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The Impeachment of President Donald J. Trump

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#431

Missed this story last week…

Senate investigators have added yet another name to the constantly evolving cast of characters in the Russia investigation.

On April 5, just 2 weeks after Special Counsel Robert Mueller submitted his final report on Russia’s election interference, the Senate Intelligence Committee sent a letter to a British security consultant named Walter Soriano asking for a voluntary, closed-door interview and documents with various Russia probe figures dating back to June 2015.

[…]

“They’re surprised by how connected he seems to several people of interest,” this person said, including the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska — a former business associate of Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who offered Deripaska private briefings about the campaign in 2016. Deripaska is believed to have worked with Soriano on corporate intelligence matters, this person said.

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#432

A Democratic lawmaker says he will force a vote on articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump by next week, a dramatic step that could force the Democrat-led House to consider the measure for the first time, even over the objection of Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“The President of the United States is a racist, a bigot, a misogynist, as well as an invidious prevaricator. To say that Donald John Trump is unfit for the Office of the President of the United States is an understatement," said Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), who cited Trump’s racist tweets over the weekend about Democratic congresswomen as the impetus for his third effort to push through an impeachment vote.

Green forced two votes on impeachment articles in 2017 and 2018, when Republicans ran the House, citing similar controversies, including Trump’s comments about demonstrators in Charlottesville and his description of African nations as “shithole countries.”

In both cases, about 60 of Green’s colleagues joined him to support advancing the impeachment measure, but the moves were easily defeated, with most Democrats describing it as premature. Since then, former special counsel Robert Mueller issued a report providing compelling evidence that Trump attempted to obstruct his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, leading dozens more of Green’s Democratic colleagues to embrace an impeachment inquiry.

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#433

White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway on Monday defied a congressional subpoena, refusing to show up for testimony to the House Oversight and Reform Committee about her violations of the Hatch Act and prompting House Democrats to threaten to hold her in contempt of Congress.

In a letter to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the chairman of the panel, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone asserted the Trump administration’s long-standing view that current and former presidential advisers are “absolutely immune” from congressional testimony, writing: “Ms. Conway cannot be compelled to testify before Congress with respect to matters related to her service as a senior adviser to the president.”

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#434

Oy! Sorry I missed this! First, this is incredible work!

I bumped up the total post size as an interim step, so you should be able to update the header now.

We could use the header in this thread as an index + the general congressional news and Other Related House and Senate Committees list, then spin off each committee investigation into its own wiki topic, which would result in something like this:

Congressional Committee Investigations into Trump 2019

  • General congressional news
  • Other Related House and Senate Committees

Separate topics:

  • Judiciary Committee Investigations into Trump 2019
  • Oversight And Reform Committee Investigations into Trump 2019
  • Ways And Means Committee
  • Financial Services Committee

What do you think?

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#435

@matt

It’s simple and clear. Hopefully I’ll find a block of time to lay this out this week. Thanks :pray:

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#436

Cross posting :pray:

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#437

Cross posting :pray:

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#438

Letter from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Nadler to Hope Hicks dated July 18th, 2019.

https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/democrats.judiciary.house.gov/files/documents/7.18.2019%20Letter%20from%20Chairman%20Nadler%20to%20Hope%20Hicks%20(002).pdf

https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/07/18/politics/hope-hicks-house-judiciary-testimony/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fcurrentstatus.io%2F

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler wrote to Hicks asking if she wanted to voluntarily clarify her testimony, saying the new evidence “raises substantial questions about the accuracy” of several statements she made.

In her appearance last month before the Judiciary Committee, Hicks said “no” when asked multiple times by Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee whether Hicks was ever present when Trump and Cohen discussed Daniels, according to a transcript released of the closed-door interview.

She also said she had no information about Daniels other than what she learned from reporters.

"Again, I had no knowledge of Stormy Daniels other than to say she was going to be mentioned in the story amongst people that were shopping stories around," Hicks testified. "There were no specifics offered by the reporter, and I didn’t have any other information other than what was being relayed to me by the reporter."

She said she denied the affair in a 2016 statement to the press because "that was the response that was dictated to me."

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#439

Unredacted Documents Released in Cohen Case

Search warrants made public Thursday show that the FBI believed then-candidate Donald Trump spoke with his attorney Michael Cohen and aide Hope Hicks during the 2016 campaign about silencing news stories related to his alleged affair with adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

Why it matters: The Southern District of New York’s investigation into hush money payments, which has now concluded, resulted in Cohen being sentenced to prison for three years for campaign finance violations. Trump — who was previously referred to in court documents as “Individual 1” — has denied allegations of his involvement in the scheme.

What they’re saying:

"I have learned that in the days following the Access Hollywood video, Cohen exchanged a series of calls, text messages and emails with Keith Davidson, who was then Clifford’s attorney, David Pecker and Dylan Howard of American Media, Inc. (“AMI”), the publisher of the National Enquirer, Trump, and Hope Hicks, who was then press secretary for Trump’s presidential campaign.

“Based on the timing of these calls, and the content of the text messages and emails, I believe that at least some of these communications concerned the need to prevent Clifford from going public, particularly in the wake of the Access Hollywood story.”
— Unnamed FBI agent

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#440

:eyes: Watch: Acting Homeland Security Secretary Testifies on Migrant Children Policy

https://www.c-span.org/video/?462642-1/acting-homeland-security-secretary-testifies-migrant-children-policy

:star: Highlighted Clip:
Chairman Cummings Criticizes DHS Secretary Over Treatment of Children at Border

During a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on treatment of migrant children at the U.S.-Mexico border, committee chair Elijah Cummings (D-MD) chastises Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan over declining living conditions for minors at the border. The chairman cites on instance at a particular facility where some children were sleeping near their own feces, saying the impact one them will last for decades.

:eyes: Watch here

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#441

Reminder: Next Wednesday Mueller Testifies!!

Mueller is expected to appear publicly Wednesday for three hours before the Judiciary Committee followed by roughly two hours before the House Intelligence Committee.

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#442

:eyes: Letter from House Committee on Oversight and Reform Chairman Cummings to SDNY Attorney Strauss dated July 19th, 2019, with regards to the Cohen case concerning the hush money payments from President Trump to various sex workers.

Chairman Cummings asking specifically if the SDNY followed the OLC policy of not indicting a sitting president. Now we wait with baited breath.

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#443

https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/07/19/politics/democrats-mueller-preparation/index.html

As part of their strategy, Democrats plan to hone in on five areas of the Mueller report where they think the President clearly obstructed justice, including his efforts to fire the special counsel and to tamper with witnesses like his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, the aides said.

Democrats also plan to press Mueller on the contacts with Russia and WikiLeaks detailed in the report, in the hopes that Mueller’s testimony can combat the President’s constant of “no collusion.”

[…]

Episodes of alleged obstruction

Democratic Judiciary Committee aides say they plan to use their testimony to connect the dots that were laid out in the volume two of the Mueller report, highlighting at least five episodes they feel could have been chargeable obstruction of justice offenses:

  • Trump’s direction to White House counsel Don McGahn to fire the special counsel.
  • Trump’s direction to McGahn to publicly deny that Trump had told him to fire Mueller.
  • Trump’s direction to former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to tell Attorney General Jeff Sessions to limit the investigation to exclude the President and only focus on future campaigns
  • Trump’s followup direction to Lewandowski to tell Sessions he will fire him if he doesn’t meet with Lewandowski
  • Trump’s alleged witness tampering of Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen and others, including encouraging them not to cooperate, dangling pardons and congratulating Manafort for not flipping.

House Intelligence Committee aides, meanwhile, say they plan to focus on the contacts with Russians and WikiLeaks highlighted in volume one of the report, including Trump’s knowledge of the WikiLeaks’ email dump ahead of time and the President’s touting of the stolen emails more than 100 times.

Their task is complicated by the fact that the section on Russian election interference is more complex, and some of the material is redacted, which is why that panel was pushing for a closed session with Mueller’s deputies where they could discuss classified information.

“A lot of attitudes have hardened on the subject of Trump and Russia and obstruction of justice, but nonetheless, if there’s anyone who can cast a new light on this issue, it’s the man who did the investigation and probably holds unique credibility with the public,” said House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff.

The California Democrat added: “Up until now, they’ve only had the Mueller report filtered through people like (Attorney General) Bill Barr, who misrepresented it. So it’s going to be vitally important for the public to hear from Mueller about how the Russians systematically interfered in our election, how the Trump campaign welcomed it, made use of it, and then lied about it to cover it up. That’s all very powerful.”

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#444

House Democrat: Mueller testimony will help people ‘understand the gravity’ of Trump’s conduct

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#445

Yes!

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#446

This appears to be a good thing. I can tell that because Republicans are objecting. If they don’t want Zebley there, then he must know truths that they do not want to come out. The Republicans obstruct, obstruct, obstruct on Trump’s behalf. Not the sign of an innocent client who truly wants to get to the bottom of what happened.

All Barr can do is “object” since Zebley doesn’t work for the DOJ anymore. So screw Barr – for once, we Democrats should get our way.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s deputy Aaron Zebley is expected appear next to the special counsel as his counsel at Wednesday’s hearings on the special counsel’s report, according to a House Judiciary committee source.

Zebley will be there to advise Mueller, but the special counsel will be the only one answering the committee questions, the source said. Democrats only plan to swear in Mueller as a witness.

Mueller made the last-minute request to have his deputy sworn in for Wednesday’s blockbuster hearings before the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees on the Mueller report, in case he needed to help with any questions the special counsel could not fully answer himself, according to a source familiar with the matter.
…
The Justice Department objected to Zebley or any others testifying alongside Mueller because it wasn’t authorized, according to a person familiar with the matter. The department’s practice generally precludes line attorneys from testifying.

But the bottom line is that Zebley and many others who were on Mueller’s staff are private citizens now, and the Justice Department cannot do much other than object.

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#447

Cross-posting :pray:

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#448

:newspaper: Header has been updated. Breaking news starts below. :point_down:

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#449

Democrats are strengthening their court cases against Trump with this new measure. It is initially designed to bolster their subpoena power in one specific case (their attempt to obtain records from Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars, so they can determine if Trump lied in financial disclosures as Michael Cohen has alleged), but it will also strengthen House subpoenas in all other Trump-related investigations. :muscle:

House Democrats are preparing to pass a measure intended to strengthen their court case to access President Donald Trump’s personal financial information, a direct response to questions raised by a Trump-appointed judge during an Appeals Court hearing earlier this month.

The proposal, filed Tuesday afternoon by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), would formally declare that any committee subpoenas related to President Donald Trump, his family, current and former White House officials and the Trump Organization are presumed to have the blessing of the full House of Representatives. The Rules Committee is expected to advance the measure Tuesday night, and the House is expected to pass it on Wednesday.

“We want to make it doubly clear,” Raskin said in an interview. “Essentially, you know, it’s just making it perfectly clear that the committees are acting with the full authorities of Congress.”

The measure, recommended by House counsel Doug Letter, responds to a line of questioning by Neomi Rao, a judge on the federal appeals court in Washington, who is one of three judges weighing a Democratic subpoena to access records from Trump’s personal accounting firm. During oral arguments earlier this month, Rao repeatedly wondered why the full House hadn’t voted to authorize the probe of Trump’s finances, which is being led by the House Oversight Committee.

Letter responded that the House rules explicitly authorize the committees to lead this work and that judges have no role second-guessing how the House delegates its power. But it appears he’s urging a House vote anyway to preempt Rao’s concerns.

"Whereas the validity of some of these investigations has been incorrectly challenged in Federal court on the ground that the investigations and subpoenas were not authorized by the full House … Resolved, That the House of Representatives ratifies and affirms all current and future investigations, as well as all subpoenas previously issued or to be issued in the future," the resolution reads.

Raskin’s measure will be tucked into a rule expected to be taken up by the House late Tuesday that governs pending pension legislation. It doesn’t change any House rules but attempts to clarify the House’s position amid the pushback from Rao and Trump’s personal lawyers.

A three-judge panel in the D.C. Appeals Court is weighing a Trump lawsuit to block the Oversight Committee’s subpoena to Mazars, Trump’s longtime accounting firm, for years’ worth of his financial data. It’s part of a probe into whether Trump has misrepresented his assets and liabilities, based on testimony from his former fixer and lawyer Michael Cohen.

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#450

Aaron Zebley, Mueller’s former chief of staff so far will be participating only in the 2nd half of the day during the House Intelligence Committee’s testimony with Mueller. Zebley will also be sworn in…this has been an ongoing question all day and now resolved. Perhaps the Judicial Committee will be able to do the same, but so far it is just the House Intelligence Committee.

Per Rachel Maddow as well.

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