Trump news: Public impeachment hearings set to begin within weeks, as president travels to Mississippi for rally
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The House impeachment inquiry is zeroing in on two White House lawyers who allegedly played a role in the moving of a memo of Donald Trump’s controversial phone call with the leader of Ukraine to a highly-restricted computer system.
Investigators are seeking further details from John Eisenberg and Michael Ellis after two witnesses suggested officials took extraordinary steps to shield access to the memo.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump has announced he will be moving his permanent residence to Florida after leaving office, complaining that he has been “treated very badly” by political leaders in New York.
In response, New York governor Andrew Cuomo said: “Good riddance. It's not like Donald Trump paid taxes here anyway…”
In New York, The Independent visited Trump Tower, took a stroll through Central Park, and visited other hotspots in the city to find out if anyone was offended that Mr Trump had moved his permanent residence — and got a resounding, metaphorical shrug.
We also learned on Friday that a key Ukrainian official who was on the 25 July phone call with between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian president had been told not to discuss the call with anyone, after he raised concerns.
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The top economic advisor in the White House, Larry Kudlow, has claimed there are no plans to get rid of Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell, in spite of Donald Trump's frequent attacks on the leadership of the central bank.
"There is no conversation to get rid of him whatsoever. Whatsoever. So let me just put an exclamation point there," Mr Kudlow said.
Among the historic votes in Congress this week was a House vote recognizing the systematic massacres of Armenian Christians in the early 20th century — and representative Ilhan Omar is taking some heat for how she voted.
Ms Omar voted "present" on the resolution, and has been criticised for her explanation, which some say echoes language used by Turkey to deny the genocide.
Explaining her vote, Ms Omar said that recognition of genocide and mass atrocities should be done outside of politics, and instead be "based on academic consensus".
Just a day after the House impeachment vote, Nancy Pelosi has said she expects the House to hold public hearings at some point this month.
"I would assume there would be public hearing in November," she told Bloomberg, and said that she believes the case against Mr Trump must be iron clad before they go forward with it.
AOC is not ashamed of where she comes from, try as the right might to attack her for once being a bartender:
Elizabeth Warren hasn't been spending much time in Washington lately as she mounts her insurgent 2020 campaign, but she says she will head back should the House pass impeachment.
"I'll be there," Ms Warren said of heading back for the impeachment hearings in the Senate, should they be warranted.
According to the ACLU, the Trump administration has just proposed a rule that would allow for taxpayer-funded child welfare agencies to turn away foster parents simply because they are gay, should it fail to meet the organisation's religious litmus test.
The effort is the latest by the Trump administration to attack LGBTQ rights in the US under the guise of religious liberties. It is likely to be challenged, too.
In some bizarre Trump related news, a man is suing Twitter for suspending his account, and contends that he was silenced at least in part because of his love of Donald Trump.
Actually, love may be too soft of a word, as he claims that he was targeted for promoting the president, who he said was "nothing short of miraculously elected by God into the Presidency".
The man, Adrian Rangel, has apparently had his account reactivated, but is still seeking $1 billion in damages, according to the blog Above the Law.
So much has been happening in the news related to Donald Trump's impeachment, that it might be easy to forget that the long investigation conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller is still having an impact on the political scene.
On 5 November, Mr Trump's longtime political adviser Roger Stone is set to go on trial in federal court, where he faces accusations that he lied under oath, and obstruction of justice.
Worth watching for that potentially explosive trial.
From the White House pool:
Conway declined to say who was the point person for the impeachment inquiry for the White House.
She said impeachment is “certainly possible.”
On the impeachment vote yesterday, Conway said “The opposition was bipartisan,” referring to the 2 Democrats who voted against the resolution.
She said Pelosi was putting her swing-district members at risk by holding that vote. She accused Democrats of ignoring issues like healthcare, education and national security, while they try to impeach and investigate the President.
She refused to disparage Lt. Col. Vindman but said the White House disagrees with some of his testimony and lawyers will settle that.
Conway continued to call the impeachment inquiry “unconstitutional” and said the resolution vote did not change that because “Do you think you can actually apply due process retroactively?” She said leaks and lies by Democrats have already tarnished the inquiry process and now the genie cannot be put back into the bottle.
With the primary season headed into the home stretch, it's worth a reminder that the US Federal Election Commission — which is tasked with overseeing campaign finance law in the US — has been effectively toothless for two months, and does not have enough commissioners to enforce federal laws.
What that means in 2020 could be anybody's guess, with campaigns potentially taking advantage of that lapse in oversight.
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