Additional damning information against President Donald Trump has emerged since his impeachment last month.
The Trump impeachment trial begins Tuesday afternoon in the Senate, but some important questions remain unanswered or have emerged since the House voted Dec. 18 to impeach, reported The Bulwark.
New evidence emerged over the holidays, when the public is distracted, showing Trump's knowledge of the Ukraine quid pro quo and awareness of the scheme's illegality.
Two days after the articles of impeachment passed, 300 pages of new emails were made public showing White House officials directed the Department of Defense to block military aid to Ukraine, and made clear the order came from the president.
Those documents also showed worried White House officials then worked to cook up a justification for the pause, after the whistleblower complaint came out, because they feared Trump's order would violate the Impoundment Control Act.
Documents released by an indicted associate of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani shows the president was directly involved in his personal attorney's efforts to conduct foreign policy on his behalf in Ukraine in violation of longstanding foreign policy against the country.
Giuliani, working for Trump, then worked to oust Ukrainian ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, who was maybe placed under surveillance by his associate Lev Parnas and Robert Hyde, a Republican congressional candidate.
Parnas appeared last week on MSNBC and CNN, and he told broadcasters the Ukraine scheme involved Vice President Mike Pence, Attorney General William Barr and Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.
That matches testimony by EU ambassador Gordon Sondland, who told the impeachment inquiry that "everybody was in the loop," and notes from Trump's July 25 call to Ukraine president also mentioned Barr was involved.
Foreign efforts to interfere with the U.S. election were shown Jan. 13 to remain ongoing, after a cybersecurity company reported that Russia's government hacked Ukrainian oil company Burisma Holdings -- which is at the center of the Trump scheme.
Trump urged Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in their July 25 call to investigate the company's ties to Joe Biden's son.