Impeachment updates: House to hold first full vote on inquiry

FAN Editor
House to vote on impeachment inquiry later this week

The latest news on the impeachment inquiry

  • House Democrats will vote on a resolution laying out procedures as the impeachment inquiry approaches its “public-facing phase.”
  • Former deputy national security adviser Charles Kupperman is defying a congressional subpoena to appear today
  • On the July 25 call between Mr. Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr. Trump urged Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden.

Washington— House Democrats are preparing a resolution establishing the groundwork for the next stage of the impeachment inquiry, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday.

“This week, we will bring a resolution to the Floor that affirms the ongoing, existing investigation that is currently being conducted by our committees as part of this impeachment inquiry, including all requests for documents, subpoenas for records and testimony, and any other investigative steps previously taken or to be taken as part of this investigation,” Pelosi said in a letter to colleagues.

The House Rules Committee will introduce the resolution “to ensure transparency and provide a clear path forward” as the inquiry approaches its “public-facing phase,” the committee said. The committee will mark up the resolution Wednesday

Republicans and the White House have criticized Democrats for not holding a formal vote authorizing the impeachment proceedings, which is not required under the Constitution. Pelosi said they are taking the vote to “eliminate any doubt” about whether the administration can block witnesses, withhold documents or ignore subpoenas.

Earlier, Charles Kupperman, former deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs Charles Kupperman was a no-show on Capitol Hill, where investigators from the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees had subpoenaed him to appear.

Kupperman, who was John Bolton’s deputy when he was national security adviser, had filed a lawsuit over the weekend asking the court to rule on whether he should answer the congressional subpoena or respect the White House’s assertion of immunity.

After Kupperman failed to appear, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff told reporters his failure to appear amounts to “additional evidence of obstruction.”

White House official on Trump’s Ukraine call reported concerns to top lawyer

US-POLITICS-GENERAL ASSEMBLY-DIPLOMACY-Ukraine-climate
Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, the director of European affairs at the National Security Council in May 2019. U.S. Embassy in Kiev / Twitter

11:04 p.m.: A White House official and decorated Army officer who listened to Mr. Trump’s now-infamous call with the Ukrainian president was so alarmed by what he heard that he reported it to a top national security lawyer, according to his prepared testimony.

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, the director of European affairs at the National Security Council (NSC) who received a Purple Heart for his service in Iraq, plans to tell the House committees leading the impeachment inquiry that he “did not think it was proper” for the president to insist that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky open investigations into his political opponents. He said he reported his concerns to the lead counsel at the NSC.

Vindman is scheduled to be deposed on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. CBS News obtained a copy of his prepared opening statement, the details of which were first reported by The New York Times. — Stefan Becket

Read Vindman’s opening statement here.


​Graham says House resolution “a bit like un-ringing a bell”

Lindsey Graham introduces resolution condemning House impeachment inquiry

5:51 p.m.: Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who last week introduced his own resolution in the Senate criticizing Democrats’ handling of the impeachment probe, said the House’s move to hold a vote “is an acknowledgement of the success of our efforts.”

“A vote now is a bit like un-ringing a bell as House Democrats have selectively leaked information in order to damage President Trump for weeks,” Graham said in a statement. “There is no doubt in my mind that the overwhelming response House Democrats heard from the American people and Senate Republicans in support of my resolution forced their hand.”

Graham said he would review the House resolution to ensure “it provides President Trump with the rights and privileges Republicans afforded former President Clinton during the 1998 impeachment process.” Graham was one of the House managers during President Clinton’s impeachment trial. — Alan He


​Schiff says House Intel will hold public hearings

5:35 p.m.: House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff confirmed his committee will hold public hearings pursuant to the resolution that will be introduced in the House.

“This week, we will bring to the Floor a resolution that establishes the format for open hearings that will be conducted by the House Intelligence Committee as part of the House’s ongoing impeachment inquiry, as well as procedures to transmit any evidence or report to the Judiciary Committee,” Schiff said. “The American people will hear firsthand about the President’s misconduct.” — Rebecca Kaplan


​White House claims victory with impeachment resolution

4:40 p.m.: The White House, which has for weeks decried the Democrats’ impeachment process as shrouded in secret and illegitimate, tried to claim victory over the Democrats’ impending resolution.

“We won’t be able to comment fully until we see the actual text, but Speaker Pelosi is finally admitting what the rest of America already knew – that Democrats were conducting an unauthorized impeachment proceeding, refusing to give the president due process, and their secret, shady, closed door depositions are completely and irreversibly illegitimate,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement to the White House press pool.

It’s unclear how Democrats’ push for further transparency will change the White House’s impeachment strategy, given that officials have largely criticized the impeachment process rather than rebut the evidence the investigation has uncovered. — Kathryn Watson


​Pelosi says resolution will “eliminate any doubt” about inquiry’s status

Cummings Funeral Services
Former Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrive for the funeral service of Representative Elijah Cummings on Friday, October 25, 2019, in Baltimore. Steve Ruark / AP

3:48 p.m.: In the letter to her Democratic colleagues, Pelosi said the House will vote on a resolution laying out the next steps in the impeachment inquiry to rebut the administration’s arguments that the inquiry is illegitimate without a full House vote.

“We are taking this step to eliminate any doubt as to whether the Trump Administration may withhold documents, prevent witness testimony, disregard duly authorized subpoenas, or continue obstructing the House of Representatives,” Pelosi wrote.

The speaker said the resolution will establish “the procedure for hearings that are open to the American people, authorizes the disclosure of deposition transcripts, outlines procedures to transfer evidence to the Judiciary Committee as it considers potential articles of impeachment, and sets forth due process rights for the President and his Counsel.” — Nancy Cordes


​House Dems preparing resolution to “ensure transparency” on impeachment

3:28 p.m.: The House Rules Committee is preparing to mark up a resolution for a full House vote that will “ensure transparency and provide a clear path forward” as the “public-facing phase” of the impeachment inquiry approaches.

“As committees continue to gather evidence and prepare to present their findings, I will be introducing a resolution to ensure transparency and provide a clear path forward, which the Rules Committee will mark up this week,” Rules Committee Chairman James McGovern of Massachusetts said in a statement. “This is the right thing to do for the institution and the American people.”

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff has said that Democrats will eventually hold public hearings and release transcripts of closed-door depositions.

The Rules Committee will mark up the resolution on Tuesday at 3 p.m. and introduce the resolution for a full House vote. — Rebecca Kaplan


​Barr says U.S. attorney leading 2016 probe will “get to the bottom of things”

2:00 p.m.: In an interview with Fox News, Attorney General William Barr said U.S. Attorney John Durham, the prosecutor leading the Justice Department’s probe into the department’s investigations in 2016, is a “by-the-book kind of guy” who is “making great progress.”

“He’s thorough and fair. And I’m confident he’s going to get to the bottom of things,” Barr said.

Durham’s investigation has been elevated to a criminal probe and is one of two investigations that U.S. diplomats tried to pressure Ukraine into cooperating with.

Barr has spoken to foreign leaders about working with Durham in his probe, and has traveled with Durham to Italy as part of the investigation. Barr defended his involvement in the interview Monday.

“Some of the countries that John Durham thought might have some information or be helpful to his investigation wanted preliminarily to talk to me about the scope of the investigation,” he told Fox News. “So I initially discussed these matters with those countries, then introduce them to John Durham and established a channel by which Mr. Durham can obtain assistance from those countries. But he is in charge of the investigation. I’m not doing the investigation.” — Stefan Becket


Former White House national security official Charles Kupperman a no-show

10:13 a.m. Charles Kupperman, former deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs, was a no-show at the secure hearing room where investigators from the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees had subpoenaed him to appear.

Kupperman, who was John Bolton’s deputy when he was national security adviser, had filed a lawsuit over the weekend asking the court to rule on whether he should answer the congressional subpoena or respect the White House’s assertion of immunity.

After Kupperman failed to appear, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff told reporters his failure to appear amounts to “additional evidence of obstruction.”

“The lawsuit that Dr. Kupperman filed in district court has no basis in law,” Schiff said. “A private citizen cannot sue the Congress to try to avoid coming in when they’re served with a lawful subpoena.” — Rebecca Kaplan and Kathryn Watson


Trump booed at World Series and met with chants of “lock him up!”

World Series fans chant “Lock him up!” at Trump

At the end of the third inning of Game 5 of the World Series in Washington, the president stood and waved to the crowd, and ballpark video screens carried a salute to U.S. service members that drew cheers throughout the stadium. When the video on the Jumbotron cut to the president and his entourage — which included a number of GOP lawmakers — and the loudspeakers announced the Trumps, cheers abruptly turned into a torrent of boos and heckling from what sounded like a majority of the crowd. Chants of “Lock him up!” broke out in some sections, including one below where the president was sitting.

Mr. Trump appeared unfazed and continued waving. Later, some fans behind home plate held a sign reading “VETERANS FOR IMPEACHMENT.” Another banner appeared during the game: “IMPEACH TRUMP!”

image0.jpg
A red banner reading “Impeach Trump” appeared over right field during game 5 Sunday night in the World Series. CBS News – Arden Farhi

Politically, Washington, D.C., is very reliably liberal. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won 91% of the vote, and Mr. Trump won 4%. — Arden Farhi

Trump says he didn’t inform Schiff of Syria raid because he’s a “leaker”

8:45 a.m. President Trump says he did not inform key lawmakers, like Representative Adam Schiff, ahead of his decision to conduct a raid in Syria on brutal ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi because he’s the “biggest leaker in Washington.”

“He’s a corrupt politician, he’s a leaker like nobody’s ever seen before,” Mr. Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews early Monday. He suggested to reporters that he might be willing to release video footage of the raid.

Mr. Trump said Democrats want to “hurt” the Republican party by turning his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into a bigger controversy.

“A whistleblower wrote a false narrative of the conversation, now they don’t want to talk about the whistleblower because they didn’t think I was going to release the conversation…I blew up Schiff’s act when I released it,” he said. — Kathryn Watson


Gowdy says Trump’s demand to Ukraine “can’t be” impeachable

Trey Gowdy leaves door open to joining Trump’s legal team

6:00 a.m.: Former Congressman Trey Gowdy on Sunday seemed to suggest that Mr. Trump did nothing wrong by conditioning military aid if it was designed to unearth information about election meddling efforts by foreign actors.

“Well, you know, that means something for something,” he told “Face the Nation” of the supposed “quid pro quo” at the center of the impeachment probe. “I need to know what both of those somethings is.”

“If the something is, ‘We’re not going to give you aid until you help us figure out who tried to interfere with the levers of democracy in 2016’ — Margaret, I can tell you if a Democrat did that we’d be adding something to Mt. Rushmore,” he said.

If it was the case that Mr. Trump and his allies inside and outside the administration pressured the government of Ukraine to help the U.S. determine who else, other than Russians, might have attempted to meddle in the 2016 election, Gowdy said the actions would not amount to “high crimes and misdemeanors” — the constitutional standard for impeachment.

“I mean, we spent two years as a country trying to figure out who tried to interfere with our elections. So clearly, it can’t be an impeachable offense,” he added.

Read the full story here.


Former Bolton deputy to defy subpoena

5:30 a.m.: Charles Kupperman, the deputy to former national security adviser John Bolton, was scheduled to appear before the joint committees carrying out the impeachment inquiry, but according to his attorney, he will not be testifying Monday.

Kupperman, who was subpoenaed by committees, has also been told by the White House that he could not appear before the committees. Torn between the legislative and executive branch directives, Kupperman filed a lawsuit last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia requesting that the court decide for him whether he “should comply with the House’s subpoena or with the President’s assertion of immunity and instruction that he not appear and testify,” Kupperman’s attorney, Charles Kupperman said in a statement last week.

According to his attorney, Kupperman took “no position” on whether Congress or the White House should prevail. He only wanted to do whatever the judicial branch deemed to be the lawful and binding course of action.

Read the full story here.


Free America Network Articles

Leave a Reply

Next Post

Teen sentenced to prison for stealing lemur from zoo

Climate change threatens Madagascar’s lemurs A California teenager was sentenced Monday to three months in federal prison on for breaking into a zoo and stealing an endangered lemur, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. The animal, named Isaac, is the oldest ring-tailed […]