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But before those proceedings, we heard from the Government Accountability Office. The GAO has announced that Trump and the Budget Office did in fact break the law when Trump ordered that money approved by Congress to be released to Ukraine, was withheld.
Before that, Lev Parnas, an associate on team Trump, who was tasked along with Rudy Giuliani and others, to coerce Ukrainian President Zelinsky, to announce an investigation into the Biden's, was interviewed on the Rachael Maddow show.
Parnas admitted that Donald J. Trump directed and knew everything about this plot. Parnas reported that Trump's purpose was to gain political advantage over Joe Biden in the upcoming 2020 election. There were many pieces to accomplish this plot, including releasing Ukrainian oligarch Dimitry Firtash from DOJ prosecution in a legal case he was involved in, in exchange for announcing information that would be detrimental to the Mueller investigation.
Parnas says that William Barr knew of the plot to release Firtash and was part of the team working for Trump. The Justice Department has denied any truth to those statements. Two colluding fox news TV lawyers (Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing) would become Firtash's lawyers and Parnas would broker them. All of this was to help ensure that the Ukrainians would make the announcement of the Biden investigation. Back at home, Trump had others at Fox news promoting his conspiracy theories about Joe Biden's son Hunter, to keep the Republican base focused on defending their leader.
It seems appropriate that there should be an investigation into the actions of William Barr, Devin Nunes and others in the administration who colluded in this plot. If justice is done, we should see additional impeachments or incarceration against others in the Trump circle.
It is hard to believe that the start of the Senate impeachment proceeding would be preempted by such relevant news directly related to the guilt of Donald J. Trump, but this is Trump's America where a mad man rules. You can expect the worst when a malignant narcissist has the keys to the country.
Meanwhile, back to the impeachment trial.
Chief Justice John Roberts was sworn in by Chuck Grassley, to do impartial justice according to the Constitution and the law. Roberts gave the oath to swear in to all Senators, also to do impartial justice according to the Constitution and the law. Each Senator was called up to sign the document of their oath.
Remember that McConnell and Graham have already publicly declared that they would be traitors to the Constitution and not be impartial jurors. They also already predetermined and announced that Trump would be acquitted in a rapid trial with no witnesses.
I wonder how many of the GOP sycophants in the Senate were feeling a little differently about how their vote would go, being that they had just made a promise to the American people to be impartial. This was the quietest and most solemn period I have ever seen in the Senate.
We shall see what GOP Senators will do in the coming days. They should be re-evaluating their intentions given the additional information that has come out recently. More incriminating evidence is sure to come out before the Senate trial begins.
The Senate is expected to begin their trial in earnest on Tuesday of next week, January 21, 2020, although additional findings and Trump's travels may delay it.
