;)
The Commentariat -- October 1, 2019
Late Morning Update:
Happy Birthday, Jimmy. Bill Barrow of the AP: "Jimmy Carter is celebrating his 95th birthday, becoming the first U.S. president to reach that milestone as he continues his humanitarian work and occasionally wades back into politics and policy debates almost four decades after leaving office. Carter, who served from 1977-1981 and still lives in tiny Plains, Georgia, planned no public celebrations on Tuesday."
Cover-up, Ctd. Conor Finnegan of ABC News: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday accused the Democratic chairs of three House committees investigating the State Department's role in Rudy Giuliani's Ukraine efforts of trying to 'intimidate, bully, and treat improperly' five State Department officials called for depositions. In the fierce letter addressed to the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., Pompeo blasted the depositions in the impeachment probe as rushed and potentially in violation of executive privilege, accused committee staff of not following protocol, and appeared to say the officials will not show up. 'I will not tolerate such tactics, and I will use all means at my disposal to prevent and expose any attempts to intimidate the dedicated professionals whom I am proud to lead and serve alongside at the Department of State,' Pompeo wrote."
Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Tuesday reiterated his desire to meet with and question the whistleblower whose complaint about Trump's interactions with the leader of Ukraine ignited an impeachment inquiry. The president, who in recent days attacked the whistleblower as a 'fraud' and attempted to undermine their [Mrs. McC: his] credibility, questioned why he doesn't have the right to interview the anonymous individual. '[W]hy aren't we entitled to interview & learn everything about the Whistleblower, and also the person who gave all of the false information to him,' Trump tweeted. 'This is simply about a phone conversation that could not have been nicer, warmer, or better. No pressure at all (as confirmed by Ukrainian Pres.). It is just another Democrat Hoax!'... Trump claimed the author of the complaint 'has all second hand information' and that 'almost everything' the whistleblower recounted about the president's call with Ukraine was wrong. But neither of those things are [Mrs. McC: is] true.... The Whistleblower Protection Act makes it a violation for federal agencies to threaten retaliation against individuals who come forward to raise concerns of wrongdoing within the government."
Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: Bill "Barr appears determined to discredit the special counsel investigation's finding that Russia engaged in 'sweeping and systematic' interference in our election on Trump's behalf. Which raises the question: What if Barr's activities -- whether by coincidence or design -- end up chilling how intelligence officials respond to the next foreign effort to sabotage a U.S. presidential election on Trump's behalf?... Current and former officials are alarmed by Barr's direct involvement in the investigation into the probe's origins currently being run by John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut.... 'There's a message to our intelligence community, which is, "Don't go there,"' [Rep. Tom] Malinowski [D-NJ] told me. 'They're being investigated for doing their jobs the last time.'... All this feeds into the ballooning Ukraine scandal as well.... We already know that Barr's Justice Department helped direct efforts to keep Congress from learning of the whistleblower complaint.... Barr didn't recuse himself from that, despite being personally named in the complaint."
Missed This. Brett Samuels: "The intelligence community inspector general (ICIG) on Monday appeared to push back on allegations that the rules regarding whistleblower reports had been changed shortly before the complaint regarding President Trump's dealings with Ukraine was filed. The Office of the Inspector General issued a four-page news release in which it made clear that the whistleblower complaint focused on Trump's July 25 call with the Ukrainian president was processed under procedures put in place in May 2018. The inspector general wrote that under the statute, a complainant is not required to have firsthand knowledge of the matter they are referring.... The clarification came as Trump and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have claimed the rules for filing a complaint were changed just before the whistleblower on the Ukraine call came forward.... Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) wrote to Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson on Monday asking for clarity about a reported change in the whistleblower complaint process that no longer required complainants to have firsthand knowledge."
Rudy's Elves. Michael Sallah, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "Congress is demanding information from two men who carried out a campaign to discredit Joe Biden under Giuliani's direction.... Letters were sent to Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, Ukrainian-America business partners who arranged the meetings between Giuliani and top Ukrainian prosecutors over the last year.... A joint investigation by BuzzFeed News and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project in July found that, under Giuliani's direction, Parnas and Fruman carried out a whirlwind campaign to unearth information to damage Biden's candidacy and press Ukraine prosecutors to investigate accusations that Ukrainian agents plotted to rig the 2016 election to favor Hillary Clinton by leaking evidence against Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, in what became a cornerstone of the Mueller investigation. Parnas and Fruman traveled to Kiev, New York, Warsaw and Paris to meet with Ukrainian leaders, raising questions ... about whether they were blurring the lines of what US citizens are allowed to do without registering as foreign agents."
Waste, Fraud & Abuse the Pentagon Way. Martin de Bourmont & Sharon Weinberger in Yahoo! News: "In December 2016, just a few weeks before moving into the White House..., Donald Trump tweeted that once he was in office, 'billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases.'... Yet within two years of Trump's entrance into the White House, [the Pentagon's best pennypincher Shay] Assad would find himself removed from his job, and his efforts to save money and recover hundreds of millions of dollars in potentially fraudulent spending tabled. His treatment, he contends, was the direct result of his attempts to save the Pentagon money and identify potential contract fraud, which brought him into conflict with the Pentagon's top weapons buyer." Thanks to Anonymous for the link.
Fellow-traveler. Rebecca Fishbein of Splinter is amused that "Nazi-adjacent [former] Deputy Assistant to the President Sebastian Gorka" is traveling with Mike Pompeo "to Italy, Vatican City, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Greece.... The trip does not appear to include Hungary, where Gorka is a wanted man, which is a bummer."
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Trump, Inc. -- The Criminal Enterprise, Ctd.
Elliot Hannon of Slate: "It's now abundantly clear that PresidentTrump is actively deploying the resources of the U.S. government explicitly to bolster his chances of reelection in 2020. The recent whistleblower complaint revealed one part of the two-pronged strategy: leverage U.S. military aid to Ukraine to compel the Ukrainian government to dredge up old allegations on political rival Joe Biden. The second aspect of the Trump vindication-through-vilification reelection strategy has led Trump and his allies to investigate the investigation by Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 election to try to muddy the water sufficiently that Trump looks clean by comparison -- or by confusion. That effort is also being propelled by the power vested in the highest offices of the U.S. government...." ~~~
~~~ Charles Pierce: "It's become plain at this point that the ongoing 'review' of the origins of the investigation into the Russian ratfcking of the 2016 election has as one of its primary purposes developing an alternative narrative to the plain fact that the Russians wanted to help the president* become president*, and that he accepted their help, and that this alternative narrative then will be used to discredit the revelations in the whistleblower's complaint, and that this project now commands the attention of, at the very least, the office of the president*, the Department of State, and the Department of Justice. The line for the rollercoaster at Depositionland is getting longer by the minute."
Bill Barr, Consigliere. Mark Mazzetti & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "President Trump pushed the Australian prime minister during a recent telephone call to help Attorney General William P. Barr gather information for a Justice Department inquiry that Mr. Trump hopes will discredit the Mueller investigation, according to two American officials with knowledge of the call. The White House restricted access to the call's transcript to a small group of the president's aides, one of the officials said, an unusual decision that is similar to the handling of a July call with the Ukrainian president that is at the heart of House Democrats' impeachment inquiry into Mr. Trump. Like that call, the discussion with Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia shows the extent to which Mr. Trump sees the attorney general as a critical partner in his goal to show that the Mueller investigation had corrupt and partisan origins, and the extent that Mr. Trump sees the Justice Department inquiry as a potential way to gain leverage over America's closest allies. And like the call with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, the discussion with Mr. Morrison shows the president using high-level diplomacy to advance his personal political interests.... In making the request, Mr. Trump was in effect asking the Australian government to investigate itself. The F.B.I.'s counterintelligence investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election began after Australian officials told the bureau that the Russian government had made overtures to the Trump campaign about releasing political damaging information about Hillary Clinton." The Hill has a summary of the Times report here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Kevin Drum: "... aside from the fact that this was never really a legitimate investigation to start with, we aren't talking about Trump keeping himself at arm's length and letting the chips fall where they may. We're talking about Donald Trump explicitly getting on the phone to encourage an ally to help him. By itself that may or may not be a big deal. But it sure shows a pattern of behavior, doesn't it? If your goal is to make a case that Trump has been abusing the power and influence of the presidency to benefit himself personally, this is one more brick in the wall." ~~~
~~~ digby republishes long excerpts from the NYT report linked above & from the WashPo report linked next. ~~~
~~~ Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "Attorney General William P. Barr has held private meetings overseas with foreign intelligence officials seeking their help in a Justice Department inquiry that President Trump hopes will discredit U.S. intelligence agencies' examination of possible connections between Russia and members of the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the matter. Barr's personal involvement is likely to stoke further criticism from Democrats ... that he is helping the Trump administration use executive branch powers to augment investigations aimed primarily at the president's adversaries.... The direct involvement of the nation's top law enforcement official shows the priority Barr places on the investigation being conducted by John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, who has been assigned the sensitive task of reviewing U.S. intelligence work surrounding the 2016 election and its aftermath.... Barr has already made overtures to British intelligence officials, and last week the attorney general traveled to Italy, where he and Durham met senior Italian government officials and Barr asked the Italians to assist Durham, according to one person familiar with the matter." ~~~
~~~ Alexander Mallin & Jonathan Karl of ABC News: "As a part of his review of the origins of the investigation into members of ... Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, Attorney General William Barr asked President Trump on several occasions to initiate introductions between him and the leaders of Australia and Italy, among other countries, a Department of Justice official told ABC News on Monday.... It's not clear whether there's any other example of the country's lead law enforcement official traveling overseas to personally investigate an issue that the president believes could benefit him politically." ~~~
~~~ Jonathan Chait: "In theory, there's nothing wrong with cross-checking the FBI's work to make sure it handled its investigation of Trump correctly. But everything about this investigation suggests Barr is carrying out a political vendetta at Trump's orders to intimidate bureaucrats who would defy the authoritarian and lawless president.... He has repeatedly cast the FBI investigation as a coup attempt.... Trump's loyalists have expressed almost uncontainable excitement about Barr's work.... There is little reason to believe Barr is acting fairly at all and a great deal of reason to suspect he is carrying out his duties as hatchet man for his authoritarian boss."
P.S. There's This. Corrine Ramsey of the Wall Street Journal: "The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan said Monday that the U.S. would participate in a lawsuit filed by President Trump that seeks to block a subpoena for eight years of his tax returns. In a brief letter to the judge, U.S. Attorney for Manhattan Geoffrey Berman and Jeffrey Oestericher, chief of the office's civil division, said the U.S. would file a submission in the case by Wednesday. The letter comes in a dispute over a subpoena that the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. sent to accounting firm Mazars USA LLP requesting the president's personal and business tax returns dating to 2011. In an attempt to block the subpoena, Mr. Trump sued Mr. Vance and Mazars, arguing the request was unconstitutional and part of a campaign by Democrats to harass him. Prosecutors in Mr. Vance's office have said their subpoena is valid and any dispute should be heard in state court. Mazars has said it would follow its legal obligations. Federal prosecutors haven't spelled out their reasons for entering the case." Mrs. McC: For some reason, the story in full loaded for me. Don't count on it, but you might be able to get there via Google. The lede is the main point.
Mike Pompeo, Capo. Zachary Cohen & Jamie Gangel of CNN: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on the July 25 phone call between ... Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that has come under scrutiny following last week's release of a whistleblower complaint dealing, in part, with circumstances surrounding that conversation, a source familiar told CNN.... Pompeo was asked about the whistleblower complaint last week while in New York for the United Nations General Assembly and said at the time he had not yet read it in full. When asked if he or his staff acted improperly Pompeo did say that, to the best of his knowledge, 'each of the actions that were undertaken by State Department officials was entirely appropriate.' [Pompeo] offered a similar response during an ABC News interview eight days ago when questioned about the complaint and reports that Trump had repeatedly pressed the Ukrainian leader to investigate the Bidens with help from Giuliani.'You just gave me a report about a (intelligence community) whistleblower complaint, none of which I've seen,' Pompeo said at the time." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Martha Raddatz of ABC News asked Pompeo a straightforward question: "What do you know about" the phone call between Trump & Zelensky? Pompeo responded with a feint about not having read the whistleblower's complaint. He did not answer her question.
~~~ AND Claudia Koerner of BuzzFeed News: "... in a Sept. 22 interview with John Roberts on Fox News Sunday, Pompeo defended Trump's conduct during conversations with Ukrainian leaders as having 'been 100% appropriate, 100% lawful.' Roberts then asked if it would be a problem for Trump to seek some kind of quid pro quo arrangement with Ukraine. Democrats have alleged that Trump used millions in military aid as a pressure tactic to get Ukraine's help. 'John, you're asking me to provide legal analysis on a hypothetical on a report I haven't seen,' Pompeo said. 'Come on.'"
~~~ Ryan Bort of Rolling Stone: “The whistleblower ... wrote in his complaint that 'approximately a dozen' White House officials were on the line, as was T. Ulrich Brechbuhl of the State Department. As the Journal points out, the State Department disputed Brechbuhl's involvement last week. The revelation that the State Department's top official [-- Mike Pompeo --] was on the call adds a new dimension to the scandal.... It appears Pompeo's involvement may go far deeper than this, though. On Sunday, Rudy Giuliani ... who has no official government role, said on Face the Nation that Pompeo knew of his efforts to convince Ukraine to look into the Bidens, and that he did so with the State Department's blessing.... House Democrats have already taken steps to uncover the extent of Pompeo's involvement. On Friday, three committee chairmen subpoenaed him after he failed to voluntarily provide documents related to Ukraine."
Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump said Monday that the White House is 'trying to find out' the identity of the intelligence community whistleblower who filed a complaint about the president's interaction with Ukraine. 'We're trying to find out about a whistleblower,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked if he knows the person's identity, alleging that they reported 'things that are incorrect.'... 'As the acting DNI testified last week, the law and policy supports protection of the identity of the whistleblower from disclosure and from retaliation. No exceptions exist for any individual,' [Mark] Zaid[, an attorney for the whistleblower,] said." Update: The New York Times report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
David Remnick of the New Yorker writes that Trump's vengeful attacks on Adam Schiff & the whistleblower and his other "increasingly lurid threats of retribution" have so discomfitted federal officials that some may come forward to testify against him.
WHO CHANGED THE LONG STANDING WHISTLEBLOWER RULES JUST BEFORE SUBMITTAL OF THE FAKE WHISTLEBLOWER REPORT? DRAIN THE SWAMP! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet, Sept. 30 ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Several news organizations have fact-checked Trump's claim. I linked to one yesterday; here are a few more:
Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "The original report in the Federalist focused on a change in the form, suggesting it was somehow related to the recent whistleblower case. There is no evidence that is correct. In any case, the IG's process for handling whistleblower allegations is determined not by a form but by the law and related policy documents. The key document, ICD 120, has been virtually unchanged since 2014. Contrary to the speculation, the whistleblower used the 2018 form, not the new online form. The IG then investigated and found that his allegations were credible and that Congress should be notified." ~~~
~~~ Jane Timm of NBC News: "... Donald Trump and his allies advanced a conspiracy theory about the Ukraine whistleblower over the last few days alleging that the intelligence community had recently changed the rules requiring whistleblowers to base their claims on first-hand information. But the law hasn't changed, and there is no requirement that whistleblowers stick to first-hand information in their complaints precisely because those filings are designed to trigger official investigations that would uncover such first-hand information, three attorneys who represent whistleblowers told NBC News." ~~~
~~~ Holmes Lybrand & Zachary Cohen of CNN: "Monday's tweet was at least Trump's second reference to the theory, which apparently was initially propagated by the right-wing website The Federalist on September 27.... This is false. The Federalist reading of the form is inaccurate and although the submission form that whistleblowers from the intelligence community fill out was revised in August 2019, the revision did not change the rules on who can submit a whistleblower complaint."
Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump on Monday questioned whether the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam B. Schiff, should be arrested for treason for his description of a phone call Mr. Trump had with the president of Ukraine during a recent congressional hearing.... Mr. Trump has accused Mr. Schiff, of lying to Congress when Mr. Schiff summarized a portion of what Mr. Trump said to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine during a July 25 phone call.... During a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday, Mr. Schiff addressed a portion of the reconstructed transcript and introduced his summary of it saying, 'Shorn of its rambling character and in not so many words, this is the essence of what the president communicates.' Then, Mr. Schiff summarized Mr. Trump's comments and said: 'We've been very good to your country, very good. No other country has done as much as we have, but you know what, I don't see much reciprocity here. I hear what you want. I have a favor I want from you, though.' The summary appears to be drawn from several portions of the call, including statements from Mr. Trump to Mr. Zelensky." There's a Daily Beast item here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Dimwit-in-Chief. Jonathan Chait: "President Trump is currently facing impeachment for demanding investigations of his political enemies (in this case, the FBI agents who looked into his Russia ties and Joe Biden). His response to this charge is, among other things, to demand investigations of even more political enemies. The president's rants include demands that Rep. Adam Schiff be investigated for 'Fraud' and 'Treason.'... [Monday] he proceeded to demands for Schiff's arrest[.] This is literally what Trump is being impeached for."
Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Journalists, perhaps seeking to appear balanced, have sometimes described Trump's claims about Biden as 'unsubstantiated' or 'unsupported.' That is misleading, because it suggests more muddiness in the factual record than actually exists. Trump isn't making unproven charges against Biden. He is blatantly lying about him. He and his defenders are spreading a conspiracy theory that is the precise opposite of the truth. Like most effective conspiracy theories, this one is built around a speck of something real. Hunter Biden's place on Burisma's board was untoward, even if it's preposterous for Trump to complain about nepotistic corruption. Biden's son doesn't seem to have broken any laws, but the way he traded on his name was still sleazy.... But ... if [Trump] succeeds in defaming Biden today, he'll be even more audacious in using the same strategy against anyone else who threatens him. What's at stake ... [is] how much Trump can erode the political salience of reality, and how much the media helps him."
John Harwood of CNBC: "The Republican defenses for ... Donald Trump's conduct on Ukraine simply don't hold up.... even cursory scrutiny of evidence that has emerged so far knocks down assorted GOP arguments like shanties in a hurricane. Here's a brief review[.] Mrs. McC: Although Harwood doesn't go into detail about each "defense," his review is actually a fairly comprehensive line-up of Republicans' failed attempts to defend Trump. If you haven't had time to read the details, Harwood provides a good overview. ~~~
~~~ For a similar view, writ florid, Charles Pierce: "... this weekend, the small group of people still willing to go on television and defend El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago put on an ensemble performance of such glorious incompetence and mendacity that even the hosts of The Sunday Showz found themselves gagging on the undercooked codswallop they were being asked to swallow. To sum up: Stephen Miller, the White House dime-store Machiavelli, and not a man accustomed to daylight, went on Fox News with Chris Wallace, and Wallace tore him several new ones. Rudy Giuliani, now performing on the national political stage as Trashcan Man from The Stand, went on ABC with George Stephanopoulos and had another public episode. Rep. Jim Jordan went on CNN with Jake Tapper, and Tapper pantsed him. Rep. Kevin McCarthy ... went on 60 Minutes with Scott Pelley, and Pelley <" href="http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trying-defend-trump-gop-leader-caught-guard-reality">skewered him with the president*'s own words." ~~~
~~~ Matt Ford of the New Republic: "[The] flailing performance [of Trump's defenders] this weekend highlights a deeper problem for the president. If the House impeaches him, and the Senate holds a trial, Trump will have to make an affirmative case for acquittal to 100 senators, many of whom hold public or private concerns about his fitness to be president. So far, Trump's defenders haven't even come close to making a convincing argument in his favor. The biggest weakness in Trump's defense is that -- as the White House's own summary transcript of the Zelenskiy call proves -- he actually did what Democrats allege: abuse his power by urging a foreign government to undermine his domestic political rivals.... [Also over the weekend,] Trump's Twitter feed glowed with an incandescent rage that only his deep sense of personal victimhood can sustain.... It goes without saying that these rants don't amount to an affirmative case for the Senate to acquit him...." The obfuscation that worked for Trump during the Russia investigation won't work on the Ukraine scandal because Trump himself has already provided the smoking gun: the memcon of his conversation with Zelensky. "The question this time isn't 'What happened?' but 'What are we going to do about it?'"
Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "... multiple current and former administration officials say [former national security advisor John Bolton] was at odds with [Donald Trump] over a July phone call with the president of Ukraine. Three officials said Bolton argued against Trump calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on July 25 because he was concerned the president wasn't coordinating with advisers on what to say and might air personal grievances.... Bolton was among the senior members of the president's national security team, including Vice President Mike Pence, who did not listen in on the Zelenskiy call, officials said."
Alex Pascal in a New York Times op-ed: "As the former senior director of the National Security Council's Office of the Executive Secretariat, I helped oversee the production and record-keeping of presidential memorandums of conversation (called memcons) for both telephone and in-person interactions.... Based on my experience, I believe the so-called transcript the White House has released of the July phone call might not fully reflect the president's conversation with Mr. Zelensky. Furthermore, the whistle-blower complaint raises very troubling questions about how administration lawyers and officials handled the call memo. What the whistle-blower describes is, in my experience, highly unusual and cause for concern.... I wonder whether National Security Council staff members were directed to not only 'lock down' the memcon but also to destroy their own notes of the call, potentially in violation of the Presidential Records Act." Emphasis added. ~~~
~~~ Sergey Karazy of Reuters: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that Kiev was unlikely to publish its version of a transcript of a July 25 phone call with ... Donald Trump, at the heart of an impeachment inquiry in Washington." (Also linked yesterday.)
Tom Balmforth, et al., of Reuters: "The Kremlin said on Monday that Washington would need Russian consent to publish transcripts of phone calls between ... Donald Trump and ... Vladimir Putin. Congress is determined to get access to Trump's calls with Putin and other world leaders, the U.S. House Intelligence Committee's chairman said on Sunday, citing concerns that the Republican president may have jeopardized national security. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Russia would be prepared to discuss the issue with Washington if it sent Moscow a signal, but that such disclosures were not normal diplomatic practice. 'Of course their publication is to some extent only possible by mutual agreement of the parties...,' Peskov said." (Also linked yesterday.)
Clarissa Ward & Salma Abdelaziz of CNN: "Two Ukrainians named in the whistleblower report that touched off an impeachment inquiry into ... Donald Trump have told CNN that his personal lawyer actively pushed for an investigation into his political rivals' dealings in the country. Andreii Telizhenko, who worked in the Ukrainian embassy in Washington between December 2015 and May 2016, says Rudy Giuliani approached him for a face-to-face meeting in May of this year. And Sergeii Leschenko, an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky, says Giuliani began applying pressure on Zelensky's team to dig up dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter shortly after the former comedian was elected in April 2019. Each has a different perspective on the crisis -- Telizhenko believes that the issues surrounding Biden merit further investigation -- but both agree that Giuliani was open in his motivations.... Telizhenko is known for his repeated claims in the media that Democrats colluded with Ukrainian officials to dig up dirt on then-candidate Donald Trump and his team in an effort to boost Hilary Clinton's chances in the 2016 elections. These claims have been repeatedly debunked.... There is no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Joe or Hunter Biden."
Michael McFaul, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, in a Washington Post op-ed, explains "what a presidential phone call with a foreign leader looks like in a normal White House." McFaul contrasts a normal president-to-foreign-leader with President* Trump's call to President Zelensky. Useful to read if you have a WashPo subscription.
Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "The House Intelligence Committee on Monday issued a subpoena to Rudy Giuliani..., Donald Trump's personal attorney, as part of House Democrats' rapidly intensifying impeachment inquiry. The subpoena, issued in consultation with the House Foreign Affairs and Oversight panels, seeks documents related to Trump's efforts to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate 2020 contender and former Vice President Joe Biden. 'Our inquiry includes an investigation of credible allegations that you acted as an agent of the president in a scheme to advance his personal political interests by abusing the power of the Office of the President,' Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff wrote to Giuliani. Monday's letter was co-signed by Reps. Eliot Engel and Elijah Cummings, who chair the Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees, respectively." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie BTW: Soundbites I've heard recently reveal Rudy has nearly lost his voice, no doubt as a result of screaming on the teevee & at print reporters.
Jacob Pramuk of CNBC: “The Senate would have to take up impeachment of ... Donald Trump if the House effectively votes to charge the president, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday. 'I would have no choice but to take it up,' the Kentucky Republican told CNBC. 'How long you are on it is a different matter, but I would have no choice but to take it up based on a Senate rule on impeachment.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Quint Forgey of Politico: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday warned against foreign interference in U.S. elections, threatening that nations seeking to meddle in the 2020 races will 'have a serious problem' on their hands. 'Look, 2018 was a big success story,' the Kentucky Republican told CNBC, praising the Trump administration's efforts to safeguard last year's midterm elections." (Also linked yesterday.)
Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "Lawyers for the House of Representatives revealed on Monday that they have reason to believe that the grand-jury redactions in special counsel Robert Mueller's report show that ... Donald Trump lied about his knowledge of his campaign's contacts with WikiLeaks. The attorneys made the stunning suggestion in a court filing as part of the House Judiciary Committee's bid for Mueller's grand-jury materials, which have remained secret by law.... To back up their claim, the House's legal team -- led by House General Counsel Douglas Letter -- cited a passage in Mueller's report about former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's testimony that he 'recalled' Trump asking to be kept 'updated' about WikiLeaks' disclosures of Democratic National Committee emails. There is a grand-jury redaction in that passage, the lawyers note.... 'Those materials therefore have direct bearing on whether the president was untruthful, and further obstructed the special counsel's investigation, when in providing written responses to the special counsel's questions he denied being aware of any communications between his campaign and WikiLeaks,' they added."
Burgess Everett of Politico: "... the Republican chairmen of two Senate committees, Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley, are asking Attorney General William Barr to investigate any ties between Ukraine and Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign. In a letter to Barr released on Monday, Johnson (R-Wis.) and Grassley (R-Iowa) pressed the Justice Department to probe any connection between Clinton and Ukrainian operatives. They said they have 'concerns about foreign assistance in the 2016 election that have not been thoroughly addressed.'"
John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Former senator Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said in an op-ed published Monday that President Trump's actions warrant impeachment and urged fellow Republicans not to support his reelection if he remains in office. In the piece for The Washington Post, Flake cited President Trump's July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump repeatedly urged Zelensky to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son at a time when the White House had suspended military aid to Ukraine." CNN's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Jennifer Agiesta of CNN: "Americans are about evenly split over impeaching ... Donald Trump and removing him from office, as support for that move has risen among independents and Republicans, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS after the announcement of a formal impeachment inquiry by House Democrats last week. About half, 47%, support impeaching the President and removing him from office, up from 41% who felt that way in a CNN poll in May.... Opposition stands at 45% in the new poll...."
Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "There's another whistleblower complaint. It's about Trump's tax returns.... This summer an anonymous whistleblower approached the House [Ways & Mean] committee to say its concerns [about someone meddling with the IRS audit of Trump's tax audits] had been justified. The whistleblower offered credible allegations of 'evidence of possible misconduct,' specifically 'inappropriate efforts to influence' the audit of the president, according to a letter [Chair Richard] Neal [D-Mass.] sent to the treasury secretary. We don't know the complaint details, including who allegedly meddled with the audit or how, and whether the IRS complied. The complaint hasn't been released, and Neal said last week that he's still consulting with congressional lawyers about whether to make it public.... The allegations ... corroborate Democratic lawmakers' argument that oversight of the IRS's annual presidential audit is indeed a legitimate reason they -- and hopefully, eventually, the public -- should see Trump's taxes. It's hard to imagine how the federal judge in this case could now rule against the committee." ~~~
~~~ Colin Wilhelm of Bloomberg (Sept. 27): "A key House Democrat said he's consulting lawyers about whether to make public a complaint by a federal employee about possible misconduct in the Internal Revenue Service's auditing of ... Donald Trump. The complaint raises allegations about 'inappropriate efforts to influence' the audit process, House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal said in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in August. Neal told reporters on Friday that a decision on releasing the complaint depends on advice he receives from lawyers for the House of Representatives." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I can't read Bloomberg any more because it blocks incognito views, so of course I missed Wilhelm's article last week. Luckily, it's the first of the month, so I haven't used up my two free stories yet. I read nearly to the bottom of Rampell's column before I was convinced by her links that it wasn't a spoof. Honestly, I thought she would end the column with the childish dénouement, "But it was all a dream."
What do mike & Karen pence say to each other before they say their prayers?
Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Ousted national security adviser John Bolton put on display the deep schisms between himself and ... Donald Trump on North Korea, publicly breaking with his former boss on Monday about how best to get Kim Jong Un's regime to wind down its nuclear weapons program. At one of his first public appearances since his abrupt and rocky departure from the White House, Bolton did not name the president but delivered an unmistakable airing of grievances. Specifically, he threw cold water on the president's assertion that North Korea is ready to make a deal and gave his 'unvarnished' view that Kim would not voluntarily give up his nuclear weapons under current conditions." (Also linked yesterday.)
Renae Merle & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Rep. Chris Collins is resigning from Congress and expected to plead guilty to insider-trading charges on Tuesday, following allegations last year that the Republican from New York schemed with his son to avoid significant losses on a biotechnology investment. Collins, President Trump's first congressional supporter, allegedly tipped off his son to confidential information about an Australian biotechnology company, Innate Immunotherapeutics, that he learned as a member of its board. Collins and several others used the information to avoid more than $700,000 in losses, according to prosecutors. He is scheduled to change his plea Tuesday afternoon in a Manhattan federal court. Collins's son, Cameron; and another family member are scheduled to change their pleas on Thursday." This is an update of a breaking story linked earlier (and deleted). Here's the Daily Beast story. (Also linked yesterday.)
Tom Benning of the Dallas Morning News: "The Texodus continues. Clarendon Rep. Mac Thornberry on Monday announced that he will not run for reelection next year, making the 13-term lawmaker the sixth Texas Republican in Congress to head for the exits ahead of the 2020 election." (Also linked yesterday.)
Matt Stieb of New York: On Friday, "Democratic Senator Ron Wyden revealed an 18-month investigation by the Senate Finance Committee determining that the National Rifle Association served as a 'foreign asset' for Russia in the run-up to the 2016 election.... The Senate investigation displays a damning level of executive-suite involvement, including a 2015 trip from former NRA vice-president Pete Brownell, who visited Russia 'primarily or solely for the purpose of advancing personal business interests, rather than advancing the NRA's tax-exempt purpose.' Not only was Brownell — who later became the organization's president -- spending NRA funds for personal business, an email from Maria Butina to two senior NRA staffers reveals that he was in Russia because 'many powerful figures in the Kremlin are counting on Torshin to prove his American connections.' The Senate investigation also found evidence of the NRA attempting to obscure house payments for the trip.... What separates this Senate investigation from other concerns the NRA is facing -- allegations of lavish executive spending as the organization deals with substantial cash-flow problems; multiple crises in leadership -- is that it could affect its status as a non-profit.... And according to Marc Owens -- the former head of the Internal Revenue Service division overseeing tax-exempt enterprises -- the NRA is unlikely to exist without its non-profit status." (Also linked yesterday.)
Presidential Race 2020
Max Greenwood of the Hill: "Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) raised more than $25 million over the past three months, his presidential campaign said Tuesday, eclipsing his fundraising total from the second quarter of the year. Sanders's $25.3 million haul was fueled by some 1.4 million donations and bolstered by a strong final day of fundraising on Monday, which the campaign was its second-best day for donations since its launch in February. The staggering third-quarter total, the highest reported by any Democratic presidential hopeful so far this year, could help give Sanders a boost at a time when he has seen his support in the polls wane. His chief progressive rival, Sen.
Julia Manchester of the Hill: "Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg raked in over $19.1 million in the third quarter, a substantial amount but short the $24.8 million he raised in the second quarter. The South Bend, Ind., mayor's campaign added in a memo released on Tuesday that Buttigieg's number of unique donors grew by 182,000 to a total to 580,000 contributors. The campaign also said that the average contribution during the quarter was $32."
Way Beyond the Beltway
Hong Kong/China. The AP is updating incidents & events surrounding the 70th anniversary of Communist rule in China. At 6 pm (local): "A Hong Kong police official says a pro-democracy protester was shot when an officer opened fire with his revolver during clashes Tuesday. It was the first time a protester has been shot, in an escalation of the monthslong unrest that has rocked the city." ~~~
~~~ The New York Times is also liveblogging developments. Here's the lede "Right Now" (at 7 am ET): "President Trump sends congratulatory tweet to China's leader hours after violent protests break out across Hong Kong." Because what's not to congratulate about this:
New York Times photo.
News Lede
New York Times: "Jessye Norman, the majestic American soprano who brought a sumptuous, shimmering voice to a broad range of roles at the Metropolitan Opera and houses around the world, died on Monday in New York. She was 74."
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