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

The left will put on their angry eyes

The right will twiddle their fingers and whistle
 
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Explosive Texts Show U.S. Pushed Ukraine To Investigate In Exchange For WH Visit

U.S. ambassadors worked on behalf of the White House and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to pressure Ukraine into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
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Explosive Texts Show U.S. Pushed Ukraine To Investigate In Exchange For WH Visit


House Democrats released a series of new, explosive texts on Thursday evening, revealing the extent to which State Department officials worked with Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to pressure Ukraine into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.



The texts indicate that the U.S. ambassador to the EU and the former State Department special envoy to Ukraine were actively working to persuade Ukraine to publicly commit to an investigation as an explicit condition for an in-person meeting between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The messages provide the clearest picture yet of how the State Department worked with Giuliani in order to advance President Trump’s political goals.

“Heard from White House – assuming President Z convinces trump he will investigate / ‘get to the bottom of what happened’ in 2016, we will nail down date for a visit to Washington,” former U.S. special representative for Ukraine negotiations Kurt Volker said in one exchange with a top Zelensky aide on July 25, just before the now-infamous call between Trump and Zelensky. That call formed the initial basis of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.

U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and Volker — who resigned from the State Department on Sept. 27 and provided a deposition before Congress on Thursday — even worked to draft language for a potential Zelensky statement announcing the probe. Zelensky never made the announcement.

The texts show that Volker and Sondland — both Trump political appointees — repeatedly discussed the need to settle on the exact wording that Zelensky should use to announce a potential probe into the origins of allegations that were a focus of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian gas company that Hunter Biden joined the board of in 2014 while his father was vice president and overseeing the U.S.’s relations with Ukraine. Trump has repeatedly lobbed allegations of corruption in relation to the arrangement, but there is no evidence of wrongdoing.

The two ambassadors settled on the following language for the announcement that never transpired, according to the texts: “We intend to initiate and complete a transparent and unbiased investigation of all available facts and episodes, including those involving Burisma and the 2016 U.S. elections.”

House Democrats released the text messages after completing an eight-hour deposition with Volker on Thursday. The texts are just one segment of a package of materials the House committees intend to make public, Democrats said in the letter.

The messages also show an alarmed Zelensky advisor, Andrey Yermak, contacting Volker in late August after Trump decided to withhold nearly $400 million in military aid from the country. Trump has claimed that he withheld the funds to try to force European countries to contribute more to Ukraine’s defense. But in the July call with Zelensky, Trump explicitly asks for a favor when the Ukrainian president asks about more military defense weapons.

The series of texts show U.S. Charges D’affaires for Ukraine Bill Taylor expressing discomfort with the developments. “Are we now saying that security assistance and WH meeting are conditioned on investigations?” he asked on Sept. 1.

“Call me,” Sondland replied.

On Sept. 9, Taylor texted Sondland again. “As I said on the phone, I think it’s crazy to withold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”

“Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump’s intentions,” Sondland replied. The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo’s (sic) of any kind. The President is trying to evaluate whether Ukraine is truly going to adopt the transparency and reforms that President Zelensky promised during his campaign.”

He continued, “I suggest we stop the back and forth by text If you still have concerns I recommend you give [Executive Secretary in the Office of the Secretary of State] Lisa Kenna or S a call to discuss them directly. Thanks.”

House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff released the trove of explosive texts messages in a letter on Thursday evening.
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CNN: Trump Mentioned Biden, Warren During Call With Chinese President In June

President Donald Trump reportedly brought up Democratic rivals Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren during a phone call with the Chinese President in June.
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CNN: Trump Mentioned Biden, Warren During Call With Chinese President In June

President Donald Trump reportedly brought up Democratic rivals Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) during a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping in June.

CNN reported on Thursday night that Trump had mentioned Biden and Warren’s “political prospects” (in CNN’s words) when he called Jinping on June 18.

Trump, currently scrambling to fix the damage from the disastrous trade war he began against China, also reportedly told Jinping that he wouldn’t speak out against China’s treatment of the protesters in Hong Kong.

Afterwards, White House officials reportedly locked away records of the call in the same electronic security system used to conceal Trump’s call with the president of Ukraine.

Several hours before CNN published the new details, Trump had openly askedUkraine and China to investigate Biden during a press conference.
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Pentagon Says None Of Its Officials Were On Trump’s Ukraine Call

The Department of Defense said on Thursday that its officials, including Defense Secretary Mark Esper, were not present during President Donald Trump's call with the Ukrainian president.
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Pentagon Says None Of Its Officials Were On Trump’s Ukraine Call

The Department of Defense said on Thursday that its officials, including Defense Secretary Mark Esper, were not present during President Donald Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president.

“To my knowledge, no one from the Department of Defense was on that call,” Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters, per the Hill. “I specifically asked the secretary of Defense that question, and he was not on that call.”

“The secretary has an incredibly busy schedule and is working on a number of different issues at any one time,” the spokesman added. “He doesn’t spend most of his days sitting in on other people’s phone calls.”

According to the White House’s version of Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump pressed the Ukrainian leader to dig up fabricated dirt on his political rival Joe Biden. When the Ukrainian president mentioned missile defense, Trump responded that he wanted the foreign leader to do him a “favor.”

The DOD spokesman also said the department’s general counsel has orderedPentagon staffers to provide the Office of General Counsel all documents on Trump’s decision to withhold military aid to Ukraine around the time of the call.

“To me, it seems to be a fairly routine but proactive measure we’re taking,” he said.
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Man In The Middle: Pence Is At The Heart Of The Ukraine Scandal Too

Pence castigated Biden Thursday with an attack so lacking in self awareness as to make even the most casual observer of Trump’s hijinks roll her eyes.
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Man In The Middle: Pence Is At The Heart Of The Ukraine Scandal Too

Vice President Mike Pence castigated former Vice President Joe Biden Thursday with an attack that would make even the most casual observer of President Donald Trump’s hijinks roll their eyes.



“The American people have a right to know if the vice president of the United States, or his family, profited from his position,” Pence told reporters after an event in Arizona. “When you hold the second highest office in the land it comes with unique responsibilities — not just to be above impropriety, but to be above the appearance of impropriety, and clearly in this case there are legitimate questions that ought to be asked.” He tweeted out an article containing his comments soon after.

Pence has once again taken his place as Trump’s loyal lieutenant, now full-throatedly supporting the President’s baseless accusations.

But based on what we know so far, this isn’t the first time Pence has dipped a toe into the burgeoning Ukraine scandal, in which Trump and his allies have used the full power of the state to go after his political enemies. Pence has been in it since the beginning.

Here’s a timeline of Pence’s biggest moments as the story unfurled:

May 20: Pence does not attend the inauguration of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Trump’s orders. Energy Secretary Rick Perry leads the U.S. delegation in his stead.

July 25: Pence’s national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, listens in on Trump’s now-infamous call with Zelensky during which Trump tells the Ukrainian President to dig up dirt on the Bidens.

July 26: The day that White House officials told the Washington Post that Pence should have received notes on the call in his daily briefing.

September 1: Pence meets with Zelensky in Warsaw. Pence reportedly relaysthat hundreds of millions of dollars of aid will not be given to Ukraine due to the U.S.’ concerns about lackluster attempts to crack down on corruption. Having already spoken to Trump, Zelensky likely understands that “corruption” is shorthand for Trump wanting him to drum up phony allegations against Biden.

September 2: Pence denies mentioning the Bidens in his call with Zelensky, though he makes crystal clear that he will relay Zelensky’s “progress” on “dealing with corruption” back to Trump.

September 18: Pence and Zelensky have another call. Officials have called it “perfunctory” and said that Zelensky thanked Pence for his positive report after their meeting, which led to the release of the Ukrainian aid.

September 25: As the scandal unfolds, Trump name-drops Pence at a speech before the United Nations. “I think you should do, and I think you should ask for VP Pence’s conversation because he had a couple conversations also,” he said.

Some point before call memo release: Pence advised Trump not to release the White House’s version of the President’s call with Zelensky. Pence reportedly got on board when Trump decided that the optics of holding back the document would be worse than releasing it.

Pence tends to fly under the radar because of his relative blandness as compared to Trump. But if Trump’s actions look damning, if his coercion of Zelensky has set the impeachment ball in motion, Pence shouldn’t be feeling too comfortable.

Pence too had a conversation with Zelensky where he said outright that the U.S. would be withholding military aid until Ukraine does a better job rooting out corruption. That conversation came after Trump clearly equated “rooting out corruption” with “smearing the Bidens” during his July 25 phone call: a call which, coincidentally, Pence would have received transcripts of a day after one of his top advisers listened in.
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Explosive Texts Show U.S. Pushed Ukraine To Investigate In Exchange For WH Visit

U.S. ambassadors worked on behalf of the White House and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to pressure Ukraine into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
talkingpointsmemo.com

Explosive Texts Show U.S. Pushed Ukraine To Investigate In Exchange For WH Visit

House Democrats released a series of new, explosive texts on Thursday evening, revealing the extent to which State Department officials worked with Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to pressure Ukraine into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.



The texts indicate that the U.S. ambassador to the EU and the former State Department special envoy to Ukraine were actively working to persuade Ukraine to publicly commit to an investigation as an explicit condition for an in-person meeting between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The messages provide the clearest picture yet of how the State Department worked with Giuliani in order to advance President Trump’s political goals.

“Heard from White House – assuming President Z convinces trump he will investigate / ‘get to the bottom of what happened’ in 2016, we will nail down date for a visit to Washington,” former U.S. special representative for Ukraine negotiations Kurt Volker said in one exchange with a top Zelensky aide on July 25, just before the now-infamous call between Trump and Zelensky. That call formed the initial basis of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.

U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and Volker — who resigned from the State Department on Sept. 27 and provided a deposition before Congress on Thursday — even worked to draft language for a potential Zelensky statement announcing the probe. Zelensky never made the announcement.

The texts show that Volker and Sondland — both Trump political appointees — repeatedly discussed the need to settle on the exact wording that Zelensky should use to announce a potential probe into the origins of allegations that were a focus of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian gas company that Hunter Biden joined the board of in 2014 while his father was vice president and overseeing the U.S.’s relations with Ukraine. Trump has repeatedly lobbed allegations of corruption in relation to the arrangement, but there is no evidence of wrongdoing.

The two ambassadors settled on the following language for the announcement that never transpired, according to the texts: “We intend to initiate and complete a transparent and unbiased investigation of all available facts and episodes, including those involving Burisma and the 2016 U.S. elections.”

House Democrats released the text messages after completing an eight-hour deposition with Volker on Thursday. The texts are just one segment of a package of materials the House committees intend to make public, Democrats said in the letter.

According to a person familiar with Volker’s testimony Thursday who spoke to the the New York Times, Volker told House Democrats that Giuliani specifically requested that the statement include language about Burisma and the 2016 election. Volker reportedly told lawmakers that the Ukrainians had initially proposed a statement that would include a vow to investigate corruption, but Giuliani told Volker it was not sufficient and insisted on the Burisma and 2016 election mentions.

Eventually, Zelensky adviser Andrey Yermak told Volker that the government could not agree to the language Giuliani wanted and the “idea was dropped,” according to the Times.

The messages also show an alarmed Yermak contacting Volker in late August after Trump decided to withhold nearly $400 million in military aid from the country. Trump has claimed that he withheld the funds to try to force European countries to contribute more to Ukraine’s defense. But in the July call with Zelensky, Trump explicitly asks for a favor when the Ukrainian president asks about more military defense weapons.

The series of texts show U.S. Charges D’affaires for Ukraine Bill Taylor expressing discomfort with the developments. “Are we now saying that security assistance and WH meeting are conditioned on investigations?” he asked on Sept. 1.

“Call me,” Sondland replied.

On Sept. 9, Taylor texted Sondland again. “As I said on the phone, I think it’s crazy to withold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”

“Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump’s intentions,” Sondland replied. The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo’s (sic) of any kind. The President is trying to evaluate whether Ukraine is truly going to adopt the transparency and reforms that President Zelensky promised during his campaign.”

He continued, “I suggest we stop the back and forth by text If you still have concerns I recommend you give [Executive Secretary in the Office of the Secretary of State] Lisa Kenna or S a call to discuss them directly. Thanks.”

House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff released the trove of explosive texts messages in a letter on Thursday evening.
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White House Will Refuse To Cooperate With Impeachment Probe

The White House plans to formally tell House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as early as Friday that it will not cooperate with the House’s impeachment probe
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White House Will Refuse To Cooperate With Impeachment Probe

The White House plans to formally tell House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as early as Friday that it will not cooperate with the House’s impeachment probe, the Associated Press reported.

The White House Counsel’s Office is preparing a letter to send Pelosi arguing that because the impeachment inquiry was not opened with a full House vote, Democrats are merely conducting congressional oversight, a person familiar with the matter told the AP Thursday. Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani confirmed to the AP that the letter would be coming soon.

Trump allies, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) have been saying as much for days. In response to McCarthy’s request to shut down the inquiry on Thursday, Pelosi argued there was “no requirement under the Constitution, under House rules or House precedent that the whole House vote before proceeding with an impeachment inquiry.”

Republicans’ impeachment posturing comes as President Trump continues to abuse his office by calling on other countries to investigate his political rivals — blatantly and on national television. On Thursday, Trump told reporters that China should look into the Bidens in addition to Ukraine.

Pelosi announced the impeachment inquiry last month without seeking the full chamber’s approval. Impeachment investigations into former President Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon did begin with a full House vote.
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