Here’s a link to the posting by Politico:
Tag: Trump abuse of power
Judge rules former WH counsel McGahn must testify under subpoena
A federal judge on Monday ruled that former White House counsel Don McGahn must testify before Congress, delivering a significant win to House Democrats amid their impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, an Obama appointee, said McGahn is obligated to comply with a House Judiciary Committee subpoena from April seeking to compel his testimony.
But the legal fight over McGahn’s testimony is likely far from over.
View the complete November 25 article by John Kruzel on The Hill website here.
Schiff: Judiciary Committee to receive impeachment report ‘soon after’ Thanksgiving recess B
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told Democratic lawmakers on Monday that the committees overseeing the impeachment inquiry are preparing a report for the House Judiciary Committee that they hope to send shortly after members return from their one-week Thanksgiving recess.
In a “Dear Colleague” letter sent to members of the House Democratic Caucus, Schiff said the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Reform committees continue to investigate President Trump. He did not rule out the possibility of additional hearings or depositions.
But he also said investigators did not want to allow the administration to delay their probe through court challenges.
View the complete November 25 article by Juliegrace Brufke on The Hill website here.
White House review turns up emails showing extensive effort to justify Trump’s decision to block Ukraine military aid
A confidential White House review of President Trump’s decision to place a hold on military aid to Ukraine has turned up hundreds of documents that reveal extensive efforts to generate an after-the-fact justification for the decision and a debate over whether the delay was legal, according to three people familiar with the records.The research by the White House Counsel’s Office, which was triggered by a congressional impeachment inquiry announced in September, includes early August email exchanges between acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House budget officials seeking to provide an explanation for withholding the funds after the president had already ordered a hold in mid-July on the nearly $400 million in security assistance, according to the three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations.
One person briefed on the records examination said White House lawyers are expressing concern that the review has turned up some unflattering exchanges and facts that could at a minimum embarrass the president. It’s unclear whether the Mulvaney discussions or other records pose any legal problems for Trump in the impeachment inquiry, but some fear they could pose political problems if revealed publicly.
The road to expulsion: Here’s a timeline of Devin Nunes’ clandestine operations on the House Intelligence Committee
News that Devin Nunes has been sitting through the House impeachment inquiry, pretending to act as a investigator, while actually being an active participant in the scandal might be more shocking if this was the first time. Or the second. But the history of Devin Nunes’ time on the House Intelligence Committee is one that features a nearly unbroken streak of lies, corruption, and plain old idiocy.
As the machinery of the House cranks toward an another inevitable appearance of Nunes before the Ethics Committee—and Fox News opens up 10,000 hours of programming devoted to explaining why it’s perfectly okay for the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee to be traveling the world on the taxpayer dime, actively soliciting corrupt former officials for manufactured dirt that can be deployed in the 2020 election—here’s a little reminder that Double-Naught Nunes was never less than crooked. And ridiculous.
Mar 21, 2017 — Nunes leaps from an Uber car at a stoplight, leaving behind a senior Intelligence Committee staffer without explanation and disappears into the night. Nunes swaps to another car, travels somewhere, and shows up hours later to tell Paul Ryan he has uncovered evidence supporting Donald Trump’s claims that President Obama “spied” on him.
View the complete November 24 article by Mark Sumner from Daily Kos on the AlterNet website here.
Fox News Distorts Justice Dept. Report On Trump Campaign Surveillance
After The Washington Post reported on November 21 that the Justice Department inspector general “found evidence that an FBI employee may have altered a document connected to” the FISA warrant on Trump 2016 campaign adviser Carter Page, some in right-wing media leapt at the chance to declare that their years of theories about illegal surveillance were about to be proven true.
However, both Fox’s “news” and “opinion” sides ignored that the lede of the article also said that DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz “has concluded that the conduct did not affect the overall validity of the surveillance application.”
Representing the network’s so-called “news division,” Fox chief national correspondent Ed Henry said that “this may just be the beginning” of evidence of FISA abuse, suggesting that the report will uncover that the FBI was “concocting a case” against President Donald Trump. Henry also bragged that “the president was laughed at by people in the media and a lot of Democrats said that this was a conspiracy theory and everything else. Now it is coming home to roost that something stinks here.”
Giuliani’s Ukraine scheme proves Trump is too hopelessly compromised in his position to serve in office
Our capacity for shock in response to events surrounding Trump has died the death of a thousand cuts. But we should still be shaken to the core that the President of the United States is currently being blackmailed by his personal lawyer to avoid being thrown under the bus in a conspiracy to commit bribery and extortion against a domestic political opponent and on behalf a hostile power. Giuliani’s scheme so closely resembles a mafia movie that he has even threatened the release of a dead man’s drop “if anything happens to him.”
“I do not discuss conversations with my client. You can assume that I talk to him early and often and have a very very good relationship with him,” Giuliani said of Trump.
“And all of these comments – which are totally insulting – I’ve seen things written like, ‘he’s gonna throw me under the bus.’ When they say that, I say, ‘he isn’t, but I have insurance.’”
The former New York City mayor added that such allegations were “ridiculous,” stating that he and the President remain “very good friends” before claiming the existence of a conspiracy to frame Trump that dated back to President Barack Obama’s White House.
Lev Parnas Said He Assisted Barr’s ‘Investigation’ Of Russia Probe
In a July interview with the Ukrainian publication New-Times, Lev Parnas, a close associate of the president’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, disclosed that his efforts to help Giuliani launch a disinformation campaign targeting former Vice President Joe Biden were also intended to help Attorney General Bill Barr with his investigation into the origins of the U.S. intelligence community’s investigation into Russian electoral interference in the 2016 election.
Over the years, conservative media figures — led by Fox host Sean Hannity — as well as Trump and his Republican allies, have alleged a vast, nonsensical conspiracy theory that the federal investigation into Russian electoral interference was actually an elaborate, criminal scheme to prevent Trump’s election. In May, shortly after assuming his position, Barr appointed U.S. Attorney in Connecticut John Durham to investigate the origins of the Russia investigation. Since then, Barr has reportedly taken an active role in traveling with Durham around the globe to investigate claims that are central elements of the right-wing’s conspiracy theory. Trump, too, has been pressuring foreign governments to cooperate with the probe. The probe is now reported to have evolved into a criminal inquiry, though it is unclear what potential crimes are being investigated.
In the July New-Times interview, Parnas spoke of his and Igor Fruman’s activities to support Giuliani’s investigation, such as connecting Giuliani with several corrupt, disgraced Ukrainian prosecutors. In addition to detailing their efforts to dig up dirt on Biden, Parnas also discussed his hope that their work would be instrumental in Barr’s investigation into how the Russia probe originated.
Veteran journalist Bill Moyers: Nixon ‘never admitted his crimes — Trump announced his in public’
Following a week of public impeachment hearings in the House Intelligence Committee, renowned public broadcast journalist Bill Moyers on Friday expressed alarm at President Donald Trump’s attacks on the witnesses who came forward to inform the public about the president’s misconduct in office—and the complicity of top administration officials.
“For President Trump to vigorously denigrate them, to malign them, with [Trump’s personal attorney Rudy] Giuliani leading a smear campaign against these fine public servants, is disgusting, it’s repulsive, it’s abominable,” Moyers said in an interview with MSNBC‘s Chris Hayes late Friday.
As Common Dreams reported, Trump tweeted attacks on former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch as she testified last Friday, sparking accusations of “witness intimidation in real time.”
Rudy Giuliani was ‘unraveling at the seams’ during recent Fox News interview: presidential historian
Appearing on CNN’s “New Day” early Sunday morning, noted presidential historian Douglas Brinkley marveled at the continued appearances by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in support of Donald Trump calling it a “weird dog and pony show” being put on by the two.
Speaking with hosts Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul, Brinkley noted that Giuliani — who appeared on Fox News on Saturday and made a veiled threat at Trump — appears to be “unraveling.”
Asked by host Paul about Giuliani’s relationship with the president, the historian said it is not unusual for presidents sometimes to have an alter ego to speak for them.
View the complete November 24 article by Tom Boggioni from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.