Tag: Ukraine

With an impeachment trial looming, new evidence that Trump sought personal benefit in Ukraine

Washington Post logoIf one were simply to read the transcript, as President Trump has insisted we do, the point made obvious in new documents released by the House Intelligence Committee would be apparent.

In that transcript — the rough transcript of the July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — Trump cajoles his counterpart to start investigations focused on former vice president Joe Biden and an unfounded theory about Ukrainian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Zelensky agrees to the probes with alacrity, in part, no doubt, because it had already been made clear to his team that agreement was a necessary criterion for a much-sought meeting with Trump at the White House. To move the probes forward, Trump then suggests that Zelensky work with two people: Attorney General William P. Barr, head of the Justice Department — and Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney.

The inclusion of Giuliani in the conversation has long made it hard for Trump to argue that he was seeking Zelensky’s aid only insofar as it would benefit the United States generally. When he asked Zelensky to “do us a favor,” he has argued, he meant “us” as in the United States. That he then suggested Zelensky work with Giuliani, who is not an employee of the United States, and that his request in that specific case focused on his efforts to undermine the investigation into Russian interference that he saw as a cloud over his presidency make it particularly hard to take Trump’s claims at face value. Continue reading.

House Dems release new impeachment evidence related to indicted Giuliani associate

It also includes a previously undisclosed May 2019 letter from Giuliani to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The House Intelligence Committee released new evidence on Tuesday related to the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, including information turned over by Lev Parnas, an indicted former associate of Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.

The release, which reflects the unfinished nature of the House’s impeachment inquiry, comes ahead of an expected House vote on Wednesday to formally send the impeachment articles to the Senate for a trial.

“Despite unprecedented obstruction by the president, the committee continues to receive and review potentially relevant evidence and will make supplemental transmittals,” Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) wroteTuesday to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), whose panel is responsible for compiling the complete record of the investigation ahead of the Senate’s trial. Continue reading. Continue reading.

White House Withholds 20 Emails Between Two Trump Aides on Ukraine Aid

New York Times logoIt contends the release of the documents sought by The Times would “inhibit the frank and candid exchange of views” in government decision-making.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration disclosed on Friday that there were 20 emails between a top aide to President Trump’s acting chief of staff and a colleague at the White House’s Office of Management and Budget discussing the freeze of a congressionally mandated military aid package for Ukraine.

But in response to a court order that it swiftly process those pages in response to a Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, lawsuit filed by The New York Times, the Office of Management and Budget delivered a terse letter saying it would not turn over any of the 40 pages of emails — not even with redactions.

“All 20 documents are being withheld in full,” wrote Dionne Hardy, the office’s Freedom of Information Act officer. Continue reading.

Trump missed call on Ukraine aid to play golf — on the same day whistleblower complaint was filed

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump missed a conference call with top officials about his order to freeze military aid to Ukraine to play golf with professional player John Daly on the same day that the whistleblower complaint which triggered his impeachment was filed.

Trump’s decision set off a frenzy behind the scenes as some aides scrambled to justify the move, while others pushed to change his mind, according to an extensive New York Times report detailing what happened inside the administration following the president’s directive.

Trump first asked to freeze the aid in June. The order led Russel Vought, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, to search on Google for a right-wing Washington Examiner article, which appears to have prompted Trump’s decision. Continue reading

Legal experts blast AG Barr over impeachment and Ukraine: He is ‘up to his eyeballs’ in the ‘corruption surrounding Trump’

AlterNet logoWhen the U.S. Senate voted to confirm William Barr as President Donald Trump’s attorney general, some optimists hoped he would bring a more traditional view of conservatism to the Trump Administration — noting that Barr had previously held the same position under President George H.W. Bush in the early 1990s. But Barr has turned out to be a full-fledged Trump loyalist, and legal experts are lambasting him for becoming, in effect, Trump’s personal attorney during the Ukraine scandal and the president’s impeachment. Barr hasn’t been hiding his feelings on Trump’s impeachment, claiming that Democrats in Congress are “trivializing” impeachment and are using it as a “political tool.”

Journalist Alexandra Hutzler, in an article published by Newsweek on December 23, gathers some views from legal experts. One of them is attorney Nick Akerman, who told Newsweek, “This is a really strange situation with Barr, who has so many conflicts and is up to his eyeballs in all of the corruption surrounding Trump.”

Former federal prosecutor Michael J. Stern was equally critical, asserting that Barr’s loyalty to Trump is a “perversion” of his position as U.S. attorney general. Stern told Newsweek, “There is an inherent conflict in Barr’s designated role as the chief law enforcement officer of this country and his efforts to protect the man who gave him his job. It is unfortunate that Bill Barr never misses an opportunity to place his thumb on the scales of justice in favor of Donald Trump. That’s not how it is supposed to be.” Continue reading

White House official directed hold on Ukraine aid shortly after Trump’s July 25 call with Zelensky

Washington Post logoAn official from the White House budget office directed the Defense Department to “hold off” on sending military aid to Ukraine less than two hours after President Trump’s controversial phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to internal emails.

Michael Duffey, a senior budget official, told Pentagon officials that Trump had become personally interested in the Ukraine aid and had ordered the hold, according to the heavily redacted emails, obtained by the Center for Public Integrity on Friday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. He also asked the Pentagon not to discuss the hold widely.

“Given the sensitive nature of the request, I appreciate your keeping that information closely held to those who need to know to execute the direction,” Duffey wrote in a July 25 email to Pentagon Comptroller Elaine McCusker and others.

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Former White House officials say they feared Putin influenced the president’s views on Ukraine and 2016 campaign

Washington Post logoAlmost from the moment he took office, President Trump seized on a theory that troubled his senior aides: Ukraine, he told them on many occasions, had tried to stop him from winning the White House.

After meeting privately in July 2017 with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin at the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Trump grew more insistent that Ukraine worked to defeat him, according to multiple former officials familiar with his assertions.

The president’s intense resistance to the assessment of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia systematically interfered in the 2016 campaign — and the blame he cast instead on a rival country — led many of his advisers to think that Putin himself helped spur the idea of Ukraine’s culpability, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions.

Giuliani Provides Details of What Trump Knew About Ambassador’s Removal

New York Times logoRudolph Giuliani said in an interview that he briefed the president “a couple of times” about Marie Yovanovitch, the envoy to Ukraine, setting her recall in motion.

WASHINGTON — Rudolph W. Giuliani said on Monday that he provided President Trump with detailed information this year about how the United States ambassador to Ukraine was, in Mr. Giuliani’s view, impeding investigations that could benefit Mr. Trump, setting in motion the ambassador’s recall from her post.

In an interview, Mr. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, described how he passed along to Mr. Trump “a couple of times” accounts about how the ambassador, Marie L. Yovanovitch, had frustrated efforts that could be politically helpful to Mr. Trump. They included investigations involving former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Ukrainians who disseminated documents that damaged Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign.

The president in turn connected Mr. Giuliani with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who asked for more information, Mr. Giuliani said. Within weeks, Ms. Yovanovitch was recalled as ambassadorat the end of April and was told that Mr. Trump had lost trust in her.

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Giuliani says Trump asked him to brief Justice Dept. and GOP senators on his Ukraine findings

Washington Post logoRudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, said Tuesday that the president has asked him to brief the Justice Department and Republican senators on his findings from a recent trip to Ukraine ahead of a likely Senate impeachment trial.

“He wants me to do it,” Giuliani said in a brief interview. “I’m working on pulling it together and hope to have it done by the end of the week.”

However, it is unclear whether GOP senators or Justice Department officials want information from Giuliani, whose meetings in Europe last week with Ukrainian sources drew condemnation from Democratic lawmakers and winces even from some Republicans.

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Ukraine’s Zelensky is making headway against corruption. But the fight risks angering Trump.

Washington Post logoKYIV, Ukraine — By the end of this month, more than 500 Ukrainian prosecutors will be out of their jobs as part of sweeping professional reviews under Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Among the prosecutors heading for the exit: a key Kyiv contact for Rudolph W. Giuliani.

The prosecutor purge is just one of several corruption-busting efforts set in motion by Zelensky. But it puts into sharp relief Zelensky’s twin challenges — trying to balance his clean-government promises at home with his needs to keep President Trump from turning against him.

Zelensky’s bind is not hard to spot.

Continue reading here.