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Senators on Wednesday night agreed to admit a classified document from an aide to Vice President Pence into the impeachment trial following closed-door deliberations. The one-page document relates to a phone call that took place between Pence and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a week before Zelensky met with President Trump at the United Nations. This latest development is a win for House Democrats who have unsuccessfully pressed the White House to declassify the document, which Pence aide Jennifer Williams submitted to the House in late November to supplement her public testimony earlier that month. House managers who function as prosecutors...

Sometimes when prosecutors appeal to jurors to do their duty, it works. Other times, it backfires. For impeachment manager Jerry Nadler, it went up in flames. It turns out his condemnation of the senators during the Trump impeachment trial didn't just earn him an admonition from Chief Justice John Roberts. It may have cost him a swing vote. During his remarks in the Senate on Tuesday night, Nadler alleged that any senator who voted against a measure to allow additional witnesses was guilty of a White House "cover up." It was an incendiary and outrageous claim that was soundly rejected...

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), one of the Democratic impeachment managers, tried to establish her party's case on Tuesday for why they need to hear more witness testimony and read more documentation before the Senate proceeds in the trial against President Trump. Her remarks came after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell presented his resolution on the trial rules. The White House documents that Democrats have asked for are "directly relevant to the case," Lofgren said Tuesday in support of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's amendments to the resolution. Because, she argued, those documents reveal the extent to which the White House...

Desperate Democrats trotted out the same baseless and absurd arguments they’ve been making for months at the opening of President Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate Tuesday, in their endless campaign to overturn the results of the 2016 presidential election. The soporific debate over what procedures to adopt proved a tepid bore (with some exceptions) as Democrats introduced an endless stream of amendments that were destined to go nowhere fast. The first votes made it clear that Republican senators would adopt Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s resolution setting forth the order and parameters of the trial: openhttps://www.foxnews.com/opinion/gregg-jarrett-in-trump-impeachment-trial-democrats-continue-inflammatory-accusations-with-no-basis-in-facting statements first, then written...

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., who worked on the impeachments of Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, said Sunday the accusations against President Donald Trump are “more serious” because they involve a foreign nation. In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Lofgren, who drafted an article of impeachment against Nixon, said she “would welcome an opportunity to reach a different conclusion about the president's misconduct.”

A group of California Democrats unveiled legislation Friday to place new requirements on how congressional districts are redrawn a day after the Supreme Court ruled that courts can’t resolve partisan gerrymandering claims. The bill, led by House Rules Committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) along with Reps. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) and Julia Brownley (D-Calif.), would require that states adopt independent redistricting commissions to draw new district maps after each decennial census.The proposal comes one day after the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision along ideological lines, found that partisan gerrymandering claims are a political issue that courts can’t weigh in on....

A memo drafted by House Intelligence Committee Republicans about alleged Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse is yielding unusual party unity, even among lawmakers who routinely rebel against party leaders on surveillance policy. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Silicon Valley Democrat who has led efforts to end various types of “backdoor searches” under FISA, told the Washington Examiner she read the memo, but does not want it released. "It was not a long memo," she said. “It was crafted in a way that would create a misimpression based on classified information that I’ve reviewed long ago and cites sources that are highly...

The Democratic Party, on Wednesday, voted overwhelmingly for Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) to replace resigned Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) on the House Judiciary Committee. Nadler, a constitutional law expert, won the spot over Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), an architect of immigration legislation, by secret ballot with 118 to 72 votes. The Washington Post noted on Thursday that the decision to fill their top spot on the committee demonstrates the Democratic Party’s willingness “[t]o ready themselves for a battle with Trump that could end with impeachment proceedings.” Should the Democrats regain control of the House during next year’s mid-term elections, they...

The prominent Michigan congressman who illegally forced congressional staffers to be personal servants and work on state and local campaigns is embroiled in a major sex scandal. Various media outlets report that John Conyers, the longest serving House member and ranking Democrat of the powerful Judiciary Committee, secretly settled a sexual harassment claim by an employee with taxpayer funds from his office budget. Additionally, multiple former staff members accuse the 88-year-old lawmaker of repeatedly making sexual advances toward female staff. Democratic colleagues have already called for a House Ethics Committee probe, but there’s little hope Conyers will be punished since...

House Dem introduces measure urging Trump undergo mental exam By Cristina Marcos - 08/18/17 04:39 PM EDT A House Democrat introduced a resolution on Friday suggesting that President Trump undergo a physical and mental health exam to help determine whether he is fit for office. Rep. Zoe Lofgren’s (D-Calif.) resolution specifically calls on Vice President Pence and Trump’s Cabinet members to “quickly secure the services of medical and psychiatric professionals” to “assist in their deliberations” invoking the 25th Amendment, which outlines presidential removal procedures. It posits that such an examination by doctors would “determine whether the president suffers from mental...

(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) called U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner Gail Heriot, a law professor at the University of San Diego School of Law, an “ignorant bigot” for Heriot’s testimony Tuesday that the guidance issued by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, which says students may use bathrooms and locker rooms in accordance with their gender identity, was “teaching young people a terrible lesson.” The exchange occurred during a hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee’s Task Force on Executive Overreach. “I don’t usually call out witnesses, but here’s what the written testimony says,” Lofgren began.

A pair of House committees is forming a bipartisan working group of eight lawmakers to prepare for possible legislation addressing how the widespread use of encryption affects law enforcement investigations. "The bipartisan encryption working group will examine the issues surrounding this ongoing national debate," House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and House Energy and Commerce Committee Fred Upton. R-Mich., said Monday. As chairman of the two committees that have jurisdiction over encryption issues, Goodlatte and Upton are ex officio chairs of the working group. They released that statement jointly along with Michigan Rep. John Conyers and New Jersey Rep. Steve...

**SNIP** On Wednesday, four members of Congress sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and California Attorney General Kamala Harris requesting that they launch an investigation into the Center for Medical Progress. In a joint statement about the letter, Reps. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., say the “elaborate scheme” merits investigation. “We are writing to request that you investigate whether any laws were broken by individuals who participated in an elaborate, multi-year scheme to impersonate corporate officials from a fake biologics company, secretly filmed video of a Planned Parenthood physician...

House Democratic leaders are slamming GOP legislation aimed at discouraging sanctuary cities, characterizing the proposal as "The Donald Trump Act" in a bid to embarrass the Republicans bringing the measure to the floor this week. The proposal, which would withhold federal law enforcement funds for state or local governments that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration agents, comes in response to this month's fatal shooting of Kathryn Steinle along the San Francisco waterfront, allegedly by an illegal immigrant with a long criminal history. The House vote on the Republicans' sanctuary city bill is scheduled for Thursday, and it is expected...

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) proclaimed that “Congress and the Constitution grant the president broad authority to take executive action on immigration policy,” but later acknowledged to CNSNews.com that he lacks “the authority, both statutory and constitutional, to confer any permanent legal status to undocumented immigrants.”

Some Republicans claim the President has no authority to act, but they are wrong. The fact is, just as presidents before him, President Obama has broad authority to make our immigration system better meet the needs of our country and reflect our shared values. And every Administration since President Dwight D. Eisenhower has used executive authority to do just that. In addition to taking steps to make our immigration enforcement efforts more humane, there are dozens of reforms that the President can adopt. Two that could have the greatest impact involve the expanded use of his deferred action and “parole”...

Over the weekend, both the Senate and the House approved $225M in funding for the Iron Dome. The bill passed by unanimous consent in the Senate and by a 395 to 8 vote. Opposition to the funding of the Iron Dome demonstarted an unfortunate bi-partisan measure – four Democrats and four Republicans voted against it. The four Democrats were Keith Ellison (MN-05), Zoe Lofgren (CA-19), Jim Moran (VA-08), and Beto O’Rourke (TX-16); The four Republicans were Justin Amash (MI-03), Walter Jones (NC-03), Tom Massie (KY-04), and Mark Sanford (SC-01). Rep. Ellison explains vote on “Meet the Press”: “Because a ceasefire...

You may recall that on Friday, in what would have been a Christmas Miracle were it not several months early, Congress actually got something done. It was the passage of a bill approving $225M in funding for Israel’s Iron Dome defensive missile system. It was quite the bipartisan effort in retrospect, garnering an overwhelming 395 votes in the House with only eight in opposition. One of those eight was Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison, and as The Corner reports, he went out on the weekend gab circuit to explain why he didn’t support the measure. “Because a cease-fire is what we...

During a recent House Judiciary Committee hearing concerning oversight, Rep. Zoe Lofgren decided to quiz Attorney General Eric Holder about the federal government's surveillance efforts, starting off with a rather simple question. She notes that the bulk phone record collection program is considered to be legal by its supporters, based on Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows for the collection of "business records." So, she wonders, is there any legal distinction between phone records and, say, internet searches or emails? In other words, does the DOJ believe that it would be perfectly legal for the US government to...

A top building trades union is launching a midterm-election assault on House Democrats who oppose construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. A letter distributed Friday by the Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) to the districts of 27 House Democrats calls for union members to make sure their representative "feels the power and the fury of LIUNA this November." Their crime: signing a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry last month urging him to reject Keystone, which would carry oil sands from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries.