There are three current court cases that touch upon whether the House “impeachment inquiry” is following a constitutional process.

♦The first case is the House Oversight effort to gain President Trumps’ tax returns as part of their impeachment ‘inquiry’ and oversight.  That case is currently on-hold (10-day stay) in the Supreme Court; outcome pending.

♦The second case is the House Judiciary Committee (HJC) effort to gain the grand jury information from the Mueller investigation.  The decision by DC Judge Beryl Howell was also stayed by a three member DC Appellate court.  Oral arguments were November 12th, the decision is pending. [Depending on outcome, could also go to SCOTUS]

♦The third case is the HJC effort to force the testimony of former White House legal counsel Don McGahn.  Issue: subpoena validity.  The HJC has asked for an expedited ruling. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has announced she will deliver her ruling on Monday, November 25th:

WASHINGTON DC – […] “The Judiciary Committee anticipates holding hearings after HPSCI’s public hearings have concluded and would aim to obtain Mr. McGahn’s testimony at that time,” the committee wrote, referring to the impeachment inquiry hearings led by the House Intelligence Committee. “Thus, there is an urgent need for final resolution of the matter now pending before this Court.”

The House’s letter to federal Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in Washington points out that it is considering impeaching Trump for obstruction of justice, for which McGahn would be a key witness since he spoke to special counsel Robert Mueller for the obstruction investigation, and for lying to Mueller, after testimony at Roger Stone’s criminal trial raised questions about Trump’s written answers to investigators about Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Jackson said she will rule by the end of the day Monday. (read more)

The issue at stake is whether the legislative branch can penetrate the constitutional firewall which exists within the separation of powers.

Remember, the Supreme Court has not yet ruled on any ancillary case that touches upon the validity of the House impeachment process.  The Supreme Court has not ruled on any case that touches the impeachment “inquiry”.

In addition to the Trump Tax Case (SCOTUS now), there are two other cases from the HJC where they are attempting to use the framework of a constitutional impeachment process as the underlying authority for their endeavors.  Those cases are: (1) the Grand Jury  material from the Mueller investigation (DC Court of Appeals); and (2) The Don McGahn subpoena case.

If the House loses the Tax case in SCOTUS or either HJC case in appeals or SCOTUS it will likely mean there is no constitutional foundation for the “impeachment inquiry.”

Without the constitutional recognition of the judicial branch then: (a) Pelosi/Lawfare have to restart the process with a genuine House vote; or (b) the ongoing impeachment process will have no recognized constitutional standing; and (c) the Senate could ignore any House impeachment vote, cast without recognized constitutional standing.

Over the next ten days the status of each case will start to play out in the courts.

Representative Jim Jordan does an outstanding job of encapsulating the impeachment fiasco and motives of entrenched administrative bureaucrats who didn’t like the diplomatic approach taken by President Trump and Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker.

In essence State Dept. officials George Kent and Bill Taylor were butthurt having been cut out of the direct Ukraine policy and diplomacy being organized by State Dept. Special Envoy Kurt Volker.  Additionally, U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was butthurt about being sidelined and no longer having most influence or access to Ukraine affluence.

Meanwhile, back in Washington DC, Jennifer Williams and Alex Vindman were aghast at President Trump’s direct expectation that Ukraine corruption -writ large- including corrupt officials speaking negatively about the U.S, must cease.  Lt. Col. Vindman, believing he alone had control over White House policy toward Ukraine; and with his feelings hurt because he felt smaller; manufactured a false narrative to his sketchy CIA resistance member Eric Ciaramella to construct a false whistle-blower leak.

Meanwhile, after the Trump-Zelensky call, envoy Kurt Volker arranged a series of meetings and diplomatic contacts with President Zelensky and U.S. officials; people he knew that President Trump would later respect their opinion.  Upon return to debrief President Trump affirmations of intent were made, and a U.S-Ukraine relationship was restarted under new leadership.

“Mr. Volker you did your job”….  WATCH:

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Earlier today President Trump held a cabinet meeting while allowing a press availability for comments to media. [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Well, I want to start by saying that, Rick, you’ve been very special. You’re my friend. You’ve been an incredible representative of this country and this administration. What you’ve done on energy is unsurpassed. I don’t know if anybody has done it better. And you have a fabulous man, at your recommendation, following you up.

SECRETARY PERRY: Indeed.

THE PRESIDENT: And he is going to be very, very outstanding. I have no doubt about it. I know him also. But he was your choice. And what you’ve done, really, would be hard to duplicate.

So you were a great governor of Texas and you were a great Secretary of Energy. And I’m not sure what you were better at, but I can tell you, as far as energy is concerned, we couldn’t have asked for anything better. And I want to thank you for your work. We’re going to be friends for a long time.

SECRETARY PERRY: Yes, indeed. Thank you, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: So, I want to just thank you for the outstanding job.

SECRETARY PERRY: Well, thank you, Mr. President. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thank you also for the prayer.

Also, I want to wish Chad — you’re going to be in a very non-controversial position. (Laughter.) And I have no doubt you’re going to do incredibly well. Our numbers on the border have gone down at record levels. People haven’t seen anything. I want to thank Mexico for that, to a large extent.

We have loopholes that are all over the place. They could be changed in, as I say, 15 minutes if the Democrats did something, but they don’t want to do anything. They’re either bad people or incompetent people — one or the other — because it can only be one of those two.

We have three or four loopholes that would make it so easy, but they don’t want to do anything about it. But we’ll get it done. We probably have to wait until 2020 to get it done, so we can control things.

But I just want to thank you very much. It was great meeting your family the other day. And have fun as Acting, and let’s see how things work out.

But the numbers that are being produced at the border now, the decline is record-setting. It’s incredible what’s happened. So — and there are a lot of reasons for it. Mexico has helped. Mexico, as of today, has 27,000 soldiers on our southern border guarding. And they also have soldiers on their — on what they call their southern border. And we call it a different name, but they call it their southern border.

But we have a tremendous amount of help. I think they have about five or six thousand soldiers there. Plus, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, we have agreements signed with them that nobody thought it would even be possible to get. And now, when people come from those countries, we bring them right back. And they’ve been very receptive. They’ve been great. All three countries have been very good.

So there have been tremendous changes made on our border, and I just want to wish you — you’ve been there for a long time, and you’ve seen it in good times and bad times. But right now, it’s been really very strong.

Despite our good economy, we have the greatest economy we’ve ever had. And a lot of people want to come up and take advantage of the economy. And we want them to come up and we want them to be a part of this country, but they have to do it through a legal process. They have to do it legally and they have to do it through merit too. We want people with skill that can come in and help our companies and make us even greater.

But we’re having the greatest economic year we’ve ever had and, I guess you could say, the greatest employment year, because at this moment, we’re close to 160 million people. That’s more people than have ever worked in the history of our country. And African American employment, Asian American employment, and unemployment, by the way — both — because it’s — they are slightly different terms, if you think about it.

But I can talk to our great Secretary of — our new Secretary and very talented Secretary of Labor.

But unemployment and — and employment for African American, for Asian American, for Hispanic American is the best in the history of our country. For women, best in 71 years. I mean, we’re doing numbers that we’ve never done before.

I saw this morning on — it was just announced that Nasdaq, for just this year, is up 27 percent. And, to me, I don’t view it as 27 percent; I view it as jobs. It’s just jobs. Very simple.

The overall stock market is through the roof from the time of the election. It probably — I guess it’s now going to be — it’s to be bordering really on 70 percent from the time of the election. That’s something that nobody would have thought possible.

And they announced another number this morning. That was a number that was very warm to my heart. Since the election, we’ve created $11 trillion in worth. Now, China has gone down by double that number, and we’ve gone up by $11 trillion. So when — whoever it was that was going to be President, they said, “Within two years, China would overtake the United States as the world’s largest economy.” We’re so far ahead of them right now, it’s not even close. And if you have smart people in this position, they’ll never catch us. They’ll never catch us.

So we’ve accumulated — we’ve picked up 11 trillion — not billion, not million — trillion dollars in wealth, in worth, since the time of the election.

And as you probably know, I think the number I saw was $24 trillion down — I think it’s higher than that — for China and for a lot of other countries. If you look at Europe — and that’s despite the fact that Europe is not doing well; despite the fact that China is doing poorly. They’re having the worst year in 57 years. And other things are happening.

The other thing: We’re taking in tremendous — billions and billions of dollars in tariffs. We’re giving some of those to the targeted farmers because China targeted our farmers. So we’re giving some of those tariffs, like — Sonny, I guess we gave $16 billion for last year, $12 billion for the year before, because that’s the amount of money that China took from our farmers in targeting them. And they got it back, and I think the farmers are very, very happy. Now China is buying again.

We just signed a tremendous trade deal with Japan; it’s $40 billion. It’s a tremendous — $40 billion a year. That’s a tremendous trade deal. And a lot of that goes to the farmers and manufacturers and tech companies.

We just signed a deal recently with South Korea, and that’s been a beauty too.

So we have a lot of good things happening. We have to get USMCA signed. Nancy Pelosi can’t get it off her desk. Just can’t do it. The Democrats want to have it. The unions want it. The farmers want it. The manufacturers want it. I think the woman is grossly incompetent.

And we’re having a problem, because Mexico and Canada are calling, saying, “What’s going on?” And it’s sitting on her desk. She doesn’t need Democrats, because the Democrats are going to vote for it. All she has to do is put it up for a vote. She’s said, for months now, “Oh, well, no.” She likes it, she wants it, she likes it, she wants it.

The woman is grossly incompetent. All she wants to do is focus on impeachment, which is just a little pipe dream she’s got. And she can keep playing that game.

And I’ve been told — and who knows if this is so, but I think it’s so; I have pretty good authority on it — that’s she’s using USMCA, because she doesn’t have the impeach — impeachment votes. So she’s using USMCA to get the impeachment vote. And it doesn’t matter, because right now you have a kangaroo court headed by little Shifty Schiff, where we don’t have lawyers, we don’t have witnesses, we don’t have anything.

And yet, I just got to watch — and the Republicans are absolutely killing it. They are doing so well. Because it’s a scam. It’s a big scam. They’re doing something that the Founders never thought possible and the Founders didn’t want.

And they’re using this impeachment hoax for their own political gain to try and damage the Republican Party and damage the President, but it’s had the opposite effect. Because you’ve seen the polls and we’re now the highest — I’m the highest I’ve ever I’ve ever been in the polls. You don’t hear that on television because the news and the Democrats are one and the same. But that’s the story.

One other thing, I thought I’d bring it up while we’re here: I went for a physical on Saturday. My wife said, “Oh, darling, that’s wonderful.” Because I had some extra time. Because it looks like January could be a busy month, if she is able to get the vote, which she should be able to. The woman is highly overrated. The woman is highly incompetent. And if she’s able to get the votes — or maybe she’ll get it by using USMCA.

But I went for a physical. And I came back, my wife said, “Darling, are you okay?” “What’s wrong?” “Oh, they’re reporting you may have had a heart attack.” I said, “Why did I have a heart attack?” “Because you went to Walter Reed Medical Center.” That’s where we go when we get the physicals.

I said, “I was only there for a very short period of time.” I went — did a very routine — just a piece of it; the rest of it takes place in January — did a very routine physical. Visited the family — visited a couple of groups, but visited the family of a young soldier who was very badly injured, who was in the operating room. I toured the hospital for a little while. I was out of there very quickly.

I got back home. And I get greeted with the news that, “We understand you had a heart attack.” I was called by our people in public relations. “Sir, are you okay?” I said, “Okay from what?” “The word is you had a heart attack. CNN said you may have had a heart attack. You had massive chest pains. You went to the hospital.”

These people are sick. They’re sick. And the press really, in this country, is dangerous. We don’t have freedom of the press in this country; we have the opposite. We have a very corrupt media. And I hope they can get their act straightened out because it’s very, very bad and very, very dangerous for our country.

Thank you very much. Go ahead. Please. Thank you. Thank you. Please, go.

Q Mr. President, do believe Lieutenant Colonel Vindman is credible, sir?

THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know him. I don’t know, as he says, “Lieutenant Colonel.” I understand somebody had the misfortune of calling him “Mister,” and he corrected them.

I never saw the man. I understand now he wears his uniform when goes in. No, I don’t know Vindman at all.

What I do know is that even he said that the transcript was correct. And if anybody reads the transcripts — I had two calls with the President of Ukraine, who, by the way, said there was no pressure whatsoever, there was no anything. They don’t — they probably think — they can’t — they probably can’t even understand what’s going on with this country.

But Vindman — I watched him for a little while this morning and I think he — I’m going to let people make their own determination. But I don’t know Vindman. I never heard of him. I don’t know any of these people, other than I have seen one or two a couple of times; they’re ambassadors.

But these are names that are — like Taylor; like Kent, with the nice bowtie. Wonderful bowtie. Maybe I’ll get one for myself someday. I don’t know who Kent is. I don’t know who Taylor is. All of these people are talking about — they heard a conversation of a conversation of another conversation that was had by the President.

What’s going on is a disgrace and it’s an embarrassment to our nation. And, in the meantime, we can’t get USMCA approved because Nancy Pelosi is grossly incompetent. She is incompetent. And you’re about to find that out.

Thank you all very much. Thank you.

Q The China deal. It’s been a month since the agreement in principle —

THE PRESIDENT: Say it?

Q It’s been a month since you had an agreement in principle. I was wondering if you can explain what the holdup is.

THE PRESIDENT: Look, China is going to have to make a deal that I like. If they don’t, that’s it. Okay? I’m very happy with China right now. They’re paying us billions and billions. We’ll be over a hundred billion dollars in the not-too-distant future. China — they never gave us 10 cents.

And I’ve told you: I gave a lot of money to the farmers. I’m helping people that need help because China is paying us tremendous — and they’re paying for it. Those tariffs are not paid by us. Those tariffs are paid because they’re devaluing their currency and pouring cash into their economy. Their supply chains are being killed. And I said it: They had their worst year in 57 years.

Now, with that being said, I have a good relationship with China. We’ll see what happens, but I’m very happy right now. If we don’t make a deal with China, I’ll just raise the tariffs even higher. Thank you very much.

END 12:04 P.M. EST

This afternoon at 2:30pm ET, Kurt Volker, former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine and Timothy Morrison, special assistant to the president and senior director for Europe and Russia at the National Security Council will testify to the impeachment committee.

Fox News Livestream – Fox Business Livestream – PBS Livestream Link

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Dept of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz publishes a report critical of how the FBI evaluates their Confidential Human Sources (CHSs) [Full pdf below].  This is the phase-1 OIG report the “Trust the Plan” crowd said was going to be explosive. It ain’t.

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Report Below

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HPSCI Ranking Member Devin Nunes questioned NSC official Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman about whether he had shared the contents of the phone call between President Trump and Ukraine President Zelensky with anyone outside the White House.

In responding Vindman stated “two people”, and then named State Dept George Kent, and a person from the intelligence community.  Then things get interesting.  Vindman refused to name the intelligence agency because it would likely expose the CIA “whistle-blower”.

This non-answer makes Alexander Vindman the source for the CIA “whistleblower” Eric Ciaramella.

Today the House Impeachment Committee (HPSCI) begins day three of public hearings toward their goal of removing U.S. President Donald J Trump from office.

The first hearing begins at 9 a.m ET with Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, the Ukraine usurper on the National Security Council who leaked to Eric Ciaramella for the construction of a fraudulent ‘whistle-blower’ complaint; and Jennifer Williams, the executive usurper/aide to Vice President Mike Pence.  Both were on the phone call between President Trump and Ukraine President Zelensky.

Then at 2:30pm ET Kurt D. Volker, the former United States special envoy to Ukraine, and Timothy Morrison, a Europe and Russia expert for the NatSec Council will testify.

CSPAN Livestream Link – PBS Livestream Link – Fox News Livestream Link

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All Your Data Are Belong To Us…

The House and Senate are doing what the deep state does so well.  Buried in the final pages of a short term Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund government, the controversial bulk metadata (Call Detail Records) within the FISA program, due to expire on December 15th, is being extended to March 15th, 2020.

(pdf link – House)

As we suspected the intelligence community -and most of congress- wants the reauthorization, even if temporary, prior to the release of a critical IG report on FISA abuse.  That said, a short term extension is the best case scenario when we consider the goal of the intelligence apparatus -writ large- was a permanent reauthorization.

The “business records provision”, the “roving wiretap” provision, the “lone wolf” provision, and the more controversial bulk metadata provisions [Call Detail Records (CDR)], parts of the Patriot Act, are going to be revisited *AFTER* the report by IG Horowitz.  The new deadline for terminal expiration will be March 15th, 2020.

FISA Court judges Rosemary Collyer (declassified 2017) and James Boasberg (declassified 2019) both identified issues with the NSA database being exploited for unauthorized reasons.  The sketchy programs, and abuse therein, needs more public attention.

(GO DEEP)

There is a lot of rapid information about events worth putting into a calendar context to see the democrat mapping.   David Holmes has just been added to Thursday’s public impeachment testimony (Nov 21st); he will join Fiona Hill.  In essence this rapid addition highlights Schiff on a tight schedule, and his portion ends November 21st, this week.

Additionally today, as expected, it is now reported that Pelosi will take up a short-term continuing resolution (CR) tomorrow to fund government; that will push govt funding to December 20th aligning with the mid-December budget vote plans: Impeach, USMCA and budget).  This intentionally designed delay aligns with Pelosi and House counsel Doug Letter requesting a delay in SCOTUS review of arguments for Trump Taxes.  Everything gets punted to after Thanksgiving; then mid-December they will flood the zone.

However, outside of the House control, Lindsey Graham has announced Dec 11th as the date for Horowitz to testify, which makes the likely FISA report on/around Dec. 2nd.

It’s worth putting it all into a calendar to see how the end of the year is shaping up.

♦Tuesday November 19th – 9 a.m ET: Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, the Ukraine usurper on the National Security Council, and Jennifer Williams, the executive usurper/aide to Vice President Mike Pence will testify.  Then at 2:30pm ET Kurt D. Volker, the former United States special envoy to Ukraine, and Timothy Morrison, a Europe and Russia expert for the National Security Council will testify.

♦Tuesday November 19th – Unknown time, the House will vote a short-term CR funding government until December 20th.  This pushes the budget vote into mid-december. This is all by careful design.

♦Wednesday November 20th – 9am ET:  Ambassador Gordon D. Sondland, the United States ambassador to the European Union, will deliver testimony.  At 2:30pm ET Laura K. Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian affairs, and David Hale, the under secretary of state for political affairs will deliver public testimony.

♦Thursday November 21st – 9am ET: Ms. Fiona Hill, the National Security Council’s former senior director for Europe and Russia (originally thought Vindman was sketchy leaker); and David Holmes, a political counselor at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv (just added), will give their public testimony.

Unless something changes, Thursday ends the Adam Schiff public hearing part of the impeachment inquiry; and everything is transferred to the House Judiciary Committee for “official impeachment proceedings”.   This also ends the House legislative session until after Thanksgiving (return Monday, December 2nd).

♦Friday November 22nd –  The DOJ Inspector General closes the “principal review phase” for interests to review the upcoming IG FISA report and provide their feedback for consideration within the report.   The IG then begins to put the finishing details on the report…. we enter Thanksgiving week.

♦Monday December 2nd – Congress returns for the final two legislative weeks of the year.

♦Monday December 2nd – The most likely date for the release of the IG report on FISA abuse, though it potentially could be released on Thanksgiving week.

♦December 3rd – 6th: The House Judiciary Committee, Chairman Jerry Nadler, likely takes over the impeachment hearing agenda. [In the period between November 22nd and December 2nd, the HPSCI will be sending over the Lawfare impeachment report and underlying evidence.]

♦December 9th through December 12th – The final week of the year for the House of Representatives to vote on all of the strategically punted issues.  There will likely be an official impeachment vote in this period; and the “inquiry” will end.  The vote will be to authorize the House Judiciary Committee to begin the “official” impeachment hearings.

In this final legislative week there are currently three key issues Pelosi will have scheduled as priorities:  (1) The full house impeachment vote to authorize the HJC to conduct the “official” impeachment investigation.  (2) A full house budget vote to fund government through the end of the 2020 election year; and (3) Likely a full house vote for the USMCA.

The USMCA and Budget will be pushed as bipartisan chaff and countermeasures to hide the impeachment authorization vote.  It’s not a final vote to impeach, it is a full House vote to initiate the House Judiciary Committee phase.

♦Wednesday December 11th – Right in the middle of the last House legislative week, the Senate Judiciary Committee will be hearing from DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

Given that the House Judiciary Committee will be tied up with the House impeachment process; and given the nature of the report they would prefer did not have exposure; Jerry Nadler will likely not hear any testimony in the House from Horowitz.

♦Thursday December 12th – the House recesses for the Christmas Holiday.

This is the way things look now…. things can/could change… but that’s the broad outline.