The White House will not defend itself before House investigators.
Welcome back to the Impeachment Briefing. It was a light news day, so we’re bringing you an abbreviated newsletter tonight. |
- The White House signaled that it did not intend to mount a defense of President Trump or otherwise participate in the House impeachment proceedings. In a sharply worded letter, the White House counsel wrote that Democrats have “wasted enough of America’s time with this charade.”
- The White House’s position is a stark departure from impeachments past. Lawyers for Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton fully participated in their investigations, presenting lengthy defenses before the Judiciary Committee.
- House Republicans took a different course, requesting testimony from at least eight people who have become outsize figures in the president’s defense, including Representative Adam Schiff, Hunter Biden and the anonymous whistle-blower whose complaint set off the impeachment inquiry.
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- During a hearing, the job of a congressional aide is to provide their boss with on-the-spot information and then “fade into the wallpaper.” But hours of television coverage have turned a few of them into unwitting memes.
- Politico asked nine impeachment experts whether the current process was working, and how they would improve things.
- More than 500 legal scholars — including professors from Harvard, Yale, Columbia and other universities — signed an open letter asserting that Mr. Trump had committed “impeachable conduct,” and that lawmakers would be within their rights to remove him from office, according to The Washington Post.
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