Officials confirmed that Trump and national security adviser Robert O’Brien have cut 70 positions inherited from former President Barack Obama, who had fattened the staff to 200.

Many were loaners from other agencies and have been sent back. Others left government work.

The NSC, which is the president’s personal staff, was rocked when a “whistleblower” leveled charges that led to Trump’s impeachment.

Last week, one key official who testified against Trump at a House hearing on the Ukraine affair that led to impeachment was sent packing. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was returned to the Pentagon. His twin brother, Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, was also given the boot. Trump had expressed displeasure that Alexander Vindman had testified against him when the Ukraine specialist said he did not like the phone conversation between the president and a newly elected president of Ukraine.

Since entering the White House, Trump has relied on staff smaller than previous administrations and has noted how prior presidents had a much smaller NSC team.

O’Brien recently said that former President George W. Bush handled the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with 100 NSC aides, a model he is instituting.

“This month, we will complete the right-sizing goal Ambassador O’Brien outlined in October, and in fact, may exceed that target by drawing down even more positions,” John Ullyot, the NSC’s senior director for strategic communications, told Secrets.

Source: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/bigger-than-vindman-trump-scrubs-70-obama-holdovers-from-nsc

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The resolution specifically would update Senate rules to allow the chamber to bring a motion dismissing the articles.

JOHN BOLTON: I WILL TESTIFY IN IMPEACHMENT TRIAL IF SUBPOENAED 

“In the real world, when a prosecutor brings a case but refuses to try it, the court has the ability and the defendant has the right – the constitutional right, I might add — to have those articles, those indictments, those charges dismissed,” Hawley said in a speech on the Senate floor. “That is precisely the action that I am proposing today.”

Hawley joined with co-sponsors Sens. Rick Scott of Florida; Mike Braun of Indiana; Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee; Ted Cruz of Texas; Steve Daines of Montana; John Barrasso of Wyoming; Tom Cotton of Arkansas; Joni Ernst of Iowa; David Perdue of Georgia; and Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma.

“Speaker Pelosi started this bogus impeachment by claiming President Trump was an urgent ‘threat to democracy’ who had to be removed now,” Hawley said in a statement Monday. “But after a bipartisan vote against the articles in the House, and with the public opposed to the Democrats’ partisan games, Pelosi has changed her tune. Now she wants to prevent a Senate trial, perhaps indefinitely. But the Constitution gives the Senate sole power to adjudicate articles of impeachment, not the House.”

He added: “If Speaker Pelosi is afraid to try her case, the articles should be dismissed for failure to prosecute and Congress should get back to doing the people’s business.”

The Senate currently has a set of 26 rules that govern all impeachment proceedings, which presume a “prompt delivery of the articles of impeachment to the Senate following their adoption by the House.”

But last month, the House voted to adopt two articles of impeachment against the president—abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Pelosi, after the vote, said she wanted reassurances that the Senate would hold a fair trial, involving certain Democrat-sought witnesses, before sending over the articles of the Senate to begin proceedings. Pelosi, who has been sitting on the articles of impeachment since before Christmas, has yet to transmit them to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Hawley’s resolution would allow the Senate to dismiss the articles of impeachment for lack of prosecution, once the House has withheld articles for 25 calendar days or more. Under the proposed rule, any senator would be able to move to dismiss the articles once the time period has elapsed. That motion would then be voted upon by the full Senate.

IMPEACHMENT IMPASSE DEEPENS AS MCCONNELL REJECTS PELOSI’S BID TO SHAPE TRIAL: ‘THEIR TURN IS OVER’ 

At this point, Pelosi has held the articles of impeachment for 19 days. The House voted to adopt the articles on Dec. 18, 2019.

“After three years of searching for a reason to impeach this president, Democrats in the House cannot seem to find the time to send over the articles of impeachment,” Blackburn said in a statement Monday. “If House Democrats are so confident in their findings, they ought to have no problem sending the articles over within a 25-day deadline.”

On Friday, McConnell spoke from the Senate floor, rejecting Pelosi’s efforts to shape a pending impeachment trial, calling it a “fantasy.”

“Their turn is over. They’ve done enough damage. It’s the Senate’s turn now to render sober judgment,” he said while stressing that the Senate cannot hold a trial unless and until Pelosi transmits the two articles.

At the center of the inquiry is Trump’s efforts to press Ukraine to launch politically related investigations — regarding former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s dealings in Ukraine, as well as issues related to the 2016 presidential election.

The president’s request came after millions of dollars in U.S. military aid to Ukraine had been frozen, which Democrats argue shows a “quid pro quo” arrangement. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

McConnell indicated that the Senate process is at a standstill for now, and accused the House of getting “cold feet.”

“The same people who spent weeks screaming that impeachment was so urgent … now decided it could wait indefinitely while they check the political winds and look for some new talking points,” he said.

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Although four White House officials have blown off congressional subpoenas to testify before the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry, House Democrats reportedly aren’t sweating it.

Politico reports that House investigators believe they have already compiled enough damning evidence against the president to make a strong case for his impeachment and removal, and thus aren’t concerned about officials who are defying their subpoenas.

The one remaining witness whom Democrats would most like to see testify is White House attorney John Eisenberg, who allegedly ordered that the readout of President Donald Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky be placed into a top-secret server after Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman raised alarms about the president asking a foreign country to investigate his domestic political opponents.

House Democrats are planning to start holding public impeachment hearings as early as next week and have already lined up several potential star witnesses. In addition to Vindman, Democrats are expected to hold public testimony for ambassador Bill Taylor, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, National Security Council official Tim Morrison, and former National Security Council official Fiona Hill.

Source: https://www.rawstory.com/2019/11/dems-already-have-enough-evidence-to-impeach-trump-and-dont-care-about-white-house-defying-subpoenas/

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The measure passed largely along party lines, 232-196. Two Democrats defected on the vote.

The first formal floor vote in relation to the impeachment probe announced a month ago by Speaker Nancy Pelosi followed a fierce debate in the chamber, where Republicans accused Democrats of launching a de facto “coup” against the president in a “pre-ordained” bid to overturn the results of the 2016 election.

REPUBLICANS ON IMPEACHMENT COMMITTEES RIP ‘SHAM’ PROCESS AHEAD OF VOTE

“A yes vote on this resolution today gives a stamp of approval to a process that has been damaged beyond all repair and a blatant and obvious coup to unseat a sitting president of the United States,” Rep. Ross Spano, R-Fla., said.

Democrats, though, maintained that the president’s own actions – pressing Ukraine to launch politically related investigations, and allegedly using military aid as leverage – brought the country to this point.

“I do not take any pleasure in the need for this resolution,” Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said. “We are here because the facts compel us to be here.”

Showmanship and heated rhetoric marked the lead-up to the vote. Pelosi stood beside a giant placard of an American flag while declaring Congress was “defending our democracy.”

Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., accused Democrats of being part of a “cult,” suggesting Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is their leader.

Trump tweeted after the vote: “The Greatest Witch Hunt In American History!”

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham maintained in a statement that the president has done nothing wrong.

“With today’s vote, Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats have done nothing more than enshrine unacceptable violations of due process into House rules,” she said.

READ THE RESOLUTION

No Republicans voted for the measure on Thursday, while two Democrats voted against it: Reps. Jeff Van Drew, D-N.J., and Collin Peterson, D-Minn.

Republicans for weeks had challenged Pelosi to hold a floor vote, complaining the inquiry hasn’t followed past precedent and violates the president’s due process rights. While she finally gave in to those demands in a bid to mute their complaints about process, GOP lawmakers continued to call the inquiry a “sham” while complaining that the newly unveiled rules still limit their authority — including by requiring the consent of Democratic chairs to subpoena witnesses.

McGovern introduced the resolution earlier this week while defending the process and claiming it was not partisan.

“It’s about transparency and it’s about due process for the president,” McGovern said. “Some on the other side will never be satisfied with any process.”

The resolution directs the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, Financial Services, Judiciary, and Ways and Means Committees to “continue their ongoing investigations as part of the existing House of Representatives inquiry into whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to exercise its constitutional power to impeach Donald John Trump.”

The Democrats’ resolution specifies that Republicans in the minority on the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees will have the authority, with the concurrence of committee chairs in the majority, to subpoena witnesses and compel their testimony.

DEMS INTRODUCE RESOLUTION FORMALIZING IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY PROCEDURES

If the chair does not consent, the minority can appeal to the full committee. It is common in other proceedings for committee chairs to essentially have veto authority over subpoenas sought by ranking minority members.

The measure also sets the stage for proceedings to move into a public setting soon.

The resolution authorizes the Intelligence Committee to conduct an “open hearing or hearings” in which minority Republicans have equal time to question witnesses.

And, after that hearing is concluded, “to allow for a full evaluation of minority witness requests, the ranking minority member may submit to the chair, in writing, any requests for witness testimony relevant to the investigation described in the first section of this resolution within 72 hours after notice is given.”

McGovern has argued, and maintained on Thursday, that the standards outlined in the resolution are the same as those under the impeachments of both Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.

The resolution further directs the Intelligence Committee, in consultation with the other committees, to prepare a report on its findings to the Judiciary Committee, which would write any articles of impeachment. In response to GOP complaints about Democrats’ selective leaks of opening statements and depositions, the document also authorizes the public release of testimony transcripts, with only sensitive or classified information being redacted. The resolution also allows Republican members to submit written demands for testimony and other evidence, to cross-examine witnesses, and raise objections.

Pelosi announced the Trump impeachment inquiry on Sept. 24, saying at the time that “the president must be held accountable” for his “betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security, and the betrayal of the integrity of our elections.”

The inquiry was opened after a whistleblower complaint alleged that Trump, during a July phone call, pushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter as military aid to the country was being withheld.

A transcript released by the White House shows Trump making that request, but he and his allies deny that military aid was clearly linked to the request or that there was any “quid pro quo.” Some witnesses coming before House committees as part of the impeachment proceedings have challenged that assertion.

Fox News’ Gregg Re and Chad Pergram contributed to this report.

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