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The Impeachment of President Donald J. Trump

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#1277

This is not just an impeachment. It’s the endgame for Trump’s relentless assault on the institutions, norms, and practices of America’s liberal democracy for the past three years. It’s also a deeper reckoning. It’s about whether the legitimacy of our entire system can last much longer without this man being removed from office.

I’m talking about what political scientists call “regime cleavage” — a decline in democratic life so severe the country’s very institutions could lose legitimacy as a result of it. It is described by one political scientist as follows: “a division within the population marked by conflict about the foundations of the governing system itself — in the American case, our constitutional democracy. In societies facing a regime cleavage, a growing number of citizens and officials believe that norms, institutions, and laws may be ignored, subverted, or replaced.” A full-on regime cleavage is, indeed, an extinction-level event for our liberal democratic system. And it is one precipitated by the man who is supposed to be the guardian of that system, the president.

Let us count the ways in which Trump has attacked and undermined the core legitimacy of our democracy. He is the only candidate in American history who refused to say that he would abide by the results of the vote. Even after winning the 2016 election, he still claimed that “millions” of voters — undocumented aliens — perpetrated massive electoral fraud in the last election, and voted for his opponent. He has repeatedly and publicly toyed with the idea that he could violate the 22nd Amendment, and get elected for three terms, or more.

…

In the current scandal over Ukraine, Trump is insisting that he did “nothing wrong” in demanding that Ukraine announce investigations into Joe and Hunter Biden, or forfeit desperately needed military aid. If that is the president’s position — that he can constitutionally ask any other country to intervene on his behalf in a U.S. election — it represents a view of executive power that is the equivalent of a mob boss’s. It is best summed up in Trump’s own words: Article 2 of the Constitution permits him to do “anything I want.”

We have become so used to these attacks on our constitutional order that we fail to be shocked by Trump’s insistence that a constitutional impeachment inquiry is a “coup.” By any measure, this is an extraordinary statement, and itself an impeachable offense as a form of “contempt for Congress.” We barely blink anymore when a president refuses to cooperate in any way, demands his underlings refuse to testify and break the law by flouting subpoenas, threatens to out the first whistle-blower’s identity (in violation of the law), or assaults and tries to intimidate witnesses, like Colonel Alexander Vindman.

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#1278

Nailed it!

If Trump’s base has the capacity to learn just one truth about Trump during the impeachment hearings, this should be the one. He’s not a maverick, he’s a mob boss.

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#1279

Trump and Giuliani remain in touch as impeachment drama heats up

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#1280

Republicans want Hunter Biden, Ukraine whistleblower as impeachment inquiry witnesses

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/republicans-hunter-biden-ukraine-whisteleblower-impeachment-witness

EXCLUSIVE: House Republicans plan to call Hunter Biden, the Ukraine whistleblower and a range of other witnesses to testify in the upcoming public Trump impeachment hearings, according to a witness list obtained exclusively by Fox News.

It is unclear, at this point, how many of the Republicans’ proposed witnesses will be approved by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and the Democrats, because the newly-approved resolution governing the impeachment inquiry give the approval power to the chairman and the members of the majority

Read the Letter from Nunes to Chairman Schiff

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#1281

Did anyone post this yet? The Trump administration’s crack shadow foreign policy team had been pushing Ukraine to investigate the Bidens since before Zelenskiy was elected.

Giuliani Associates Urged Ukraine’s Prior President to Open Biden, Election Probes

The meeting, which hasn’t previously been reported, shows associates of the U.S. president’s personal lawyer as early as February were pressing the president of Ukraine to open investigations that could benefit Mr. Trump politically in exchange for a White House visit. No White House meeting resulted from the discussions. Mr. Poroshenko lost his re-election bid to Volodymyr Zelensky, who Mr. Trump in a July call urged to investigate the Bidens, as well as other matters.

Mr. Poroshenko at the time was in a tight re-election race and had expressed interest to aides in visiting Washington. A visit to the White House could have improved his electoral chances with Ukrainian voters because it could have enhanced his stature, and he was open to the idea proposed by Mr. Giuliani’s associates, one of the people said. “He wanted to come to Washington and meet with Trump and then after the state dinner he would have an interview” with a major news outlet, the person said of Mr. Poroshenko. “Then he would say he would investigate meddling in 2016 and the Bidens.”

Robert Costello, a lawyer for Mr. Giuliani, said his client had no knowledge of the meeting. Representatives of Mr. Poroshenko and Mr. Lutsenko didn’t respond to requests for comment. Lawyers for Messrs. Parnas and Fruman declined to comment. The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.

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#1282

Schiff responds

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Read Schiff’s letter to Nunes :point_down:

https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/11/10/politics/schiff-letter-to-nunes-whistleblower-testimony/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww-m.cnn.com%2F2019%2F11%2F09%2Fpolitics%2Fadam-schiff-whistleblower-impeachment-inquiry%2Findex.html%3Fr%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2F2019%2Fnov%2F10%2Ftrump-impeachment-whistleblower-public-hearings-schiff-democrats-republicans

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#1283

Yes! And this, right here, is why so many dedicated Democrats worked tirelessly to win a Democratic majority in the House in 2016. Imagine if we were still in the minority? Not only would Schiff be unable to stop the Republicans’ dangerous and destructive grandstanding, we wouldn’t even be having these impeachment hearings. Trump’s crimes would have once again been swept under the rug by a Republican majority.

Now we’ve got to win the Executive Branch and the Senate in 2020. Onward!

:muscle:

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#1284

It’s great to see the WSJ throwing a spotlight on what many have been calling Trump’s first bribery attempt with Ukraine.

Here’s a previous post featuring a recent editorial by the WaPo and some earlier, in-depth reporting by the NYT.

In that post, I assembled a list of uncanny parallels between the first bribery/extortion attempt and the second one. I’ll drop the list here, too:

The highly suspicious interactions between the Trump administration and Ukraine in 2017/18 and in 2019 are eerily similar. The question arises, in 2019 when Trump extorted the President of Ukraine, was he simply re-running a play he’d already executed earlier with the previous President of Ukraine?

  • Both cases involve Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

  • In both cases, meetings were stalled between Trump and the President of Ukraine (Petro Poroshenko in the first case, Volodymyr Zelensky in the second). Such a meeting is highly coveted by a Ukrainian leader needing to legitimize his rule.

  • In the first case, the stalled meeting was suddenly given the green light two weeks after Giuliani’s visit to Poroshenko and Ukraine’s Prosecutor General who was handling the Manafort investigation.

  • In the second case, the stalled meeting was OK’d after Trump’s extortion demand in his July 25 phone call with Zelensky.

  • In both cases, Trump was vitally interested in influencing investigations in Ukraine for his own personal benefit.

  • In the first case, Trump wanted to stop Ukraine’s investigation of his ex-campaign manager, Paul Manafort, which could lead to Robert Mueller receiving damning evidence against Trump.

  • In the second case, Trump wanted Ukraine to investigate his political rival, Biden, to further his chances of re-election.

  • In both cases, Ukraine’s need for Javelin missiles to defend against Russian attacks was at the center of the interaction.

  • In the first case, Javelin missiles were indeed released to Ukraine after they stopped their investigations into Manafort and stopped cooperating with Mueller. And Trump did indeed meet Poroshenko.

  • In the second case, Javelin missiles were also released, but Trump did not get the investigation of the Bidens that he was demanding. That’s very likely because the whistleblower exposed his extortion attempt and Trump was forced to release the missiles anyway in an attempt to make it look like he really wasn’t extorting Ukraine. Trump also did indeed meet with Zelensky, but again, that’s likely because his hand was forced by the revelations about his extortion attempt.

Update to the above list: The recent WSJ reporting that @anon95374541 posted expands our understanding of the first extortion attempt. In my original list (first bullet above), Rudy Giuliani’s involvement is given as a common factor between the two attempts. Now we know for certain that both attempts involved, not only Giuliani, but also his recently indicted co-conspirators, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. :boom:

And here’s Rachel Maddow’s spot on reporting.

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#1285

Here’ something explosive…Bolton released the Ukraine funds…not Mick Mulvaney…just prior to his resignstion. :boom:

The timeline in the administration’s Ukraine scandal changed again on Saturday with a bombshell new report from Bloomberg News.

“President Donald Trump says he lifted his freeze on aid to Ukraine on Sept. 11, but the State Department had quietly authorized releasing $141 million of the money several days earlier,” Bloomberg reported, citing “five people familiar with the matter.”

“The State Department decision, which hasn’t been reported previously, stemmed from a legal finding made earlier in the year, and conveyed in a classified memorandum to Secretary of State Michael Pompeo. State Department lawyers found the White House Office of Management and Budget, and thus the president, had no legal standing to block spending of the Ukraine aid,” Bloomberg explained.

The report highlights how the administration was divided over the funding, with acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney — who is also the director of the Office of Management and budget supporting Trump’s decision to block the aid, while others, including then-National Security Advisor John Bolton, reportedly wanted the funds released.

“The OMB has argued all along that the congressional notification by the State Department was only one step and it still had the power to hold the money after it was sent because of its authority to apportion — or distribute — the funds,” Bloomberg explained. “But the State Department disagreed. Taylor, the envoy to Ukraine, said in his testimony that it was remarkable that the legal offices at the State and Defense departments had decided ‘they were going to move forward with this assistance anyway, OMB notwithstanding.’”

The memo to Pompeo had determined that State had the authority to spend the money — regardless of what Trump was saying through the OMB — and would start the process by Sept. 7. But State officials were also wary of provoking a confrontation with OMB and Mick Mulvaney, the acting chief of staff who still leads the budget office, whose team argued they could block the money through a process known as apportionment,” Bloomberg reported.

The new report suggests that Bolton went around Mulvaney to release the aid.
“What they didn’t know, according to one of the people, was that shortly before Sept. 9, Bolton had relayed a message to the State Department that the funding could go ahead. It’s not clear whether Bolton, who resigned from the job a week later, did so with Trump’s approval,” Bloomberg noted.

State Department Freed Ukraine Money Before Trump Says He Did

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-09/state-department-freed-ukraine-money-before-trump-says-he-did

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#1286

Important point: it wasn’t really a “resignation” remember so much as a firing. Trump said they’d talk about it, then fired him in a humiliating fashion.

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#1287

Facebook is deleting the name of the potential whistleblower

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#1288

On the Whistleblower’s story being revealed (ie, What the claims were and where was the illegal/illicit situation) that caused the CIA officer to blow the whistle.

By way of what was known among the press prior to the actual statement that was revealed by Schiff/Pelosi on Sept 26th or thereabouts, I had recalled hearing about some funds being withheld in Ukraine, via The Rachel Maddow Show (Sept 6th). And sure enough, she talked about these funds being withheld, and that T was threatening to take from the Military accounts for the Wall.

There was an Opinion piece from the Washington Post on Sept 5th enumerating all such activity…withholding military/humanitarian aide from Ukraine.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/is-trump-strong-arming-ukraines-new-president-for-political-gain/2019/09/05/4eb239b0-cffa-11e9-8c1c-7c8ee785b855_story.html

Yet Mr. Zelensky has so far failed to win the backing of President Trump. Not only has Mr. Trump refused to grant the Ukrainian leader a White House visit, but also he has suspended the delivery of $250 million in U.S. military aid to a country still fighting Russian aggression in its eastern provinces.

Some suspect Mr. Trump is once again catering to Mr. Putin, who is dedicated to undermining Ukrainian democracy and independence. But we’re reliably told that the president has a second and more venal agenda: He is attempting to force Mr. Zelensky to intervene in the 2020 U.S. presidential election by launching an investigation of the leading Democratic candidate, Joe Biden. Mr. Trump is not just soliciting Ukraine’s help with his presidential campaign; he is using U.S. military aid the country desperately needs in an attempt to extort it.

The fact that the Washington Post had the story…way before the contents of the Whistleblower complaint had been spilled is curious to me.

Here are a few dates:

  • August 9: Trump tells reporters that Zelensky had been invited to the White House.

  • August 12 : A whistleblower files a complaint with the intelligence inspector general.

  • August 15 : Gordon and Coats depart the Office of Director of National Intelligence.

  • August 26 : Intelligence IG forwards complaint to the acting DNI.

  • August 28 : Then-national security adviser John Bolton meets with Zelensky in Kiev.

  • August 30: Trump considers blocking $250 million in military aid to Ukraine, effectively pausing disbursement of the funds during a formal review process.

  • September 1 : Vice President Mike Pence meets with Zelensky in Warsaw.

  • September 2 : Deadline for DNI to send whistleblower complaint to Congress – he does not send it.

  • September 9 : Intel IG notifies House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff of an “urgent concern” that DNI has overruled.

  • September 9 : Three House committees launch investigation of efforts by Trump, Giuliani and others to pressure the Ukrainian government to assist the President’s reelection efforts. The committees request information about Trump’s July phone call with Zelensky.

  • September 10 : Schiff demands acting DNI turn over the complaint.

  • September 12 : The administration hold on Ukraine aid is lifted.

  • September 13 : Schiff subpoenas the acting DNI.

  • September 17 : The acting DNI refuses to testify.

  • September 17 : Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talks to the Ukrainian foreign minister

  • September 18 : Revelation is reported that the complaint involves a Trump communication with a foreign leader and a “promise” made.

  • September 18 : The Intelligence inspector general and the acting DNI say they will brief the House Intelligence Committee.

  • September 18 : Pence talks to Ukrainian President Zelensky by phone.

  • September 19 : The Intelligence inspector general gives a classified briefing to the House Intelligence Committee.

  • September 19 : It is revealed by The Washington Post and The New York Times that the whistleblower’s concern was partly in regard to Ukraine.

  • September 20: It’s reported that Trump pressed Zelensky to investigate Biden’s son during a call on July 25.

  • September 22: Trump acknowledges that he discussed Joe Biden in a July call with Zelensky.

  • September 22: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi writes to the acting DNI stating that if the administration refusals continue, it would constitute a “serious possible breach of constitutional duties by” Trump and would take Congress "into a whole new stage of investigation. "

  • September 23: Trump tells reporters at the UN that his conversations with Ukraine’s leaders were without fault and said he wanted the world to see what he said.

  • September 23: The Washington Post reports that Trump asked his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to put a hold on millions in military aid to Ukraine roughly one week before a call with the Zelensky.

  • September 24: Trump tweets the White House will release a transcript of his call with Zelensky.

  • September 24: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces formal impeachment inquiry into Trump.

August 12th was when the Whistleblower filed their report, and that report got held up, and shuffled around, by the Acting DNI head, and those who did not want to do anything with it (really wanted to squash it)

Sept 5th - Wapo Editorial Board talks about how the military aid is being held up.

Sept 6th.. Maddow Show discusses it…at 2:50 is where she starts in on this Ukraine withheld funds…and how it links to Putin…

Mid Sept - Rep Schiff starts noting there is a Whistleblower report, and no one knows what it is, and what it could be…? And we already know that one of Schiff’s staffer’s had been in touch with Whistleblower group…and gave them some advice about how to submit their report…where to go etc.

Sept 23rd - Details of the July 25th call become known, and the contents of the Whistleblower report become more public.

The curious part to me is that the Press was onto this story in early Sept, and that somehow someone from the Military, State, or DNI may have tipped them off, because the Washington Post caught onto this story…and it was ultimately the story that brought impeachment charges.

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#1289

Three Democratic senators use another FOIA request to get Trump-Ukraine info

Dem senators slap Trump with a FOIA request for info on plan to use Bill Barr to exonerate him

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#1290

Only 3 Republican Senators will not sign the Not For Impeachment proposal being circulated by Sen Graham.

For those Senate Republicans who are refusing to condemn the House-led impeachment inquiry, three may be the loneliest number.

While a resolution denouncing the House Democrats’ fast-moving probe hasn’t received a vote, GOP Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska declined to sign on as co-sponsors — the only ones out of 53 Republicans — leaving the door ajar to the possibility that they could vote to convict President Donald Trump if impeachment moves to its trial phase in the Senate.

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#1291

This shows why the Trump regime wants to expose the whistleblower – to intimidate others who may wish to come forward.

Trump supporters wrongly identified ex-Obama staffer as Ukraine whistleblower — resulting in death threats: report

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#1292

AP sources: Former Trump adviser John Bolton has a book deal

Former national security adviser John Bolton has a book deal, The Associated Press has learned.

The hawkish Bolton departed in September because of numerous foreign policy disagreements with President Donald Trump. He reached a deal over the past few weeks with Simon & Schuster, according to three publishing officials with knowledge of negotiations. The officials were not authorized to discuss the deal publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Two of the officials said the deal was worth about $2 million. Bolton was represented by the Javelin literary agency, whose clients include former FBI Director James Comey and the anonymous Trump administration official whose book, “A Warning,” comes out Nov. 19.

The publishing officials did not know the title or release date. Simon & Schuster declined comment Saturday and Javelin did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bolton’s 2007 book, “Surrender is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad,” was published by the conservative Simon & Schuster imprint Threshold Editions.

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#1293

Trump says White House will release transcript of another call with Ukraine ‘probably’ Tuesday

President Donald Trump said he will release the transcript of another phone call with the President of Ukraine “probably” on Tuesday – this communication having taken place in April before the July conversation at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.

"They want to have a transcript of the other call, the second call, and I’m willing to provide that," the President told reporters Saturday on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews, before boarding Air Force One.

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#1294

In Seeking to Join Suit Over Subpoena Power, Mulvaney Goes Up Against the President

Even in a White House of never-befores, this may be one of the morehead-spinning: The president’s chief of staff is trying to join a lawsuit against the president.

Mick Mulvaney works only about 50 steps from the Oval Office as he runs the White House staff but rather than simply obey President Trump’s order to not cooperate with House impeachment investigators, he sent his lawyers to court late Friday night asking a judge whether he should or not.

To obtain such a ruling, the lawyers asked to join a lawsuit already filed by a former White House official — a lawsuit that names “the Honorable Donald J. Trump” as a defendant along with congressional leaders. The lawyers tried to finesse that by saying in the body of their motion that the defendants they really wanted to sue were the congressional leaders, but their own motion still listed Mr. Trump at the top as a defendant because that is the suit they sought to join.

In effect, Mr. Mulvaney hopes the court will tell him whether to listen to his own boss, who wants him to remain silent, or to comply with a subpoena from the House, which wants his testimony. That put Mr. Mulvaney at odds with some other current White House and administration officials who had simply defied the House, citing the president’s order not to cooperate with what he called an illegitimate “witch hunt.”

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#1295


Trump says Ukraine call was ‘perfect,’ and GOP can’t decide how to defend him

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#1296

:boom:

Lev Parnas says he delivered a message from Giuliani to the Ukrainians: Pence would visit and aid would be released only if they announced an investigation into the Bidens

Not long before the Ukrainian president was inaugurated in May, an associate of Rudolph W. Giuliani’s journeyed to Kiev to deliver a warning to the country’s new leadership, a lawyer for the associate said.

The associate, Lev Parnas, told a representative of the incoming government that it had to announce an investigation into Mr. Trump’s political rival, Joseph R. Biden Jr., and his son, or else Vice President Mike Pence would not attend the swearing-in of the new president, and the United States would freeze aid, the lawyer said.

The claim by Mr. Parnas, who is preparing to share his account with impeachment investigators, challenges the narrative of events from Mr. Trump and Ukrainian officials that is at the core of the congressional inquiry. It also directly links Mr. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, to threats of repercussions made to the Ukrainians, something he has strenuously denied.

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