Tag: Trump bribery

Lawmakers spar over upcoming Sondland testimony

The Hill logoPresident Trump’s allies and critics on Sunday took differing views of the implications of U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland‘s testimony in the House’s impeachment inquiry, with Democrats saying Sondland’s upcoming appearance will show that Trump solicited a bribe and Republicans disputing his statements about a quid pro quo.

Sondland is scheduled to testify in front of the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday.

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that Sondland’s public testimony will demonstrate that Trump solicited a bribe.

View the complete November 17 article by Zack Budryk on The Hill website here.

Chris Wallace crushes GOP Whip Steve Scalise’s twisted defense of Trump

AlterNet logoHouse Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) struggled on Sunday to defend President Donald Trump’s alleged attempt to bribe the president of Ukraine to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

During an interview on FOX News Sunday, Wallace grilled Scalise about reports that U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland was overheard saying Trump only cared about things that benefit him like an investigation into Biden.

Wallace pointed out that Trump “never mentions the word corruption” in either of his telephone calls with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky but he did mention Joe Biden and his son.

View the complete November 17 article by David Edwards from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

White House Release Of First Trump-Zelensky Call Backfires

When President Donald Trump said he was planning to release the record of his April 21 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, many observers yawned. In the controversy surrounding the July 25 call, some had raised questions about Trump’s only other call with the new leader, but interest in the April 21 conversation died down as the evidence against the president in the broader Ukraine scandal became so overwhelming and damning.

It was easy to assume that since Trump was so eager this week to release the record of the April 21 call, it would likely be insubstantial and only amount to a distraction for the core issues at impeachment. Jokes were already circulating about the idea that Trump would claim that, since he didn’t commit any crimes on one call, he couldn’t have possibly committed other crimes.

Yet somehow, the release of the new records — again, a decision made largely of Trump’s own initiative — completely backfired.

View the complete November 17 article by Cody Fenwick from AlterNet on the National Memo website here.

GOP divided over impeachment trial strategy

The Hill logoDivisions among Senate Republicans are muddying their strategy for a potential impeachment trial.

As lawmakers await any articles from the House, they’re throwing out their own ideas on what the Senate proceeding should look like.

But Republicans disagree over the length of a trial and who should be asked to testify — two issues that will need to be worked out as part of negotiations on the rules of the trial.

View the complete November 17 article by Jordain Carney on The Hill website here.

White House budget official says decision to delay aid to Ukraine was highly irregular

Washington Post logoA longtime budget official testified Saturday that the White House decision to freeze military aid to Ukraine in mid-July was highly irregular and that senior political appointees in the Office of Management and Budget were unable to provide an explanation for the delay.

The testimony from Mark Sandy, the first employee of OMB to testify in the House impeachment probe, appeared to confirm Democrats’ assertion that the decision to withhold nearly $400 million in congressionally approved funds for Ukraine, including millions in lethal aid, was a political one.

Sandy, the deputy associate director for national security programs at OMB, testified that he was instructed to sign the first of several apportionment letters in which budget officials formally instituted the freeze on funds, according to two people familiar with his testimony who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak frankly. He was never given a specific reason as to why the letter was being sent out, the people added.

View the complete November 16 article by Karoun Demirjian, Rachel Bade, Colby Itkowitz and Erica Werner on The Washington Post website here.

Bolton and Trump Met Privately Over Withheld Aid, White House Official Testified

New York Times logoJohn R. Bolton, who left the White House in September, has emerged as perhaps the most conspicuous witness who has evaded House Democrats as they build their case.

WASHINGTON — John R. Bolton, President Trump’s national security adviser, met privately with the president in August as part of a bid to persuade Mr. Trump to release $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine, a senior National Security Council aide told House impeachment investigators last month.

The meeting, which has not been previously reported, came as Mr. Bolton sought to marshal Mr. Trump’s cabinet secretaries and top national security advisers to convince the president that it was in the United States’ best interest to unfreeze the funds to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia. But Mr. Bolton emerged with Mr. Trump unmoved, and instructed the aide to look for new opportunities to get those officials in front of Mr. Trump.

“The extent of my recollection is that Ambassador Bolton simply said he wasn’t ready to do it,” said the aide, Timothy Morrison, referring to Mr. Trump, according to a transcript of his testimonyreleased by House Democrats on Saturday.

View the complete November 16 article by Nicholas Fandos and Sheryl Gay Stolberg on The New York Times website here.

Top NSC aide puts Sondland at front lines of Ukraine campaign, speaking for Trump

The Hill logoA senior White House official told House impeachment investigators last month that President Trump‘s hand-picked ambassador to Europe had pushed — on behalf of Trump himself — for Ukraine’s president to launch two investigations that could help Trump politically.

Tim Morrison, a top aide at the National Security Council (NSC) who was expected to depart the White House after his testimony, said Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the E.U., had huddled with a top Ukrainian representative on Sept. 1, when he relayed the message that the release of U.S. military aid to the besieged country hinged on Kyiv opening the investigations Trump sought. 

“What he communicated was that he believed … what could help them move the aid was if the prosecutor general would go to the mic and announce that he was opening the Burisma investigation,” Morrison testified privately on Oct. 31, according to the transcript released Saturday by Democrats leading the impeachment investigation.

View the complete November 16 article by Olivia Beavers, Mike Lillis and Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Senior national security official ties key official more closely to Trump on Ukraine in impeachment inquiry

Washington Post logoA former White House national security official told House investigators that Gordon Sondland, ambassador to the European Union, was acting at President Trump’s behest and spoke to a top Ukrainian official about exchanging military aid for political investigations — two elements at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.

Tim Morrison, the top Russia and Europe adviser on the National Security Council, testified that between July 16 and Sept. 11, he understood that Sondland had spoken to Trump about half a dozen times, according to a transcript of his sworn Oct. 31 deposition released by House committees Saturday. Trump has said he does not know Sondland well and has tried to distance himself from the E.U. ambassador, whom Trump put in charge of Ukraine policy along with two others, even though Ukraine is not part of the European Union.

“His mandate from the president was to go make deals,” Morrison said of Sondland.

View the complete November 16 article by Colby Itkowitz, Karoun Demirjian, Michael Kranish and Shane Harris on The Washington Post website here.

A Friday night surprise: David Holmes throws a wrench in Trump’s impeachment defense

Washington Post logoFormer U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch’s testimony was the big public spectacle on Friday. The bigger news in the Ukraine scandal appears to have come later in the day in a private deposition.

It came from David Holmes, an aide to top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine William B. Taylor Jr. Taylor said this week that Holmes overheard President Trump speaking with Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland the day after Trump’s call with Ukraine’s president in July.

And it turns out Holmes fills in a number of key details that Taylor didn’t.

View the complete November 16 article by Aaron Blake on The Washington Post website here.

Republicans fumble when confronted with Trump’s witness intimidation — and one even faked a phone call: report

AlterNet logoOne of the biggest problems Republicans face as they struggle to defend President Donald Trump from impeachment is President Donald Trump himself.

That was as evident on Friday as it has ever been when, in the middle of the House Intelligence Committee’s hearing with former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) told the witness that Trump had attacked her on Twitter while she was testifying.

Schiff said that this behavior constitutes witness intimidation. While there was some dispute about whether the tweets would mee the legal standards for such a criminal charge, they could clearly be considered witness intimidation in the scope of articles of impeachment.

View the complete November 15 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.