Tag: Trump abuse of power

Trump repeats debunked Ukraine claim a day after Hill’s tough testimony

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Friday repeated his debunked claim that Ukraine is connected to a hacked Democratic server from the 2016 election, the same assertion that he raised on his call with the Ukrainian president at the heart of an impeachment inquiry.
Trump made the claim a day after a former White House official with expertise on Russia, Fiona Hill, chastised Republicans for giving air in the impeachment hearings to conspiracy theories that Ukraine, and not Russia, was a driver of foreign interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Hill’s statements to the House Intelligence Committee essentially rebuked her former boss, as Trump has repeatedly floated the theory — and did so again on Friday.

“They gave the server to CrowdStrike or whatever it’s called, which is a company owned by a very wealthy Ukrainian, and I still want to see that server,” Trump told the hosts of “Fox & Friends.”

View the complete November 22 article by Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.

Kentucky governor’s stay at Trump hotel could carry legal implications for president

Washington Post logoGov. Matt Bevin’s 2018 visit to Trump’s D.C. hotel likely to become fodder for plaintiffs in cases against Trump.

When Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin came to Washington in January for two nights — one of many visits the Republican had made to the nation’s capital — he stayed at President Trump’s D.C. hotel. Kentucky taxpayers initially footed the $686 bill, records obtained by The Washington Post show.

Although Kentucky’s Republican Party reimbursed the state for Bevin’s stay two months later, the transaction may still run afoul of an anti-corruption provision of the Constitution barring the president from receiving any “emoluments,” or payments, from the states, legal experts say.

In two cases wending their way through federal court, plaintiffs have alleged that Trump — by retaining his financial interest in his companies and doing business with state governments — has violated the Constitution’s domestic emoluments clause. A central example cited by plaintiffs has been visits to the hotel by fervent Trump supporter and Republican Paul LePage, while he was governor of Maine.

View the complete November 21 article by Jonathan O’Connell and David A. Fahrenthold on The Washington Post website here.

Republicans Seek to Muddy Impeachment Evidence as Their Defense of Trump

New York Times logoThey put forward a shifting array of arguments to defend the president against impeachment — some of which conflict.

WASHINGTON — Republicans mounted an array of defenses of President Trump at this week’s impeachment hearings — making arguments that at times seemed to conflict with one another logically, but that dovetailed in a key way: All served to undermine Democrats’ allegations that Mr. Trump abused his power.

In angry statements from the hearing dais, lines of questioning to witnesses and comments during breaks to reporters, Republicans sought to poke holes in the strength of evidence that Mr. Trump personally put a condition on the government committing official acts — namely, that Ukraine publicize investigations that could benefit him.

But at other times, Republicans suggested that Mr. Trump’s pursuit of those investigations was justified — reading into the record related facts and allegations about Ukrainian actions in 2016 and about the Ukrainian gas company Burisma and its decision to give Hunter Biden, the son of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a lucrative board seat.

View the complete November 21 article by Charlie Savage on The New York Times website here.

Supreme Court precedents do not shield Trump financial records, House, prosecutors argue

Washington Post logoThere is no precedent for keeping a House committee from examining President Trump’s financial records, lawyers for the House told the Supreme Court on Thursday, and “each day of delay harms Congress by depriving it of important information it needs to carry out its constitutional responsibilities.”

House General Counsel Doug N. Letter said in a brief that the court’s precedents involving Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton make clear that the chief executive enjoys no special privilege to be free from investigation or legal action.

The Supreme Court “has established that even a private citizen may invoke the courts’ subpoena power against the president in appropriate cases,” the brief states. “In light of that settled law, it would hardly make sense to say that Congress, a coordinate branch, cannot use its own subpoena power in a matter involving the president.”

View the complete November 21 article by Robert Barnes on The Washington Post website here.

Fiona Hill Testifies ‘Fictions’ on Ukraine Pushed by Trump Help Russia

New York Times logoThe former top White House aide denounced a theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election, as she tied the president’s pressure campaign to Russian efforts to sow political divisions in America.

WASHINGTON — A former White House Russia expert on Thursday sharply denounced a “fictional narrative” embraced by President Trump and his Republican allies that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 election, testifying that the claim was a fabrication by Moscow that had harmed the United States.

The expert, Fiona Hill, tied a pressure campaign on Ukraine by Mr. Trump and some of his top aides to an effort by Russia to sow political divisions in the United States and undercut American diplomacy. She warned Republicans that legitimizing an unsubstantiated theory that Kyiv undertook a concerted campaign to interfere in the election — a claim the president pushed repeatedly for Ukraine to investigate — played into Russia’s hands.

“In the course of this investigation,” Dr. Hill testified before the House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment hearings, “I would ask that you please not promote politically driven falsehoods that so clearly advance Russian interests.”

View the complete November 21 article by Nicholas Fandos and Michael D. Shear on The New York Times website here.

Hill, Holmes offer damaging impeachment testimony: Five takeaways

The Hill logoIn what could be the last round of public hearings in the Democrats’ high-speed impeachment inquiry, two senior national security experts testified Thursday that President Trump had pressed for investigations in Ukraine that were designed to help him politically.

David Holmes, a State Department veteran now based in Kyiv, and Fiona Hill, Trump’s former leading adviser on Russian affairs, testified for almost six hours on Capitol Hill, where they painted a damaging portrait of Trump and his allies clamoring for the launch of foreign-born probes that appeared to lack a national security objective.

Holmes described an episode in Kyiv in July when he overheard a phone conversation between Trump and Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, in which the president sought updates on the investigations into the 2016 elections and the son of former Vice President Joe Biden. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my foreign service career,” he said. 

View the complete November 21 article by Scott Wong and Mike Lillis on The Hill website here.

Adam Schiff summarizes Trump’s Ukraine Plan with just 7 Words

AlterNet logoIn case you missed it, Adam Schiff closed out the pivotal day with one memorable theme, regarding Trump’s action with respect to Ukraine:

“That’s not anti-corruption, that is corruption.”

He repeated the theme again and again, citing one Trump ‘high crime’ after another to illustrate his refrain.

View the complete November 21 article by Sarah Toce on the AlterNet website here.

5 takeaways from Fiona Hill’s and David Holmes’s testimony

Washington Post logoThe final scheduled hearing in the House’s impeachment inquiry was Thursday, with former National Security Council Russia expert Fiona Hill and Ukraine diplomat David Holmes testifying.

1. Holmes’s succinct explanation of two quid pro quos

The explanation by Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, of how the Ukraine quid pro quos worked got lots of attention Wednesday — remember “2 plus 2 equals 4?” Sondland’s point was basically that everyone understood why a White House meeting and military aid were being withheld, even if President Trump never explicitly told him to convey a quid pro quo. Continue reading “5 takeaways from Fiona Hill’s and David Holmes’s testimony”

The scandal with no name continues to vex Washington

Ukraziness? Snakes on Ukraine? Badfellas? What should we call it?

Two years ago, official Washington failed to come up with a name for … the thing that happened two years ago. Most everyone settled on Trump-Russia or the Russia investigation or the Mueller probe or any number of unimaginative appellations.

Well, here we are again, nearly two months into yet another Donald Trump scandal with no name. “Why is there not a catchy, gate-like name for this Ukraine scandal yet?” asked one Twitter user in October. “It’s like the writers aren’t even trying anymore.” Indeed, John Oliver, the host of “Last Week Tonight” on HBO, could only come up with “Stupid Watergate 2.” Jimmy Kimmel recently coined “Ukraziness.” Other attempts have been made online, some better than others: Snakes on Ukraine. Zelenscheme. Crackpot Dome. Red Hat. Continue reading “The scandal with no name continues to vex Washington”

Fox News legal analyst knocks down Fox & Friends’ anti-impeachment talking points one by one

AlterNet logoFox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano disappointed the co-hosts of “Fox & Friends” on Thursday by informing them that House Democrats still have a very strong case for impeaching President Donald Trump.

Co-host Brian Kilmeade started off by claiming that the president was vindicated because he told European Union ambassador Gordon Sondland that he wasn’t seeking a quid pro quo from Ukraine.

However, Napolitano said that statement is utterly meaningless given that the president already knew he was being investigated when he made it.

View the complete November 21 article by Brad Reed from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.