Questions Republicans Don’t Want Answered

Ken AshfordL'Affaire Ukraine, Trump & Administration, Trump ImpeachmentLeave a Comment

It would seem that one principled, serious move which could significantly reduce the partisanship and restore some semblance of dignity and truth-finding to the constitutional process would be for a group of Senate Republicans to join Democrats in demanding that they hear from witnesses and see documents that would answer certain questions, including: If Trump cared about corruption in Ukraine, … Read More

Live House Judiciary Committee Hearings

Ken AshfordL'Affaire Ukraine, Trump & Administration, Trump ImpeachmentLeave a Comment

The House Judiciary Committee is hearing presentations by Democratic and Republican lawyers on the evidence for and against impeaching President Trump. It is a bit of a circus already, as this clip shows: Top Republican demands witness testimony in impeachment hearing be stricken from the record since it “impugns the motives of the President.” pic.twitter.com/fKpE9iVA1v — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) December … Read More

Seven Outright Falsehoods in GOP Staff Report on Impeachment

Ken AshfordL'Affaire Ukraine, Republicans, Trump & Administration, Trump ImpeachmentLeave a Comment

On December 2, 2019, Republican staff of the three committees overseeing the impeachment inquiry published a report prepared for the GOP Chairs: Representatives Devin Nunes, Jim Jordan, and Michael McCaul. This report, however, is not a serious examination of the evidence, nor is it intended to be. Unlike the House Intelligence Committee’s Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry Report , the minority staff report makes no attempt … Read More

Rudy Corrupting In Real Time

Ken AshfordL'Affaire Ukraine, Trump & Administration, Trump ImpeachmentLeave a Comment

So as I wrote before, Rudy is in Ukraine right now, suypposedly doing a documentary for OANN. But even Trump supporters are skeptical. SCALISE on Giuliani’s trip to Kyiv: “I’m not sure what he’s doing in Ukraine.” — Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 6, 2019 Rudy tweeted last night: Giuliani is saying out loud that corruption (1) specifically means Joe Biden, … Read More

Why Move Fast On Impeachment? Because The 2020 Election Rigging Has Already Begun

Ken AshfordElection 2020, L'Affaire Ukraine, Trump & Administration, Trump ImpeachmentLeave a Comment

Greg Sargent: One of the strongest arguments made by experts testifying against President Trump is that he poses a present and continuing threat to our democracy. By adopting the stance that extorting a foreign leader into helping him rig the election was perfectly fine, Trump has confirmed he’ll keep using the levers of government to continue to corrupt it on his behalf. … Read More

Breaking: Pelosi Announces Drafting Of Articles Of Impeachment

Ken AshfordBreaking News, L'Affaire Ukraine, Trump & Administration, Trump ImpeachmentLeave a Comment

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces drafting of articles of impeachment against President Trump. “Sadly, but with confidence and humility, with allegiance to our founders and a heart full of love for America, today I am asking our chairmen to proceed with articles of impeachment."- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced this morning https://t.co/NHl24GyU1o pic.twitter.com/9bqXZWhXNy — Mother Jones (@MotherJones) December 5, 2019 … Read More

Justice Department IG Likely To Ignore Conspiracy Theories In His Report . . . Because There’s No There There, And Rudy Gets Dirt From The Corrupt Ukrainians

Ken AshfordL'Affaire Ukraine, Republicans, Trump & Administration, Trump ImpeachmentLeave a Comment

The report from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz on the origins of the investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016 has still not been released, though every indication is that the core report was completed weeks, if not months, ago. But while that report is still getting some final edits around the DOJ, one thing … Read More

House Begins Live Impeachment Hearings

Ken AshfordCourts/Law, L'Affaire Ukraine, Trump & Administration, Trump ImpeachmentLeave a Comment

Three constitutional scholars invited by Democrats to testify at today’s impeachment hearings will say that President Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine for political gain clearly meet the historical definition of impeachable offenses, according to copies of their opening statements. The three law professors are appearing in the first impeachment hearing before the House Judiciary Committee as it kicks off a … Read More

The Triumph

Ken AshfordL'Affaire Ukraine, Trump & Administration, Trump ImpeachmentLeave a Comment

Jennifer Rubin: Some observers of the impeachment hearings conducted under the auspices of the House Intelligence Committee bizarrely concluded that the proceedings lacked “pizzazz.” While that is a ridiculous metric for evaluating an inquiry into gross misconduct by the president, no one will find the report on those hearings and on other evidence boring. It’s got pizzazz to spare. First, the nuts … Read More

The Phone Records In The Impeachment Report

Ken AshfordL'Affaire Ukraine, Trump & Administration, Trump ImpeachmentLeave a Comment

In addition to summing up the findings from weeks of testimony in the House impeachment inquiry, Intelligence Committee Democrats’ new report has a surprising inclusion — the phone records of several major players involved in the scandal, including President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), a member of the committee, confirmed on CNN that investigators subpoenaed these phone records. And while the … Read More

Views On The Republican Prebuttal

Ken AshfordL'Affaire Ukraine, Republicans, Trump & Administration, Trump ImpeachmentLeave a Comment

The Republican staff report is as predictable as a typical Trump tweet—and as mendacious. It assails and belittles the Democrats’ effort to investigate whether Trump muscled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to initiate investigations that would dig up dirt on Joe Biden and produce information to back up a nutty conspiracy theory that holds that Ukraine, not Russia, hacked the 2016 election. And … Read More