The seven House managers representing Democrats' case for the impeachment of President Trump will work through the weekend in their home districts refining their case, then will return to Washington on Sunday, where they will meet as a team at the Capitol, a Democratic aide working on the Senate trial told reporters Friday.
The bottom line: In their opening arguments this week, the managers will drive home their core message: That Trump undermined U.S. democracy by inviting a foreign government to interfere in U.S. elections on his behalf.
The Supreme Court will decide whether states can punish Electoral College members who do not support the winner of their state's popular vote, otherwise known as "faithless electors."
Why it matters: A group of faithless electors could upend an election, and states want to ensure that elections reflect their voters' will.
A new Washington Post-Ipsos poll finds that 83% of African Americans across the country believe President Trump is a racist and he's exacerbated the country's race problems while in office.
The big picture: African Americans are optimistic about their own personal lives, but are worried about their communities as a whole, the Post writes. Many said they hope to limit Trump's presidency to one term.
The Department of Justice appears to be investigating former FBI director James Comey for illegally leaking information to reporters years ago, The New York Times reports.
Why it matters: Investigations concerning news leaks often take place around the time the information appears in the media, and not years after the fact, per the Times. This investigation raises concerns it might be politically motivated.
A sneak peek for Axios readers at a passage from "A Very Stable Genius," by the WashPost's Phil Rucker and Carol Leonnig, out Tuesday:
The night of January 23 [2017], the first Monday of his presidency, Trump came face‑to‑face with House and Senate leaders from both parties at a White House reception ... At a long table in the State Dining Room, Steve Bannon ... could not stop looking at Nancy Pelosi...
Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg are considered the leading 2020 Democratic moderates, but even they have taken positions to the left of Barack Obama — illuminating the liberal drift of the entire party.
Why it matters: In earlier cycles, both men would have been labeled liberals based on their platforms and biographies. The fact that they're called centrists now in the media shows how much the Democratic Party has shifted in a polarized era — just as the Republican Party has been reinvented under President Trump.
Evelyn Yang, former L'Oréal marketing executive and wife of 2020 Democratic candidate Andrew Yang, divulged in an interview released Thursday that she was sexually assaulted by her obstetrician-gynecologist in 2012 while seven months pregnant, per CNN.
Background: Yang's former OB-GYN, whom she identified as Robert Hadden, pleaded guilty to a felony count of a criminal sexual act in the third degree in 2016, per the New York Times, after being accused by 19 patients of sexual abuse. Yang was one of the women to testify against Hadden, per her CNN interview.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) wrote in a statement Thursday that there has been "a lot of mischaracterization" of her position on the Senate impeachment trial's procedures, and that it is "likely" she would vote to call additional witnesses after each side makes their opening case.
Why it matters: Collins, a moderate Republican facing a competitive re-election race, is viewed as a swing vote on key impeachment issues, including whether to call new witnesses. She voted to call witnesses in the middle of President Clinton's impeachment trial and has said she continues to support the procedures the Senate used then.
The FBI says it will now notify state officials about any attempts to hack their election systems, even when those breaches only affect one county, NBC News reports.
Why it matters: The FBI has traditionally only notified the direct victims of cyber breaches, which in this case would be counties since that's who administers U.S. elections. An FBI official told reporters that "traditional policy did not work in the election context," per NBC.
After being sworn in by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Thursday, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts administered an oath for all senators to deliver "impartial justice" in the impeachment trial of President Trump.
The Senate voted 89-10 Thursday to pass the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), designed to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Why it matters: The deal now heads to President Trump's desk for his signature, allowing the president to accomplish one of his biggest policy goals ahead of his 2020 re-election battle — hours before the official start of his impeachment trial
The U.S. Government Accountability Office released Thursday a decision finding that the White House's Office of Management and Budget violated the law when it withheld military aid to Ukraine.
The state of play: The decision from the GAO, an independent government agency, comes just hours before the Senate will kick off President Trump's impeachment trial over his administration's actions on Ukraine.
Ukraine's Interior Ministry announced it is launching a criminal investigation into possible illegal surveillance of former U.S. ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and the hacking of natural gas company Burisma Holdings, NBC News reports.
Why it matters: The decision comes two days after Democrats released documents that appear to show Lev Parnas, an associate of President Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, indicating he discussed surveilling Yovanovitch in March 2019.
Lev Parnas, a close Rudy Giuliani associate and central figure in the pressure campaign on Ukraine, told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow last night: "President Trump knew exactly what was going on. He was aware of all my movements. ... I wouldn't do anything without the consent of Rudy Giuliani or the president."
Why it matters: If true, the claim presents detailed connective tissue between Parnas' activities in Ukraine and Trump.
If Russia's goal in meddling in U.S. elections has been to undermine trust in the democratic process, it has already won — and the U.S. isn't even starting to take the sort of steps that might reverse that outcome.
Why it matters: Free, fair, and trusted elections are the cornerstone of the U.S.'s claim to moral authority. We're only beginning to fathom how badly Vladimir Putin has wounded the American system.
Tuesday's Democratic debate hosted by CNN and the Des Moines register was watched by 7.3 million viewers, early data released by Nielsen Media Research shows.
Why it matters: The seventh Democratic debate was watch by slightly more people than the past few debates, which attracted viewers in the six million range. That boost could be for several reasons, including big news events such as President Trump being impeached and the killing of Iran's Gen. Qasem Soleimani. But viewership is still way down from first few debates — which averaged about 12 million viewers each.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren told 2020 rival Sen. Bernie Sanders after the seventh Democratic debate, "I think you called me a liar on national TV," CNN audio broadcast Wednesday indicates.
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