advocacy group that opposes Trump.

Roberets' "subpoena" (power) is basically meaningless in this context. First, Roberts does not preside at senate proceedings in his capacity as a court officer. Second, judges don't hand out subpoenas like tic-tacs or ... commemorative pens; orders are predicated by, yes, separate trial of fact and law.
--
* doc exhibits already provided with House Trial Memorandum

supra
the twitterverse of Lindsey Graham Cracker acolytes would be delighted ...

by Cat on Wed Jan 22nd, 2020 at 08:06:18 PM EST
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Re: US Congress impeaches self: D2 (none / 0)

twitterverse simple survey result @TIME-STAMP: the UID who understands that House "managers" have submitted evidence for senators' consideration is ... unavailable.

by Cat on Wed Jan 22nd, 2020 at 09:16:49 PM EST
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Re: US Congress impeaches self: D2 (none / 0)

twitterverse simple survey result @TIME-STAMP: the UID who understands that House "managers" submitted unredacted agency docs for senators' consideration is ... unavailable.

by Cat on Wed Jan 22nd, 2020 at 09:19:57 PM EST
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Senators allow classified evidence from Pence aide for impeachment trial

The one-page document relates to a phone call that took place between Pence and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a week before Zelensky met with President Trump at the United Nations.
This latest development is a win for House Democrats who have unsuccessfully pressed the White House to declassify the document, which Pence aide Jennifer Williams submitted to the House in late November to supplement her public testimony earlier that month.

supra
William, classified supp'l. Pence-Zelensky call (Sep 2019)

by Cat on Thu Jan 23rd, 2020 at 05:21:06 PM EST
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"We fight Russia over there so we don't have to fight them here," says Dem impeachment leader Adam Schiff in his opening statement.

I understand that Democratic Party leaders & allied media pundits are Cold War kooks now. Do the rest of us want to be enlisted in this lunacy?
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) January 22, 2020

Now, here's the bad news.

No one has updated the Congressional Record (transcripts of floor proceedings, daily, in both chambers) in the senate since 17 Jan 2020. Consequently, there's no means to verify that report accurately records HUAC Rev. Chairman Mr. Schiff's remarks either today or yesterday.

The Senate is broadcasting floor proceedings of the impeachment trial in real-time. Evidently, technical support for floor "managers" does not include fixed chron identification by name (eg. Rep. Jason "Mr Smith Filibuster" Crow, reciting text of 'Material Facts'). BUT it does include editing facilities, such as simulcast of stock/file VoD, to illustrate a "talking point" to the chamber (not shown in frame is one or more monitors in situ displaying said illustration).

The senate's Floor Activity digest, however, is updated daily. Find here precisely how many procedures, amendments for exampled, introduced and disposed.

At this rate, it was please me to learn that the senators will not adjourn for the weekend, forthcoming.

by Cat on Wed Jan 22nd, 2020 at 10:16:40 PM EST
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errata (none / 0)

s/b At this rate, it would please me to learn that the senators will not adjourn for the weekend, forthcoming.

by Cat on Thu Jan 23rd, 2020 at 04:16:42 PM EST
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AHA! (none / 0)

CNN: "President Trump's legal team will also have 24 hours over three days for its opening arguments (likely Saturday, Monday and Tuesday). Senators will then get to ask questions."

by Cat on Thu Jan 23rd, 2020 at 08:02:41 PM EST
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hmm (none / 0)

Will the senators pass a mic around the chamber to House managers? Or will elves construct a ginormous round table with dais or lectern for House managers to approach for Q&A?

by Cat on Fri Jan 24th, 2020 at 07:59:16 PM EST
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o. look. a Congressional Record entry for ... 22 Jan
ORDER OF PROCEDURE, Congressional Record Vol. 166, No. 13, Opening Statement

Mr. Manager [!] SCHIFF. Mr. Chief Justice, Senators, counsel for the
President, and my fellow House managers: I want to begin by thanking
you, Chief Justice, for a very long day, for the way you have presided
over these proceedings. I want to thank the Senators also. We went well
into the morning, as you know, until I believe around 2 in the morning.
You paid attention to every word and argument you heard from both sides
in this impeachment trial, and I know we are both deeply grateful for
that.
It was an exhausting day for us, certainly, but we have adrenaline
going through our veins. ....

by Cat on Thu Jan 23rd, 2020 at 05:12:00 PM EST
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Mr Manager Jeffries, pp 8

He told President Zelensky:

I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that's really unfair. A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved.
Think about this contrast. The President bashed a career American diplomat [YOVANOVITCH] and an anti-corruption champion whom he unceremoniously removed because she was viewed as an obstacle to his efforts to solicit foreign interference in the 2020 election and then at the same time praised someone who he thought could be an asset--a former Ukrainian prosecutor whom the free world views as an obstacle to the rule of law. The idea that President Trump cares about corruption is laughable. It is laughable.

< wipes tears >
Top Ukrainian justice official says US ambassador gave him a do not prosecute list, 20 Mar 2019

The State Department called Lutsenko's claim of receiving a do not prosecute list, "an outright fabrication."
[...]
Lutsenko also said that he has not received funds amounting to nearly $4 million that the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine was supposed to allocate to his office, saying that "the situation was actually rather strange" and pointing to the fact that the funds were designated, but "never received."

Prosecutor General admits U.S. Ambassador didn't give him a do not prosecute list 18 Apr 2019

by Cat on Thu Jan 23rd, 2020 at 06:45:51 PM EST
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The Ukrainian Prosecutor Behind Trump's Impeachment, Dec 2019

On October 3rd, Kurt Volker, Trump's former special envoy to Ukraine, said in a closed-door deposition, "My opinion of Prosecutor General Lutsenko was that he was acting in a self-serving manner, frankly making things up, in order to appear important to the United States, because he wanted to save his job." In a closed-door deposition on October 11th, Yovanovitch described Lutsenko as an "opportunist" who "will ally himself, sometimes simultaneously . . . with whatever political or economic forces he believes will suit his interests best at the time." On the first day of public testimony, Kent accused Lutsenko of "peddling false information in order to exact revenge" against Yovanovitch and his domestic rivals. Lutsenko told me they were all liars. In our conversations, which took place in the course of several weeks, he veered between self-pity and defiance. "I gave my country so many years," he told me one night, after his third or fourth Scotch. "I had a good story and good results, but I became a bad person. I can't understand it."

by Cat on Thu Jan 23rd, 2020 at 06:58:07 PM EST
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Re: US Congress impeaches self: D2 (none / 0)

birth of a twitter "meme", p 8

Mrs. Manager DEMINGS. After the meeting, Dr. Hill followed up with Ambassador Bolton and relayed what transpired. Bolton was alarmed. In other words, Ambassador Bolton didn't want any part of it. He directed Dr. Hill to brief the NSC's top attorney, John Eisenberg, as she explained during her hearing.
(Text of Videotape presentation:)
GOLDMAN. What was that specific instruction?
Dr. HILL. The specific instruction was that I have to go to the lawyers, to John Eisenberg, our senior counsel for the National Security Council, to basically say, you tell Eisenberg, Ambassador Bolton told me, that I am not part of this whatever drug deal that Mulvaney and Sondland are cooking up.
GOLDMAN. What did you understand him to mean by the drug deal that Mulvaney and Sondland were cooking up? Dr. HILL. I took it to mean investigations for a meeting.
GOLDMAN. Did you go speak to the lawyers?
Dr. HILL. I certainly did.
Mrs. Manager DEMINGS. As a former chief of police, I think it is quite interesting that Ambassador Bolton categorized the corrupt scheme--the pressure campaign--as a "drug deal."

by Cat on Thu Jan 23rd, 2020 at 07:50:44 PM EST
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archived (none / 0)

Tue Oct 15th, 2019 at 08:03:12 PM EST

by Cat on Sat Feb 1st, 2020 at 06:29:32 AM EST
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Re: US Congress impeaches self: D2 (none / 0)

In this image from video, House impeachment manager Rep, Adam Schiff, D-Calif., holds redacted documents as he speaks during the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020. [Senate Television via AP]

The team led by Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of House Intelligence Committee, constructed a gripping account of Trump's political pressure on Ukraine and attempt to cover up the "corrupt scheme" central to the charges. But the limits are apparent. Prosecutors must rely on the same loops of videotaped testimony -- ambassadors, national security officials and even the president himself -- after Trump's GOP Senate allies blocked new witnesses.

supra
OMB released 192 pages of Ukraine-related records to American Oversight ...

by Cat on Thu Jan 23rd, 2020 at 02:02:57 PM EST
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US Congress impeaches self | 254 comments (254 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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