Month: December 2019

The House Democrats released their Impeachment Report on Tuesday. Here is the full document.

On Thursday Pelosi announced that the House will begin drafting impeachment articles.

Lawfare speculates on how the Senate trial might unfold based on the rules as written: “The bottom line is that this trial will be all about who can count to 51—and all about how active the chief justice wants to be in determining the default rulings if senators fail to do so. “

There is news this week that the IG report on 2016 election will not support the conspiracy theories that the GOP has been pushing, and the Barr’s hand-picked investigator “could not offer evidence to the Justice Department’s inspector general to support the suspicions of some conservatives that the case was a setup by American intelligence”

A strong jobs report came on Friday.

The Trump Administration finally approved a rule its FDA proposed that will cut food stamps from 700,000 by imposing work requirements on able bodied adults without children: “Under the rules effective April 1, 2020, an area eligible for a waiver would have to have a 24-month average unemployment rate that is not only 20 percent above the national average but also at least 6 percent.”

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Trump’s Job Approval: 41.6%

An internal White House review shows that they were seeking a legal justification for witholding the aid months after Trump already ordered the hold: “In the early August email exchanges, Mulvaney asked acting OMB director Russell Vought for an update on the legal rationale for withholding the aid and how much longer it could be delayed. Trump had made the decision the prior month without an assessment of the reasoning or legal justification, according to two White House officials. Emails show Vought and OMB staffers arguing that withholding aid was legal, while officials at the National Security Council and State Department protested. OMB lawyers said that it was legal to withhold the aid, as long as they deemed it a “temporary” hold, according to people familiar with the review.”

Trump had Defense Secretary Esper fire the Navy Secretary over the dispute over the Navy SEAL Gallagher keeping his position in the SEALs.

Trump issued a formal order threat Gallagher not be punished, which is what Spencer had suggested last week.

Here is Ignatius on the firing: “the Gallagher case illustrates how an irascible, vengeful commander in chief is ready to override traditional limits to aid political allies in foreign policy, law enforcement and now military matters.”

A federal judge has ruled the Don McGahn must testify before the House and adhere to the subpoena.

The New York Times uncovered documents that show Giuliani pursued business deals with the same Ukrainian officials he was pushing to investigate the Bidens and 2016 election: “His discussions with Ukrainian officials, including the country’s top prosecutor, who assisted him on the dirt-digging mission, proceeded far enough along that he signed at least one retainer agreement, on his company letterhead.”

Trump visited troops in Afghanistan for Thanksgiving. He announced that talks with the Taliban were resuming, but his statements about a cease fire were at odds with where the negotiations now stand, so his statement only sowed confusion.

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Trump’s Job Approval: 41.7%