Tag: Ukraine

Trump can’t win in November without foreign help — and it’s eating him alive

AlterNet logoDonald Trump needs foreign help to get reelected in 2020, just the way he needed Russia’s help in 2016. In fact, Trump has made it perfectly clear to the world that he welcomes foreign interference on his behalf, telling ABC’s George Stephanopoulos last year, “I think I’d take it.” Of course, he would—he needs it.

But that’s only what Trump has said in public. In private, we know that he’s shaking down foreign leaders in any way possible in order to enlist their help in his reelection bid. That’s exactly what Trump did in the “I would like you to do us a favor though” phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, urging him to investigate his political rivals eight times. So publicly, Trump’s pushing out open calls for pro-Trump interference by foreign governments and, privately, he’s dropping the hammer on countries that need U.S. support in order to extract help from them in his quest to cheat the American people yet again.

But the mere acknowledgment that Trump will actually receive the help he has sought is cause for heads to roll. That’s what the intelligence community dared to assert in a congressional briefing last week, setting up that latest Trump administration purge at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The intelligence official, Shelby Pierson, intimated that Russia had “developed a preference” for Trump in 2020. Gasp! Quick, find your pearls. Oh wait, Trump’s got them and he’s crushing them in his tiny man hands. He’s enraged. His stack is blowing—smoke out the ears, hair on fire, madness! Acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire—out! Principal executive at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Andrew Hallman—out! And now purges of insufficiently loyal public servants are being considered at agencies like the Justice Department. Continue reading.

As impeachment trial ended, federal prosecutors took new steps in probe related to Giuliani, according to people familiar with case

Washington Post logoAs the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump drew to a close in Washington earlier this month, federal prosecutors in New York contacted witnesses and sought to collect additional documents in an investigation related to Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani, according to people familiar with their activities.

The recent steps — including an interview with a witness last week — indicate that the probe involving Giuliani and two of his former associates is moving forward, even as the Justice Department has set up a process to evaluate claims Giuliani is making about alleged wrongdoing in Ukraine related to former vice president Joe Biden.

Attorney General William P. Barr said this week that the department had established an “intake process” to accept information about Biden gathered by the president’s personal attorney. Officials confirmed Giuliani’s tips are being routed to the U.S. attorney’s office in Pittsburgh. Continue reading.

Newly released e-mails show how much Trump’s OMB ‘lied’ to Congress in the Ukraine scandal: report

AlterNet logoDespite the mountain of evidence that House Democrats presented during their impeachment inquiry last year, Republicans in the U.S. Senate (except for Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah) were determined to acquit President Donald Trump on both of the charges that he faced. Nonetheless, new evidence in the Ukraine scandal continues to come in, including unredacted e-mails that have been obtained by Just Security and show that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) knew more than previously thought about the hold that Trump placed on military aid to Ukraine.

According to Just Security’s Kate Brannen, the e-mails “confirm that OMB, including the general counsel’s office, was fully in the loop about the Pentagon’s concerns and took active steps to bury them. They also expose the extent to which OMB misled and even lied to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a congressional investigative body, as the GAO tried to understand the circumstances surrounding the funding hold.”

The e-mails, Brannen notes, “provide new evidence about how and why the Trump Administration withheld military assistance to Ukraine, the Senate never subpoenaed them or any other documents or witnesses in Trump’s impeachment trial. If it had, senators, as well as the public, could read these e-mails in unredacted form for themselves.” Continue reading.

House Judiciary Goes After AG Barr Over Back Channel For Giuliani To Give Info On Ukraine

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) wrote a letter to the attorney general demanding answers about the DOJ’s new “intake process” to vet tips from Rudy Giuliani.

The House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr on Monday demanding answers regarding the Justice Department’s new so-called “intake process” to receive information from Rudy Giuliani about Ukraine and the Bidens.

Rep. Jerry Nadler’s (D-N.Y.) letter comes hours after Barr admitted that the department would evaluate material that Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, had collected from Ukrainian sources claiming to have damaging information about 2020 candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

Giuliani’s gathering of such information was a huge part of Trump’s attempt to get Ukraine to announce an investigation into the Bidens ahead of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, which led to the president’s impeachment (and eventual acquittal). Much of what the former New York City mayor has said to media outlets so far has consisted of conspiracy theories and misinformation. Continue reading.

Lindsey Graham says DOJ is handling information from Giuliani on Bidens

Washington Post logoSen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday that the Justice Department is vetting information that President Trump’s personal attorney has delivered regarding Hunter Biden’s work on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.

Graham, citing an early-morning conversation with Attorney General William P. Barr, said that Rudolph W. Giuliani is giving his information to national security experts and that he would back off his own plans to use the Senate Judiciary Committee as a vehicle to investigate the Biden family.

“The Department of Justice is receiving information coming out of the Ukraine from Rudy to see — he told me that they have created a process that Rudy could give information and they would see if it’s verified,” Graham, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Continue reading.

Justice Department acknowledges 24 emails reveal Trump’s thinking on Ukraine

Washington Post logoHours after the Senate voted against seeking new evidence in the impeachment case against President Trump, the administration acknowledged the existence of two dozen emails that could reveal the president’s thinking about withholding military aid to Ukraine.

In a midnight court filing, the Justice Department explained why it shouldn’t have to unredact copies of more than 100 emails written by officials at the Office of Management and Budget and the Defense Department about the hold on funds to Ukraine.

Heather Walsh, an OMB lawyer, wrote that of the 111 redacted emails in the lawsuit, 24 are protected by “presidential privilege.” Continue reading.

Giuliani discussed interests of a former Ukrainian client during summer meeting with top Zelensky aide

Washington Post logoRudolph W. Giuliani was huddled with a top Ukrainian official at a luxury Madrid hotel last August, on a mission to push for investigations sought by President Trump. But first, Giuliani made a personal ask on behalf of a former client in Ukraine.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, for whom Giuliani has said he did consulting work, was on the verge of being fired by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from a separate post as the appointed head of the city administration, a move that would greatly reduce his power. Giuliani urged a Zelensky adviser at the Madrid conclave to retain Klitschko , according to Lev Parnas, a former Giuliani associate.

“Rudy told him, ‘Make sure Klitschko stays,’ ” Parnas, who participated in the meeting, told The Washington Post in an interview. Continue reading.

Trump administration issues new sanctions related to Russia’s takeover of Crimea

Washington Post logoThe Trump administration on Wednesday placed sanctions on leading Russian-backed officials in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that was part of Ukraine before Russia claimed it in 2014 and set off the biggest East-West confrontation since the Cold War.

The sanctions targeting seven officials and a railway company connecting Russia with Crimea were handed down by the Treasury Department two days before Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to meet with officials in Ukraine. The United States has never recognized Moscow’s seizure of Crimea and still considers it a part of Ukraine.

Most of the officials facing sanctions represent the port city of Sevastopol, which had been home to Russia’s Black Sea naval fleet since the time of Catherine the Great in 1783 until the demise of the Soviet Union. Many residents are retired Russian navy officers who settled and stayed even when it became part of Ukraine. Many never learned to speak Ukrainian, and Crimeans voted to become part of Russia in 2014. Continue reading.

The gaping hole in Trump’s impeachment defense

Washington Post logoHis legal team spent very little time actually vouching for his Ukraine conspiracy theories. Instead, they watered them down

President Trump’s defense team ended an extended opening argument Tuesday in which it laid out that Trump had legitimate reasons to ask Ukraine for specific investigations.

But it spent almost no time vouching for the actual investigations he wanted.

To the extent that Trump’s team tried to argue that the investigations were legitimate, it focused mostly on the idea that Hunter Biden’s employment at a Ukrainian gas company was problematic. It spent considerably less time arguing for the theory that Trump actually raised with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on their July 25 phone call: that then-Vice President Joe Biden sought to help his son by pushing out Ukraine’s top prosecutor. Continue reading.

Schiff tells Senate Ukraine interference conspiracy was ‘brought to you by the Kremlin’

The Hill logoHouse impeachment managers on Thursday zeroed in on President Trump‘s mention of a debunked theory on his call with Ukraine, alleging during the second day of their opening arguments that the president stood to benefit in his reelection campaign from the idea that Kyiv interfered in the 2016 election. 

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) spent several minutes Thursday afternoon focusing on the theory that Ukraine was involved in the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), one that Trump has continued to mention despite his own advisers repeatedly pushing back on it as debunked.

Mentioning statements from Trump’s former aides, including impeachment witness and former White House Russia expert Fiona Hill, Schiff described the theory as “brought to you by the Kremlin” and alleged Trump was motivated by his own political ambitions in raising it with Ukraine.  Continue reading.