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  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi named seven Democrats to serve as impeachment managers Wednesday ahead of an expected vote to send articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate. The proposed impeachment managers were identified as House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff, House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler, House Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries, Rep. Val Demings, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Rep. Sylvia Garcia and Rep. Jason Crow. The House will vote later Wednesday to approve of the managers, fund the trial and transmit the articles to the Senate. Update 10:55 a.m. EST Jan. 15: President Donald Trump slammed Democrats on Wednesday morning as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi named the lawmakers who would serve as impeachment managers during the president’s anticipated trial in the senate. “Here we go again, another Con Job by the Do Nothing Democrats,” Trump wrote. “All of this work was supposed to be done by the House, not the Senate!” Democrats have asked for witnesses to be called as part of the Senate trial, though Republicans have indicated they won’t call for new testimony. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said calling witnesses falls under the House’s purview and not the Senate’s, according to CNN. Update 10:35 a.m. EST Jan. 15: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she chose the seven Democrats to serve as impeachment managers for President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate based on how comfortable they were likely to be in a courtroom. She said Wednesday “the emphasis is on litigators.” “The emphasis is on making the strongest possible case to protect and defend our Constitution to seek the truth for the American people,” Pelosi said. Update 10:15 a.m. EST Jan. 15: Pelosi named seven Democrats to serve as impeachment managers: House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff, House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler, House Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries, Rep. Val Demings, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Rep. Sylvia Garcia and Rep. Jason Crow. Original report: Pelosi announced plans Tuesday to choose impeachment managers, who will be tasked with prosecuting the case against Trump, the next necessary step in the impeachment process. The House voted last month to impeach Trump on charges of abuse and obstruction, but since then Pelosi has resisted calls to release the articles to the Senate. The California Democrat has said that members of her party need more information on the proposed rules of the Senate trial to inform her decision on who to put forth as impeachment managers. “I’ll send them over when I’m ready. And that will probably be soon,” Pelosi told reporters last week. ‘We want to see what (Senate Republicans are) willing to do and the manner in which they will do it.’ House Democrats launched the impeachment inquiry after learning of a whistleblower complaint filed in August by an official concerned about Trump’s attempts to get Ukrainian officials to investigate former vice president and 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden. Trump has denied any wrongdoing. In a July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump asked his counterpart to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden while holding up military aide for Ukraine. A Ukrainian gas company had hired Hunter Biden when his father was vice president and the Obama administration’s point man on Ukraine. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by either Biden. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  Four weeks after the House approved two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi named a team of seven Democrats to lead the prosecution’s case in a Senate impeachment trial, led by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. “The emphasis is on litigators.  The emphasis is on comfort level in the courtroom,” Pelosi told reporters at the U.S. Capitol.  “The emphasis is making the strongest possible case to defend and protect the Constitution,” Pelosi added. Here is the list of the impeachment managers: Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA). Schiff led the impeachment hearings and is Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Speaker Pelosi said Schiff will serve as the lead manager. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY). Nadler is the head of the House Judiciary Committee. Rep. Val Demings (D-FL). A former police chief in Orlando, Florida, Demings serves on both the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees. Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO). A lawyer and Army Ranger who served in both Afghanistan and Iraq, Crow won a GOP seat in the Denver suburbs in 2018. He was not involved in any of the impeachment hearings, and is the only impeachment manager who is not from a safe-Democratic seat. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). The head of the House Democratic Caucus, Jeffries is a member of the House Judiciary Committee. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). A veteran Democrat who was a staffer during the Nixon impeachment investigation, and also served during the Clinton impeachment. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX). Garcia is a freshman Democrat from the Houston area, and former judge. She is a member of the Judiciary Committee.

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  The Russian government resigned Wednesday, according to multiple reports. Russian Prime Minister Dimitry Medvedev announced the resignations after the country’s president, Vladimir Putin, delivered his yearly state-of-the-union address, RT reported. In a meeting of ministers after the resignations, Putin thanked Medvedev’s government, CNBC reported citing state news agency TASS. “For my part, I also want to thank you for everything that was done at this stage of our joint work, I want to express satisfaction with the results that have been achieved,” Putin said. “Not everything was done, but everything never works out in full.’ Check back for updates to this developing story.

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  As the Congress inched closer to the start of a Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, new evidence emerged on Tuesday night related to actions in Ukraine by the President’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, including electronic messages which seemingly involved people tracking the movements of the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine who was the target of allies of the President. The materials released by the House Intelligence Committee came from Lev Parnas, a business associated of Giuliani who was arrested on October 9, 2019, just before he was to board a flight to Austria. Parnas was later charged with illegally funneling foreign money into U.S. election campaigns. Along with text messages, the Parnas information included handwritten items on notepads from the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Vienna, which seemingly were related to the genesis of the Ukraine investigation involving President Trump’s May 25 phone call with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. ‘Get Zalensky to announce that the Biden case will be investigated,’ one note says. Also included in the release was a letter from Giuliani to Zelensky. In the letter, Giuliani says he is the ‘private counsel’ for President Trump, and asks for a half-hour to meet with the Ukraine leader, but does not reveal the subject matter. That letter was dated 15 days before President Trump’s ‘perfect’ call with the leader of Ukraine, where Mr. Trump asked Zelensky to look into ‘the Bidens.’ The materials made public on Tuesday also included electronic messages involving Robert Hyde, a GOP candidate for Congress in Connecticut, who seemed to have been involved in some type of surveillance and tracking of then-Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. Yovanovitch was the target of what she later described as a ‘smear campaign’ started by Giuliani, which ultimately led to her ouster as Ambassador. In the newly-released messages from late March of 2019 – just as a media campaign against Yovanovitch was underway – Hyde said he was surprised the President ‘hasn’t fired this bitch.’ Over the next few days, Hyde messages that Yovanovitch is ‘next to the embassy,’ ‘Not in the embassy,’ and seemingly gives detailed updates on what the Ambassador has been doing.  ‘She’s talked to three people. Her phone is off. Computer is off,’ one message from March 25, 2019 reads. ‘They will let me know when she’s on the move,’ another message reads, not indicating who the ‘They’ is. With the consent of federal prosecutors in New York, the attorney for Lev Parnas said the information had been shared with the House Intelligence Committee, which then forwarded the materials to the House Judiciary Committee. The notes quickly attracted the attention of Democrats. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) said on Twitter, “these notes are legitimately insane and damning and hard to fathom.”

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  Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr. fired back at comments made by Governor Kevin Stitt about the state’s Indian gaming compact Tuesday. In the morning, Gov. Stitt appeared on the KRMG Morning News with Dan Potter to discuss the first year of his administration (you can hear the entire conversation HERE). The topic of his dispute with the tribes over the gaming compact came up, and he stated that his office possessed copies of letters from Oklahoma tribes indicating that like him, they believed the gaming compact expired on January 1, 2020. Hoskin told KRMG that actually there were two such letters, sent years ago, both of which had since been disavowed by the tribes in question. [Hear the KRMG In Depth Report with Chief Hoskin HERE, or click on the audio player below] He also disputed the governor’s claim that his nation operates a casino in Arkansas, where it pays a much higher rate than it pays in Oklahoma. Hoskins said the Cherokee Nation does not operate in Arkansas, although they’re competing for one of only four casino licenses available in that state. Moreover, he argues with the governor’s basic premise for the entire dispute. “At the end of the day, we’ve always been willing to talk about rates,” Hoskin told KRMG. “The governor’s misleading people if he says we’re not.” Because of how differently Arkansas operates gaming, he said, it’s an “apples and oranges” comparison to gauge the tribe’s Oklahoma operations. He expressed optimism that the governor will eventually sit down and negotiate exclusivity fees, as is allowed under the current compact. “No one is going to negotiate with a phony deadline over their heads, and they’re not going to negotiate with threats being made,” he told KRMG. “We’re just not going to do it.”

Washington Insider

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  Four weeks after the House approved two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi named a team of seven Democrats to lead the prosecution’s case in a Senate impeachment trial, led by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. “The emphasis is on litigators.  The emphasis is on comfort level in the courtroom,” Pelosi told reporters at the U.S. Capitol.  “The emphasis is making the strongest possible case to defend and protect the Constitution,” Pelosi added. Here is the list of the impeachment managers: Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA). Schiff led the impeachment hearings and is Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Speaker Pelosi said Schiff will serve as the lead manager. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY). Nadler is the head of the House Judiciary Committee. Rep. Val Demings (D-FL). A former police chief in Orlando, Florida, Demings serves on both the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees. Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO). A lawyer and Army Ranger who served in both Afghanistan and Iraq, Crow won a GOP seat in the Denver suburbs in 2018. He was not involved in any of the impeachment hearings, and is the only impeachment manager who is not from a safe-Democratic seat. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). The head of the House Democratic Caucus, Jeffries is a member of the House Judiciary Committee. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). A veteran Democrat who was a staffer during the Nixon impeachment investigation, and also served during the Clinton impeachment. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX). Garcia is a freshman Democrat from the Houston area, and former judge. She is a member of the Judiciary Committee.

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  As the Congress inched closer to the start of a Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, new evidence emerged on Tuesday night related to actions in Ukraine by the President’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, including electronic messages which seemingly involved people tracking the movements of the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine who was the target of allies of the President. The materials released by the House Intelligence Committee came from Lev Parnas, a business associated of Giuliani who was arrested on October 9, 2019, just before he was to board a flight to Austria. Parnas was later charged with illegally funneling foreign money into U.S. election campaigns. Along with text messages, the Parnas information included handwritten items on notepads from the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Vienna, which seemingly were related to the genesis of the Ukraine investigation involving President Trump’s May 25 phone call with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. ‘Get Zalensky to announce that the Biden case will be investigated,’ one note says. Also included in the release was a letter from Giuliani to Zelensky. In the letter, Giuliani says he is the ‘private counsel’ for President Trump, and asks for a half-hour to meet with the Ukraine leader, but does not reveal the subject matter. That letter was dated 15 days before President Trump’s ‘perfect’ call with the leader of Ukraine, where Mr. Trump asked Zelensky to look into ‘the Bidens.’ The materials made public on Tuesday also included electronic messages involving Robert Hyde, a GOP candidate for Congress in Connecticut, who seemed to have been involved in some type of surveillance and tracking of then-Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. Yovanovitch was the target of what she later described as a ‘smear campaign’ started by Giuliani, which ultimately led to her ouster as Ambassador. In the newly-released messages from late March of 2019 – just as a media campaign against Yovanovitch was underway – Hyde said he was surprised the President ‘hasn’t fired this bitch.’ Over the next few days, Hyde messages that Yovanovitch is ‘next to the embassy,’ ‘Not in the embassy,’ and seemingly gives detailed updates on what the Ambassador has been doing.  ‘She’s talked to three people. Her phone is off. Computer is off,’ one message from March 25, 2019 reads. ‘They will let me know when she’s on the move,’ another message reads, not indicating who the ‘They’ is. With the consent of federal prosecutors in New York, the attorney for Lev Parnas said the information had been shared with the House Intelligence Committee, which then forwarded the materials to the House Judiciary Committee. The notes quickly attracted the attention of Democrats. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) said on Twitter, “these notes are legitimately insane and damning and hard to fathom.”

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  After delaying the move to send a pair of impeachment charges against President Donald Trump to the U.S. Senate, Democrats announced today that the House would vote Wednesday to approve a slate of impeachment ‘managers’ for the case against the President, a move which will trigger the start of a historic impeachment trial. ‘In America, no one is above the law, not even the President of the United States of America,’ said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). In a closed door meeting, Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not reveal the names of the House prosecution team, as most expect Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) to lead the House managers in the Senate trial. Once the House approves the names of the trial managers, then the impeachment papers will finally be walked across the Capitol, and presented to the Senate. As Democrats set out their next steps in the House, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was again knocking the idea that an impeachment trial of President Trump should have extra witnesses who were not a part of the House inquiry. “If the existing case is strong, there’s no need for the judge and the jury to reopen the investigation,” McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor, as GOP leaders have tried to dissuade Republicans from joining with Democrats to call extra witnesses. But there do seem to be Republicans willing to do just that, especially when it comes to testimony from President Trump’s former National Security Adviser, who labeled the hold on military aid for Ukraine a ‘drug deal.’ “I would like there to be witnesses, and to be able to hear from someone like John Bolton,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT). At some point, the Senate will have to vote on whether to call certain witnesses – 51 Senators is all it would take to authorize testimony from a specific individual. Democrats cast it as a choice between a fair trial, and a cover up. In a statement issued later on Tuesday morning, the Speaker confirmed the House would act on Wednesday. ‘The American people deserve the truth, and the Constitution demands a trial,’ Pelosi said in a written statement.  ‘The President and the Senators will be held accountable.”

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  As the Justice Department announced Monday that a December mass shooting by a member of the Saudi air force was a ‘terrorist act,’ U.S. Attorney General William Barr issued a public plea to Apple to help unlock the phones of the shooter, in order to further explore the gunman’s motivations and any possible contacts. ‘We have asked Apple for their help in unlocking the shooter’s iPhones,’ Barr said at a Justice Department news conference about the attack at the Pensacola Naval Air Station. ‘So far Apple has not given us any substantive assistance.’ Barr said even with a court order, the feds are not able to crack into the suspects iPhones without the password, a situation which is presenting itself with increasing frequency for law enforcement investigators. ‘We call on Apple and other technology companies to help us find a solution so that we can better protect the lives of Americans and prevent future attacks,’ Barr said. Barr said the investigation revealed that the shooter, Lt. Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani of the Royal Saudi Air Force, actually put one of his phones on the ground during his shooting rampage in order to damage it. ‘During the gunfight with first responders, the shooter disengaged long enough to place one of the phones on the floor and shoot a single round into the device,’ Barr said. The Attorney General told reporters that Alshamrani’s other phone had also been damaged, but that the feds had been able to get both devices to work – but could not crack them open because of the password barrier.

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  Unable to break out of the bottom tier of candidates in the race for the Democratic Party nomination for President, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) announced Monday that he was ending his bid for the White House, just three weeks before the first votes are to be cast in the Iowa Caucuses. ‘I’ve made the hard decision to suspend my campaign for President,’ Booker told supporters in an email, as he announced that he is suspending his campaign. While Booker has maintained an active campaign schedule, his poll numbers nationally have been in low single digits for months, as he has been unable to qualify for recent debates, making it even more difficult for him to attract support. Six Democrats will debate on Tuesday in the final Iowa debate – but Booker was not going to be on the stage. Booker had tried hard in recent weeks to continue organizing in Iowa as he made campaign stops around the Hawkeye State. ‘If you’re interested in volunteering with our campaign—everything from calling voters from home to knocking doors in Iowa—please join our team!’ Booker’s campaign tweeted over the weekend. “I can’t wait to get back on the campaign trail,” Booker said, as he vowed to strongly support his party’s nominee.