Trump news: Public impeachment hearings set to begin within weeks, as president travels to Mississippi for rally

Hello and welcome to The Independent's rolling coverage of the Donald Trump administration.

John Eisenberg, the lead lawyer for the National Security Council, has become one of the key figures in the House’s impeachment inquiry after Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman testified that Mr Eisenberg helped hide a memo of the Ukraine phone call.

Mr Vindman said the NSC lawyer suggested moving the record of the call to a restricted computer server for highly classified materials, according to a person who is familiar with Mr Vindman's testimony.

Michael Ellis, a senior associate counsel to the president, was apparently with Mr Eisenberg when the alleged suggestion was made.

The decision to move the memo would be highly unusual as the computer server is normally reserved for documents about covert action.

Our chief US correspondent Andrew Buncombe has the full story on Mr Trump’s plan to move to Florida after he leaves office.

The president was born in New York and has lived there for much of his life, but he has recently become at odds with the city’s liberal leadership.

On Twitter last night, Mr Trump complained that he has been treated “very badly” by the city and state’s leaders – although he promised New York would always have a “special place” in his heart.

However, some people have suggested the decision to move his permanence residence is for tax reasons…

You can read the full story below:

In other Trump news this morning, his administration is expected to roll back Obama-era regulations meant to protect water supplies from contaminated coal ash, according to sources.

The move is part of a series of regulation changes by the Trump administration which is aimed at extending the lives of old, coal-fired power plants.

In his testimony yesterday, Tim Morrison, a former National Security Council official, confirmed that military aid to Ukraine was held up by Mr Trump’s request for an investigation into his 2020 election rival Joe Biden.

Although Mr Morrison’s testimony confirmed the quid pro quo at the centre of the House impeachment inquiry, the ex-White House official said he did not believe “anything illegal was discussed” in Mr Trump’s phone call with Ukraine.

Mr Morrison’s admission of a quid pro quo is not good news for the president but Mr Trump still latched onto his testimony last night as a win for his administration.

In a tweet, he thanked the former official for his “honesty”.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi went on The Late Show last night to talk about the future of Mr Trump’s presidency.

The important point came early on when Stephen Colbert asked Ms Pelosi when public impeachment hearings would start.

She was vague in her response but told Mr Colbert: “They’ll be soon…”

Americans remain roughly split down the middle on impeachment, according to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll.

The topline figures show 49 per cent of US adults favour impeaching and removing Mr Trump, while 47 per cent oppose impeaching and removing the president.

That divide is sharply partisan as well, with 82 per cent of Democrats favouring impeachment and 82 per cent of Republicans opposing it.

Meanwhile, independent voters narrowly oppose impeachment at the moment, with 49 per cent opposing and 47 per cent in favour. 

Here’s some more polling news, the New York Times has research out today with Siena College that shows Elizabeth Warren narrowly leading in the influential Iowa caucus.

Ms Warren is currently leading with 22 per cent of the vote, with Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden close behind.

The Massachusetts senator also has a strong lead with first and second choice preferences combined, which suggests Ms Warren could gain ground as other candidates drop out.

The result is bad news for Mr Biden though, who was once the front-runner and now finds himself languishing in fourth place.

Last night, Mr Trump suggested that the US could not do a trade deal with the UK if it passes Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal.

The surprise intervention on the radio show of Nigel Farage, a British politician, was also apparently a surprise to the UK government.

A government spokesperson has said this morning that Mr Johnson had not spoken to Mr Trump about his Brexit deal, which was “agreed after they were last in touch”.

You can read more about the ongoing chaos in the UK here.

Here’s some interesting analysis from Axios on the “racial wealth gap” in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.

Despite a number of high-profile non-white candidates entering the race, the front-runners (Warren, Biden, Sanders and Buttigieg) are noticeably white.

Those candidates have also generally fared better with fundraising.

Axios’ Alexi McCammond writes: 

“This problem isn't unique to presidential elections. People of colour at the federal, state, and local level have a harder time fundraising than their white colleagues.”