• Editor’s note: As of last week, the President can no longer claim he did not break the law in his call with the President of Ukraine, for the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent agency reporting to Congress, announced Thursday (Jan. 16) that the President violated the law in withholding congressionally approved U.S. military aid to Ukraine.
• Additional stories last week underscoring Autocracy’s roots are growing deep:

“Senate Urged to Convict Trump After GAO Says White House Broke Law by Freezing Ukraine Aid”

“The federal watchdog’s decision ‘should be a call to action for every senator to put country over party and vote to remove Trump from office,'” Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams. Read more

“Fascism Expert: Trump Has Laid the Groundwork for “Full-On Authoritarian Rule”

By Chauncey DeVega, Salon. Read more

“Donald Trump Keeps Saying “Deep State.” It Doesn’t Mean What He Thinks It Means.”

By Rebecca Gordon, TomDispatch. Read more

“New York City Mayor Asks for Criminal Investigation Into Trump Taxes”

By Heather Vogell, ProPublica. Read more

“Trump Was on Board With the Plan to Use Ukraine to Torpedo Biden, Parnas Says”

“Lev Parnas, a close associate of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, claimed in a series of interviews that aired on Wednesday and Thursday that the president and top aides were aware of and on board with the plot to use Ukraine to torpedo former Vice President Joe Biden’s chances in the 2020 election,” by Eoin Huggins, Common Dreams. Read more

“Trump authorized Soleimani’s killing 7 months ago, with conditions”

“The timing raises new questions about the Trump administration’s stated justification for taking out the top Iranian general,” by Carol E. Lee and Courtney Kube, NBC News. Read more

“John Kerry says Trump defense of Soleimani assassination ‘beginning to look like a cover-up’”

“After a week of shifting rationales from the White House for the attack on Soleimani, the contradictions continued over the weekend. Former Secretary of State John Kerry says, ‘It’s beginning to look like a cover-up over their original choices,'” on MSNBC’s Hardball. Read more

“Judge Andrew Napolitano: US killing of Soleimani was odd, out of place, untimely and unlawful”

By Andrew Napolitano, FOX News. Read more

“Trump’s Evil Is Contagious”

“The president has shown us exactly what happens when good people do nothing,” by Timothy Egan, The New York Times, Read more

Trump wants “his” DOJ to open already-closed investigations into perceived opponents

By Adam Goldman, The New York Times. Read more

“Bill Barr wants Apple to break their encryption, even if it risks every American being hacked”

“Law enforcement thinks tech companies should build “backdoors” into every person’s phone and communications apps, and then hope no hacker ever finds them,” by Dan Gillmor, co-founder News Co/Lab. Read more

“Trump Has Suspended Nearly 50 Laws to Build the Wall”

By William deBuys, TomDispatch. Read more

“Russia has already won the fight to undermine U.S. elections”

“If Russia’s goal in meddling in U.S. elections has been to undermine trust in the democratic process, it has already won — and the U.S. isn’t even starting to take the sort of steps that might reverse that outcome.

“Why it matters: Free, fair, and trusted elections are the cornerstone of the U.S.’s claim to moral authority. We’re only beginning to fathom how badly Vladimir Putin has wounded the American system,” by Scott Rosenberg, Axios. Read more

“How the GOP Became the Party of Putin”

“Republicans have sold their souls to Russia. And Trump isn’t the only reason why,” by James Kirchick, Politico. Read more