Politics: The Trump Impeachment Thread

[jthomas666]

Ukrainians understood Biden probe was condition for Trump-Zelenskiy phone call: Ukrainian adviser

When Ukrainians voted to elect comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy as their next president in the spring of 2019, the fledgling administration was eager to coordinate a phone call with Kyiv’s most important benefactor -- the United States, according to an adviser to Zelenskiy.

But after weeks of discussions with American officials, Ukrainian officials came to recognize a precondition to any executive correspondence, the adviser said.

"It was clear that [President Donald] Trump will only have communications if they will discuss the Biden case," said Serhiy Leshchenko, an anti-corruption advocate and former member of Ukraine's Parliament, who now acts as an adviser to Zelenskiy. "This issue was raised many times. I know that Ukrainian officials understood."

The Trump administration’s alleged insistence that the two leaders discuss a prospective investigation into Biden, one of the president’s political opponents, casts his July 25 conversation with Zelenskiy in a new light.

 

[TexasBama]

Ukrainians understood Biden probe was condition for Trump-Zelenskiy phone call: Ukrainian adviser

 

[NationalTitles18]

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2019/09/politics/trump-ukraine-transcript-annotated/

Trump's Ukraine phone call, annotated

The President pressured his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate US political rivals

 

[TexasBama]

And whataboutism and false equivalency arrives at the party!

And big picture concern

Edit: I haven't been around in while. Did NYBF move to Florida?

 

[CharminTide]

White House moved records of president's conversations with foreign officials on to separate computer system

The complaint also alleges a pattern of obfuscation at the White House, in which officials moved the records of some of Mr Trump’s communications with foreign officials onto a separate computer network from where they are normally stored, this person said.

The whistleblower alleges that is what officials did with Mr Trump’s 25 July call with Mr Zelensky, an action that alarmed the intelligence community inspector general and prompted him to request that the White House retain records of the Mr Zelensky call.

 

[92tide]

White House moved records of president's conversations with foreign officials on to separate computer system

i'm shocked.

 

[Bamaro]

Observing Trump's demeanor yesterday, the usual blusterous load mouth appeared to be under sedation.

 

[jthomas666]

 

[92tide]

here is the whistleblower's complaint

link to pdf

 

[selmaborntidefan]

I wish I could claim originality for this one:

This wasn't quid pro quo, it was quid amateur quo.

(Kinda hard to say - still accurate).

 

[Bamaro]

We got a 'summarized' transcript of the call. I'm guessing that there may still be an actual recording of the entire conversation. This recording, if it still exists, may turn out to be Trump's version of the Nixon tapes.

 

[CharminTide]

here is the whistleblower's complaint

link to pdf

That is... very bad. The juicy stuff is in the classified appendix, but the circumstantial evidence alone is pretty damning. If the impeachment proceedings can ascribe motive to Trump denying foreign aid in exchange for election interference, I honestly think he's toast. Even this Senate has to switch into cover-thine-ass mode at some point.

 

[CharminTide]

White House moved records of president's conversations with foreign officials on to separate computer system

From the whistleblower complaint:

"According to WH officials I spoke with, this is “not the first time” under this administration that a presidential transcript was placed into this foreword level system solely for the purpose of protecting politically sensitive — rather than national security sensitive — information."

 

[Jon]

That is... very bad. The juicy stuff is in the classified appendix, but the circumstantial evidence alone is pretty damning. If the impeachment proceedings can ascribe motive to Trump denying foreign aid in exchange for election interference, I honestly think he's toast. Even this Senate has to switch into cover-thine-ass mode at some point.

there is a GOP "operative" (whatever that means) claiming that GOP Senators have him believing that if the impeachment vote is secret 30 Republican Senators will vote to impeach. I can't decide if this is just a strategy to try to convince the Dems that a secret vote is ok or not. The D's want this all public so they can campaign against those who chose to cover for Trump. Going to be interesting watching it play out

 

[CharminTide]

Also, can we just take a step back and look at the geopolitical picture for a sec.

Trump has been spending months trying to get Ukraine to actively interfere in the 2020 election, seeking a way to implicate Ukraine in the 2016 election interference, and denying them military aid to oppose Russia's advancement into their territory.

Seems very favorable to Putin, yes? This whole thing is bonkers.

 

[Bamaro]

 

[CharminTide]

Oh boy, someone gave him a phone.

https://twitter.com/abc/status/1177201488688537602

 

[Chukker Veteran]

Watching Maguire testify now.

Nunes opened with another distortion of everything that has happened.

 

[CharminTide]

Nunes opened with another distortion of everything that has happened.

As is tradition.

 

[CrimsonNagus]

We got a 'summarized' transcript of the call. I'm guessing that there may still be an actual recording of the entire conversation. This recording, if it still exists, may turn out to be Trump's version of the Nixon tapes.

It has already been explained in this thread that they do not record phone calls between foreign leaders, they only have note takers on the line. See post #27.

EDIT: here’s the link from that post.
Trump's ‘transcript’ of Ukraine call unlikely to be verbatim