Donald Trump has suffered fresh humiliation after world leaders Boris Johnson, Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron were filmed apparently laughing behind his back at a Nato reception at Buckingham Palace in London. The US president slammed the Canadian prime minister as "two-faced" to reporters shortly after, while announcing the abrupt cancellation of a press conference later that day, saying he would insteads be returning home.
Back in Washington, the House Judiciary Committee was preparing to hold its first public impeachment hearing into the president after House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff published a damning 300-page report detailing “overwhelming evidence of misconduct” by Mr Trump and his inner circle over Ukraine, with call records dragging Rudy Giuliani and Devin Nunes further into the scandal.
The committee will open the next stage of the impeachment inquiry by going over the report’s findings and taking testimony from four constitutional scholars as the president wraps the second day of the summit in Hertfordshire.
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The House Judiciary Committee is now taking a break from the public impeachment hearings.
Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, notes how she has been present for all three modern presidential impeachments. The congresswoman was a former Hill staff member during the impeachment of former President Richard Nixon. She later served in the House of Representatives during the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton.
She now says Donald Trump tried to "convince a foreign ally to announce a political investigation into his rival".
As The Independent's Andrew Feinberg notes, Donald Trump did the exact wrongdoing the Republicans' key witness is saying would result in an impeachable obstruction of justice -
Full quote from House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler on that moment: "I note that this is the moment in which the White House would have had an opportunity to question the witnesses, but they declined their invitation."
House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler notes the White House would have been provided an opportunity just now to offer their own testimony and give evidence in the impeachment inquiry, but since the administration declined he was beginning with his time for questioning.
In case you're wondering who the Republicans hired to question today's witnesses during the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump -
This analysis comes from a former Watergate prosecutor -
Here's the key moment from the Republicans' witness testimony that has already been shared far and right by the right-wing corners of the web -
A note from The Independent's Andrew Feinberg as he watches the impeachment proceedings from within the room:
"Taylor now appears to be arguing that the impeachment probe is illegitimately political because many Democrats supporting it come from districts that voted for Hillary Clinton. He also notes, apropos of nothing, that most political contributions from lawyers and law professors in 2016 went to Clinton."
Doug Collins has now yielded to Minority Counsel Paul Taylor.
Professor Karlan expertly laid out the case for impeachment in this moment below:
Republican Doug Collins appears to be focusing all of his questioning almost exclusively on the party's witness, Jonathan Turley, who he has let expound on his position about the impeachment into Donald Trump setting a potentially "dangerous precedent" for future presidents.
Here's a key moment from today's House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearings into Donald Trump:
"It has not been explained to me why you want to set the record for the fastest impeachment", Jonathan Turley, the Republicans' key witness today, testifies.
Professor Turley on bribery: "If you’re going to accuse a president of bribery, you have to make it stick — close enough isn’t good enough,” he says, calling it “unfair” to “accuse the president of a crime” even though no one is talking about criminal charges here."
The Republicans' witness appears to argue the framers of the US Constitution would only support impeachment over a case of bribery if money was in fact exchanged, sharply contrasting the view of Professor Karlan.
Republican Doug Collins begins opening the hearing by complaining about how cold it is inside the room where the impeachment proceedings are being held. He is also complaining about the seating arrangements, saying: "This seat is terrible!"
Republican Jim Jordan told The Independent's Andrew Feinberg: "I think it’s going fine for the president -- the facts haven’t changed, the facts have always been on the president’s side.”
Here's more from The Independent's Andrew Feinberg as he chats with politicians during the break: "I caught Rep. Raskin on his way out during the break. When I asked the former professor how “class” was going, he flashed a big smile, gave a thumbs up and replied: 'A+'"
House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler has called for a ten minute recess, jokingly calling it a "humanitarian" recess.
