The Republican Party “will not survive” Donald Trump’s impeachment trial if Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell’s “corrupt” conduct continues, a chief White House ethics lawyer under George W Bush has warned.
Richard Painter’s admonition comes on the likely eve of a historic impeachment vote in the House amid a brewing battle over the shape of a near-inevitable trial in the Senate, with minority leader Chuck Schumer weighing his options over how to best ensure the president is held to account.
Meanwhile, one of the president's former campaign managers was sentenced to three years of probation and 45 days in jail for charges stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
Rick Gates, an associate of Paul Manafort, committed tax evasion and skirted federal lobbying laws by concealing millions of dollars they received in Ukraine. Gates pleaded guilty in 2018. Manafort is currently serving a seven and a half year sentence.
As the House prepares to vote on impeaching the president on obstruction charges, Mr Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani admitted that he wanted ousted Ukraine envoy Marie Yovanovitch “out of the way”, suggesting he fed the president “gossip” in order to turn him against her.
The House Rules Committee is debating the process for the vote in Congress, which is set for Wednesday.
But Senate leaders McConnell and Schumer are in a tug of war over how to proceed with the Senate's impeachment trial.
Mr McConnell rejected Mr Schumer's request for witnesses and accused Democrats of trying to "short circuit" the hearings.
Mr McConnell had previously boasted that he was in "total coordination" with the White House over impeachment strategy, raising criticisms against Republicans for their apparent hypocrisy while underlining the active obstruction charges against the president.
Hello and welcome to The Independent's live coverage of the day's events in Washington, where the House of Representatives is expected to vote on Donald Trump's impeachment within days.
Giuliani admits he wanted ousted Ukraine envoy ‘out of the way’
Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, accused of ending the career of a US diplomat because her presence in Ukraine interfered with his private, allegedly inappropriate outreach, has admitted he wanted her “out of the way”, Andrew Buncombe reports.
During testimony before Congress last month, Marie Yovanovitch claimed the former New York city mayor was behind a “campaign of disinformation” that led to her being recalled early from Kiev, and said he had “kneecapped her”.
“I do not understand Mr Giuliani’s motives for attacking me, not can I offer an opinion on whether he believed the allegations he spread about me,” she told the House Intelligence Committee.
Former White House ethics lawyer warns GOP 'will not survive' a 'corrupt' impeachment trial
Richard Painter, an Independent who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under George W Bush from 2005 to 2007, has described Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell's conduct as "corrupt and partisan beyond the pale" and threatening the existence of the Republican Party.
His choice words came in response to Democrat allegations that Republicans are preparing for a "rigged" trial in the Senate, with some abandoning any pretence that they have not already pre-judged the case against Mr Trump, rather than act as faithful jurors.
Former Trump campaign staffer to be sentenced for Russia probe crimes
Donald Trump's former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates will be sentenced on Tuesday, 22 months after pleading guilty to charges brought by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Prosecutors have asked the judge for a lenient sentence that could include probation rather than prison time, citing his "extraordinary assistance" since Gates pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and special counsel's office and conspiracy against the United States.
Gates delivered testimony that helped convict Republican operatives Roger Stone and Paul Manafort.
Gates appeared as a star witness for the prosecution in three trials.
He testified against his former business partner and mentor Manafort, who served as Trump's campaign chairman and was convicted of financial fraud in August 2018 and is now serving a seven-and-a-half year prison sentence.
Gates also testified against Stone, Trump's longtime adviser who was convicted by a jury last month in Washington of lying to Congress, obstruction and witness tampering. His sentencing is set for February.
Lastly, Gates testified against Greg Craig, who served as White House counsel under Barack Obama and was acquitted in Washington in September of lying to authorities about work he performed for Ukraine.
At the hearing set for 10 am (1500 GMT), the judge could sentence Gates to up to nearly five years in prison.
More than 700 scholars write letter calling for president’s removal
A group of more than 700 historians, legal scholars and others published an open letter on Monday urging the House of Representatives to impeach Donald Trump, denouncing his conduct as "a clear and present danger to the Constitution", The Washington Post's Felicia Sonmez reports.
The letter's release comes two days before the house is expected to vote on two articles of impeachment.
"Mr Trump's lawless obstruction of the House of Representatives, which is rightly seeking documents and witness testimony in pursuit of its constitutionally-mandated oversight role, has demonstrated brazen contempt for representative government," the scholars write in the letter.
Read more detail here:
Parnas due in court as prosecutors seek to revoke his bail
Rudy Giuliani's associate Lev Parnas, who is aiding the congressional impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump, is expected to appear in court today.
Federal prosecutors are attempting to have him jailed for allegedly concealing a $1m payment they said he received from Russia before his arrest.
Lev Parnas, who has been charged with violating campaign finance laws, has denied hiding the payment. The Ukraine-born US citizen has been living under house arrest in Florida since October.
Prosecutors say Mr Parnas and another Florida businessman, Belarus-born Igor Fruman, illegally funneled money to a pro-Trump election committee and other politicians. Prosecutors said the illegal donations included money given by a Russian businessman to various state and federal candidates as part of an effort to promote a marijuana business.
They claim Mr Parnas poses an "extreme" risk of fleeing the country, adding he had "considerable ties abroad and access to seemingly limitless sources of foreign funding."
Political fate of anti-impeachment defector lies in Trump's hands, analysts say
Jeff Van Drew's future in politics may well hinge on how forcefully he is backed by Donald Trump, whose impeachment the lawmaker is refusing to support.
The longtime Democrat told his staff two days ago that he will become a Republican, promting at least six of Van Drew's top aides to resign.
Now, the 66-year-old former state legislator, who's been a political powerhouse in his New Jersey district, must figure out how to survive in the 2020 election – a race in which local Democrats now despise him and Republicans don't want him elbowing them aside.
While there's been no word on whether Mr Trump will help him win the GOP nod in next June's primary or aid him during next November's general election, analysts say the president's backing will be crucial.
Mr Trump praised the former Democrat on Monday night, calling him "very popular in our great and very united Republican Party".
Giuliani doubles down in attacking former Ukraine envoy
Mr Trump's personal lawyer has claimed Marie Yovanovitch was denying visas to Ukrainians who wanted to "come to the US and explain Democratic corruption" in the country, hours after suggesting he fed the president "gossip" about her in order to turn him against her.
He also accused her of committing perjury during her testimony to the impeachment inquiry – for which she was widely lauded, even receiving a standing ovation in a nearby jazz bar in the days that followed.
Senate leaders expected to meet to battle over shape of impeachment trial
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and his counterpart Chuck Schumer are due to meet this week to discuss the details of a trial early next year, despite the House not yet having voted to impeach the president.
Mr Schumer on Monday sent an open letter to Mr McConnell, asserting that there should be at least four witnesses during the trial, including acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, his senior adviser Robert Blair, and Mr Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton.
There is growing support for Democrats to hold impeachment charges over the president and top Republicans "like a sword of Damocles" until they agree to a lengthy and considered trial, with the veteran Democrat expected to try to punish the GOP in the eyes of voters ahead of 2020, if the trial offered is not deemed satisfactory.
Conservatives launch super PAC to fight Trump's re-election and punish 'enablers'
A small group of Donald Trump's fiercest conservative critics, including the husband of the president's own chief adviser Kellyanne Conway, is launching a super PAC designed to fight his re-election and punish congressional Republicans deemed his "enablers."
Dubbed the Lincoln Project, represents a formal step forward for the so-called Never Trump movement, which has been limited largely to social media commentary and cable news attacks through the first three years of Trump's presidency.
Organisers hope to fundraise for a months-long advertising campaign in a handful of 2020 battleground states to persuade disaffected Republican voters to break from Trump's GOP.
The mission of "defeat President Trump and Trumpism at the ballot box" is outlined in a website that launched on Tuesday coinciding with a New York Times opinion piece, which states: "The president and his enablers have replaced conservatism with an empty faith led by a bogus prophet."
House Dems to unveil zero-emissions bill later today
House Democrats are set to unveil a bill that aims to zero out emissions from drilling, mining and other activities on federal land and waters by 2040.
The committee said the legislation would create a pathway for the Interior Department and Forest Service, which oversee federal land and waters, to achieve the net-zero goal.
But unless the party gains ground in the Republican-controlled Senate and unseats Donald Trump in next year's election, it is unlikely to become law.
Handful of Republican senators could derail White House and McConnell's plans for swift, bare impeachment trial
A small group of GOP senators who have so far kept quiet on the subject of Donald Trump's impeachment could be the deciding factor in a fight to shape the likely impending trial in the senate.
While majority leader Mitch McConnell has pledged to work in "total co-ordination" with the White House, aiming to give the president as quick and easy a trial as possible, it would take just four rebel Republican votes to throw these plans into disarray.
CNN reports potential candidates for this role could include moderates up for re-election, like Susan Collins, or veteran Republicans who are retiring and therefore feel less bound to support Mr Trump, like Lamar Alexander. There are also outspoken critics of the president, like Mitt Romney, who could wish for a more extensive trial.
If four Republicans were to vote in favour of a trial with further witnesses and documentation – as minority leader Chuck Schumer called for on Monday – the president may be in for a bumpier ride than expected come January.
Matt Gaetz claims 'this impeachment is over'
Speaking to Fox News, the Trump ally restated Republican complaints that the impeachment is not the "bipartisan" affair pledged at the outset by Nancy Pelosi.
The Florida representative – who drew heavy criticism on Thursday for shaming Hunter Biden's history of drug use as he proposed an amendment to the articles of impeachment put forward by the House Judiciary Committee – also claimed Democrats had "failed to deliver on their promises to produce direct evidence" of Mr Trump's wrongdoing.
Giuliani's actions regarding ousted Ukraine envoy means US 'seeing foreign election interference play out before our eyes'
CNN's Jim Sciutto suggests Rudy Giuliani's recent statements about ousted ambassador Marie Yovanovitch amount to foreign election interference in that he was "seeking damaging information on political opponents from foreign sources of questionable credibility".
"The lesson of Mueller and impeachment appears to be: this is now acceptable," he says.
CNN's Jim Sciutto suggests Rudy Giuliani's recent statements about ousted ambassador Marie Yovanovitch amount to foreign election interference in that he was "seeking damaging information on political opponents from foreign sources of questionable credibility".
"The lesson of Mueller and impeachment appears to be: this is now acceptable," he says.
Following Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's letter demanding that the Senate introduce witnesses as part of Donald Trump's likely impeachment trial, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — who has been criticised as trying to rig the trial's outcome — is on the floor calling the process the “most rushed, least thorough and most unfair impeachment inquiry in recent history”.
McConnell — who has admitted to coordinating with the White House on the president's defence — accused Schumer of trying to "short circuit" the trial process.
He said he prefers an in-person meeting to go over the plan with Schumer.
Schumer and McConnell in tug of war over Senate impeachment trial
After Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's request for witnesses in the president's impeachment trial, Schumer is asking McConnell to give explicit reasons why the Senate won't call any.
Schumer: "Impeachment trials, like most trials, have witnesses. To have none would be an aberration. ... What are they afraid the witnesses are going to say?"
McConnell — who said he's in "total coordination" with the White House as the House prepares to vote on impeachment and send Donald Trump to an impeachment trial — had accused Schumer of trying to "short circuit" the trial process with demands for Trump appointees to appear as witnesses.
Schumer: "There's a grand tradition in America: The right to a fair and speedy trial. [McConnell] seems to be obsessed with 'speedy' and wants to throw 'fair' out the window."
Trump to meet with Guatemala president over asylum rules
Later today, Donald Trump will be meeting with the president of Guatemala, who the president has praised for "being the first Central American leader to sign and implement the historic Asylum Cooperation Agreement with the United States."
The agreements made with Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras would deport asylum seekers fleeing violence and poverty and force them to seek asylum in those countries before entering the US.
The White House says the US "will continue to work with Guatemala and our partners in the region to advance economic growth and prosperity."
The House Rules Committee is set to begin debate over rules for the upcoming impeachment vote in the House.
Chair Jim McGovern is giving a damning opening statement making clear where he stands: the president's actions "jeopardized national security and undermined democracy."
He said the president withheld military aid "to a country under siege to extract a personal political favour, not as a matter of US policy, but for his own benefit. That is wrong. If that is not impeachable conduct, I don’t know what is."
Republican Chair Tom Cole objects to the impeachment, which has says has been a "flawed and partisan since day one."
He asks why Congress is "plunging" the US "into turmoil and trauma now" when voters will decide the fate of the president's term in office a year from now.
Cole also says pushing for impeachment that "knowing full well at the end of the day the president will remain in office" without the votes for impeachment in the Senate is futile.
"This is a sad day for all of us," he said.
Democrat Jamie Raksin, defending the passage of impeachment articles, is outlining the charges against the president and arguing why the Constitution's framers gave Congress the powers of impeachment, which he says the president is trying to undermine by behaving "like a king" and seeking to "actively destroy his own check" to power.
