A Letter from the President: On the eve of his likely impeachment, President Trump wrote a blistering six-page letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying, “More due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials.” 

  Who ever imagined Donald Trump was capable of writing six pages? But the number of exclamation marks is evidence that he did.

  Trump wrote to Pelosi that, “History will judge you harshly as you proceed with this impeachment charade.” He said, “Your legacy will be that of turning the House of Representatives from a revered legislative body into a Star Chamber of partisan persecution.”

  Pelosi called Trump’s letter “really sick.”

 The President rambled on about his great election victory and how the Democrats want to overturn it, Joe Biden and Ukraine, spies in his 2016 campaign, “7 million new jobs,” tax cuts, and “the entire force of the FBI, headed by leadership now proven to be totally incompetent and corrupt.” He hit all his usual talking points about what a great president he is and how he is a victim. 

  Trump is almost assured acquittal if it goes to trial in the Senate. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who’s been working with Trump and his lawyers on the defense, yesterday denied the request by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to call four potentially critical witnesses, including Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and former National Security Adviser John Bolton.

  In his letter, Trump accused Pelosi of “breaking your allegiance to the Constitution” and declaring “open war on American Democracy”. 

  In classic Trump style, he accused his accusers of doing what he is accused of himself. He wrote, “You are the ones interfering in America’s elections. You are the ones subverting America’s Democracy. You are the ones Obstructing Justice. You are the ones bringing pain and suffering to our Republic for your own selfish personal, political, and partisan gain.”

  The President wrote, “Any member of Congress who votes in support of impeachment — against every shred of truth, fact, evidence, and legal principle — is showing how deeply they revile the voters and how truly they detest America’s Constitutional order.”

By The Numbers: Public support for the impeachment of Donald Trump is slipping. It’s been as high as 50 percent, but today the Real Clear Politics average of polls has it at 47.1 percent.

  With Trump almost sure to skate, Harvard constitutional professor Lawrence Tribe proposes that the House should impeach Trump, but not pass the articles to the Senate for a rigged trial. That would leave Trump forever under the shadow of impeachment, denying him the ability to brag that he was acquitted.  

Massacring History: Stepping in on the wrong side of one of history’s longest running arguments, the Trump administration announced that it does not consider Turkey’s slaughter of Armenians around the turn of the 20^th Century to have been an act of genocide.

  In three waves of killings starting before 1900, the Turks killed an estimated 1.5 million Armenians in an obvious effort to wipe them out. Turkey has always denied it, but it’s undeniable. The US has mostly tiptoed around it because Turkey is a vital military ally, but the US Senate just voted unanimously to call it genocide.

The Finland Station: We’re a little late with this, but Finland recently became the only country in the world in which women run the politics. Finland’s five party coalition government elected 34-year-old Sanna Marin to be prime minister. That’s not it though. All five of the country’s parties are headed by women, the youngest 32 and the oldest 55.

The Bulletin Board: Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign aide who helped bring down two former advisers to President Trump, was sentenced to 45 days in jail and a $20,000 fine for his part in a criminal financial scheme and for lying to federal investigators. He’ll be allowed to serve on weekends. —  Pope Francis has lifted the policy of “pontifical secrecy,” the Vatican version of executive privilege that has shielded the clergy from accusations of sexual abuse — Former Pakistan President and military ruler Pervez Musharraf has been sentenced to death in absentia for unlawfully declaring emergency rule while he was in power. The case has been pending since 2013 and Musharraf lives in exile in Dubai.

Something to Chew On: From a piece of stone age chewing gum, scientists have reconstructed the entire genome of a teenage girl who lived in what is now Denmark 5,700 years ago. They say the girl they have named Lola left her DNA in birch pitch which was used as chewing gum. They say she had dark hair, blue eyes, and was a gum-chewing teenager.

Click here to read President Trump’s full letter to Nancy Pelosi with annotations. 

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