Returning today from his trip abroad to dig up yet even more dirt on Joe Biden was Trump’s free mob lawyer Rudy Giuliani who claims he found “lots of things. More than you could believe” in Ukraine about Joe Biden. As shown by this example from OANN.
One America News began on Sunday to release clips from its trip with Giuliani last week to Budapest, Hungary and Kyiv, Ukraine.
The videos present a panoply of allegations revolving around Marie Yovanovitch, George Soros, and the Franklin Templeton investment firm.
Based on interviews with deeply compromised characters such as former prosecutors general Yuriy Lutsenko and Viktor Shokin, OAN heralds the “documentary series” as debunking the impeachment narrative put forth by House Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA).
Among other things, OAN host Chanel Rion claims to have been told that 1,000 Ukrainian troops were ordered to the capital “within hours of news breaking of our presence.”
She also says that the group decided to leave the country abruptly after they learned that “media was closing in on our location.”
Upon arrival at the airport, Rion added, they were greeted by dozens of black Mercedes cars. Both Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Pinchuk and global right-wing boogeyman George Soros were spotted in the area, Rion reported.
During the trip Giuliani and Seth Rich conspiracy theorist Chanel Rion 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 then flew to meet Viktor Shokin in Kyiv, where he said former President Poroshenko had told him that Ukraine wouldn’t get $1 Billion in loan guarantees unless “Shokin stopped investigating Hunter Biden.” Except that Shoken was never investigating him, he had previously investigated Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky for self-dealing and that case ended a year before Shokin was ousted with the help of Biden.
Then they talked to Ukrainian Parliament member Andrey Derkach [who is considered a “not credible source” and was a KGB School graduate] who claims $Billions 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.] Derkach claims specifically that $5.3 Billion in US aid for Ukraine was redirected under Yovanovich and Biden into the pockets of George Soros and the Franklin Templeton agency. Derkach wrote Graham, Nunes and Mulvaney letters suggesting the creation of a joint investigative commission between the US and Ukraine to “stop corruption” by the “children of Soros.” The only problem is the $5.3 billion came from foreign supporters, the US only provided $1.44 Billion and that went to the security of Ukranian Nuclear power plants, not to various NGOs.
Apparently, 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 was concerned whether it was legal for Giuliani to be present in Ukraine. Once it was noted they were there “a thousand troops began paroling 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.”
Another one of Giuliani’s “witnesses” former Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Onyshchenko, who was arrested by German officials for corruption last week so the visa that OANN tried to arrange for him to visit the US is pretty much in the dumpster just like his arrested pal’s Fruman and Lev Parnas who prosecutors say should be placed back in jail because he failed to disclose recently receiving over $1 Million from accounts in Russia.
So it’s these kinds of shaky claims that Giuliani plans to bring to the table and if he is called as a witness he certainly try to bring most of this up as a defensive argument to justify Trump’s call for the Bidens to be investigated, arguing that this was merely a natural thing for him to ask.
The problem, of course, is that this is all Kremlin manufactured bullshit. The idea that the Obama administration redirected funds to George Soros is just tin-foil bullshittery.
Still, it’s likely some of this drool will windup staining the Senate floor before all is said and done. There’s also a wonder whether 4 Republicans will be able to break from McConnell and compel any witnesses at all. Will they be able to talk to Mick Mulvaney, Mike Pompeo or John Bolton? The first two are likely to produce only double-talk, but Bolton might provide some real information on the “drug deal” that Sondland was setting up with Zelensky. Or worse, is it possible that the dam breaks and Trump gets his wet-dream of having the Whistle-blower, Hunter Biden and Joe Biden called to testify?
We already know that the accusations against Joe are largely lunatic hogwash, but there have been some pretty harsh things said about Hunter, particularly his DUI and arrest for possession of a crack-pipe years ago as when mentioned by Rep. Matt Gaetz, who himself received a DUI just shortly before running for Congress.
As it turns out Hunter Biden is a Yale Law School Graduate and attorney who had previously been a member of the Board for AMTRAK, had started his own investment firm and had been part of a prestigious law firm where $50,000 would have been just about right for his monthly retainer. He’s had drug problems, and marriage problems, but he’s not some rando off the street of obscurity who just manage to land butt first on the Burisma board who at the time were cultivating Americans to lend them better credibility. That’s why form George W. Bush CIA Officer and State Department Counter-terrorism official Cofer Black also wound up on the Board of Burisma when he was working as an aide to Mitt Romney.
According to an article published in the Huffington Post shortly after President Trump was inaugurated, a former top CIA official joined the board of Burisma, Ukraine’s largest provider of natural gas.
Burisma is the oil and gas company at the center of a controversy about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, who also served on Burisma’s board.
The article says that Joseph Cofer Black would be “leading the company’s security and strategic development efforts.” Black had served in various CIA positions under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush.
According to reports, Cofer Black was a “top Romney aide.”
There’s also the fact that the very first thing that Trump asked for a “favor, though” wasn’t Biden, it was the even more wackadoodle theory that the Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike had supposedly faked the evidence of Russia’s involvement in the DNC hack, and had taken the server “home” to Ukraine.
Except that Crowdstrike isn't a Ukrainian company, its CFO was born in Moscow, Russia and has been an American citizen for decades. Also, the DNC used cloud-based server systems so there really wasn’t any physical box of wires and silicone for Crowdstrike to slip out of the country and hideaway in Ukraine with proof of who the “real hackers really were” on it.
All of that is flat-out bullshit.
But there is a solid chance that some of this will be addressed in the Senate trial, and I saw the more the merrier. The more people dig into this below the seeming surface of smoke and mirrors the more it becomes obvious that Trump is fully off his nut. He’s Looney Fracking Tunes. Off. His. Rocker.
He needs to be Impeached, he needs to be removed.
Meanwhile, the long-awaited report from Inspector General Horowitz was released and he declared that he was unable to find any partisan bias in the implementation and of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s long-awaited report on the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation is finally out, and notwithstanding furious efforts from all quarters to claim otherwise, it fails to neatly validate anyone’s favored political narrative. Contra the hopes of Donald Trump’s more ardent admirers, it fails to turn up anything resembling a Deep State cabal within the FBI plotting against the president, or deliberate abuse of surveillance authorities for political ends. Yet it also paints a bleak picture of the Bureau’s vaunted vetting process for warrant applications under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), documenting a host of material omissions or misrepresentations in the government’s case for wiretapping erstwhile Trump campaign advisor Carter Page, whose privacy was invaded for nearly a year on disturbingly thin grounds. Though it does not describe an investigation motivated by political bias, it is a textbook account of confirmation bias that should raise disturbing questions about the adequacy of the FISA process—and not just in this investigation.
The heart of the Horowitz report deals with the Carter Page FISA application, and documents a progression that ought to sound familiar to anyone who’s studied the history of the intelligence community: An investigation begins with a kernel of reasonable suspicion, and facts are marshaled to support a theory. As it gathers momentum, those initial suspicions congeal into assumptions. New information that fits the original theory is added to pile of evidence—while a growing body of contradictory of information is overlooked. It’s possible to read the Horowitz report and think that the initial 90-day wiretap of Page was justified, but far harder to rationalize intrusive surveillance that carried on for nearly a year, through three separate renewals, even as evidence mounted that should have undermined the basis for the warrant.
Although there were some mistakes and confirmation bias in some of the renewals of the FISA warrant on Carter Page, the overall investigation was largely not about Page. It was about Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn, Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates and Roger Stone who were all prosecuted and convicted for the various shady actions involving Russia, Ukraine, Wikileaks and/or the paying off of Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal largely on behalf of Donald John Trump.
This report means that the years-long complaints by Trump against the “Deep State” led by Comey, Meuller, Lisa Page, Peter Strzok and others have all been exonerated and vindicated. The “Deep State” is deep bunk.I
Also, there’s this:
And the remaining details for this last week in the ongoing Trump-Russia-Ukraine Timeline.
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 —
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.
- 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!]
December 13th —
- Trump threatens to boycott debating the Dem opponent next year. [Yeah, well he did lose all his debates with Clinton.] NYTimes reports that Trump is privately fretting about Impeachment while bragging that he’ll be acquited in the Senate. He says he’d like a long Senate Trial so that Whistleblower can be “exposed as a fraud”, but he’ll do whatever his lawyers and McConnell say, or “whatever I want”, or whatever. He mocks the “LieutenanssColonel” in a wild anti-Impeachment rant then he orders that access to his foreign calls now be “locked down” to only small groups.
- LATimes reports that $20 Million of the Ukraine aid money still hasn’t reached them.
- McConnell says that his position in the Senate on Impeachment will be the same as the WH. [So the jury is aligned with the defense? Captain Kangaroo Court.]
- House Judiciary votes to approve both Articles of Impeachment in a short 10 min hearing.
- Rudy is back from his mad Ukraine trip with more conspiracy theories which was apparently arranged by Andriy Telizhenko and OANN and makes a B-Line for the WH, taking a call from Trump on the plane. He claims $5.3 Billion in US aid for Ukraine was redirected under Yovanovich and Biden into the pockets of George Soros and Franklin Templeton. KGB School graduate Andriy Derkach wrote Graham, Nunes and Mulvaney letters suggesting the creation of a joint investigative commission between the US and Ukraine to “stop corruption” by the “children of Soros.” The only problem is the $5.3 billion came from foreign supporters, the US only provided $1.44 Billion and that money went to security and safety for Ukraine Nuclear power plants, not any NGOs.
- Federal judge rejects a request from the DOJ to delay deciding the census subpoena case until the McGahn case is resolved.
- A crazed “MAGA Mom” interrupts and MSNBC News shoot to rant about the “Impeachment Coup.” [Impeachment is a constitutional process, a coup isn’t. It’s either one or the other, not both.]
- Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) went into deep denial when asked by Manu Raju if she thought it was appropriate for Trump to ask a foreign nation to investigate a political rival. “He didn’t!” she replied. “He didn’t do that.” [Yeah, he did exactly that.]
- FBI Veterans fear Trump’s attacks on the Bureau will lead to violence against agents.
- Vindman's lawyer says that he deserves better than to be “mocked, taunted and bullied by the commander-in-chief.”
- Jim Acosta reports that a top WH advisor says “Trump will come out of Impeachment unhinged.”
- Laurance Tribe argues that Moscow Mitch’s blunder means Trump can never be vindicated.
- 52.3 percent of Americans believe that President Donald Trump should be impeached.
- A federal judge orders the State Dept to search for communications between Giuliani and Pompeo
- Megyn Kelly says that Roger Ailes was afraid Trump would steer viewers away from the network.
- John Brennen says Trump is the “world's greatest snake oil salesman.”
- SCOTUS will review the case of the subpoena for Trump’s tax return next June.
- Rep. Val Demings demands that McConnell to recuse himself from the Impeachment trial arguing that he plans to act on Trump’s behalf.
- Preet Bharara says it’s hard to argue Trump is “innocent” while Giuliani keeps digging in Ukraine.