Ear Witness: An Army officer assigned to the National Security Council who listened to President Trump’s phone call with the president of Ukraine is expected to testify in the House today that he was so upset by what he heard that he reported it to a superior. It will be the first testimony in the impeachment inquiry by a White House official who actually listened in on the call. 

  The NY Times obtained a draft of the opening statement to be delivered by Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman in which he says, “I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a US citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the US government’s support of Ukraine.” 

  President Trump demanded that Ukraine investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Vindman says in his statement “I realized that if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the Bidens and Burisma it would likely be interpreted as a partisan play which would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained.”

  As of now Vindman plans to say, “I did convey certain concerns internally to national security officials in accordance with my decades of experience and training, sense of duty, and obligation to operate within the chain of command.” 

Road to Impeachment: With Republicans complaining that the impeachment inquiry is irregular and even illegal, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has scheduled a formal vote in the full House Thursday on how the proceedings will continue.

  Pelosi said in a statement, “This resolution establishes the procedure for hearings that are open to the American people, authorizes the disclosure of deposition transcripts, outlines procedures to transfer evidence to the Judiciary Committee as it considers potential articles of impeachment, and sets forth due process rights for the president and his counsel.” 

  So far the impeachment hearings have been held in secret, although a large number of representatives from both parties have been in them.

  Press secretary Stephanie Grisham, the President’s blowtorch, issued a statement saying, “Speaker Pelosi if finally admitting what the rest of America already knew – that Democrats were conducting an unauthorized impeachment proceeding, refusing to give the President due process and their secret, shady, closed door depositions are completely and irreversibly illegitimate.”

  Pelosi wrote, “We are taking this step to eliminate any doubt as to whether the Trump administration may withhold documents, prevent witness testimony, disregard duly authorized subpoenas or continue obstructing the House of Representatives.”

The Bulletin Board: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won an extension to January 31^st for pulling his country out of the European Union, but was blocked by Parliament from calling a new election that might consolidate his political power. — A state court has ruled that North Carolina’s Congressional districts are illegally drawn to favor Republicans. — The CEO of Boeing faces Congress this week to be grilled about crashes of two of the company’s 737 Max jets that killed 346 people. — High winds are expected to hit most of California today increasing the likelihood of wildfire. Power has been cut to 2.5 million people to mitigate the danger. 

The Obit Page: Robert Evans, the legendary Hollywood executive who delivered movie classics like “The Godfather” and “Chinatown” then descending into cocaine use, legal fights, and financial ruin before making a comeback, has died at age 89.

  Brooks Barnes writes in The NY Times that, “In a world full of big lives, he lived one of the biggest: boardroom fights, tabloid romances, tennis with Henry Kissinger, even a murder trial.”

  He was married seven times to actresses and beauty queens, among them Ali McGraw and former Miss America Phyliss George. His marriage to actress Catherine Oxenberg lasted nine days.

  A raging cocaine addict, Evans pleaded guilty to possession in 1980. Then came the murder of an investor in his movie the cotton club. A former girlfriend and three of her associates were convicted. Although Evans was never charged, but he became a pariah in Hollywood. 

  Life was messy, but he knew how to make a movie. Evans took over Paramount Pictures in 1966 and re-wrote the script for how movies were made. Under Evans, the studio churned out such timeless hits as “Rosemary’s Baby,” “Serpico,” “Love Story,” and “True Grit.”

  Evans told Variety in 2002, “We went for original. We fell on our asses on some of them, but we also touched magic.”

Delta Dog: The Pentagon has released a picture of the Delta Force dog wounded in the mission to kill ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi but has declined to give his name to protect his identity.

  The wood on The NY Post says, “Zero Bark Thirty.”

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