It’s Thursday, January 16. Impeachment managers have been assigned. The articles of impeachment have been read to the Senate. Chief Justice John Roberts and the senators have been sworn in. The trial resumes next week.
In today’s newsletter: Who is Lev Parnas again? Plus, the constitutionality of the ERA, and bipartisan kumbaya in Kansas (spoiler: it worked).
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« TODAY IN POLITICS »
(Mike Segar / Reuters)
Impeachment is now in the hands of the Senate. But the reemergence of Lev Parnas reinvigorated old demands for new witnesses to be called for the trial.
Parnas, an associate of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and one of the shadier figures affiliated with the Ukraine affair, took to MSNBC last night to further implicate President Trump in the efforts to pressure Ukraine to open an investigation into the Bidens.
If you remember from season one of this drama: Parnas was one of two Giuliani clients arrested at Dulles Airport back in October, allegedly trying to board a one-way flight to Vienna. (In season two: Vienna was Giuliani’s intended destination 24 hours after the arrests, my former colleague Elaina Plott reported.)
Fast forward to the latest season: The House Intelligence Committee released new documents Parnas had turned over, materials that show supposed surveillance of former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and include plenty of claims that Trump “knew exactly” what was going on when it came to dealings with Ukraine.