What's going on with this DNI Whistleblower ?

[Red Five 40569]

I don't think Donald knows what a witch hunt is. 

[kevwun 15487]

It's a witch hunt because he's actually a witch.

[deech 2248]

10 minutes ago, bolverk said:

 

He must not have been paying attention to the Mueller report and what happens when he is no longer President.

[SimonBolivar 10853]

My favorite response "Woman, Jew, Jew, and Black. Is that even America?"

[Chooky 13286]

Ah well nevertheless part 50

[High Plains Drifter 10961]

On 9/22/2019 at 12:34 AM, Crusher said:

I would say in their eagerness to get Trump the media has lifted the blizzard that hid Biden in the Ukraine and China in regards to Hunter. This guy was a Navy Lt who got dishonorably discharged from the Navy for cocaine use and all the sudden he is a global expert on energy and oil/gas who gets paid $83,000 a month from a Gas company that just happens to be being investigated by the Prosecutor the Daddy got fired.???

Then flies over to China on AF2 with the VP and gets $1.5 Billion for his new equity business that he has no experience in?

Give me a break. This shit is out. 

 

Hunter being on the board of that company is no worse than all the rich, clueless dipshits who sit on boards of companies all across the world. The company wanted respectability, so they hired the US VPOTUS' son, who accepted a kush job he had no experience for. He was a figurehead, nothing more. Bad judgement on Biden's part to let his son do that maybe, but absolutely no whiff that there was ever any "corruption" on the part of Biden.

Your arguments (deliberately?) play right into DOTARD's hands, by muddying the water and making this about Biden, and not about Trump.

This is not about Biden, or Hunter.

This is about DOTARD.

[David Dennison 18287]

So, when does Bill Barr appoint a special counsel to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden?

[Mdhorn 5857]

6 hours ago, Pig Bellmont said:

Even when he tries to deny it, he admits to abusing the power of his office.

He doesn't understand what the charge is. He's in over his head because he's a moron that shouldn't be president. 

[Mdhorn 5857]

57 minutes ago, bolverk said:

 

If it were a positive then republicans wouldn't be shielding him. 

[atomheartbevo 89277]

1 hour ago, deech said:

Anyone thinking Mitch grew a spine or grew a heart or is somehow doing the right thing for 'Merica has not been paying attention.  He knows he wins the argument if he lets it all play out.  Either because the WB complaint is nothing or because they think they win the debate/argument or maybe because Trump is dead in the water and its worse than anyone knows so best to jump ship now.  So yeah, put me down in the they think they win the argument column.

Mitch, as of this moment, exists to keep Republicans in power in the Senate.  Making Trump happy, and keeping Trump in power, fall well below keeping Republicans in power in the Senate.

Even if Mitch thinks that this will ultimately be nothing, this little hearing/investigation runs a real risk of uncovering stuff that could be substantial, and it runs the risk of putting Republicans in the Senate on the record yay or nay for Trump ahead of 2020.  

By signing off on the WB resolution/whatever/bill, he also runs the very real risk of pissing off Trump ahead of his own election next year.

[NWBuck 8536]

1 hour ago, kevwun said:

It's a witch hunt because he's actually a witch.

We should build a bridge out of him.

[RomaVicta 29666]

2 hours ago, Mojo Hand said:

It's sad that someone in our intelligence apparatus had to blow up his or her career to get Democrats to do what they should have done after the Mueller report.  And, really, Mueller should have gone further to help that process along then. 

Weakness is a poor response to wickedness.

 

Bare your fangs and claws and jump into the pit with these fuckers. See who comes out. If it's not me, fuck it, at least I jumped in.

[deech 2248]

I wonder how Bolton is going to testify on this one. 

[triplehorn 2664]

Good move for force Lindsey's hand.  Will Lindsey shield Bill Barr by refusing to call him in for a hearing to explain his DOJ's obstruction of acting DNi lawfully submitting the WB report to House Intel, or not ?  

Keep Senate R's dancing to reveal complicity or correctness.  Especially that son of a bitch Lindsey.

[Js1 84930]

37 minutes ago, deech said:

I wonder how Bolton is going to testify on this one. 

Season 3 midseason finale: Bolton was the whistle blower! 

Edited September 24, 2019 by Js1

[Mojo Hand 4580]

CNN is reporting that the WH will release the full whistleblower complaint along with the transcript. 

[Gil Bang 25821]

Trump is a fucking bully, and the only language a bully understands is an ass-kicking.  Pelosi just called his bluff and said "put 'em up motherfucker" and he bitched the fuck out like the little bitch that he is.

[Party_Taco 3660]

CNN is reporting that the WH will release the full whistleblower complaint along with the transcript. 

They would very much like the viewing public to conflate the two...

They ain’t gonna release the full WB complaint.

[Hugo Stiglitz 23355]

The Bill Barr special 

[jimmyjazz 45323]

1 hour ago, High Plains Drifter said:

Hunter being on the board of that company is no worse than all the rich, clueless dipshits who sit on boards of companies all across the world. The company wanted respectability, so they hired the US VPOTUS' son, who accepted a kush job he had no experience for. He was a figurehead, nothing more. Bad judgement on Biden's part to let his son do that maybe, but absolutely no whiff that there was ever any "corruption" on the part of Biden.

Hunter Biden is a 49-year-old attorney who went to Yale.  He doesn't need his dad's "permission" to do anything.  Now, it's possible his dad greased some skids for him, and I'd be happy to hear all about it, but I'm gonna go WAY out on a limb here and suggest Hunter is a little more self-sufficient and a little less daddy-dependent than Junior, Eric and Ivanka.  Donald Trump is the last person who should be casting stones at anyone about their kids' business connections.

[Francisco 2.0 32289]

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 24, 2019 by Francisco 2.0

[jimmyjazz 45323]

Just now, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

 

So much of the beltway media and social media circles seems like nothing but a giant rumor mill.  That said, please Dear 8 lb 6 oz Newborn InfantJesus, let this one be true.

[Ted Lange 15939]

And there be a recording 

[triplehorn 2664]

18 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

Diaper load Donald

[Mojo Hand 4580]

37 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

Trump is a fucking bully, and the only language a bully understands is an ass-kicking.  Pelosi just called his bluff and said "put 'em up motherfucker" and he bitched the fuck out like the little bitch that he is.

What are the chances this is all a rope-a-dope to pull the Dems offsides (to mix a couple sports metaphors)? 

[Keef 736]

Congress needs to stipulate that the report will have no redactions and no alterations. If Donald is releasing this, it’s because he’s getting pressure from republicans in Congress (can’t believe I typed that). 

[Jack Straw 2953]

35 minutes ago, Party_Taco said:

They would very much like the viewing public to conflate the two...

They ain’t gonna release the full WB complaint.

The WB complaint will be “summarized”  and whitewashed, just like the Mueller Report.  Rs end up spiking the ball in the end zone because “there is no proof that anyone caught Trump on video or audio actually committing treason.”  

[Gil Bang 25821]

 

[Pig Bellmont 8656]

11 minutes ago, Jack Straw said:

The WB complaint will be “summarized”  and whitewashed, just like the Mueller Report.  Rs end up spiking the ball in the end zone because “there is no proof that anyone caught Trump on video or audio actually committing treason.”  

He’s 👏 already 👏 admitted 👏 to 👏 the 👏 crime

Oh and does anyone believe for a second Trump gives a fuck about “corruption” in the Ukraine unless it is about Biden?

Edited September 25, 2019 by Pig Bellmont

[triplehorn 2664]

5 minutes ago, Keef said:

Congress needs to stipulate that the report will have no redactions and no alterations. If Donald is releasing this, it’s because he’s getting pressure from republicans in Congress (can’t believe I typed that). 

It's not the WH's report to release.  The WH has no business even having seen it before being received by House Intel within 7 days, by law, of its proper submission to the DNI/IG.  The WH is trying to assert an authority here that doesn't exist.  It's obstruction of Congress and Bill Barr is behind it.  You can be damn sure DNI Maguire is fucking pissed Trump/Barr put him in this position of being held in contempt if he does what he's told by Barr/Trump.

[Keef 736]

Just now, triplehorn said:

It's not the WH's report to release.  The WH has no business even having seen it before being received by House Intel within 7 days, by law, of its proper submission to the DNI/IG.  The WH is trying to assert an authority here that doesn't exist.  It's obstruction of Congress and Bill Barr is behind it.  You can be damn sure DNI Maguire is fucking pissed Trump/Barr put him in this position of being held in contempt if he does what he's told by Barr/Trump.

Agree 100%. But it’s obvious that the report isn’t being released because of the White House. 

[suddenly shaggy 929]

8 minutes ago, Keef said:

Agree 100%. But it’s obvious that the report isn’t being released because of the White House. 

Laws require law abiding human beings to enforce them. Law abiding human beings are in short supply in the Trump regime. Dems need to put the full-court pressure on. 

Edited September 25, 2019 by suddenly shaggy

[jimmyjazz 45323]

9 minutes ago, triplehorn said:

It's not the WH's report to release.  The WH has no business even having seen it before being received by House Intel within 7 days, by law, of its proper submission to the DNI/IG.  The WH is trying to assert an authority here that doesn't exist.  It's obstruction of Congress and Bill Barr is behind it.  You can be damn sure DNI Maguire is fucking pissed Trump/Barr put him in this position of being held in contempt if he does what he's told by Barr/Trump.

That's so cute.

[Js1 84930]

26 minutes ago, Jack Straw said:

The WB complaint will be “summarized”  and whitewashed, just like the Mueller Report.  Rs end up spiking the ball in the end zone because “there is no proof that anyone caught Trump on video or audio actually committing treason.”  

The funny thing is, I doubt just Israel had/has surveillance on the White House. An ally may have the audio already. So may a nefarious country ready to black mail trump. 

[Celery Man 20814]

18 minutes ago, Pig Bellmont said:

He’s 👏 already 👏 admitted 👏 to 👏 the 👏 crime

Oh and does anyone believe for a second Trump gives a fuck about “corruption” in the Ukraine unless it is about Biden?

he admitted it so they have him dead to rights this time

[Chooky 13286]

Are they releasing the entire WB report or a Sharpie hurricane version?  

[suddenly shaggy 929]

They are saying they are releasing the whole complaint, but I'll be shocked if they do that.

They'll run the Bill Barr defense. Release a portion of the evidence and spin it. 

I think they are actually going to release the transcript only. It won't have an explicit quid pro quo in it and they'll tell us it is all overblown. 

We'll only see the entire complaint if Congress forces the issue and aggressively manages the message. 

[Bookman 4600]

3 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

Bad judgement on Biden's part to let his son do that maybe,

Let his son do that? He was an adult.

[Brisketexan 104167]

Weakness is a poor response to wickedness.

 
Bare your fangs and claws and jump into the pit with these fuckers. See who comes out. If it's not me, fuck it, at least I jumped in.

Fuck. Yes. That’s how you fight.

[/url]  
 
 
 
 

Well....that’s...amazing. Really. Holy shit. He may actually be realizing he’s in trouble.
He should shut up. He’ll skate.

[Francisco 2.0 32289]

So, admin officials tried to keep Trump from contacting the new President of Ukraine out of fear he would do exactly what he did:

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/giuliani-pursued-shadow-ukraine-agenda-as-key-foreign-policy-officials-were-sidelined/2019/09/24/ee18aaec-deec-11e9-be96-6adb81821e90_story.html

 

Quote

President Trump’s attempt to pressure the leader of Ukraine followed a months-long fight inside the administration that sidelined national security officials and empowered political loyalists — including the president’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani — to exploit the U.S. relationship with Kiev, current and former U.S. officials said.

The sequence, which began early this year, involved the abrupt removal of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, the circumvention of senior officials on the National Security Council, and the suspension of hundreds of millions of dollars of aid administered by the Defense and State departments — all as key officials from these agencies struggled to piece together Giuliani’s activities from news reports.

 

Quote

Several officials described tense meetings on Ukraine among national security officials at the White House leading up to the president’s phone call on July 25, sessions that led some participants to fear that Trump and those close to him appeared prepared to use U.S. leverage with the new leader of Ukraine for Trump’s political gain.

 

Quote

As those worries intensified, some senior officials worked behind the scenes to hold off a Trump meeting or call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky out of concern that Trump would use the conversation to press Kiev for damaging information on Trump’s potential rival in the 2020 race, former vice president Joe Biden, and Biden’s son Hunter.

 

 

Spoiler

“An awful lot of people were trying to keep a meeting from happening for the reason that it would not be focused on Ukraine-U.S. relations,” one former official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.

White House officials disputed these accounts, saying that no such concerns were raised in National Security Council meetings and that Trump’s focus was on urging Ukraine to root out corruption. A White House spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

But Trump admitted this week that he had done some of what his own advisers feared, using the call to raise the issue of Biden with Zelensky. And the wave of consternation triggered by that call led someone in the U.S. intelligence community to submit an extraordinary whistleblower complaint, setting in motion a sequence of events that now includes the start of an impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives.

Though the whistleblower report focuses on the Trump-Zelensky call, officials familiar with its contents said that it includes references to other developments tied to the president, including efforts by Giuliani to insert himself into U.S.-Ukrainian relations.

Trump announced Tuesday that he would release a transcript of his call, insisting that it would show there was “NO quid pro quo!” and would reveal a conversation that was “friendly and totally appropriate.”

But even within Trump’s party, few have gone so far as to say they would consider it appropriate for the president to solicit foreign help in an American election. And his political fate may hinge on how lawmakers and the public assess not only his intentions on the call but also the actions of his subordinates in the events surrounding it.

U.S. officials described an atmosphere of intense pressure inside the NSC and other departments since the existence of the whistleblower complaint became known, with some officials facing suspicion that they had a hand either in the complaint or in relaying damaging information to the whistleblower, whose identity has not been revealed and who is entitled to legal protection.

One official — speaking, like others, on the condition of anonymity — described the climate as verging on “bloodletting.”

Trump has fanned this dynamic with his own denunciations of the whistleblower and thinly veiled suggestions that the person should be outed. “Is he on our Country’s side. Where does he come from,” Trump tweeted this week.

Trump’s closest advisers, including acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who was ordered by Trump to suspend the aid to Ukraine, are also increasingly targets of internal finger-pointing. Mulvaney has agitated for foreign aid to be cut universally but has also stayed away from meetings with Giuliani and Trump, officials said. But the person who appears to have been more directly involved at nearly every stage of the entanglement with Ukraine is Giuliani.

“Rudy — he did all of this,” one U.S. official said. “This s---show that we’re in — it’s him injecting himself into the process.”

Several officials traced their initial concerns about the path of U.S.-Ukrainian relations to news reports and interviews granted by Giuliani in which he began to espouse views and concerns that did not appear connected to U.S. priorities or policy.

The former New York mayor appears to have seen Zelensky, a political neophyte elected president of Ukraine in April and sworn in in May, as a potential ally on two political fronts: punishing those Giuliani suspected of playing a role in exposing the Ukraine-related corruption of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and delivering political ammunition against Biden.

After the conclusion of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential election, Giuliani turned his attention to Ukraine, officials said, and soon began pushing for personnel changes at the embassy while seeking meetings with Zelensky subordinates. He also had his own emissaries in Ukraine who were meeting with officials, setting up meetings for him and sending back information that he could circulate in the United States.

The U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, became a primary Giuliani target.

Yovanovitch, a longtime State Department Foreign Service officer, arrived in Ukraine as ambassador at the end of the Obama administration, more than two years after an uprising centered on Kiev’s Independence Square ousted the Russian-leaning government.

Though she was widely respected in the national security community for her efforts to prod Ukraine to take on corruption, Giuliani targeted Yovanovitch with wild accusations including that she played a secret role in exposing Manafort and was part of a conspiracy orchestrated by the liberal financier George Soros.

“She should be part of the investigation as part of the collusion,” Giuliani said in a recent interview with The Washington Post, adding that “she is now working for Soros.” Yovanovitch is still employed by the State Department and is a fellow at Georgetown University. She declined to comment.

Giuliani also said the entire State Department was a problem, and officials familiar with his actions say he regularly briefed Trump on his Ukrainian endeavors. “The State Department is a bureaucracy that needs to change,” he told The Post.

Many of Giuliani’s charges were either recycled from, or subsequently echoed by, right-wing media outlets.

In late March, the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. amplified this campaign with a tweet calling for the removal of “Obama’s U.S. Ambassador.”

Yovanovitch, who was to depart in July after a three-year assignment, was prematurely ordered back to Washington, a move that both baffled and unnerved senior officials at the State Department and the White House, officials said.

Within days of her ouster on May 9, Giuliani seemed determined to seize an unsanctioned diplomatic role for himself, announcing plans to travel to Ukraine to push for investigations that would “be very, very helpful to my client, and may turn out to be helpful to my government.”

Giuliani canceled the trip amid an ensuing backlash over his purpose but later met with one of Zelensky’s senior aides in Madrid and pressed the issue of Ukraine’s helping against Biden.

In a May 19 interview on Fox News, Trump recited repeatedly disproved allegations that then-Vice President Biden had coerced Ukraine to drop an investigation into the owner of an energy company, Burisma, for which Biden’s son Hunter was a board member.

The allegations were baseless. Though Hunter Biden had served on the Burisma board for five years — a questionable decision given his father’s influential position — he was never accused of any wrongdoing by Ukrainian authorities. The probe had been shelved before any action by the vice president, and the elder Biden’s efforts involved removing a prosecutor widely criticized by the West as failing to tackle corruption.

Nevertheless, Trump is alleged to have used his July 25 call with Zelensky to get Ukraine to revive this dormant inquiry and widen it to include possible wrongdoing by Biden.

In Washington, officials outside Trump’s inner circle who were dismayed by Yovanovitch’s ouster reacted with growing alarm and confusion over Giuliani’s subsequent activities.

Then-national security adviser John Bolton was outraged by the outsourcing of a relationship with a country struggling to survive Russian aggression, officials said. But by then his standing with Trump was strained, and neither he nor his senior aides could get straight answers about Giuliani’s agenda or authority, officials said. Bolton declined to comment.

“We had the same visibility as anybody else — watching Giuliani on television,” a former senior official said. Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev were similarly deprived of information, even as they faced questions from Ukrainians about whether Giuliani was a designated representative.

“The embassy didn’t know what to do with the outreach,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who traveled to Ukraine this month.

The perception of a parallel, hidden agenda intensified in the summer as officials at the NSC, Pentagon and State Department began reacting to rumors that hundreds of millions of dollars of military and intelligence aid to Ukraine was being mysteriously impeded.

“There were never any orders given, any formal guidance from the White House to any of the agencies,” said a U.S. official familiar with the matter. “And the NSC was scratching their heads: How is this possible?”

NSC officials, including Tim Morrison, who had replaced Fiona Hill as the senior director for European and Russian affairs, began organizing meetings to try to understand these hidden forces affecting Ukraine policy, officials said.

But even then, clear answers proved elusive. Officials were told that the money was being blocked by the Office of Management and Budget, without any accompanying explanation.

“It was bizarre,” the official said.

A former official familiar with the meetings said participants began to file out raising troubling questions about what was driving the White House to withhold the aid as well as a meeting with Trump that had been all but promised to Zelensky.

Although the question of a linkage or leverage never came up in the formal NSC discussions, participants began to believe that Trump was “withholding the aid until [Ukraine] gave him something on Biden or Manafort.”

It was during this stretch, in July, when some officials began to hesitate about the wisdom of proceeding with a Trump call with Zelensky. In part, there was a desire to hold off until after Ukraine’s parliamentary elections. But, mindful of Giuliani’s agitation and influence, some worried that even if Trump were coached before the call, the president would not be able to resist pressing Zelensky for dirt on Biden.

On July 24, Mueller testified before Congress on the outcome of the Russia investigation, a probe that had threatened Trump for much of his presidency and was focused on whether he had conspired with Moscow to influence the U.S. election.

The next day, Trump spoke with Zelensky on a call, and the vague misgivings that had risen over the preceding five months hardened into alarm. Among those who listened in on the call or were in position to see a transcript, the president’s persistence with Zelensky on the corruption probe marked the crossing of a perilous threshold.

 

[Celery Man 20814]

"I fucking knew he was going to eat somebody's face" says employee of the face eating leopard president

[Anastasis 23272]

Have we definitely established at this point that Rudy is the worst lawyer ever?

[Jack Straw 2953]

26 minutes ago, suddenly shaggy said:

They are saying they are releasing the whole complaint, but I'll be shocked if they do that.

They'll run the Bill Barr defense. Release a portion of the evidence and spin it. 

I think they are actually going to release the transcript only. It won't have an explicit quid pro quo in it and they'll tell us it is all overblown. 

We'll only see the entire complaint if Congress forces the issue and aggressively manages the message. 

Bingo.  Crimes committed by the President of the United States were laid out clearly in the Mueller Report.  Anyone remember that?   Me too.  Oh yeah, it was whitewashed and spun, and nothing happened.  That’s what will happen here, too.  

[Jack Straw 2953]

35 minutes ago, suddenly shaggy said:

They are saying they are releasing the whole complaint, but I'll be shocked if they do that.

They'll run the Bill Barr defense. Release a portion of the evidence and spin it. 

I think they are actually going to release the transcript only. It won't have an explicit quid pro quo in it and they'll tell us it is all overblown. 

We'll only see the entire complaint if Congress forces the issue and aggressively manages the message. 

Edited September 25, 2019 by Jack Straw
dp

[Lurch 5916]

Have we definitely established at this point that Rudy is the worst lawyer ever?

Cohen strenuously objects

[Anastasis 23272]

Just now, Lurch said:

Cohen strenuously objects

 

[Homercles 10205]

[/url]  
 
 
 
 

[Ted Lange 15939]

 

[Eastwood 4394]

8 minutes ago, Ted Lange said:

 

I threw on Fox News on my drive home tonight to see what was being said. It's like a whole different world exists. At this point, there are two totally different Americas that are incompatible with each other. Unfortunately, I don't see how this doesn't end in the Great American Divorce.

[Yuk 1489]

I chortled at this response.