Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Can Republicans divorce themselves from a demagogue? The impeachment trial’s first day offers little hope
A lone figure in a blue suit slipped quietly into the front row of the US Senate public gallery just before 3.30pm on Tuesday and gazed down at his former colleagues.
Jeff Flake, the former Republican senator from Arizona, had returned to Washington to witness two trials. One was that of an impeached American president accused of strong-arming a foreign government for his own political ends. The other was a trial of the conscience of the Republican party.
First day of trial sees hours of debate over procedure
House manager Adam Schiff calls process ‘ass-backwards’
Senate votes down amendments brought by Democrats
After 13 hours of debate, Republican senators pushed through the organizing resolution for the impeachment proposed by Mitch McConnell, without any of the 11 amendments proposed by Democrats.
The trial is now adjourned until 1pm ET on Wednesday.
The final amendment proposed by minority leader Chuck Schumer would allow Chief Justice John Roberts — as a neutral party — to decide whether to allow motions to subpoena witnesses or documents.
Finally, the senators are voting on the organizing resolution for the impeachment trial, as proposed by Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.
While a conviction is unlikely, some Republican senators such as Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins could break ranks over trial procedure while two Democrats could back the president
The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has pledged “total coordination” with the White House in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. But the 47-member Democratic caucus in the Senate could take control of key parts of the process, enabling them to call witnesses or merely to prevent a quick dismissal of the case, by recruiting four Republicans to make a 51-seat majority.
A two-thirds majority of 67 senators would be needed to convict and remove Trump from office, a seemingly unreachable number for Democrats.
White House’s brief also claimed process has been a ‘charade’ and Trump did ‘absolutely nothing wrong’ in dealings with Ukraine
Lawyers acting on behalf of Donald Trump on Monday branded the impeachment case against him “flimsy” and a“dangerous perversion of the constitution”, setting the stage for the opening of his long-awaited Senate trial on Tuesday.
As the president prepared to jet off to Davos, where he is set to give a keynote speech at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, the White House submitted its formal trial defence brief, a 110-page document in which it also claimed the impeachment process has been a “charade” and insisted Trump did “absolutely nothing wrong” in his dealings with Ukraine.
Donald Trump’s legal team has delivered a fiery response to impeachment summons from the Senate, calling the two articles passed by the House “a dangerous attack on the right of the American people to freely choose their president”.
As Democrats marched the articles to the Senate, the president basked in policy success. Many think re-election is coming
It was, the White House tweeted on Friday, “an incredible week” for Donald Trump. On that, no one could disagree. But what kind of incredible depended on which end of Pennsylvania Avenue you were standing.
Donald Trump’s legal team for the impeachment trial will include Starr, Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz and Robert Ray
Help us cover the critical issues of 2020. Consider making a contribution
A delegation from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) is in Brownsville, Texas and Matamoros, Mexico today as part of an investigation into the Trump administration’sRemain in Mexico policy and the use of tent courts to process those cases.
The conditions in the camps are heartbreaking. They get water rationed from a bucket. They see a doctor in what looks like a large portapotty. There are so many children. Before Trump’s #RemainInMexico policy these families could wait in the US for their asylum court dates. pic.twitter.com/FNcpGlF5rM
A jury of seven men and five women were picked for the disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial today after a two-week selection process in which scores of people were dismissed.
Opening statements are expected to begin on Wednesday.
During jury selection, prosecutors had accused Weinstein’s lawyers of systematically trying to keep young women off the panel, though the final makeup of the jury turned out to be more closely balanced.
For its part, the defense raised an outcry and demanded a mistrial because one of the jurors is the author of an upcoming novel about young women dealing with predatory older men. The request was denied, but Weinstein’s lawyers continued to claim outside court that the juror had withheld the information on her questionnaire.
Dershowitz is known for defending Jeffrey Epstein while Starr led the investigation that culminated in Bill Clinton’s impeachment
The White House has unveiled Donald Trump’s legal team for his Senate impeachment trial, a list of attorneys whose own ageing controversies threaten to overshadow their efforts to defend the president.
As the impeachment process enters a major new phase next week, Trump’s defense team will include Alan Dershowitz, known for defending the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and Kenneth Starr, the dogged prosecutor who led the investigation that culminated in the 1998 impeachment of former president Bill Clinton and lost a university post in 2016 for mishandling sexual assaults on campus.
As the Senate opened an impeachment trial in which Donald Trump will stand charged with abusing the power of his office, the president was hit with new allegations of wrongdoing by an agency within Trump’s own administration.
The Government Accountability Office released a finding on Thursday morning that the suspension last year of military aid for Ukraine at Trump’s direction violated laws governing the disbursement of congressionally appropriated funds.
House prosecutors to arrive at Senate to formally open trial as Lev Parnas tells reporters president was fully aware of efforts to pressure Ukraine
Help us cover the critical issues of 2020. Consider making a contribution
An independent government watchdog, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), said the White House budget office violated the law when it froze US military aid to 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 said.
Yesterday, the House voted to send articles of impeachment to the Senate, setting in motion the third impeachment Senate trial in US history.
Donald Trump faces a trial after the House of Representatives voted to send articles of impeachment against him to the Senate. Here’s how a frantic day on Capitol Hill unfolded
Whether or not Nancy Pelosi is the “absolute worst Speaker of the House in US history”, as Donald Trump insists, the Democrat said on Sunday her caucus will meet on Tuesday to decide when to transmit two articles of impeachment to the Senate for trial.
Susan Collins and other Republicans open to allowing witnesses in impeachment trial, a key sticking point in impasse between House and Senate
Help us cover the critical issues of 2020. Consider making a contribution
Kari Paul here, logging off for the weekend! Here is a summary of the key events of the last few hours:
Two parents whose children were separated from them as a result of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” border policies are suing the federal government for $12m, claiming the children were subject to abuse and neglect while in federal custody.
“The United States government tore these families apart pursuant to a cruel and unconstitutional policy: The government intended to inflict terror and harm on these small children and their fathers, as a means of deterring others from seeking to enter the United States”, said the lawsuit, which was filed Friday in U.S. District Court of Arizona.
According to the lawsuit, the fathers were separated from their children for more than two months, and the federal government gave little, if any, information regarding the location and safety of the children.
The families “suffered, and continue to suffer, physical, mental, and emotional harm,” the lawsuit states. More than a year after they were reunited, the lawsuit says the children exhibit symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Nancy Pelosi says she wants to understand the parameters of a Senate trial before sending the articles of impeachment, but adds she does not plan to hold on to them indefinitely. 'I’ll send them over when I’m ready,' she says. 'And that’ll probably be soon.'
The Speaker says she is concerned that senators will not hold an impartial trial to determine whether Donald Trump should be removed from office
Not clear when articles of impeachment will reach Senate
Pelosi threatens delay until she receives assurances of fair trial
As Washington awoke on Thursday to the realisation that it had impeached the third US president in American history, the capital remained racked with uncertainty about what will come next in an impeachment process defined by almost total partisanship and rancor.
Trump will be wounded, seething, hellbent on revenge – and turn the weight of impeachment against his foes in 2020
After Donald Trump’s inaugural address, George W Bush turned to Hillary Clinton and said: “Well, that was some weird shit,” the former secretary of state confirmed earlier this month.
For nearly three years since that chilly day here at the US Capitol in Washington, Democrats (and many others) have accused of Trump using and abusing the United States like his personal punchbag. On Wednesday, that slice of America finally punched back via impeachment.
Donald Trump has accused Democratic leaders in the House of declaring “open war on American democracy”, on the eve of a historic vote that is likely to make him only the third president in US history to be impeached.
Trump issued the incendiary accusation in an intemperately-worded letter sent to the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, on Tuesday.