Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) was hilariously shut down by the wife of retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a key witness in Trump’s first impeachment trial.
Rubio tweeted a Politico story on the White House freezing military aid to Ukraine that was labeled “nonsense” by press secretary Jen Psaki.
“Remember when freezing military aid to Ukraine was an impeachable offense?” Rubio asked. Continue reading.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson said the memo was actually meant to guide then-Attorney General William Barr on “getting a jump on public relations” in explaining why he was not pursuing obstruction charges.
A portion of a memo cited by former Attorney General William Barr as a reason not to pursue obstruction of justice charges against former President Donald Trump was released Monday night, but the Justice Department said it is appealing a judge’s order to disclose the rest of it.
Barr cited the 2019 memo by the department’s Office of Legal Counsel as a reason for not pursuing the charges after he received special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and any links to the Trump campaign.
Mueller’s report said his team was unable to reach a judgment on whether the president committed obstruction of justice, but the Office of Legal Counsel’s memo said the department should reach a conclusion anyway, and recommended that the evidence would not support prosecution. Continue reading.
President Donald Trump’s former ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, is suing former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and the U.S. government for $1.8 million to compensate for legal fees incurred during the 2019 House impeachment probe.
The suit, filed Monday in federal court in the District of Columbia, alleges that Pompeo reneged on his promise that the State Department would cover the fees after Sondland delivered bombshell testimony accusing Trump and his aides of pressuring the government of Ukraine to investigate then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter in exchange for military aid.
Sondland, a Portland hotel magnate appointed by Trump to serve as ambassador, became a key witness of the impeachment probe because of his firsthand knowledge of conversations with Trump, his attorney Rudy Giuliani and senior Ukrainian officials — as well as his punchy answers, affable demeanor and colorful language. Continue reading.
Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, who was a central figure in two separate scandals that twice resulted in former President Donald Trump’s impeachment, is reportedly being ignored as he begs his one-time boss for help.
The Daily Beast is reporting that Giuliani and his allies have been sending frantic pleas for help after the FBI raided the former New York mayor’s apartment earlier this spring.
Trump, however, has refused to come to Giuliani’s rescue, which has led to “simmering frustrations” among Giuliani’s allies. Continue reading.
Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani two years ago began pushing an anti-Biden dossier based on purported information he’d gathered from Ukrainian officials — and now it may come back to haunt him legally.
The Daily Beast reports that prosecutors are looking into whether Giuliani’s dossier was part of a paid lobbying campaign by the former New York City mayor done on behalf of former Ukrainian officials.
Giuliani initially pushed the dossier to Trump administration officials during his campaign to oust former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, but officials who spoke with the Daily Beast say that they were deeply unimpressed by its contents. Continue reading.
In an interview with the Daily Beast’s Molly Jong-Fast, conservative attorney George Conway got right to the point and explained that the way in which the Justice Department is going after former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is indicative that they already have a solid case against him and, in Conway’s words, the man once called “America’s mayor” is in “deep shit.”
In the “New Abnormal” podcast, which can be listened to below, the husband of Kellyanne Conway said the DOJ doesn’t take going after a lawyer lightly, much less one who has been representing the president of the United States.
After a discussion about Donald Trump, who Conway referred to as “the big liar,” the conversation turned to Giuliani’s legal problems after last week’s raid where his phones and computers were confiscated. Continue reading.
The call, which happened three days before Trump’s infamous call with Volodymyr Zelensky, gained renewed relevance after federal authorities raided Giuliani’s home and offices this week.
The infamous call in which former president Donald Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to do him a “favor” and investigate Hunter Biden and the origins of the Russia probe took place on July 25, 2019, and eventually led to the former president’s first impeachment. But the pressure campaign against the Ukrainians started just three days earlier, when Rudy Giuliani, then the president’s personal lawyer, was on a call with a top Zelensky aide asking him to tell the Ukrainian leader to “just let these investigations go forward.”
The call between Giuliani and Andriy Yermak, then Zelensky’s top foreign policy advisor and currently his chief of staff, happened on July 22, 2019. Details of the Giuliani–Yermak call were first reported by Time in February. But today, BuzzFeed News is publishing the transcript for the first time.
The call has gained new relevance since federal authorities searched Giuliani’s New York City apartment and office and seized his electronic devices early Wednesday morning, which was first reported by the New York Times. According to the Times and other reports, the FBI’s investigation into the former New York City mayor centers on his business activities in Ukraine and ties to its powerful oligarchs. Continue reading.
It’s unusual for one of the most scandal-adjacent members of a presidential team to be someone who doesn’t actually serve in government, but former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has always exceeded expectations. From his initial advocacy of Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy in 2016 through the present, he’s been one of Trump’s most fervent allies and defenders — and has been entangled in most of the more serious allegations the former president has faced.
On Wednesday, federal agents advanced a long-standing investigation into how Giuliani might have leveraged his access to Trump for his personal benefit by executing search warrants on his home and office. Given that development, we decided to go back and review the various points at which Giuliani’s questionable behavior intersected with either with his private interests or Trump’s public, political ones.
Even given our familiarity with the subject matter, the scale is remarkable. Key individuals are identified in yellow. Continue reading.
Nearly one year after the House of Representatives impeached President Donald Trump, the federal government has released the criminal referral alleging Trump committed crimes related to his phone call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, a conversation that sparked the historic proceedings.
The document, obtained by BuzzFeed News from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, is a letter dated September 4, 2019, and signed by Michael Atkinson, inspector general for the intelligence community. It was sent to Stacey Moy, the deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence division. Moy’s involvement in the Ukraine matter has not been previously disclosed.
The inspector general “is formally referring allegations received from an individual regarding, among other things, alleged violations of law related to a telephone call on July 25, 2019, between President Donald J. Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky,” Atkinson wrote. “This referral is a follow-up to my secure telephone call on August 27, 2019, with FBI Director Christopher A. Wray’s Chief of Staff, Paul B. Murphy, during which I provided to Mr. Murphy a summary of the Complainant’s allegations.” Continue reading.
BuzzFeed News obtained the document through a public records lawsuit.
Nearly one year after the House of Representatives impeached President Donald Trump, the federal government has released the criminal referral alleging Trump committed crimes related to his phone call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, a conversation that sparked the historic proceedings.
The document, obtained by BuzzFeed News from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, is a letter dated September 4, 2019, and signed by Michael Atkinson, inspector general for the intelligence community. It was sent to Stacey Moy, the deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence division. Moy’s involvement in the Ukraine matter has not been previously disclosed.
The inspector general “is formally referring allegations received from an individual regarding, among other things, alleged violations of law related to a telephone call on July 25, 2019, between President Donald J. Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky,” Atkinson wrote. “This referral is a follow-up to my secure telephone call on August 27, 2019, with FBI Director Christopher A. Wray’s Chief of Staff, Paul B. Murphy, during which I provided to Mr. Murphy a summary of the Complainant’s allegations.” Continue reading.
