Tag: Trump abuse of power

The Cost of Trump’s Aid Freeze in the Trenches of Ukraine’s War

New York Times logoAs President Trump froze military aid to Ukraine and urged it to investigate his rivals, the country was struggling in a bare-bones fight against Russian-backed separatists.

ZOLOTE, Ukraine — Lt. Ivan Molchanets peeked over a parapet of sand bags at the front line of the war in Ukraine. Next to him was an empty helmet propped up to trick snipers, already perforated with multiple holes.

In other spots, his soldiers stuff straw into empty uniforms to make dummies, and put logs on their shoulders to make it look like they are carrying American antitank missiles — as a scare tactic.

“This is just the situation here,” he said, shrugging as he held the government’s position. “The enemy is very close.”

View the complete October 24 article by Andrew E> Kramer on The New York Times website here.

White House delayed Ukraine trade decision in August, a signal that U.S. suspension of cooperation extended beyond security funds

Washington Post logoThe White House’s trade representative in late August withdrew a recommendation to restore some of Ukraine’s trade privileges after John Bolton, then-national security adviser, warned him that President Trump probably would oppose any action that benefited the government in Kyiv, according to people briefed on the matter.

The warning to Robert E. Light­hizer came as Trump was withholding $391 million in military aid and security assistance from Ukraine. House Democrats have launched an impeachment inquiry into allegations that the president did so to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the business activities of former vice president Joe Biden’s son Hunter. As part of the inquiry, lawmakers are closely scrutinizing the White House’s actions between July and September.

The August exchange between Bolton and Lighthizer over the trade matter represents the first indication that the administration’s suspension of assistance to Ukraine extended beyond the congressionally authorized military aid and security assistance to other government programs. It is not clear whether Trump directed Bolton to intervene over Ukraine’s trade privileges or was even aware of the discussion.

View the complete October 24 article by David J. Lynch and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

Trump Calls Them ‘My Judges.’ Will They Side With Him In Separation Of Powers Fight?

Justice Brett Kavanaugh is the Trump Supreme Court appointee with the longest record on presidential power.

In his effort to defend himself against any and all investigations, President Donald Trump and his lawyers have made a number of novel, often outrageous, arguments asserting he has nearly complete immunity from oversight.

He rejects subpoenas seeking his financial records, testimony from administration officials or documents from federal agencies. He asserts executive privilege on the actions of nongovernment employees. And he denies the legitimacy of the impeachment inquiry underway by the House of Representatives into his actions involving Ukraine.

Some judges have displayed shock at the “extreme” legal positions, as U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell referred to them, that Trump has deployed to evade oversight.

View the complete October 24 article by Paul Blumenthal on the Huffington Post website here.

Here’s the exact law that could end Trump’s presidency

AlterNet logoDefenders of President Donald Trump have repeatedly claimed that the president can’t be impeached because he didn’t break any laws, despite the fact that Congress does not need to prove explicitly illegal activity to formally impeach a president.

All the same, one official who served in the George W. Bush administrationbelieves that the president very possibly did break federal laws against bribery with his attempt to shake down Ukraine to investigate his political rivals.

Philip Zelikow, a history professor at the University of Virginia, has written an article on Lawfare outlining exactly why the president is in both political and legal jeopardy.

View the complete October 24 article by Brad Reed from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Bill Taylor spent years fighting corruption in Ukraine. His last four months under Trump were the ‘antithesis’ of that.

Washington Post logoBefore the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine became the most explosive witness in the House’s impeachment inquiry, he was anything but a household name in the United States. But in Ukraine, William B. Taylor Jr.’s reputation preceded him.

He had spent much of the 1990s telling Ukrainian politicians that nothing was more critical to their long-term prosperity than rooting out corruption and bolstering the rule of law, in his role as the head of U.S. development assistance for post-Soviet countries.

But in the summer of 2019, he and his colleagues were sending a very different message to Ukraine.

View the complete October 23 article by John Hudson and Carol Morello on The Washington Post website here.

Ukrainian lives hung in balance as Trump held up aid

Critical weapons, training held hostage by monthslong freeze on funds

On June 6, Russian-allied forces in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region fired a volley of artillery shells on Ukrainian soldiers based in a rural area, even though Moscow had signed a ceasefire agreement the day before.

Two young Ukrainian soldiers — 28-year-old Dmytro Pryhlo and 23-year-old Maksym Oleksiuk — were killed in their dugout by that shelling in the settlement of Novoluhanske, Ukrainian commanders said at the time. Eight other Ukrainian soldiers suffered concussions and other injuries.

Pryhlo and Oleksiuk were just two men. But the day before, the Russians had killed another Ukrainian soldier. The day before that, they had killed two others. And in the nearly five-plus years before that, thousands more had fallen.

View the complete October 24 article by John M. Donnelly on The Roll Call website here.

White House Aides Feared That Trump Had Another Ukraine Back Channel

New York Times logoSenior national security officials grew concerned about Kash Patel, a colleague who had been involved in Republicans’ efforts to undermine the Russia investigation.

WASHINGTON — When Kashyap Patel was an aide to the House Intelligence Committee in the first years of the Trump administration, he played a key role in helping Republicans try to undermine the Russia investigation, writing a memo that accused law enforcement officials of abusing their power.

The memo, which consumed Washington for weeks, was widely dismissed as a biased argument of cherry-picked facts. But it galvanized President Trump’s allies and made Mr. Patel a hero among them. After Republicans ceded control of Congress this year, he landed on Mr. Trump’s National Security Council staff.

Colleagues there initially questioned the role of Mr. Patel, who took few notes in meetings and had little expertise for his initial portfolio, which covered the United Nations. Within months, senior White House officials began to suspect he had won Mr. Trump’s ear and had effectively created a back channel to the president that could warp American policy, according to congressional testimony and interviews.
View the complete October 23 by Julian E. Barnes, Adam Goldman and Nicholas Fandos on The New York Times website here.

Ukraine Knew of Aid Freeze by Early August, Undermining Trump Defense

New York Times logoTop officials were told in early August about the delay of $391 million in security assistance, undercutting a chief argument President Trump has used to deny any quid pro quo.

KIEV, Ukraine — To Democrats who say that President Trump’s decision to freeze $391 million in military aid was intended to bully Ukraine’s leader into carrying out investigations for Mr. Trump’s political benefit, the president and his allies have had a simple response: There was no quid pro quo because the Ukrainians did not know assistance had been blocked.

But then on Tuesday, William B. Taylor Jr., the top United States diplomat in Kiev, told House impeachment investigators that the freeze was directly linked to Mr. Trump’s demand. That did not deter the president, who on Wednesday approvingly tweeted a quote by a congressional Republican saying neither Mr. Taylor nor any other witness had “provided testimony that the Ukrainians were aware that military aid was being withheld.”

In fact, word of the aid freeze had gotten to high-level Ukrainian officials by the first week in August, according to interviews and documents obtained by The New York Times.

View the complete October 23 article by Andrew E. Kramer and Kenneth P. Vogel n The New York Times website here.

‘This is a lie’: Critics slam Trump’s desperate claim that Ukraine didn’t know he withheld military aid

AlterNet logoDemocratic lawmakers and impeachment supporters on Wednesday called out President Donald Trump for suggesting on Twitter that Ukrainian officials were not aware that military aid was being withheld as part the administration’s efforts to convince the country’s leader to publicly launch an investigation involving former Vice President Joe Biden.

Trump’s tweet was a “relatively lackluster” response to career diplomat William Taylor’s 10 hours of “explosive” testimony Tuesday about the administration’s “pervasive” attempts to force a Ukrainian investigation into an energy company that employed Biden’s son Hunter. Taylor testisfied behind closed doors to the House Oversight, Intelligence, and Foreign Affairs committees as part of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into Trump.

Shortly before a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky—which provoked a whistleblower complaint that led Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to finally launch an impeachment inquiry last month—Trump instructed acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to hold back $391 million in military aid for Ukraine.

View the complete October 23 article by Jessica Corbett from Common Dreams on the AlterNet website here.

Cooper testifies after five-hour delay caused by House Republicans barging into secure room

Washington Post logoA group of House Republicans who do not sit on the committees leading the impeachment inquiry stormed into a secure room at the Capitol on Wednesday where the latest witness in the probe was set to testify, shutting down the proceedings.

The disruption delayed for several hours closed-door testimony from Laura Cooper, the Pentagon official who oversees Ukraine policy, whom lawmakers planned to ask about the White House’s decision to withhold military aid for several months over the summer.

Earlier Wednesday, President Trump lashed out anew at “terrible” Democrats a day after damaging testimony from a key diplomat in the Ukraine controversy.

View the complete October 23 article by John Wagner, Felicia Sonmez and Colby Itkowitz on The Washington Post website here.