Trump's Russian Collusion

[Trinity]

DoJ under Barr passed on this Ukraine caper—nothing to see here. Probably the Kavanaugh team. We are run by banana Republicans for their own benefit. Not a patriot among them.

[ggait]

Another bull shirt banana Republican excuse up in smoke.

NY Times reports that Zelensky felt enough pressure that he was planning to make the required Burisma announcement on September 13 on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS. You know -- go in front of a microphone.

Zakaria confirms that such interview was scheduled. But then was called off when the whole WB thing blew up and Trump was forced to release the aid.

No pressure my ass.

[njbill]

Does Fareed confirm Zelensky was going to make this specific announcement or only that the interview was set up?

[old salt]

You're being coy today.

FBI directing an investigation? Solid. No problems.

Trump or (snicker) Giuliani? Come on.

Trump's just asking the Ukrainian govt to do the same thing now that they did in 2016.
Give Rudy the same sort of stuff they gave Chalupa.

Nope. Not even close.

Did Biden or Obama call the Ukrainian President and ask him to investigate Trump? Nope.

Or send (and again, I can't believe Republicans are acting like this is no big deal) Trump's personal lawyer to a foreign country, acting like he has some State sanction authority....and looking to gin up dirt on Biden.

You know all this, and are just having fun with me here. Which is fine.

Obama didn't have to ask or send an emissary. The Ukrainians were anxious to sabotage Trump.
They saw Clinton as even more pro-Ukrainian & anti-Russian than Obama.
They were confident Clinton would win & wanted the brownie points.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/ ... ire-233446

[RedFromMI]

You're being coy today.

FBI directing an investigation? Solid. No problems.

Trump or (snicker) Giuliani? Come on.

Trump's just asking the Ukrainian govt to do the same thing now that they did in 2016.
Give Rudy the same sort of stuff they gave Chalupa.

Nope. Not even close.

Did Biden or Obama call the Ukrainian President and ask him to investigate Trump? Nope.

Or send (and again, I can't believe Republicans are acting like this is no big deal) Trump's personal lawyer to a foreign country, acting like he has some State sanction authority....and looking to gin up dirt on Biden.

You know all this, and are just having fun with me here. Which is fine.

Obama didn't have to ask or send an emissary. The Ukrainians were anxious to sabotage Trump.
They saw Clinton as even more pro-Ukrainian & anti-Russian than Obama.
They were confident Clinton would win & wanted the brownie points.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/ ... ire-233446

But the only thing of real value they provided was the exposure of the _corrupt_ ties between Manafort and a host of bad guys from a Russian leaning and quite corrupt prior Ukrainian government. They did not fabricate anything about Manafort - the information was borne out and eventually was a large part of what put Paulie in the hoosegow.

Trump is NOT asking the Ukrainian government to provide anything truthful. As Josh Marshall put it today (read the whole article for a great analysis):

The President used extortion to cheat in the 2020 presidential election. He used military aid dollars meant to aid an ally against his Russian patrons in order to force Ukraine to intervene in the 2020 elections, in order to remain in office by corrupt means.

There are various crimes that get committed along the way. But that is the core of it. The President is delegated vast powers to act in the national interest and he has vast discretion to determine what he or she believes the national interest is. But when he uses those powers for his own personal or financial gain they are illegitimate on their face, abuses of power and merit impeachment. The fact that he was doing so to sabotage a national election makes it vastly worse. And the fact that he was getting a foreign power to sabotage a US election makes it worse still.

We don’t even need to get into the other crimes involved, having a crooked lawyer taking over US foreign policy in a critical part of the world and sidelining professional diplomats. We just focus on the core thing. The President is given tremendous power to advance the national interest, see that the laws are enforced, preserve the national welfare. These aren’t powers that he owns personally. They are delegated for these ends. Your banker has great power to act on your behalf. They have no right to steal your money. A doctor has vast powers to cut your body, make decisions when you are unconscious. They no right to kill you or sell your organs or fondle you for their personal satisfaction. It’s all the same thing. Stop saying quid pro quo or getting lost in the details. The crimes are clear. Use language that accurately describes them.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/so ... nts-crimes

[Typical Lax Dad]

You're being coy today.

FBI directing an investigation? Solid. No problems.

Trump or (snicker) Giuliani? Come on.

Trump's just asking the Ukrainian govt to do the same thing now that they did in 2016.
Give Rudy the same sort of stuff they gave Chalupa.

Nope. Not even close.

Did Biden or Obama call the Ukrainian President and ask him to investigate Trump? Nope.

Or send (and again, I can't believe Republicans are acting like this is no big deal) Trump's personal lawyer to a foreign country, acting like he has some State sanction authority....and looking to gin up dirt on Biden.

You know all this, and are just having fun with me here. Which is fine.

Obama didn't have to ask or send an emissary. The Ukrainians were anxious to sabotage Trump.
They saw Clinton as even more pro-Ukrainian & anti-Russian than Obama.
They were confident Clinton would win & wanted the brownie points.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/ ... ire-233446

What does that have to do with the whistle blower filing a complaint and the Inspector General finding it credible?

[a fan]

Obama didn't ask or send an emissary.

Fixed it for you.

Look, you already to us you know this Ukraine stuff was wrong. Don't waste your energy defending this silliness.

[old salt]

You're being coy today.

FBI directing an investigation? Solid. No problems.

Trump or (snicker) Giuliani? Come on.

Trump's just asking the Ukrainian govt to do the same thing now that they did in 2016.
Give Rudy the same sort of stuff they gave Chalupa.

Nope. Not even close.

Did Biden or Obama call the Ukrainian President and ask him to investigate Trump? Nope.

Or send (and again, I can't believe Republicans are acting like this is no big deal) Trump's personal lawyer to a foreign country, acting like he has some State sanction authority....and looking to gin up dirt on Biden.

You know all this, and are just having fun with me here. Which is fine.

Obama didn't have to ask or send an emissary. The Ukrainians were anxious to sabotage Trump.
They saw Clinton as even more pro-Ukrainian & anti-Russian than Obama.
They were confident Clinton would win & wanted the brownie points.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/ ... ire-233446

What does that have to do with the whistle blower filing a complaint and the Inspector General finding it credible?

I'm just answering afan's questions. Maybe the WB doesn't read POLITICO,
...or he's so far in the tank for Ukraine that he was willing to use the WB process to pass along hearsay to former coworkers who are now Schiff staffers. We now know he had advice from them on how to proceed & he used a lawyer, as they recommended.
Read his lawyer's tweets for the game plan.

[old salt]

Obama didn't ask or send an emissary.

Fixed it for you.

Look, you already to us you know this Ukraine stuff was wrong. Don't waste your energy defending this silliness.

I also told you everything that comes out of Ukraine is dubious.
They were playing the same game as Russia, just not as skillfully or as well resourced.
As I said before -- we're now sifting through the entrails.

[old salt]

Trump is NOT asking the Ukrainian government to provide anything truthful.

We don't know what's truthful until/unless we see the results of an investigation & the evidence upon which it is based.

[old salt]

George Kent brought a bazooka and used it. Explodes the cover story on the gangster Trump.

...& hits Burisma.

[Typical Lax Dad]

You're being coy today.

FBI directing an investigation? Solid. No problems.

Trump or (snicker) Giuliani? Come on.

Trump's just asking the Ukrainian govt to do the same thing now that they did in 2016.
Give Rudy the same sort of stuff they gave Chalupa.

Nope. Not even close.

Did Biden or Obama call the Ukrainian President and ask him to investigate Trump? Nope.

Or send (and again, I can't believe Republicans are acting like this is no big deal) Trump's personal lawyer to a foreign country, acting like he has some State sanction authority....and looking to gin up dirt on Biden.

You know all this, and are just having fun with me here. Which is fine.

Obama didn't have to ask or send an emissary. The Ukrainians were anxious to sabotage Trump.
They saw Clinton as even more pro-Ukrainian & anti-Russian than Obama.
They were confident Clinton would win & wanted the brownie points.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/ ... ire-233446

What does that have to do with the whistle blower filing a complaint and the Inspector General finding it credible?

I'm just answering afan's questions. Maybe the WB doesn't read POLITICO,
...or he's so far in the tank for Ukraine that he was willing to use the WB process to pass along hearsay to former coworkers who are now Schiff staffers. We now know he had advice from them on how to proceed & he used a lawyer, as they recommended.
Read his lawyer's tweets for the game plan.

The Inspector General part of the plot? The White House’s summary of the phone call was doctored? The text messages with Sondland Taylor Et al were doctored? All the testimony reflected in the transcripts was also doctored?

[a fan]

Obama didn't ask or send an emissary.

Fixed it for you.

Look, you already to us you know this Ukraine stuff was wrong. Don't waste your energy defending this silliness.

I also told you everything that comes out of Ukraine is dubious.
They were playing the same game as Russia, just not as skillfully or as well resourced.
As I said before -- we're now sifting through the entrails.

I understand that.

But that doesn't mean Obama did something wrong.

And it doesn't mean what Trump and Giuliani did was ok.

And you know this, too. So we're good.

[old salt]

ggait:
I'm sure there were dozens of corrupt Uke companies that merited investigation. Yet Burisma is the ONLY company that was targeted. And a key piece was that Burisma had to be publicly announced. It really wasn't so much about the investigation -- it was about the announcement. That is very telling.

Good place to start. Were any of the others paying Hunter Biden $50k/mo ?
Trump didn't ask them to limit anti-corruption investigations to Burisma.

[Typical Lax Dad]

ggait:
I'm sure there were dozens of corrupt Uke companies that merited investigation. Yet Burisma is the ONLY company that was targeted. And a key piece was that Burisma had to be publicly announced. It really wasn't so much about the investigation -- it was about the announcement. That is very telling.

Good place to start. Were any of the others paying Hunter Biden $50k/mo ?
Trump didn't ask them to limit anti-corruption investigations to Burisma.

Trump has Zelensky on tape.



What that man would do for $400MM of aid!

[RedFromMI]

ggait:
I'm sure there were dozens of corrupt Uke companies that merited investigation. Yet Burisma is the ONLY company that was targeted. And a key piece was that Burisma had to be publicly announced. It really wasn't so much about the investigation -- it was about the announcement. That is very telling.

Good place to start. Were any of the others paying Hunter Biden $50k/mo ?
Trump didn't ask them to limit anti-corruption investigations to Burisma.

And what other companies pay board members in Ukraine is absolutely immaterial to whether the President corruptly asked a foreign government to intercede in our next presidential election. Extortion/bribery is what happened here. Criminal and impeachable.

[old salt]

ggait:
I'm sure there were dozens of corrupt Uke companies that merited investigation. Yet Burisma is the ONLY company that was targeted. And a key piece was that Burisma had to be publicly announced. It really wasn't so much about the investigation -- it was about the announcement. That is very telling.

Good place to start. Were any of the others paying Hunter Biden $50k/mo ?
Trump didn't ask them to limit anti-corruption investigations to Burisma.

And what other companies pay board members in Ukraine is absolutely immaterial to whether the President corruptly asked a foreign government to intercede in our next presidential election. Extortion/bribery is what happened here. Criminal and impeachable.

There was a specific conflict of interest with the son of a US govt official who wielded overwhelming influence over Ukraine.

[Typical Lax Dad]

ggait:
I'm sure there were dozens of corrupt Uke companies that merited investigation. Yet Burisma is the ONLY company that was targeted. And a key piece was that Burisma had to be publicly announced. It really wasn't so much about the investigation -- it was about the announcement. That is very telling.

Good place to start. Were any of the others paying Hunter Biden $50k/mo ?
Trump didn't ask them to limit anti-corruption investigations to Burisma.

And what other companies pay board members in Ukraine is absolutely immaterial to whether the President corruptly asked a foreign government to intercede in our next presidential election. Extortion/bribery is what happened here. Criminal and impeachable.

There was a specific conflict of interest with the son of a US govt official who wielded overwhelming influence over Ukraine.

Like Ivanka and Jared.

[old salt]

ggait:
I'm sure there were dozens of corrupt Uke companies that merited investigation. Yet Burisma is the ONLY company that was targeted. And a key piece was that Burisma had to be publicly announced. It really wasn't so much about the investigation -- it was about the announcement. That is very telling.

Good place to start. Were any of the others paying Hunter Biden $50k/mo ?
Trump didn't ask them to limit anti-corruption investigations to Burisma.

And what other companies pay board members in Ukraine is absolutely immaterial to whether the President corruptly asked a foreign government to intercede in our next presidential election. Extortion/bribery is what happened here. Criminal and impeachable.

There was a specific conflict of interest with the son of a US govt official who wielded overwhelming influence over Ukraine.

Like Ivanka and Jared.

How much were they paid ?

[Typical Lax Dad]

ggait:
I'm sure there were dozens of corrupt Uke companies that merited investigation. Yet Burisma is the ONLY company that was targeted. And a key piece was that Burisma had to be publicly announced. It really wasn't so much about the investigation -- it was about the announcement. That is very telling.

Good place to start. Were any of the others paying Hunter Biden $50k/mo ?
Trump didn't ask them to limit anti-corruption investigations to Burisma.

And what other companies pay board members in Ukraine is absolutely immaterial to whether the President corruptly asked a foreign government to intercede in our next presidential election. Extortion/bribery is what happened here. Criminal and impeachable.

There was a specific conflict of interest with the son of a US govt official who wielded overwhelming influence over Ukraine.

Like Ivanka and Jared.

How much were they paid ?

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