Trump news: House votes to send articles of impeachment against president for Senate hearing
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Your support makes all the difference.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has named her seven impeachment managers to prosecute the case against Donald Trump during his upcoming Senate trial.
Congress voted 228-193 to send the two articles of impeachment against the president to the Senate with Ms Pelosi's chosen House prosecutors.
The vote was predictably along party lines, with 192 of the "no" votes coming from Republicans, joined by only one Democrat.
Ms Pelosi's appointment of the case managers followed the release a trove of damning new evidence detailing the Trump administration’s efforts to extort a political favour from Ukraine obtained from Lev Parnas, a business associate of Rudy Giuliani, which has already prompted ex-US ambassador Marie Yovanovitch to call for a new investigation as it appeared Mr Giuliani's cronies had spied on her in Kiev.
Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler, who joins Adam Schiff and five other Democrats as part of the prosecution team headed to the Senate, said that if the Senate doesn't permit the introduction of all relevant witnesses and of all documents the House wants to introduce, "then the Senate is engaging in an unconstitutional and disgusting cover-up."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says a trial will likely begin on 21 January.
The Senate might consider witnesses after opening statements are made, Mr McConnell has said.
As the House debated before a vote, the president signed a "phase one" trade deal with China as part of an apparent easing of tensions between Washington and Beijing after the two exchanged retaliatory tariffs last year.
His "landmark" deal followed last night's address to fans in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he advocated the looting of Syria’s oilfields (a war crime), suggested 36th president Lyndon Johnson is in hell and raved about the problem of inadequate water pressure in American dishwashers, sinks and showers on another eccentric night at the podium.
Follow live coverage as it happened:
Team Trump predictably responds to latest impeachment vote
As Donald Trump is to become the third president in history to face their removal from office in a Senate trial, the president's campaign manager Brad Parscale said the delay on a vote to send articles to the Senate is "just a failed attempt to politically damage President Trump leading up to his re-election."
He repeated claims by the president that the investigation is a "sham" and deflected accusations that Russian-backed groups manipulated the run-up to the president's 2016 win by claiming that Democrats are "trying to interfere in an election" in 2020.
On Twitter, Donald Trump Jr defended his dad's trade agreement with China as standing up for "America's working class" and called the impeachment a three-year-long "smear campaign".
From The Independent's man in Washington, Andrew Feinberg reports:
If Donald Trump follows the example of the two US presidents who were impeached before him, he will not be at his upcoming Senate impeachment trial.
But the historic clash between his attorneys and the House Democrats charged with presenting the case against him will give Mr Trump a chance to vicariously face off against a longtime nemesis: House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff.
Schumer: 'It's time for us to turn to the serious job of conducting a fair trial'
Chuck Schumer is making the case to his Senate colleagues to bring in witnesses and evidence to Donald Trump's impeachment trial, especially in light of damning new documents on Lev Parnas, one of Rudy Giuliani's associates.
House Democrats are setting up the trial as not just the culmination of the charges against Trump for his abuses of power and obstruction, but as an indictment of the Senate itself, should it choose to forge ahead without any witnesses or evidence.
Democrats have accused Senate Republicans of facilitating a cover-up.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says they might consider witnesses after opening statements when the trial begins next week.
Meanwhile, REM joins the long list of artists taking a "Stand" against their music being played at Donald Trump's campaign rallies.
Guitarist Mike Mills says the band is "exploring all legal avenues to prevent this."
Judge blocks Trump's refugee resettlement order
A federal court judge in Maryland has blocked Donald Trump's executive order that would allow governors to stop refugees from resettling in their states.
US District Judge Peter Messitte said Trump's executive order "does not appear to serve the overall public interest."
"Refugee resettlement activity should go forward as it developed for almost 40 years" before the order was signed in September.
Governors in 39 states — including 17 Republican governors — say they plan to continue settling refugees in their states.
Greg Abbott of Texas is the only governor who has said he would not accept new refugees into the state.
In a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week, Governor Abbott said that Texas has "carried more than its share" in resettling people seeking asylum or escaping warn-torn regions, extreme poverty and persecution.
Who is Robert Hyde, you ask? The Independent's Chris Riotta on the latest figure to enter the impeachment fray:
A Republican who donated thousands of dollars to Donald Trump has found himself at the heart of explosive new revelations surrounding the president's impeachment after suggesting he placed the former US ambassador to Ukraine under surveillance.
Robert Hyde, a GOP candidate running for Congress in Connecticut, appeared to inform associates of the president's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani that he was monitoring US Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch as she travelled throughout Ukraine.
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