Tag: Ukraine

Trump is terrified of the whistleblower and acting like ‘a frightened child driven by envy and fear’: Renowned psychiatrist

AlterNet logoLast Tuesday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats were finally forced to begin long-overdue impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump after the revelation that the president had abused the power of his office to extort the president of Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 presidential election by providing or manufacturing evidence of corruption or other criminality against Joe Biden. This was at least the second time Trump has solicited the assistance of a foreign country in a presidential election.

Recent days have seen additional information made public about other impeachable offenses committed by Trump and his minions.

Trump reportedly told Russian diplomats during a private 2017 meeting that he didn’t care that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election to benefit him. That meeting offered implicit permission for Russia to do the same again in the 2020 election. We have also learned that Trump sent Cabinet officials such as Attorney General William Barr and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to meet with representatives from foreign intelligence agencies with the goal of discrediting America’s own national security officials and undermining the entire basis of the Mueller Report.

View the complete October 3 article by Chauncey DeVega from Salon on the AlterNet website here.

Did Rudy Giuliani Nullify His Attorney-Client Protections?

Sometimes he says he’s acting as President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer — and sometimes he says he’s not. That could cost him a key legal shield and force him to cooperate with the House impeachment inquiry.

Rudy Giuliani received a subpoena this week from House Democrats as part of their impeachment inquiry. He wasn’t happy about it. In a tweet on Monday, Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, accused the Democratic committee chairs of having “prejudged this case.” He asserted that the subpoena, which seeks “all documents and communications” about Giuliani’s repeated forays into the world of Ukrainian law enforcement and politics, raises “constitutional and legal issues” including “attorney client and other privileges.”

At first blush, it’s a reasonable position. The attorney-client privilege shields confidential communications between a lawyer and his client so long as they pertain to seeking or providing legal advice. Giuliani is an attorney; the president is his client. With a number of exceptions, lawyers do not have to reveal anything about conversations with their clients. Continue reading “Did Rudy Giuliani Nullify His Attorney-Client Protections?”

Ukraine’s Ex-President Says Biden Never Asked to Close Cases

  • Poroshenko says public pressure led to ouster of prosecutor

  • He rejected claims Ukraine interfered in 2016 U.S. election

Ukraine’s recently departed president, Petro Poroshenko, says that Joe Biden never asked him to open or close any criminal cases, adding to the list of Ukrainian officials saying they saw him do nothing improper involving his son. Continue reading “Ukraine’s Ex-President Says Biden Never Asked to Close Cases”

Trump involved Pence in efforts to pressure Ukraine’s leader, though officials say vice president was unaware of allegations in whistleblower complaint

Washington Post logoPresident Trump repeatedly involved Vice President Pence in efforts to exert pressure on the leader of Ukraine at a time when the president was using other channels to solicit information that he hoped would be damaging to a Democratic rival, current and former U.S. officials said.

Trump instructed Pence not to attend the inauguration of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in May — an event White House officials had pushed to put on the vice president’s calendar — when Ukraine’s new leader was seeking recognition and support from Washington, the officials said.

Months later, the president used Pence to tell Zelensky that U.S. aid was still being withheld while demanding more aggressive action on corruption, officials said. At that time — following Trump’s July 25 phone call with Zelenksy — the Ukrainians probably understood action on corruption to include the investigation of former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

View the complete October 2 article by Greg Miller, Greg Jaffe and Ashley Parker on The Washington Post website here.

Giuliani consulted on Ukraine with imprisoned Paul Manafort via a lawyer

Washington Post logoIn his quest to rewrite the history of the 2016 election, President Trump’s personal attorney has turned to an unusual source of information: Trump’s imprisoned former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Rudolph W. Giuliani in recent months has consulted several times with Manafort through the federal prisoner’s lawyer in pursuit of information about a disputed ledger that would bolster his theory that the real story of 2016 is not Russian interference to elect Trump, but Ukrainian efforts to support Hillary Clinton.

The relationship, which Giuliani acknowledged in an interview this week with The Washington Post, stems from a shared interest in a narrative that undermines the rationale for the special counsel investigation. That inquiry led to Manafort’s imprisonment on tax and financial fraud allegations related to his work in Kiev for the political party of former president Viktor Yanukovych.

View the complete October 2 article by Josh Dawsey, Tom Hamburger, Paul Sonne and Rosalind S. Helderman on The Washington Post website here.

Echoes of Benghazi Criticism and Anger Confront Pompeo in Ukraine Inquiry

New York Times logoSecretary of State Mike Pompeo once accused the Obama administration of obstructing a House inquiry and letting politics override national interests. He now faces similar charges.

WASHINGTON — As a member of Congress, Mike Pompeo drove the Republican inquiry into the killing of a United States ambassador in Benghazi, Libya, and made clear there was no place for politics in American diplomacy. Nor, he said, would he tolerate “dithering” by an Obama administration State Department that he called “deeply obstructive of getting the American people the facts that they needed.”

Now, as secretary of state, Mr. Pompeo is facing a political crisis that directly challenges his leadership of the department he once excoriated. He is accused by House Democrats of blocking their impeachment inquiry by resisting the release of information to Congress that may shed light on the Trump administration’s shadow foreign policy with Ukraine.

And career diplomats, some of whom blame the Trump administration for dismembering the Foreign Service and undercutting American diplomacy, are expected to be among the first witnesses telling their stories to Congress during its inquiry.

View the complete October 2 article by Lara Jakes and David E. Sanger on The New York Times website here.

Maine senator suggests at least 20 minutes are cut from rough transcript of Trump’s conversation with Zelensky: ‘We don’t know what is missing’

AlterNet logoThe words “rough transcript” have often been used to describe a publicly released summation of President Donald Trump’s now-infamous July 25 phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky; it was not a full transcript but rather, was based on what notetakers wrote down. And Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent, has suggested that at least 20 minutes of the conversation are missing from the rough transcript/White House memo that has been publicly released.

Speaking to CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday, King asserted that according to an analysis by his staff, roughly two-thirds of the call time remain unaccounted for.

The 75-year-old King (who was a Democrat before 1993) told Cooper, “I had two staff members from my office the other day read it aloud, and we timed it. They read it in normal speaking pace. It took them ten minutes and 40 seconds; the phone call was 30 minutes. Now, we don’t know what is missing.”

View the complete October 2 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.

Trump’s Extortion of Ukraine: A Complete Government Shakedown

Center for American Progress logoFind more about Trump’s Constitutional Crisis as it develops here.

It now appears that President Donald Trump was running an extortion campaign against Ukraine, as well as a complex cover-up to keep the public in the dark about his abuse of power. On July 18, 2019, the Trump administration withheld $250 million of military aid to Ukraine. Seven days later, Trump held a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which he asked Zelensky to work with Rudy Giuliani and U.S. Attorney General William Barr to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

The transcript of this call, which was partially the subject of a whistleblower complaint, reportedly was initially buried by the White House. It has now come out that the phone call with Zelensky wasn’t the only conversation between Trump and a foreign leader that the administration sought to hide; reports say Trump also recently tried to persuade Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to work with Barr to discredit the Russia investigation. Continue reading “Trump’s Extortion of Ukraine: A Complete Government Shakedown”

Giuliani turns on ‘honest’ Ukrainian prosecutor who says Bidens did nothing illegal

Rudy Giuliani had nothing but praise for Ukrainian prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko — until he didn’t.

WASHINGTON — For much of this year, Rudy Giuliani was counting on Ukraine’s former chief prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko, to reopen a dormant investigation into an energy company where Joe Biden’s son Hunter had once served as a board member.

In an early May phone call with NBC, Giuliani called Lutsenko a “much more honest guy” than the previous, Kremlin-aligned prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, whom the Ukrainian Parliament sacked for failing to crack down on corruption.

Lutsenko recently told NBC News the two talked about 10 times and The New York Times reported that Giuliani’s allegations that Joe Biden’s family engaged in wrongdoing in Ukraine were based on a series of meetings with Lutsenko.

View the complete October 1 article by Heidi Przybyla and Allan Smith on the NBC News website here.

House Democrats threaten to subpoena White House for Ukraine docs

The Hill logoHouse Democrats are threatening to subpoena the White House for documents on President Trump‘s dealings with Ukraine as part of their impeachment inquiry, with three House panels signaling Wednesday they plan to move forward with the effort unless they get the material.
The move represents the latest battle between the White House and Democrats, and came amid clashing rhetoric Wednesday, with Democrats accusing Trump of potential obstruction of justice and the president accusing the opposition party of seeking to damage the country.
“Over the past several weeks, the Committees tried several times to obtain voluntary compliance with our requests for documents, but the White House has refused to engage with—or even respond to—the Committees,” reads a memo from House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.)

View the complete October 2 article by Cristina Marcos on The Hill website here.