MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government has freed six activists who fought to protect their community's water supply, acknowledging that their rights were "seriously violated" during more than a dozen years in jail.
The six activists from the town of Tlanixco had been sentenced to up to 50 years for the death of a Spanish flower grower. Tlanixco residents had claimed their drinking water supplies were being soaked up by commercial flower growers in a neighboring town.
Government authorities declined to continue fighting appeals by the six activists.
The government's top human rights official says President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador's administration is currently reviewing 538 cases involving people who may have been unfairly jailed. Alejandro Encinas said Thursday the pending cases often involve people fighting to defend water and land rights.
MSNBC host and notorious hate-monger, Joy Reid was excited Sunday morning, during AM Joy, as reporter Mike Viqueira came on with “breaking news”.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller was spotted leaving church. “This is, you know, what some people would characterize as an ambush interview of a man coming out of Easter services at a church,” he admitted. “Some passersby weren’t happy that we were doing that.”
Viqueira seemed so excited that he struggled to the Mueller’s title right: “Hi, Joy. Yes, so the — Bob Mueller, the director – the former director of the FBI, of course, the special prosecutor – special counsel attended church services just across Lafayette Park here at St. John’s Episcopal Church.”
“We knew that he was going to be he’s been there. He’s been there in the past so we waited for him,” he bragged. “Easter services, tried to be as respectful as possible. He came out the side door of the church. I did have a couple of prepared questions to ask him.”
An Israeli Apache helicopter releases flares as it flies over the Gaza Strip March 25, 2019. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
March 25, 2019
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The Israeli military said on Monday it had begun carrying out strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, hours after a Palestinian rocket hit a house near Tel Aviv.
Reuters witnesses heard explosions in Gaza.
The military said in a statement that it had “begun striking Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip.”
One position hit was a Hamas naval position west of Gaza City, and a another was a large Hamas training camp in northern Gaza, Palestinian security officials and Hamas media outlets said.
Both positions were likely to have been evacuated, as Hamas had hours of notice that Israeli strikes were coming.
Witnesses said three missiles hit the northern target.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had promised a strong response to the rocket attack earlier in the day that injured seven Israelis.
(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch and Nidal al-Mughrabi, Editing by Jeffrey Heller)
People stand on a container that blocks the Simon Bolivar bridge between Colombia and Venezuela in Cucuta, Colombia, April 2, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer
April 2, 2019
BOGOTA (Reuters) – Thousands of Venezuelans broke through barricades along the international border with Colombia on Tuesday, according to the migration office in Bogota, which warned Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro that he would be held responsible for any problems that may occur.
Maduro in February blocked bridges joining the two nations in a bid to prevent a U.S.-backed effort to distribute hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid to the crisis-wracked nation.
With bridges blocked by containers and trucks, Venezuelans have been wading through the Tachira River to reach the city of Cucuta, on Colombia’s northern border, to find food, medicines and work. But torrential rains in recent days has made that impossible.
“The usurper Maduro is responsible for anything that may happen to the population that is transiting between the two countries,” said Christian Kruger, head of Colombia’s migration agency, highlighting the risk to the Simon Bolivar bridge being weakened.
Millions of Venezuelans have fled to Colombia to escape widespread shortages of food and medicine in their homeland, seeking jobs locally and passage into other Latin American countries.
Venezuela plunged into a deep political crisis in January, when Juan Guaido, head of the opposition-controlled congress, invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency, arguing Nicolas Maduro’s 2018 re-election was not legitimate.
U.S. President Donald Trump has taken steps to ratchet up pressure on Maduro and bolster Guaido, who has been recognized as president by the United States and more than 50 other countries, including Colombia.
Colombia’s government says providing Venezuelan migrants access to basic services and expanding healthcare, education and public utilities costs it a half percentage point of annual gross domestic product. Colombia’s GDP in 2018 was some $312 billion.
(Reporting by Helen Murphy and Luis Jaime Acosta; editing by Bill Berkrot)
So for me to examine the question of whether the Democrats should avoid nominating someone of my ilk, I must search my soul, ignore my heritage, and check my white privilege at the door.
Look, I think diversity in politics (and elsewhere in society) is great. It's healthy that such candidates as Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand and Cory Booker are running.
'Tis true that 44 of our 45 presidents have been in the white male category. Barack Obama broke that monopoly in 2008. Hillary Clinton thought she was going to break it on the gender side in 2016 and fell short. The Democrats haven't nominated a white male for president since 2004.
But does that mean such politicians should start out with two strikes against them?
The debate is rooted in the fact that the four Bs who seem to be leading the Democratic field are all white men: Biden, Bernie, Beto and Buttigieg.
Kamala may be in that pack as well, at least if early polls and fundraising are the yardsticks.
I'm hearing some female commentators complain that women never get the kind of swooning media coverage that Pete Buttigieg and Beto O'Rourke have been drawing.
I would argue that they are attracting media praise because they're unconventional candidates with unorthodox styles (the top female and minority candidates are all, well, senators). Mayor Pete has the novelty of being a gay candidate. But both could easily fade, and two top Beto aides just quit a campaign whose media glow is dimming.
What's more, says the Times, O'Rourke "has acknowledged that he benefits from white male privilege." (Um, what’s he supposed to say to that?)
As for the others, Harris had the strongest launch. Booker is finding his message of love not quite resonating in an angry era. Klobuchar has drawn compliments from conservatives but has a low-key midwestern style. Gillibrand isn't making much news.
And Warren has by far offered the most detailed policy prescriptions — she called yesterday for free public college tuition and forgiveness of much student debt — but hasn't generated much excitement and is lagging in fundraising. Is that because she's a woman? Warren has gotten positive press since her days as a consumer advocate.
To jump-start a stalled campaign, she called for Donald Trump's impeachment over the weekend, knowing full well it's not going to happen. But it separated her from the pack and got her some attention, which is how it works. Gender was not a factor.
The Times piece says that "Democrats have seen the strong diversity in their field ... become somewhat overshadowed by white male candidates."
And after noting that non-white-male candidates helped the Dems win the House, the paper asks: "What's the bigger gamble: to nominate a white man and risk disappointing some of the party's base, or nominate a minority candidate or a woman who might struggle to carry predominantly white swing states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania that both Barack Obama and President Trump won?"
Biden (who's getting in this week) and Sanders have other advantages besides their whiteness, says the Times: They're well-known, have run before and can raise big bucks.
"But as older white men, they are out of step with ascendant forces in the party today."
I get it. They're not exactly fresh faces. But some Democrats, at least, still like them.
Ever since women got the vote, they haven't been taken all that seriously as presidential candidates, at least until Hillary's first campaign.
And for most of our history since the Civil War, the idea of a black president was deemed unthinkable — at least until Obama beat Hillary 11 years ago. That was the legacy of discrimination. And it hasn't entirely vanished.
But — and I'll say this carefully — isn't it also a discriminatory impulse to say perhaps a white male candidate should be denied the nomination on the grounds of race and sex? Doesn't that go against what we’ve always heard about wanting a color-blind and gender-neutral society?
Hey, nobody needs to feel sorry for these guys. Demographics change and they have to adapt or perish.
Yet in the end, this is a bunch of media chatter. One of the candidates — black or white, male or female — will connect with enough voters and mount a compelling enough campaign to become the standard-bearer. And I suspect Democratic voters will care most about beating the white male in the White House.
FILE - In this Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019, file photo, Jake Patterson appears for his preliminary hearing at Barron County Circuit Court in Barron, Wis. Patterson, charged with kidnapping a 13-year-old Wisconsin girl and killing her parents, is expected to enter a formal plea when he appears in court for an arraignment, on Wednesday, March 27, 2019. (T'xer Zhon Kha/The Post-Crescent via AP, Pool, File)
BARRON, Wis. – The Latest on Wednesday's arraignment of the man suspected of kidnapping 13-year-old Jayme Closs, slaying her parents and holding her captive for 88 days (all times local):
1:05 p.m.
A Wisconsin man has pleaded guilty to kidnapping 13-year-old Jayme Closs and killing her parents.
Twenty-one-year-old Jake Patterson pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of intentional homicide and one count of kidnapping. A count of armed burglary was dropped. The intentional homicide counts carry a sentence of life in prison.
Patterson admitted to kidnapping Jayme after killing her parents, James and Denise Closs, at the family's home on Oct. 15. Patterson held her at a remote cabin for 88 days before she escaped in January. A criminal complaint says Patterson told authorities he decided to "take" Jayme after he saw her getting on a school bus near her home.
___
11 a.m.
Residents in a small Wisconsin town say they're hoping to see a guilty plea from the man accused in the kidnapping of 13-year-old Jayme Closs and slaying of her parents.
Jake Patterson faces arraignment Wednesday afternoon on charges of homicide and kidnapping. He wrote to a Minneapolis TV station that he intended to plead guilty, but his defense attorneys have not confirmed that.
John Terpstra is a church pastor in Barron. He says he hopes Patterson keeps his word so the Closs family doesn't have to go through a court case.
Retiree Kathy Wirth says she's sorry for what Jayme went through and still has to go through.
Jayme was held for 88 days in a cabin about an hour north of her family's home before she escaped in January.
___
12:01 a.m.
A man charged with kidnapping a 13-year-old Wisconsin girl and killing her parents is expected to enter a formal plea when he appears in court for an arraignment.
Twenty-one-year-old Jake Patterson wrote a letter to Minneapolis television station KARE saying he intends to plead guilty. His attorneys and prosecutors have not commented ahead of Wednesday's arraignment.
He's accused of killing James and Denise Closs and kidnapping their daughter, Jayme, on Oct. 15. Jayme was held for 88 days before escaping in January.
Patterson is charged with two counts of intentional homicide and one count each of kidnapping and armed burglary. He faces life in prison if convicted on the homicide counts.
FILE PHOTO - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to the media at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines, March 1, 2019. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez
March 12, 2019
By Ron Bousso and Gary McWilliams
HOUSTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary Of State Mike Pompeo will meet with top oil executives before he addresses a conference on Tuesday, in an effort to get them to help the administration’s effort to boost crude exports to Asia and to support its policy of isolating Iran, according to three people at two companies briefed on the agenda.
The outreach represents a significant new effort to sway industry executives to the Trump Administration’s “energy dominance” agenda that seeks to advance diplomatic and policy objectives through rapidly expanding U.S. oil and gas exports. The effort has won success in convincing nations including China, Poland, Japan and South Korea to purchases more U.S. oil and natural gas.
Pompeo plans on discussing how to boost U.S. energy dominance worldwide, but particularly in Asia, and further isolate the Islamic Republic of Iran, which the United States re-imposed sanctions on last year, through strengthening ties with other Middle East nations, the people said. The location and time of the meeting was unclear.
Following the meeting in Houston, Pompeo is set to speak at IHS Markit’s CERAWeek conference, the oil and gas industry’s largest annual gathering in the United States. He was scheduled to meet State Department employees in the late morning, according to an official schedule.
Executives from major companies including Chevron Corp, Total SA, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, ConocoPhillips and Occidental Petroleum Corp have been invited to the closed door meeting. Representatives from a number of those companies are scheduled to speak earlier in the day at CERAWeek.
Occidental declined to comment. Chevron had no comment. A Total representative could not immediately be reached for comment. The other companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson did not immediately comment on Pompeo’s schedule but did say that Frank Fannon, the department’s top energy diplomat, was meeting with energy companies on Tuesday in Houston to talk about the Asia policy.
Frank Fannon, assistant secretary for the U.S. Bureau of Energy Resources, will be at the meeting as well, according to another source familiar with the meeting.
According to two of the sources, Pompeo was expected in the closed door meeting to discuss the Trump administration’s plans for the Middle East Strategic Alliance (MESA), which would form an alliance of Sunni Muslim countries in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Egypt and Jordan, as the White House seeks to restrain Iran.
That group has become mired in a dispute between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, both important U.S. allies in the region. The lead U.S. negotiator for the alliance, Anthony Zinni, left the position earlier this year, putting a plan to promote Arab security and battle extremism in jeopardy.
But Tuesday’s sit-down was also expected to include discussions on the United States’ policy in Asia. Dubbed ‘Asia Edge’ by the administration, it aims to grow Asian energy security by further expanding U.S. oil and gas exports to the region, according to the sources.
The United States produces more than 12 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude, making it the world’s largest producer, and it is the world’s biggest exporter of refined products like diesel fuel and gasoline.
It has expanded sales of fuels, crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Asian customers, including China in a bid to dominate worldwide energy trade after a four-decade ban on crude exports was ended by President Obama in 2016.
The Trump White House has also imposed harsh sanctions on Iran and Venezuela, both members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), removing more than 2 million bpd of oil from daily global supply. In addition, OPEC and allied producers including Russia have been limiting their own output in an effort to buoy prices, which has helped independent U.S. producers.
(Additional reporting by Ernest Scheyder in Houston and Timothy Gardner and Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Writing by David Gaffen; Editing by David Gregorio)
Police secure the area where the body of a woman was discovered near the village of Orounta, Cyprus, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Stefanos Kouratzis
April 26, 2019
NICOSIA (Reuters) – Cypriot police searched on Friday for more victims of a suspected serial killer, in a case which has shocked the Mediterranean island and exposed the authorities to charges of “criminal indifference” because the dead women were foreigners.
The main opposition party, the left-wing AKEL, called for the resignation of Cyprus’s justice minister and police chief.
Police were combing three different locations west of the capital Nicosia for victims of the suspected killer, a 35-year-old army officer who has been in detention for a week.
The bodies of three women, including two thought to be from the Philippines, have been recovered. Police sources said the suspect had indicated the location of the third body, found on Thursday, and had said the person was “either Indian or Nepali”.
Police said they were searching for a further four people, including two children, based on the suspect’s testimony.
“These women came here to earn a living, to help their families. They lived away from their families. And the earth swallowed them, nobody was interested,” AKEL lawmaker Irene Charalambides told Reuters.
“This killer will be judged by the court but the other big question is the criminal indifference shown by the others when the reports first surfaced. I believe, as does my party, that the justice minister and the police chief should resign. They are irrevocably exposed.”
Police have said they will investigate any perceived shortcomings in their handling of the case.
One person who did attempt to alert the authorities over the disappearances, a 70-year-old Cypriot citizen, said his motives were questioned by police.
The bodies of the two Filipino women reported missing in May and August 2018 were found in an abandoned mine shaft this month. Police discovered the body of the third woman at an army firing range about 14 km (9 miles) from the mine shaft.
Police are now searching for the six-year-old daughter of the first victim found, a Romanian mother who disappeared with her eight-year-old child in 2016, and a woman from the Phillipines who vanished in Dec. 2017.
The suspect has not been publicly named, in line with Cypriot legal practice.
A public vigil for the missing was planned later on Friday.
(Reporting By Michele Kambas; Editing by Gareth Jones)
FILE PHOTO: An employee looks up at goods at the Miniclipper Logistics warehouse in Leighton Buzzard, Britain December 3, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson
April 26, 2019
LONDON, April 26 – British factories stockpiled raw materials and goods ahead of Brexit at the fastest pace since records began in the 1950s, and they were increasingly downbeat about their prospects, a survey showed on Friday.
The Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) quarterly survey of the manufacturing industry showed expectations for export orders in the next three months fell to their lowest level since mid-2009, when Britain was reeling from the global financial crisis.
The record pace of stockpiling recorded by the CBI was mirrored by the closely-watched IHS Markit/CIPS purchasing managers’ index published earlier this month.
(Reporting by Andy Bruce, editing by David Milliken)
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad speaks at the opening ceremony for the second Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, China April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Florence Lo
April 26, 2019
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Fewer than half of Malaysians approve of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, an opinion poll showed on Friday, as concerns over rising costs and racial matters plague his administration nearly a year after taking office.
The survey, conducted in March by independent pollster Merdeka Center, showed that only 46 percent of voters surveyed were satisfied with Mahathir, a sharp drop from the 71 percent approval rating he received in August 2018.
Mahathir’s Pakatan Harapan coalition won a stunning election victory in May 2018, ending the previous government’s more than 60-year rule.
But his administration has since been criticized for failing to deliver on promised reforms and protecting the rights of majority ethnic Malay Muslims.
Of 1,204 survey respondents, 46 percent felt that the “country was headed in the wrong direction”, up from 24 percent in August 2018, the Merdeka Center said in a statement. Just 39 percent said they approved of the ruling government.
High living costs remained the top most concern among Malaysians, with just 40 percent satisfied with the government’s management of the economy, the survey showed.
It also showed mixed responses to Pakatan Harapan’s proposed reforms.
Some 69 percent opposed plans to abolish the death penalty, while respondents were sharply divided over proposals to lower the minimum voting age to 18, or to implement a sugar tax.
“In our opinion, the results appear to indicate a public that favors the status quo, and thus requires a robust and coordinated advocacy efforts in order to garner their acceptance of new measures,” Merdeka Center said.
The survey also found 23 percent of Malaysians were concerned over ethnic and religious matters.
Some groups representing Malays have expressed fear that affirmative-action policies favoring them in business, education and housing could be taken away and criticized the appointments of non-Muslims to key government posts.
Last November, the government reversed its pledge to ratify a UN convention against racial discrimination, after a backlash from Malay groups.
Earlier this month, Pakatan Harapan suffered its third successive loss in local elections since taking power, which has been seen as a further sign of waning public support.
Despite the decline, most Malaysians – 67 percent – agreed that Mahathir’s government should be given more time to fulfill its election promises, Merdeka Center said.
This included a majority of Malay voters who were largely more critical of the new administration, it added.
(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Nick Macfie)
The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Staff
April 26, 2019
By Medha Singh and Agamoni Ghosh
(Reuters) – European shares slipped on Friday after losses in heavyweight banks and Glencore outweighed gains in healthcare and auto stocks, while investors remained on the sidelines ahead of U.S. economic data for the first quarter.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.1 percent by 0935 GMT, eyeing a modest loss at the end of a holiday-shortened week. Banks-heavy Italian and Spanish indices were laggards.
The banking index fell for a fourth day, at the end of a heavy earnings week for lenders.
Britain’s Royal Bank of Scotland tumbled after posting lower first quarter profit, hurt by intensifying competition and Brexit uncertainty, while its investment bank also registered poor returns.
Weakness in investment banking also dented Deutsche Bank’s quarterly trading revenue and sent its shares lower a day after the German bank abandoned merger talks with smaller rival Commerzbank.
“The current interest rate environment makes it challenging for banks to make proper earnings because of their intermediary function,” said Teeuwe Mevissen, senior market economist eurozone, at Rabobank.
Since the start of April, all country indexes were on pace to rise between 1.8 percent and 3.4 percent, their fourth month of gains, while Germany was strongly outperforming with 6 percent growth.
“For now the current sentiment is very cautious as markets wait for the first estimates of the U.S. GDP growth which could see a surprise,” Mevissen said.
U.S. economic data for the first-quarter is due at 1230 GMT. Growth worries outside the United States resurfaced this week after South Korea’s economy unexpectedly contracted at the start of the year and weak German business sentiment data for April also disappointed.
Among the biggest drags on the benchmark index in Europe were the basic resources sector and the oil and gas sector, weighed down by Britain’s Glencore and France’s Total, respectively.
Glencore dropped after reports that U.S authorities were investigating whether the company and its subsidiaries violated certain provisions of the commodity exchange act.
Energy major Total said its net profit for the first three months of the year fell compared with a year ago due to volatile oil prices and debt costs.
Chip stocks in the region including Siltronic, Ams and STMicroelectronics lost more than 1 percent after Intel Corp reduced its full-year revenue forecast, adding to concerns that an industry-wide slowdown could persist until the end of 2019.
Meanwhile, healthcare, which is also seen as a defensive sector, was a bright spot. It was helped by French drugmaker Sanofi after it returned to growth with higher profits and revenues for the first-quarter.
Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES led media stocks higher after it maintained its full-year outlook on the back of the company’s Networks division.
Automakers in the region rose 0.4 percent, led by Valeo’s 6 percent jump as the French parts maker said its performance would improve in the second half of the year.
Continental AG advanced after it backed its outlook for the year despite reporting a fall in first-quarter earnings.
Renault rose more than 3 percent as it clung to full-year targets and pursues merger talks with its Japanese partner Nissan.
(Reporting by Medha Singh and Agamoni Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Gareth Jones and Elaine Hardcastle)
U.S. President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up to his audience as he hosts Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
April 26, 2019
By Jan Wolfe and Richard Cowan
(Reuters) – The “i word” – impeachment – is swirling around the U.S. Congress since the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s redacted Russia report, which painted a picture of lies, threats and confusion in Donald Trump’s White House.
Some Democrats say trying to remove Trump from office would be a waste of time because his fellow Republicans still have majority control of the Senate. Other Democrats argue they have a moral obligation at least to try to impeach, even though Mueller did not charge Trump with conspiring with Russia in the 2016 U.S. election or with obstruction of justice.
Whether or not the Democrats decide to go down this risky path, here is how the impeachment process works.
WHAT ARE GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT?
The U.S. Constitution says the president can be removed from office by Congress for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Exactly what that means is unclear.
Before he became president in 1974, replacing Republican Richard Nixon who resigned over the Watergate scandal, Gerald Ford said: “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.”
Frank Bowman, a University of Missouri law professor and author of a forthcoming book on the history of impeachment, said Congress could look beyond criminal laws in defining “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Historically, it can encompass corruption and other abuses, including trying to obstruct judicial proceedings.
HOW DOES IMPEACHMENT PLAY OUT?
The term impeachment is often interpreted as simply removing a president from office, but that is not strictly accurate.
Impeachment technically refers to the 435-member House of Representatives approving formal charges against a president.
The House effectively acts as accuser – voting on whether to bring specific charges. An impeachment resolution, known as “articles of impeachment,” is like an indictment in a criminal case. A simple majority vote is needed in the House to impeach.
The Senate then conducts a trial. House members act as the prosecutors, with senators as the jurors. The chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court presides over the trial. A two-thirds majority vote is required in the 100-member Senate to convict and remove a president from office.
No president has ever been removed from office as a direct result of an impeachment and conviction by Congress.
Nixon quit in 1974 rather than face impeachment. Presidents Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 were impeached by the House, but both stayed in office after the Senate acquitted them.
Obstruction of justice was one charge against Clinton, who faced allegations of lying under oath about his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Obstruction was also included in the articles of impeachment against Nixon.
CAN THE SUPREME COURT OVERTURN?
No.
Trump said on Twitter on Wednesday that he would ask the Supreme Court to intervene if Democrats tried to impeach him. But America’s founders explicitly rejected making a Senate conviction appealable to the federal judiciary, Bowman said.
“They quite plainly decided this is a political process and it is ultimately a political judgment,” Bowman said.
“So when Trump suggests there is any judicial remedy for impeachment, he is just wrong.”
PROOF OF WRONGDOING?
In a typical criminal court case, jurors are told to convict only if there is “proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” a fairly stringent standard.
Impeachment proceedings are different. The House and Senate “can decide on whatever burden of proof they want,” Bowman said. “There is no agreement on what the burden should be.”
PARTY BREAKDOWN IN CONGRESS?
Right now, there are 235 Democrats, 197 Republicans and three vacancies in the House. As a result, the Democratic majority could vote to impeach Trump without any Republican votes.
In 1998, when Republicans had a House majority, the chamber voted largely along party lines to impeach Clinton, a Democrat.
The Senate now has 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and two independents who usually vote with Democrats. Conviction and removal of a president would requires 67 votes. So that means for Trump to be impeached, at least 20 Republicans and all the Democrats and independents would have to vote against him.
WHO BECOMES PRESIDENT IF TRUMP IS REMOVED?
A Senate conviction removing Trump from office would elevate Vice President Mike Pence to the presidency to fill out Trump’s term, which ends on Jan. 20, 2021.
(Reporting by Jan Wolfe and Richard Cowan; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Peter Cooney)
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