Impeachment live updates: Senate leaders remain in standoff over Trump trial; president’s campaign says fundraising helped by House action
At the heart of the Democrats’ case is the allegation that Trump tried to leverage a White House meeting and military aid, sought by Ukraine to combat Russian military aggression, to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch an investigation of former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, as well as a probe of an unfounded theory that Kyiv conspired with Democrats to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
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Kristina Kvien succeeds Bill Taylor as top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine
The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv announced Thursday that Kristina Kvien has succeeded William B. Taylor Jr. as the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine.
Kvien, who had previously been the embassy’s deputy chief of mission, said in a video message posted on Twitter that she is “honored to be serving now as U.S. Embassy Kiev chargé d’affaires.”
“While the embassy’s leadership is changing, our policy of strong support for Ukraine remains steady,” Kvien said. “Our embassy team will continue to partner closely with the Ukrainian government and civil society in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and in support of reforms that will help Ukraine build its prosperous European future.”
The video includes photos of two State Department officials who testified before the House about their concerns regarding the alleged quid pro quo between Trump and Ukraine: Deputy Assistant Secretary George Kent and the embassy’s counselor for political affairs David Holmes. It does not include any images of Taylor.
Taylor, who was among the key witnesses in the House impeachment inquiry, delivered farewell remarks in a video message of his own on Tuesday in which he declared that he is “very optimistic about Ukraine” and welcomed the news of Kvien’s promotion.
Trump has yet to announce his pick for the next U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.
On Wednesday, the State Department announced that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was postponing a scheduled visit to Ukraine and four other countries because of the ongoing turmoil in Iraq.
Scalise says Pelosi withholding articles because Democrats ‘have no case’
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) asserted Thursday that Pelosi is withholding articles of impeachment because her party “has no case.”
“Dems claimed removing @realDonaldTrump was urgent,” Scalise said in a tweet. “But now Pelosi is refusing to even send their own articles of impeachment to the Senate. Why She clearly knows Dems have no case and is trying to save them from national embarrassment. Time to let the Senate do its job.”
Schumer seizes on report bolstering case Trump directly involved in withholding Ukraine aid
Schumer seized Thursday on a new report that cited unredacted emails that bolster the case that Trump was directly involved in withholding military aid to Ukraine as he was seeking investigations that could benefit him politically.
The report by Kate Brannen, published by Just Security, referenced an email from Michael Duffey, associate director of national security programs at the Office of Management and Budget, to Elaine McCusker, the acting Pentagon comptroller, on Aug. 30, a little more than a month after Trump pressed Zelensky for investigations during a phone call.
In the email, which followed a meeting with Trump that included senior administration officials, Duffey told McCusker, “Clear direction from POTUS to hold.”
A redacted version of that email — and several others cited in the report by Brannen, a veteran Pentagon reporter — had previously been made public as the result of Freedom of Information Act litigation.
“The newly-revealed unredacted emails are a devastating blow to Senator McConnell’s push to have a trial without the documents and witnesses we’ve requested,” Schumer said in a statement Thursday. “These emails further expose the serious concerns raised by Trump administration officials about the propriety and legality of the president’s decision to cut off aid to Ukraine to benefit himself.”
Schumer has sought guarantees from McConnell that several administration officials will be subpoenaed to testify in a Senate trial who declined to participate in House impeachment proceedings, including Duffey. McConnell has said the Senate should decide on what if any witnesses to call after hearing opening statements from House impeachment managers and Trump’s lawyers.
Schumer said the unredacted emails raise “questions that can only be answered by having the key Trump administration officials ... testify under oath in a Senate trial.”
“The American people deserve a fair trial that gets to the truth, not a rigged process that enables a cover-up,” Schumer said.
McConnell, Schumer did not communicate about the scope of a trial over the holidays
McConnell and Schumer did not communicate over the holidays about how to break an impasse on the scope of an impeachment trial in the Senate, according to congressional aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share the status of private deliberations.
Schumer has been pressing for a guarantee that the trial will include subpoenas of certain documents as well as some witnesses who did not participate in the House impeachment proceedings, including acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton.
McConnell has said that the Senate should wait to decide about witnesses until after hearing opening statements from House impeachment managers and Trump’s attorneys, and the senators have an opportunity to submit written questions to both sides. That is the model that was used during the impeachment trial of Bill Clinton, and McConnell has argued that there is no reason to deviate from that.
McConnell has also said that he would be unconcerned if a trial never takes place.
Trump arrives at his Florida golf club
Trump arrived at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Thursday morning. He has no events on his official schedule, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for information about his activities for the day.
Trump says impeachment ‘bringing more division than ever!’
Trump returned to Twitter on Thursday morning to deride Democrats for impeaching him, calling the process a “partisan Witch Hunt” that “is hurting our Country” and “bringing more division than ever!”
In his tweets, Trump cited comments by Sohrab Ahmari, an opinion writer for the New York Post, in which he noted the positive impact of impeachment on Trump’s fundraising numbers and said the move played to Trump’s political base.
In subsequent tweets, Trump suggested his impeachment over the “Ukraine Hoax” was part of a longer effort by “dirty cops” and Democrats to drive him from office that began with the investigation into possible coordination between his campaign and Russia in the 2016 election.
“If this had happened to a Presidential candidate, or President, who was a Democrat, everybody involved would long ago be in jail for treason (and more), and it would be considered the CRIME OF THE CENTURY, far bigger and more sinister than Watergate!” Trump tweeted.
Trump’s latest comments were in line with those he made outside a New Year’s Eve celebration Tuesday night at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida — the last time he has addressed reporters.
“Nancy Pelosi should be ashamed of herself,” Trump said at the time. “She’s a highly overrated person. I know her well.”
He also called House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), a key figure in the impeachment proceedings, “a corrupt politician.”
Cornyn blames Pelosi and Schiff for weakening Trump’s hand on foreign policy
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) suggested Thursday that the Democratic-led impeachment effort had weakened Trump’s hand in dealing with foreign policy challenges involving North Korea and Iran.
In a tweet, Cornyn pointed to news reports that the two countries were seeking “to take advantage of” Trump’s impeachment.
“Of course they are. Congratulations Speaker Pelosi and Adam Schiff,” Cornyn wrote, referring to the House speaker and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), a key figure in the impeachment proceedings.
Trump campaign says $46 million fundraising haul bolstered by impeachment
Trump’s reelection campaign announced Thursday that it raised $46 million in the fourth quarter of 2019, a total that campaign officials said was bolstered by donations that accelerated during the impeachment proceedings led by House Democrats.
“President Trump’s unprecedented fundraising is testament to his wide grassroots support and his stellar record of achievement on behalf of the American people,” Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement. “Democrats and the media have been in a sham impeachment frenzy and the President’s campaign only got bigger and stronger with our best fundraising quarter this cycle.”
The campaign said the figure it released Thursday includes only funds raised by Trump’s campaign committee and not those raised by the Republican National Committee or any authorized joint fundraising committees.
The figure eclipsed those released by Thursday by some Democratic candidates, though it is typical for a sitting president to outraise challengers from the other party at this point in the cycle.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said he raised $34.5 million in the final three months of 2019 for his White House bid, while former South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg said he raised $24.7 million and business executive Andrew Yang said he raised $16.5 million during the stretch.
Candidates have until Jan. 31 to file fundraising reports with the Federal Election Commission, but those with impressive figures typically share their totals soon after a quarter ends.
Trump remains in Florida, plans to hold event with evangelical Christians on Friday
President Trump, who remains at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., has no public events on his schedule on Thursday.
He plans to return to the public eye on Friday, with an event in Miami marking the launch of the Evangelicals for Trump Coalition. The group’s formation comes in the wake of an editorial last month in the evangelical magazine Christianity Today calling for Trump’s removal from office.
Trump highlights tweet saying time to ‘move on’ from impeachment
In a late-night tweet Wednesday, Trump highlighted a post by journalist Geraldo Rivera that called for the country to “move on” from impeachment.
“Best way to start new decade is get lame partisan #impeachment behind us,” Rivera tweeted. “It failed. Move on. Beat @realDonaldTrump fair & square.”
“They don’t know how to do that!” Trump added in his own words.
Blagojevich says today’s House Democrats would have impeached Lincoln
Former Illinois governor Rod R. Blagojevich (D), who was impeached by his state’s legislature and is now serving a 14-year term in federal prison for corruption, said in an op-ed published Wednesday that today’s House Democrats would have impeached Abraham Lincoln on multiple counts.
“First, today’s Democrats would have impeached Lincoln for obstruction of Congress and abuse of power when he unilaterally issued his Emancipation Proclamation,” Blagojevich wrote in Newsmax. “Lincoln didn’t ask Congress for permission when he declared an end to nearly 250 years of slavery and offered freedom to millions of slaves in the American South. He neither consulted Congress nor sought its consent before he acted.”
In 2018, Trump said he was considering a commutation of Blagojevich’s sentence for convictions in 2010 related to trying to sell President Barack Obama’s Senate seat, among other campaign finance violations. Trump later backed away from doing so.
Blagojevich was a contestant on Trump’s NBC reality show “Celebrity Apprentice” in 2010, after he was indicted but before his convictions. Trump praised Blagojevich at the time as having “a lot of guts” to appear on the program.
Impeachment: What you need to read
Here’s what you need to know to understand the impeachment of President Trump.
What’s happening now: Trump is now the third U.S. president to be impeached, after the House of Representatives adopted both articles of impeachment against him.
What happens next: Impeachment does not mean that the president has been removed from office. The Senate must hold a trial to make that determination. A trial is expected to take place in January. Here’s more on what happens next.
How we got here: A whistleblower complaint led Pelosi to announce the beginning of an official impeachment inquiry on Sept. 24. Closed-door hearings and subpoenaed documents related to the president’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky followed. After two weeks of public hearings in November, the House Intelligence Committee wrote a report that was sent to the House Judiciary Committee, which held its own hearings. Pelosi and House Democrats announced the articles of impeachment against Trump on Dec. 10. The Judiciary Committee approved two articles of impeachment against Trump: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Stay informed: Read the latest reporting and analysis on impeachment here.
Listen: Follow The Post’s coverage with daily updates from across our podcasts.
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