Tag: Trump abuse of power

Trump’s false claim about what the Ukrainian president said about the U.S. ambassador

Washington Post logo“I really don’t know her. But if you look at the transcripts, the president of Ukraine was not a fan of hers, either. I mean, he did not exactly say glowing things. I’m sure she’s a very fine woman. I just don’t know much about her.”

— President Trump, in remarks to reporters about former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, Nov. 4, 2019

“Even if you listen to the very good conversation that I had — a very, very good, no-pressure, congenial conversation with the new president of Ukraine — he had some things that were not flattering to say about her. And that came out of the blue.”
— Trump, in a Fox News interview, Oct. 12, 2019

Trump keeps telling people to “read the transcript” of his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, insisting that the July 25 conversation did not include any impeachable conduct.

Trump also keeps saying that Zelensky voiced dissatisfaction with Marie Yovanovitch, a career U.S. diplomat who until recently was the American ambassador in Kyiv, on that phone call.

We read the transcript. Trump criticized Yovanovitch first, and Zelensky, seemingly under pressure, said he agreed.

View the complete November 6 article by Salvador Rizzo on The Washington Post website here.

Republicans Seek To Expose Ukraine Whistleblower

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) believes there is nothing wrong in calling for anonymous whistleblowers to be outed, even if it imperils their safety.

The South Carolina lawmaker instead told reporters on Tuesday that outing that person’s identity would be “very responsible.”

“The whole idea that you would use an anonymous person to generate an impeachment inquiry is dangerous to the presidency itself,” Graham told reporters on Tuesday, according to NBC News.

View the complete November 5 by Emily Singer on the National Memo website here.

The apparent quid pro quo sitting just outside the rough transcript

Washington Post logoPresident Trump has a new refrain that he seems to think proves his innocence on any questions about his interactions with Ukraine. “Read the transcript!” he says to reporters, to people at his rallies and to his Twitter followers. Look at what Trump himself said in that July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and you’ll know that everything is on the up-and-up.

Setting aside the immediate problem with that request — namely, that the transcript is an incomplete approximation of the call — Trump’s suggestion suffers from another problem, too. Taking the rough transcript by itself removes all of the context that surrounds the call, what Zelensky knew coming into the conversation and what Trump and his team had been doing to force Zelensky to launch new investigations that could be politically useful to the president. Saying “read the transcript” is a bit like asking people to judge Watergate by reading the arrest report from the hotel break-in.

Particularly because there’s one little-noticed effort to pressure Zelensky sitting just outside the boundaries of that call, an effort that relates directly to what Zelensky offered and that occurred immediately before the call took place.

View the complete November 6 article by Philip Bump on The Washington Post website here.

Trump makes falsehoods central to impeachment defense as incriminating evidence mounts

Washington Post logoStanding before a crowd of supporters this week in Lexington, Ky., President Trump repeated a false claim he has made more than 100 times in the past six weeks: that a whistleblower from the intelligence community misrepresented a presidential phone call at the center of the impeachment inquiry that threatens his presidency.

“The whistleblower said lots of things that weren’t so good, folks. You’re going to find out,” Trump said Monday at a campaign rally. “These are very dishonest people.”

Behind him were men and women in “Read the Transcript” T-shirts — echoing through their apparel Trump’s attempt to recast an incriminating summary of his July 25 call with Ukraine’s president as a piece of exonerating evidence.

View the complete November 6 article by Toluse Olorunnipa and Philip Rucker on The Washington Post website here.

AP sources: State Dept. worried about defending ambassador

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department’s third-ranking official is expected to tell House impeachment investigators on Wednesday that political considerations were behind the agency’s refusal to deliver a robust defense of the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.

People familiar with the matter say the highest-ranking career diplomat in the foreign service, David Hale, plans to say that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other senior officials determined that publicly defending ousted Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch would hurt the effort to free up U.S. military assistance to Ukraine.

Hale, who arrived Wednesday morning to testify behind closed doors, will also say that the State Department worried about the reaction from President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who was one of the strongest advocates for removing the ambassador, according to the people. Several State Department officials have told lawmakers they opposed the dismissal of Yovanovitch in May, a personnel change that came at Trump’s direction.

View the complete November 6 article by Matthew Lee on the Associated Press website here.

Most Republicans on impeachment committees aren’t showing up, transcripts reveal

Freedom Caucus members have taken lead role in questioning, foreshadowing public hearings

Republicans have for weeks blasted the closed-door impeachment process, but transcripts released this week of private depositions show most GOP lawmakers on the three panels at the center of the probe have simply not shown up.

The low attendance for most committee Republicans paints a very different picture of a party that recently stormed the secure room where the depositions have been conducted, demanding to participate in the process. Republican questioning during these private interviews have been driven by a handful of President Donald Trump’s allies and GOP staff.

Conservative Republicans, many closely tied to Trump from the hard-line House Freedom Caucus, have led the GOP questioning, a preview of the coming tumultuous public impeachment process. What is unclear is what role, if any, other Republicans will play.

View the complete November 5 article by Michael Macagnone and Patrick Kelley on The Roll Call website here.

With revised statement, Sondland adds to testimony linking aid to Ukraine investigations that Trump sought

Washington Post logoIn a significant revision to his testimony nearly three weeks ago before House impeachment investigators, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, now says he told a Ukrainian official that security assistance to the country would be likely to resume only if the authorities in Kyiv opened investigations requested by President Trump that could be damaging to former vice president Joe Biden.

In a “supplemental declaration” provided to the House impeachment inquiry Monday, Sondland wrote, “I now recall speaking individually” with a Ukrainian official and in that conversation saying “that resumption of U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks.”

Sondland’s new statement adds to testimony by other national security officials that describes an effort directed by Trump and his personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani to link nearly $400 million in security assistance to investigations that could politically benefit the president.

View the complete November 5 article by Shane Harris and Aaron C. Davis on The Washington Post website here.

Democrats release Sondland, Volker transcripts

The Hill logoHouse Democrats on Tuesday released the transcripts of testimony from U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker as part of their impeachment inquiry. 

Democrats are investigating whether Trump pressured Ukraine to open investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, and whether military aid was withheld from the country to convince Ukraine to open the probe. Volker helped set up the July 25 phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that is at the center of the inquiry.

Sondland and Volker were involved in texts with another diplomat that have been publicly released. In the texts, Sondland said the president had been clear to him there had been no quid pro quo of any kind with Ukraine, before suggesting the men end the conversation over texts.

View the complete November 5 article by Olivia Beavers on The Hill website here.

Schumer blasts Paul for calling on media to name whistleblower

The Hill logoSenate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) knocked Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Tuesday for urging the media to disclose the identity of the whistleblower at the center of the House impeachment inquiry. 

“I cannot stress just how wrong this is. We have federal whistleblower laws designed to protect the identity and safety of patriotic Americans who come forward to stand up for the Constitution,” Schumer said during a speech on the Senate floor.

He added that he was “appalled” by calls for the whistleblower’s identity to be publicly disclosed.

View the complete Jordain Carney on The Hill website here.

Transcripts show Republicans’ scattershot strategy in early days of impeachment inquiry

Washington Post logoRepublicans have complained for weeks about the secret House impeachment inquiry, accusing Democrats of rigging the process and interviewing witnesses behind closed doors — at one point storming the hearing room and chanting, “Let us in!”

But inside the secure room in the Capitol basement where the proceedings are taking place, Republicans have used their time to complain that testimony has become public, going after their colleagues who were quoted in media reports commenting on witness appearances, and quizzing witnesses themselves on how their statements had been released.

The efforts by GOP lawmakers to shape the Democrats’ inquiry emerged in full view for the first time Monday with the release of hundreds of pages of transcripts from two early witnesses: Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and Michael McKinley, a former senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

View the complete November 4 article by Rachael Bade and Karoun Demirjian on The Washington Post website here.