10/7/19: This hard-working blogger goes on vacation. Unlike Trump, he despises golfing and prefers to hike.
He does not believe, as does the president, that the body has
a limited supply of energy, and that if he uses any, the
supply is forever reduced. The blogger does not believe this because he is not
an ignoramus.
 |
Acadia National Park, Maine. |
 |
Republicans used socialism to scare people. Big Pharma actually kills them. |
Faced with thousands of opioid-related lawsuits,
manufacturers and distributors begin caving. Three of the largest distributors and two
manufacturers offer $22 billion in damages and promise to spend an additional
$28 billion on drugs to combat the damage opioids have caused.
In related news, Dr. Joel Smithers, a capitalist if ever there was one, is sentenced to 40 years in prison. His crime: writing 500,000 opioid prescriptions, mostly bogus, and pushing millions of pills out to the streets. His sentence won’t help the 2.5 million Americans who are currently addicted. Nor will it bring back the tens of thousands who have died from opioid overdoses since 2000.
It’s one small step for mankind, though.
*
IN OTHER NEWS, Congressman Chris Collins, who represented an upstate district in New York, resigns and pleads guilty to charges of insider trading. Collins had long insisted on his innocence – and President Trump had talked about how unfair it was that Collins was investigated in the first place. Now the former lawmaker is a felon, facing up to five years in prison.
His son, Cameron, pleads guilty the next day. Prosecutors note that the pair, and the father of Cameron’s fiancé, avoided more than $800,000 in losses by dumping stock, based on insider tips.
So, bad day for Mr. Collins, Mr. Collins, and the younger Mr.
Collins’ future father-in-law. Good day, however, for justice.
*
WE ALSO LEARN that the sea is running out of fish. Scientists warn that unless the nations of the world face the challenge, food supplies crucial to hundreds of millions of human beings will begin to decline. Climate change alone may drive down catch rates by 24% by the end of this century.
A third of all fishing stocks are already overfished at unsustainable rates; and 90% of stocks are fully exploited.
Bad year for fish.
 |
Resources are finite. |
10/9/19: If it’s a bad year for fish (see:
10/8/19), it’s a good year to be a billionaire! According to detailed new
studies from 2018, America’s richest 400 families paid an effective tax rate of 23%, less than the 24.2% rate paid
by the bottom half of American households.
*
“A breathtaking and heartbreaking experience.”
GOOD YEAR for billionaires, bad year for glaciers. Fox News posts pictures of Mont Blanc. At 15,774 feet, the mountain straddling the borders of France, Italy, and Switzerland, is the highest in western Europe. Scientists manage to compare glaciers on the mountain in 1919 with those a century later. The loss of ice is sobering, and for Fox News viewers, probably stunning. Normally, climate change denial is part of the company brand.
Fox reports:
“The scale of the ice loss was
immediately evident as we reached altitude but it was only by comparing the
images side-by-side that the last 100 years of change were made visible. It was
both a breathtaking and heartbreaking experience, particularly knowing that the
melt has accelerated massively in the last few decades,” said Kieran Baxter, of
the University of Dundee, in a statement.
“Unless we drastically reduce
our dependence on fossil fuels, there will be little ice left to photograph in
another hundred years,” Baxter warned.
Somebody should probably alert President Trump to the growing
realities and the challenges they represent.
Speaking of Trump, his lips move again, and a series of baffling whoppers come spilling out. For some unknown reason, he insists that when he took office the U.S. military was hurting.
We couldn’t even buy ammunition!
This was a surprising claim for several reasons. First, defense spending in Fiscal Year 2017, set before he took office, was $605.8 billion. That would be $1.66 billion per day. Second, U.S. defense spending far surpassed (and still surpasses) the spending of any other nation. Our spending, even before Trump took over, matched the next seven or eight highest-spending countries combined.
Finally, the president claimed “a top general, maybe the top
of them all” told him about this sad state of ammo-less affairs before he took
charge. Yet, no top general came forward to support his claim. Retired Gen. Mark
Hertling, former commander of U.S. Army Europe, did respond. “For those interested,” Hertling tweeted, “this
isn’t true. Actually, it’s ludicrous.”
10/10-14/19: Trump’s claim of “no ammunition,” (see: 10/9/19) came with Trump facing a firestorm of criticism for his decision to abandon the Syrian Kurds. That decision came so suddenly that U.S. diplomats, allies and the Pentagon were caught flat-footed.
“No one in the U.S. government told us” about the U.S. decision
to reposition troops or possibly pull out of northern Syria, a Kurdish
intelligence official told Newsweek. “When we heard the news of American withdrawals, well,
it was over Twitter.” Knowing how Trump works, that figures. “We had no idea,
we were like, ‘What is this shit?’” the Kurdish official said.
 |
Kurdish fighters, including women, celebrate victory over ISIS. |
____________________
“They trusted us and we broke that trust. It’s a stain on the American conscience.”
U.S. Army officer
____________________
“This shit,” in the eyes of most Americans, was a cold-hearted betrayal of some of the best fighters the U.S. has allied with since the Korean War. The Kurds weren’t led by corrupt officers, as were South Vietnamese units. They weren’t actively hostile to U.S. forces, as were many Iraqis. They weren’t afraid of the Taliban, as Afghan military forces often are. The Kurds knew how to fight.
Now the president had dumped them as unceremoniously as he dumped his first wife for his second.
Fidelity is not the president’s strong suit.
Criticism came from all directions. You could almost imagine
Kellyanne Conway losing her grip at last and running across the South Lawn,
shouting, “The man has no soul! TRUMP HAS NO SOUL!”
Sen. Marco Rubio pointed out what everyone, save the president, seemed to grasp. “We degraded ISIS using Kurds as the ground force. Now we have abandoned them. They face annihilation…We must always have the backs of our allies [emphasis added throughout, unless otherwise noted], if we expect them to have our back.”
Former Secretary of State and four-star U.S. Army general, Colin Powell, summed up the situation. “Our foreign policy is in shambles right now.”
U.S. troops who had been fighting beside the Kurds were aghast. One officer put it this way. “They trusted us and we broke that trust. It’s a stain on the American conscience.” “I’m ashamed,” said a second. General John Allen, recently retired, was blunt. “There is blood on Trump’s hands,” he said, “for abandoning our Kurdish allies.”
“It’s a lot of sand.”
Faced with bipartisan opposition in Congress, the president began digging deep in his bag of duplicitous tricks. Why should we care about the Kurds, he wondered aloud? The fight in Syria didn’t affect us. We were 7,000 miles away. This was “not our problem,” he told reporters. Let the Turks and Syrians and Kurds fight it out, maybe with Russia’s help. “If Syria wants to fight for their land, that’s up to Turkey and Syria, as it has been for hundreds of years, they’ve been fighting,” Trump explained to the press. “And the Kurds have been fighting for hundreds of years. That whole mess, it’s been going along for a long time. Syria may have some help with Russia, and that’s fine. It’s a lot of sand,” he added dismissively. “They’ve got a lot of sand over there. So there’s a lot of sand there that they can play with.”
Got it.
Sand.
A journalist pointed out that the Kurds had suffered 11,000 casualties in the battle against ISIS. A lot of blood had been spilled while they “played” with that sand.
“And we’ve lost a lot of fighters, too,” Trump responded
cluelessly.
As is so often the case, Trump was talking out his ass. An estimate from the Department of Defense should have helped him put Kurdish losses in perspective. Yes, the U.S. supplied ammunition (we had plenty). Yes, we backed the Kurds with pinpoint artillery and air support. Otherwise, our allies did nearly all the bleeding. U.S. losses in the fight against ISIS, across Iraq and Syria, totaled 88, a tragedy for their families, but a toll that paled in comparison to sacrifices made by the Kurds.
Still, when it came to defeating ISIS, President Trump was
clear about who the hero was. “Everybody said that was going to be an impossible thing to
do,” Trump preened for the cameras. “I did it, and I did it quickly, because we
have a great military now.”
Trump did what he does best when faced with complex issues. He made up weird excuses. The Kurds didn’t help us in World War II, he said – which made absolutely no sense. He insisted he didn’t green-light a Turkish invasion. He talked to President Erdogan by phone, agreed to remove U.S. forces from positions in northern Syria, where they had served as a tripwire, and the Turks just happened to storm across the border. Who could have known!
Trump also decided to attack his former Secretary of Defense, James Mattis. The veteran Marine general wasn’t tough enough to take out ISIS, Trump claimed – and only he, Cadet Bone Spurs, was man enough to get the job done.
Mattis, he grumbled, was the most-overrated general in history. Trump? Cadet Bone Spurs was the best! (See: 10/17/19.)
As for the president, the more he thought about it, Trump wasn’t even sure he liked the Kurds. They’re “no angels,” he told reporters.
“The PKK, which is a part of the Kurds, as you know, is
probably worse at terror and more of a terrorist threat in many ways than
ISIS.”
Once again, Trump was banking on the fact that his biggest fans would never realize the Kurds in Syria were a different group from the PKK. And they’d never know the Syrian Kurds had been dying by our side for years. Finally, Trump said we’d given the Kurds a lot of money. In his mind, that more than made up for the fact they had suffered 11,000 dead and wounded.
Trump
didn’t understand – and can’t understand – because no one in his family ever
sheds any blood for any true cause.
 |
The hero in Trump's book is always Trump. |
10/15/19: Forced to trot out anyone they could find to defend the cut-and-run decision in Syria, it fell to that expert in U.S. geopolitical affairs, Lara Trump, Eric’s wife, to appear on Fox News and explain the situation. Ms. Trump made it clear she didn’t care about the Kurds and doubted most Americans did.
Most of us would have to Google, “Who are the Kurds?” to know anything, she said.
With Kurdish women and children dodging bullets and bombs, and tens of thousands fleeing slaughter at the hands of the Turks, her comments seemed beyond insensitive, especially when, generation after generation, Trumps have been adept at avoiding putting themselves in any lines of fire.
This blogger would be willing to bet that Lara and Eric’s children will keep that tradition alive.
That is, keeping family members alive.
*
WE ALSO LEARNED that on October 9, President Trump had mailed a letter to his Turkish counterpart, one that seemed so “puerile,” as a critic put it, he thought it must be a prank. As another pundit described the missive, in all its “batshit glory,” it read like a third grader might have written it using crayons.
In any case, Erdogan was unimpressed. According to the BBC, he deposited it in a waste basket by
his desk.
It wasn’t long before Jimmy Kimmel posted a parody (below) on
his late night show. This letter focused on how a past president might have
handled a foreign crisis, had he possessed half the deal-making skills of
Donald J. Trump.
*
IT FINALLY FELL to Vice President Pence and Secretary of State Pompeo to travel to Turkey for conclave with Mr. Erdogan.
In miraculous fashion, in one day, they hammered out an “Art of the Deal” gem. According to Mr. Pence, Turkey agreed to a cease fire which would last five whole days!
The Turks almost immediately announced that what they had agreed to was not a cease fire, but a “pause in operations.”
They would stop bombing the hell out of our old friends, so long as the Kurds agreed to leave the lands where they had lived for centuries and take their armament with them. Or they could lay their weapons down and stay – and hope the Turks would refrain from slaughtering them like sheep. In return for this face-saving cease fire and/or pause, the U.S. would halt sanctions it had threatened to slap on the Turks, and everyone would live happily ever after.
Except our loyal allies, the Kurds.
10/16/19: Wednesday, the president kept ducking and dodging criticism over his decision to abandon the Kurds. When ABC ran a picture of an explosion in Kentucky, and labeled it an explosion in a Kurdish town by mistake, he lost his cool and demanded apology.
Real explosions in Syria? Dead Kurdish children caught in the
maw of war? A stash of 51 nuclear weapons, left behind by U.S. forces at
a Turkish air base as we beat a precipitous retreat? The fact that our
withdrawal came so suddenly U.S. warplanes had to go back and bomb a munitions dump at a base we left? Nah. None of that
bothered the president. That ABC mistake, though! Boy did that frost his buns!
____________________
“I, in my great and unmatched wisdom.”
President Trump
____________________
Next, he took to Twitter and threatened to destroy the Turkish economy if Turkish armed forces advanced too far into Kurdish territory. “As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits,” Trump tappity-tap-tapped, “I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey.”
So, it was okay for the Turks to attack the Kurds, who were our former allies.
If they went too far, and killed too many Kurds, Trump would destroy the Turkish economy. Turkey being our current ally.
Trump also claimed that the Kurds were happy with the moves he had made to sort of protect them as they fled from their ancestral lands.
Retired U.S. Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey summed up the reaction of many Americans when he said
Trump’s claim that the Kurds were happy, was “absurd, it’s cruel, it makes him
look stupid.”
*
“Tell the truth, for a change.”
AT THE SAME TIME, the Democrats continued to press the impeachment inquiry, and draw blood from Trump and his minions. Former President Jimmy Carter offered sage advice to his successor, explaining how he might extricate himself from his troubles. “Tell the truth, for a change,” Mr. Carter suggested.
So, what did we learn, as the days scrolled by? We learned that Trump’s defenders were outraged because Chairman Schiff was holding closed-door hearings. Witnesses came and went. Testimony was recorded. Most of what they said remained secret. It is true, that what leaks we have had likely come from Democrats. Almost all make Trump look bad. But Trump fans shouldn’t kid themselves. Republicans would be leaking like cracked teacups if they had good information to leak. And you can be sure, behind the curtain, Rep. Devin Nunes and his pals are leaking to the president. Trump has to know that what is being said is seriously damaging his position.
We also learn that Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who has been dragged into the story, is resigning. If you like fossil fuels and plenty of global warming, it’s a sad day for you, but not for your grandchildren. Climate change is real; and our descendants are going to have to pay the piper and the whole marching band.
As The New York Times notes, “Mr. Perry told The Wall Street Journal in an interview on Wednesday that he was
in contact with Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani about
Ukraine-related matters at the direction of Mr. Trump.” Or, to put it another
way, the president made him work with Rudy; whereas the president said Perry
made him make the July 25 call.
*
“Of course, no. No, it’s absolutely not.”
ONCE AGAIN, the “enemies of the people” were everywhere, tracking down details and digging up facts. Reporters asked VP Pence if there was any quid pro quo involved in negotiations with Ukraine. Mr. Pence thought a moment, his head cocked slightly to the right, as is his wont. His expression seemed to say, “Look, I’m sincere and judicious and I never tell a lie. But, frankly, I’m kind of dumb.” As for providing an answer, five times, he refused to say.
H.R. McMaster, Trump’s second National Security Advisor was also asked his opinion. Was it ever appropriate to pressure a foreign power to interfere in the political processes of the United States?
“Of course, no. No, it’s absolutely not.”
On Fox News, Joe diGenova, a former federal prosecutor, appeared dozens of times, often accompanied by wife Victoria Toensing. The couple were there to defend the president. The job of Fox News hosts was to listen and vociferously agree. The Democrats were worse than “suicide bombers,” diGenova said.
Only later was it revealed (and not by Fox) that the couple
had been working with Rudy to pressure the Ukraine to push the investigation of
Hunter Biden. Even better, they were being paid handsomely by Dmitry Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch
hiding out in Vienna. Having been charged with bribery and conspiracy in 2013, Firtash has been
fighting extradition to the U.S. ever since.
That meant, with a new president in town, it was worth it to Firtash to pay diGenova and his wife $1 million to win him a “Get Out of Jail Free” card. Also, Firtash and friends would help dig up dirt on…
Joe Biden and his son!
Do we see a trend???
Bloomberg News reported that part of the $1 million diGenova and his wife were earning went to Lev Parnas, for his work as their interpreter.
(More on him in a moment.)
The damaging revelations kept coming. It didn’t help, if you
believed in the innocence and purity of Donald and Rudy, when federal
authorities arrested four men associated with Mr. Giuliani. It was even less
helpful to learn those arrests were ordered by the U.S. District Attorney for
the Southern District of New York. That would be Geoffrey S. Berman, a Trump
appointee.
Nor was it good for optics when the first two arrests came at Dulles International Airport in Washington D.C. At the moment of their arrest Lev Parnas – yes, that guy – and Igor Fruman, two fine fellows born in the former Soviet Union (but now U.S. citizens), were about to board a flight to Vienna. For some reason, the two gentlemen grasped one-way tickets in their mitts. The House Intelligence Committee had just slapped them with subpoenas.
Were there any other odd connections to this story?
Yes, of course.
Parnas and Fruman were charged with funneling $325,000 in foreign money to a Trump campaign Super PAC. They had allegedly directed foreign cash to the campaign of Rep. Pete Sessions, a GOP lawmaker from Texas. In return, Sessions pushed the case for removal of U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, who Parnas, Fruman and Giuliani hoped to see get the boot.
It was ironic that Trump & Company were busy trying to trash Hunter Biden, and by extension, his dad. At exactly the same moment, Parnas, Fruman and Giuliani were trying to corner lucrative deals in Ukraine. According to the Associated Press, Parnas and Fruman, aided and abetted by Rudy, were hoping to convince the new president in Ukraine to replace the leadership of the country’s multi-billion dollar state gas company, Naftogaz. Then they hoped to steer fat contracts to companies controlled by allies and friends of President Trump.
Including, of course, themselves.
“A higher ethical standard.”
The then-Energy Secretary Perry was said to be involved. In a series of meetings, including one with President Zelensky, Perry suggested two old fossil fuel pals from Texas, Michael Bleyzer, a Ukrainian-American, and Robert Bensh. They’d be perfect for the job of running Naftogaz.
Ukrainian officials who attended that meeting were stunned. According to the AP, “The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation, said he was floored by the American requests because the person had always viewed the U.S. government ‘as having a higher ethical standard.’”
Another witness, to an earlier meeting, said Ukrainian officials felt they were being subjected to “a shakedown.”
At the risk of redundancy, keep in mind. Rudy is working for
Trump. He’s not working for the United States. He said that very clearly. That’s not “Fake News” or the “Deep State”
or leprechauns. Rudy said so. Rudy said it. If you fart the truth, and reporters prove you dealt it, the stench is on you.
The New York Times explained why this explosive story of self-dealing and possible election interference mattered:
On Thursday, William F. Sweeney
Jr., the top agent in the F.B.I.’s New York office, said during a news
conference that “campaign finance laws exist for a reason.”
“The American people expect and
deserve an election process that hasn’t been corrupted by the influence of
foreign interests [emphasis added],” he said, “and the public has a right
to know the true source of campaign contributions.”
“Laws make up the fabric of who
we are as a nation,” Mr. Sweeney added. “These allegations aren’t about some
technicality, a civil violation or an error on a form. This investigation is
about corrupt behavior and deliberate lawbreaking.”
It didn’t get any better for Parnas and Fruman at their first court hearing. The two were judged to be flight risks. Bail was set at $1 million each. Travel would be severely limited, and they would have to wear GPS tracking devices.
So: two crooks down.
Two to go.
Or more.
Plus, former Rep. Pete Sessions was looking at a subpoena
from investigators, just to add to the fun.
*
Worst “corruption-fighting crew” ever.
THESE UNPLEASANT DEVELOPMENTS finally forced Trump to tell the truth, just as Jimmy Carter had suggested.
Hahahahahahahahahaha.
Trump now claimed that he didn’t know either of those fellows who
had just been indicted. You’d have to ask Rudy. This line of defense was
shredded when Politico reported that Parnas had attended Trump’s
November 2016 election night celebration. At the time, Parnas told a reporter
that he and Trump were friends and neighbors in South Florida. Rudy was at the
party too. So was Felix Sater, the twice-convicted felon, who worked so hard to
get a Trump Tower Moscow deal done earlier that summer.
Politico noted:
Parnas posted a photo of himself
with Trump at the White House on May 1, 2018, with a caption describing an
“incredible dinner and even better conversation,” according to a screenshot
captured by The Campaign Legal Center. Another picture Parnas posted from May
21, 2018, shows him with Fruman and Donald Trump Jr. in Beverly Hills, with the
caption “Power Breakfast!!!”
An even better picture was soon uncovered, with VP Pence,
Fruman, Parnas, Trump and Rudy smiling happily.
 |
One Stuffed Dummy and Four Crooks. Left to right: Mike Pence (the dummy), Fruman, Parnas, Trump, Giuliani. |
Don Jr., unknown person, Parnas and Fruman.
The last two suspects in this alleged illegal campaign finance and conspiracy affair were Andrey Kukushkin and David Correia. CNBC told their story:
Two businessmen who allegedly
worked with associates of President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani to
make illegal political donations [emphasis added] are set to be arraigned
Thursday in federal court in New York.
David Correia and Andrey
Kukushkin are accused of conspiring to make donations to U.S. candidates –
secretly funded by an unnamed Russian national – in order to benefit a
recreational marijuana business venture.
They were indicted on a
conspiracy charge. Both men are U.S. citizens. Kukushkin was born in Ukraine,
and Correia was born in the United States.
As for Mr. Giuliani, he was soon forced to admit that he had been paid
$500,000 for legal work performed for…Mr. Parnas. And it was rumored that he
might still be the subject in an ongoing
counterintelligence probe.
BLOGGER’S NOTE: Correia plead guilty in October 2020, to one charge of
insurance fraud and admitted that he had swindled at least seven people out of between $200,000 and $500,000. Parnas, he alleges, was
also involved.
In July 2021, a lawyer for Mr. Parnas suggested that his arrest
had come in retaliation for his offer to testify against President Trump during
his first impeachment trial. In other words, his client had been targeted and the case
against him should be tossed. The judge found that claim “not just speculative,
but implausible.”
And the wheels of justice ground on.
*
“Their personal financial ambitions were stymied.”
IT DIDN’T HELP President Trump’s case, regarding his machinations with Ukraine, to see a parade of U.S. diplomats march up to Capitol Hill and testify under oath. First to appear was Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, who had been unexpectedly removed from her post in May. In her opening statement, she alleged that it was the president who wanted her removed. That would not be unusual. Nor would it be an abuse of power. But she claimed, “there had been a concerted campaign against me, and that the Department had been under pressure from the President to remove me since the Summer of 2018.”
“Why?” was the question.
According to other witnesses who testified in days to follow, Yovanovitch had a reputation as a diplomat who had been pushing Ukrainian officials to clean up political corruption in their country. Yet, it was corruption, Trump was claiming incongruously, that made him send Rudy to Ukraine, to check out Hunter Biden, help clean up the mess, and fire anyone who got in the way.
Yovanovitch told lawmakers that superiors
explained to her that her removal was a result of political pressure, not
removal “for cause.” She testified that she had had minimal contact with
Giuliani, who was pushing for her replacement. Several of Rudy’s pals in
Ukraine were the kind of people you’d want to avoid like lepers if ending
corruption was your goal. “Individuals who have been named in the press
contacts of Mr. Giuliani,” she testified, “may well have believed that their
personal financial ambitions were stymied by our anti-corruption policy in
Ukraine.”
Nor was she alone in her take on Rudy and his crew. Kurt Volker, who had been named in the whistleblower complaint, immediately resigned his post. Then he made it clear he’d be happy to come to Congress for a chat.
We don’t know everything he said, but what has leaked is bad for Trump and his devious pals. Volker said he tried to make clear to Rudy that his sources in Ukraine were no good. Any information he had on Joe or Hunter Biden was sure to be tainted. According to Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat, Volker testified that Giuliani ran a “shadow shakedown” in Ukraine. Volker brought along a cache of emails to share. The ones we have seen paint a picture that – assuming details can be filled in – hint at danger for the president himself. On July 19, 2019, for example, Volker, Sondland and Taylor discussed setting up a call between Trump and Zelensky. Volker tells the others that he has talked with Rudy; and Rudy is on board. “Most impt,” Volker tells the others, “is for Zelensky to say that he will help investigation.”
If Zelensky wants to talk to Trump, everyone knows what he must do. Investigate the Bidens.
That, and military aid, are the quid pro quo.
Zelensky doesn’t want to be “a pawn.”
Two days later, Ambassador Bill Taylor (who had by that point replaced Yovanovitch), contacts Volker and Sondland. “Gordon,” he says, “one thing Kurt and I talked about yesterday was Sasha Danyliuk’s point that President Zelenskyy [alternate spelling] is sensitive about Ukraine being taken seriously, not merely as an instrument in Washington domestic, reelection politics.”
Taylor says Zelensky doesn’t want to be “a pawn.”
A pawn in the Trump game.
The diplomats keep pushing for a call between Trump and Zelensky, which they feel is critical for a new government trying to get its footing and fend off Russian attack. Rudy agrees, assuming certain conditions can be met. On the morning of July 25, before the critical call, Volker emails Andrey Yermak, a top aide to Zelensky. “Good lunch – thanks. Hear from White House – assuming President Z convinces trump he will investigate/“get to the bottom of what happened” in 2016, we will nail down date for visit to Washington. Good luck! See you tomorrow- kurt.”
Again: The quid pro quo.
The President of the Ukraine can have the
meeting he needs and a visit to D.C., but first he must promise to carry out an
investigation Trump desires. The quid is the meeting (and the military aid).
The quo is the investigation. Based on the evidence we have, everyone involved
knows what’s going on.
Following the call, from Trump to Zelensky, which Yermak tells Volker “went well,” Yermak reminds Volker that Trump promised Zelensky an invite to the White House and told him to choose the date. Yermak informs him that his boss would like to visit the White House on September 20, 21 or 22.
Volker hears that plans for a visit are in the initial stages and congratulates Sondland for getting the meeting lined up. Sondland replies to Volker’s email, “I think potus really wants the deliverable [emphasis added throughout]”
That is: the investigation.
Volker, Sondland and Giuliani – who is not a diplomat, but the president’s personal lawyer – discuss having the Ukrainians issue a statement “announcing an investigation explicitly referencing the 2016 election and Burisma.”
The Russians love it. (And I quit.)”
Everyone on our side knows what Trump and Giuliani are after: They want the Ukrainians to investigate Burisma, the gas company Hunter Biden worked for, and dig up dirt on Democrats related to the last U.S. presidential election. That dirt will hopefully be helpful in 2020. Yermak tells the Americans he wants the Trump administration to commit to a specific date for a White House visit before his side puts any commitment to investigate in writing.
On August 13, Volker puts together a statement that he thinks the Ukrainians might be willing to use. If they agree, they will be committing to “a transparent and unbiased investigation of all available facts and episodes, including those involving Burisma and the 2016 U.S. elections, which in turn will prevent the recurrence of this problem in the future.”
“Perfect,” Sondland replies.
Meanwhile, President Trump has made the decision to hold up U.S. military aid to Ukraine, even though Congress has appropriated the money. By September 1, Taylor is deeply concerned.
“Are we now saying,” he asks Sondland, “that security assistance and WH meeting are conditioned on investigations?”
A week passes. On September 8, Taylor, Volker and Sondland talk again. Taylor informs the others, “The nightmare is they give the interview [i.e. the Ukrainians agree to put out a statement about an investigation] and don’t get the security assistance. The Russians love it. (And I quit.)
Look. Don’t be stupid, if you’re a Trump supporter. Taylor clearly believes there’s a quid pro quo. The quid, again, is partly U.S. military assistance to an ally. If Trump blocks it, the Russians win big.
