It all comes down to April.
President Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and his two now-indicted cronies had thought they had struck a deal with Kyiv for political dirt.
O/T Looks like we get to have another school shooting week
The way this reads I could not tell if it was about Gouliani and his two indicted buddies or if it was about a new episode of the Three Stooges. Apologies to Moe,Larry and Curly.
The Ukraine election, the anticlimactic Mueller report and accompanying Barr âsynopsisâ which muddied the water and emboldened Spankee mark the beginning of the downhill spiral, Weâll let the evidence spin out.
Meanwhile, OT but, hey, we all need a laugh.
Great article in the Guardian on how Devin Moo-nes is ultimately going to hurt Spankee, and hereâs one snippet from the article:
Nunes is a one-time dairy farmer who now milks the bursting udders of an entire herd of conspiracy-minded cows.
I nearly fell out of my chair laughingâŚgonna bookmark that one for the future.
ETA: second snippet
Mad Devin disease appears similarly devastating to the human brain through an unusually mysterious vector known as Vladimir Putin.
Fantastic reporting Josh.
Iâm so sick of this shitâŚ
This is a really excellent article. It makes the story feel much more complete, and should be required reading for anyone reporting on Ukraine or the impeachment. Makes me feel like my TPM subscription is very impactful.
Reading this I feel like Iâm reading a John Le Carre novel.
Just more evidence that Trump is Putinâs âuseful idiot.â
The most pivotal moment in the public phase of these impeachment hearings was the presser that Nancy Pelosi had just now. Cast it in stark terms about bribery, and she keeps coming back to conditioning the release of military aid on getting dirt to attack his political opponent and gain an unfair advantage in the 2020 election. Itâs the right message.
The real question is, where did the nutty Ukrainian conspiracy notion come from in the first placeâŚand the answer is, Russia. With Spanky, all roads lead to Moscow.
The pair reportedly approached Kolomoisky under the pretense of proposing a gas deal. But at the meeting, Kolomoisky and his attorneys have said, Parnas and Fruman switched tack, asking the oligarch for access to Zelensky, while offering to guarantee access to U.S. officials for a fee.
Has bribery been added to their charges yet?
Or a Tom Hanks film.
Thanks, Josh, for putting this all together. May the pizzazz always be at your back.
This should be sent to all of the Democrats on the Intelligence committee, because it makes a key point: they were trying to get the same result (an investigation announcement) from the previous Ukrainian president. It wasnât about overall corruption in Ukraine, it was solely about getting that announcement to hurt Biden, and when the situation changed they went from thinking they had their plan to making up another one, and that one took more pressure (including holding back aid) in order to get the new president to agree. It sure seems like Zelensky ran to clean up corruption in his nation, so I donât think he would have wanted to do this unless forcedâŚit would be really great if we could get honest testimony from him about what he was thinking.
And, I really canât wait to listen to Yovanovich, she was pushing anti-corruption policies and it sounds like she had a partner in Zelensky (finally!), only to get shoved out by corruption from Trump and company. I have a feeling, from reading some of her earlier testimony, that sheâs not going to allow the Republicans to spin their web of lies, she will hit back at them for making crap up and trying to distract from what happened. Tomorrow is going to be interesting to watch if she really does go on the attack, I donât think they will be able to handle itâŚand it will be especially bad optics if Jordan starts yelling at her.
Hey Josh K. can we get a pix of the white board youâre using?
So I guess having John Solomon to testify isnât going to happen, or be prudent, but his part in this conspiracy theory needs to be kept in the news.
Donât forget the involvement of Dimytr Firtash in all this.
His Lawyer at the time RUDY GUILLIANI passed to Trump the Firtash offer to dig up dirt on Biden in exchange for dropping the US Bribery and Extortion Charges against him (that is where Bill Barr comes into the picture) that are the reason he is in Vienna fighting extradition to the US for trial.
Firtash was/is Putinâs hand-picked âManâ in Ukraine and was appointed by Poroshenko to the no-work âmiddle-manâ job with contract supervision over ALL of the Ukraineâs Natural Gas Deals with Russia and the EU, raking in tens of millions in kickbacks (that I am sure found their way back to Putinâs accounts.)
It was this arrangement that got him indicted on Bribery and Extortion Charges.
Firtashâs CURRENT LAWYERS are Joe DiGenova and Victoria Toensing, who are desperately pushing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories (George Soros controls the State Dept./Protocols of Zion shit) on Lou Dobbs (FOX of course) to try to deflect the investigation away from their client.
Thank you Josh K for this piece (and all your related pieces).
apropos of nothing:
I found it interesting that both ambassadors described the Ukrainian 2014 revolution by the name the Ukrainian use: âThe Revolution of Dignityâ. After living with the shit pile of corruption and lying in their country this seems like such a thoughtful, accurate and humane description. I wished the Dâs would have brought it up and used it- it supports all their and our efforts to help them break out of that reality.
An excellent word. Along with âtreason,â the only constitutionally explicit grounds for impeachment. âAbuse of power?â Power was merely treated poorly. Get over it. âContempt of Congress?â Congress deserves comtempt! But bribery - thatâs a constitutional no-no and a criminal offense.
New from CNN:
News Alert: Pelosi says impeachment inquiry testimony âcorroborated evidence of briberyâ by Trump
Thank you, Madame Speaker. Ditch the Greek. Letâs talk turkey.
BRIBERY BRIBERY BRIBERY BRIBERY