Impeachment 

• The Senate began its trial into House-passed articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, with Chief Justice John Roberts sworn in to preside over proceedings.

• Along with voting to send its articles to the Senate, the House announced the selection of seven Democrats to prosecute its case against the president, including House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.). The 228-193 vote came almost a month after the House impeached Trump.

• The Government Accountability Office said in a new report that the Office of Management and Budget violated the law when it froze nearly $400 million in U.S. military assistance to Ukraine. Trump’s decision to withhold the aid has been central to the impeachment effort against him, and the GAO’s new report undercuts his defense that it was a lawful exercise of his authority.

• Trump is reportedly adding Harvard Law School professor and defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz and former independent counsel Kenneth Starr to his legal team for the Senate’s impeachment trial. The team will be led by White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Trump’s personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow.

• Lev Parnas, a former associate of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, said in an interview that the president knew about his efforts to get Ukraine’s government to announce investigations related to former Vice President Joe Biden.

• Those public remarks came after the House Intelligence Committee released documents provided by Parnas that provide more detail about Giuliani’s alleged efforts in Ukraine, which also showed Ukraine’s top prosecutor offering damaging information related to former Vice President Joe Biden if Washington recalled Marie Yovanovitch, its ambassador to Ukraine at the time. The documents also introduced a new character into the Trump-Ukraine story: Robert Hyde, a Republican congressional candidate from Connecticut who told Parnas that he had Yovanovitch under surveillance before she was removed from her post.

The Trump administration

• Trump scored two trade victories: The Senate voted 89-10 to send Trump’s revised North American trade agreement to the president’s desk. And, the United States and China signed a “phase-one” agreement to ease trade tensions between the two countries, though a number of issues — including Chinese subsidies to domestic companies and the behavior of Chinese state-owned firms — were delayed until later rounds of talks that aren’t expected to conclude until after the 2020 U.S. elections.

• The Department of Homeland Security asked the Defense Department for funding to build 270 miles of U.S.-Mexico border wall this year in high-traffic areas as part of a counter-drug effort, according to Pentagon officials. Officials said there has not been a decision on funding levels, but even the suggestion has irked Democratic lawmakers who have accused the president of trying to steal money for a second year that’s been appropriated for counternarcotics and military construction.

• The Justice Department is investigating a years-old leak of classified information about a Russian intelligence document with a focus on whether former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey illegally provided the information to reporters, according to sources. It marks the second time prosecutors in the Trump administration have probed the former FBI director, who Trump has recently said should be prosecuted for “unlawful conduct” and spend years in prison.

• Eleven U.S. troops were wounded during the Jan. 8 Iranian missile strike on U.S. forces in Iraq, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, negating assurances from Trump and military officials that no Americans had been hurt. The soldiers — eight of whom were transferred to a U.S. base in Germany — are still being assessed for concussion symptoms after Tehran’s retaliation for the U.S. strike that killed Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani.

• Five current and former senior administration officials said Trump authorized the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in June. The timing could undermine the Trump administration’s justification for ordering the strike, which was that Soleimani was planning imminent attacks on Americans.

• A federal judge in Maryland issued a preliminary injunction blocking Trump’s September executive order that sought to allow state and local governments to block refugees from being placed in their communities, nullifying Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to bar refugees from his state. The judge said the “unlawful” order from the Trump administration “flies in the face of clear congressional intent,” while the Justice Department has argued it does not violate the law because the federal government ultimately has the final say of where refugees are placed.

• U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement subpoenaed law enforcement in Denver for information on four foreign nationals wanted for deportation, escalating the conflict between the federal government and so-called sanctuary cities. If Denver authorities do not reply, ICE could take the subpoena to a federal judge who could order their compliance and find them in contempt for noncompliance.

• The Department of Agriculture announced plans to roll back healthy lunch standards championed by former first lady Michelle Obama. Under the new rules, schools would be allowed to reduce the number of fruits and vegetables required at each meal.

Collins sentencing

• Former Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) was sentenced to 26 months in prison for insider trading and lying to the FBI.

2020

• Six Democratic presidential candidates faced off in the final debate before the Iowa caucuses, with a big focus on foreign policy and national security following this month’s U.S.-Iran tensions.

• Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) accused Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) of calling her a liar on national television during a tense exchange following Tuesday night’s debate in Iowa, according to a video with audio released by CNN. The moment came after it was reported that Sanders told Warren in 2018 that he did not believe a woman could win the presidency.

• Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) dropped his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. His exit left just one black candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, remaining in the 12-candidate primary race.

• A U.S. cybersecurity firm said Russian hackers have targeted emails from the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, where Biden’s son Hunter Biden served on the board. The hacking has been linked to Russia’s Main Directorate of Military Intelligence, the same group that breached the Democratic National Committee in 2016 as part of Moscow’s efforts to interfere in the last presidential election.

• House Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said she will not run for the open Senate seat in Wyoming. The announcement eliminates at least one potential high-profile challenger to former Rep. Cynthia Lummis, who is seeking the party’s nomination to replace retiring Republican Sen. Mike Enzi, though other candidates could still jump into the contest.

• The Senate is in session, with Trump’s impeachment trial set to get started in earnest on Tuesday when lawmakers return to Washington, and Republicans in the chamber are said to be considering speeding up the pace of proceedings. The House is set to return on Jan. 27.

• Trump is expected to sign the new North American free trade agreement this week.

• The Trump administration is considering cutting $250 million in U.S. military assistance to Iraq if its government expels U.S. troops, according to emails.

• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has not ruled out the possibility of the House subpoenaing former national security adviser John Bolton if the Senate does not take his testimony in the pending impeachment trial.

• The Supreme Court said it will hear a case about whether states can punish or replace presidential electors who refuse to support the winner of their state’s popular vote. Both red and blue states have urged the court to settle the matter ahead of the 2020 election, with a fear that so-called “faithless” electors could sway the outcome of the contest.

1) Putin and Assad caught on video mocking Trump
Jon Sharman, The Independent

2) Why Bernie Sanders Is Electable, Too
Eli Yokley, Morning Consult

3) Trump authorized Soleimani’s killing 7 months ago, with conditions
Carol E. Lee and Courtney Kube, NBC News

4) ‘You’re a bunch of dopes and babies’: Inside Trump’s stunning tirade against generals
Carol D. Leonnig and Philip Rucker, The Washington Post

5) Impeachment Trial Set to Put Vulnerable Senate Republicans in a Familiar Bind
Eli Yokley, Morning Consult

6) Ukraine prosecutor offered information related to Biden in exchange for ambassador’s ouster, newly released materials show
Paul Sonne et al., The Washington Post

7) Biden Is The Front-Runner, But There’s No Clear Favorite
Nate Silver, FiveThirtyEight

8) As remote work rises at U.S. companies, Trump is calling federal employees back to the office
Lisa Rein, The Washington Post

9) The winners, losers and biggest takeaways from the Iowa debate
Politico

10) The January Democratic Debate In 6 Charts
Likhitha Butchireddygari et al., FiveThirtyEight