By CNN. The Democratic-led House of Representatives on Monday told the Supreme Court that the House needs secret Mueller grand jury materials to determine if there is new evidence of impeachable offenses involving President Donald Trump.

The House Judiciary Committee has been attempting obtain the documents prosecutors collected from witnesses about Trump in a back-and-forth legal fight that’s now reached the Supreme Court.

“The Committee’s impeachment investigation related to obstruction of justice pertaining to the Russia investigation is ongoing,” Douglas Letter, the House general counsel, said in a court filing Monday.

“If this material reveals new evidence supporting the conclusion that President Trump committed impeachable offenses,” Letter said, “the Committee will proceed accordingly — including, if necessary, by considering whether to recommend new articles of impeachment.” (Read more from “Democrats Just Announced Their New Plan to Impeach President Trump” HERE)

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Bill Maher Regrets Trump Impeachment; Acquittal Just ‘Emboldened’ President

By Washington Times. Bill Maher, one of President Trump’s fiercest critics on cable television, voiced regret Friday over Congress having conducted the impeachment proceedings he previously championed.

“Impeachment turned out to be a horrible thing,” the liberal comic said during the latest episode of his weekly HBO program, “Real Time with Bill Maher.”

“If I could do it over again, I wouldn’t, because it just emboldened him,” Mr. Maher said about impeaching Mr. Trump.

Mr. Maher, 64, made the remarks while discussing the president’s recent firing of five inspectors general who had been tasked with conducting oversight of the Trump administration.

Calling it a “war on accountability,” Mr. Maher said the president removed the watchdogs without making too much noise by acting while the media was focused on COVID-19, the contagious disease responsible for the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic that has claimed nearly 100,000 lives across the country and counting. (Read more from “Bill Maher Regrets Trump Impeachment; Acquittal Just ‘Emboldened’ President” HERE)

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By Washington Examiner. The document that greenlighted the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign has been unveiled, giving the public a look at a key focus of U.S. Attorney John Durham’s inquiry into the Trump-Russia investigators.

An “opening electronic communication,” which was authored by fired FBI agent Peter Strzok, was released through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by conservative government watchdog group Judicial Watch.

Typed up in late July 2016 with the approval of William Priestap, then-assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, the document outlines the reasoning for the bureau’s decision to launch the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. The investigation looked into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia after an Australian diplomat, Alexander Downer, informed the United States that Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos told him he learned Russia had damaging information on Hillary Clinton, President Trump’s Democratic rival in the 2016 presidential election. . .

Attorney General William Barr, who appointed Durham to conduct the inquiry, agreed with his hand-picked prosecutor, saying Horowitz’s report “makes clear that the FBI launched an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken.”

The document, which Strzok wrote “opens and assigns” the investigation, is covered in redactions. It does not show Downer’s name, but his presence is made clear by what is already known about the lead-up to the inquiry, saying he provided information “related to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s website/server.” (Read more from “Declassified: Trump-Russia Launch Document Authored by Strzok and Investigated by Durham” HERE)

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Supreme Court Temporarily Blocks Release of Testimony From Mueller Investigation

By The Guardian. The US supreme court has temporarily prevented the House of Representatives from obtaining secret grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

The court granted the Trump administration’s request to keep previously undisclosed details from the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election out of the hands of Democratic lawmakers, at least until early summer.

The court will decide then whether to extend its hold and schedule the case for arguments in the fall. If it does, it’s likely the administration will be able to put off the release of any materials until after election day on 3 November. Arguments themselves might not even take place before Americans decide whether to give Donald Trump a second term.

For justices eager to avoid a definitive ruling, the delay could mean never having to decide the case, if either Trump loses or Republicans regain control of the House next year. If Democratic candidate Joe Biden were to win the election against Trump, it’s hard to imagine his administration would object to turning over the Mueller documents, or if Republicans won the House, it would be equally hard to see them continue to press for them. (Read more from “Supreme Court Temporarily Blocks Release of Testimony From Mueller Investigation” HERE)

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The Trump administration said Thursday that it will withdraw from another major international treaty, a decision expected to disturb European allies as Washington pulls back further from global arms commitments and other pacts.

The Open Skies treaty allows 35 nations, including Russia, to conduct unarmed surveillance flights over each other’s territory in order to assure that nations are not preparing for military action.

The Trump administration has previously said that Russia has repeatedly violated the terms of the pact, which was brokered three decades ago. Washington maintains that Moscow uses the flights as an opportunity to identify critical infrastructure to target during a potential conflict.

“President Trump has made clear that the United States will not remain a party to international agreements that are being violated by the other parties and are no longer in America’s interests,” said national security advisor Robert O’Brien in an emailed statement.

“We look forward to negotiating with both Russia and China on a new arms control framework that moves beyond the Cold War constructs of the past and helps keep the entire world safe,” the statement added. (Read more from “Trump Pulls the U.S. out of Surveillance Treaty, His Latest Withdrawal From a Major Pact” HERE)

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