WATCH: Devin Nunes Devastates Schiff, Democrats With Fiery Opening Statement; Witnesses in Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Effort Just Torched the Democrats’ Narrative

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By Townhall. During the first public impeachment inquiry hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning, House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes did not hold anything back and slammed Democrats for damaging the country. He also went after the media and again called on Hunter Biden to testify about allegations of corruption in Ukraine.

“In a July open hearing of this committing following the publication of the Mueller report, the Democrats engaged in a last-ditch effort to convince the American people President Trump is a Russia agent. That hearing was the pitiful finally of a three-year-long effort by the Democrats, the corrupt media, and partisan bureaucrats to overturn the results of the 2016 election. After the spectacular implosion of their Russia hoax on July 24…on July 25th, they turned on a dime and now claim the real malfeasance is the Republicans dealings with Ukraine,” Nunes said.

(Read more from “WATCH: Devin Nunes Devastates Schiff, Democrats With Fiery Opening Statement” HERE)

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It Looks Like the Star Witnesses in Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Effort Just Torched the Democrats’ Narrative

By Townhall. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) is the starting quarterback for the Democrats’ impeachment effort. The Left has taken the Trump-Ukraine story hook, line, and sinker. It’s even shoddier than the Russian collusion myth. A whistleblower alleged that Trump had shaken down the Ukrainian political leadership to investigate Hunter Biden’s board position on a Ukrainian energy company or risk having military aid withheld. The so-called whistleblower did not listen in on the call, it’s all based on secondhand information, and Ukraine did get the aid. This wasn’t even brought up during the call per the transcript released by the Trump White House. Also, during testimony today in front of the House Intelligence Committee from State Department officials Bill Taylor and George Kent, there really wasn’t any quid pro quo.

(Read more from “It Looks Like the Star Witnesses in Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Effort Just Torched the Democrats’ Narrative” HERE)

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Impeachment Hearing Accidentally Makes Case for Hunter Biden Investigation

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The impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump backfired on congressional Democrats Wednesday, when a star witness inadvertently made the case that Hunter Biden’s wheeling and dealing in Ukraine should be investigated.

Testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on the opening day of the inquiry, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent admitted that U.S. officials had been urging the Ukrainian government for some time to explain why an investigation into Burisma Holdings, the eastern European oil and gas company that employed Hunter Biden on its board of directors, was shut down. . .

Kent, who has claimed former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani engineered the firing of the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine through a “campaign of slander,” is considered a key witness for congressional Democrats as they seek to prove the president’s conduct rises to the level of impeachment.

On Wednesday, however, Kent inadvertently strengthened the argument that Republicans and the president, himself, have made that Hunter Biden’s conduct in Ukraine should be probed given his father’s role overseeing policy in the region and the allegations of corruption lodged against Burisma and its founder, Mykola Zlochevsky.

It was on the latter front that Kent’s testimony proved particularly revealing. The state department official admitted he and his colleagues believed Zlochevsky “had stolen money” and the Ukrainian prosecutor charged with investigating him shut down the case after taking a bribe. When asked if he was in favor of the Ukrainian government reopening the probe into Bruisma and Zlochevsky, Kent asserted he would “love” to see such an action so it could become clear who was bribed and to what extent. (Read more from “Impeachment Hearing Accidentally Makes Case for Hunter Biden Investigation” HERE)

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William Barr Says Release of FISA Report Is ‘Imminent’

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Attorney General William Barr said Wednesday that the release of an inspector general’s report on FBI’s surveillance of the Trump campaign is “imminent.”

Multiple news outlets reported Tuesday that Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department inspector general, has invited witnesses interviewed in connection with the investigation to review portions of the forthcoming report. The step is routine in investigations conducted by inspectors general, and typically signals that the release of the report is near. . .

Horowitz has been investigating whether the FBI followed the law and bureau guidelines when applying for four Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

The FBI relied on information from Christopher Steele, a former British spy, to argue in the FISA applications that there was probable cause to believe that Page was an agent of Russia. Steele worked for an opposition research firm hired by the Clinton campaign and DNC in 2016 to investigate Trump’s possible links to Russia.

The special counsel’s report said that prosecutors found no evidence that Page or anyone associated with the Trump campaign acted as an agent of Russia. The report also said that there was not evidence that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. Steele alleged in his dossier that Page and other Trump associates conspired with Kremlin operatives. (Read more from “William Barr Says Release of FISA Report Is ‘Imminent’” HERE)

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Foreign Service Officer Claims Trump Canceled Navy Operation Near Ukraine – Here’s the Truth

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On Monday, as part of Congress’ impeachment inquiry into whether President Trump withheld military support for Ukraine, legislators released testimony from Christopher Anderson, who served as a top aide for Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special representative for Ukraine negotiations. Anderson stated that President Trump had asked the U.S. Navy to cancel a routine “freedom-of-navigation” operation in the Black Sea, near Ukraine, earlier this year.

But on Wednesday, the U.S. Navy dismissed Anderson’s version of events. “U.S. 6th Fleet conducted our naval operations in the Black Sea region as scheduled in January and February 2019. The U.S. Navy will continue to operate in the Black Sea consistent with international law, to include the Montreaux Convention,” Cmdr. Kyle Raines, a spokesman for Naval Forces Europe-Africa asserted, as Stars and Stripes reported.

On Monday, Politico reported that Anderson recalled an alleged early-2019 conversation in which former national security adviser John Bolton said Trump had complained about a CNN story insinuating the Navy was countering Russian aggression in the Black Sea. Anderson told legislators, “Ambassador Bolton relayed that he was called at home by the president, who complained about this news report.” . . .

Business Insider added, “Anderson said the signal to cancel the Navy operation, combined with reports at the time saying an effort was underway to review all assistance to Ukraine, left some fearing a shift in U.S. policy toward the former Soviet republic.”

Anderson stated, “We met with Ambassador Bolton and discussed this, and he made it clear that the president had called him to complain about that news report. And that may have just been that he was surprised. We don’t — I can’t speculate as to why, but that, that operation was canceled, but then we were able to get a second one for later in February. And we had an Arleigh-class destroyer arrive in Odessa on the fifth anniversary of the Crimea invasion.” (Read more from “Foreign Service Officer Claims Trump Canceled Navy Operation Near Ukraine – Here’s the Truth” HERE)

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Removing Trump by Senate Secret Ballot Would Be a Disaster for Our Republic

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Could the United States Senate use a secret ballot to remove President Donald Trump from office? Possibly, but it would be an absolutely terrible idea.

An article published Tuesday at Politico Magazine floats the idea, noting that Senate procedure allows the upper chamber to set its own rules for trying impeachment and that a bloc of just three Republicans could potentially force the issue.

The article — written by a former adviser to Republican politicians — argues that “the Senate’s role in an impeachment is analogous to a U.S. jury, where secret ballots are often used” and that Trump would “benefit in the long run” by being able to “focus his energies on his post-presidency.”

The appeal for some in the upper chamber seems obvious; those tired of the Trump presidency or who just can’t stand the man himself get to vote to remove the president from office and replace him with Vice President Mike Pence without having to face certain backlash from their own party and their constituents. But unlike jurors, senators are not selected at random. They are selected by the people with the knowledge that the person elected may have to sit for an impeachment trial, along with approving treaties and voting on the president’s nominees. Senators are accountable to the voters.

To seriously suggest removing this president from office via secret ballot — which has never been done before — could almost pass for bad satire at this point in the current impeachment process. (For more from the author of “Removing Trump by Senate Secret Ballot Would Be a Disaster for Our Republic” please click HERE)

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Adam Schiff Threatens Republicans Over Whistleblower; Schiff Reveals Trump’s ‘Potentially Impeachable Offenses’

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By Townhall. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff is threatening Republican lawmakers ahead of the first public impeachment inquiry hearing on Wednesday and warning that any criticism of the whistleblower could prompt an Ethics Committee investigation. Schiff is also going out of his way to protect the Bidens from scrutiny.

“As explained in my November 9, 2019, response to the Ranking Member, it is important to underscore that the House’s impeachment inquiry, and the Committee, will not serve as venues for any Member to further the same sham investigations into the Bidens or into debunked conspiracies about the 2016 U.S. election interference that President Trump pressed Ukraine to undertake for his personal political benefit,” Schiff wrote in a memo to the Committee laying out the rules for the hearing.

(Read more from “Schiff Threatens Republicans Over Whistleblower” HERE)

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Adam Schiff: Trump’s Potentially Impeachable Offenses Include Bribery

By Breitbart. On Tuesday’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” House Intelligence chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said there was a clear argument to be made that President Donald Trump committed “bribery.”

Schiff said, “I don’t think any decision has been made on the ultimate question about whether articles of impeachment should be brought. But on the basis of what the witnesses have had to say so far, there are any number of potentially impeachable offenses: including bribery, including high crimes and misdemeanors. The basic allegations against the president are that he sought foreign interference in a U.S. election, that he conditioned official acts on the performance of these political favors — and those official acts include a White House meeting that the president of Ukraine desperately sought with President Trump, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded military assistance for a country that is at war with Russia and a country that the United States has a deep national security interest in making sure it can defend itself.” (Read more from “Adam Schiff: Trump’s Potentially Impeachable Offenses Include Bribery” HERE)

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DACA Protesters in Country Illegally Promise to Stay in U.S. Regardless of High Court Decision

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Protesters gathered at the United States Supreme Court on Tuesday as oral arguments were taking place inside the chamber about the fate of Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA). They vowed to stay in the United States no matter what the High Court decides next summer.

Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, told protesters that they should not have to leave regardless of the court’s ruling. . .

Greisa Martinez Rosas, who is deputy executive director of United We Dream, an organization founded and populated with youth that are in the country illegally, addressed the protesters who held signs that read “No human is illegal” and “Stop the Wall.”

“Today thousands of undocumented youth & allies are walking out to defend #DACA,” Martinez Rosas tweeted with the hashtags SCOTUS #Heretostay #HomeIsHere

“I’m undocumented and unafraid,” Martinez Rosas said. “I’m queer and unashamed.”

(Read more from “DACA Protesters in Country Illegally Promise to Stay in U.S. Regardless of High Court Decision” HERE)

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ABC News Frantically Hunting for Epstein Whistleblower

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ABC News executives are scrambling to snuff out the staffer responsible for leaking footage of an anchor lamenting the squashing of her bombshell report on deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, even searching through employees’ inboxes and carrying out interrogations, according to a report.

Last Tuesday, Project Veritas published an undercover video in which Good Morning America co-host Amy Robach is seen telling a producer that a witness brought forth damning information regarding Epstein, which also implicated former President Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew, but ABC News killed the report. A clip of Robach’s off-camera tirade was saved in ABC News’ internal video clip library by Ashley Bianco, then a junior producer at the network. Bianco was fired from CBS News, who had hired her in recent weeks, following the release of the Robach clip. She denied leaking the clip to Project Veritas, and the conservative media organization claimed its source was still working for ABC.

Thus, as the New York Post‘s Page Six reports, the hunt for the Epstein “whistleblower” is in full swing. “ABC investigators have been rifling through staff emails, news logs and grilling staffers. The company has been isolating certain employees and putting them under pressure to turn on their colleagues in a bid to find the culprit, the source also claimed, adding the investigation reports back up to the very highest levels at HR at ABC’s parent company Disney,” the story says.

ABC brass is also particularly puzzled by an open letter reportedly penned by the leaker, which was published last week by Project Veritas under the alias “Ignotus,” a character from the Harry Potter book series.

Page Six continues: “An ABC insider said top execs were particularly puzzled by Ignotus. He is possibly best known as a Harry Potter character, a pure-blood wizard who has a cloak of invisibility, passed through generations, finally to Harry Potter. Ignotus also means ‘unknown’ in Latin.” (Read more from “ABC News Frantically Hunting for Epstein Whistleblower” HERE)

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Baby Trump Balloon-Slasher: I’ve Never Seen Liberals ‘Mad About Chopping up a Baby’

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(Photo credit: Michael Reeve)

Hoyt Deau Hutchinson, the man who allegedly stabbed the Baby Trump balloon Saturday in Tuscaloosa, reportedly defended his actions during a Monday morning call to a radio show.

The incident occurred as protesters gathered outside the Alabama/LSU football game because President Donald Trump was in attendance — and according to reporting from AL.com, Hutchinson told host Rick Burgess of the “Rick & Bubba Show” that the protest was what got under his skin.

Hutchinson described the scene, saying, “I got so fired up when I rolled by the balloon and I rolled down the window and I said something to them and I figured they saw me. I figured only way I was going to get close enough to that balloon was to blend in. (I) went and bought me an Alabama shirt and walked up like I was walking to the game and like I was going to take a picture with (the Trump balloon). I was so fired up. I was shaking I was so mad.” . . .

Hutchinson explained to Burgess that he was just tired of people not taking a stand, prompting the host to ask, “This was your turning of the temple tables?”

“Yes. It comes a point when you gotta take a stand,” Hutchinson replied. “We don’t have two parties anymore. We have good vs. evil. When you got one party that says it’s OK to kill babies and by the way, this is the first time I’m ever seen a liberal get mad about chopping up a baby.”

(Read more from “Baby Trump Balloon-Slasher: I’ve Never Seen Liberals ‘Mad About Chopping up a Baby’” HERE)

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GOP Memo Outlines ‘Four Key Pieces of Evidence’ That Are ‘Fatal’ to the Democrats’ Impeachment Allegations

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In a staff memo circulated to GOP committee members Monday night, House Republicans outlined “four key pieces of evidence” that they believe are “fatal” to the Democrats’ allegations of impeachment against President Donald Trump.

The memo, written by top Republicans from three committees involved in the impeachment investigation, also excoriated Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) for improperly conducting the inquiry from his “Capitol basement bunker.”

“The fact-finding is all unclassified, so the closed-door process is purely for information control,” the memo said. “This arrangement has allowed Chairman Schiff — who has already publicly fabricated evidence and misled Americans about his interactions with the anonymous whistleblower — to selectively leak cherry-picked information to help paint misleading public narratives while, at the same time, placing a gag order on Republican Members.” . . .

[These are three of the four key pieces:]

● The July 25 call summary — the best evidence of the conversation — shows no conditionality or evidence of pressure;

● President Zelensky and President Trump have both said there was no pressure on the call;

● The Ukrainian government was not aware of a hold on U.S. security assistance at the time of the July 25 call; and

(Read more from “GOP Memo Outlines ‘Four Key Pieces of Evidence’ That Are ‘Fatal’ to the Democrats’ Impeachment Allegations” HERE)

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