What Promise Did Trump Make to a Foreign Leader......

[KaraBulut]

And Rudy's under investigation too, it's just come out!(damn, I wish I were comfortable linking, but I'm sure you guys will be on it asap!)

This is looking like the RICO strategy: indict the underlyings and get them to testify against their boss. Sad end to Giuliani's career but now it makes sense why his law firm gave him the boot when they could.

 

[Sausy]

I'd like to know when is it going to be untenable for Senate Republicans to continue backing Trump and his Giuliani farce of a shadow foreign policy? Trump's judgment is abominable, and far from the "stable genius" he delusionally purports he is.... he is most definitely neither. Erratic, unpredictable, easily swayed by flatterers and scam artists(and foreign dictators)… allergic to truth and forthrightness... has no moral core whatsoever. Trump considered as his mentor the truly noxious, amoral lawyer Roy Cohn(whom he abandoned once he learned he was dying of AIDS)and now he is being brought down by another shady lawyer, one who at one time seemed to be the most righteous of mob foes but who seems to have devolved into a shell of a man who's now a caricature of the mobsters he went after with seeming passion and purpose.

 

[gsdx]

^ Well, as a private lawyer, (rhetorical question coming up) what authority does he have to carry out government business?

 

[Sausy]

Going outside of official channels, none.

 

[KaraBulut]

I'd like to know when is it going to be untenable for Senate Republicans to continue backing Trump and his Giuliani farce of a shadow foreign policy? Trump's judgment is abominable, and far from the "stable genius" he delusionally purports he is.... he is most definitely neither. Erratic, unpredictable, easily swayed by flatterers and scam artists(and foreign dictators)… allergic to truth and forthrightness... has no moral core whatsoever. Trump considered as his mentor the truly noxious, amoral lawyer Roy Cohn(whom he abandoned once he learned he was dying of AIDS)and now he is being brought down by another shady lawyer, one who at one time seemed to be the most righteous of mob foes but who seems to have devolved into a shell of a man who's now a caricature of the mobsters he went after with seeming passion and purpose.

During the Watergate years, both the public and the Republicans in Congress didn't really get what had happened in the Watergate break-in. It took a while for the pieces to come together and enough insiders to turn and provide the evidence about what was going on. The Republicans began to turn once the evidence started coming together and it became apparent that Nixon had done some corrupt things and had put others up to doing dirty work for him. Nixon's public approval ratings fell. Nixon become increasingly paranoid to the point that the military was told to run Nixon's orders by other members of the Administration. Eventually, all but a few Republicans in Congress turned against him. In the end, it was the Republicans who went to the White House and told Nixon that he had to resign. It took over a year to play out but eventually, the system worked.

As these events are unfolding, the parallels with Trump are really shocking. Illegal acts. Corruption. Henchmen doing dirty deeds. Lies. We elected to the Presidency a crime boss who was involved with all sorts of unsavory people. And he's becoming increasingly mentally unstable.

The one thing that I'm hoping doesn't happen is a quagmire war like Vietnam. Nixon got American further into Vietnam after telling the public he would get us out. What is happening with Iran, Syria, Turkey and Saudi Arabia is scary. Trump has made a mess of the middle east and we're about to have an Iran with nuclear weapons in a battle with Saudia Arabia. And Turkey is slaughtering Kurdish allies who were keeping ISIL in check. It's not good.

One thing that is worth noting: the minute Pelosi gave in and allowed the impeachment inquiry process to go forward, the news is not covering Trump's rallies. They're not reporting on every Tweet. Every day brings another story about the dirty guys and dirty deeds that have been going on since 2016. Trump is losing the bully pulpit and in time, the Republicans will no longer fear him.

 

[KaraBulut]

More checks to get rid of dirty money...

NRCC will donate money it received from Giuliani associate [The Hill]

The National Republican Congressional Campaign (NRCC) said Thursday that it would donate campaign contributions received from an associate of Rudy Giuliani's after the man was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of committing campaign finance violations.

In a statement to The Hill, a NRCC spokesman confirmed that the House Republicans' campaign arm would donate $3,300 it received from Lev Parnas, one of two Ukrainian-born men who worked with Giuliani on his efforts to discredit former Vice President Joe Biden.

DeSantis, Mast to Return Donations from Local Businessmen with Giuliani, Ukranian Ties [WFTL]

A spokesperson for Governor Ron DeSantis says the governor is returning a political contribution he received from two Soviet-born businessmen who are now accused of funneling foreign cash into U.S. elections for personal and business purposes.

According to reports, South Florida residents Alex Parnas and Igor Fruman donated $50,000 to the Friends of Ron DeSantis political committee on June 21 of last year, through a company called Global Energy Producers.

Campaign finance records also show Fruman made these contributions:

• $25,000 to Florida Grown, which is a political action committee affiliated with Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Putnam, on June 26, 2018.
• $20,400 to Senator Rick Scott’s campaign in May 2018, and $2,400 to Republican Congressman Brian Mast between March and June of last year.

 

[rareboy]

 

[rareboy]

Bill taylor's testimony before Congress also makes it nakedly clear that there was indeed a Quid Pro Quo.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry...pro-quo_n_5daf5003e4b0f34e3a7dc014?ri18n=true

Sondland and Guiliani could have been written off as bad actors working on their own...except for that call from Trump.

The case is now crystal clear, no matter what TrumpCo. tries to now claim.

 

[rareboy]

The complete opening statement is here on VOX.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-poli...yXQ3qTPy3vbcfl4x6bOyClqfT3i18I-q2myQDKPK_naxQ

 

[KaraBulut]

Bill taylor's testimony before Congress also makes it nakedly clear that there was indeed a Quid Pro Quo.

^QFT

Two things that were clear from Taylor's opening statement: Trump was using Guiliani and Sondland as strongmen to extort Ukraine to get dirt on the Bidens in a way that would not be documented if this were done through official channels; and it was clear that $400 million in military assistance that had been authorized by the US Congress for Ukraine was held by Trump until President Zelenskyy publicly stated that he was investigating Burisma.

The House will impeach Trump. There's too much evidence that Trump was running a Nixonesque extortion game to get dirt on opponents.

Page 4:

And yet, I found a confusing and unusual arrangement for making U .S . policy towards Ukraine. There appeared to be two channels of U .S . policy-making and implementation, one regular and one highly irregular. As the Chief of Mission, 1 had authority over the regular, formal diplomatic processes, including the bulk of the U . S . effort to support Ukraine against the Russian invasion and to help it defeat corruption. This regular channel of US policy-making has consistently had strong, bipartisan support both in Congress and in all administrations since Ukraine' s independence from Russia in 1991.

At the same time, however, there was an irregular, informal channel of US policy-making with respect to Ukraine, one which included then - Special Envoy Volker, Ambassador Sondland , Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, and as I subsequently learned,Mr. Giuliani. I was clearly in the regular channel, but I was also in the irregular one to the extent that Ambassadors Volker and Sondland included me in certain conversations. Although this irregular channel was well connected in Washington , it operated mostly outside of official State Department channels . This irregular channel began when Ambassador Volker, Ambassador Sondland, Secretary Perry, and Senator Ron Johnson briefed President Trump on May 23 upon their return from President Zelenskyy s inauguration.

Page 10:

During this same phone call had with Mr Morrison, he went on to describe a conversation Ambassador Sondland had with Mr. Yermak at Warsaw. Ambassador Sondland told Mr. Yermak that security assistance money would not come until President Zelenskyy committed to pursue the Burisma investigation.

 

[Sausy]

And the only reason why the hold was finally reversed and the hundreds of millions of dollars of aid went through a few days after this happened was likely the rapidly building up story of the whistleblower.. without him and his sources in the White House, Trump and his minions may actually have gotten away with it and squeezed Ukraine's new, politically inexperienced leader successfully.

 

[KaraBulut]

A coda for this 2019 story:

Former Giuliani associate Lev Parnas sentenced to 20 months in prison [CNN]

Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani, was sentenced to 20 months in prison Wednesday.

Parnas was convicted last fall on six counts related to "influence buying" campaign finance schemes. Jurors found him guilty of scheming with co-conspirators to use a Russian backer's money to fund political contributions they hoped to trade for political favor for their budding joint cannabis venture.

He was also ordered to pay restitution of $2,322,500 and to three years of supervised release.

As part of his scheme, the Ukrainian businessman was also convicted for using money from Igor Fruman -- who previously pleaded guilty -- and a fake company to funnel hundreds of thousands in political contributions to GOP and pro-Donald Trump committees and then lying about it to the Federal Election Commission.

Fruman and Parnas are convicted. Why not the rest of the crew who were part of the dirty Russian money funneled to 2016 candidates?

 

[rareboy]

But in

"follow the money"

shouldn't this eventually stuck to TrumpCo.?

 

[KaraBulut]

But in

"follow the money"

shouldn't this eventually stuck to TrumpCo.?

At the very least, Giuliani shouldn't be walking around as a free man.

Mueller never found the smoking gun that proved that Russia was the source and that the Republicans (including Trump) were aware of the source the assistance.

Under normal circumstances, now that the truth about Jan 6th is coming out, you would think that the defections would continue and the truth about 2016 would come out. Unfortunately, the Republicans have built entire narrative about the Mueller investigation being a Democratic plot and the Democrats have continued to maintain that Mueller implicated Trump and AG Barr killed the investigation.

It would be nice to get to the truth.