New audio reportedly shows former President Donald Trump’s onetime lawyer Rudy Giuliani pressured the Ukrainian government in 2019 to announce it would investigate groundless claims about then Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Let the fun begin.
Rudy Giuliani: America’s Major Felon.
…and BTW, does Four Seasons Total Landscaping have a division in Kiev?
Oops!
The real question: Where is Rudy’s laptop?
It’s all Sopranos code speak…
Tony to Ralphy regarding Jacky: “i know you’ll do the right thing…”
Jacky: “What’s this bullet doing in my brain?”
Doesn’t the FBI have it haha?
Listening to the tape, you realize that Rudy is almost as good a negotiator as Trump.
I’ll be surprised if Ghouliani’s indictments fall before the special master’s done with the electronics.
After that, I don’t expect DOJ’ll be shy about the charges.
And, of course, the $50,000 question: who’re the co-conspirators that’re charged with him.
What’s new here? That there’s audio? Didn’t we already get testimony to this effect?
Their quid pro quos have many stylistic points in common; although, at least in this case, Rudy doesn’t lean so heavily on flat out extortion.
"I am so credible and so influential and so relevant that I will change things." – Kanye West
I think he’s going to skate under this new theory that a bribe is only a bribe if you can/intend to deliver on the perks that the bribe is intended to secure. So logically, if you extort/blackmail someone offering relief you have no intention of providing (or no ability, since rudi was doing this as a private citizen) then all harm no foul.
Well, we know where his lap tuck is.
Lots of kidnappers don’t return their captives, so I imagine judges know that if Rudi gets away with making false threats, so would many other extortionists.
Lordy, there are tapes!!
What I find interesting is what effect this will have on future attempts. If you think about it, Ukraine faced an extortion attempt for a favor that was, on the face of it, no cost. All Rudi wanted was an announcement. Ukraine didn’t have to waste any resources actually doing anything. However, had they done the favor and Biden won anyway, then they might have faced an new America administration hostile to them. Given that Trump is a thug — and as close as they are to Russia, I’m sure they can recognize a thug in 10 seconds flat ---- helping him was not a winning option, either.
I’d imagine future governments facing something of the sort might decide pissing off the rival is a bad idea.
Zelensky got elected because he played an ordinary Ukrainian sick of government corruption who ranted about it, said if I were president, I’d . . . got caught on video, which went viral and got elected president. Then, he’s in power, sycophants offer him all sorts of stuff and he has to figure out how to run the country, end corruption and not be tempted. It’s a great show. And in Russian, for all of you who can understand it, which I suspect is a lot more than those who can understand Ukrainian. It’s subtitled for the rest.
It’s damned difficult to indict a person for the ramblings and pleadings I read about in these communications. This isn’t a bank robber caught on CCTV, his mask askew and unique tattoos showing on his bare hands and arms.
Much ado about nothing really, so far as an actionable prosecution.
I think that’ll partly depend on what’s out there linking his offerings to Mango Mussolini and the members of his administration who could make good on these promises.
That’ll have to wait on the special master’s completion of her duties.
That will become an evergreen meme, if there is such a thing.