Tag: Trump bribery

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”

Local newspaper in Devin Nunes’ district wonders: Is our congressman coordinating with Trump during impeachment?

AlterNet logoThroughout the public hearings for the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, Rep. Devin Nunes of California has set out to discredit the testimony of witnesses subpoenaed by House Democrats. And Nunes’ relentless defense of Trump during the hearings is leading two reporters for McClatchy Newspapers — whose portfolio includes the Fresno Bee in Nunes’ part of Central California — to wonder if Nunes is coordinating with Trump on an impeachment defense.

In an article published by the Fresno Bee on November 19, Kate Irby and Francesca Chambers note the similarities between Trump’s impeachment-related talking points and Nunes’ assertions during Tuesday’s testimony. Nunes, the reporters point out, asserted, “Americans have learned to recognize fake news when they see it, and if the mainstream press won’t give it to them straight, they’ll go elsewhere to find it — which is exactly what the American people are doing.”

Nunes, Irby and Chambers observe, also sounded very Trumpian when, on Tuesday, he expressed his desire to know the identity of the Ukraine whistleblower — inspiring House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff to call him out and assert that he wouldn’t tolerate the whistleblower’s identity being revealed.

View the complete November 20 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.

Sondland tells Congress he acted at Trump’s direction on Ukraine

Testimony from top ambassador ties Trump, Pompeo and other top officials to Ukrainian pressure campaign

Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union, on Wednesday told Congress that the president directed him to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Ukrainian energy company Burisma and, in turn, former Vice President Joe Bidenand his son Hunter.

The Trump donor and appointee stressed that the president never directly told him U.S. military aid to Ukraine was contingent upon the politically motivated investigations. But he testified, among other new revelations, that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signed off on a pressure campaign.

Buy-in of top administration officials was just one piece of new and conflicting pieces of information that emerged Wednesday at the House Intelligence Committee hearing.

View the complete November 20 article by Katherine Tully-McManus on The Roll Call website here.

Fox News commentator Sean Hannity appears to be knee-deep in Trump’s Ukraine scandal — despite his profuse denials

AlterNet logoFox News host Sean Hannity raved that he never spoke with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about ousted Ukrainian Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch after a third witness confirmed the alleged call to impeachment investigators.

David Hale, the undersecretary of State for political affairs, testified under oath that Yovanovitch was the victim of a baseless smear campaign led by Rudy Giuliani, the personal attorney of President Donald Trump, which led to her ouster. According to a transcript of the closed-door deposition released Monday, the smears originally stemmed from the conservative columnist John Solomon, who wrote in The Hill that former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko had claimed that Yovanovitch gave him a “do not prosecute list.” Lutsenko later retracted that claim.

Hale, the third-ranking official at the department, claimed to impeachment investigators that Hannity had pushed the same narrative on Fox News and that Pompeo had reached out to Trump’s favorite host.

View the complete November 20 article by Igor Derysh from Salon on the AlterNet website here.

Sondland acknowledges Ukraine quid pro quo, implicates Trump, Pence, Pompeo and others

Washington Post logoA U.S. ambassador on Wednesday explicitly linked President Trump, Vice President Pence and other senior officials to what he came to believe was a campaign to pressure a foreign government to investigate Trump’s political rival in exchange for a coveted White House meeting and hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid.

The potentially historic, if hotly disputed, testimony from U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland is the most damaging yet for Trump in Congress’s intensifying inquiry into whether the president should be impeached.

More forcefully than he has before, Sondland declared that the Trump administration would not give Ukraine’s newly elected president, Volodymyr Zelensky, a chance to visit the White House — unless Zelensky agreed to announce investigations that could help the president politically.

View the complete November 20 article by Rachael Bade, Aaron C. Davis and Matt Zapotosky on The Washington Post website here.

Nunes blasted for nonsensical opening statement at impeachment hearing: ‘Seems unlikely’ GOP knew Sondland would affirm Trump’s ‘quid pro quo’

AlterNet logoRep. Devin Nunes of California has been one of President Donald Trump’s loudest, most strident defenders during the public impeachment hearings — and with Ambassador Gordon Sondland preparing to testify Wednesday before the House Intelligence Committee, Nunes was as bombastic as usual. During his opening statement, Nunes ranted about Democrats linking Trump to Russian interference in the 2016 election, insisted that Trump’s July 25 conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was perfectly innocent, declared that Sondland was “here today to be smeared” by Democrats, and even said that today’s Democrats would have impeached President George Washington if given the chance.

But Nunes’ critics have been pushing back on the congressman’s opening statements, noting that he plays hard and loose with the facts — and appeared unprepared for Sondland’s remarks.

On Wednesday morning, CNBC’s Christina Wilkie tweeted, “Nunes’ opening statement suggests Intel Republicans didn’t know (Ambassador) Sondland was flipping until the last minute, and Nunes didn’t have time to update his opening statement — to which Alex Thomas responded, “Yeah, the reaction I’m getting from everybody on the Hill right now is ‘Nunes read the wrong opening statement.’”

View the November 20 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.