Welcome To aBlackWeb

Register

Führer Trump’s Impeachment Inquiry Thread. Update: The Senate completes the coverup

Inori said:
how is it folks can just continuously not comply with these subpoenas and nothing happens? Maybe i'm missing something
Click to expand...


The infection known as Frump.

That's pretty much what he is. All his minions assume if he can be defiant...so can they.
 
talkingpointsmemo.com

WH Launches Its Own Inquiry Into Why Ukraine Call Was Placed In Top-Secret Vault

The White House has launched its own fact-finding inquiry into the handling of the infamous July 25 call between President Trump and Zelensky
talkingpointsmemo.com

WH Launches Its Own Inquiry Into Why Ukraine Call Was Placed In Top-Secret Vault

The White House has launched its own fact-finding inquiry into the handling of the infamous July 25 call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, The New York Times reported.

Many White House aides believe the probe is more of an effort to find a scapegoat for the scandal that’s erupted around the call, which has become the basis of the House’s impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

The review is being conducted by White House lawyers, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to the Times. White House counsel reportedly wants to get clarity on why deputy White House counsel John Eisenberg placed a memo on the call into a password-protected vault — a computer system typically used for highly classified information.

According to people who heard about Eisenberg’s reaction to the inquiry, the White House counsel is furious that his actions are under scrutiny. Eisenberg claims he placed the document, which is a rough transcript of the Ukraine call, in the secret system in order to prevent leaks, which have been a consistent problem for the Trump administration.

While it is not immediately clear who ordered the review, acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney reportedly supports the idea and has directed some of his aides to help out. The White House is also reportedly conducting a different review, interviewing staffers about how Trump’s calls with foreign powers are typically handled.
Click to expand...
 
talkingpointsmemo.com

Another New Poll Shows Majority Of Americans Want Trump Impeached And Removed

More than 50 percent of Americans want President Donald Trump impeached and removed, according to a new Gallup poll released on Wednesday. The survey, conducted from October 1 to 13…
talkingpointsmemo.com

Another New Poll Shows Majority Of Americans Want Trump Impeached And Removed


More than 50 percent of Americans want President Donald Trump impeached and removed, according to a new Gallup poll released on Wednesday.

The survey, conducted from October 1 to 13, shows that 52 percent of Americans support Trump’s removal from office in the House’s impeachment proceedings, while 46 percent do not. According to Gallup, the new figures indicate a reversal of the country’s opinion on impeachment when compared to poll numbers in June.

The new Gallup poll further bolsters the trend found in other surveys, including that of Fox News, that show growing support for House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry and impeachment itself as the scandal over Trump’s attempt to get foreign governments to investigate Joe Biden continues to unfold.

Gallup also notes that the amount of support for Trump’s removal is “well above” what former President Bill Clinton faced during his impeachment proceedings, and “higher” than that of Richard Nixon.

The survey used a random sample of 1,526 adults and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Click to expand...
 
talkingpointsmemo.com

DOD Won’t Comply With House Subpoena, Citing Illegitimate Impeachment Probe

The Department of Defense won't comply with House committees' subpoena of documents relevant to the impeachment inquiry "at this time," citing the ongoing White House claim that the House'
talkingpointsmemo.com

DOD Won’t Comply With House Subpoena, Citing Illegitimate Impeachment Probe

The Department of Defense won’t comply with House committees’ subpoena of documents relevant to the impeachment inquiry “at this time,” citing the ongoing White House claim that the House’s probe is illegitimate.

In a letter from Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs Robert Hood on Tuesday, the Defense Department took issue with the House’s authority to launch an impeachment probe without a full House vote — the line of attack that the White House and top Republicans have been peddling for weeks. It also argued that the documents requested in the subpoena were protected by executive privilege and would require “careful review” before they could be handed over.

The Pentagon also took issue with the characterization that it would be obstructing the impeachment probe if it refused to comply.

“Invoking reasonable legal defenses to a subpoena, including invoking legal privileges that are held by the President, in no way manifests evidence of obstruction or otherwise warrants an adverse inference,” Hood wrote. “Indeed, the very idea that reasonably asserting legal rights is itself evidence of wrongdoing turns fundamental notions of fairness on their head and is inconsistent with the rule of law.”

The State Department has also taken steps, at the behest of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to block witness testimony and documents subpoenaed by Congress as part of its impeachment inquiry.

Click to expand...
 
talkingpointsmemo.com

Mulvaney Confirms Trump Held Up Ukraine Aid Over DNC Server Conspiracy

White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney acknowledged Wednesday that President Trump held up military aid to Ukraine over a conspiracy theory about the DNC servers hacked by Russians in 2016.
talkingpointsmemo.com

Mulvaney Confirms Trump Held Up Ukraine Aid Over DNC Server Conspiracy

White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney acknowledged Wednesday that President Trump held up military aid to Ukraine over a conspiracy theory about the DNC servers hacked by Russians in 2016.



“Did he also mention to me in passing the corruption related to the DNC server? Absolutely,” Mulvaney said at a press conference Thursday. “No question about that.”

“That’s it, and that’s why we held up the money,” Mulvaney said, citing other factors in addition to the DNC server conspiracy.

Trump made reference to the “server” conspiracy in his July 25 call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

In a memorandum of the call released by the White House, Trump asked Zelensky for a “favor.”

“I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike,” Trump said, adding: “I guess you have one of your wealthy people … The server, they say Ukraine has it.”

It was a reference to a conspiracy theory that the cybersecurity firm that the DNC hired in 2016 to investigate the hacking of its servers actually manufactured evidence to implicate Russia. Trump appeared to think, on his call with Zelensky, that a DNC server was physically in Ukraine.

“So the demand for an investigation into the Democrats was part of the reason that he ordered to withhold funding to Ukraine?” ABC’s Jonathan Karl asked Mulvaney Thursday.

“The look back to what happened in 2016 certainly was part of the thing that he was worried about in corruption with that nation,” Mulvaney responded, arguing that Trump’s actions were “absolutely appropriate.”

Karl pressed: “To be clear, what you described is a quid pro quo, it is, funding will not flow unless the investigation into the Democratic server happens as well?”

Mulvaney didn’t deny the characterization.

“We do that all the time with foreign policy,” he said.
Click to expand...
 
talkingpointsmemo.com

Reports: Federal Giuliani Probe Involves Counterintelligence Concerns

Federal investigators looking into Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani’s foreign financial entanglements are also looking into counterintelligence issues that may have grown out of those business ventures
talkingpointsmemo.com

Reports: Federal Giuliani Probe Involves Counterintelligence Concerns

Federal investigators looking into Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani’s foreign financial entanglements are also looking into counterintelligence issues that may have grown out of those business ventures, USA Today was first to report.

New York attorney Kenneth McCallion told USA Today and CNN Wednesday that he was approached by federal investigators earlier this year to ask about Giuliani’s connections to Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, the two men indicted last week on campaign finance violation charges. McCallion, who has had clients in Ukraine, said he was approached again this spring and questioned about Giuliani’s business dealings again by FBI counterintelligence agents.

“I was just asked whether I or any of my clients knew of any dealings that these two guys had with Giuliani,” McCallion told CNN. “They were on the radar with regard to possible counterintelligence issues.”

A person briefed on the matter told CNN that the counterintelligence portion of the probe focuses on whether foreigners tried to use Giuliani’s business ties in Ukraine to influence the White House.

Giuliani has maintained that he is not aware that he is under criminal investigation. The two associates were also reportedly involved in Giuliani’s effort to pressure Ukrainian officials to dig up dirt that would benefit President Trump politically.
Click to expand...
 
talkingpointsmemo.com

Mulvaney Claims He Didn’t Say What He Actually Said On Ukraine

A few hours after confirming a quid pro quo between a conspiracy theory pursued by President Donald Trump and military aid allocated for Ukraine, White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney reversed…
talkingpointsmemo.com

Mulvaney Claims He Didn’t Say What He Actually Said On Ukraine

A few hours after confirming a quid pro quo between a conspiracy theory pursued by President Donald Trump and military aid allocated for Ukraine, White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney reversed himself.



“Let me be clear, there was absolutely no quid pro quo between Ukrainian military aid and any investigation into the 2016 election,” he said in a statement released by the White House.

That’s the opposite of what he said a few hours earlier on Thursday.

At a press conference, Mulvaney said Trump’s belief that Ukraine had meddled in favor of the Democrats in the 2016 election was one reason why the White House had withheld the military aid.

“That’s it, and that’s why we held up the money,” he said, citing the “server” at the center of the conspiracy, which Trump apparently believed was being held in Ukraine, as well as two other reasons.

When ABC’s Jonathan Karl pointed out that this exchange — aid for an investigation into 2016 — was the definition of a quid pro quo, Mulvaney didn’t deny it.

“To be clear, what you described is a quid pro quo, it is, funding will not flow unless the investigation into the Democratic server happens as well?” Karl asked.

“We do that all the time with foreign policy,” Mulvaney said.
Mulvaney’s statement released by the White House at the end of the day Thursday asserted that “the only reasons we were holding the money was because of concern about lack of support from other nations and concerns over corruption.”

He did not say that in the briefing. Rather, he cited three reasons.

First, he said, was Trump’s purported concern about corruption in Ukraine.

The second reason, Mulvaney said, was a White House analysis that other countries hadn’t given Ukraine lethal aid, as the United States Congress had allocated. “They are really, really stingy when it comes to lethal aid,” he said, adding: “So those were the driving factors.

Then, Mulvaney mentioned a third reason.

“Did he also mention to me in passing the corruption related to the DNC server? Absolutely. No question about that. But that’s it, and that’s why we held up the money.”
Mulvaney’s statement about his press conference didn’t address that last remark. Read it in full below:

“Once again, the media has decided to misconstrue my comments to advance a biased and political witch hunt against President Trump. Let me be clear, there was absolutely no quid pro quo between Ukrainian military aid and any investigation into the 2016 election. The president never told me to withhold any money until the Ukrainians did anything related to the server. The only reasons we were holding the money was because of concern about lack of support from other nations and concerns over corruption. Multiple times during the more-than 30 minute briefing where I took over 25 questions, I referred to President Trump’s interest in rooting out corruption in Ukraine, and ensuring taxpayer dollars are spent responsibly and appropriately. There was never any connection between the funds and the Ukrainians doing anything with the server – this was made explicitly obvious by the fact that the aid money was delivered without any action on the part of the Ukrainians regarding the server.“There never was any condition on the flow of the aid related to the matter of the DNC server.”
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

 
talkingpointsmemo.com

Murkowski Condemns Mulvaney’s Remarks, Few Other GOPers Speak Up

You’d barely know, from the reaction of congressional Republicans, that White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney had publicly confirmed a central question of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry on…
talkingpointsmemo.com

Murkowski Condemns Mulvaney’s Remarks, Few Other GOPers Speak Up


You’d barely know, from the reaction of congressional Republicans, that White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney had publicly confirmed a central question of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry on national television.

Mulvaney said in a press conference Thursday that the White House had withheld military funds appropriated by Congress for Ukraine over Donald Trump’s insistence that Ukraine investigate a conspiracy theory about Democrats and the 2016 election.

The strongest Republican voice in reaction to Mulvaney was Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).

“You don’t hold up foreign aid that we had previously appropriated for a political initiative, period,” Murkowski told reporters, calling the news of Mulvaney’s comment “absolutely a concern.”

Rep. Francis Rooney (R-FL) told CNN Thursday that Mulvaney’s comments acknowledging the White House had withheld aid were “troubling.” The congressman, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, ran for Congress in 2016 as a business-savvy Trump supporter, advertising his support for Trump’s border wall.

In an interview on-air Friday, Rooney told CNN that Mulvaney had made the issue “clear.”

“Whatever might have been gray and unclear before is certainly quite clear right now, that the actions were related to getting the Ukraine to do some of these things,” he said. Rooney said Murkowski had framed the issue perfectly: “We’re not supposed to use government power and prestige for political gain.”

Rooney wouldn’t rule out supporting impeachment.

“The only unknown would be if this is so grave and serious that it rises to the level of impeachment,” he said. “I don’t think this is as much as Richard Nixon did, but I’m very mindful of the fact that back during Watergate, everybody said, ‘Oh, it’s a witch hunt to get Nixon.’ Turns out it wasn’t a witch hunt, it was absolutely correct.”

“So I just want to make sure that I get all the data I can get,” he said. “And I’m talking to everybody I can talk to to understand all this.



Appearing on CNN earlier Friday, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), a sometimes-critic of the administration’s handling of the impeachment inquiry, also expressed alarm about Mulvaney’s remarks.

“It’s quite concerning and I think we’re going to get more information as we’re seeing this happen rapidly,” he said.

But Kinzinger said the comments has not lead him to support impeachment. He said he needed more information.

“I have no idea why he said what he said,” Kinzinger said of Mulvaney, noting that the chief of staff had attempted to take back his comments after making them. “Was he talking about just general corruption, or was he talking specifically about the Biden issue?”

“It depends what the purpose is on it,” he added. “So, a lot of concern in all of this. I think we’re going to hear a lot more probably very soon.”
Click to expand...
 
talkingpointsmemo.com

Pompeo Trashes Impeachment Inquiry, Says Benghazi Probe Was Fairer

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attacked the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry in an interview with Politico on Friday, arguing that House Republicans’ probe of Benghazi treated the State…
talkingpointsmemo.com

Pompeo Trashes Impeachment Inquiry, Says Benghazi Probe Was Fairer



Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attacked the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry in an interview with Politico on Friday, arguing that House Republicans’ probe of Benghazi treated the State Department better than Democrats’ current investigation.

“They’re not letting State Department lawyers in the room,” he told Politico. “They have not let State Department lawyers be part of these hearings.”

“That’s unheard of,” the secretary added. “I haven’t seen you all report that.”

Democrats have asserted that the House has the authority to not to have executive branch lawyers present for the hearings.

Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was famously interviewed publicly for 11 hours as part of the Benghazi probe. Then-Congressman Pompeo sat on the select committee that investigated the matter. Pompeo, meanwhile, has not complied with a House subpoena for documents in the impeachment inquiry.

Despite Pompeo’s and the White House’s objections, multiple current and former State Department officials have testified in the impeachment probe.

When Politico asked about Rudy Giuliani, whose extracurricular diplomatic work has been the subject of several State Department officials’ testimony in the impeachment inquiry, Pompeo said “I have nothing to add.”

Asked about the officials who are testifying, Pompeo told Politico, “I hope they go to tell the truth.”

“I believe deeply in the process,” he added. “But you have to have a process that’s fair and reasonable.”
Click to expand...

180606
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top