Trump news: Republicans attempt to stonewall impeachment hearing as witnesses outline damning evidence to remove president
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has claimed victory after Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz released his report claiming that the FBI did not pursue a politically motivated investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign — but that agents did tend to favour damaging evidence over exculpatory evidence as the investigation continued.
The report was released as House Judiciary Committee presented and reviewed the evidence accumulated so far in the impeachment inquiry, with charges against the president expected to be drawn up by the end of the week ahead of a potential pre-Christmas vote in the House of Representatives.
During the hearing, Democrats sought to impress upon the American people that the evidence against Mr Trump was nearly undeniable.
Republicans, meanwhile, did their best to throw the hearing off the traicks and raise as many distractions as possible.
The president is meanwhile under fire for hosting pardoned war criminals - army first lieutenant Clint Lorance and major Mathew Golsteyn - at a Florida Republican Party fundraising dinner over the weekend.
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The House Judiciary Committee will hear today from two staff counsel members - one who worked for the Democratic members of the committees investigating the president, named Barry Berke, and one who worked fro the Republicans, Steve Castor.
Mr Berke is beginning with his opening remarks.
Here's The Independent's Clark Mindock with more on the protestor who interrupted today's hearings:
A host on the far-right US conspiracy and disinformation website InfoWars has been removed from the latest impeachment hearing by police, after interrupting House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler with pro-Donald Trump messages.
The interruption came from a host on the fringe conservative website who led a racist call earlier this year for the lynching of Barack Obama, America's first African American president.
The host was seen being led out by Capitol Police after the interruption on Monday, shortly after the start of the hearings in which politicians are to question the counsels hired by the House Intelligence Committee to spearhead questioning during earlier impeachment hearings.
"Americans are sick of your impeachment scam! Trump is innocent!" said the protester, Owen Shroyer.
Florida Republican Matt Gaetz has left the room and declined to answer questions from The Independent's Andrew Feinberg about whether he was interested in hearing from the Democratic counsel Barry Berke.
House Democratic Counsel Barry Berke is laying out how the truth "is consistent with the evidence" in the impeachment against Donald Trump, while "the facts are clear that President Trump put his own interests ... ahead of the nation's" -
"This is a big deal. President Trump did what a president of our nation is not allowed to do ... Trump's actions are impeachable offenses. They threaten out rule of law. They threaten our institutions ... They threaten our republic."
Barry Berke is employing some useful graphics to help breakdown the impeachment process in a more simplistic fashion:
Matt Gaetz has returned to his seat. He told The Independent's Andrew Feinberg he was "getting an update on the terrorist attack that took place at Pensacola Naval Air Station in his district this weekend."
Here's video of Barry Berke's opening statement, in which he has repeatedly employed past clips of key impeachment witnesses to lay out an expert-level case against the president:
Republicans are attempting to claim that Barry Berke's opening remarks were not "parliamentary". House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler noted the parliamentary rules do not apply to witnesses.
The House committee is attempting to move on to House Republican counsel Steve Castor's opening remarks, but being continually blocked by Republicans.
A roll call vote is now underway.
A note from The Independent's Andrew Feinberg as he watches the hearings from inside the room:
Mike Johnson is attempting to strike Berke’s statements about the President from the record using a rule that applies to members, not witnesses. The committee is now voting on a motion to table his motion to have Berke’s words “taken down.”
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