Representative Elise Stefanik is a member of President Trump’s defense team.  In this interview the issue of the deficient articles is raised surrounding witnesses.
House witnesses who gave testimony when the articles were framed could be considered appropriate, if needed, when debating those articles in the Senate.  However, witnesses not called by the House; and therefore not used in the assembly of the articles being debated in the Senate; are not valid for consideration.

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It is not the responsibility of the Senate, nor is it constitutionally valid, for the Senate to attempt to rehabilitate improperly constructed articles simply because the House refused to assemble with due diligence.  Any evidence, including witnesses, that falls outside the originating assembly of the two House articles should be considered null and void.
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Lee Zeldin, Mike Johnson, Mark Meadows and Elise Stefanik appear for a quick presser during the impeachment hearings.
Zeldin notes that Adam Schiff has claimed Ukraine interference in the 2016 U.S. election is “conspiracy theory“; then Zeldin cites specific examples of Ukraine activity the media are well aware of.  After calling out the media examples, Mr. Zeldin challenges them to debunk him….. the media are silent. WATCH:

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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 continues with the second session today at 7:15pm EST. McConnell announced the evening session will last until approximately 10:30pm.
PBS Livestream Link – Fox10 News Livestream Link – Fox Business – CSPAN Link

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An interesting ruling, brief and order from the FISA Court (Judge Boasberg) released today [pdf here] reflects an admission by the DOJ the 2nd and 3rd FISA renewal against U.S. person Carter Page were invalid.

The “DOJ assesses that with respect to the applications in [April and June 2017] “if not earlier, there was insufficient predication to establish probable cause to believe that [Carter]Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power.””

The original FISA application was October 21st, 2016.  The first FISA renewal was January 12, 2017 (84 days from origination).  The second renewal was April 7, 2017 (85 days from prior renewal).  The third renewal was on June 29th, 2017 (83 days from prior renewal).
The DOJ has now attested to the FISC the FISA application on April 7, 2017, and the FISA application of June 29th were invalid.  However, the DOJ has not taken a position on the validity of the original application, Oct 21, 2016, or the first renewal of January 12, 2017.
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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 continues today with the third day opening session at 1:00pm EST.  Today is the second 8 hr day of arguments by House Impeachment Managers.
PBS Livestream Link – Fox10 News Livestream Link – Fox Business – CSPAN Link

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Many people are becoming aware the Senate impeachment trial is an exercise in politics, nothing more.  The votes are already decided; the trial is simply a pantomime.
To highlight the point, Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, simply walked out during the trial when Adam Schiff was testifying; said “goodnight” and just went home.
Washington Post congressional reporter Paul Kane noted:

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As 21 different state attorneys general noted earlier today, there are several reasons why the impeachment effort is unconstitutional.  These are not process arguments; they are factual arguments central to the constitutional framework of our government.
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.  White House lawyer Patrick Philbin explains the legal issue; this could be the lead argument in the defense case when it starts.  [Video prompted to 03:20]

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CTH noted this structural issue last August, and the issue remained throughout the heavily manipulated proceedings. None of the House requests for testimony or documents held any enforcement authority because the House did not follow the constitutional process.
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President Trump’s co-lead counsel, Jay Sekulow, discusses his perspective on the opening arguments for the House impeachment case.   As Sekulow notes, so far the House appears to be attempting to leverage impeachment for a difference in foreign policy outlooks:

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Unfortunately, one of the necessities of this ridiculous impeachment effort is to have fact-based advocates who can debunk impeachment lies before the narrative engineers (media) has a cycle to run with them.  That’s one of the reasons why Lee Zeldin, Jim Jordan, John Ratcliffe and Mark Meadows are so important.
In this quick media briefing, the truth tellers quickly debunk the narrative (story) being spun within the upper chamber by Adam Schiff’s lying House Managers.  John Ratcliffe hones-in on the timeline and rattles-off the dates as an experienced litigator.  WATCH:

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To assist in page-load-time we’re breaking up the Senate Impeachment discussion threads.
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 continues today with the second session at 3:50pm EST, continuing with with opening arguments by House Impeachment Managers.
PBS Livestream Link – Fox News Livestream Link – Fox Business – CSPAN Link

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