Day one recap:  A series of 11 rules amendments were offered by Democrat Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.  Each proposal was defeated individually during 13 hours of arguments and debate.  The final rules package, which passed 53-47 at 01:45am this morning, is almost identical to the original draft presented by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.  The only change was spreading the 24hrs over three days instead of two.
There will be 24 hours of presentation by House Impeachment Managers (over 3 days); 24 hours of presentation by Defense team (over 3 days); 16 hours of Senate questioning; 4 hours of closing arguments, equally divided; and then a Senate debate/vote on further motions to include witnesses. If there are going to be witnesses, they will first be deposed prior to testimony. No witness testimony will be permitted without first being deposed.
The Senate Trial Begins again today at 1:00pm EST, starting with opening arguments by the House Impeachment Managers.
PBS Livestream Link – Fox News Livestream Link – Fox Business – CSPAN Link

Awesome video from the National Republican Senatorial Campaign motivating all U.S. Senators to hold the line and dispatch this attack on the constitution.  WATCH:

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is attempting to rescue two legally and structurally deficient articles of impeachment rushed from the Lawfare community in the House of representatives.   However, in his first effort to introduce new documents and force the Trump administration to hand over new executive branch information, related to President Trump foreign policy decisions and delayed foreign aid to Ukraine, the Schumer amendment was defeated.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell moved to table the amendment, dismissing the request, and won a floor vote as all republican senators stayed united 53-47.

It is anticipated that Schumer will next move for another amendment making the same request for new State Department documents the House committees did not seek.
The primary reason Chuck Schumer has to make this ridiculous effort for more evidence, is how the House never established their ability to enforce subpoenas via “Judicial Enforcement Authority”.  The failure of a full House vote to authorize the House Judiciary Committee to pursue evidence -via enforceable subpoenas- was a defect by design of Nancy Pelosi’s decision to initiate an impeachment inquiry by her decree, not an authorizing vote.
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The U.S. Senate Impeachment Trial of President Donald Trump begins today at 1:00pm Eastern.  The first series of anticipated events includes the framework for Senate rules for impeachment which will come in the form of a final resolution for Senate vote.
The formation of the impeachment rules, and any amendments therein, will likely take up the majority of the afternoon in the Senate.  Anticipated start time 1:00pm EST.
Fox News Livestream – Fox Business Livestream – RSBN Livestream Link

Earlier today Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell presented a “draft resolution” for Senate impeachment rules to be debated and voted tomorrow on Day One of the impeachment trial.  Day #1 will likely be filled as the Senate creates rules via resolution.
The draft resolution tracks closely with previous expectations: 24 hours of presentation by House Impeachment Managers; 24 hours of presentation by Defense team; 16 hours of Senate questioning; 4 hours of closing arguments; and then a Senate debate/vote on further motions to include witnesses.
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The gang is getting back together again.  Representatives Jim Jordan, John Ratcliffe, Mark Meadows, Debbie Lesko, Elise Stefanik, Lee Zeldin and Doug Collins have been selected as additions to President Trump’s impeachment defense team. UPDATE: and Mike Johnson

The MAGAnificent Seven

WHITE HOUSE – Today, President Donald J. Trump announced that the following Members of the House of Representatives will serve as part of his team working to combat this hyper-partisan and baseless impeachment. This initial list includes the following Members:

♦ Congressman Doug Collins
♦ Congressman Jim Jordan
♦ Congresswoman Debbie Lesko
♦ Congressman Mark Meadows
♦ Congressman John Ratcliffe
♦ Congresswoman Elise Stefanik
♦ Congressman Lee Zeldin
♦ ¹Congressman Mike Johnson

Throughout this process, these Members of Congress have provided guidance to the White House team, which was prohibited from participating in the proceedings concocted by Democrats in the House of Representatives. The President looks forward to their continued participation and is confident that the Members will help expeditiously end this brazen political vendetta on behalf of the American people. (link)

UPDATE – Oh man, they messed up my “MAGAnificent Seven” slogan by unexpectedly having eight. LOL.  Oh well, “Elite Eight” (pictured below) because it makes sense to include an actual constitutional attorney ¹Mike Johnson.  This is a big honor.  These names will appear in history books generations from now.

…And not Matt Gaetz LOL

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Earlier today President Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron had a phone call about the pending French digital services tax on U.S. companies, and USTR Lighthizer’s pending $2.4 billion 100% countervailing duty against high-end French products:

WHITE HOUSE – Today, President Donald J. Trump spoke with President Emmanuel Macron of France. The two leaders agreed it is important to complete successful negotiations on the digital services tax, and they also discussed other bilateral issues. (link)

Where “avoid tariff escalation” means Macron just took a knee.  He really has no choice.
United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer calculated a $2.4 billion pending tariff, at a rate of 100%, against select high-end French products as a result of France’s desperation for tax revenue and deciding to tax U.S. digital services.
The WTO already handed the U.S. legal authority against the EU for $2.5 billion in annual tariffs as a result of the Boeing case. Legally the EU cannot retaliate.
With Britain leaving the EU; and with Germany, France and Italy already suffering from a lack of investment and shrinking sales of industrial products – the EU economy is a sitting duck for President Trump to target.  There is no-way France can lead the charge in a tariff battle against the United States….  The conversation goes something like this:
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Approximately 22,000 second amendment supporters rallied at the Richmond, Virginia capitol today to petition state government not to infringe on the rights of law-abiding gun owners.

Appearing to cheer for some confrontation or violent outcome, the national media had hyped the event as a massive assembly of “right wing militia groups”; further attempting to inject a racial element around the MLK holiday by proclaiming “white separatists” would be squaring-off against Virginia law enforcement. It was all fake news.
Curtis Houck from the Media Research Center assembled a montage of CNN and MSNBC media reports from this morning to highlight how the national media attempted to set the narrative.
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The lawyers representing President Trump and lawyers representing the Office of the Presidency collectively file a response briefing, a trial memorandum, to the Senate (full pdf below).  The 170-page rebuttal to the House articles is HERE and embedded below:
[scribd id=443635181 key=key-aNR0dOONH5PrvmDt1r3u mode=scroll]
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CTH held off reporting on this explosive story until we could see if a tell-tale consequence surfaced; perhaps it has.   On Friday the National Security Council senior director for European and Russian affairs, Andrew Peek, was escorted from the White House grounds and is currently under a security investigation.
There are few details about why Peek was physically removed and is under a very serious investigation; however, some of Andrew Peek’s professional background details tell a story.  The connection to Gen. John Allen is a MASSIVE warning flare.
Andrew Peek, the senior director for European and Russian affairs at the National Security Council, has been placed on administrative leave pending a security-related investigation, people familiar with the situation tell Axios.
First the Daily Mail:

[…] Peek had been in the NSC role for just two months, after most recently working as a deputy assistant secretary of state with responsibility for Iran and Iraq.
[…] Peek had been expected to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland next week with Trump and other top aides. However, he is currently on leave pending a security-related investigation, people familiar with the situation told Axios.

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