Here in the 25th monthly installment of the Trump/Russia Corruption Timeline I open the festivities with this video post from Steve Shives which points out the very obvious truism; Suspects Don't Run the Investigations into themselves.
Each day the facts are gradually pilling up as the deposition testimony is released and public Impeachment hearings are scheduled for next week. In 2018 Rudy Giuliani, working with his pair of henchmen Parnas and Fruman, started cooking up smears against the Ukrainian Ambassador Marie Yovanovich in an effort to have her pushed out of her position and grant him authority to setup of "Drug Deal" to get Ukraine to announce investigations into the crazed conspiracy theory that Crowdstrike faked the Russia hack of the DNC and was secretly keeping the "real server" in Ukraine, and also investigate how former Ukrainian prosecutor Shokin was removed from office over a year after he had already shutdown his previous investigation in the the head of Burisma which had begun before Hunter Biden joined the board of that company.
I have to keep repeating this because the media keeps skipping it. The investigation was into the head of Burisma, not just anybody at the company, because of a couple of sweetheart government contracts they had acquired years ago. Hunter Biden had nothing to do with that, because he had nothing to do with the company at that time. He eventually joined their board later, after which the investigation was shutdown by Shokin. Over a year later, Joe Biden at the behest of the US Government, the EU Government and the IMF pushed to have Shokin removed and replaced because of his tendency to let corruption cases slide. Arguably he may have let the Burisma investigation slide, so Biden actions if anything may have opened the door to restarting the investigation, but even if that had occurred it still would have had nothing to do with Hunter Biden.
We now have reports that indicate this Ukraine obsession by Trump goes all the way back to the 2016 election where apparently Michael Flynn trashed the U.S. Intel communities claim that Russia had implemented the hack, partially because they had fired his ass two year previously because his behavior had become erratic, and also because Flynn as on the Russian payroll after accepting a paid speaking fee during the 10th Anniversary of RT where he sat right next to Putin.
Similarly Paul Manafort had been the one to push the idea that Ukriane had been the ones to truly implement the DNC hack based on input from his former GRU trained associate Konstantin Kilimnick.
Former national security adviser Mike Flynn and campaign chairman Paul Manafort told others on the Trump campaign that they didn’t believe Russia was behind the theft of emails from the Democratic National Committee, from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman and others, according to the documents, released Saturday. Their theory contradicts what a range of U.S. authorities have corroborated.
“Flynn was adamant the Russians did not carry out the hack,” former Trump campaign official Richard Gates last year told the office of then-special counsel Robert Mueller, which was examining Russian interference in the 2016 election and any links to the Trump campaign.
Mr. Flynn supported that theory by arguing that the U.S. intelligence community “was not capable of figuring it out,” according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s notes from Mr. Gates’s interview.
[...]
Mr. Manafort, who had previously worked for a Ukrainian president who later fled to Russia, also said the hack “was likely carried out by the Ukranians, not the Russians,” Mr. Gates told investigators, according to the same memo. That viewpoint “parroted” a theory from Mr. Manafort’s Russian business associate, Konstantin Kilimnik, whom the FBI has assessed to have ties to Russian intelligence.
“Kilimnik also opined the hack could have been perpetrated by Russian operatives in Ukraine,” the memo said.
I mean it's not like a former GRU guy would have a reason to downplay a cyber hack that was implemented — by the GRU.
Obviously none of this is the case, but it is important to understand that these are the delusions that Trump and Giuliani have been working under for years now. With input form Russia-friendly Ukranians such as former Ukranian diplomat Andriy Telizhenko and money launderer Dmitri Firtash Giuliani was fed a line of BS about Hunter Biden.
Rudy Giuliani, the personal lawyer of President Donald Trump, met last week with former Ukrainian diplomat Andriy Telizhenko, who claims that Ukraine conspired with the Democratic National Committee to procure dirt linking Trump's presidential campaign to Russia in 2016.
"We discussed what's happening in Ukraine: political updates, what the new (Ukrainian presidential) team is up to, what are the reforms going to be," Telizhenko told NBC News.
Giuliani reportedly interviewed the former diplomat Tuesday in his Manhattan office about his allegations of election interference, though Telizhenko told the news outlet their recent meeting was not focused on investigations.
"We're friends now," Telizhenko said of Giuliani. "He respects our country."
Yeah, they're friends now.
So Giuliani has been in the mix here for quite sometime including having met with former Ukranian President Proshenko about the black ledger investigation into Paul Manafort, which shortly after that meeting was dropped.
On June 7, 2017, Ignatius pointed out, Giuliani traveled to Ukraine and gave a speech to the Victor Pinchuk foundation. While he was there, Giuliani met with the president at the time, Petro Poroshenko, and the top prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko.
While Giuliani was visiting, Ukraine's anti-corruption bureau was in the middle of a criminal investigation into a "black ledger" of allegedly illegal payments made by Ukraine's pro-Russia Party of Regions. Among the recipients of those payments was Paul Manafort, the former chairman of Trump's campaign who was forced to resign when the public became aware of his shady financial dealings.
It's unclear what Giuliani discussed with Poroshenko and Lutsenko when he went to Ukraine. But two days after their meeting, the investigation into Manafort was handed off from the anti-corruption unit to Lutsenko's office.
The move meant the investigation was effectively stalled and, as one former Ukrainian official told The Kyiv Post, it meant "that somebody gave an order to bury the black ledger."
This is not a new game for Giuliani. Moving into this year after a searing of disloyalty smears were launched at Ukranian Ambassador Yovanavich leader to her being recalled, Giuliani with the help of Mick Mulvaney went to work. Mulvaney, on Trump's orders, block the $391 Million congressional aid pack to Ukraine while Ambassador Sondland went to work on them to "get the deliverable."
At a July 10th meeting with Ukrainian National Security reps Sondland stated that the money would be held up until Ukraine announced that they would make a formal announcement of investigations into Burisma and Crowdstrike. John Bolton immediately shutdown this meeting saying he didn't want to be involved in "what ever drug deal Giuliani and Sondland had cooked up."
Sondland then re-convened the meeting without Bolton and repeated the request to the Ukrainians. NSC staffers Fiona Hill and Lt. Col Vindman found this highly inappropriate and said so to Sondland. Vindman was instructed by Bolton to report the event to NSC Lawyer John Eisenberg.
Later on July 25th when Trump finally spoke to President Zelensky on the phone as Zelensky brings up that could use more Javelin anti-tank missiles to fight back against pro-Russian seperatist Trump goes "I need you to do us a favor, though" at which point he brings up the Crowdstrike conspiracy theory arguing that "they have the [DNC] Server”. Zelensky then, catching the drift, mentions Giuliani and Trump then follows up with a request to investigate the Bidens and the removal of Shokin. Trump says he want Zelensky to meet with Giuliani and also Attorney General Barr to "look into things."
The deal was set, in order to gain access to the $400 Million Zelensky then made arrangements to speak to Fareed Zakaria on CNN where he planned to publicly announce his new investigations.
The New York Times
reported on Thursday that Zelensky had planned to announce an investigation into Trump's political rivals during a September interview on CNN, but those plans had been scrapped once Trump released promised security aid. Zakaria told CNN's Brooke Baldwin on Thursday that the interview had been months in the making, but it fell apart when the Ukraine scandal began to unfold -- though CNN did not cancel it.
"We had been negotiating with President Zelensky and his office for a while, for months, to try to get an interview with him anyway, ever since he was elected President," Zakaria, host of "Fareed Zakaria GPS," told Baldwin.
Once news of the whistleblower's complaint surfaced, "it became clear to us that the interview was off," he continued.
Trump had released the funds to Ukraine on September 11th after the White House was contacted by the Inspector General's Office as a result of the Whistle-Blower complaint. So once that the Quid was released, there was no more need to provide the Quo and Zelensky cancelled his planned announcement on CNN.
That's the end-loop on the deal — Trump broke the deal because he was caught in the act by the Whistle-Blower report and now he and his people are playing games, claiming the Zelensky call was "perfect" and there was "No Quid Pro Quo" even though those are blatant lies.
Trump has attacked the Whistle-Blower while right-wing media has been parading around the name of their chief CIA "suspect", which has been subsequently retweeted by Don Jr. Sycophantic members of Congress have staged mini-riots to disrupt the deposition process, while complaining that the process isn't "open and transparent", and now that public hearings are scheduled for next week Trump claims it's all a "hoax" and there's no reason for hearings at all.
Try as they might the GOP is determined to turn this process into a farce, a circus.
Mitch McConnell is planning for a "fast acquittal” for Impeachment charges in the Senate while Trump grows increasingly nervous that beyond Rand Paul, John Kennedy and Lindsay Graham there are a dozen or more Senate GOPers who are ready and open to removing him from office and replacing all his craziness with Mike Pence.
Although Republicans have so far tried to stay in lockstep with President Donald Trump during the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry, Politico’s Tim Alberta reports that there is still a sense of deep unease among GOP lawmakers about the president’s actions.
Based on “dozens” of interviews with GOP lawmakers and aides, Alberta has concluded that “there is a sizable number of Republican senators and representatives who believe Trump’s actions are at least theoretically impeachable, who believe a thorough fact-finding mission is necessary, who believe his removal from office is not an altogether radical idea.”
It should be interesting, almost as much of shit show as the Roger Stone trial which began this week where Steve Bannon basically outed Stone as the Trump campaigns main conduit to Wikileaks.
Steve Bannon, the controversial former adviser to Donald Trump and chief executive of his presidential campaign, told jurors this Friday that Roger Stone was “an access point” to WikiLeaks, the document-dumping website that released hacked emails damaging to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
[...]
“The campaign had no official access to WikiLeaks or to Julian Assange. But Roger would be considered if we needed an access point,” Bannon said, adding that Stone repeatedly “implied that he had a connection with WikiLeaks” without stating it directly.
Whoops!
Here's the detail events for the next month;
November 2nd —
November 3rd—
November 4th —
November 5th —
November 6th —
November 7th—
- Trump attempted to force Barr to publicly announce his innocence on the Ukraine call and he claims that tweets from the Whistle-Blowers lawyer showing "bias" the Impeachment Inquiry should be halted.
- At least four lawyers declined to represent Giuliani.
- Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent's deposition transcript is released. He had heard of a plan in 2018 for Lutsenko to fly to NYC to meet Giuliani. He had heard that former Ukrainian President Proshenko had authorized Lutsenko to talk to Giuliani about Yovanovich. Kent had blocked the Visa for Shokin because he believed he would spread "too much Hooey!" Mulvaney got Sondland added to the delegation for Zelensky's inauguration. He wrote a protest memo after he heard that Volker had asked the Ukrainians for investigations. He also implicates multiple Fox News hosts as being part of the smear campaign against Yovanovich.
- Pence aide Jennifer Williams testified that the Zelensky call was "abnormal and disturbing."
- Trump is ordered to pay back $2 Million in campaign funds for the "Veterans Fund Raiser" that he had arranged instead of going on a Fox News debate, because he'd kept the money in his campaign and never gave it to veterans.
- Newly released emails show that Trump sharpie incident threw the Weather Service into chaos.
- Don Jr. gets grilled for nearly and hour on The View, he gets blasted for tweeting the name of the Whistle-blower, lies about "Quid pro Quo", attacks Joy Behar for "wearing blackface" and Whoopie for supporting rape by Roman Polanski, gets counter-accused of being the real "triggered snowflake", even the commercial breaks are bonkers then is kicked off the show by Whoopie.
- WH readies for the public Impeachment hearings, worrying mostly about Bill Taylor.
- Lindsay Graham accuses Sondland of conspiring with Dems to attack Trump,
- Hugh Hewitt encourages McConnell to run the Impeachment Trial "Merritt Garland Style."
- John Bolton ignores his subpoena to testify.
- Judge continues a lawsuit over the Kupperman's subpoena even though the House has withdrawn the request.
- Will Hurd advises GOPers to not say Sexist, Racists, Homophobic shit.
- GOP plans to formally request that the Whistle-Blower publically testify. [What the heck for?]
- Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) says because Pelosi is Impeaching Trump "It must suck to be that dumb."
- Fever Swamp pushing McConnell toward a quick Impeachment dismissal.
- Pompeo denies testimony by Michael McKinley that he refused to defend Yovanovich from smear attacks.
- NSC member Earl Matthews, who had sat in on meetings between John Bolton and Zelensky in Warsaw, abruptly resigns.
- Bloomberg reports that Mulvaney and Cippilone are in disagreement on who should run Trump's Impeachment defense.
- WaPo fires back at Trump's "Repugnant" attack on reporters.
- Sen. Chris Van Hollen requests that the GAO determine if placing a hold on the Ukrainian money violated the law.
- Senate Intel Chairman Burr breaks with Trump and Graham and says the Whistle-Blower shouldn't be exposed.
- Michael Bloomberg is ready to file to join the 2020 race in Alabama.
- Ohio State Referee says that Jim Jordon was informed about abuse allegations and blew them off.
- Excerpts from the book by Anonymous indicate that Trump is a racist, sexist boor who stumbles through his words, gets easily confused and scares the bejeezus out of his staff.
November 8th —
November 9th—
November 10th—
November 11th —
November 12th —
November 13tth —
- Trump is bulking up his comms team to fight Impeachment and rage tweets about the public hearings and praises "amazing warrior" Sean Hannity for saying the hearings are a "phony show trial." Then Trump whines to Erdogan that he only takes questions from friendly reporters and fires a warning shot at the intelligence IG.
- Giuliani begins flogging that Trump "requested" but didn't "demand" a quid pro quo. [A distinction with no difference.]
- WH requests streaming webcams to show the building of the border wall.
- Aides advise Trump not to fire Mulvaney.
- Schiff tosses Mulvaney's "Get over it" statement back in his face and slaps down Jim Jordon's claim that he knows who the whistleblower is. "That's a false statement."
- Devin Nunes spouts debunked conspiracy theories of nonsense during his opening statement, claiming what matters it how Schiff's staff interacted with the Whistleblower, and what Hunter Biden has to say.
- GOPers try to demand that the whistleblower be subpoenaed for the hearing, Schiff says they'll address that after the testimony. Ultimately the motion is tabled 13 to 9.
- George Kent testifies that Burisma founder Zlochevski was already under investigation for self-dealing when he learned that Hunter Biden was on his board. Shokin and Lutshtenko were peddling false information about Ambassador Yovanovich. Giuliani was leveraging Zelensky's desire for a private WH meeting. He also says there is no factual basis for arguing that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election.
- Amb. Bill Taylor says he was concerned about Giuliani's statements about Ukraine. There was a regular and irregular channel for Ukraine policy which involved Rick Perry, Mulvaney, Sondland and Giuliani. By August it became clear that the channels had diverged, both wanted for Zelansky to meet in the WH. Sondland told Taylor that Zelansky needed to state that he would not stand in the way of investigations. On July 1st Volker stated Zelensky needed to make clear he supported anti-corruption efforts. Later he was informed during a conference call that Trump and Mulvaney had held the Ukrainian support money. After the July 10th meeting where Sondland demanded investigations, Bolton said he didn't want to be involved in "that drug deal." Zelensky did not want to be used as an instrument in Trump's re-election. After the phone call Pence met with Zelensky in Warsaw. Sondland told Yermak that the money would not be released until Ukraine pursued investigations, then admitted to Taylor he made a mistake and that everything was dependent on the investigations. Mr. Morrison told him that Trump told Sondland that it was not a "quid pro quo" but Zelensky needed to "clear things up" in public on CNN. He texted Sondland that holding up funds "was crazy", and he responded that "Trump is a businessman" which didn't make sense. On July 26 his aide could overhear Trump asking Sondland about the "investigations" in the background on the phone.
- Chris Wallace slaps down Fox Host spouting GOP Talking points on Ukraine.
- WH claims Trump isn't watching the hearings as he RT's clips from it.
- WaPo reports that Giuliani's henchmen personally told Trump that Ambassador Yovanovich was "against him" last year.
- GOP Lawyer Steve Castor tries to argue that Trump had a legitimate reason to ask to investigate Burisma and corruption, then Schiff points out that he never asked about corruption only the Bidens and Crowdstrike.
- The DOJ is nearly finished with its re-investigation of the Russia investigation.
- AG Barr says he doesn't remember Trump asking him to hold a press conference exonerating him.
- Eric Trump calls the Impeachment hearing "boring" but keeps tweeting about it.
- George Conway says on MSNBC that Trump can't understand why what he did was wrong.
- Rep. Jim Jordan tries to argue that Taylor had 3 meetings with Zelensky without bringing up the investigation as if that erases Sondland and Trump bringing up investigations and holding the security aid funds. [It doesn't.]
- Rep. Ratcliff puts on a show as he asks "What's the impeachable offense?" then withdraws the question in order to make a speech about Zelensky not knowing that the security aid was held.
- Rep. Joaquin Casto makes it clear that attempted murder, attempted robbery and attempted extortion and bribery are all crimes.
- Turkish forces launch attacks on Syrian Christians as Erdogan meets with Trump.
- Dem Trolls Jim Jordon's whine that they don't have the direct witnesses before them: "There's room for Mr. Trump to sit right there."'
November 14th—
November 15th —
November 18th —
November 19th —
November 20th —
November 21st —
November 22nd —
November 23rd —
November 24th —
November 25th—
November 26th —
November 27th —
November 28th —
November 29th —
November 30th —
December 1st —
December 2nd —
December 3rd --
- Rep. Collins' tactics in Judiciary will be different from Nunes conspiracy heavy approach.
- Key details of House Intel Impeachment report remain secret but they release a video to highlight the most damning moments of testimony.
- Sen. Kennedy walks back his DNC-Ukraine retraction. [Doubling down on the dumb.]
- Another appeals court backs the Deutsche Bank/Mazars financial subpoena.
- Former Ukrainian official Olena Zerkal says that she was aware of the security fund hold on July 30th.
- After pressure from Trump, a favorite Fox News Guest’s company is awarded a $400 Million contract for building the wall even though the company doesn't meet standards.
- The GOP base is fired up and is turning Impeachment into fundraising and rally-the-base tool.
- CNN's John Avlon blasts the Orwellian double-speak of GOP defense to Impeachment.
- Tucker Carlson again says he's on "Russia's side." [You could always defect!]
- WaPo writes that the Ukraine conspiracy started as a plot to undermine Mueller. [Yeah, that makes sense.]
- President Macron mansplains foreign policy on ISIS, Russia and NATO to Trump's face after he comes unglued over Impeachment "Adam Schiff is a deranged human being" at the Nato Summit in London. [That doesn't matter since he’s handing off to Nadler now.]
- Romney breaks with Trump on his debunked Ukraine conspiracy theory.
- Lindsay Graham floats "Censure" for Trump: "A Senate Trial would be too traumatic for the country." [I thought you thought this was "ALL BS?"] Lindsay Graham also doubts the Ukraine hacking arguments and says Russia hacked the DNC.
- Sen. Kamala Harris ends her campaign for 2020.
- ACLU court filing calls out DOJ for withholding docs connected to the Census report.
- IRS Whistleblower turns down transcript Senate interview on Trump's tax audit.
- Devin Nunes hits CNN with a $435 Million defamation lawsuit over its report that Lev Parnas’ attorney says they met about the Ukraine scandal in Vienna.
- The Hill promises a review of John Solomon's stories on Ukraine.
- House Intelligence votes to refer their report to Judiciary which documents that Trump participated in a widespread conspiracy using the VP, Energy Secretary, the Acting Chief of Staff, Giuliani, Sondland and Volker to extort investigations out of Ukraine with a promise of a WH visit and Security Funds all for Trump's personal political benefit. It highlights Sean Hannity’s role in knee-capping Yovanovich and argues that Trump's obstruction is a danger to the structure of Democracy. The report includes lists of multiple calls between Giuliani and the WH on the same day that Yovanovich was recalled, multiple calls to OMB and to John Soloman, and also several phone calls between Nunes and Lev Parnas.
- Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) knew Trump was holding back aid funds [Parnas contributed funds to him, and he had called Trump about it] and had met with Sondland, Rick Perry, Volker to discuss Ukraine on May 23rd.
- Nunes tells Fox news he “doesn't recall Parnas” but the HIC report says they spoke on the phone 4 times.
- Rudy has been benched on Fox News and VP Pence is under the wheels of the Fox bus.
- Reports indicate Ivanka and Jared have been pushing Trump to fire Giuliani for over a year.
- McCarthy says it’s "No big deal" that Giuliani spoke with Nunes while Nunes was supposed to be investigating Giuliani.
- Frank Figliuzzi argues that Giuliani opened up Trump to a RICO investigation with his mob tactics.
- WH says the House Intel report reads like the ramblings of a basement blogger.
- John Dean says the HIC report displays obstruction which is worse than Nixon and Watergate.
- George Nader, who had set up a Putin back-channel for the Trump campaign, is indicted on campaign finance violations.
- Former Director of Intelligence Sue Gordan says the Trump frequently refuses to believe his intelligence briefings, and she was forced to resign after the departure of Dan Coats.
- Lev Parnas Attorney tells Nunes “You should have recused yourself.”
- David Corn of Mother Jones reports that the GOP prebuttal report is full of blatant lies, distortions, conspiracy theories and gaslighting.
December 4th —
- World Leaders including Boris Johnson, Macron and Trudeau huddle to laugh at Trump, so he leaves the NATO summit early in a huff and later lashes out at “Two-Faced" Trudeau.
- Fox Host claims the World leaders couldn't stand up to how Trump "dominated" the summit.
- Harvard Psychiatrist Dr. Lance Dodes says that Trump's attacks on Schiff are classic “projection.”
- GOP plans to turn Impeachment into a TV spectacle.
- Napolitano says he supports Impeachment; “Reasonable minds cannot disagree.”
- House Judiciary holds Impeachment Hearings, Ranking member Collins rolls his eyes as Chairman Nadler speaks then gives an excessively loud rant of his own. Then they try to derail things with motions to have Adam Schiff and the Whistleblower testify and the GOP writes a letter demanding a “minority day” of hearings. Constitution expert Pamela Karlan explains what constitutes bribery, fires back at Collins when he accuses her of not having read the testimony and says “If you don't impeach… you’re saying it’s fine to do this again.” Prof Feldman sells that the Zelensky call changed his view of being pro-Impeachment, and Prof. Gerhardt says that the Mueller report contained significant evidence of obstruction. GOP witness Jonathan Turley makes a pathetic showing of doublse-talk, he claims Bill Clinton had to be impeached to protect the “existence of government”, he says bribery has to involve a “thing of value’ [it was valuable to Zelensky and Trump] and that the Impeachment is “moving too fast” with not enough direct witnesses. [Which are being obstructed by Trump.]
- Nunes bumbles his defense on meeting and talking to Parnas, claiming he didn't meet him in Vienna, but there’s $60,000 worth of receipts from the trip.
- Another GOPer sends out an email saying Rep. Ilhan Omar should be hanged.
- Giuliani travels back to Ukraine to help produce a right-wing documentary after claiming that all of his calls to OMB “may not have been about Ukraine.” [Then what were they about Rudy?]
- Kennedy says he's done pushing the DNC-Ukraine conspiracy.
- Rick Wilson scorches Trump’s GOP “Suicide Cult.”
- Greg Sargent argues in the WaPo that Trump wasn't duped by Russian disinformation, he spreads it willingly to serve his own interests.
- George Zimmerman sues Trayvon Martin’s family for $100 Million based on claims of "false evidence” from a documentary called the "Trayvon Hoax".
- Nunes accuses Democrats of "peddling conspiracy theories” because he had several phone calls with Rudy Giuliani and Lev Parnas. [Obviously, they were discussing pork futures.]
- Right-wing world loses their minds when Prof, Karlan says "Trump can name his son Barron, but can't make him a Baron" when discussion how America is not a monarchy.
- Prosecutor John Durham has reportedly told IG Horowitz that he failed to find any evidence of a “Deep State” in the FBI or CIA.
- Trump tries to claim that when he said “We need you to do US a favor, though” he meant America and not his campaign. [1) And that only took him 5 months to come up with and 2) America didn’t need to know about the “Crowdstrike Server” because it doesn't exist.]
- Rick Wilson trashes the GOP for siding with Putin over America.
December 5th —
December 6th —
- WH Officials dispute the call logs featured in the Impeachment report, claiming that the OMB number is controlled from the switchboard and Giuliani was not in contact with them in April and August.
- Graham pours cold water on House GOP effort to subpoena Adam Schiff.
- Trump was reportedly in “denial” that he would be Impeached, until yesterday. it’s reported that he spoke to Giuliani on an unsecured phone that was vulnerable to Russian surveillance and he reportedly fantasied in 2014 about Obama falling apart emotionally if he was Impeached. “He’d be a mess.” [More projection, if anyone would be cool about it, it would be Obama.]
- Former Republican Rep. Charlie Dent laughs as Rick Santorum tries to defend Trump’s Zelensky call claiming he wasn't asking for a personal benefit. [Yeah, he was.]
- Reps. Katie Porter and Max Rose introduce a bill that will require members of the executive branch to disclose all of their foreign connections as well as five years of tax returns. [This appears like a stab at the Bidens, but it would also hit Jared and Ivanka too.]
- Former Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Onyshchenko who had peddled stories of dirt on Biden’s family is arrested in Germany on charges linked to corruption and is awaiting extradition.
- Mike and Joe report that Trump’s polling in the Rustbelt is underwater, even if he survives impeachment. “Ohio, he’s minus five,” he explained. “Pennsylvania, minus seven, underwater. Iowa underwater, minus 13. Minnesota, underwater, minus 13. And the biggest two for last: Wisconsin, minus 14 and Michigan minus 14.” Then they bust Devin Nunes for his secret role in the Ukrainian scandal including his contacts with Giuliani and Lev Parnas.
- Giuliani makes the ridiculous claim that Trump had a constitutional duty to carry out his Ukraine scheme. [No, he didn’t.] Meanwhile he's making a documentary to defend Trump by attacking Biden and the Obama administration for promoting corruption in Ukraine using the word Andrii Telizhenko who has links to Russian Intelligence and Andriy Derkach, who a member of a pro-Russian party, attended the Dzerzhinsky Higher School of the KGB in Moscow and whose father was a former KGB officer assigned to Ukraine.
- Sen Chris Murphy confirms that at least 5 GOP Senators are considering voting for Impeachment.
- Napolitano says he would definitely vote to Impeach.
- Ukraine’s ambassador to Austria slams Trump for providing Putin with enthusiastic help.
- Politico reports that some Democrats are disappointed that Trump’s violations of the emoluments clause will probably not be included in the articles of impeachment.
- Former CIA agent Marc Polymeropoulos writes that Trump's weird affection for Putin stifled a “whole of government” response to the 2016 Russian attack on our election.
- Lawyers for Anthony Comello, who killed mob underboss Francesco (Franky Boy) Cali of the Gambino crime family have been using a Qanon conspiracy theory in his defense, claiming he thought his victim was part of the “Deep State.”
- Darryl Issa argues that Trump should give Duncan Hunter clemency in order to save the government money.
- Schiff : Trump “doesn’t give a shit about what’s good for the country.”
- Limbaugh: “Dems show pure, raw, hatred” with Impeachment.” [And you show pure, raw, hatred every day — so it’s not without cause.]
- Pensicola Naval Station shooter was Saudi National.
- Nikki Haley blames media for making Charleston “about racism” and claims that Dylan Roof made the Confederate Flag a symbol of hate. [It was always a symbol of hate and terrorism.]
- Matt Gaetz admits that Giulianis new trip to Ukraine is “Yeah, a little weird.”
- Senate GOP expands their plans to include probe of Giuliani’s sketchy claims.
- Trump requests the SCOTUS block the House from getting his banking records, he also says light bulbs make him look orange [it’s the orange make up] and the EPA is looking into toilets that you have to flush “10-15 times.”
- Rep. Duncan Hunter will resign from Congress after the Holidays. [You mean “Merry Christmas!”]
- Islamaphobe Frank Wuco helped write bogus Homeland Security report linking immigration to terrorism.
- 500 Law Professors say that Trump’s actions are Impeachable.
- Human Rights groups reports increase in violence against Asylum-seekers forced to wait in Mexico.
- House Democrats urge watchdog to examine circumstances of a death of migrant boy held in detention.
December 7th —
December 8th —
December 9th —
- Giuliani is linked to oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who is seen as the power behind Zelensky.
- Barr allows for unredacted details about Christopher Steele to be included in the DOJ IG Report.
- House Lawyers give a presentation on Impeachment to the Judiciary Committee. Dem Attorney David Goldman makes the case for Impeachment and disputes the claims that none of the evidence was “first hand" and points out that a “Quid Pro Quo” was confirmed in the Zelensky Call, during a call between Trump and Sondland on 9/9 and also Sondland and Yermak where he confirmed why the aid was being held, while GOP lawyer Stephen Castor gives a pathetic performance of half-truths, he won’t admit that Biden is a ‘Political Rival”, he repeats the hoax that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election and whines when he gets called out. Democrats methodically debunk GOP defense claims using prepared slides and video of the testimony. The GOP reps stage multiple hateful stunts and give speeches rather than ask questions, Matt Gaetz explodes “We want Schiff in that chair.” Louie Gohmert accuses Nadler and the Dem counsel of bribery.
- A protester is removed from the hearing for screaming “Trump is innocent” who turns out to be an Infowars host Owen Shroyer who previously called for Obama to be lynched.
- Biden says he doesn’t know what Hunter did in Ukraine but “I trust my son.”
- OANN begins posting excerpts from Giuliani's mad ride in Ukraine which appears to be a joint effort. They met Yuri Lutshenko in Budapest who claims that Ambassador Yovanovich “perjured herself” in her testimony and that there was a long line of money laundering tied to the Bidens. They flew to meet Shokin in Kyiv, he said former President Poroshenko had told him that Ukraine wouldn’t get $1 Billion in loan guarantees unless “Shokin stopped investigating Hunter Biden.” [He was never investigating him, he had previously investigated Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky for self-dealing] Then they talked to Ukrainian Parliament member Andrey Derkach [who is considered a “not credible source”] claims $Million in US money was mishandled in Ukraine and showed them documents that claim there are 6 criminal investigations into the Bidens in Ukraine [The current prosecutor says there aren’t any investigations of the Bidens.] The Minister of the Interior was outraged at their visit, which was paid for an arranged by OAN [which is supposed to be a “News” organization.] and whether it was legal for Giuliani to be present in Ukraine. Once it was noted they were there “a thousand troops began patrolling the city.” So they left the city and chartered a jet to Vienna, at the airport they claim to have seen Ukrainian Oligarch Viktor Pinchin and George Soros [The Dread Pirate?] nearby which was just a “coincidence” but a tantalizing “name drop.”
- Kellyanne Conway defends Giuliani — “he had the upper hand on Mueller.”
- Trump and Pompeo make plans to meet with Lavrov.
- DOJ argues that Trump can’t be stopped from taking foreign payments.
- DOJ Inspector General Horowitz releases his report documenting that the Crossfire Hurricane investigation was properly initiated, and there was no political bias involved in the starting and implementation of the Russia investigation, although one lawyer adjusted an email removing a mention that Carter Page had been a source for another agency before his FISA application was filed. There were 16 other mistaken omissions on the application, but it was properly processed and approved. There was no wiretapping or spying on the Trump campaign. Chris Steel and Ivanka Trump met nearly a decade ago and have maintained a correspondence over the years. The top five Deep State conspiracy theories are debunked. AG Barr disagrees that the investigation had a solid reason to be started, so does John Durham although he does agree there was enough information for a preliminary investigation.
- Rick Wilson; Trump's allies will lie to keep their phantom conspiracy theories alive.
- Lisa Page takes a victory lap for being cleared of a conspiracy to frame Trump.
- Comey celebrates being vindicated by the IG findings and demands that Bill Barr apologizes for having lied, then he gets his scheduled appearance tomorrow on Fox and Friends canceled. “They must have read the report.”
- Jeffrey Toobin takes a wrecking ball to Trump’s deep state claims; “Not true — didn’t happen.”
- Chris Wallace says the IG report doesn’t confirm the bias that Trump alleged.
- Trump says the IG report is “far worse than he ever thought possible.” [He. doesn’t. Read.] And he attacks FBI Director Wray for saying that the report showed no political bias.
- Lindsay Graham echoes Trump: “It sure as Hell didn’t end ok.”
- FBI Director Wray supports the IG report and its findings.
- Judiciary is reportedly preparing two articles of Impeachment; Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress, which the committee will vote on Thursday.
- James Baker says that the revelation about Ivanka and Chris Steele’s friendship was ignored by Trump because it doesn’t fit his narrative.
- Steve Schmidt points out 4 reasons that Trump’s defensive arguments are “absurd.”
- George Conway Rips RNC Chief Romney-McDaniels for lying about the IG report contents.
December 10th —
December 11th —
- Trump signs an executive order which declares Judaism as a nationality, rather than a religion supposedly to fight antisemitism on campus. [This is something Hitler did, once Jews are their own nationality they can be declared foreigners and lose religious protections.] He attacks the “FBI Lovers” at his rallies and rails at Napolitano and Wallace on Fox News for (telling the truth) not supporting him.
- DOJ Inspector General Horowitz testifies before the Senate about his report. He says that he did not find political bias against Trump in the FBI, but that there were some mistakes made in the Carter Page FISA warrant. Christopher Steele’s was helpful and important to the warrant. and also there was bias in the FBI against Hillary Clinton. Lindsay Graham grandstands on the omissions and errors in the Page FISA resubmission, claiming it was “illegal surveillance” and suggesting that the edited email denying Page was a source for the CIA was motivated by bias. Feinstein points out that Horowitz found no bias by Preistab who was the agent in charge, and that no spying occurred. Horowitz asked Barr and Durham to provide any helpful information, but that data didn’t change the conclusion. During meetings with Durham, he agreed that there had been enough to start a preliminary investigation. He found that Page and Strzok’s text messages didn’t affect Priestab’s decision to open the probe, and there were also pro-Trump messages sent by other FBI agents. Horowitz won’t call the surveillance of Page “spying” no matter how many ways the GOPs asks him, he states that the probe of Giuliani’s leaks with anti-Clinton members of the FBI is ongoing and that the IG Office is considering investigating Trump-Ukraine.
- Lisa Page slams Trump for his lies about her at his rally.
- OAN reports that Judicial Watch has sued Yovanovich for copies of a so-called "do not prosecute list” she supposed gave to Ukrainian prosecutor Lutshenko, which offered protection to companies owned by George Soros.
- Some vulnerable House Dems are pushing to have Trump censured instead of Impeached.
- Fox News has gone totally off the rails defending Trump and lying about Impeachment and the IG Report.
- Republicans plan to flood the Impeachment articles with amendments to derail the process.
- Greta Thunberg is named Time’s Person of the Year.
- Pentagon suspends training of Saudi pilots pending review in the aftermath of Pensacola.
- House Judiciary does a markup hearing on the Impeachment resolutions. Louie Gohmert outs the name of a suspected Whistle-blower. Ted Deutsche makes the guilt of Trump kindergarten simple.
- Trump is reportedly growing increasingly agitated and aggravated by Impeachment coverage.
- McConnell wants to get rid of Impeachment Fast and will have no witnesses.
- Prosecutors want Parnas back in jail because he didn’t disclose accepting a $1 Million bank transfer from Russia in September.
- Senator Kennedy says the IG Report made him feel like he dropped acid.
- Sen. Kamala Harris uses her time with Horowitz to connect the dots between Bill Barr and Giuliani’s corrupt schemes.
- Sen. Hirono gets Horowitz to admit that Bill Barr’s claim the FBI “spied on Trump” is false.
- Unhinged Trump supporter yells about his .357 Magnum if Trump is Impeached.
- Trump supporters howl in rage as Daisy Ridley says they “aren’t sane.”
- A shooting occurs at a kosher deli in Jersey City.
December 12th —
- Pence won’t declassify details of his call with Zelensky despite demands by Schiff.
- House Judiciary Committee debates the Articles of Impeachment. Matt Gaetz brings up Hunter Biden’s drug use, although he himself was charged with DUI before he joined congress. Jim Jordan repeats multiple lies that there was “no quid pro quo” in the transcript, that there was “no pressure”, the Ukrainians didn’t know the aid was held, and Ukraine didn’t start an investigation [they did] which is all fact-checked by Jake Tapper. [Trump essentially told Zelensky why the aid was held because when he brought up Javelin missles Trump goes “We need you to do us a favor, though.” Then Ukraine called about the aid being held later that same day.] Louie Gohmert spews nonsense, whines about FISA abuse and says Trump didn’t violate the law. David Cicilline quotes from the letter of 800 legal scholars arguing the Trump should be Impeached pointing out the doesn’t have to break the law for it. Jamie Raskin points out Trump’s companies and charities are mired in corruption and he never brought that issue up with Zelensky in different two calls. Zoe Lofgren busts Doug Collins on the claim that “no one died” because of the held aid. [13 Ukrainian soldiers were killed while the aid was held up, also they still aren’t allowed to use the Javelin missiles against the Russian separatists.] Joe Neguse says that Republican arguments are farcical. Rep. Andy Biggs reads an OMB letter claiming that the aid was held because of Trump’s ‘overarching review” of corruption concerns. [Yeah, that’s after-the-fact bullshit since Mulvaney said it was held to get the investigations.]
- McConnell allegedly plans to stage a 51 member acquittal vote to avoid a possible tie or close call on removal. Then WH Counsel Cippolini walks into McConnell’s office to help “script” the Removal Trial.
- OAN reports that Steven Bannon says Trump was to be “Exonerated” not just acquitted in the Impeachment trial.
- Graham screams “Let's get this Impeachment thing over already.” [Even though it hasn’t been voted on in the House yet.]
- Trump slams Greta Thunberg for becoming Time’s Person of the Year and she claps back.
- Meadows suggests Alan Dershowitz should join Trump’s defense team, and he does.
- Chris Wallace offers a scathing rebuke of Trump’s treatment of the press.
- Full Appeals Court will review Trump’s emoluments case.
- The Jersey City kosher deli shooting is considered an act of terrorism.
- Laura Ingraham attacks Time’s selection of Thunberg claiming “Devin Nunes would be better.” [Oh, fuck no!] Meanwhile the Fresno Bee fact-checks Nunes on his being “exonerated” by the IG report. [He wasn’t’.]
- Mike Huckabee tells Sean Hannity how Trump could be eligible for a “3rd Term” because of how he was treated so shabbily by Comey, Mueller, Dems and the media. [Say what now?]
- Trump breaks his single-days world record for tweets as Impeachment drives him up the wall.
- Pompeo lifts hold on aid to Lebanon.
- Nadler delays the final vote on articles Impeachment until the msorning after a 14-hour session driving Collins and Gohmert to flip their lids and call him “Stalin.”
- Don Jr. laughs at the idea of Bill Barr locking up Trump’s political enemies. [That would be so Soviet!]