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The Supreme Court returned Monday for oral arguments after a lengthy holiday break. During the court’s January sitting, the justices will hear arguments in eight cases, including ones dealing with school choice and the “Bridgegate” scandal. The justices already have heard arguments in cases involving the Second Amendment, Obamacare, and whether federal law covers claims of discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. Later in the term, the court will take up cases involving the president’s ability to fire the head of an “independent” agency, regulation of abortion providers, and the dispute over a subpoena for President Donald Trump’s...

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court this week blasted the Federal Bureau of Investigation for “misconduct” in the Carter Page surveillance warrant. Some would call this accountability. Others will more rightly call it the FISC’s “shocked to find gambling” moment. ... On Feb. 7, 2018, Devin Nunes, then chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to Judge Collyer informing her of its findings in his probe of the FBI’s Page application. He wrote that “the Committee found that the FBI and DOJ failed to disclose the specific political actors paying for uncorroborated information” that went to the court, “misled...

Immediately after impeaching President Donald Trump for allegedly obstructing the House and abusing his power as president, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi obstructed the Senate’s constitutional obligation to hold an impeachment trial and abused her power by trying to steal power that belongs solely to the Senate under the Constitution. Pelosi told reporters on Thursday that she is in no rush to formally transmit to the Senate the articles of impeachment her party in the House had just approved. Here are six reasons Pelosi’s impeachment obstruction stunt undermines the entire basis of the Democrats’ effort to eject Trump from office.1) After...

When Democrats announced their articles of impeachment Tuesday, the first charge was abuse of power. "The president's continuing abuse of power has left us no choice," said Adam Schiff. "To do nothing would make ourselves complicit in the president's abuse of his high office, the public trust, and our national security." Of course, presidents should be impeached for legitimate abuses of power. Their case against Trump, however, is super thin at best. Yet, for all of their platitudes about protecting our democracy and no president being above the law, they spent eight years ignoring Obama’s abuses of power, which makes...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Hardball,” Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) stated that he thinks up to ten Senate Republicans will vote to convict President Trump, but that there could be “unpredicted evidence” and the number of GOP defections could increase. Blumenthal said, “I would give the high end probably five to ten. I think that’s a realistic number. But, and I want to emphasize the but, we need to keep in mind what’s unpredictable here. Remember the Watergate case, where the Nixon tapes emerged, seemingly by chance…and that was the end of his presidency. So, never underestimate the possibility of...

House Democrats urged the Supreme Court to allow them to enforce congressional subpoenas for President Donald Trump’s financial records, saying that the information was needed to protect the 2020 election from foreign interference. In a filing on Wednesday (pdf), the House attorneys argue that any harm suffered by Trump and his businesses from complying with the subpoena would be less severe than the harm the House and the public would suffer without having access to the financial records so that it could “exercise its constitutional functions.” The attorneys said the information was needed to determine if legislation is warranted to...

Donald Trump's dream of building a "big, beautiful wall" along the southern border took a hit yesterday when a federal judge ruled that Pentagon funds totaling $3.6 billion diverted for 11 construction projects along the southern border could not be used for wall construction. Significantly, the judge, David Briones of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, ruled that other funds, already approved by the Supreme Court, could be spent. Those funds, which come from a Pentagon counter-narcotics fund, could still be used for wall construction. The argument being used by the city of El Paso was...

The impeachment proceedings against President Trump have fueled all manner of conjecture regarding the proper discharge of foreign policy, hidden motives behind both Trump’s phone call and the ensuing investigation, and everything from the dead-cat bounce of the Mueller Report to the Kurdish policy shift. But there are a number of questions that, while they should be asked, haven’t been. (Obligatory disclaimer: None of these questions are intended to either excuse or indict the actions of Trump, the impeachment-hearing participants, or anyone else.) 1. Why is the U.S. giving $400 million to Ukraine, anyway? It makes little sense. Europe is...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7Q9kTeNRJg

House Democrats on Tuesday announced articles of impeachment against President Trump alleging abuse of power and obstruction of Congress regarding his interactions with Ukraine, touching off a rapid-fire sequence that could result in a momentous floor vote in a matter of days.

The Democrats have pulled the impeachment Trigger.

RUSH: The Wall Street Journal had to make up a story that Trump was sending 14,000 troops to Mideast. It’s a totally made-up story. Oh, speaking of the Wall Street Journal, a brief diversion. It’s not… This will work. I thought I had it here set aside. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Adam Schiff’s phone records… Have you heard about this? Schiff in his report revealed that Rudy Giuliani had called people in Ukraine or some such place to further the investigation of whatever. The Wall Street Journal said: No, no, no, no. This number that Rudy called...

New call logs purported to show Giuliani ringing a number identified as the White House Office of Management and Budget. They also show Rep. Devin Nunes was in touch with both Rudy Giuliani and his indicted associate Lev Parnas in April 2019. House Intelligence Committee Democrats included information in their 300-page report. Suggested a 13-minute call between Giuliani and OMB; records show multiple calls from Giuliani to the White House on key dates in April and August. Trump administration says no one at OMB spoke to Giuliani. New York Times reports the number associated with the calls is a generic...

Did Obama-Appointed Ukraine Ambassador Intervene to Help Anti-Trump Ukraine Group? Judicial Watch Sues for Key Docs Of Deep State Official At Center of Latest Coup Attack on Trump Court Tells FBI It Can’t Hide Records about FBI-Clinton Lawyer Meeting on Russia Did Obama-Appointed Ukraine Ambassador Intervene to Help Anti-Trump Ukraine Group? As the coup abuse against President Trump accelerates, Judicial Watch focuses on the real Ukraine collusion scandal. We just sued the State Department for documents related to a reported “untouchables list” given by former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch to Ukraine Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko in late...

Fanatics can justify any action, and House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff this week demonstrated where that mindset leads. In his rush to paint Donald Trump as a lawbreaker, Mr. Schiff has himself trampled law and responsibility. That’s the bottom line in Mr. Schiff’s stunning decision to subpoena the phone records of Rudy Giuliani and others. Mr. Schiff divulged the phone logs this week in his Ukraine report, thereby revealing details about the communications of Trump attorneys Jay Sekulow and Mr. Giuliani, ranking Intelligence Committee member Devin Nunes, reporter John Solomon and others. The media is treating this as a victory,...

Adam Schiff owes the public some answers. The House Intelligence Committee chairman should explain why and under what authority he obtained and then publicized phone records that included calls involving the president's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, ranking Intelligence Committee Republican Devin Nunes, journalist John Solomon, and others. It is far from clear when, or even whether, House subpoena powers extend so far without a court-ordered search warrant. The California Democrat has used the records to hint at attempts by the Trump team and by Nunes, Schiff’s bitter rival, to coordinate a pressure campaign against Ukraine for Trump’s personal benefit. Solomon,...

Lisa Page, the former FBI lawyer whose anti-Trump text messages became ammunition for Republicans to allege a coup against President Trump, stepped into the public spotlight one week ahead of a highly anticipated Justice Department inspector general report.SNIPPage, 39, has been publicly silent ever since she left the bureau in May 2018 amid a political firestorm sparked by the revelation that she exchanged text messages with then-FBI special agent Peter Strzok in 2016 and 2017 that were heavily critical of Trump and that she also had an affair with her colleague.In the interview, Page, who is married and a mother...

Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas were the victims. There was a federal bond hearing for former Houston Police Officer Gerald Goines last week after his arrest on 20 November, 2019.In the hearing for Goines, FBI special agent O'Neil Brown testified about more evidence found in Goines' official, but unmarked Houston Police Department car. From click2houston.com:Brown’s testimony brought forward new revelations about the investigation into Goines’ alleged activities. He testified that Goines was involved in a sexual relationship with one of his confidential informants. This same confidential informant told investigators the drugs Goines said were purchased from 7815 Harding Street came...

No one at Politico has been a bigger cheerleader for impeachment than legal affairs columnist Renato Mariotti and the recent decline in public interest in this seems to be sending poor Renato over the edge.  This can be seen in his Monday column, "There’s a Simple Term for What Trump Did and Democrats Should Stick With It." See, quid pro quo proved to not resonate well with the public according to focus group analysis which is why Nancy Pelosi began hyping "bribery" instead. Unfortunately the "bribery" shtick also did not work well either so what to do? Mariotti's suggestion is that...

The White House, the Pentagon and President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday all refused to comply with House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry subpoenas, escalating the fight between the administration and Democratic lawmakers. Democrats set a Tuesday deadline for Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Giuliani and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to turn over documents related to Ukraine. Three House committees also requested Vice President Pence hand over documents by Tuesday, though no subpoena had been issued. The refusals from top administration officials were unsurprising after the White House counsel's office sent a letter to top Democrats...