Welcome to Tuesday, January 21st, convicts and acquits...

Today, the Senate trial of President Trump begins in earnest - should witnesses be called?

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he’s ready to “force votes for witnesses and documents” at the trial if the majority leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY), doesn’t call for a vote.

“We have the right to do it, we are going to do it and we are going to do it at the beginning on Tuesday if leader McConnell doesn’t call for these witnesses in his proposal,” Schumer said.

Trump’s legal team, however, has been arguing that the charges against the president aren’t criminal, and, therefore, aren’t impeachable offenses—even if proven.

“If a person is indicted on something that is not a crime, you don’t call the witnesses,” Alan Dershowitz, a member of Trump’s defense team, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Should the Senate call witnesses? Click below and tell your senators.

On the Radar

Will there Even Be Time for Witnesses?

President Trump's legal team argued on Monday that the articles of impeachment passed by the House are “an affront to the Constitution and to our democratic institutions" and the Senate should “swiftly reject” them.

The 110-page legal brief, written by Trump's personal attorney Jay Sekulow and White House counsel Pat Cipollone, argues that the "flimsy" impeachment articles "allege no crime or violation of law whatsoever" and don't warrant his removal from office.

In anticipation of the trial, Trump retweeted:

“In the House, the President got less due process than the 9-11 terrorists got. This is a corrupt process?” Mark Levin @marklevinshow “Very much so!” @RepDougCollins @FoxNews"

Should the Senate ‘swiftly reject’ the articles of impeachment?

Under the Radar

U.S. Military Presence in Middle East Grows ― Is It a Prelude to War?

The presence of the U.S. military in the Middle East has increased in recent months amid rising tensions with Iran and ongoing counterterrorism efforts targeting ISIS and its affiliates.

Although the precise number of troops currently deployed to the region is difficult to determine, the change in military posture has raised concerns that it is a prelude to a large-scale war with Iran.

The Dept. of Defense’s (DOD) personnel deployment reporting policies have evolved over the last two decades. In June 2019, the Pentagon reported that there are approximately 60-80,000 troops in the region, including roughly 13,000 in Afghanistan and 5,200 in Iraq, and noted that precise figures are difficult to determine due to unit rotations in and out of a given theater.

The following chart from USAFacts shows how troop levels in key Middle Eastern countries have changed over the years, and the level they were at when the DOD’s reporting policy changed: