Crime in Progress

Impeachment Day.  Yesterday, during a comparatively tame session of the House Rules Committee led by Democratic Chairman Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and Republican Ranking Member Tom Cole of Oklahoma rules were set for today’s impeachment proceedings. Notably House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler missed the meeting, he was out dealing with his wife’s health emergency and sent Representative Jamie Raskin in his place.  Both Nadler and California’s Ted Lieu, who was out last week for an unplanned heart procedure, are expected back for today’s vote.  Though the whole impeachment process kicks off at 9 ET this morning, the Committee agreed to allow six hours for debate so actual voting isn’t expected to take place until this evening.  Absent any truly dramatic event, like Trump pulling the House fire alarm or a zombie apocalypse, the outcome isn’t in doubt as more than a sufficient number of Democrats, and former Republican/Independent Justin Amash, have already announced their intentions to vote for impeachment.  So far only two Democratic House members are voting “no,” Minnesota’s Collin Peterson who is “waiting” for more damning evidence and New Jersey’s Jeff Van Drew, who appears to have gone through with his plans to become a Republican.  He should fit in well among his new colleagues because like Senators Graham and Cruz and House Minority Leader McCarthy until recently he’s had nothing but really hateful things to say about Trump.  Peterson reports that Republican leadership invited him to switch parties too but that he demurred. Although three Democrats from Trump districts still haven’t announced how they will vote, twenty-five have said they will vote for impeachment with Maine’s Jared Golden riding the fence, he will vote “yes” for abuse of power but “no” for obstruction of Congress.    

Freak Out Aisle Trump:  Despite all his bluster, Trump isn’t handling the impeachment thing all that well.  Yesterday he delivered a six page rambling and incoherent letter to Speaker Pelosi.  In the letter, which was littered with a lifetime supply of explanation points, he called the impeachment a “star chamber of partisan persecution” and an “attempted coup,” he referred to the FBI as “totally incompetent and corrupt” and accused Pelosi and her party of “fabricating lies, ”  and that was the nice stuff. Basically, he’s projecting, accusing the Democrats of doing all the things that he’s been doing.  The letter was written on White House stationary but no one in the White House counsel’s office would take any credit for its contents.  It’s thought that it was written by Trump with the help of his very charming sycophant Stephen Miller.  By contrast during his impeachment, instead of lashing out, Bill Clinton apologized for his misdeeds, but then again, while he had engaged in some obstruction, he hadn’t tried to extort an ally in exchange for election assistance.  A number of former federal prosecutors said that though Trump’s letter was extreme, they’ve seen similar ones before, but only from the guiltiest of defendants.  Though he generally speaks only when called from his crypt and directed by Mother, VP Pence, who earlier promised to release all the details of his conversations with Ukraine’s President Zelensky, now says that he won’t allow the public to see the additional information provided by his national security aide Jennifer Williams to the House Intelligence Committee. Judging by Intel Committee Chairman Adam Schiff’s push to get Williams’ newest disclosure out in the open, it’s fair to assume that it must incriminate Pence and/or Trump.  As to incrimination, Rudy Giuliani continues to tell anyone and everyone who’ll listen about all the bad things that he’s done on behalf of Trump while also claiming that when the time is right he’ll reveal some really incriminating stuff about Joe Biden.  In the meantime, a number of prominent Republicans are ramping up their opposition to Trumpism.  Yesterday seven of them including George Conway, Kellyanne’s husband, and Steve Schmidt, the McCain aide who had been working on Starbucks’ Howard Schultz short lived independent campaign, have launched the Lincoln Project PAC.  They plan to use the PAC’s funds to  thwart Trump’s reelection and to help those running against his Republican enablers.   

Moscow Mitch:  Senate Leader McConnell is acting about as well as expected, meaning he’s doing his best to be uncooperative and sadly, he is really skilled at that.  Yesterday he took to the Senate podium to attack Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, claiming that by going public with the names of the witnesses that he’d like to see called to testify at the upcoming Senate trial Schumer had violated the norms of impeachment process, a pretty absurd and ironic accusation from McConnell given his history of trampling norms, his treatment of Obama court nominee Merrick Garland and how he’s forced a large number of truly incompetent, but incredibly right wing, judges on to the courts.  McConnell made it clear that given his druthers he won’t allow any of Schumer’s hoped for witnesses, Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, former security advisor John Bolton, senior advisor to the Chief of Staff Blair and OMB official Michael Duffey, anywhere near the stand.  That said, the final decision on who gets called to testify will go up for a vote and it’s possible that a few Republicans will conclude that facilitating some testimony is the right thing to do for their own careers and reputations.

Only the Best:  Yesterday Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced Paul Manafort’s partner in crime Rick Gates to 45 days in jail and three years of probation.  She expressed appreciation for his cooperation with prosecutors but, despite their request for greater leniency, she felt his crimes warranted some prison time and a longer than recommended probation period. Clearly exasperated by Trump and Attorney General Barr’s comments about the legitimacy of the Mueller investigation, she took the time to remind everyone how justified it was by summarizing some facts, saying  "In total, more than $75 million flowed through the offshore accounts. Manafort laundered more than $18 million, which was used by him to buy property goods and services in the United States, income that he concealed from the United States Treasury, the Department of Justice and others. Gates transferred more than $3 million from the offshore accounts to other accounts that he controlled.”  Adding “those are facts. Those are not alleged facts, those are not alternative facts, or a narrative created by the media.”  As to Manafort, yesterday it was reported that due to a recent cardiac event, he has been temporarily transferred to a prison hospital.  We also learned some more details about the $1 million that Giuliani crony Lev Parnas forgot to disclose to federal prosecutors.  Apparently that money was “loaned” to his wife by a Swiss lawyer representing indicted Ukrainian oligarch/Putin guy Dmitry Firtash.  Firtash who is currently under house arrest in Vienna fighting extradition to the US is represented in the US by the Trump and Giuliani approved legal team of Victoria Toensing and Joseph diGenova who also serve as Fox legal experts.  This story goes on and on and absent his removal from office Trump is only going to do more bad things.  As Nadler stand-in Jamie Raskin said yesterday Trump’s conduct is ”not some kind of surprising aberration or deviation in his behavior for which he is remorseful.  On the contrary, Trump is completely unrepentant and defiantly declares his behavior here 'perfect,' indeed 'absolutely perfect…..it will take place again and again.”  In other words the crime is in progress.