Today’s Headlines and Commentary

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell indicated on Tuesday that he does not yet have enough votes to defeat an expected effort to call additional witnesses in President Trump’s impeachment trial, according to The Washington Post. The trial will reconvene today at 1 p.m. Over the course of the next few days, lawmakers will be able to spend up to 16 hours asking questions of each side. A vote on whether to call witnesses is expected on Friday, reported the BBC.

On Tuesday, President Trump proposed a blueprint for a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. The plan guarantees that Israel would control a unified Jerusalem, and allows it to maintain its settlements in the West Bank, according to The Washington Post.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would move next Sunday to apply Isreali sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and to all Jewish settlements in the West Bank, reported The New York Times.

The House is expected to vote Thursday on a bill introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna to block funding for military action against Iran and on a bill from Rep. Barbara Lee to repeal the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force. The White House has warned it will veto both bills, according to The Hill.

The Pentagon on Tuesday said that 50 U.S. service members sustained traumatic brain injuries from missile strikes by Iran on Al Asad Air Base in Iraq earlier this month, 16 more that it had previously acknowledged, reported Reuters.

ICYMI: Yesterday on Lawfare

Frank A. Rose makes the case for extending the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia.

Margaret Taylor shared the sixth episode of The Report: Impeachment podcast, which condensed the sixth day of the impeachment trial into one hour and 29 minutes.

Hannah Kris posted the livestream of the seventh day of the impeachment trial.

Elliot Setzer shared “Peace to Prosperity,” President Trump’s plan for a Middle East peace agreement.

Stewart Baker shared the most recent episode of the Cyberlaw Podcast, featuring an interview on the Bezos phone hacking with David Kaye and Alex Stamos.

Mikhaila Fogel shared a document in which the House of Representatives highlighted what it argues is a contradiction between the Justice Department’s position on impeachment and that expressed by President Trump’s lawyers in his Senate impeachment trial.

Jen Patja Howell shared the most recent episode of the Lawfare Podcast in which Margaret Taylor, Quinta Jurecic and Jonathan David Shaub provide an update on the Senate impeachment trial.

Evelyn Douek analyzed the new bylaws of Facebook’s Oversight Board, arguing that the Board’s original ambit of operations will be fairly limited.

Jacob Schulz shared charges by the Justice Department against an American Harvard University professor and two Chinese nationals, in three different cases related to China.

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