Here’s the last installment on impeachment, as the Senate votes to acquit almost right along party lines. The only dissenter from the GOP is Mitt Romney, who after a stirring speech, votes to remove on the first article of impeachment. I’m sure there will be more impeachment news still to come, but I’ll include it in my regular recap going forward. I’ll leave you with this trove of all the publicly available documents related to the impeachment, including those released from FOIA requests: https://www.justsecurity.org/67076/public-document-clearinghouse-ukraine-impeachment-inquiry/#RelatedLitandFOIA

Here’s what happened on the impeachment front for the week ending February 9…

General Happenings:

1. Here’s a good round-up of the House managers’ arguments for impeachment and the legal defense’s arguments against.
2. On Monday, House managers and Trump’s defense give closing arguments in the impeachment trial, and senators debate the issue.
3. On Tuesday, Trump gives the State of the Union on Nancy Pelosi’s invitation.
4. On Wednesday, the Senate votes to acquit with nearly all senators voting along party lines (with the exception of Mitt Romney, who breaks ranks with Republicans to vote to impeach on the first article).
5. The acquittal was widely expected, as there was no way the needed number of Republicans would vote to remove (I think 20 Republicans would’ve needed to vote for that).
6. Moderate Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) proposes that the Senate censure Trump as a way for the body to unite across party lines and formally denounce Trump’s actions around Ukraine.

• • That proposal doesn’t pick up any steam, so Manchin does vote to remove in the end.
  • This would’ve been a way out for moderate Republicans and Democrats both, but even the Senate is too divided to support it.

7. Recently released court documents reveal that in October, an Arizona man was indicted for issuing a death threat to Adam Schiff. He left this message on Schiff’s voicemail: “I’m gonna fucking blow your brains out you fucking piece of shit.”
8. Remember last week when Chief Justice Roberts did the right thing by refusing to read Rand Paul’s question that named the alleged whistleblower? Well, apparently Rand Paul is super eager to get the name into the Senate record because he uses his debate time on the Senate floor to read the name aloud. Most Republicans say they’re fine with that; a handful of Republican senators say it wasn’t right to name him.

• • I shouldn’t have to remind anyone that the person who’s alleged to be the whistleblower by the right has been receiving threats of death and violence since they started outing him.
  • Trump’s son Donald Jr. has tweeted out the name.
  • Rand Paul believes there was a government plot to bring the president down, ignoring that, according to Mueller’s report at least, Trump has been committing impeachable offenses since a few months after he took office.

9. Fox contributor Andrew Napolitano says the acquittal is a “legal assault on the Constitution.”
10. John Bolton’s book alleges that Trump tried to pressure Ukraine starting in early May 2019, and that White House Counsel Pat Cipollone is a fact witness. Unsurprisingly, the White House is trying to prevent Bolton’s book from being published.
11. Ukraine requests its money back because we’ve delayed $30 million worth of arms transfers to the country for nearly a year.

What Senators Are Saying:

1. Here are a few quotes from those august senators who know what Trump did and are letting it slide:

• • Lamar Alexander: “There is no need for more evidence to conclude that the president withheld United States aid, at least in part, to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens; the House managers have proved this with what they call a “mountain of overwhelming evidence.””
  • Ban Sasse: “I believe that delaying the aid was inappropriate and wrong and shouldn’t have happened. A number of us have said that.” Sasse also thinks removing Trump from office would tear America apart.
  • Lisa Murkowski: “The President’s behavior was shameful and wrong. His personal interests do not take precedence over those of this great nation… The President has the responsibility to uphold the integrity and the honor of the office, not just for himself, but for all future presidents. Degrading the office by actions or even name-calling weakens it for future presidents and it weakens our country.” She also says, “I don’t think any of us are challenging [Trump] enough.”
  • Susan Collins: Always one to shirk her duty, Collins says, Trump’s call with Zelensky was “improper and demonstrated very poor judgment.” But she will acquit because “we should entrust to the people the most fundamental decision of a democracy — namely who should lead their country,” and Trump “learned from this case” and he’ll “much more cautious in the future.”
  • Marco Rubio: Rubio has always assumed the charges were true but he says, “Just because actions meet a standard of impeachment does not mean it is in the best interest of the country to remove a President from office.”
  • Mike Rounds: “The framers did not intend impeachment proceedings to be brought every time an abuse of power is alleged.” Wow… I’m pretty sure that’s what they did intend.
  • Cindy Hyde-Smith: “Rejecting the abuse of power and obstruction of Congress articles before us will affirm our belief in the impeachment standards intended by the founders.” I’m wondering if she’s read the impeachment clause?
  • Rob Portman: “While I don’t condone this behavior, these actions do not rise to the level of removing President Trump from office and taking him off the ballot in a presidential election year that is already well underway.” He’s also said for months that Trump’s actions were inappropriate.
  • Joni Ernst: Irony alert. Remember how just last week Ernst bragged about how Trump’s requests for investigations into the Bidens are already succeeding in the political aim of hurting Joe in the Iowa caucuses? She says, “This process was fraught from the start with political aims and partisan innuendos that simply cannot be overlooked.”

2. Numerous senators claim that impeachment was an attempt to overturn the 2016 election, which is an argument I simply don’t understand. Trump has been in office for three years—you can’t overturn that. And even if he’s removed from office, his duly elected Vice President, Mike Pence, would take office.
3. After a bunch of Republicans senators who think what Trump did was inappropriate but rationalize their vote to acquit because they think Trump learned from this and will behave better, Trump says he did nothing wrong and “it was a perfect call.”
4. Mitt Romney delivers a heartfelt speech about why he is voting to impeach and how he came to that decision. It’s definitely worth a listen. It’s notable that there were only FOUR senators in the room while he spoke. No one in the Senate did their job.
5. Adam Schiff closes his case with this:
   “It is midnight in Washington […] You can’t trust this president to do the right thing, not for one minute, not for one election, not for the sake of our country, you just can’t. He will not change and you know it. […] A man without character or ethical compass will never find his way.”

Aftermath:

1. Lindsey Graham says a counteroffensive is “going to happen in the coming weeks,” including investigations into Burisma and Biden, as well as pursuing the whistleblower.
2. House Democrats consider picking up the investigation where they left off, calling new witnesses, like John Bolton and Lev Parnas, to testify.
3. An hour after the vote to acquit, Chuck Grassley announces a review of Hunter Biden’s activities during Obama’s administration, and the Treasury is fully cooperating with requests for information without requiring subpoenas. 
It turns out the inquiries were opened last fall.

• • The Treasury has handed over the highly confidential material requested.
  • The Treasury has been non-compliant in all requests and subpoenas for information about Trump. Those requests are still tied up in court.

4. Trump’s press secretary says that Trump’s impeachment opponents should pay a price. And then Trump starts firing some of the folks who testified:

• • He doesn’t just remove Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman from his White House job; he also fires Vindman’s twin brother who was legal counsel at the White House. And he doesn’t just remove them, he has them very publicly escorted out, a move obviously designed to embarrass the two decorated war veterans.
  • He fires Gordon Sondland, U.S. Ambassador to the EU. Sondland said during testimony that Trump requested a quid pro quo and that everyone was in the loop.
  • This whole thing causes a fight among people who don’t know better over whether government employees are “at-will” employees. They aren’t, but both Sondland and Vindman served at the pleasure of the president. But still, some legal experts argue that the firings are illegal retribution.
  • A group of Republican senators tried to stop Trump from firing Sondland—not because it was wrong, but because they thought it would look bad. Some of the senators who reached out are the same ones who previously said they thought Trump learned his lesson.
  • Here are the other witnesses who left their jobs for various reasons: Marie Yovanovitch (recalled from her post early and then left the foreign service completely last week), Bill Taylor (recalled from his post early), Jennifer Williams (returned to DOD), Fiona Hill, and Kurt Volker.
  • Several former employees are beginning to give interviews, and some are exploring book options.

5. Trump backs the idea of having his impeachment expunged if the GOP takes back the House this year.
6. At the National Prayer Breakfast following his acquittal, Trump lambasts the impeachment process calling it corrupt and evil. He calls his political opponents dishonest and corrupt.

• • The prayer breakfast is typically a time for bipartisanship. His speech was preceded by scripture readings and calls for unity.
  • Trump goes on to criticize Mitt Romney, saying, “I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong.’’ I redirect you to Romney’s speech above.
  • He accuses Nancy Pelosi of lying when she says she prays for the president.
  • Trump boasts about the economy and his approval rating and urges the audience to vote.
  • Pelosi, in contrast, speaks about the poor and persecuted.
  • The person who spoke right before Trump says, “Ask God to take political contempt from your heart. And sometimes when it’s too hard, ask God to help you fake it.” When Trump gets up to speak, he says he disagrees with that speaker.

7. And then in a speech that rambles on for more than an hour, Trump :

• • Takes credit for the rising stock market under Obama.
  • Calls this a celebration because impeachment worked out for him.
  • Says he and his family went through hell.
  • Says the Russia investigation was all “bullshit” and that he won on that investigation. (Might be good to point out here that, so far, eight people pleaded guilty or were convicted in that investigation.)
  • Says the Mueller report ruined people’s lives. (Um, they ruined their own lives when they decided to break the law.)
  • Talks about his 2016 campaign.
  • Calls Adam Schiff corrupt, and calls Pelosi, Schiff, and Comey vicious and mean.
  • Defends the transcript of the Ukraine call. (It’s a summary, not a transcript.)
  • Calls out a bunch of Republican senators to praise them.
  • And oh-my-goodness I’m really trying to read this whole thing, but it’s a stream of consciousness. You can give it a shot here.

8. Let’s compare all this to what Clinton said following his impeachment trial:
   “I want to say again to the American people how profoundly sorry I am for what I said and did to trigger these events and the great burden they have imposed on the Congress and on the American people.’’

Words of Wisdom:

I leave you with these words from former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch:

“The events of the past year, while deeply disturbing, show that even though our institutions and our fellow citizens are being challenged in ways that few of us ever expected, we will endure, we will persist and we will prevail.”