Donald Trump’s defense team previewed a very Donald Trump strategy during Tuesday’s procedural debate in the impeachment trial: lie, attack, ignore the facts. Now it’s time for a concentrated blast of that as they begin their opening arguments.

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 4:04:06 PM +00:00 · Barbara Morrill

Ongoing coverage can be found here.

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 3:04:23 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

And we’re getting underway on Saturday morning as we prepare to hear the Trump team’s defense of Donald Trump. I’m sure, after 64 hours of writing about impeachment this week, you’re as thrilled about this as I am.

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 3:06:39 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

As they settle in, let us contemplate the way in which despite 24 hours of careful case-building each day, and a further 11 hours of laying the case out during the amendment process, somehow each day Republicans found one thing that they all agreed was offensive. Just one statement every day that allowed them to say “Well, the House case was going well, and then X, and X made me so angry that I forgot everything else.” 

Quite the coincidence.

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 3:11:11 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

McConnell repeats that Team Trump is expected to take only two to three hours today, with a possible break in the middle. Why they’re choosing to do it this way isn’t quite clear.

Pat Cipollone starts off by saying that they don’t anticipate using 24 hours because he doesn’t believe the House team has “met their burden” because Trump “did absolutely nothing wrong.”

Cipollone making it clear that the day devoted to get attacking the House managers. And, of course, he gets in not only “asking you to overturn the last election” but their new bit on “taking the 2020 election away from the American people.”

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 3:12:27 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Cipollone starts off by saying that the House team didn’t talk about the transcript — despite Schiff reading the transcript.

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 3:22:19 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Cipollone pretends that the portion of the transcript he read was somehow “covered up” when it was explicitly covered, complete with a breakdown of Europe’s contributions. Still, you can bet at the end of the day Republicans will suddenly discover that they “heard new things” today.

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 3:27:00 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

MIchael Purpura stands up to play the less than a minute worth of Schiff talking about the phone call during the House hearings that were the designated Thing To Be Angry About during that hearing. Again, expect Senators to be shocked at this, despite having seen it before, and despite the number of times that Schiff makes it clear he’s not reading from the transcript but giving the “essence” of the case.

Purpura then goes through the “facts” that the Trump team are going to talk about. Which seem to have grown absolutely nothing than what Jim Jordan and Kevin McCarthy said in the House. 

It’s easy to see why they’re not going to talk long.

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 3:27:53 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

x

Ah. I see Fox "news" is actually leaving up the sound for Trump's lawyers. They had up the picture but no sound for the House managers. Of course. Of course.

— The Rude Pundit (@rudepundit) January 25, 2020

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 3:35:03 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Team Trump has spoken for twenty minutes, and already managed to get in overturning an election, shredding the ballots, basement meetings, process arguments, and fake news.

It's easy to see why they won't need 24 hours. Because this is highly compressed bullshit.

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 3:37:14 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Purpura takes time away from attacking House managers to attack call witness Jennifer Williams. Don’t expect this to be the last time they go after the witnesses.

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 3:45:25 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

A lesson in how to write around the evidence—show the video from everyone except the witness who noted that the Ukrainians expressed concern on the day of Trump’s call.

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 3:53:18 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Hey, you know what surprising information the Trump team has just revealed? That the “Democrat witnesses” aren’t the high level witnesses who held direct meetings with Trump. 

Seems like we should be talking to those guys.

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 3:57:54 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Shorter Team Trump: Why didn't the House managers do our job for us?

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 3:59:07 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Sekulow calls on Republicans to extend their empathy to … Donald Trump. Because really, who has had it tougher than Trump?

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 4:02:33 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

He’s been talking for five minutes, and Jay Sekulow is already the most embarrassing member of Trump’s team by 200%. 

It’s the final day of the House managers’ opening arguments in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff delivered a closing argument for the ages on Thursday night, and now we get to find out what he left for the actual closing argument.

Schiff will again be joined by House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler and Reps. Val Demings, Zoe Lofgren, Hakeem Jeffries, Sylvia Escobar, and Jason Crow. Daily Kos will have continuing coverage.

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 12:40:21 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Folks, we are in the home stretch. House managers have done a fantastic job both in laying out the case against Trump and in trying to anticipate the case that will be made by Trump’s attorneys starting on Saturday morning.

Jason Crow is up with about 2.5 hours remaining on the clock for the House team, talking about how ridiculous it is for Trump to believe that he’s immune to indictment, can’t be investigated, can issue a blanket claim of privilege, can deny every subpoena, and isn’t answerable in court.

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 12:48:29 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Crow’s personal conclusion: “There’s been a lot of conversation the last few years about what makes America great. And I have some ideas about that. I think that what makes America great is that generation after generation, there have been Americans willing to stand up and make sacrifice for their country. I have seen people give everything for this country, so we can sit here today.

This isn’t politically expedient. It’s hard. It’s uncomfortable. But that’s the definition of public service. We are here to give of ourselves to this country. Those who have given so much for this country deserve no less from us now, than to honor their sacrifices. 

I have tried to do that these last three days. My time is done, and it is now your time.”

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 12:49:28 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Adam Schiff steps up and declares that this is the last presentation. Says that he was given the advice “to be immortal, you don’t have to be eternal” so he will try to keep it short. Starts off by saying that he’s exhausted and thanking everyone for listening.

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 12:52:30 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Schiff runs though the counts of what Trump did to earn an article of Abuse of Power, ending each statement with “that has been proved.”

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 12:53:25 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

x

It sounds like @RepAdamSchiff is about to close the whole case (pending witnesses) and I feel like I’m watching Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.#impeachmentTrial

— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) January 25, 2020

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 12:57:45 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Despite his statement that he is exhausted—which is certainly easy to believe—Schiff is bringing energy and emotion to this final pitch, attacking the charges and reviewing the entire case.

Adam Schiff is leaving it all on the field.

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 1:03:03 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Schiff defends the idea that the obstruction charge is at least as important as the abuse of power charge, because that charge shows Trump’s challenge to Congress’ ability to investigate any crime.

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 1:05:23 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Schiff once again pointing out that even if the House wins every single time in defending their subpoenas, Trump can simply run out the clock.

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 1:09:50 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Schiff making a pre-emptive strike on the case to be presented by Trump’s team, including defending the whistleblower.

Saturday, Jan 25, 2020 · 1:18:58 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Schiff also gets in some advance eye-rolling at the faux outrage out his mocking Trump. Then Schiff hits directly at Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr for the public arguments they’ve made in defense in Trump.

It’s the final day of the House managers’ opening arguments in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff delivered a closing argument for the ages on Thursday night, and now we get to find out what he left for the actual closing argument.

Schiff will again be joined by House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler and Reps. Val Demings, Zoe Lofgren, Hakeem Jeffries, Sylvia Escobar, and Jason Crow. Daily Kos will have continuing coverage.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 10:18:38 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

As Val Demings is talking about the threat to Yovanovitch and other witnesses, and a recording shows that Trump told Lev Parnas to “take her out,” there is also this …

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Meanwhile, the State Department has failed to meet a deadline to turn over records related to the potential security threat to Amb. Yovanovitch before she was recalled from Kyiv, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee @RepEliotEngel says pic.twitter.com/Ch3bmW7VMR

— Vera Bergengruen (@VeraMBergen) January 24, 2020

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 10:20:20 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

As Demings make clear, Trump’s attack on those who did testify, are another facet of his obstruction. 

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 10:20:53 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Jerry Nadler steps up to do what he did on Article 1 — review the case law around obstruction.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 10:24:02 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Nadler makes clear that this is not just a squabble over a few documents out of many produced on a case — which was exactly what happened in the “fast and furious” case that Republicans keep citing. That case was also not part of an impeachment. Which was something that Republicans claimed mattered… until Democrats actually launched an impeachment inquiry.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 10:30:56 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Nadler doing a good job of mocking the “pure fantasy” of the argument that Trump’s team has mounted on the pretense that obstruction is dandy because the House failed to check some box — a box they get to define.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 10:32:00 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Nadler: “President Trump stands alone” when it comes to a blanket rejection of congressional subpoenas.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 10:36:33 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Nadler is making the obligation to obey a congressional subpoena clear. But what Trump has done is what Andrew Jackson did with John Marshall—show Congress that even when the law is completely on their side, that doesn’t mean they can enforce it. There’s a reason why Trump keeps a portrait of Jackson behind his desk. And it’s not just the violent racism.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 10:40:13 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Nadler’s work these last two days — where he’s gone through the historical role of both abuse of power and obstruction — is outstanding.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 10:46:23 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 10:52:59 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Compare with above. 

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 10:54:47 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Nadler finishes up an excellent review of the legal case for obstruction (while I was busy riffling through slides) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren steps up to expand on the case, to show that Trump’s positions are inconsistent with his own DOJ.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 11:01:12 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Lofgren pointing out that it’s simply ridiculous for the White House to block all subpoenas, then claim that the House needs to fight for each one in court. That’s an absolute negation of impeachment — a removal of that power from Congress. 

The the executive can fight every stage of impeachment in court, there is no impeachment.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 11:11:51 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Lofgren sits down after another outstanding job, and Rep, Hakeem Jeffries us up again to show how Trump believes himself not just above the law, but the only source of law.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 11:13:32 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner No matter what happens, I want the House managers to walk back across Capitol Hill to a solid wall of praise. To roses and plaudits. They have, one and all, done a crackerjack job. They deserve a triumph, even if the Senate fails us. If you haven’t already thanked them, please do so. Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 11:16:03 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Jeffries doing what he’s done on previous points — an absolutely killer job. This time he is ripping up Trump’s objections to the impeachment, along with the basis of the letter that was written by Pat Cipollone.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 11:23:39 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Jeffries showing how carefully the House worked through the steps of the impeachment process. Which will, of course, have zero effect on the claims made by Trump’s attorneys, since what Trump’s attorneys are arguing is that Trump gets to define the terms of any impeachment. There are no terms that would have worked.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 11:27:36 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Jeffries showing how carefully the House worked through each step of the impeachment process. Which will, of course, have no effect on the claims made by Trump’s attorneys, since Trump’s attorneys are arguing that Trump can define what's valid and invalid.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 11:36:42 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Jeffries is doing another superb job of detailing how the claims of a partisan process, secret hearings, and denied rights are all simply lies. Expect Trump’s team to repeat those lies tomorrow as if Jeffries never spoke.

And expect Republican Senators to go out of the room tonight, still parroting those same unfounded claims.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 11:46:49 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

So … is the next break long enough for Adam Schiff to take a listen.

x

Parnas attorney, Joseph Bondy confirms to CNN he has turned over to the House Intel Committee an audio recording of Trump talking about Yovanovitch.

— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) January 24, 2020

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 11:48:08 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Hakeem Jeffries steps down from a presentation that beautifully dissected the basis of Trump’s blanket obstruction. The Senate is now moving to a 30 minute dinner break.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 11:50:01 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Sen. Chuck Schumer stepping up to the camera to say that the House managers have set a “very, very high bar” for Trump’s lawyers. Schumer singles out Hakeem Jeffries and Adam Schiff for their strong presentations.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 11:53:39 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Schumer calls the recording of Trump talking about Yovanovitch “despicable conduct.”

It’s the final day of the House managers’ opening arguments in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff delivered a closing argument for the ages on Thursday night, and now we get to find out what he left for the actual closing argument.

Schiff will again be joined by House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler and Reps. Val Demings, Zoe Lofgren, Hakeem Jeffries, Sylvia Escobar, and Jason Crow. Daily Kos will have continuing coverage.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 10:18:36 PM +00:00 · Barbara Morrill

Ongoing coverage can be found here.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 9:08:04 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Val Demings is up as the case officially moves into Article 2 — obstruction of congress. Though it’s a bit confusing, as both Jason Crow and Hakeem Jeffries seemed to present information on the cover-up before Schiff came in for an Article 1 closer. This is the first time in the trial I’ve felt the House managers’ case was feeling a little disordered after two well-choreographed days.

Hopefully, Demings is about to put it all back on track.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 9:11:08 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Demings talking to the blanket nature of Trump’s obstruction, including low-level officials who have no direct contact with Trump and former officials who had been out of their roles for months. Like Schiff, she speaks to the genuine heroism of those who did stand up to speak.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 9:13:47 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

x

Here is a preview of the shit show that is coming tomorrow. Jay Sekulow seems ready to use the conspiracy theory defense.Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/HPgFnoUQAG

— Mystery Solvent (@MysterySolvent) January 24, 2020

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 9:17:23 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Val Demings appealing to the Senate’s need for oversight — which is something they’ll absolutely remember as soon as Trump is out of office. About the same time they remember how concerned they are about deficits.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 9:22:32 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Demings hands off to Rep. Sylvia Garcia, who goes through what’s become the ritual of thanking all the senators for being “good listeners,” even though it’s clear many have been anything but.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 9:26:43 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Garcia pointing out again what Crow detailed this morning—the cover-up really began before the investigation, because members of Trump’s White House realized that the July 25 phone call needed to be buried. And then the military assistance was also hidden from Congress and the public.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 9:29:27 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner While much coverage of the obstruction article has concentrated on blocking documents and witnesses, the House team has made it clear this included: 1) Over-classifying Trump's call. 2) Hiding the hold on military aid. 3) Concealing the whistleblower complaint. Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 9:31:46 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Garcia telling the Senate all the things that Trump has said about the impeachment inquiry is probably nothing more than a repeat of their morning talking points.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 9:33:40 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

I like Garcia squinting at the signature on Trump’s official declaration of non-cooperation and reading off Cipollone’s name.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 9:36:34 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

The Senate office has has indicated that Trump’s team is only going to speak from about 10 AM to 1 PM Eastern on Saturday.

That shouldn’t be taken as a sign they are going to wrap their case in a couple of hours. It’s more likely related to a tweet Trump sent on Friday morning complaining about TV ratings on Saturdays. McConnell will no doubt cooperate in giving Trump as many prime time evenings as he wants.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 9:41:39 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Schiff’s closing statement on Article 1.

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Let’s imagine it wasn’t Joe Biden.Let’s imagine it was any one of us.Let’s imagine the most powerful man in the world was asking a foreign nation to conduct a sham investigation of us.What would we think about it then?Because next time, it might be. pic.twitter.com/WlnlPPGSCY

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) January 24, 2020

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 9:43:06 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Garcia goes through a list of all the agencies who have already refused to provide documents while citing Trump’s order blocking cooperation with the inquiry. Then goes through some specific documents that came up in testimony, but which the public has not seen.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 9:52:21 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Garcia stops after reminding everyone of the scope of Trump’s efforts to block all witnesses and documents.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren steps up to start off by pointing out that even Richard Nixon didn’t just not block testimony, he ordered the White House staff to appear without subpoena.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 9:57:55 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

The OMB letter shows that Cipollone’s letter was an official White House order—which is a key element of proving obstruction.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 10:03:35 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

While Trump ordered all officials to refuse to cooperate, Lofgren points out that in past impeachments not one witness was refused.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 10:10:30 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Lofgren wraps up her talk on blocked witnesses, after a convincing presentation.

Val Demings comes back to talk about the attacks made on witnesses who did agree to appear.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 10:15:50 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

This review of Trump’s attacks on Yovanovitch would be an excellent time to bring up the recording that emerged on Friday morning. 

"Get her out tomorrow. I don’t care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. Okay? Do it.” That’s not Trump telling Lev Parnas to fire Yovanovitch. If he needed to fire the ambassador, he could. And Parnas would have nothing to do with it.

It’s the final day of the House managers’ opening arguments in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff delivered a closing argument for the ages on Thursday night, and now we get to find out what he left for the actual closing argument.

Schiff will again be joined by House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler and Reps. Val Demings, Zoe Lofgren, Hakeem Jeffries, Sylvia Escobar, and Jason Crow. Daily Kos will have continuing coverage.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 9:07:09 PM +00:00 · Barbara Morrill

Ongoing coverage can be found here.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 7:24:07 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Just as how Jeffies’ description of the “no pressure” claim on Thursday gave fresh insight into how that claim is ridiculous, Crow’s review of the excuses provided for the hold show really opened up just how much Trump’s team scrambled, especially at the end, in an effort to paper over the scheme.

Adam Schiff is back again to close out the discussion of Article 1 … which seems to be coming out of sequence as we’ve already had a couple of discussions on Article 2. It seems something happened near the beginning this afternoon that caused Schiff to shuffle things around a bit.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 7:26:46 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Schiff is saying it in nicer terms, but what much of the evidence shows is that Trump is an incredible patsy. Give him one hint that someone has said a mean thing about him, and you can get him to do anything you want. 

Trump extorted Ukraine. But in the process, Giuliani and Parnas played Trump like a toy piano. They got him to jump whenever they wanted.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 7:32:14 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Schiff shows how the conflict in Ukraine isn’t about Ukraine. It’s about Putin flexing his muscle and using Trump’s weakness to exert his reach across Europe.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 7:34:22 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Schiff plays a video of John McCain discussing the promise and peril of Ukraine. It will be interesting to see if that gets any response from Senators. Some Republican will surely find a way to call it offensive.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 7:40:40 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Schiff spending considerable time concentrating on how Trump’s actions threatened Ukraine, and how just the hint of a schism between U.S, and Ukraine was seen as a victory for Putin.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 7:50:57 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Schiff makes it clear that the cost of Trump’s actions to the United States has been tremendous. “It’s painful to see our allies distance themselves from the United States. It’s more than painful, it’s dangerous … But if we’re going to condition our support for our allies on how willing they are to be dragging kicking and screaming into our politics … we’re not going to have a single ally left.”

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 7:55:55 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

The bigger cost to Ukraine is not that withholding aid meant they were short of bullets on the front line—it was a signal that their most vital alliance was no stronger than their willingness to engage in corruption.

The bigger cost to the United States was being revealed as a source of corruption who judged allies by their willingness to engage in partisan politics — even when that required them to lie.

And the total damage for both was tremendous.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 8:01:02 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Every time a clip of Marie Yovanovitch comes up, it shows again just how deeply decent she is. And makes the scheme to threaten and smear her seem all that much more despicable. 

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 8:05:59 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Schiff shows how Trump’s Ukraine scheme is only part of the larger effort to undermine U.S. elections.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 8:15:04 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Schiff digging deep on the *deliberate* damage Trump has done to the U.S. intelligence community. "I hope it was worth it. I hope it was worth it [for Trump]. Because it certainly wasn't worth if for the United States."

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 8:23:23 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Schiff invites the senators to put themselves in the shoes of Joe Biden or Marie Yovanovitch, then think again about whether Trump abused his power.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 8:30:25 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Schiff uses the term “imminent threat” in describing Trump, after earlier mentioning how Trump’s attacks on the intelligence community weakened the ability to convince anyone about the attack on Qassem Soleimani. That seems like a very deliberate choice of words.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 8:32:14 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Schiff finishes the discussion of Article 1, and McConnell sends the Senate into a 15 minute break.

It’s the final day of the House managers’ opening arguments in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff delivered a closing argument for the ages on Thursday night, and now we get to find out what he left for the actual closing argument.

Schiff will again be joined by House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler and Reps. Val Demings, Zoe Lofgren, Hakeem Jeffries, Sylvia Escobar, and Jason Crow. Daily Kos will have continuing coverage.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 7:21:51 PM +00:00 · Barbara Morrill

Ongoing coverage can be found here.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 6:10:28 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

The House management team is expected to finish up dealing with abuse of power today, then focus on the charge of obstruction before working back to a summation.

Considering the closing that Adam Schiff provided on Thursday, it could well be amazing.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 6:13:11 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Expect events today to wrap up around 10 PM Eastern, with the usual scattering of breaks.

Jason Crow picks up the review of the abuse charge by reviewing how Donald Trump only released the military assistance to Ukraine after the hold was under attack from all directions.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 6:16:10 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

In the House hearings, Republicans claimed that the assistance was released because Trump was waiting for additional meetings between Zelensky and U.S. officials, or the passage of an anti-corruption bill in the Ukrainian parliament.

However, Trump never made these claims. They were never mentioned until Trump’s supporters in the House felt they had to invest something to cover up his clear crimes.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 6:23:21 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Crow making it clear that this sessions is intended to address the arguments that the Trump team can be expected to make in defending the hold. 

There was no additional review by the DOD, no matter what Republicans have claimed.

There was no additional review by the State Department, no matter what Republicans have claimed.

There was no “inter-agency” review at all, no matter what Republicans have claimed.

The military assistance for Ukraine was completely cleared on May 23. The review, headed by the DOD, showed that Ukraine had already met legislative targets for fighting corruption and for upholding democracy. There was never any other review or investigation.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 6:29:14 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Crow completes a quite fast review of the reasons provided for the hold. Which isn’t surprising — because there were none. Every reason that’s been presented was an after-the-fact invention. No one was given a reason at the time, even when they asked directly.

Hakeem Jeffries steps up to begin looking at obstruction, so it looks like there’s not going to be a summary step between Article 1 and Article 2 of the impeachment.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 6:34:57 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

After the morning reports of a recording showing Trump screaming for Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman to “take out” Ambassador Yovanovitch, the White House has responded by saying, "Every President in our history has had the right to place people who support his agenda and his policies within his Administration.”

Which certainly does not sound like a denial.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 6:38:32 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Jeffries running through the efforts both before, and after, Trump’s phone call to restrict knowledge of Trump’s Ukraine scheme within the White House. Until the July 25 call, the knowledge was pretty well confined to a handful of officials, many of whom seemed not to realize that Trump was a full participant in the scheme. But following the July 25 call, it was clear to everyone that Trump wasn’t just in the loop, he was driving the effort.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 6:43:12 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Since the July 25 call made clear that Trump was leading the effort to extort Ukraine, his team in the White House did what they could to hide the call.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 6:47:52 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

It seems increasingly likely that this recording is going to have some impact into today’s trial. It may be why Adam Schiff did not pause between the case on Article 1 and Article 2 for any summary.

x

Even more disturbing, damning evidence that Donald Trump undermined our diplomatic relationships, our committed public servants, and our national security for his own personal, political gain. This is exactly why we need a real trial, with witnesses and documents. https://t.co/NvuhOx7aLx

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) January 24, 2020

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 6:51:50 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Jeffries moving into the whistleblower complaint, and showing again the baffling decision by the acting director of national intelligence to take the complaint straight to the White House—giving Trump a huge heads-up on the complaint and its contents, as well as giving the White House a chance to tell the acting director to hide the complaint from Congress. 

The OLC’s involvement in this phase of the cover-up is flat out criminal on its face.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 6:58:13 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Jeffries talking about the ability of the United States to “make it to the other side” and listing off the Civil War, the Great Depression, World War II, the Jim Crow era, September 11 and how America always “made it to the other side” is another fantastic speech.

Describes Trump’s action as “an attack on our character” and returns to talking about abuse of power in showing that it wasn’t adversity that caused Trump to act in Ukraine, it was his inability to handle power.

These last five minutes of Jeffries presentation are another much-watch moment.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 7:01:44 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Jason Crow up again to discuss the cover-up effort as the whistleblower, congressional investigations, and public inquiries unravel Trump’s far-from-perfectly-secret hold.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 7:09:09 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Crow showing just how badly things had unraveled as September began. By September 5, not only was the hold visible, not only had multiple members of Congress requested a reason for the hold — and received none — but the Washington Post had already published an op-ed drawing the clear line between Trump’s withholding the assistance and the investigations that he and Giuliani had been demanding for months.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 7:13:19 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

After the whistleblower complaint was in the hands of the White House, only then did they begin an attempt to create an excuse for the hold on assistance. It wasn’t until then, in early September, that an White House official indicated that the hold was tied to Trump being concerned about donations from Europe. They also began looking for details on European contributions … two months after the hold was placed.

At the same time, Duffey at the OMB sent an email to DOD completely backtracking over the previous two months and pretending that there never had been a hold to begin with.

Friday, Jan 24, 2020 · 7:21:38 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Just as how Jeffies’ description of the “no pressure” claim on Thursday gave fresh insight into how that claim is ridiculous, Crow’s review of the excuses provided for the hold show really opened up just how much Trump’s team scrambled, especially at the end, in an effort to paper over the scheme.