Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland, slated to publicly testify in the impeachment inquiry on Wednesday, kept acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and Energy Secretary Rick Perry apprised of the Ukraine pressure campaign, according to emails obtained by the Wall Street Journal.
Poor Ol’ Gordy
In way over his head , reporting to these guys like a faithful lap dog and then lying to Congress about it .
If you take the 5th, yer screwed
If you come clean, yer screwed
E.B.B.T.G.T.J.
Everybody but Trump Goes to Jail
Sad
One aspect of this I think receives too little attention is the ongoing grift related to the natural gas production and distribution network in Ukraine. Specifically the potential U.S. citizens, some in our government, were involved in a scheme to pocket huge sums of money through intermediaries. I have zero doubt Perry and Giuliani were arranging deals to enrich themselves. Yet the House barely touches on it, I suppose not wanting to clutter their focus, or possibly not to muck up ongoing criminal investigations. Various person’s maneuvers to remake the board of Burisma screams manipulation for money. I posit when the dust settles on this a lot of people are in for a great deal of difficulty on this angle. Unless of course Barr and Trump just shut down law enforcement efforts to get to the bottom of it. Which seems all the more reason to get in front of it and make it too public to close down.
Oh, I so want to see these two do the perp walk. I doubt that Trump or Pence will pardon them so it is at least a possibility. If the Dems do get control in 2020, we need to keep their feet in the fire to go after all the criminals from this administration.
Trump administration officials lashed ever closer to coercion — or as Democrats call it, bribery
Are you implying here that it might not be bribery? Why the suck up to the GOP point of view?
It is bribery, and a quid pro quo. There can be no question based on the information presented publicly so far.
BUT HIS EMAILS!
ed: let me comment, discobot
There is so much grift and corruption in the Trump administration, the Dems will need to increase the number of federal prosecutors to charge all of them before the statute of limitations takes effect.
Despite this article’s assertion, it’s more than just Democrats who call the Administration’s actions bribery
It’s a good job these guys aren’t more able.
They will be the next time.
Gordy, your ton of bricks is here.
Buckle up, son, Wednesday is gonna be a hoot.
I am curious whether these emails could have been part of the records that were subpoenaed by the House and leaked, or whether this is coming from someone in the White House who is trying to throw Sondland under a bus. WSJ might indicate the latter?
If they are trying to toss Sondland under a bus they aren’t going to end up helping drump any, this just makes it that much harder for Sondland not to come clean and admit under oath that drump was fully aware and ordered him to do it.
For an incoming Dem Prez to task his Justice Dept with a long list of investigations and criminal trials over dozens of official’s and citizen’s misconduct from the previous administration is not an optimal way to get started for a new regime. Necessary maybe, but certainly a distraction filled soap opera for people to have to endure while trying to actually get on with good government. Trump has laid waste to our democracy, and spending a huge chunk of 2021>2025 bringing everyone to justice for it will present major problems.
I want to know what Senator Ron Johnson’s hustle was. He’s clearly in on it one way or the other, and should count himself lucky to have escaped attention. Equally clearly, he’s also too dumb to keep his mouth shut.
I’m not sure of any legal basis for this, but I think of bribery as offering a benefit to influence an action, and extortion as threatening to harm to influence a decision. Coercion would be more akin to extortion.
Trump committed both crImes. Bribery was holding out a White House meeting, something that the Ukraine president wasn’t already entitled to. Extortion was withholding the military aid he was already entitled to.
These e mails place Mulvaney and Perry in the under the bus line. Although they were probably already in now they are further to the front.
…With any other Administration, that would be a bribe… Not sure if being seen with the orangutan is really a bribe…
Rope-A-Dope!
The previous corrupt regime bribed the current occupant with proffers of manufactured dirt, in exchange for a reelection boosting state visit. But the bum got thrown out before he could deliver. The bribe that the Rump got caught, was an attempt to collect on the previous bribe, already accepted.