triplehorn

Fair odds Ron Johnson was one.

🚨Two US Senators were involved in this extortion scheme ? Which ones ? But for the whistleblower, the Trump/Rudy/Pompeo et al extortion scheme was most definitely happening: "Finally bending to the White House request, Mr. Zelensky’s staff planned for him to make an announcement in an interview on Sept. 13 with Fareed Zakaria, the host of a weekly news show on CNN."

No one cares unless it's an "unexpected" public announcement from the Ukrainian president about investigating Trump's top electoral opponent in 2020 and that "Mueller had it wrong with Russia's attack, it was Ukrainian actors under the previous regime! " and yeah about Fox/Hannity above. He was fucking in on it for the alley-oop with the Vienna-dwelling boys. and note to self: place nd joe on ignore.

Firtash is more than a Putin-linked natura gas billionaire. wiki on Firtash: Firtash owns seven television channels as well as an influential Kiev-based Ukrainian News Agency.[21] Firtash is also cited as having part ownership of SCL Group and thus Cambridge Analytica through various shell companies, by the U.S. documentary Active Measures, in its breakdown of the Russian–U.S. relationship before and after the 2016 election. Recall a couple weeks ago Zuckerberg testified to Congress that he first learned about Cambridge Analytica in March 2018. Russian hackers/troll farms - Firtash/Bannon/Cambridge Analytica - Facebook/Parscale/Project Alamo Firtash has been an integral cog in this dating to well before 2016 election attack.

We already know players like Rudy and Manafort, who had a direct role in events associated with the Trump/Russia 2016 election operation, have also been revealed to be directly involved in the sequel - election 2020 Ukraine. We all have also now seen photos spanning years of Rudy and Trump et al with Russian mob tied Parnas and Fruman (via the indicted oligarch mobster Dmitry Firtash). It's not hard to imagine that some of those 50 bank accounts cited as evidence by SDNY in their indictments of Parnas and Fruman will appear as overlapping evidence between Mueller Trump/Russia and SDNY Trump/Ukraine investigations. I expect there will be multiple lines of overlap emerging. It's all related.

It's auspicious for the Trump impeachment inquiry that this damning Mueller testimony from Rick Gates is coming out right as Roger Stone begins his trial. Recall this reporting from last January after Stone was indicted: Roger Stone Indictment: Is this all Mueller has, or is he closing in on Trump ? "WASHINGTON — When special counsel Robert Mueller charged a dozen Russian intelligence officers in July with hacking the Democrats, the indictment described online conversations between a Russian operative and "a person who was in regular contact with senior members of the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump." That person, it quickly emerged, was Roger Stone. But the long-awaited criminal indictment that finally dropped against Stone on Friday did not charge the political dirty trickster with conspiring with the Russians. Instead, it accused him of lying to Congress about his interactions with WikiLeaks, the group that Mueller says accepted hacked Democratic emails from the Russians and released them during the campaign [...] "Just because this indictment doesn't slap you in the face with a conspiracy doesn't mean Mueller doesn't have that evidence."Vance added, "Could this be the endpoint? Maybe, but this doesn't look like a capstone indictment. It leaves too many un-pulled threads."Glenn Kirschner, another former federal prosecutor and NBC News contributor, went further: "This is a conspiracy indictment," he said. "He just left out the conspiracy charges." cont. --> Based on what we've learned in the last 24 hrs, it would be something for the House to have Rick Gates, for one, testify publicly for the impeachment trial and wrt Trump obstruction. There's a lot more evidence about to come out in the Stone case. And it's likely also going to be produced for the public in an impeachment trial overseen by Congress - the body in a position to actually do something about Trump's abuses and criminality. TrumpCo conduct in the Russian election attack in many ways mirrors the conduct we're witnessing in the Ukraine election scandal. It's ALL linked in one big continuum..

Rick F’n Gates gave some goods. daaamn.

and Roger Stone stay out of prison trial starts in 3 days

Extortion, yes. QPQ, no. And that doesn't nearly capture all of it:

Rise and shine lol

Re eventual Senate impeachment votes, these 5 Republican Senators are up for re-election: Susan Collins (ME) Corey Gardner (CO) Joni Ernst (IA) Martha McSally (AZ) Thom Tillis (NC) think about recent trends and the relative ‘purpleness’ of those states. Now consider each having to face a vote for or against convicting Trump. Because in every case, they may not be able to survive losing either Trump base by voting ‘for’ or losing supportive independents voting ‘against’ impeachment. Talk about a dilemma.

Use “bribery” for every instance when “quid pro quo” is used re Trump/Zelensky. One can argue that Trump engaged in bribery or attempted bribery, or not, but commit to using the relevant term. It’s the POTUS engaging in a bribery scheme.

importantly, he and Rudy also didn’t want the Ukraine president to announce an investigation as being an effort initiated with any involvement associated with TrumpCo. Apart from bribery, Trump’s plan attempted to use covert manipulation of the American public. It’s black propaganda, and it’s a separate statutory crime. ”The 1991 Intelligence Authorization Act prohibits the U.S. government from using covert actions — which include propaganda — to “influence United States political processes, public opinion, policies, or media.”

Here's more. jeezus

I'm still in awe of how thoroughly Barry Berke tore up Lewandowski in full on defiant asshole mode. Berke sighting today: (took me a bit find the visible part of Nadler)

All indications are that Schiff/Pelosi are done with adding new drawn out court fights. However, I suspect the actual complete transcript could be bad enough to sway public opinion even more, and at a minimum, make Senate GOP denialists blanche a little. Trump got exposed as lying about the transcript today by a senior NSC staffer who wintnessed the call beginning to end. just get those damned financials and tax returns. If there's going to be a next level, that would be it.

Griffen recounts Trump saying on October 2: "This is an exact word-for-word transcript of the conversation, taken by very talented stenographers." so ready for the absurdly guilty lying to end

freeper madness

He was golfing when the raid happened. and evidently the guy killed has some paralysis from combat injuries and formally passed on leadership months ago.

🎶Bowm chukka bowm bowm chukka 🎶 so fucking pathetic.

More validation House Dems approached this the right way from the start - allowing the WH to demonstrate more heavy handed approaches are required, even if it has taken longer to get the desired results via the Courts:

you'd think.

Zavala'd

Good to know there are "other reasons."

Witnesses scheduled to appear as part of impeachment inquiry: Saturday - Philip Reeker, the acting assistant secretary of European and Eurasian affairs at the State Department. Monday - Charles M. Kupperman, who served until last month as the deputy national security adviser at the White House. Tuesday - Alexander Vindman, the director for European affairs at the N.S.C. Wednesday - Kathryn Wheelbarger, the acting assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs Thursday - Timothy Morrison, senior director for Europe and Russia on the National Security Council (replaced Fiona Hill) Sunday 11/5 - Michael Duffy, Office of Management and Budget official Monday 11/6 - Russell Vought Office of Management and Budget official Subpoena to appear Monday 11/6 - Ulrich Brechbuhl, Department of State Counselor