Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is attempting to rescue two legally and structurally deficient articles of impeachment rushed from the Lawfare community in the House of representatives.   However, in his first effort to introduce new documents and force the Trump administration to hand over new executive branch information, related to President Trump foreign policy decisions and delayed foreign aid to Ukraine, the Schumer amendment was defeated.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell moved to table the amendment, dismissing the request, and won a floor vote as all republican senators stayed united 53-47.

It is anticipated that Schumer will next move for another amendment making the same request for new State Department documents the House committees did not seek.
The primary reason Chuck Schumer has to make this ridiculous effort for more evidence, is how the House never established their ability to enforce subpoenas via “Judicial Enforcement Authority”.  The failure of a full House vote to authorize the House Judiciary Committee to pursue evidence -via enforceable subpoenas- was a defect by design of Nancy Pelosi’s decision to initiate an impeachment inquiry by her decree, not an authorizing vote.
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Texas Senator Ted Cruz appears on Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo for a lengthy discussion of the upcoming senate impeachment trial.  Senator Cruz does not currently support subpoenas for witnesses; however, if the full senate votes to call prosecution witnesses Cruz would support reciprocal witnesses for President Trump.
Senator Cruz walks through the anticipated process including the “scheduling order” or senate rules within the impeachment process.  Twelve hours of prosecution, twelve hours of defense, sixteen hours of senator questioning, and then possibly a vote.

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A response to the formal summons from the Senate, notifying the Executive Office of the President of impeachment proceedings, was due at 6:00pm ET today.   The White House has responded [WH pdf link – and embed below] with a seven-page position answer.

[Via White House] THE HONORABLE DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, HEREBY RESPONDS:
The Articles of Impeachment submitted by House Democrats are a dangerous attack on the right of the American people to freely choose their President. This is a brazen and unlawful attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election and interfere with the 2020 election—now just months away. The highly partisan and reckless obsession with impeaching the President began the day he was inaugurated and continues to this day.

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Senator Ted Cruz appears for a discussion on the Senate impeachment trial.  Cruz walks through the most likely scenario of 24 hours prosecution case (two or three days), then 24 hours of defense case (two or three days); then the individual Senators submitting questions to the Chief Justice, John Roberts, to ask both sides.   This phase of the process should take two to three weeks total.  Then the issue of “witnesses” will be debated.

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While the first week is unfolding in the Senate, President Trump will be attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and negotiating more economic benefits for the U.S.  Quite a remarkable contrast.
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Remarkable interview between the attorney for Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell, on WMAL radio with Larry O’Conner.  Ms. Powell describes the current status of the case and the filings to withdraw the guilty plea.  Additionally, Ms. Powell drops a bombshell in that they have a witness to the original Flynn-302 the government says doesn’t exist.
O’Conner does a great interview because he understands the background and details to the case.  His probing questions allow Ms. Powell to share valuable insight.
The original FBI report is reported to have statements to the effect that Michael Flynn was not lying.  The prosecution says no such FBI FD-302 report exists; however, Ms. Powell now shares that they have a witness to it.   [Audio Below]  Just hit play on toolbar:

Sickening.  Earlier today Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a media event signing ceremony complete with commemorative pens for dozens of her Democrat colleagues, and initiated the parade ceremony for the march across the Capitol with the articles.  Upon arrival at the upper chamber of congress, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell accepted delivery and began the process of organizing the procedure through a series of rules by unanimous consent.

[McConnell] “A few minutes ago, the Senate was notified the House of Representatives is finally ready to proceed with their articles of impeachment. So, by unanimous consent, we’ve just laid some of the groundwork that will structure the next several days.”

• We have officially invited the House managers to come to the Senate tomorrow at noon to exhibit their articles of impeachment.
• Then, later tomorrow afternoon at 2:00pm, the Chief Justice of the United States will arrive here in the Senate. He will be sworn in by the President Pro Tem, Senator Grassley.
• Then the Chief Justice will swear in all of us senators. We will pledge to rise above petty factionalism and do justice for our institutions, for our states, and for the nation.
• And then we will formally notify the White House of our pending trial and summon the President to answer the articles and send his counsel.

‘So the trial will commence in earnest on Tuesday.

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Today Nancy Pelosi announced seven House “impeachment managers” who will transmit the two articles of impeachment from the House to the Senate.
Speaker Pelosi selected: Adam Schiff (HPSCI Chairman – lead), Jerry Nadler (HJC Chairman), Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Rep. Val Demings (D-FL), Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX).

It does not seem accidental that Pelosi’s team of Lawfare advisors selected Adam Schiff and Zoe Lofgren who are two of the key people who helped construct the fraudulent whistle-blower complaint; and both of whom would be fact witnesses if the ‘whistle-blower’ is called into question. By announcing them as prosecutors for the House Pelosi is attempting to isolate them from testimony.
As we predicted in early 2019, the democrats will use great fanfare to create a spectacle of delivering the physical impeachment articles to the Senate.  Remember Pelosi with the parade and big gavel in 2010 on the day they passed the partisan Obamacare bill?
Today’s grand optical parade will be promoted for the same intents and purposes.
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There was a major discrepancy in the Inspector General report on FISA abuse, that appears to have been overlooked and casts a considerable cloud upon the DOJ Office of Inspector General and Michael Horowitz.
In chapter ten of the report, on page #312 you will find the following information.  The claim is that no-one in the FBI initiated any use of “Confidential Human Sources” into the campaign prior to opening the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.  Read Carefully:

(Page #312 – pdf link)

“In our review, we did not find any evidence that the FBI used CHSs or UCEs to interact with members of the Trump campaign prior to the opening of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.”…

However, in the very next chapter (#11, page #400), in the original IG report as released on December 9th, 2019, you will find the following statement:
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When we see that justice is measured, not by due process, but by compulsion; when we see that in order to invoke our right to due process, we need to obtain permission from those who rebuke the constitution; when we see that justice is determined by those who leverage, not in law, but in politics; when we see that representatives get power over individual liberty by graft and by scheme, and our representatives don’t protect us against them, but protect them against us; when we see corruption holding influence and individual liberty so easily dispatched and nullified; we may well know that our freedom too is soon to perish….

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CTH is often criticized for being too accurate outlining the schemes, and not putting enough emphasis on what actions can be done -by ordinary Americans- to counteract the duplicity and corruption amid DC politicians. Well, last year we outlined exactly what YOU can do when we wrote “STAND“.
It is the responsibility of each of us to stand, defiantly if needed, and support a President who is waging a battle against multiple adversaries on our behalf. “Stand” means be visible. “Stand” means let your voice be heard. “Stand” means telling your republican representatives what your expectations are. They represent us; WE are the people.
Why is this important?
Well, we cannot, we must not, count on Republican senators to do the right thing.  If there is one lesson we have all learned through the years it is that our representatives will only do the right thing if We The People demand it… loudly.  With impeachment moving to the Senate, the republican members must hear our voices loudest.

“Stand“?

Your decision.

Find Your Senator Phone Number HERE

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This is a little weedy, but it’s important….

In the second half of Devin Nunes interview with Maria Bartiromo today he was asked his thoughts about the FISA Court selecting David Kris as an FBI surveillance and compliance monitor.  The issue is quite important because the FBI FISA reforms and promises are essentially meaningless without some form of structural review process.
However, the new 2020 FISC Presiding Judge James Boasberg selecting David Kris has been noted by several people as a rather weak effort on behalf of the court.

As an outcome of our former FISA-702 reviews CTH has an entirely different reason for questioning the selection of Kris; there’s much more substantive reasons to be alarmed about it; but first here’s the general consensus opposition:

WASHINGTON – The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) has stunned court-watchers by selecting David Kris — a former Obama administration lawyer who has appeared on “The Rachel Maddow Show” and written extensively in support of the FBI’s surveillance practices on the left-wing blog Lawfare — to oversee the FBI’s implementation of reforms in the wake of a damning Department of Justice inspector general report last year.
[…]  “Of all the people in the swamp … this is the guy that you come up with?” Nunes asked. “The guy that was accusing me of federal crimes? The guy that was defending the dirty cops at the FBI? … The court must be trying to abolish itself. There is long-term damage.”

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