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The New York City Bar Association has asked Congress to investigate U.S. Attorney General William Barr, saying his recent actions and statements have positioned the Justice Department and its prosecutors as “political partisans willing to use the levers of government to empower certain groups over others.”

The request, disclosed on Thursday, appears to be the first time a bar association from New York City or any comparable group has asked Congress to investigate a sitting attorney general. Last year, 450 former federal prosecutors from Republican and Democratic administrations signed a statement chastising Barr for his handling of the Mueller report on Russian election interference...

Lawmakers expect House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will soon end her delay of President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial without any notable concessions from Senate Republicans, leaving her allies stumped about her strategy in the three-week standoff.

Senior Democrats in the House insisted publicly that the speaker has given them no hints on timing for sending the two articles of impeachment over to the Republican-controlled Senate, the step that would trigger an immediate opening of the historic impeachment trial.


Amid speculation about her rationale and expressions of exasperation from Democrats in the House and Senate -- delivered almost exclusively on condition of anonymity -- Pelosi offered only cryptic clues.

I’m not holding them indefinitely. I’ll send them when I’m ready, and that probably will be soon,” Pelosi said Thursday.

Some lawmakers said they took that to mean sometime in the coming days the House impeachment managers will be named and the articles of impeachment formally transmitted to the Senate.

Pelosi’s ability to influence the rules for the impeachment trial has dwindled as her standoff with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has dragged on.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wants votes on calling witnesses who did not testify in the House investigation, but Pelosi hasn’t made a specific demand -- saying only she wants to see the rules for how the impeachment trial will be conducted. McConnell, however, has made clear he has no interest in or need to compromise.

New Evidence

On Thursday Pelosi argued there had been real benefits since deciding in the hours after the House impeached Trump on Dec. 18 to not quickly send the articles to the Senate. In that time, she said, new documents that Democrats see as pivotal emerged, and a key witness, former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton, has said he’s willing to testify to the Senate under subpoena.

McConnell has insisted that the trial would follow the template for President Bill Clinton’s impeachment. That would defer any vote on hearing witnesses or reviewing new evidence until after the House managers and Trump’s lawyers make their cases. Four Republicans could join with all Democrats to provide a majority in favor of hearing witnesses. Or, 51 of 53 Republicans in the Senate could vote to dismiss the case without additional evidence.

Confusion

While a few Senate Democrats said this week that the time has come for the trial to get underway, the party’s House members are standing solidly behind Pelosi. Yet there also were signs of confusion about why the standoff is continuing and when it will end.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith of Washington State told CNN Thursday morning that “it’s time” for Pelosi to send the articles to the Senate only to reverse course a couple of hours later.

“I don’t know. And that was the mistake I made this morning in trying to answer that question,” Smith said Thursday afternoon.

He said he “wholeheartedly” supports Pelosi’s position because, like the speaker, he’s concerned that McConnell won’t conduct a fair trial and “we should do everything we can to ensure he does.” He insisted that he was not put under any Pelosi pressure to flip his stance.

Pelosi said she wanted to see what procedures the Senate would have for the trial and expressed skepticism that McConnell would follow the rules set down for the Clinton impeachment.

”It doesn’t mean that we have to agree to them, or like them. We just want to know what they are,” she said.

Trial Preparations

Preparation for the trial is under way, and Pelosi met Thursday afternoon with Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler. Nadler, who likely will be a leader on the House management team prosecuting the case, would only say that, “the articles will be sent when they’re sent.”

Before that happens, under the process approved the night Trump was impeached, the House must first pass a resolution officially appointing the House managers’ team, and authorizing some trial expenses and the transfer of evidence. Then, the articles -- one charging abuse of power and the other obstruction of Congress -- can be formally delivered to the Senate, which then would immediately trigger the opening proceedings of the trial.

Some House Democrats, even in defending Pelosi, suggested the public is either unconcerned about the delay or losing interest in the battle.

“I can honestly say that I was inundated for the last six to eight months with demands that I vote to impeach,” said Representative Gerald Connolly of Virginia, a House Foreign Affairs Committee member. But he added, “I did not have a single constituent in the last two and one-half weeks approach me and say you have to deliver those articles of impeachment.”

Continuing the deadlock gives Republicans more ammunition to attack both Pelosi and the House impeachment inquiry, which McConnell has called “slipshod.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California on Thursday that lawmakers in Pelosi’s own party “have no idea what she’s doing” by holding the articles.

“The only person who does not believe it’s time is Speaker Pelosi, and I do not know why,” he said. “Maybe the case is too weak.”

There are external political consequences of a longer delay. Five Senate Democrats are running for the party’s presidential nomination and a trial would mostly keep them pinned down in Washington serving as jurors in the weeks leading up to the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 3. Three more nominating contests follow in quick succession.

One of those candidates, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, said staying in the capital could deal a “big, big blow” to his struggling campaign.

US President Donald Trump seems to think that he was overlooked for last year's Nobel Peace Prize.

Why, what did he say?

"I'm going to tell you about the Nobel Peace Prize, I'll tell you about that. I made a deal, I saved a country, and I just heard that the head of that country is now getting the Nobel Peace Prize for saving the country. I said: 'What, did I have something do with it?' Yeah, but you know, that's the way it is. As long as we know, that's all that matters... I saved a big war, I've saved a couple of them."

A video clip of him talking to supporters at a campaign event in Toledo, Ohio, on Thursday evening was shared on Twitter:

Although he did not name the Nobel Peace Prize winner or the country, it is clear that Mr Trump was referring to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

Mr Abiy, 43, is Africa's youngest head of government.

He came into office in April 2018 after months of anti-government protests forced his predecessor to resign.

Mr Abiy has introduced massive liberalising reforms to Ethiopia, shaking up what was a tightly controlled nation.

He freed thousands of opposition activists from jail and allowed exiled dissidents to return home. He has also allowed the media to operate freely and appointed women to prominent positions.

And in October last year, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize - the only head of state to win the prize since Mr Trump was elected in 2016.

Why did he win the Nobel Peace Prize?



The Norwegian Nobel Committee said Mr Abiy was honoured for his "decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea".

The two countries fought a bitter border war from 1998-2000, which killed tens of thousands of people. Although a ceasefire was signed in 2000, the neighbours technically remained at war until July 2018, when Mr Abiy and Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki signed a peace deal. So for two decades, the long border was closed, dividing families and making trade impossible.

The Nobel Committee said it hoped the peace agreement would help to bring about positive change to the citizens of Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Since the peace deal with Eritrea, Mr Abiy has also been involved in peace processes in other African countries, the committee said.

Did Trump help broker peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea?

Not really - the US's influence in the peace talks was minimal. The United Arab Emirates, which has a lot of influence in the Horn of Africa, was key in helping to bring the two parties together, says the BBC's former Ethiopia correspondent, Emmanuel Igunza.

Saudi Arabia also played a key role in helping end the dispute.

The peace deal helped bring back Eritrea from the cold after sanctions were imposed in 2009.

The UN Security Council lifted the sanctions in November 2018, four months after the peace deal was signed.

Why did Trump make the comments now?

This is not clear, given that the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on 11 October last year, and Mr Abiy gave his acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway, on 10 December.

Interestingly, Mr Trump has not officially congratulated Mr Abiy but his daughter, Ivanka Trump, who serves as his senior adviser, and the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have done so.

However, Mr Trump has publicly said he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for, among other things, his efforts to convince North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un to give up nuclear weapons.

Trump never stops whining.

However, Mr Trump has publicly said he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for, among other things, his efforts to convince North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un to give up nuclear weapons.

The New York City Bar Association has asked Congress to investigate U.S. Attorney General William Barr, saying his recent actions and statements have positioned the Justice Department and its prosecutors as “political partisans willing to use the levers of government to empower certain groups over others.”

Trump said he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize not Abiy Ahmed

Trump is a pathological narcissist and a sociopath.