Trump news: Formal charges of impeachment revealed with president accused of ‘simple and terrible’ abuse of power
Nadler: 'Our next election is at risk... That is why we must act now'
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Your support makes all the difference.House Democrats announced two articles of impeachment against Donald Trump on a historic day on Capitol Hill, accusing the president of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress ahead of a full House vote on his misconduct later this week.
"He endangers our democracy, he endangers our national security," said House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler, announcing the charges before a portrait of George Washington. "Our next election is at risk... That is why we must act now."
Mr Trump began the day pleading on Twitter that his impeachment would be "sheer Political Madness!"
His Attorney General William Barr, however, had accused the Obama Administration of being the "greatest danger to our free system" by using the "apparatus of the state ... both to spy on political opponents but also to use them in a way that could affect the outcome of an election."
Those theories were debunked in the Justice Department's recently released watchdog report but they've been repeated by Republicans in defence of the president as he face impeachment.
But nearly as soon as Democrats announced impeachment articles, they supported the Trump administration's USMCA trade agreement, a revised Nafta plan that the White House called the "biggest and best trade agreement in the history of the world". The White House will "push hard" to enact the deal before the end of 2019, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell already indicated the Senate won't be taking it up until the president's impeachment trial is through, which could be January.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the White House, where Mr Pompeo and Mr Lavrov clashed during a post-meeting press conference over the perception of reports of interference in US elections.
Mr Lavrov said that reports of interference are "baseless" and that "there are no facts that would support that" though he admitted he read the Mueller report, which he said is not "proof of collusion".
The president ends a historic day on Capitol Hill with his supporters in Pennsylvania, where he's holding an ego-boosting Keep America Great rally.
Follow along as it happened.
Republican lawyer ridiculed online for turning up at impeachment inquiry with shopping bag
For Indy100, here's Greg Evans with a timely round-up of all the jokes flying around Twitter concerning Steve Castor's shopping bag briefcase.
After Democrats revealed articles of impeachment against Trump, the president be holding an ego-boosting rally in Pennsylvania with his supporters tonight.
He'll be in Hershey at the Giant Center and is scheduled to speak at 7pm EST.
It's also a rare double billing with Vice President Mike Pence.
Officials there said they likely won't be sending their security bill to the campaign.
Biden's anti-Trump 'laughing' ad will air on Iowa television
After racking up millions of views (cheaply) on social media, Joe Biden's campaign will take its ad showing world leaders at a Nato summit laughing at the president to Iowa TV sets.
It's not the first time a Democratic candidate has gone after Trump for being embarrassing to America's standing among the rest of the world. The former vice president argues that he's more electable because of his foreign policy experience, and he's banking on voters caring whether the US maintains a reputation that Trump has tarnished.
TIME has whittled its finalists down to Nancy Pelosi, Hong Kong protestors, the whistle-blower, Greta Thunberg, and Donald Trump.
AG Barr: FBI acted in 'bad faith' pursuing Russia probe
In an interview with NBC News, US Attorney General William Barr said he believes that the FBI operated in "bad faith" while pursuing its investigation to determine whether Donald Trump's presidential campaign worked with Russian groups.
In the interview, Mr Barr "essentially dismissed the findings of the Justice Department's inspector general that there was no evidence of political bias in the launching of the Russia probe, saying that his hand-picked prosecutor, John Durham, will have the last word on the matter."
"I think our nation was turned on its head for three years based on a completely bogus narrative that was largely fanned and hyped by a completely irresponsible press," Mr Barr said. "I think there were gross abuses …and inexplicable behavior that is intolerable in the FBI."
Meanwhile, Mr Trump has lashed out against the current FBI director, Christopher Wray, saying “he will never be able to fix the FBI” following the release of the inspector general report.
“I don’t know what report current Director of the FBI Christopher Wray was reading, but it sure wasn’t the one given to me,” the president said on Twitter. “With that kind of attitude, he will never be able to fix the FBI, which is badly broken despite having some of the greatest men & women working there!”
From the Barr interview: the attorney general says the former Barack Obama administration was the "greatest danger to our free system".
He accused Obama of using the "apparatus of the state … both to spy on political opponents but also to use them in a way that could affect the outcome of an election."
He also hasn't ruled out whether Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in 2016.
Both of those conspiracy theories were debunked in the inspector general report but have been repeated by Republicans in defence of the president, now facing impeachment.
Here's an explainer from The Independent's Chris Riotta about what the president has been charged with, the evidence against him, and what happens next.
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham is celebrating the USMCA trade agreement, the "biggest and best trade agreement in the history of the world" that House Democrats supported this morning.
She called it a "huge win" for "American workers, farmers, ranchers, labor unions and businesses that will lead to more American jobs."
She says the White House will "push hard" to enact the deal before the end of 2019.
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell already indicated the Senate won't be taking it up until the president's impeachment trial is through, which could be January.
Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page is suing the FBI and the US Justice Department for leaking her messages to the press, which she claims is a violation of the Privacy Act.
The lawsuit follows the release of the Justice Department's inspector general report, which said that the the FBI's probe into the Trump campaign was not the result of a political bias, despite the president's claims. Mr Trump also has repeatedly mocked Ms Page and claimed a conspiracy that Ms Page and FBI agent Peter Strzok has sought to remove him from office through their investigation.
She said: "I take little joy in having done so. But what they did in leaking my messages to the press was not only wrong, it was illegal."
The Independent's Clark Mindock has more:
The Department of Homeland Security is calling a report from BuzzFeedNews — which found asylum seekers receiving nonexistent court dates — "fake news."
The report cites immigration attorneys and advocacy groups warning about the administration's "troubling and apparently new trend of US officials going out of their way, including issuing fake court date notices, in order to keep even those who have been granted asylum out of the country."
A Customs and Border Patrol official told the outlet that "that shouldn’t be happening.”
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