Good Morning. This looks like the week to impeach the third president in our Nation's history. It's necessary, imo, but it doesn't feel good. It shouldn't be necessary, however, it is.
I thought that when we reached this week, I would feel a sense of relief, instead, I feel quite uneasy about what happens next.
Just after midnite, the Judiciary Committee released its impeachment report.
It's damning. The report, a 169-page assessment of the case for Trump’s removal from office, contends that Trump committed “multiple federal crimes†— ones that Democrats addressed under the broad umbrella of “abuse of power,†the first article of impeachment against the president.
(snip)
Those investigations were valuable to Trump personally, and he used his official power to schedule a state visit and withhold military aid to obtain them, the panel says.
These actions are a “corrupt†use of Trump’s authority that satisfies the final element of a bribery crime, Democrats argue.
The committee also alleges that Trump violated the honest services wire fraud statute during the July 25 phone call, as well as during a separate phone call a day later with Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union. Those “foreign wire communications†were done “in furtherance of an ongoing bribery scheme,†according to the report.
“Fundamentally, the president has deprived the American people of the honorable stewardship that the nation expects and demands of its chief executive," the panel alleges, noting that the federal wire fraud statute imposes a 20-year imprisonment.
Criminal. Federal crimes including bribery and wire fraud are alleged to have ben committed and an entire party is trying to tell the entire country that this is very acceptable behaviour. That the punch in the gut feeling I have today.
That what he's doing is fine. It's not fine. It's criminal. Meanwhile, the 7:35 Am impeachment update at
WaPo has some interesting information. In a letter Sunday to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Schumer outlined a number of procedural demands that Democrats say would make the Senate trial fair and able to be completed “within a reasonable period of time.â€
That includes subpoenas issued by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. for acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney; Robert Blair, a senior adviser to Mulvaney; former national security adviser John Bolton; and Michael Duffey, a top official at the Office of Management and Budget. Mulvaney, Blair and Duffey had been subpoenaed by the House committees and defied the summons; Bolton has not been subpoenaed but indicated he would fight one in court.
Let's see where this goes, it really is a horrible place we've been forced into, but here we are.

and
Raine