Tag: Trump impeachment inquiry

White House budget official says decision to delay aid to Ukraine was highly irregular

Washington Post logoA longtime budget official testified Saturday that the White House decision to freeze military aid to Ukraine in mid-July was highly irregular and that senior political appointees in the Office of Management and Budget were unable to provide an explanation for the delay.

The testimony from Mark Sandy, the first employee of OMB to testify in the House impeachment probe, appeared to confirm Democrats’ assertion that the decision to withhold nearly $400 million in congressionally approved funds for Ukraine, including millions in lethal aid, was a political one.

Sandy, the deputy associate director for national security programs at OMB, testified that he was instructed to sign the first of several apportionment letters in which budget officials formally instituted the freeze on funds, according to two people familiar with his testimony who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak frankly. He was never given a specific reason as to why the letter was being sent out, the people added.

View the complete November 16 article by Karoun Demirjian, Rachel Bade, Colby Itkowitz and Erica Werner on The Washington Post website here.

House impeachment inquiry may help restore the political and social norms that Trump flouts

President Donald Trump regularly uses blatant violations of long-established social and political norms to signal his “authenticity” to supporters.

Asking foreign countries to investigate and deliver dirt on his political opponents, which prompted an impeachment inquiry in the U.S. House of Representatives, is the most recent example in a long string of norm-shattering behaviors. Other examples of flouting the standards of his presidential office include defending white nationalists, attacking prisoners of war, abusing the use of emergency powers, personally criticizing federal judges and much more.

Norms are perceptions or beliefs about what we understand the rules for acceptable behavior to be. They are powerful predictors of behavior. By openly broadcasting his anomalous actions and views, Trump is shifting public attitudes about what is deemed appropriate – not only in politics, but also in society.

View the November 13 article by Sunita Sah, Associate Professor of Management and Organizations, Cornell University, on the Conversation website here.

Live updates: Democrats release transcripts of testimony from three officials ahead of first impeachment inquiry public hearing

Washington Post logoDemocrats on Monday released the testimony of three Trump administration officials, two days before public hearings are set to begin in the House impeachment inquiry.

In one of the testimonies, Laura Cooper, a senior defense official, told House impeachment investigators last month that the Pentagon sought clarification from the Trump administration on July 18 about the holdup of aid to Ukraine.

Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, said that at a July 23 meeting, the Office of Management and Budget told agencies that “the White House chief of staff has conveyed that the president has concerns about Ukraine and Ukraine security assistance.”

View the complete November 11 article by Felicia Sonmez, John Wagner, Elise Viebeck and Brittany Shammas on The Washington Post website here.

‘The noose is tightening’ around Trump — and Rudy Giuliani may flip on him: CNN panel

AlterNet logoA CNN panel Friday night outlined the strange pattern that always emerges in Trumpworld when it comes down to someone taking the fall for President Donald Trump. Former White House counsel John Dean warned that something is different in the case of Rudy Giuliani: he has no intention of being thrown under the bus.

In a panel discussion, former Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) started the conversation off saying that trying to make others the fall-guy for Trump’s actions likely “won’t fly.”

“Nobody’s going to believe for a second that Mick Mulvaney or Rudy Giuliani was acting on their own without any consultation with the president,” the Republican said. “I think, just like Michael Cohen paid off Stormy Daniels, didn’t he? He just did that on his own, under the direction of the president? They may try to throw these guys under the bus and they’ll do it in this order and they’ll throw [Ambassador Gordon] Sondland under the bus and Mulvaney and Giuliani in that order. But I don’t think it’s going to be effective. I think it’s laughable, the facts are simply not on the president’s side. The noose is tightening. The quid pro quo has been established and all of these people who have spoken up did so out of concern for national security and also because of interference in our elections. So, these are more distractions and they’re not going to be effective.”

View the complete November 9 article by Sarah Burris from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

He’s back! Trump’s former campaign manager resurfaces — at the heart of Ukraine

AlterNet logoHas anyone else noticed that we already had a presidential election during which all you heard was “Russia! Russia! Russia!” and now here we are three years later in the middle of another one, and all you hear is “Ukraine! Ukraine! Ukraine!”? It’s easy to forget the good old days when you would read long take-outs by political whizzes like Jack Germond about the genius of some Republican state committeeman in deep Indiana who was going to turn out the south 32 counties for Nixon in a tightly contested primary. Who even knows what a Republican committeeman is these days, when you’re more likely to read that some hack Ukrainian prosecutor holds the keys to Trump’s re-election.

It’s 2016 all over again, folks. The only thing that’s changed is the name of the corrupt foreign country that Trump is tapping to influence his re-election to the presidency. Even some of the players are the same. Remember Paul Manafort, the late, lamented former Trump campaign chairman who fancied ostrich skin jackets and $12,000 suits? Well, old Paul is currently sporting prison polyester, waist chains and handcuffs, and he’s ba-a-a-a-a-a-ack!

Manafort’s name surfaced last month in reports that Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, has been talking to the jailed former Trump campaign manager through his attorneys, seeking confirmation of a free-floating right-wing conspiracy theory that it wasn’t the Russians who meddled on behalf of Trump in the 2016 election, but the Ukrainians who butted in on behalf of Hillary Clinton. Yep, you read that right. From his cell in prison, no less, Manafort has been pushing a narrative about the 2016 election that discredits the rationale behind the entire investigation by Robert Mueller into Russian election meddling.

View the complete November 9 article by Lucian K. Truscott IV from Salon on the AlterNet website here.

Republicans Seek To Expose Ukraine Whistleblower

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) believes there is nothing wrong in calling for anonymous whistleblowers to be outed, even if it imperils their safety.

The South Carolina lawmaker instead told reporters on Tuesday that outing that person’s identity would be “very responsible.”

“The whole idea that you would use an anonymous person to generate an impeachment inquiry is dangerous to the presidency itself,” Graham told reporters on Tuesday, according to NBC News.

View the complete November 5 by Emily Singer on the National Memo website here.

A presidential loathing for Ukraine is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry

Washington Post logoThree of President Trump’s top advisers met with him in the Oval Office in May, determined to convince him that the new Ukrainian leader was an ally deserving of U.S. support.

They had barely begun their pitch when Trump unloaded on them, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with the meeting. In Trump’s mind, the officials said, Ukraine’s entire leadership had colluded with the Democrats to undermine his 2016 presidential campaign.

“They tried to take me down,” Trump railed.

View the complete November 2 article by Greg Jaffe and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

GOP argues whistleblower’s name must be public

The Hill logoAs the evidence mounts of a quid pro quo in President Trump‘s dealings with Ukraine, the president’s allies in Congress are increasingly hopeful they’ll find exoneration in a singular figure: the government whistleblower they’re fighting to expose.

The clash over the whistleblower’s identity — and that person’s right to anonymity — has emerged as a frontline battle in the partisan war over the Trump impeachment inquiry.

Republicans on Capitol Hill contend that knowing the whistleblower’s identity is vital to the process, granting Trump the right to face his accuser — and learn of any political biases the figure might have. They are effectively waging a whisper campaign about the identity of the anonymous figure who filed the complaint triggering the inquiry launched just six weeks ago.

View the complete November 2 article by Scott Wong and Mike Lillis on The Hill website here.

Pompeo Refuses To Say Whether Ukraine Call Transcript Was Edited

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was listening in to Donald Trump’s infamous July phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, was asked on Wednesday whether the summary released by the administration was complete. He refused to answer.

On Tuesday, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council’s top Ukraine expert who was also listening in on the call, reportedly told the House impeachment inquiry committees that the document was not a full transcript and that some of Trump’s most overt efforts to link his quid pro quo of security aid for opposition research were omitted. Vindman contemporaneous attempts to get the transcript corrected were unsuccessful.

Pompeo was asked by Fox News whether portions of the call relating to the Bidens and the quid pro quo had been left out of the transcript, as Vindman had testified. Pompeo refused to say they had not.

View the complete November 2 article by Josh Israel on the National Memo website here.

White House official who heard Trump’s call with Ukraine leader testified that he was told to keep quiet

Washington Post logoeveral days after President Trump’s phone call with the leader of Ukraine, a top White House lawyer instructed a senior national security official not to discuss his grave concerns about the leaders’ conversation with anyone outside the White House, according to three people familiar with the aide’s testimony.

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman testified that he received this instruction from John Eisenberg, the top legal adviser for the National Security Council, after White House lawyers learned July 29 that a CIA employee had anonymously raised concerns about the Trump phone call, the sources said.

The directive from Eisenberg adds to an expanding list of moves by senior White House officials to contain, if not conceal, possible evidence of Trump’s attempt to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to provide information that could be damaging to former vice president Joe Biden.

View the complete November 1 article by Tom Hamburger, Carol D. Leonnig, Greg Miller and Ellen Nakashima on The Washington Post website here.