By: Ken Bredemeier

Key players in the impeachment trial of President Trump and his defense argued sharply Sunday whether his efforts to get Ukraine to launch investigations to benefit him politically were impeachable offenses that warranted his removal from office.

Trump’s Senate trial formally opened last week and is set to hear opening arguments on Tuesday. But combatants in the political and legal fight over Trump’s fate waged verbal battles across the airwaves on Sunday morning news talk shows in the U.S. that offered a glimpse of the Senate drama the American public will witness in the days ahead.

Criminal defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz, one of the team of lawyers defending Trump, told CNN’s “State of the Union” show that he will tell the 100 members of the Senate, who are acting as jurors deciding Trump’s fate, that “even if the facts as presented are true, it would not rise to the level of impeachment” to convict Trump and oust him from office.

The lawmakers will be deciding whether Trump committed “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the standard the U.S. Constitution set for removing a president from office. As the trial nears, the Republican-majority Senate remains highly unlikely to convict Trump, a Republican, since a two-thirds vote against Trump would be necessary to oust him from the White House.

Trump last July asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to launch an investigation of one of his top 2020 Democratic challengers, former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden’s work for a Ukrainian natural gas company, and a debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine sought to undermine Trump’s 2016 campaign.  The phone call between the two leaders happened at the same time Trump was temporarily blocking release of $391 million in military aid Kyiv wanted to help fight pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Dershowitz argued that Trump’s actions did not amount to criminal conduct. He said that “if my argument prevails” and the Senate decides no impeachable offenses occurred, “There’s no need for witnesses” at Trump’s Senate trial and “the Senate should vote to acquit [Trump] or dismiss” the case against him.

Congressman Adam Schiff, the leader of seven House of Representative managers prosecuting the case against Trump, told ABC News’ “This Week” show, “The facts aren’t seriously contested, that the president withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to an ally at war with Russia, withheld a White House meeting that the president of Ukraine desperately sought to establish with his country and with his adversary the support of the United States in order to coerce Ukraine to helping him cheat in the next election.”

Schiff added, “They really can’t contest those facts. So the only thing really new about the president’s defense is that they’re now arguing that because they can’t contest the facts that the president cannot be impeached for abusing the power of his office.”

On Saturday, both the House lawmakers pushing for Trump’s conviction, and Trump’s defenders, filed legal arguments in the case.

The House managers said it was clear that the “evidence overwhelmingly establishes” that Trump is guilty of both charges in the two articles of impeachment he is facing.

Meanwhile, Trump’s legal team called the impeachment effort against him “a dangerous attack on the right of the American people to freely choose their president.”

His lawyers called the impeachment effort “a brazen and unlawful attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election and interfere with the 2020 election, now just months  away.”

But Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee that heard weeks of testimony about Trump and his aides’ attempts to pressure Ukraine for the Biden investigations, said the White House legal stance is “surprising in that It doesn’t really offer much new beyond the failed arguments we heard in the House.”

“So the only thing really new about the president’s defense is that they’re now arguing that because they can’t contest the facts that the president cannot be impeached for abusing the power of his office,” Schiff said. “That’s the argument I suppose you have to make if the facts are so dead set against you. You have to rely on an argument that even if he abused his office in this horrendous way that it’s not impeachable. You had to go so far out of the mainstream to find someone to make that argument you had to leave the realm of constitutional law scholars and go to criminal defense lawyers.”

The Senate has yet to decide whether it will hear witnesses in the impeachment trial, with new testimony opposed by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

Democrats want to subpoena former national security adviser John Bolton, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and others to testify about their knowledge of Trump’s Ukraine actions. Trump eventually released the Ukraine military aid in September after a 55-day delay without Zelenskiy launching the Biden investigations, which Republicans say is proof that Trump did not engage in a reciprocal quid pro quo deal — the military aid in exchange for the investigations to help him politically.

“We’ll be fighting for a fair trial,” Schiff said. “That is really the foundation on which this all rests. If the Senate decides, if Senator McConnell prevails and there are no witnesses, it will be the first impeachment trial in history that goes to conclusion without witnesses.”

He said, “We don’t know what witnesses will be allowed or even if we’ll be allowed witnesses. The threshold issue here is, will there be a fair trial? Will the senators allow the House to call witnesses, to introduce documents. That is the foundational issue on which everything else rests. There is one thing the public is overwhelmingly in support of and that is a fair trial.”

One of Trump’s staunchest Senate defenders, Sen. Lindsey Graham, on the “Fox News Sunday” show, called the impeachment effort “a partisan railroad job. It’s the first impeachment in history where there’s no allegation of a crime by the president.”

He said if Democrats demand to hear testimony from Bolton, Mulvaney and others, Trump will seek to invoke executive privilege against their testimony to protect the sanctity of private White House conversations.

“Clearly to me any president would ask for executive privilege regarding these witnesses,” Graham said, adding that if they were that important to the House case against Trump, Democrats should have sought their testimony during the House investigation.

Democrats did seek more testimony from White House aides, but Trump ordered them to not cooperate with the impeachment investigation; several aides complied with Trump’s edict while others did not. Democrats dropped their efforts to compel some testimony out of a fear that it would result in a lengthy legal battle that could have been tied up in U.S. for months.

Trump is spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago retreat along the Atlantic Ocean in Florida. Late Saturday, he resumed his almost daily attacks on the Democrats’ impeachment campaign against him, saying on Twitter, “What a disgrace this Impeachment Scam is for our great Country!”  (VOA News)

By Steve Herman & Ken Bredemeier

President Trump and members of his administration are disparaging claims by a former associate of his personal attorney that he was fully aware of pressure applied on Ukraine to launch an investigation of a political rival and thus potentially benefit Trump’s re-election chances.     

The accusations are being made by Lev Parnas, who is under indictment for funneling foreign contributions to U.S. political candidates.“

This is the current hoax,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Thursday afternoon. “He’s trying to probably make a deal for himself.”

Earlier, White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham, in a statement, said Parnas’ allegations come from “a man who is currently out on bail for federal crimes and is desperate to reduce his exposure to prison.”

The comments come as the impeachment trial of the president formally began on Thursday after the House of Representatives delivered to the Senate charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress by the president.   

In interviews with U.S. news outlets, Parnas said the president was aware of attorney Rudy Giuliani’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to launch investigations of one of the top Democratic Party challengers, former Vice President Joe Biden, to benefit Trump politically in his campaign for another term in the White House.

Ukrainian authorities on Thursday said they have opened an investigation into whether Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Kyiv, was illegally spied on before Trump abruptly recalled her last year and then dismissed the envoy.

Trump aides, according to impeachment investigators, viewed the career U.S. diplomat as an impediment to opening an investigation of Biden. 

The announcement from Ukraine comes two days after Democratic lawmakers pushing for Trump’s removal from office released documents supplied by Parnas, who had been working with Giuliani, showing the lawyer communicating about Yovanovitch’s removal from the diplomatic posting and tracking her movements in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. 

Parnas, who is a U.S. citizen, also alleges Vice President Mike Pence tried to get Ukraine to announce an investigation of Biden.

“I don’t know the guy,” Pence responded when asked by a reporter in Florida about Parnas. The vice president called Parnas’ charge that he was aware that all outreach to Zelenskiy was about getting Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, “completely false.”

Counselor to the president, Kellyanne Conway, also criticized the media attention Parnas is receiving, suggesting he does not merit being interviewed.

“I would just caution against that because being against Donald Trump doesn’t mean that you are honest or trustworthy or a good person or not under criminal indictment,” she told reporters on the White House driveway outside the West Wing.  

Trump’s bid to press Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for the Biden investigation and his son Hunter Biden’s work for Burisma, a Ukrainian natural gas company, are at the center of the Senate impeachment trial.

Trump “knew exactly what was going on,” Parnas told MSNBC in an interview broadcast Wednesday night. Parnas asserted the president is lying when Trump claims not to know who he is.

Asked by reporters on Thursday about Parnas, Trump acknowledged the former Giuliani associate was one of the “thousands and thousands” of people with whom he had taken photos as president.“

Perhaps he’s a fine man. Perhaps he’s not,” said Trump. “I never had a conversation that I remember with him.”

The New York Times quotes Parnas as saying, “I am betting my whole life that Trump knew exactly everything that was going on that Rudy Giuliani was doing in Ukraine.”  

Trump has denied sending Giuliani, his personal lawyer, to Ukraine to look for dirt on Biden. Parnas told MSNBC that Trump “was aware of all my movements.” 

Parnas told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that Trump’s interest in Ukraine was never about rooting out government corruption in the eastern European country, but “all about Joe Biden, Hunter Biden.”

Asked by a reporter on Thursday if Parnas would be a credible witness considering he is under federal indictment, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi replied, “There seems to be documentation that validates what Parnas is saying.”  

In an interview to be aired Thursday evening on CNN, Parnas said all the president and his team really wanted was the announcement from Kyiv there would be a probe “because nobody trusted them to do an investigation.”  

Trump temporarily withheld $391 million in military aid to Ukraine awaiting such an announcement by Zelenskiy, but Trump eventually released the assistance without any probe being announced.

That temporary freezing of the security assistance violated U.S. law, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent government watchdog agency, said in a report on Thursday.   

A document provided to the House Intelligence Committee by Parnas includes messages from Robert Hyde, who is running for Congress from the state of Connecticut and is a Trump campaign donor.   

In those exchanges last March 23, two months before Yovanovitch was ordered back to Washington, Parnas was informed about her physical location in Ukraine. 

Hyde, in one message to Parnas, said he had a “private security” company tracking Yovanovitch’s movements.

“She’s talked to three people. Her phone is off. Computer is off,” wrote Hyde.

In another message, Hyde told Parnas, “They will let me know when she’s on the move.” 

In the MSNBC interview, Parnas said he did not take Hyde’s claims seriously. 

Rep Eliot Engel called the exchanges between Hyde and Parnas “profoundly alarming” and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which he chairs, will try to find out whether the State Department knew about the surveillance of Yovanovitch at the time Hyde said it was occurring.

Parnas has also implicated Attorney General William Barr, who is the country’s top law enforcement officer.  

When asked by MSNBC if Giuliani told him he had spoken to Barr about Ukraine, Parnas replied, “Not only Rudy Giuliani. … Attorney General Barr was basically on the team.” 

The Justice Department calls the claim by Parnas “100 percent false.” 

In different circumstances, a special prosecutor, under the Justice Department, would be appointed to look into this, Pelosi told reporters

“Does anybody think the rogue attorney general is going to appoint a special prosecutor?” asked Pelosi. “No, because he is implicated in all of this.” 

The top Republican in the House, backing up the Trump administration, is dismissing Parnas’s claims. 

“This man lacks all credibility,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters on Thursday. (VOA News)

Congressional support for CAIR likely to generate concern in pro-Israel community

By: Adam Kredo

More than 120 members of Congress privately issued letters of support to a controversial Islamic-American advocacy group known for its involvement in one of America’s most prominent terrorism financing cases, according to a copy of these official communications obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), an advocacy group with deep ties to the anti-Israel movement in America, touted its support among congressional leaders during its 2019 gala conference in November in Washington, D.C. Prominent opponents of the pro-Israel community, including anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), headlined the conference.

A copy of CAIR’s conference agenda, obtained by the Free Beacon and published here for the first time, includes well over 100 letters from Democratic and Republican members of Congress, all of whom expressed their support for the controversial organization. Democrats issued the majority of the letters, with only two coming from Republican members of Congress.

The breadth of congressional support for CAIR is likely to generate concern in the pro-Israel community, which has long been at odds with the advocacy group due to its promotion of anti-Israel activists and causes.

Democratic 2020 presidential contenders Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.), and Tom Steyer all penned letters of support. Prominent Democrats such as Omar, Reps. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich), and Eric Swalwell (D., Calif.) also lent their support to CAIR’s agenda, according to materials reviewed by the Free Beacon.

CAIR has long been central to the anti-Israel movement in America.

“CAIR’s anti-Israel agenda dates back to its founding by leaders of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), a Hamas affiliated anti-Semitic propaganda organization,” according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which combats anti-Israel bias. “While CAIR has denounced specific acts of terrorism in the U.S. and abroad, for many years it refused to unequivocally condemn Palestinian terror organizations and Hezbollah by name, which the U.S. and international community have condemned and isolated.”

CAIR is also known for its involvement in a fundraising scheme tied to the Muslim Brotherhood that sought to support the Hamas terror organization. That case, known as the Holy Land Foundation trial, unearthed evidence that CAIR and its founders sought to lend backchannel support to Hamas.

In fact, “the Federal Bureau of Investigation has distanced itself from CAIR over the years,” according to the ADL. “In an April 2009 letter to the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security, the FBI explained that it suspended contact with CAIR because of evidence introduced during the Holy Land Foundation trial, demonstrating that CAIR and its founders were part of a group set up by the Muslim Brotherhood to support Hamas.”

Additionally, in 2014, CAIR was placed on the United Arab Emirates’s terrorism list for alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood organization. (Washington Free Beacon)

Edited by: TJVNews.com

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has signed the articles of impeachment against President Trump and delivered them to the Senate so a trial can begin next week.

Pelosi used a number of pens to put her name on the documents and handed them out to various Democratic committee chairmen whose efforts have led to the president’s impeachment.

The impeachment managers — lawmakers who will act as prosecutors — joined the House clerk and sergeant at arms, who hand-carried the articles to the Senate chamber. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the formal acceptance will not to take place until Thursday.

At that time, Chief Justice John Roberts, who will oversee the trial, will be sworn in and then he will swear in the impeachment managers.

Earlier Wednesday, the Democratic-led House voted its approval of the impeachment managers largely along party lines. They include Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler.

As Pelosi announced the impeachment managers at a morning news conference, Trump tweeted the impeachment was “another Con job by the Do Nothing Democrats.”

The House impeached Trump last month on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. But Pelosi put off submitting the articles of impeachment as House Democrats tried to get Senate leaders to agree to allow testimony from new witnesses during the trial.

McConnell has resisted calling witnesses, saying that decision would come later in the trial.

White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham accused Pelosi of holding the articles of impeachment “in an egregious effort to garner political support.”

“She failed and the naming of these managers does not change a single thing,” Grisham said in a statement. “President Trump has done nothing wrong. He looks forward to having the due process rights in the Senate that Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats denied to him, and expects to be fully exonerated.”

Pelosi said if the Senate launches the trial without witnesses, the American people will see it “as a pure political cover-up.”

“McConnell and the president are afraid of more facts coming to light,” she said.

The trial will begin Tuesday and will likely last several weeks.

Trump is accused of abusing his power by pressuring Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, who served on the board of a gas company in Ukraine, as Trump withheld $391 million in military aid that he later released. The president is also accused of subsequently obstructing a congressional probe into his actions.

Trump insists he did nothing wrong and has dismissed the impeachment effort as a “witch hunt.”

“While we’re creating jobs and killing terrorists, Democrats in Congress are wasting America’s time with demented hoaxes and crazy witch hunts,” he told supporters at a Tuesday night campaign rally.

No matter what rules are in place for the Senate trial, Trump seems to be safe from the prospect of being convicted and removed from office.

His Republican Party holds a 53-47 majority in the chamber, and conviction requires a two-thirds majority, meaning if all Democrats voted to convict, then 20 Republicans would have to also vote that way for Trump to be convicted and removed from office.

Democrats also released documents that include new details from Florida businessman Lev Parnas, an associate of Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, about Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other officials.

The evidence includes a handwritten note from Parnas on stationery from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Vienna that says “get Zalensky (sic) to Announce that the Biden case will be investigated.”

Also disclosed was screenshot of a previously undisclosed letter Giuliani sent in May to the then-president-elect, introducing himself as Trump’s “personal counsel” and requesting a meeting with Trump’s “knowledge and consent.”

Communications between Parnas, Giuliani and others about the firing of U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovich, who balked at Trump’s demand for an investigation of the Bidens, were also released.

This is the third time in the country’s 244-year history a U.S. president has been impeached and targeted for removal from office.

Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 were both impeached by the House but acquitted in Senate trials. A fourth president, Richard Nixon, resigned in 1974 in the face of certain impeachment in a political corruption scandal. (VOA News)