January 14, 2020: Lev Parnas Reveals Pressure Campaign on President Zelensky Started in May 2019

 

1/14/20: So much lying to cover. So much crookery to explain. It’s a typical Tuesday in Trumpistan. 

First, it’s official. The federal deficit topped ONE TRILLION DOLLARS IN 2019 (we are using emphatic capitals, like the president who shouts in tweets). It was hard work, but Trump did it, despite a healthy economy. The red ink total: $1.02 trillion, an increase of 17.1% over 2018. 

The deficit in 2018 was 28.2% higher than 2017.

 

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IN NEWS you probably missed, another member of Team Trump 2016 pled guilty to an array of felonies this week, which is kind of like the guy who pled guilty last week. (See: 1/7/20.) 

Then it was Imaad Zuberi. Now it’s George Nader. He pled guilty to child sex-trafficking, violating every taboo Evangelicals who love Trump say they hate. Sex outside of wedded bliss? Check. Gay sex? Double check with a side order of homophobic fries. Gay sex with an underage 14-year-old boy. 

HOLY SHIT! CHECK! 

Do we need a border wall? Apparently, we do. At airports. Nader brought the boy in from a foreign country. 

What makes this case more intriguing is the fact that prosecutors recommended the shortest possible prison term. That would lead one to believe the pedophile is cooperating with investigators. 

One possibility: Nader may have funneled illegal campaign contributions from foreign individuals and interests to the Trump 2016 campaign. And he may know who else was involved. 

If you are keeping track of felons associated with the first Trump run for office, the list now includes: 

Michael Cohen

Chris Collins

Paul Erickson

Rick Gates

General Michael T. Flynn

Duncan Hunter

Konstantin Kilimnik**

Paul Manafort

George Nader

George Papadopoulos

W. Samuel Patten

Felix Sater

Roger Stone

Natalia Veselnitskaya**

Imaad Zuberi

**Kilimnik and Veselnitskaya make the list despite the fact they were never convicted. Both were indicted, but booked for Russia before law enforcement could nab them.

 

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IN OTHER NEWS, not involving felons, we learn that Ford Motors is making good use of the money saved when Trump cut corporate taxes. (Did we mention the federal deficit hit ONE TRILLION???) 

The company plans to expand production in…you are guessing…Ohio? 

Ha, ha. Guess again. Ford is going to help make America Great Again by expanding production in Vietnam.

 

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Rudy, right, had one goal in Ukraine: Get dirt on Hunter Biden, left.

FINALLY, DEMOCRATS release new information related to the impeachment of President Trump. This information comes from Lev Parnas, indicted friend of Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney. 

If  these documents are real, and Parnas apparently texted a copy of the following letter to an aide to President Zelensky of Ukraine, we know that on May 10, 2019, even before Zelensky had been inaugurated, Rudy and Trump were working to get him to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden. On that date, Giuliani introduces himself to the newly-elected leader of our ally: 

Dear President-Elect Zelensky:

 

I am private counsel to President Donald J. Trump. Just to be precise, I represent him as a private citizen, not as President of the United States. This is quite common under American law because the duties and privileges of a President and a private citizen are not the same. Separate representation is usual process.

 

Congratulations on a truly impressive victory in the recent election. I have a great fondness for your country and have visited there often. I have even had the privilege of being there most recently on 2017. Along with many others, I’m very hopeful that your election is a real turning point and allows the Ukraine to prosper and overcome some of the long-standing problems of the past. Anything I can do to help you or your country would be a great honor.

 

However, I have a more specific request. In my capacity as personal counsel to president trump and with his knowledge and consent, I request a meeting with you on this upcoming Monday, May 13^th or Tuesday, May 14th. I will need no more than a half-hour of your time and I will be accompanied by my colleague Victoria Toensing, a distinguished American attorney who is very familiar with this matter.

 

Please have your office let me know what time or times are convenient for you, and Victoria and I will be there.

 

In another hand-written note on the stationary of the Ritz-Carlton in Vienna where he was staying last spring, Parnas writes: 

1) Put together package 

2) go to D.C. with package 

Then on the reverse: 

2) do my magic and cut a deal

3) Victoria/Joe retained 

100,000 months with succession/begin media campaign

 

Point Three refers to Toensing and her husband Joe diGenova.

 

This evidence (and Parnas is apparently willing to share more) would prove that Giuliani was working with the knowledge and consent of the President of the United States. It would prove that he was working for Trump as a private individual, not in any official role. It would prove that Toensing and diGenova, who appear regularly on Fox News to comment on the Ukraine investigation shouldn’t be considered disinterested observers. 

Finally, we would have evidence that as early as May 2019, Rudy and Trump were putting pressure on Zelensky to do Trump’s bidding. 

 

POSTSCRIPT: Don’t let anyone tell you the Republican Party isn’t the party of big ideas. Sure, those ideas might seem racist, but still! North Dakota state lawmaker Terry Jones is suggesting that on all kinds of forms, “American” should be listed as the first option for “race.” 

Rep. Jones believes this would bring us all together, and make it easier to take, if, for example, white police (now “American police”) shot an unarmed black teenager (now an “American teenager”) in the back. 

The idea might be lame; but Jones garnered even bigger headlines when he trotted out the idea that African Americans “were glad their ancestors were brought here as slaves.”