The campaign to dig up dirt in Ukraine on Trump’s political opponents began earlier than some senators had suggested, a lawyer for Trump said on Wednesday, bear-hugging Rudy Giuliani in what appears to be the deepest defense Trump’s team has offered of the President’s outside lawyer’s conduct.
Yes please hug him tighter. Let’s open the door to talk about Lev and Igor as well. This is a winning strategy.
I’m not an expert in congressional committee procedure but is this really over? Can’t first hand witnesses to Trump’s Ukraine corruption scheme still be called to testify by Schiff and other Democrats in the house? Bolton and Parnas both seem willing to make that happen.
Chickenspit Republican senators are suddenly scared to death of witnesses.
Apparently Spankys lawyers are unfamiliar with ETTD.
These guys are just making it up as they go along.
Like any other sane person I’m still wondering why these clowns aren’t disbarred, beginning with the most dangerous clown of all, Butt-boy Bill disBarr.
In my view the lack of punitive action(s) by the American Bar Association against these so-called attorneys constitutes nothing less than criminal collaboration on the part of the ABA, more collusion.
If Guliani and/or Trump had any concerns about either of the Bidens at any time, what they were required to do was turn over that information to the FBI for investigation. What they were not permitted to do, by law, was go off on a wild-goose chase of their own, which is of course what they did. Because they knew there was no real basis for an investigation and the FBI would have quickly dismissed it.
And they are definitely not very good at that!
Barr is quite adept at bureaucratic in-fighting, but he has more than met his match in John Bolton. Not only has Bolton backed Trump into a corner, he’s gotten the measure of Barr also. And with Parnas out there making waves as well, hopefully we’ll see a somewhat neutered Bill Barr going forward. Something Trump can ill-afford.
Jeebus! What a tortured defense!
“Mr. Giuliani, as counsel for the president, was looking into what went on in Ukraine, was there anything related to 2016 and other things, and he was given information and tips about [Hunter Biden] and he started to pursue that as well,” Philbin said.
Private counsel … [with respect to Ukraine, ‘talk to Rudy,’”]… acting as shadow Secretary of State. Lawyerly ethics have never been twisted to the breaking point like this an impeachment trial.
The scenario rhymes with “aiding a client to commit a crime."
A field littered with bodies and detached heads, the orange stain’s hitman still running through the field carrying a machete, and a bunch of “concerned” observers standing at the edge wondering if there were any misdeeds.
Susan: “Gosh, too bad there’s not a way to find out what happened here.”
Mitt: “Right? If only there was someone we could question.”
And then Senators Cruz and Graham gave Adam Schiff five minutes to explain why using a private attorney instead of your own Justice Department with its wide authority is impeachable.
OT: Very interesting analysis by Emptywheel on the prosecution’s recommendations regarding Flynn’s sentence. It appears they’re playing rope-a-dope, counting on Judge Sullivan to put the hammer down.
So, in the last day we’ve learned that the president’s personal lawyer, working for the president as a private individual, was conducting inquiries that, because they were intended to help Trump win re-election, were in the national interest. Thank you, says Adam Schiff to Trump’s lawyer. As I have been saying, Trump behaves as if there was no difference between his personal interest and the national interest.
These people have come up with so many mutually contradictory “defenses” that they’re going to get caught in a lot more of these tangles. Sort of like when a gang of monkeys start throwing their shit against the wall, some handfuls of shit are going to end up covering other handfuls of shit.
Yes, everything they did was highly fishy, but you can’t impeach a fish.
OT: A moderately strong breeze and Trump’s wall goes down? Hahahaha. And the best part…Mexico gets to keep it, as it fell onto their side. A wall they didn’t pay for.
It’s really true. ETTD, even walls. This is a metaphor Republicans ignore at their own peril.
So let’s have the Senators REALLY bearhug Rudy and have him testify, under oath, and lie to Congress. A felony.
So Trump has built a Potemkin Village of his wall? Super.