1. Rand Paul has vowed to vote in favor of a resolution disapproving of Trump’s national emergency declaration that allowed him to go around Congress to get money for his border wall. “We may want more money for border security,” Paul said, “but Congress didn’t authorize it. If we take away those checks and balances, it’s a dangerous thing.” Paul is the fourth Republican senator to pledge to vote for the resolution when it reaches the Senate floor later this month, meaning the resolution will pass if Trump doesn’t rescind his emergency declaration. Trump says he’ll veto the resolution if it reaches his desk, which would be the first veto of his presidency. Neither the House nor the Senate have the votes needed to override a presidential veto. (Politico / Axios)

  2. House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff says there is “direct evidence” of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians. Schiff says the evidence can be found “in the emails from the Russians through their intermediary offering dirt on Hillary Clinton as part of what is described in writing as the Russian government effort to help elect Donald Trump.” Schiff says the Russians offered dirt on Clinton and that “[t]here is an acceptance of that offer in writing from the president’s son, Don Jr., and there is overt acts and furtherance of that.” (Fox News / CBS News)

  3. The ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee says lawmakers have found “enormous amounts of evidence” that Trump colluded with the Russians during the 2016 campaign. Sen. Mark Warner said there is “no one that could factually say there’s not plenty of evidence of collaboration or communications between Trump Organization and Russians.” (Politico / Fox News)

  4. The House Judiciary Committee is launching an investigation into possible obstruction of justice and abuse of power by Trump and it plans to request documents from more than 60 people and organizations. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler says “it’s very clear” that Trump obstructed justice. Nadler cited the “1,100 times he referred to the Mueller investigation as a ‘witch hunt,’” as well as the times he tried to protect Michael Flynn from an FBI investigation, the firing of James Comey, and the fact that “[h]e’s dangled pardons, he’s intimidated witnesses in public.” The committee is expected to focus its document requests on actions that Trump took that could constitute efforts to remove enemies and install Trump loyalists at the Justice Department. (Reuters / CNN / Axios)

  5. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the hush money payments made by Michael Cohen to women on behalf of Trump “aren’t impeachable” offenses. McCarthy downplayed the significance of the payments and referred to the campaign finance violations as mere fines. “I watched — this is a — if it’s a finance campaign, those are fines,” McCarthy said. “Those aren’t impeachable in the process.” He added that other politicians have done “this exact same thing in the past.” (ABC News / NBC News)

  6. Trump has made 9,014 false or misleading statements over the last 773 days. Trump averaged nearly 5.9 false or misleading claims per day during his first year in office, and he hit nearly 16.5 per day in his second year. In 2019, he’s averaging nearly 22 per day. (Washington Post)