Trump acquitted in historic impeachment vote as re-election campaign looms

Trump was acquitted largely along party lines on two articles of impeachment approved by the Democratic-led House of Representatives on Dec. 18

President Donald Trump was acquitted on Wednesday in his U.S. Senate impeachment trial, saved by fellow Republicans who rallied to protect him nine months before he asks voters in a deeply divided America to give him a second White House term.

The businessman-turned-politician, 73, survived only the third presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history – just like the two other impeached presidents – in his turbulent presidency’s darkest chapter. Trump now plunges into an election season that promises to further polarize the country. Trump was acquitted largely along party lines on two articles of Donald Trump impeachment approved by the Democratic-led House of Representatives on Dec. 18. The votes to convict Trump fell far short of the two-thirds majority required in the 100-seat Senate to remove him from office under the U.S. Constitution.

The Senate voted 52-48 to acquit Trump of abuse of power stemming from his request that Ukraine investigate political rival Joe Biden, a contender for the Democratic nomination to face him in the Nov. 3 election. Republican Senator Mitt Romney joined the Democrats in voting to convict. No Democrat voted to acquit. The Senate then voted 53-47 to acquit him of obstruction of Congress by blocking witnesses and documents sought by the House. Romney joined the rest of the Republican senators in voting to acquit on the obstruction charge. No Democrat voted to acquit…

Russia hacked Ukrainian gas firm at center of Trump’s impeachment

Russia’s GRU spy agency launched a “phishing” attack in November to access the email of Burisma Holdings employees, California cyber firm Area 1 Security said in a report

Russian spies hacked a Ukrainian energy company at the center of the impeachment trial of US President Donald Trump, a cybersecurity firm said Monday. Russia’s GRU spy agency launched a “phishing” attack in November to access the email of Burisma Holdings employees, California cyber firm Area 1 Security said in a report.

“The timing of the GRU’s campaign in relation to the 2020 US elections raises the specter that this is an early warning of what we have anticipated since the successful cyberattacks undertaken during the 2016 US elections,” Area 1 co-founders Oren J. Falkowitz and Blake Darche said in the eight-page document. Donald Trump was impeached in December over allegations that he improperly pressured Ukraine to announce an investigation into Burisma and its links to former board member Hunter Biden, the son of the president’s election rival Joe Biden.

The GRU figured heavily in the Mueller report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign, which concluded that Russia hacked the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton’s campaign to help Trump. The president triggered wide alarm in Washington in July 2018 after he met President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki and appeared to take at face value Putin’s denials of Russian meddling. In a July 2019 phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump pushed for Kiev to investigate a debunked Kremlin conspiracy theory that Biden, one of the Democrats most likely to challenge Trump for the White House in November, had tried to quash a graft probe of Burisma to protect his son…

Trump impeachment hearings begin Wednesday. Here’s how it will unroll

Currently, the charges are expected to be abuse of power and obstruction of the investigation

The start of open hearings in the impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump on Wednesday will give the American public their first chance to witness live the explosive showdown between Democrats and Republicans over the US leader’s future.

The hearing before the House Intelligence Committee marks the second phase of the impeachment investigation into allegations that Donald Trump abused his powers by seeking help for his 2020 reelection campaign from Ukraine. Trump is under threat of becoming only the third president in US history to be impeached — formally charged with violating his duties as president or committing crimes, and placed on trial in the Senate.

With Democrats in control of the House of Representatives, impeachment appears highly likely, as soon as the end of 2019. But the Republicans hold a majority in the Senate, a bulwark against him being convicted and removed from office — unless they turn against him. There is still much to do, but analysts believe the entire process could be completed before the end of January.

On Wednesday, the House Intelligence Committee takes the impeachment investigation public after six weeks of closed-door depositions from White House, State Department and other officials.,,

Donald Trump pushes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to hold impeachment vote

Many constitutional law experts disputed the White House legal analysis, and it’s not clear that Trump would be any more cooperative if the House did vote

International News: President Donald Trump is pushing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to hold a formal vote on impeachment, a move that would change the politics of the probe more than its legal standing.

Trump this week escalated his fight against the Democratic-led investigation of his dealings with Ukraine with a letter from the White House counsel that contends the administration cannot cooperate with an inquiry that is “invalid” in part because the full House hasn’t voted to investigate. Many constitutional law experts disputed the White House legal analysis, and it’s not clear that Trump would be any more cooperative if the House did vote.

A decision whether to call the president’s bluff is likely to be a main topic when Pelosi convenes a conference call with House Democrats at the end of the week. Representative Dan Kildee of Michigan, one of the leadership’s vote counters, said Democrats could easily pass a resolution authorizing the impeachment inquiry with as many as 230 votes.

But Gerald Connolly of Virginia, a senior Democrat and a member of a committee leading the inquiry, said there are plenty of reasons not to hold that vote. “Caving to their phony demands could — in an odd way — have unintended consequences of actually empowering their various arguments,” he said of the White House and Republicans. Connolly also pointed to shifting public opinion, as evidenced in polls, in favor of the inquiry even without a House vote….

Trump allies Giuliani, Pompeo, Barr drawn deeper into impeachment focus

The rapid-fire developments expanded the potential scope of the House’s inquiry, which began last week after revelations of Trump’s call with Zelensky

Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, his Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Attorney General William Barr were all drawn deeper into the House impeachment inquiry after new details of the administration’s foreign contacts emerged on Monday.

Three House committees said they had subpoenaed Giuliani for records of his dealings with Ukraine on Donald Trump’s behalf. And Mike Pompeo was among those listening in on a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to a person familiar with the matter. That conversation is central to the impeachment investigation.

Barr has asked Trump to contact “other countries” for help with a probe into the origins of the Justice Department’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in an email. The prosecutor leading the investigation, U.S. Attorney John Durham, “is gathering information from numerous sources, including a number of foreign countries,” she said.

The New York Times reported that Trump recently asked Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to assist Barr in his probe, and the Washington Post reported that Barr has held meetings overseas with foreign intelligence officials to seek their help….