Trump news: President sends furious letter to Pelosi about impeachment as former campaign aide sentenced to jail

House Dems to unveil zero-emissions bill later today

House Democrats are set to unveil a bill that aims to zero out emissions from drilling, mining and other activities on federal land and waters by 2040.

The committee said the legislation would create a pathway for the Interior Department and Forest Service, which oversee federal land and waters, to achieve the net-zero goal.

But unless the party gains ground in the Republican-controlled Senate and unseats Donald Trump in next year's election, it is unlikely to become law.

Handful of Republican senators could derail White House and McConnell's plans for swift, bare impeachment trial

A small group of GOP senators who have so far kept quiet on the subject of Donald Trump's impeachment could be the deciding factor in a fight to shape the likely impending trial in the senate.

While majority leader Mitch McConnell has pledged to work in "total co-ordination" with the White House, aiming to give the president as quick and easy a trial as possible, it would take just four rebel Republican votes to throw these plans into disarray.

CNN reports potential candidates for this role could include moderates up for re-election, like Susan Collins, or veteran Republicans who are retiring and therefore feel less bound to support Mr Trump, like Lamar Alexander. There are also outspoken critics of the president, like Mitt Romney, who could wish for a more extensive trial.

If four Republicans were to vote in favour of a trial with further witnesses and documentation – as minority leader Chuck Schumer called for on Monday – the president may be in for a bumpier ride than expected come January.

Matt Gaetz claims 'this impeachment is over'

Speaking to Fox News, the Trump ally restated Republican complaints that the impeachment is not the "bipartisan" affair pledged at the outset by Nancy Pelosi.

The Florida representative – who drew heavy criticism on Thursday for shaming Hunter Biden's history of drug use as he proposed an amendment to the articles of impeachment put forward by the House Judiciary Committee – also claimed Democrats had "failed to deliver on their promises to produce direct evidence" of Mr Trump's wrongdoing.

Giuliani's actions regarding ousted Ukraine envoy means US 'seeing foreign election interference play out before our eyes'

CNN's Jim Sciutto suggests Rudy Giuliani's recent statements about ousted ambassador Marie Yovanovitch amount to foreign election interference in that he was "seeking damaging information on political opponents from foreign sources of questionable credibility".

"The lesson of Mueller and impeachment appears to be: this is now acceptable," he says.

Following Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's letter demanding that the Senate introduce witnesses as part of Donald Trump's likely impeachment trial, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — who has been criticised as trying to rig the trial's outcome — is on the floor calling the process the “most rushed, least thorough and most unfair impeachment inquiry in recent history”.

McConnell — who has admitted to coordinating with the White House on the president's defence — accused Schumer of trying to "short circuit" the trial process.

He said he prefers an in-person meeting to go over the plan with Schumer.

Schumer and McConnell in tug of war over Senate impeachment trial

After Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's request for witnesses in the president's impeachment trial, Schumer is asking McConnell to give explicit reasons why the Senate won't call any.

Schumer: "Impeachment trials, like most trials, have witnesses. To have none would be an aberration. ... What are they afraid the witnesses are going to say?"

McConnell — who said he's in "total coordination" with the White House as the House prepares to vote on impeachment and send Donald Trump to an impeachment trial — had accused Schumer of trying to "short circuit" the trial process with demands for Trump appointees to appear as witnesses.

Schumer: "There's a grand tradition in America: The right to a fair and speedy trial. [McConnell] seems to be obsessed with 'speedy' and wants to throw 'fair' out the window."

Trump to meet with Guatemala president over asylum rules

Later today, Donald Trump will be meeting with the president of Guatemala, who the president has praised for "being the first Central American leader to sign and implement the historic Asylum Cooperation Agreement with the United States."

The agreements made with Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras would deport asylum seekers fleeing violence and poverty and force them to seek asylum in those countries before entering the US.

The White House says the US "will continue to work with Guatemala and our partners in the region to advance economic growth and prosperity."

The House Rules Committee is set to begin debate over rules for the upcoming impeachment vote in the House.

Chair Jim McGovern is giving a damning opening statement making clear where he stands: the president's actions "jeopardized national security and undermined democracy."

He said the president withheld military aid "to a country under siege to extract a personal political favour, not as a matter of US policy, but for his own benefit. That is wrong. If that is not impeachable conduct, I don’t know what is."

Republican Chair Tom Cole objects to the impeachment, which has says has been a "flawed and partisan since day one."

He asks why Congress is "plunging" the US "into turmoil and trauma now" when voters will decide the fate of the president's term in office a year from now.

Cole also says pushing for impeachment that "knowing full well at the end of the day the president will remain in office" without the votes for impeachment in the Senate is futile.

"This is a sad day for all of us," he said. 

Democrat Jamie Raksin, defending the passage of impeachment articles, is outlining the charges against the president and arguing why the Constitution's framers gave Congress the powers of impeachment, which he says the president is trying to undermine by behaving "like a king" and seeking to "actively destroy his own check" to power.