| No Images? Click here   There are always receipts...Newly released text messages sent by senior Trump administration officials appear to show clear instances of the White House brazenly pressuring Ukraine for political favors in exchange for cooperation from the U.S. government.The texts were released late Thursday by the chairs of three House committees, who wrote in a letter to colleagues that they had “grave concerns” after speaking with State Department officials as part of the chamber’s unfolding impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s July 25 call with the leader of Ukraine. The three chairs wrote that the shocking texts were “only a subset of the full body of materials” that had been obtained, the entirety of which they planned to release in the coming days.The text message were largely sent by Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, and Kurt Volker, who was until last month the State Department’s special envoy to Ukraine, to Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.In one instance that appears to be an overt quid pro quo, Volker texted Yermak just hours before the two presidents were set to speak. In the message, Volker said the White House would work to “nail down the date for [a] visit to Washington” but only on the assumption that “President Z convinces trump he will investigate/‘get to the bottom of what happened’ in 2016.”  WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING?The Supreme Court announced Friday it will hear an abortion case this coming term, its first since the retirement of swing justice Anthony Kennedy, which solidified the court’s conservative majority and raised the possibility that it could overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling.Rick Perry is expected to resign by the end of the year as secretary of the Department of Energy, Politico and The Washington Post reported Thursday. Perry said earlier this week that he’d cooperate with lawmakers investigating an explosive whistleblower complaint about President Donald Trump’s communications in July with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Perry has met with Zelensky at least three times, according to CNN.While many in the GOP hem and haw their way around impeachment, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) isn’t holding back. The former presidential candidate doubled down on his criticisms of President Donald Trump in a series of tweets Friday morning, calling Trump’s “brazen and unprecedented” calls for foreign meddling in the 2020 election “wrong and appalling.”
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