White House adds eight House Republicans to Trump impeachment team

Eight Republican members of the House have joined President Trump's impeachment team ahead of his Senate trial. The White House released the names of the lawmakers on Monday night. They include Reps. '''Doug Collins of Georgia, Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Debbie Lesko of Arizona, Mark Meadows of North Carolina, John Ratcliffe of Texas, Elise Stefanik of New York, and Lee Zeldin of New York

''Throughout this process, these Members of Congress have provided guidance to the White House team, which was prohibited from participating in the proceedings concocted by Democrats in the House of Representatives," the White House said in a statement. "The President looks forward to their continued participation and is confident that the Members will help expeditiously end this brazen political vendetta on behalf of the American people."

The lawmakers will likely not speak on the Senate floor during the trial, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell opposed the idea. Rather, each member will aid Trump's defense in other ways, which could include speaking to the media and advising the White House. The rest of Trump's impeachment team, which was announced last week, will include two former independent counsels, Ken Starr and Robert Ray, and constitutional law professor Alan Dershowitz. The team will be led by White House counsel Pat Cipollone. The Senate is expected to vote on the rules governing the trial on Tuesday.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house-adds-eight-house-republicans-to-trump-impeachment-team

Not 'far enough': Top Mueller prosecutor urges former DOJ official to crank up heat on FISA reform

One of Robert Mueller's top prosecutors when Mueller was special counsel is underwhelmed by the advice former Obama administration lawyer David Kris gave on reforming the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act process. Andrew Weissmann, a former Justice Department official who was known as Mueller's "pitbull" during the Russia investigation, delivered a mixed review Thursday of what Kris has done since being appointed the FISA court's pick to oversee the FBI's enactment of reforms following a scathing DOJ inspector general report last year. He critiqued a brief Kris submitted last week that pushed for improved communications between FBI and DOJ attorneys on FISA matters beyond what the bureau has proposed. After prefacing his assessment by saying, "I think that David is a really great lawyer,” Weissmann said, "I was a little disappointed. I didn’t think it went far enough."

Fox News reported the comment by Weissmann, made during a discussion on the FISA process at NYU Law School alongside former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and others. The Washington Examiner has reached out to the event coordinator for video of the panel. Kris was selected as the FISA court's amicus curiae after DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a report in December that lambasted the department and the FBI for 17 “significant errors and omissions” related to its targeting of onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, stretching from October 2016 to the summer of 2017. The report also reviewed the broader counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign, dubbed Crossfire Hurricane. FBI Director Christopher Wray, who said he "deeply regrets" the FBI's failures in the Page FISA process, offered a timetable of reforms and training the bureau is undertaking. But, in a court filing on Wednesday, Kris wrote that the FBI’s refinements would be insufficient without restoring a "strong organizational culture of accuracy and completeness" and called for the bureau to come up with "dramatically expanded" proposals.

Republicans have raised concerns about Kris, citing how he talked up Mueller's Russia investigation, criticized the House Intelligence Committee's 2018 memo on alleged FISA abuses, and heralded Horowitz's report for how it "repudiates the claims of a coup and related deep-state conspiracies in the FBI as advanced by President Trump and his supporters." On the Democratic side, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler requested the Justice Department and FBI share FISA-related documents with the panel as it considers potential reforms.

Weissmann, who, like Kris, had positions in the DOJ during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations and was FBI general counsel from 2011 to 2013 when Mueller was director, additionally wrote an article for Just Security about the need for the "increased" amicus role in the FISA process. McCabe, one of the high-ranking officials who signed off on a Page FISA warrant application, acknowledged on Thursday that there is a "critical weakness" in the FISA process and called for there to be a "permanent" institution to coordinate DOJ and FBI lawyers to ensure FISA applications have all the evidence they need.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/not-far-enough-top-mueller-prosecutor-urges-former-doj-official-to-crank-up-heat-on-fisa-reform

Senate resolution sets a fast pace for Trump impeachment trial

President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial is going to move quickly, at least at first. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has drafted the rules for the trial, which allow 24 hours across two days for House impeachment managers to present their case that Trump abused the power of his office and obstructed Congress. The resolution also prohibits the testimony of witnesses unless they are first deposed privately. The resolution, which senators will pass Tuesday afternoon at the start of the trial, provides Trump’s White House defense team with the same amount of time to present their case. It also provides Trump's team the chance to offer a motion to dismiss the case as soon as the resolution setting the terms of the trial is adopted. But that motion is likely to fail because Republicans have indicated they want to hear the case before rendering judgment.

Senior Republican aides say the 24 hours provided to present both the case and the defense line up with the 1999 impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton, except, in that case, the 24 hours were used by both sides over a three-day period. According to the resolution, obtained by the Washington Examiner, senators would be provided 16 hours to ask written questions after the presentation of the case and the defense. After that, the Senate will hold a four-hour debate on whether to subpoena or call witnesses to testify or to seek additional evidence. If senators vote to call witnesses, the witnesses will be deposed first, “and the Senate shall decide after deposition which witnesses will testify” in the Senate. Finally, after witnesses are interviewed, the Senate will vote on each of the two articles. It takes 67 votes to convict the president on either of the articles, so it is unlikely Trump will be removed from office.

The resolution does not automatically allow all of the House impeachment investigation material to be used as evidence in the Senate trial. A Republican aide said Trump’s trial is “meaningfully different” from the Clinton impeachment trial because, the aide said, Trump has been denied due process. Clinton’s investigation lasted several years, and the fight over witnesses was litigated in court. “This resolution provides for the production of materials from the House trial to be printed and made available to all senators, and it allows for a vote at a later time on the question of whether or not it may be admitted as part of the Senate trial,” the aide said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, immediately criticized the resolution. “Under this resolution, Sen. McConnell is saying he doesn’t want to hear any of the existing evidence, and he doesn’t want to hear any new evidence,” Schumer said. '“A trial where no evidence — no existing record, no witnesses, no documents — isn’t a trial at all. It’s a cover-up, and the American people will see it for exactly what it is.”' The battle over witnesses is less predictable. Democrats want to call four Trump administration officials as witnesses and want the Senate to subpoena three sets of documents. Their list includes former national security adviser John Bolton. Republicans warned that if Democrats seek witnesses, they’ll call for their own list, which would include Hunter Biden, son of former vice president and current Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/senate-resolution-sets-a-fast-pace-for-trump-impeachment-trial

>>7863866

>>7863849

Indeed, and it's about time they feel the pain.

>>7863967

Awesome job Baker smoothest bake all day!

Wondering what the 25 post tuber hopes to hopes to accomplish.. Makes no sense.

>>7864025

>I suggest Anons we don't slide the Polly issue.

>

>There are 200 more videos and I have a gallon of Sanka Coffee and fresh duracells in the keyboard.

>

>Your choice.

Okay, Now you are threatening…If you knew what the hell you were doing..you would know how too look things up..Now Look at this…and enough already! We have looked at plenty of her work here!

>>7864025

>latest POTUS tweets