Tag: Trump sleaze

Trump suggests he mentioned Biden in phone call with Ukrainian president

Washington Post logoPresident Trump appeared to confirm Sunday that he mentioned former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter in a phone call with the leader of Ukraine, as some senior Democrats revived talk of impeachment hearings over revelations that Trump had asked a foreign government to investigate one of his potential 2020 opponents.

The president and his close allies also escalated their attacks on Biden on Sunday, demanding probes into the former vice president and his son’s work in Ukraine, though no evidence has surfaced that Biden acted inappropriately and Trump’s allies did not provide any.

Across several networks Sunday, top administration officials, outside advisers and lawmakers close to Trump repeatedly raised the specter of impropriety on the part of Biden, whose younger son, Hunter, was on the board of a Ukrainian gas company that Trump pushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate, according to people familiar with the matter.

View the complete September 22 article by Seung Min Kim and Felicia Sonmez on The Washington Post website here.

Ukraine, if you’re listening . . .: How Trump tries to quell controversies by saying the quiet part out loud

Washington Post logoThe Debrief: An occasional series offering a reporter’s insights

Ukraine, if you’re listening . . .

Much as he did three years ago — when he asked Russia to hack the emails of his Democratic rival — President Trump on Friday seemed to make a similar request of Ukraine, all but urging the Eastern European nation to investigate Joe Biden, his potential Democratic opponent.

“It doesn’t matter what I discussed, but I will say this — somebody ought to look into Joe Biden,” Trump said Friday in the Oval Office, swatting away questions about whether he had improperly attempted to pressure Ukraine to dig up dirt on the former vice president.

View the complete September 20 article by Ashley Parker on The Washington Post website here.

Mike Pence gave a dodgy answer when asked if Trump used Ukraine aid to force a Biden investigation

AlterNet logoOn his trip to Poland earlier this month, Vice President Mike Pence was asked directly about whether the hold-up in about $250 million in military aid to Ukraine had any relation to Rudy Giuliani trying to dig up dirt on the Biden family. Pence had just met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the day before, and he dodged the implication of the question entirely.

Without offering a yes or no, Pence said, “We discussed America’s support for Ukraine and the upcoming decision the President will make on the latest tranche of financial support in great detail.”

What makes Pence’s response even more interesting is that the reporter asked a two-part question: “Did you discuss Joe Biden at all during that meeting yesterday with the Ukrainian President? And number two, can you assure Ukraine that the hold-up of that money has absolutely nothing to do with efforts, including by Rudy Giuliani, to try to dig up dirt on the Biden family?”

View the complete September 20 article by Kerry Eleveld from Daily Kos on the AlterNet website here.

The Memo: ‘Whistleblower’ furor gains steam

The Hill logoAn air of crisis is enveloping Washington over allegations from a whistleblower against President Trump over his dealings with a foreign government.

The specifics of the complaint are still unclear — something that irks Trump’s critics and supporters alike — but dealings with Ukraine appear to form a major part of it.

The furor is also deepening because of Democratic outrage that the administration has blocked details of the complaint from being made available, even on a classified basis, to members of Congress.

View the complete September 21 article by Niall Stanage on The Hill website here.

Trump’s rhetoric will have a chilling effect on whistleblowing, legal experts say

Washington Post logoIt’s tough to be a whistleblower any day — but especially today, when the moment’s most prominent one hasn’t even been publicly identified, yet has already been ridiculed by the president of the United States and the country’s most-watched cable news network.

The intelligence official who lodged a complaint about President Trump’s conversation with a foreign leader is “a partisan person” carrying out a “political hack job,” Trump said from the Oval Office on Friday, offering no evidence and saying he didn’t know the person’s identity.

The whistleblower is “a punk, a punk who’s snitching out the president’s phone calls to a foreign leader,” said Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera on Friday’s episode of “Fox & Friends,” adding that the person is one of “these, you know, deep state people.”

View the complete September 20 article by Reis Thebault on The Washington Post website here.

Behind the Whistle-Blower Case, a Long-Held Trump Grudge Toward Ukraine

New York Times logoWASHINGTON — For months this spring and summer, Ukraine’s newly elected president, Volodymyr Zelensky, tried to deflect pressure from President Trump and his allies to pursue investigations into former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Mr. Biden’s son and other Trump rivals.

The pressure was so relentless that Mr. Zelensky dispatched one of his closest aides to open a line of communication with Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers. Mr. Giuliani was the loudest voice among those demanding that Ukraine look at Mr. Biden’s dealings with the country when he was vice president at the same time his younger son, Hunter Biden, was doing business there, and also the release by Ukrainians in 2016 of damaging information about a top Trump campaign aide.

Over breakfast in early July at the Trump International Hotel, Mr. Zelensky’s aide asked the State Department’s envoy to Ukraine for help connecting to Mr. Giuliani. Several days later, the aide discussed with Mr. Giuliani by phone the prospective investigations as well as something the Ukrainians wanted: a White House meeting between Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Trump.

View the complete September 20 article by Kenneth P. Vogel on The New York Times website here.

Trump pressed Ukrainian leader to investigate Biden’s son, according to people familiar with the matter

Washington Post logoPresident Trump pressed the leader of Ukraine to investigate the son of former vice president Joe Biden in a call between the two leaders that is at the center of an extraordinary whistleblower complaint, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Trump used the July 25 conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to pressure the recently elected leader to pursue an investigation that Trump thought would deliver potential political dirt on one of his possible challengers in 2020, the people said.

The descriptions of the call provide the clearest indication to date that Trump sought to use the influence of his office to prod the leader of a country seeking American financial and diplomatic support to provide material that could aid the president’s reelection. After spending much of his presidency fending off allegations that he welcomed 2016 campaign help from Russia, Trump now stands accused of soliciting political ammunition from a country next door to Russia.

View the complete September 20 article by Matt Zapotosky, Greg Miller, Ellen Nakashim and Carol D. Leonnig on The Washington Post website here.

Trump to meet Ukrainian president at UN amid whistleblower controversy

Axios logoThe White House has announced President Trump’s itinerary for next week at the UN General Assembly, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is among the world leaders with whom Trump is slated to meet.

Why it matters: Ukraine is reportedly at the center of a whistleblower’s concerns over Trump’s contacts with a foreign leader, the Washington Post and New York Times reported. While little is known about the whistleblower complaint, Trump spoke with Zelensky two weeks before the issue was raised in August. Per the Post, Trump made a “promise” that troubled a member of the intelligence community.

A senior administration official said that in Wednesday’s meeting, Trump would congratulate Zelensky on his election victory and his “energy and success” thus far in tackling corruption, while raising “his concerns about predatory Chinese economic activity in Ukraine.”

View the complete September article by Dave Lawler on the Axios website here.

Whistleblower complaint about President Trump involves Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the matter

Washington Post logoA whistleblower complaint about President Trump made by an intelligence official centers on Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the matter, which has set off a struggle between Congress and the executive branch.

The complaint involved communications with a foreign leader and a “promise” that Trump made, which was so alarming that a U.S. intelligence official who had worked at the White House went to the inspector general of the intelligence community, two former U.S. officials said.

Two and a half weeks before the complaint was filed, Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian and political newcomer who was elected in a landslide in May.

View the complete September 19 article by Ellen Nakashima, Shane Harris, Greg Miller and Carol D. Leonnig on The Washington Post website here.

Democrats to seek ways to compel release of Trump whistleblower complaint

The Hill logoHouse Democrats are sounding the alarm after an intelligence community watchdog testified behind closed doors Thursday about the handling of a whistleblower complaint that is said to relate to a conversation President Trump had with a foreign leader.

Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said the committee would consider a series of remedies to compel acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Joseph Maguire to share the complaint with Congress, which comes after Intelligence Community (IC) Inspector General Michael Atkinson said he found this whistleblower had brought forward a credible and “urgent concern.”

Schiff says the law requires Maguire to share the complaint with Congress no later than seven days after the director receives the allegations from the inspector general (IG).

View the complete September 19 article by Olivia Beavers on The Hill website here.