Tag: Ukraine

Trump’s false claims about Hunter Biden’s China dealings

Washington Post logo“When Biden’s son walks out of China with $1.5 billion in a fund, and the biggest funds in the world can’t get money out of China, and he’s there for one quick meeting and he flies in on Air Force Two, I think that’s a horrible thing. I think it’s a horrible thing.”

— President Trump, remarks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Sept. 25, 2019

“Ask how his son made millions of dollars from Ukraine, made millions of dollars from China, even though he had no expertise whatsoever.”

— Trump, in remarks to reporters with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Sept. 24

“The son took money from China — a lot of money from China.”

— Trump, remarks to reporters at the United Nations, Sept. 23

We’ve been writing a lot about Trump’s false claims concerning Ukraine, Joe Biden and Biden’s son, Hunter. Now let’s turn our attention to Trump’s repeated suggestions that Hunter struck it rich with a sketchy deal in China.

View the complete September 26 article by Glenn Kessler on The Washington Post website here.

‘Unbelievable!’: Fox News show bursts into chaos when Juan Williams accuses co-hosts of using Trump talking points

AlterNet logoFox News show “The Five” devolved into outrage and shouting on Wednesday afternoon when host Juan Williams — the token liberal on the panel — not-so-subtly accused his co-hosts of spouting talking points from the White House.

Those talking points, meant to defend the president from the deluge of criticism he is facing amidst the ongoing Ukraine scandal, were revealed when they were inadvertently sent to Democrats in Washington D.C.

“Just listening here, I think, boy, those talking points, they’ve made the rounds! Because the reality is —” Williams said.

View the complete September 25 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.

Maguire contradicts Trump: I think the whistleblower did the ‘right thing’

The Hill logoActing Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire contradicted President Trump on Thursday, telling Congress that he believes the whistleblower who raised concerns about Trump’s interactions with Ukrainian officials did the “right thing” in a “unique and unprecedented” case.

“I think the whistleblower did the right thing,” Maguire said to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) during public testimony, adding that they followed the whistleblower statute every step of the way.

Maguire also expressed his support of the whistleblower, deeming the complaint “credible” and “important” while stating that he does not know the identity of the individual.

View the complete September 26 article by Olivia Beavers on The Hill website here.

Whistleblower complaint says Trump sought to enlist Ukraine’s help in 2020

The Hill logoA whistleblower complaint released by the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday alleges that President Trump sought to enlist Ukraine’s help in the 2020 election by mounting a corruption investigation against former Vice President Joe Biden.

The declassified version of the whistleblower complaint details the government insider’s worries about Trump’s contacts with Ukraine’s leader, revelations of which on Tuesday triggered a formal impeachment inquiry against the president.

The complainant said “multiple White House officials with direct knowledge” described to the whistleblower the details of the July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, including that “the President used the remainder of the call to advance his personal interests. Namely, he sought to pressure the Ukrainian leader to take actions to help the President’s 2020 reelection bid.”

View the complete September 26 article by Olivia Beavers and Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Trump Says He Hopes Zelensky and Putin Can Be BFFs

Trump Says He Hopes Zelensky and Putin Can Be BFFs

Questions about the nature of President Donald Trump’s relationship with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have prompted the House of Representatives to launch an impeachment inquiry. But in his first in-person appearance with the leader he allegedly pressured to investigate his political rivals, Trump appeared more interested in matching Zelensky up with another unlikely ally: Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I really hope that Russia—because I really believe that President Putin would like to do something—I really hope that you and President Putin can get together and solve your problem,” Trump said at the United Nations on Wednesday, as Zelensky sat stone-faced. “That would be a tremendous achievement, and I know that you’re trying to do that.

“You’ve really made some progress with Russia,” Trump added, telling Zelensky that “it’d be nice to end that whole disaster.”

View the complete September 25 article by Scott Bixby on the Daily Beast website here.

Barr’s relationship with Trump called into question again by Ukraine call

Analysis: Trump’s call with Ukraine’s leader raises questions about whether he thinks the attorney general’s job includes advocating for him personally.

The Trump administration’s release of notes documenting President Donald Trump’s conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has raised questions about Trump’s relationship with Attorney General William Barr and whether he views Barr as someone whose job includes advocating for him on personal matters.

Repeatedly over the course of the call, Trump told Zelenskiy that his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and Barr will be contacting Ukrainian prosecutors on two investigations: one related to an email server tied to Trump’s former political rival, Hillary Clinton, and the other related to his potential future political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.

“I would like to have the attorney general call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it,” Trump told Zelenskiy about an investigation he wanted into CrowdStrike, a California-based company that investigated the Russian hacking of emails belonging to the Democratic National Committee in 2016.

View the complete September 25 article by Julia Ainsley on the NBC News website here.

218 House lawmakers now support an impeachment inquiry on Trump

Washington Post logoThe White House released a rough transcript Wednesday of President Trump’s July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky telling him to work with U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr to investigate the conduct of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. The administration transmitted the whistleblower’s complaint to Congress before the vote, and members of the Intelligence committees had a chance to review it.

On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, Trump dismissed Democrats’ move to open an impeachment inquiry against him, denied that he pressured Ukraine’s leader to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and suggested that the White House should release even more records of his communications.

The July 25 call has been the subject of intense scrutiny since The Washington Post reported last week that a whistleblower had come forward with concerns about the matter.

View the complete September 25 article by Felicia Sonmez, Colby Itkowitz and John Wagner on The Washington Post website here.

Ukraine president: “I don’t want to be involved” in U.S. elections

Axios logoResponding to the release of a memorandum from a July phone call with President Trump on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at the UN that he doesn’t want be involved in “democratic, open elections” in the U.S.

ZELENSKY: “I think you read everything. I think you read text. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be involved to democratic open … elections. Elections of USA. No. Sure, we had, I think, good phone call. It was normal. We spoke about many things, and I — so I think and you read it that nobody pushed me.”

TRUMP: “In other words, no pressure.”

The big picture: The memorandum released by the White House confirmed that Trump asked Zelensky to work with his attorney Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate unsupported corruption allegations against Joe Biden.

View the complete September 25 article by Zachary Basu on the Axios website here.

Director of National Intelligence sent whistleblower’s complaint about Trump to Barr’s DOJ — which declined to investigate

AlterNet logoThe Director of National Intelligence and the intelligence community’s inspector general both sent the whistleblower’s complaint against President Donald Trump to the U.S. Dept. of Justice, suggesting a criminal investigation be opened. The DOJ, under Attorney General Bill Barr, refused to prosecute the president.

“The department’s criminal division reviewed the matters and concluded that there was no basis for a criminal investigation into Mr. Trump’s behavior,” The New York Times reports. “Law enforcement officials determined that the transcript of the call did not show that Mr. Trump had violated campaign finance laws by soliciting from a foreign national a contribution, donation or thing of value.”

In fact, many legal experts believe the opposite.

View the complete September 25 article by David Badash on the New Civil RIghts Movement website here.

Memo: Trump asked Ukraine to work with Giuliani, Barr to investigate Biden

Axios logoThe White House on Wednesday released a memorandum of a July 25 call in which President Trump pressed the president of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden. The memo notes that it is not a verbatim transcript.

The big picture: After discussing the Ukrainian election, Trump told President Volodymyr Zelensky he should work with his lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General Bill Barr to look into allegations that Joe Biden fired a Ukrainian prosecutor investigating his son. Trump has previously confirmed that he discussed these allegations against Biden — for which there is no evidence — with Zelensky. It was not previously known that Trump asked Zelensky to work with Barr.

“The other thing, There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it … It sounds horrible to me.”

View the complete September 25 article on the Axios website here.