The Weekly List

This week, Trump traveled to London for the NATO  summit as impeachment hearings got underway in the House Judiciary  Committee, and Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee issued a  scathing 300-page report. While Trump sought to display strength abroad,  and used the summit as an excuse not to participate in impeachment  hearings, a video at a Buckingham Palace reception surfaced Tuesday  night showing world leaders openly mocking and laughing at him. He  abruptly left early Wednesday, seething and returning in disgrace as the  constitutional scholars testified in House impeachment hearings.  Harvard Law School professor Noah Feldman said, “the reason the  Constitution provided for impeachment was to anticipate a situation like  the one that is before you today.”

On Thursday, shortly after Trump tweeted “if you  are going to impeach me, do it now, fast,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi  announced in somber tones and invoking the Founders and Constitution,  that the House would begin drafting articles of impeachment. Meanwhile,  Rudy Giuliani traveled back to Budapest and Kyiv, seeking dirt on the  Bidens, meeting with Ukrainian officials, including one with ties to  Russia.

This week Trump continued his feud with the  so-called deep state, now growing to include the military — while his  remaining conspiracy theories were set to be debunked in a report by the  Justice Department Inspector General, in consultation with Attorney  General William Barr’s handpicked prosecutor, John Durham.

This week, more conspiracy theories were  debunked, as a draft of the Department of Justice Inspector General  report found the FBI did not try to place spies in Trump’s 2016  campaign, nor did Obama wiretap him. Trump allies continued to push the  conspiracy that Ukraine, not Russia, may have interfered in 2016,  despite it being thoroughly and widely disproved.

Trump sought to portray strength — firing the  Navy Secretary and tweeting an image of his face super-imposed on the  body of Sylvester Stallone in “Rocky.” He told supporters in Florida how  hard he was working for them — as opposed to Democrats’ focus on  impeachment — then clandestinely flew to Afghanistan on Thanksgiving to  visit U.S. troops under false pretenses.

The House Judiciary Committee announced the  start of impeachment hearings next week, as Trump and his team weighed  whether to participate. The committee did not rule out an article  related to the Mueller probe. Reporting revealed the September 9 call  between Trump and Gordon Sondland — central in Trump’s defense of his  actions towards Ukraine — may not have happened, and Rudy Giuliani faces  a broad probe of possible criminal activity.

The full list is here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-159/

This was a remarkable week in impeachment  hearings as nine witnesses testified. By week’s end, it was clear that  there was a coordinated effort that included multiple senior Trump  officials “in the loop” seeking investigations from Ukraine in exchange  for aid and a White House visit — an effort that went against U.S.  national security interests. Trump and his allies’ defense, claiming  Ukrainian corruption and 2016 interference, was also debunked, leaving  by week end their only defense to be lack of a firsthand witness to  Trump directing the activities. The impeachment hearings were stunning  as, with each passing day, it became all the more clear how irreverently  and irresponsibly Trump has acted, yet how unwilling the Republican  Party was to stand up to him and hold him accountable.

Another conspiracy theory was also debunked as a  draft of the Department of Justice Inspector General found there was no  political bias by senior FBI officials against Trump in getting the  wiretap of Carter Page. Trump took an unusual trip to Walter Reed  Medical Center early in the week that led to speculation of a health  issue, and spent the rest of the week ranting and bullying about  impeachment, mostly on Twitter and Fox News, and largely avoiding the  press. Trump and his allies continued to attack and discredit  impeachment witnesses publicly, and blocked testimony from senior  officials and subpoenaed documents from the State Department. Trump  continued his battle with the U.S. military, flexing his commander in  chief might to overturn their rules.

As the week came to end, and Congress left for  Thanksgiving break, it was unclear where the impeachment investigation  would head next. The House Intelligence Committee started writing its  report, but did not rule out further hearings, and the Judiciary  Committee also considered follow up on information gleaned from the  Roger Stone trial related to Trump’s written testimony in the Mueller  probe.

Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-158/

This week public impeachment hearings started,  with three career diplomats testifying before the House Intelligence  Committee. Senate Republicans were notably quiet in their defense of  Trump, while Republican House members focused mostly on the process,  especially for the third witness, Maria Yovanovitch, who proved  unassailable. William Taylor testified about a previously unknown phone  call on July 26 overheard by his staffer David Holmes, in which Trump  asked about “the investigation,” and Sondland assured him Ukraine would  comply. Closed door hearings continued as well, as more career officials  came forward to testify.

This week, Trump faced threats on other fronts,  as longtime ally Roger Stone was found guilty on all charges of lying to  Congress, tampering with witnesses, and concealing evidence in an  effort prosecutors said was to shield Trump. Stone’s conviction was the  sixth of a senior Trump official arising from the Mueller probe. This  week Trump lawyers appealed two cases to the Supreme Court, both of  which would require him to turn over eight years of his tax returns.

The world order continued to shift, as Trump  hosted and praised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White  House, weeks after Turkish-forces invaded Northern Syria, and notably in  contrast to having not yet hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr  Zelensky. French President Emmanuel Macron announced France would host a  Ukraine summit on December 9, inviting leaders of Ukraine, Russia, and  Germany, while pledging unwavering support to Zelensky.

Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-157/

This week, House Democrats released transcripts  of eight depositions, and announced a schedule for public hearings next  week. As support for impeachment plateaued, Democrats tentatively  planned to fast-track hearings, with a vote on articles of impeachment  before the holiday break. Republicans meanwhile, careened from varying  defenses of Trump, from it was not a bad quid pro quo, to he is not  competent enough to carry out quid pro quo, to targeting witnesses and  the whistleblower, to considering sacrificing a fall guy in Trump’s  stead.

The Mueller probe was again back in the news, as  the Justice Department released FBI 302 summary reports of interviews,  and the trial of Roger Stone got underway. Documents revealed the source  of the conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the  2016 election was actually Konstantin Kilimnik, an employee of Paul  Manafort who the FBI determined has ties to Russian intelligence. Stone  and Trump’s possible involvement in seeking emails stolen by Russia from  WikiLeaks was also back in the spotlight.

Election night provided victories for Democrats,  taking control of the Virginia legislature for the first time in 26  years, winning the governorship of red state Kentucky, and historic  victories in the suburbs of Philadelphia. As we head toward the 2020  election, U.S. intelligence again warned of election interference  underway, something that Trump, and Republicans who continue to block  legislation to protect voting, oddly seem to welcome.

Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-156/

This week, further testimony in the impeachment  probe brought the fifth and sixth public confirmation of a quid pro quo  between Trump and Ukraine, including so far William Taylor, Gordon  Sondland, Sen. Ron Johnson, Mick Mulvaney, Alexander Vindman and Tim  Morrison. By week’s end, Senate Republicans discussed shifting their  defense of Trump to acknowledging his quid pro quo, but saying it was  not illegal — differing from House Republicans who continued to deny it,  and Trump who maintained he had a “perfect” call and tested out new  explanations for what occurred. Allegations of a possible White House  cover up of Trump’s July 25 call also surfaced in this week’s testimony.

The House of Representatives took its first  full, public vote on impeachment, passing a resolution to proceed with  public hearings, and setting out ground rules to proceed. In the  meantime, aspects of the Mueller probe came back into the spotlight as  ongoing court cases played out, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would  not rule out including new information in the impeachment inquiry.

Trump tried to pivot and focus attention on a  successful raid that killed the head of ISIS, seeking to turn it into a  Hollywood story to distract attention and legitimize his haphazard  foreign policy. This week hundreds of U.S. troops abandoned Kurdish  allies in Syria, while hundreds of others moved back to Syria to protect  oilfields not owned by the U.S. Trump attended his first Major League  Baseball game for the World Series, and was treated to boos when he was  announced, and chants of “Lock him up!” an inning later.

Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-155/

This week marked a major shift in the world  order, as Trump finalized the evacuation of troops on Turkey-Syria  border, and the void of leadership was instantaneously filled by Russia.  Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Turkish President Recep Tayyip  Erdogan in Sochi, before hosting 40 African nations there, at what was  dubbed the first Russia-Africa summit. As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi  suggested to Trump in Week 153, “All roads with you lead to Putin.”  Later in the week, Trump zig-zagged and sent U.S. troops and armored  vehicles back to the region to guard oil fields, and suggested to  millions of Kurdish civilians, displaced and endangered by his  withdrawal, that they should relocate there.

This week marked a major shift in the  impeachment inquiry, as career diplomats continue to defy Trump’s order  not to testify. In a case related to the Mueller probe, Chief District  Judge Beryl Howell ruled the House impeachment inquiry is legal, dealing  another blow to Trump’s strategy of stonewalling the inquiry based on  it not being legally authorized. Nine witnesses have testified so far,  crystallizing a picture of clear quid pro quo. Despite stunts and  distractions by Trump’s Republican allies, House Democrats continued to  prevail in the messaging battle. By week’s end, Trump was forced to  bring in additional lawyers and convene staffers to come up with a  strategy to defend himself from impeachment.

This week Trump’s Department of Justice turned  the investigation of the investigators into a criminal probe — raising  concerns Attorney General William Barr is acting to give Trump a  political victory and punish his enemies. Barr too is increasingly being  drawn into the impeachment probe, while drawing rebukes for his  handling of the whistleblower complaint.

Read the full list: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-154/

This week they just said it out loud: Trump’s  acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney scolded reporters, saying Ukraine  was a quid pro quo, and “Get over it!” This was yet another in a series  of unending trial balloons to gauge just how far Trump could push  boundaries, and what he could normalize on his path to deconstructing  our democracy. At the same news conference, Mulvaney informed reporters  that Trump would host the 2020 G7 summit at his Doral Resort, an  unprecedented act and another trial balloon. By the end of the week,  Republicans were tiring of Donald J. Trump.

Further evidence of shifting moods was the flow  of career professionals and Trump appointees defying his stonewall and  testifying before Congress. Unlike his successful dodge of the Mueller  probe, the reporting and testimony all seem to point to Trump being at  the center of demanding help from a foreign government, and withholding  Congressionally-approved funds as a hammer. At week’s end, in a  congressional hearing on Hurricane Maria, it became clear it had done  the same to Puerto Rico, withholding aid approved by Congress at his  whim.

Trump has also shown his utter ineptitude on  foreign policy, and the consequences of his withdrawal of troops from  Syria resulted in calamity one week later. By week’s end, diplomats were  questioning if the U.S. could be held responsible for Crimes Against  Humanity for ethnic cleansing, due to Trump’s callousness and  indifference, at times seeming to encourage Turkish brutality.

As noted by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, “All  roads lead to Putin” — Trump has handed Russia two huge victories by  hobbling support to Ukraine and leaving a vacuum which Moscow quickly  occupied in Syria. Hillary Clinton posited Trump being compromised by  Russia, and Admiral Michael McRaven said in an op-ed, “Our Republic is  Under Attack from the President.” Again, we seem to be teetering on the  end of Trump or the end of American democracy.

Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-153/

In addition to the number of not normal items  surging since the start of the impeachment inquiry, Trump’s Twitter  activity has proliferated — in one 25 minute span on Friday alone, he sent 33 tweets!  In past weekly lists, we have covered that the potency of his tweets  have had decreased, both in impact and visibility, as his time in office  wears on. Also, notably, the media coverage of Trump’s frenzied  tweeting has dropped off, making it harder each week to find sources  that put what amounts to official pronouncements from the leader of our  country into some context (and for me to link to for historical  purposes).

In the past two weeks, there has been a striking  shift in the country’s sentiment towards impeachment — approval of not  only an inquiry, but also removing Trump, has shifted in favor. Thus  far, breaking news coming from our media has done most of the fact  finding and informing. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is keeping the focus  of the inquiry narrow, but with reporting gushing out the scope of the  July 25 Trump-Ukraine call has broadened in several different subplots  which are commensurately unfolding.

This week Trump abruptly pulled U.S. troops from  Syria, enabling possible genocide by Turkey against the Kurds who  fought alongside us, and allowing ISIS fighters to escape and regroup.  It’s a calamity of our times — and yet few voices in the Republican  Party, let alone the decorated military officials who served in the  Trump regime, are willing to speak out. If anyone had doubts of how  close we are to becoming an authoritarian state, this week’s list will  remind you.

Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-152/

With impeachment looming, Trump started this  week by attacking the credibility of House Intelligence Committee Chair  Adam Schiff and the whistleblower, both of whom he also endangered with  his rhetoric. Midweek, Trump shifted strategy, openly soliciting foreign  help from China and Ukraine in the 2020 election on national  television, speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of White House.  Republicans remained silent on Trump’s unprecedented request, which the  head of the Federal Election Commission reminded the country, in a  tweet, is illegal.

This week others in the regime became ensnared  in the inquiry, as reporting revealed the involvement of not only  Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, but also Attorney General  William Barr, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and possibly Vice  President Mike Pence, among others. Three House committee chairs sent  subpoenas to Pompeo, Pence, and at the end of the week, the White House,  and witnesses started to appear before House investigators in private  hearings. Polling showed a dramatic shift in attitudes towards  impeachment, with the majority of Americans now in favor.

As noted last week, I had always thought as we  approached the end of Trump’s time in power, the lists would balloon:  following last week’s 225 not normal items — 20 items longer than any  previous list — this week we hit 240 items. In addition to the news on  impeachment, this week’s list has many important stories on the  continued degradation of American values and the regime’s cruelty, which  got lost in the chaos of the news cycle.

Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-151/