Blog

Well, it’s been a while and a lot more stuff has happened. Before we get to the new, let’s look at some history:

• Watergate grand jury letter (link)
• Watergate report release (story here, docs here)
• Draft of charges against Nixon (here)
• The Clinton Impeachment Timeline (Link)

Some more explainers/timelines:

• Congressional Research Service Impeachment Investigations: Law and Process
• All other CRS reports on Impeachment
• Timelines and recaps from News Agencies: The LA Times, CBS, RollCall (for stuff I’ve missed)

And some political science/law:

• What is a coup? Is Trump being targeted by one?
• Is the impeachment inquiry really ‘unconstitutional’?
• What exactly is a high crime and misdemeanor?
• A view on self dealing from a criminal law perspective.
• A discussion on impeachment from Dr. Tullis. (pdf)

And now on to the new events. I’ll try to link to original documents when possible, and link to stories to add context.

Remember our first retirement? Former American Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker gave three House committees documents and text messages between US diplomats and Ukrainians. Read them here. Read some coverage on the communications here.

Lindsey Graham sent a letter to Australia, they replied (and here’s an earlier response).

Giuliani Associates Indicted on Campaign Finance Charges

Trump accused of firing ambassador after complaints from Giuliani (WSJ)

Were Trump and Giuliani motivated by a conspiracy theory? Does Mike Pompeo believe it too? Is there another conspiracy theory motivating the President?

“A Republican senator said he was told by an American diplomat in August that the release of U.S. aid to Ukraine was contingent on an investigation desired by President Trump and his allies, but Mr. Trump denied pursuing any such proposal when the lawmaker pressed him on it.” (WSJ)

Trump White House response to the House subpoenas (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) and here is a list of everyone who has, and hasn’t complied. And here’s a polisci take on the letter and it’s arguments.

“Justice Department lawyers urged a federal judge Tuesday to deny a House Judiciary Committee request for grand-jury materials from former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation, arguing that despite legal rulings during the impeachment inquiry into President Richard M. Nixon, in hindsight courts in 1974 should not have given Congress materials from the Watergate grand jury.” (WashPo)

“A series of internal State Department emails reflect diplomats’ frustration with the unexpected freeze on funding that Congress had already approved.” (NYTimes)

70 Inspector Generals respond to Office of Legal Counsel’s (OLC) September 3, 2019 Memorandum for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on whistleblowing. (story from WashPo) (letter here)

Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney had a press briefing (transcript; video) He was later asked about it on the Sunday shows. And Rick Perry resigned, but I think we’ve already forgotten about him.

Chair of FEC releases letter clarifying what a “thing of value” is.

Lindsey Graham introduced a resolution condemning the House hearings. Andy Biggs introduced H.Res.630 – Condemning and censuring Adam Schiff.

House Republicans storm an impeachment hearing (NYTimes).

• Want to watch two Congressmen debate about the proceedings and who designed the process? Well, here you go.

“A federal judge handed a victory to House Democrats on Friday when she ruled that they were legally engaged in an impeachment inquiry, a decision that undercut President Trump’s arguments that the investigation is a sham.” (NYTimes story) (the judge’s opinion)

In other news, here’s a pro-impeachment take from George Conway- yes, as in married to Kellyanne Conway- and report of Giuliani’s *sigh* butt dial to an actual reporter.

Part 1, Part 2

So some more stuff happened this weekend. Here we go:

Why did the White House start hiding transcripts of calls? (WSJ)

Apparently the head of the DOJ asked for foreign governments to help investigate … the DOJ? (Washington Post, ABC, WashPo Analysis, CBS News) They also wanted to investigate the start of the Mueller Report, which according to the administration, exonerated the President.

Were the whistleblower rules changed? Well, Trump says yes, everyone else says no. CNN Fact check, ICIG response, Then Republican Senators’ letter asking why the forms online seemed to suggest firsthand reporting was necessary when there is no law that says this is needed.

Secretary of State Pompeo was on the Ukraine call. (ABC, AP)

Subpoenas for Pompeo and Giullani

Trump supporters on the Sunday News shows defending themselves and the president: Giuliani on Face the Nation; Stephen Miller on Chris Wallace. AP coverage of the Miller appearance here.

And in a blast from the past, Dems suggest Trump may have lied in the Mueller investigation. (Politico, DOJ argument, Committee of the Judiciary’s reply)

Also the president tweeted some stuff.

Link to part 1

It’s basically a full time job to keep up with what’s going on with the impeachment that isn’t an impeachment yet. I’ve spent a good two hours updating my website and collecting links, and there’s a good possibility this post is already out of date. But we do what we can, and here, what I can do is give you a whole bunch of links that help explain what the heck is going on.

Get Your Context Here- How Impeachment Works:

Pure Explainers:

In text- How Impeachment Works– NY Times

In video- How does impeachment work?

In podcast- Civics 101 Episode 10, impeachment

Want some historical Content? Try CSPAN videos (use the username students, password C-SPANCLASSROOM); Impeach Clinton? Impeach Trump? What lawmakers said then, what they say now  (LA Times); or the front pages of the New York Times the day Johnson was impeached and the day Clinton was.

Alexander Hamilton on impeachment: Federalist 65

Political Science takes: Why Impeachment is Happening Now by Dr. Victor; Dr. Emily Farris on What Barbara Jordan can teach us about impeachment; and finally, Dr. Julia Azari’s take on impeachments: Presidential impeachments are about politics, not law .

Opinion Articles on Impeachment Inquiry

Dems that want to impeach with the Washington Post Op-ed credited with getting the ball rolling: Seven freshman Democrats: These allegations are a threat to all we have sworn to protect (pdf)

Republicans that want to impeach (one of whom is Kelly Conway’s husband; no I don’t get what’s happening there either) Trump has done plenty to warrant impeachment. But the Ukraine allegations are over the top.

Conservative Pundit on why impeachment is a bad idea: Yes, Trump Is Guilty, but Impeachment Is a Mistake

Lindsey Graham’s remarks against Impeachment

Tulsi Gabbard (D) arguing against impeachment on Sept 24 (she changed her mind on Sept 27)

Information and Primary Documents:

Full Timeline from the Washington Post (pdf)

Mueller Report (annotated copy from the Washington Post)

Washington Post Fact Check on Biden role

WSJ Explainer on Bidens in Ukraine (pdf)

Trump in Call Pressed for Biden Probe (WSJ, pdf)

Whistleblower Complaint (pdf)

Memo of Telephone Conversation released by White House (pdf)

White house talking points on the memo (image 1, image 2)

Trump’s comments on the whistleblower Audio and Transcript from LA Times

Nancy Pelosi’s remarks calling for an impeachment inquiry  (AP)

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s Response to Pelosi (video)

House Intelligence Committee Hearing on Whistleblower Complaint (video)

Who supports impeachment and who does not (NYTimes)

Another addition (9/28) Heard about Giuliani and his interviews and text messages? Here’s a link to his tweet teasing the text messages, and here’s a transcript and video of his interview with Laura Ingraham on 9/26. This is probably what lead to Volker stepping down (see below).

ETA- but wait, there’s more!

White House says lawyers directed moving Ukraine transcript to highly secure system (CNN)- This statement confirms part of the whistleblower’s account, but the White House claims the decision was approved by its lawyers. (I can’t find a copy of the actual statement yet, but will post it if I do).

It appears that “some memos of the president’s communications were kept from people who might ordinarily have access to them” – is that a problem? Link goes to a WashPo story on Trump’s 2017 meeting with representatives of the Russian Government.

Did the first Republican come out in support of the probe? Maybe, but then again, maybe not?

And it looks like we have our first retirement due to the Ukrainian call- Kurt Volker resigned from his position as the U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine Friday. Scoop by the ASU student newspaper.

Finally, the NYTimes broke this story about the NRA offering support for the President if he stopped the “games on gun control”. The NRA called this account an inaccurate description of the meeting and their statement is described in the article, but I cannot find a direct copy of it at this time.

Part II here

So today I and a colleague gave a presentation on interpreting polls for students. I focused on why polls get a bad rap, and what you need to keep in mind when it comes to understanding them. My favorite part of my presentation is this super neat visualization from Nathan Yau at Flowing Data.com. His post “What that Election Probability Means” has a great graphic that allows you to simulate elections depending on which percentage each candidate has to win. Really helps you see what an 80% chance means, which is a hard concept for most- me included.

If you’re interested, you can find the whole presentation here