The impeachment trial is finally underway in the Senate, with everyone taking oaths and opening briefs filed. And oh lordy, there are tapes. New evidence keeps coming out—the GAO finds that the Trump administration broke the law by withholding aid to Ukraine, the DOJ starts handing over a boatload of documentary evidence from Lev Parnas (which, oh my!)—and the Senate won’t commit to allowing new witnesses or evidence.

Here’s what happened on the impeachment front for the week ending January 19…

General Happenings:

1. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds that Trump and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) violated the law by withholding military aid to Ukraine. They violated the Impoundment Control Act because it was a policy delay, not a programmatic delay.

• • The GAO also says the OMB and State Department have refused to cooperate and provide their office with the information needed to complete their investigation.
  • The OMB disagrees with the findings, despite the fact that OMB officials struggled for weeks to find a legal justification for the hold.

2. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) says that it was right to withhold the aid even though it broke the law.
3. U.S. diplomats express disappointment with Mike Pompeo for remaining silent on the issue of potential surveillance of one of their own and for not defending former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.
4. Possibly as a result of all the information revealed in Lev Parnas’s documents, Ukrainian officials announce an investigation into potentially illegal surveillance of former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. Pompeo says the U.S. will also investigate whether she was under threat.
5. Trump adds Alan Dershowitz and Kenneth Starr to his legal team, which already includes Pat Cipollone, Michael Purpura, and Jay Sekulow.
6. Ukraine asks the FBI for help in their investigation of a cyberattack by the Russian military against Burisma, the company on whose board Hunter Biden served. 

7. The House votes to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate.
8. Speaker Pelosi names these Representatives to be impeachment managers: Adam Schiff, Jerrold Nadler, Zoe Lofgren, Hakeem Jeffries, Val Demings, Jason Crow, and Sylvia Garcia.
9. Pelosi and the House managers all sign the articles of impeachment in an “engrossment ceremony,” after which Pelosi gives the House managers commemorative pens. She gets flack for it, but they did it for Clinton’s impeachment, too. The far-right says the pens cost over $2,000 apiece, and also that they’re gold plated. The pens actually cost $15.
   
10. The House managers deliver the articles of impeachment to the Senate, and Adam Schiff reads aloud the articles of impeachment in the Senate well.
11. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is sworn in to preside over the trial. He administers the oath to each member of the Senate:
    “Do you solemnly swear that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of Donald John Trump, president of the United States, now pending, you will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws, so help you god?”
12. Democrats continue to argue for hearing from witnesses and including any new evidence, while Republicans are mostly fighting it (there are a few exceptions).
13. After much debate on several amendments, the Senate votes on the rules of the trial. Here are a few (rules in italics have already been broken):

• • Senators can’t check their phones during trial proceedings.
  • Senators can’t talk with each other during trial proceedings.
  • Senators should remain in their seats at all times.
  • Senate staff access is restricted.
  • Access to journalists is restricted.
  • The Senate will vote on whether or not to allow witnesses and new evidence after both sides have presented their cases.

14. In the middle of the impeachment trial for pressuring a foreign government, Trump pressures European countries to officially accuse Iran of breaking the JCPOA and threatens them with 25% tariffs on their automobiles if they don’t.

More Trouble for Parnas, Fruman, and Giuliani:

1. The House releases documents and voice mail messages they received from Lev Parnas that link Trump to the pressure campaign to get Ukraine to announce investigations into the Bidens.

• • This comes in the form of text messages, emails, letters, handwritten notes, voicemails, and audio recordings.
  • The documents outline work Giuliani and Parnas did on behalf of Trump.
  • They include exchanges between Parnas and former Ukrainian prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko.

• • • Texts show that Lutsenko helped Giuliani smear former Ambassador Yovanovitch and fed Giuliani dirt on the Bidens.
    • Lutsenko wanted Yovanovitch out, and agreed to help Giuliani in his mission if Giuliani would help Lutsenko get rid of Yovanovitch.
    • We also know that Lutsenko later recanted much of what he told Giuliani, but much of what he told Giuliani had already been reported by The Hill columnist John Solomon (who was also involved with Parnas and Giuliani). This is how most of the Ukraine conspiracy theories gained traction.
    • Parnas says that Trump and Giuliani let Lutsenko manipulate them when it came to Yovanovitch.

• • The documents include a May 10, 2019, letter from Giuliani requesting a meeting with President Zelensky. It also says that Trump had “knowledge and consent” of what Giuliani was doing. Remember that on May 7, Zelensky met with key advisors to try to figure out how to navigate Trump’s and Giuliani’s insistence that Ukraine open an investigation into the Bidens.
  • There’s a text from Fox News lawyer Victoria Toensing asking if there’s an absolute commitment for her Yovanovitch to be gone. What’s her interest in Yovanovitch?
  • On April 23, Giuliani texted Parnas to say Trump fired Yovanovitch again. For a guy who made a living off of saying “you’re fired,” he sure had a hard time actually getting it done.
  • There are handwritten notes on hotel stationery memorializing conversation about getting Zelensky to announce the investigations.

2. After the document dump, Parnas goes on the Rachel Maddow show to get his story out. He weaves some stories that are hard to believe, but he’s been backing it up with receipts. His documentary and text evidence backs him up in many cases.
3. Parnas tells the New York Times that he feels bad for trusting Giuliani and Trump. He also tells Maddow that he was wrong about Yovanovitch.
4. Parnas says Trump knew exactly what was going on in Ukraine with Giuliani and Parnas, and that Trump was directly involved in the pressure campaign to get Ukraine to investigate the Bidens. Trump and others have argued that Trump didn’t know everything Parnas and Giuliani were up to.
5. Parnas also implicates Mike Pence and Attorney GeneralWilliam Barr. He says Pence was in charge of the Ukraine project (including getting Zelensky to announce investigations).
6. A second dump of the evidence from Parnas’s devices includes messages between Parnas and Derek Harvey, an aide to Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA). Harvey was arranging interviews with Ukraine officials who claimed the Bidens were guilty of wrongdoing.

• • Harvey also met with Parnas, Giuliani, and journalist John Solomon at the Trump Hotel.
  • Solomon worked with Parnas on articles about these Ukraine conspiracy theories.
  • Their texts also talked about Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma.
  • Harvey gave Parnas contact information for Nunes, and phone records indicate that Nunes and Parnas did speak.
  • Harvey asked Parnas to look into “rumors” about any coordination between Clinton’s campaign and the Ukrainian government to find dirt on Paul Manafort.
  • Nunes has denied knowing Parnas, but was forced to acknowledge that the two had spoken.
  • The documents include text messages exchanged between Robert Hyde and Parnas indicating that Hyde had Yovanovitch under surveillance, including details of her activities.

• • • The FBI has already been to Robert Hyde’s home and office.
    • Hyde says he was just joking with Parnas.
    • Oh yeah, and Hyde is running for Congress.
  • The documents show that Giuliani and Parnas were trying to secure a visa for Viktor Shokin, the prosecutor Joe Biden (and other allied countries) worked to oust.

7. Supporters of Trump argue that we can’t trust Parnas because he’s a thug, but Parnas is backing up his story with receipts.
8. The newly released evidence puts a little pressure on the Senate to include new evidence in the impeachment trial.

Opening Briefs:

1. The House managers file a 111-page brief laying out their case against Trump for the Senate impeachment trial.

• • The brief explains the allegations against Trump—that he withheld both military aid approved by Congress and a White House meeting with the Ukrainian president in order to pressure Ukraine to announce and open investigations into the Bidens and Ukraine conspiracy theories.
  • It argues that Trump compounded the problems by obstructing the House investigation, and by doing so, disrupted our system of checks and balances.
  • The brief outlines the material facts gathered from the weeks of testimony and available evidence, including the GAO’s recent report and documents newly obtained by a FOIA request.
  • It emphasizes that trying to bring in a foreign country to interfere in a U.S. election is something our Founders would consider an attempt to corrupt our democratic processes.
  • The brief argues that Trump must be removed because he “will continue to endanger our national security, jeopardize the integrity of our elections, and undermine our core constitutional principles.”

2. Trump’s legal team responds a seven-page rebuttal, and will file their brief next week.

• • The response doesn’t address the charges directly but instead says that Trump didn’t do anything wrong and that the impeachment is unconstitutional.
  • They argue that there was no crime. (Constitutional scholars say that isn’t necessary.)
  • They also argue that the American people should decide, not Congress. (That’s not how the constitution defines impeachment.)
  • Since Zelensky said the call was OK, they argue it must’ve been.
  • They say two witnesses exonerated Trump because Trump told them he wasn’t doing a quid pro quo.