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The impeachment hearings have reached a pivot point. Will the Senate vote today to allow witnesses, or will Mitch McConnell and the White House succeed in stymying any attempt at a real trial? As we monitor the news from the Senate floor, here’s a quick recap of what is shaping the impeachment landscape:

  • The revelation that John Bolton wrote about the President’s attempted quid pro quo in his forthcoming book continues to roil Washington. But will it be enough to convince moderate Senators to buck their party and vote to allow witnesses?

  • Over the past two days, Senators have submitted questions to Chief Justice Roberts, which he in turn has posed to the President’s defense team and the House managers. Among the highlights: Alan Dershowitz’s argument that anything the President does to help him get re-elected is inherently in the public’s interest.

  • Senator Rand Paul reportedly launched his latest attempt to publicly out the whistleblower, but Justice Roberts refused to read Paul’s question before the chamber.

And, in other legal news:

  • In a press conference outside of the Upper East Side mansion that belonged to Jeffrey Epstein, Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, publicly announced that Prince Andrew has so far refused to cooperate with the DOJ’s investigation into Epstein.

  • Federal prosecutors appear to be softening their position on punishment for former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, telling a federal court that a sentence of probation is “reasonable” for him.

Preet and Anne will break down all of that, and more, on Tuesday’s episode of CAFE Insider

Dear Reader,

The mafia guys called him “Gene the Carpet” — because his first name was Gene, and he ran a carpet store. (Hey, not every mob nickname is super-creative, or even accurate; yes, Gene worked at a carpet store but no, he was not an actual carpet). For years, legendary Genovese Family powerhouse Ciro Perrone shook down poor Gene the Carpet, a man best described as, well, a “shnuck” (to borrow from Ray Liotta’s famous Goodfellas closing soliloquy). But Perrone was no shnuck; he was a “capo” in mob lingo, meaning he was a “made guy” who ran his own crew. In his early 80s at the time — but still somehow tan year-round and always impeccably dressed — Perrone presided quietly but menacingly from his Queens social club while his crew of loyal enforcers collected regular shakedown payments from sad-sack, terrified local merchants like Gene the Carpet.

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REFORMING "AMERICA'S DICKENSIAN BAIL SYSTEM"

A rare issue that has received bipartisan agreement is the need to reform what Elie Honig and former N.J. Attorney General Christopher Porrino describe as “America’s Dickensian bail system.” In an article for NJ.com, they write about New Jersey’s success in implementing changes and the “systemic flaws” they see in New York’s reform effort:

First, the new system in New York entirely eliminates judicial discretion and has erased mandatory bail evaluations for shockingly broad categories of criminal offenses -- second-degree manslaughter, stalking, assault as a hate crime, grand larceny, and aggravated assault on a child under 11 years old, to name a few.

Second, the New York system perpetuates a 1970’s-era rule that only permits prosecutors to argue and judges to consider whether an individual poses a risk of flight, but not whether that person presents a danger to the community.

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Ian Bremmer is this week’s guest on Stay Tuned. He’s the founder and president of GZero Media and the Eurasia Group, a global risk and research firm. He recently published its annual report on top global risks, and this year, for the first time, U.S. domestic politics tops the list. In a wide-ranging conversation with Preet, Bremmer outlines the potential consequences for America if Trump is re-elected:

The issue is that when you get to an environment where half of the population actually thinks that the election is rigged and something needs to be done about it, the potential for Black Swan events to occur from either side is greater. The response and resilience to a crisis is lower. The willingness of other countries to try to take advantage of that uncertainty is higher.

Bremmer adds, “I'm more concerned about how the country responds to an unfortunate sudden escalation that no one anticipated in the middle of this unprecedented crisis.” 

If you haven’t already, listen to the episode, “The Fate of the World in 2020” at CAFE.com, Apple Podcasts, or a podcast player of your choice, and let us know what you think by replying to this email or writing us at letters@CAFE.com

— The CAFE Team: Tamara Sepper, Julia Doyle, Calvin Lord, Sam Ozer-Staton, David Kurlander, David Tatasciore, and Matthew Billy.

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