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Senators are busy taking notes Every seat was full Saturday morning for the first day of Trump's defense. Nearly every Democratic senator was taking notes throughout except for Sanders, who later jotted a note or two, and Warner. Republican Sens. Sasse, Scott, Cassidy and Perdue (all seated together) vigorously took notes and watched all the clips — a departure from their regular chatting and absence from their desks during the House managers' presentation. Schumer, the minority leader, stared at Michael Purpura, the deputy White House counsel, but occasionally looked away to confer with his aides next to him, while Majority Leader McConnell focused intently on the presentation. Senate pages were very busy with pen and pencil duty this morning, with one page bringing Sen. Reed, D-R.I., what looked to be about a dozen black pens at one point. Shortly after, the same page restocked Sen. Markey's pencil stash and then came back to bring Sen. Gillibrand five or six fresh pens. Share this -







Trump's lawyers deride Dems for leaving out testimony that played on live TV Sekulow and Pupura have spent some time during their defense of the president by playing testimony from witnesses, such as diplomats Kurt Volker, George Kent and Gordon Sondland, and arguing that Democrats tried to hide it from Senators. "Why didn't they show you this testimony? Why didn't didn't they tell you about this testimony?" Purpura said after playing Volker's testimony saying that, to his knowledge, Ukrainians did not know about the pause in military aid until Aug. 29. "They didn't they put Ambassador Sondland's testimony in its full and proper context. Purpura claimed Democrats did this to support a "pre-determined outcome" in the trial. Why do Sekulow & Purpura keep acting like Democrats hid part of the impeachment witnesses testimony? It was live on national tv for everyone to see & House Dems posted transcripts on their website. — Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) January 25, 2020 But, as MSNBC contributor Joyce Vance pointed out, the hearings were televised live, and the full transcripts of their earlier depositions were publicly available. Share this -







Sekulow: Trump didn't trust his intelligence officials Trump had reason to doubt his intelligence officials, giving him good reason to enlist a shadow Ukraine operation to investigate alleged electoral interference in 2016, his attorney Jay Sekulow said in his opening arguments Saturday. Sekulow began by highlighting the years-long Mueller investigation and report in addition to FBI FISA court mishaps detailed by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz in a report late last year. He added that Trump chose not to "blindly trust" the advice of his intelligence officials as a result of those matters. "In his summation on Thursday night, Manager Schiff complained that the president chose not to go with the determinations of his intelligence agencies regarding foreign interference and instead decided he would listen to people that he trusted, and he would inquire about the Ukraine issue himself," Sekulow said. "Mr. Schiff did not like the fact that the president did not apparently blindly trust some of the advice he was being given by the intelligence agencies." 'False flag': Brian Williams, Sen. King call out Sekulow for saying Ukraine could have interfered with elections Jan. 25, 2020 03:24 "They kept telling you it was Russia alone that interfered in the 2016 election, but there is evidence that Ukraine also interfered," Sekulow added. One of the biggest instances of so-called Ukrainian interference Trump's allies have highlighted involved the publication of what was referred to as the "Black Ledger," a document showing that Trump's then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort was taking in millions in undisclosed payments from Ukraine's pro-Russia political party. The revelation led to Manafort's resignation from the Trump campaign and eventual prosecution and conviction in the Mueller probe. Manafort is now in prison. Meanwhile, Trump had asked Zelenskiy to probe the "CrowdStrike" conspiracy, a theory even one former top Trump administration official called "debunked." It alleges that a Democratic National Committee server was placed somewhere in Ukraine and used to frame Russia for 2016 electoral interference. And Trump asked his counterpart to announce a probe into the Bidens in an investigation seemingly unrelated 2016. Share this -







Graham: Looking at Bidens, Burisma is 'better done outside impeachment' Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., spoke to reporters off camera before heading to the Senate trial Saturday morning. On witnesses, Graham said he doesn’t “want to call Hunter and Joe Biden at this forum.” “But somebody needs to look at the Biden’s connection to Ukraine,” Graham continued. “I think it’s better done outside impeachment.” Graham said he has not spoken to the president about an independent counsel to investigate the Biden connection to Ukraine. “But somebody needs to think about this,” Graham said. “If you want me to do it, I’ll do it. I’d rather have somebody like Mueller do it because I think it’s important to look, but if my Democratic colleagues say looking at the Bidens has been done, there’s no reason to look, I find that offensive.” Share this -







Cipollone: Democrats trying to 'interfere' in the election Cipollone opened Trump's defense Saturday arguing that House managers are asking senators to "remove" Trump from the general election ballot. "As House managers, their goal should be to give you all of the facts, because they’re asking you to do something very, very consequential and I would submit to you, to use a word Schiff used a lot, very, very dangerous," Cipollone said, adding, "They’re asking you to remove President Trump from the ballot in an election that's occurring in approximately nine months, they’re asking you to tear up all of the ballots across the country on your own initiative — take that decision away from the American people and I don’t think they spent one minute of their 24 hours talking about the consequences of that for this country." "They didn’t tell you what that would mean for our country, today, this year, and forever into our future," he continued, saying that the managers are asking senators to "tear up all the ballots" with Trump's name on them. Cipollone said Saturday's presentation will take between two and three hours and that Trump's defense does not plan to use all of their allotted 24 hours. "You will find the president did absolutely nothing wrong," Cipollone said, echoing the Trump's frequent defense. Cipollone: House managers are asking to 'overturn' the last election Jan. 25, 2020 01:41 Share this -







What to expect from Trump's defense Here's what to expect from Trump's defense team: What you'll hear Saturday A “coming attractions” preview of the president’s defense case. As we've reported, sources close to the president want to make sure they get at least some of their messaging out there, but they’re also cognizant of the weekend’s lower ratings. It’s why you’ll see a fair amount of repetition Monday. White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow will likely handle much of the presentation, though you could see others. But a source on the team says the bulk of the arguments will occur Monday. That’s when we expect Dershowitz, Starr, and others to make their presentations. Will they go to Tuesday? It’s possible, but at this point we are not betting big on it. A senior administration official and Republican leadership source tell NBC News that arguments are likely to last roughly 10 hours (a few Saturday and the rest Monday). Caveat: things could still change, as the defense team is reserving the right to go longer if they feel it’s needed. How will Parnas recording affect arguments? A source on the president’s legal team said he doesn’t believe this new reporting of Trump apparently talking to Lev Parnas in an audio recording would have “any impact” on their team’s case. Note: NBC News has not heard the entire audio recording and is working to obtain it; it's also unclear whether the audio published by ABC News has been edited. POTUS call 'perfect'? Asked if the defense would include Trump's assertions that his call with the president of Ukraine was “perfect,” the source on the legal team said part of the defense would be that the president “didn’t do anything wrong, and that is clear from the transcript of the call.” The source clarified that the defense won’t be “limited just to the transcript of the call,” but it will be a “key” piece of evidence because that’s the “primary” thing Democrats have “based their case on.” Joe Biden Asked how much the Trump team is planning to talk about Joe Biden and specifically why it was relevant for the president to bring up Biden to the Ukrainians, a source on the president’s legal team said they wouldn’t get into details of their strategy but added that it “became quite apparent” in the House managers’ presentation that they’ve “made it very relevant to the case” and “spent a lot of time bringing the Bidens into this case,” and the Trump legal will address that. Share this -





