9/25/19: Wednesday, the “Enemies of the People” keep nipping at the president’s heels. First, they report that the troubling call alluded to by a whistleblower (see: 9/24/19) focused on Ukraine. Next, they learned that the problematic conversation – according to the whistleblower – or the “pitch perfect” conversation according to the president – took place on July 25. The call went from Trump to Volodymyr Zelensky, the newly-elected President of Ukraine.
Some details were clear from the start, but may need to be restated for Trump’s loyal base, assuming members of his loyal base ever read this “pitch perfect” blog.
1. Ukraine is a U.S. ally.
2. Ukraine has been fighting a border war with Russia since 2014.
3. Fighting erupted when Vladimir Putin seized Crimea.
4. President Obama placed the Russians under sanctions as punishment for their territorial grab.
5. Trump said, when running for office, that he’d get rid of sanctions if elected.
6. Putin loved that idea.
7. Russia is not a U.S. ally. Russia is a hostile power.
8. Putin is a murderous dictator who likes to have critics bumped off in creative fashion. (Would you like some radioactive tea?)
9. The Russians interfered in our 2016 election because they wanted Trump to win. (See #5.)
10. Trump denied for two years that the Russians interfered, even though U.S. intelligence agencies unanimously said they did.
11. Trump’s call to Zelensky came one day after Special Counsel Robert Mueller testified in front of Congress, outlining dozens of contacts between the 2016 Trump campaign and assorted Russians.
12. Trump and his sycophants insisted Mueller’s testimony proved the president would never dream of colluding/conspiring with a foreign government to win an election.
13. The
Mueller Report laid out ten distinct cases of probable obstruction of justice
by Trump and his minions. You can look it up. Go, in particular to Volume II, starting on
page 208.
President Zelensky, left, gives Trump the eye.
____________________
“Several individuals affiliated with the Trump Campaign lied.”
Mueller Report
____________________
That happy narrative – that the Mueller Report somehow vindicated the president – was wildly oversold. For example, from Page 9, Volume I, we had this:
The investigation established
that several individuals affiliated with the Trump Campaign lied to the
[special counsel’s] office, and to Congress, about their interactions with
Russian-affiliated individuals and related matters. Those lies materially impaired the investigation [emphasis
added, unless otherwise noted] of Russian election interference.
Going forward, as we endeavor to come to grips with the story of Trump and Ukraine, it is critical to remember what came before. On p. 182 of Volume II, we might read:
If we had confidence after a
thorough investigation of the facts that
the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so
state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are
unable to reach that judgment. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude
that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.
Well, then, did the president attempt to obstruct? On page 158, of Volume II, the answer is laid out:
The president’s efforts to
influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely
because the persons who surrounded the president declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests.
…The incidents were often
carried out through one-on-one meetings in which the president sought to use
his official power outside of usual channels. These actions ranged from efforts
to remove the special counsel and to reverse the effect of the attorney general’s
recusal; to the attempted use of official power to limit the scope of the
investigation; to direct and indirect contacts with witnesses
with the potential to influence their testimony. Viewing the acts
collectively can help to illuminate their significance.
If obstruction failed it was because others refused to be involved, or because the president’s efforts were inept.
Attempted obstruction of justice is still a crime.
*
Hope Hicks told a colossal whopper, and Trump had to know it.
TO UNDERSTAND what happened with Ukraine, keep what happened with Russia in view. We know a dozen Trump aides and family members admitted in the face of legal duress that they did meet with Russians or help set up meetings with Russians during the 2016 campaign. Those individuals include Michael Caputo, Michael Cohen, General Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, George Nader, George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, Felix Sater, Roger Stone and Donald Trump Jr.
Frankly, Team Trump was a flock of felons. We know Sater and Nader were felons when they first went to work for Mr. Trump. Cohen, Flynn, Gates, Manafort and Papadopoulos racked up felonies during the campaign. Nader is under indictment again. Stone is scheduled for trial this fall.
We know that Donald Trump Jr. and Roger Stone, to pick just two from among this sleazy band of brothers, denied any contacts with Russians. Both were forced to amend their testimony later.
Stone, for instance, had the audacity to say before Congress
that he had never met with any Russians or even people who sounded Russian.
When it was revealed that he had met with a Russian, who sounded like a
Russian, and wanted $2 million to share dirt on Hillary, Stone claimed that the
F.B.I. had entrapped him. For some reason, he later threatened to kidnap the dog of a potential witness against him if that
gentleman testified in a fashion Stone found detrimental.
We have pointed this out before, but should reiterate now. On November 10, 2016, two days after Trump defeated Clinton, Trump campaign aide Hope Hicks, had this to say in defense of Trump and his motley crew. “We are not aware of any campaign representatives that were in touch with any foreign entities before yesterday, when Mr. Trump spoke with many world leaders,” she assured the American people.
To understand what a colossal whopper Hicks was spinning, and what a colossal whopper Hicks knew she was spinning – and what a colossal whopper the president-elect knew was colossal, but did not bother to correct, feel free to dive again into the depths of the Mueller Report.
Compare for yourself what
Hicks said under oath.
*
WITH ALL THIS in mind, Americans were treated to yet another round of revelations this summer, indicating that when it comes to foreign help in U.S. elections, Team Trump will never learn. In a stunning interview on June 13, George Stephanopoulos asked the President of the United States if he’d take dirt on a political opponent from a foreign power in the next election.
If you are a patriotic American, you are thinking, a guy who has already been accused of welcoming Russian help to get elected, cannot be so stupid as to say….
“I think you might want to
listen, there isn’t anything wrong with listening,” Trump replied.
NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wrong answer!
 |
Norway is a NATO ally. |
.jpg) |
Trump would take help from anyone, including this guy. |
“If somebody called from a country,” the president continued, “Norway, [and said] ‘we have information on your opponent’ – oh, I think I’d want to hear it.”
Would he go to the F.B.I. and report it, Stephanopoulos wondered?
“If I thought there was something wrong, I’d go maybe to the F.B.I.”
Yeah, maybe. Maybe if Norway was offering help. Russia? China? North Korea? Why not listen! Besides, if you contacted the F.B.I., Trump insisted, they don’t “have enough agents to take care of it.”
Finally, he would do it – take a dump truck filled with dirt if a
foreign power had it –
because everyone does it. “When you go and talk, honestly, to congressmen,”
Trump claimed,
“they all do it, they always have, and that’s the way it is. It’s called oppo
[opposition] research.”
*
He might go one impeachable step further.
WHAT NO ONE could have predicted, was that Trump might not just accept foreign help in a coming election. He might go one impeachable step further and solicit it. He might ask for aid in gathering dirt (real or contrived) on a political opponent.
Namely: Joe Biden.
Here, then, the case stands.
President Trump, aided and abetted primarily by Rudy Giuliani (and perhaps
other individuals as yet unknown), allegedly decided to screw with Ukraine. He
went so far as to withhold vital military aid. To an ally. Trump and his minions
were willing to undercut U.S. global interests and upset U.S. diplomacy
in furtherance of the president’s personal needs.
As a former American history teacher, and a blogger hesitant to say any impeachment case is a slam dunk, it would seem there were warning signs as early as May 2019. Giuliani, in the role of Trump’s personal lawyer, told The New York Times that he planned to travel to the Ukraine. There, he would press the newly-elected government of President Zelensky to investigate:
1. The supposed roots of the whole Russia investigation, which Trump believed could be uncovered in Ukraine.
2. The
involvement of Hunter Biden, with a Ukrainian oligarch in a Ukrainian gas
company, which involvement Trump believed would reveal corruption, which
corruption might destroy former Vice President Biden’s chances to defeat him in
2020.
As usual the “enemies of the people” went right to work. The Times pinned Rudy down and allowed him to talk, probably Rudy’s second favorite activity. (His favorite activity: cheating on wives.) Wasn’t what he was planning to do the same as inviting foreign interference in the next election?
“There’s nothing illegal about it,” he said. “Somebody could say
it’s improper. And this isn’t foreign policy – I’m asking them to do an investigation that
they’re doing already and that other people are telling them to stop. And I’m
going to give them reasons why they shouldn’t stop it because that information
will be very, very helpful to my client, and may turn out to be helpful to my
government.”
Rudy was clear. He was going after information that would “be very, very helpful to my client.”
If it turned out to be “helpful to my government,” that would be icing on the cake of election interference.
Rudy admitted to the Times that he was going to Ukraine to turn up information that might help Trump win in 2020. The Times explained. “He said his efforts in Ukraine have the full support of Mr. Trump. He declined to say specifically whether he had briefed him on the planned meeting with Mr. Zelensky, but added, ‘He basically knows what I’m doing, sure, as his lawyer.’”
Again, Rudy was clear. He was Trump’s lawyer. “My only client is the president of the United States.”
Not “the” United States.
Trump.
*
A Trump appointee.
THE FREE PRESS had struck a rich vein. Reporters kept tunneling. In any free country they should.
We soon learned that the whistleblower complaint, aimed at the president himself, was deemed “credible” and of “urgent concern” by the Inspector General of the U.S. intelligence community. We learned that the IG was Michael Atkinson. He wasn’t a member of the diabolical “Deep State.” He was a Trump appointee. It was next reported that during the call to President Zelensky, Trump repeatedly asked him to investigate stories about Joe Biden and his son.
The Wall Street Journal claimed that Trump asked Zelensky “about eight times” to work with Giuliani.
Practitioners of a free press quickly learned that Rudy had traveled to Paris to meet with a representative of the Ukrainian government. He traveled to Madrid on a second occasion, for the same purpose. In both instances, Giuliani pressed the Ukrainians to investigate Family Biden.
As more and more damaging detail came to light, Trump was
reduced to insisting that the whistleblower was probably a
“partisan.” He then admitted that he had no idea who the whistleblower was.
Under growing pressure, the White House acknowledged that Trump did have a lengthy phone conversation with Zelensky on July 25. The president insisted that this had been “a totally appropriate conversation. It was actually a beautiful conversation.” He told reporters it didn’t matter what was discussed. He was president and could do diplomacy any way he liked. “The media of our country is laughed at all over the world now. You’re a joke,” he added, waving a hand at his questioners. The White House insisted a transcript of the call could not be released. A leader of a free country must be free to speak frankly to foreign leaders.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported, and the
Associated Press confirmed, that in the weeks before making that call,
Trump had frozen almost $400 million in military aid to Ukraine.
*
“Of course I did.”
WITH STORM CLOUDS thickening, Mr. Giuliani decided he needed to go on TV and wave the lightning away. On Fox News, he claimed that he got involved when the State Department asked him to take a call from a top Ukrainian official. Another news organization checked and quickly reported: “When reached for comment, a State Department spokesperson said, ‘Mr. Giuliani is a private citizen and acts in a personal capacity as a lawyer for President Trump. He does not speak on behalf of the U.S. Government.’”
Popping up again, for a second try on Fox News, Rudy insisted that Trump never threatened to cut off military aid to Ukraine. Then he admitted, I “can’t say for 100%.”
As for talking to the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, which was investigating, Rudy was adamant. He wasn’t going to testify in front of any congressional committee controlled by Democrats. “I wouldn’t give Adam Schiff anything,” he said, alleging that Schiff was “fixed” and “completely dishonest.”
Rudy was just warming up. Appearing on CNN, he got into a heated argument with host Chris Cuomo. Giuliani tried to explain why he decided to go to Paris and Madrid (secretly, one should note):
“I found out this incredible
story about Joe Biden, that he bribed the president of the Ukraine in order to
fire a prosecutor who was investigating his son.”
Cuomo asked Giuliani, “Did you
ask the Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden?”
“No, actually I didn’t,”
Giuliani responded. “I asked the Ukraine to investigate the allegations that
there was interference in the election of 2016 by the Ukrainians for the
benefit of Hillary Clinton – ”
Cuomo pressed him, “You never
asked anything about Hunter Biden? You never asked anything about Joe Biden?”
Giuliani replied that “the only
thing I asked about Joe Biden” was to get to the bottom of how it was that the
prosecutor who had been appointed to investigate his son dismissed the case.
“So you did ask Ukraine to look
into Joe Biden,” Cuomo asked.
“Of course I did,” said
Giuliani.
Giuliani said he wasn’t ordered
by Mr. Trump to investigate Biden and didn’t inform the president of his
investigation until after the fact.
That last claim was meant, one would assume, to provide Trump
the cover of “plausible deniability.”
*
The obvious questions were in view.
NEVERTHELESS, as we used to say in the Marine Corps, Rudy had just stepped on his dick. In this case, he had mashed it flat. That is, he messed up, with no one to blame but himself. The obvious questions were in view. Why was a lawyer with only one client asking a foreign power to investigate the son of a potential opponent of his client in a coming U.S. election? And did President Trump cut off military aid to an ally as a matter of self-interest?
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Schiff made clear that he planned to subpoena Joseph Maguire, Acting Director of National Intelligence. Maguire would be required to come before the committee and explain his decision not to forward Inspector General Atkinson’s findings – that the whistleblower complaint was credible and of urgent concern – to Congress.
The White House continued to hew to the Nixonian path, hoping to “stonewall” Congress.
No way was Maguire coming to Capitol Hill!
No way in Hades would members of Congress be allowed to see the whistleblower’s complaint!!
This stonewalling proved too much for Democratic lawmakers.
Both Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Chairman Schiff – who had been hesitant to
impeach the president – now concluded it might be necessary. Ms. Pelosi
announced that an impeachment inquiry would commence once there were enough
votes.
On the Senate side, lawmakers voted unanimously in favor of a resolution calling for the whistleblower complaint to be turned over to congressional intelligence committees. That meant (at least on paper) that every Republican senator, including Mitch McConnell, agreed with every Democratic senator in demanding that the Trump administration cough up the whistleblower’s complaint.
At that point, Trump stopped tweeting long enough to realize
he might get impeached for real.
*
As obvious as the orange toner he slathers all over his mug.
WEDNESDAY MORNING, September 25, the White House made the decision under pressure to release a memorandum detailing the July 25 call.
Although not a transcript, what was revealed was damning enough, unless you loved Trump like mashed potatoes and gravy.
Highlights included President Zelensky telling Trump that he, too, was working to “drain the swamp here in our country...You are a great teacher for us and in that.”
“Well it’s very nice of you to say that,” Trump replied. “I
will say that we do a lot for Ukraine. We spend a lot of effort and a lot of
time.” By comparison, Trump continued, Germany talked about helping Ukraine but
didn’t really come through; “but the United States has been very, very good to
Ukraine. I wouldn’t say that it’s reciprocal necessarily because things are
happening that are not good but the United States has been very good to
Ukraine.”
You knew, if you had the brains god gave a cabbage, that Zelensky realized he was in a jam. He desperately needed U.S. military assistance to fend off Russian attacks. He had no choice but to agree. Germany, France, and the European Union did sometimes help, he said. Yes, they could do more. “I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense,” he told Trump. “We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps specifically we are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes.”
(The U.S. began delivering Javelins, state-of-the-art anti-tank missiles, to Ukrainian military forces in 2018.)
Then came the kicker. Trump replied,
I would like you to do us a
favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows about
it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with
Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike…I guess you have one of your wealthy people…The
server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the
whole situation. I think you’re surrounding yourself with some of the same
people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I
would like to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that whole
nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an
incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine.
Whatever you can do, it’s very important that you do it if that’s possible.
Here, Trump was referring to the Democratic National Committee server that U.S. intelligence officials say was hacked by Russian agents. For some reason he believed the Ukrainians did the hacking.
“We are ready to open a new page of cooperation in relations between the United States and Ukraine,” Zelensky assured Trump. He reminded him that “one of my assistants spoke with Mr. Giuliani just recently and we are hoping very much that Mr. Giuliani will be able to travel to Ukraine and we will meet once he comes to Ukraine.”
(Rudy
has only one client; and it’s not the United States.)
What Trump wanted was as obvious as the orange toner he slathers all over his mug. He said he had heard that “a very good prosecutor” in Ukraine was “shut down and that’s really unfair.” Vice President Biden was involved in the shutdown, to protect his son. Rudy, on the other hand, “is a very highly respected man.” Rudy would give Zelensky a call. So would Attorney General William Barr.
Trump then hammered home the only point he cared to make:
The other thing, there’s a lot
of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of
people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney
General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the
prosecution [emphasis added] so if you can look into it…It sounds horrible
to me.
Okay, let’s stop a moment.
What does the president want?
He wants Ukraine to investigate: JOE BIDEN AND HIS SON.
Zelensky promises that a new prosecutor will look into the case, “specifically to the company [Crowdstrike] that you mentioned in this issue.” If Trump has any “additional information that you can provide us, it would be very helpful.” Zelensky thanks his U.S. counterpart for inviting him to the United States. He mentions that on a previous visit to New York City, he stayed at Trump Tower.
“I also want to assure you that we will be very serious about
the case and will work on the investigation,” the Ukrainian leader says.
“Good,” Trump responds. “Well, thank you very much and I appreciate that. I will tell Rudy and Attorney General Barr to call. Thank you. Whenever you would like to come to the White House, feel free to call. Give us a date and we’ll work that out. I look forward to seeing you.”
Coincidentally, within hours of the release of the call memorandum, Trump sits down with Zelensky on the sidelines at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York City. The Ukrainian has no desire to get caught up in a brewing controversy. With TV cameras rolling, he jokes about the promise Trump made during their now famous phone call:
Zelensky: And I want to thank you for the invitation to
Washington.
Trump: Right.
Zelensky: You invited me. But I think – I’m sorry, but I think
you forgot to tell me the date. (Laughter.) But I think in the near
future.
Trump (brushing off Zelensky’s request, by referring it to
aides): They’ll tell you the date.
Even in a public setting, Trump can’t resist bashing Biden, talking about Hillary Clinton doing yoga, or nudging Zelensky. “I gave you anti-tank busters that – frankly, President Obama was sending you pillows and sheets. And I gave you anti-tank busters. And a lot of people didn’t want to do that, but I did it.”
Yes, “I” did it. Me. Trump. The United States didn’t do it.
Then, in the most tone-deaf moment of all, Trump indicated that Zelensky and the Russians could easily work out some kind of deal.
“And I really hope that Russia – because I really believe that President Putin would like to do something. I really hope that you and President Putin get together and can solve your problem,” Trump tells him. “That would be a tremendous achievement. And I know you’re trying to do that.”
Trump appears to have
forgotten all about Crimea.
*
Trump was the man with the smoking phone in his hand.
ALL DAY WEDNESDAY, worrisome details tumbled out. The free press reported that no one at the State Department had been aware that Trump had plans to delay military aid to Ukraine. Not even Senate Leader Mitch McConnell knew. Democrats perused the call memorandum and opposition to impeachment collapsed. By day’s end, they had the 218 votes, including one former Republican, needed to advance an impeachment – if evidence would support it.
Chairman Schiff added in a tweet:
The transcript of the call reads
like a classic mob shakedown: – We do a lot for Ukraine – There’s not much
reciprocity – I have a favor to ask – Investigate my opponent – My people will
be in touch – Nice country you got there. It would be a shame if something
happened to her.
At this point, the craziest members of the Republican crew lost their minds and insisted that Schiff was lying about what the call memorandum said, clearly missing the ironic phrasing of his tweet. Schiff was the problem, they claimed, even though no one was accusing Schiff of asking the Ukrainians for help to win the next election. (See: 9/27-29/19.)
Meanwhile, Speaker Pelosi announced her decision to move ahead with the inquiry, in a brief address to the nation. As she saw it,
release of the notes of the call
by the White House confirms that the President engaged in behavior that
undermines the integrity of our elections [emphasis added], the dignity of
the office he holds and our national security. The President has tried to make
lawlessness a virtue in America and now is exporting it abroad.
Most GOP lawmakers decided to lay low. But Sen. Lindsey Graham responded shortly after the call summary was released. “Wow. Impeachment over this? What a nothing (non-quid pro quo) burger,” he tweeted.
The ranking Republican on the House Oversight Committee, Jim Jordan of Ohio, went even further. He insisted that the call summary “shows no wrongdoing” on the part of the president. The “real scandal” involved Biden and his son. As is his style, generally, Jordan missed the salient point. Trump called to ask another country to help him in the 2020 election.
Biden did not call.
Trump was the man with the smoking phone in his hand.
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah – once the GOP nominee for president
– sounded a note of true concern. He told NBC News he found the call summary,
“troubling in the extreme, deeply troubling.”
*
“So innocent, so nice.”
TRUMP SOON APPEARED on TV to complain about how Democrats and the “Fake News” people were treating him. We can sum up his pathetic whining in short order:
His phone call to Zelensky: “very innocent call.”
Reporters: “you people,” “lies.”
The call (again): “so innocent, so nice.”
People who worked for Trump: “tormented” by the press.
Torment (again) in reference to people working in the White House: “they came here with bright eyes, they wanted to make life better for other people,” “they wanted to make the United States, and the world, a better place,” “they went home, they were dark.”
The free press: “not only fake, it’s corrupt.”
Schiff: “Liddle Adam Schiff,” he and other Democratic leaders go into a room “and laugh their asses off.”
Impeachment: “so bad for our country,” “Sean Hannity said it, a lot of people,” “they don’t know if one man…or woman…could handle what I’ve had to handle.”
And so, as the sun set on Wednesday, we could pretty much assume the president was in a dark place.
POSTSCRIPT: Newsweek sums up what is known at this point:
Legal experts have argued that
the president’s actions toward Ukraine’s government have clearly violated the Constitution.
Professor Cary Coglianese at the
University of Pennsylvania Law School told Newsweek in an
emailed statement that the recent allegations against Trump implicated “all
five core principles of constitutional government.”
If the impeachment inquiry
“confirms what has been alleged and admitted, the question going forward will
be not merely whether to impeach or remove the president,” Coglianese said. “It
will be whether, if the president is not impeached or removed, the public will
ever again be entitled to expect elected officials to serve the national
interest, respect the rule of law, honor the truth, maintain meaningful checks
and balances and take electoral integrity seriously.”
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