Category: Ukrainegate

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Speaker Pelosi Says Trump’s Impeachment Is All About Russia

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a Dec 5 press conference

At a press conference Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi instructed the House to commence drafting formal articles of impeachment against Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States.

In a response to a reporter’s question, Speaker Pelosi gave a rarely used but quite powerful justification for Trump’s impeachment and that is, from the beginning of his Presidency, Trump has taken actions that directly benefit Putin’s Russia, adding that Ukrainegate was not an isolated incident but rather, yet another favor in a long line of favors Trump appears to be doing for Russia.

Specifically, Speaker Pelosi said, “It’s about Russia. Russia invading eastern Ukraine. Over 10,000 people died, now maybe 13,000 some of them in the absence of our conveying that military assistance that was voted in a bipartisan way by the congress of the United States. So sometimes people say, ‘well I don’t know that much about Ukraine.’ Well, our adversary in this is Russia. All roads lead to Putin. Understand that.”

Speaker Pelosi’s powerful justification for Trump’s impeachment–all about Russia– is rarely used by congressional Democrats and cable tv pundits but is certainly one that needs to be made with more frequency to the American public. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has repeatedly illustrated on her show how Trump’s presidency has essentially boiled down to a series of favors to Putin’s Russia. On her Thursday night show, Maddow again brilliantly illustrated how Trump keeps doing favors to Putin up to and including Ukrainegate—holding back much needed military aid to Ukraine, which is under attack by Russia.

Maddow went into great detail illustrating how Trump has essentially given Russia, our sworn enemy, everything they’ve asked for and then brilliantly closed the segment with this poignant message tying the current impeachment saga to the troubling Trump-Putin bromance. “We are at this moment now, this historic moment where we’ve got all these arrows all pointing in the same direction consistently and none of them ever pointing in the other direction. All these actions, all pointing in the same direction all pointing towards exonerating Russia, advancing Russian claims, spreading disinformation that is of Russian origin, that is designed to serve the Kremlin’s interests…That is where this impeachment scandal comes from. And even if he is going to get impeached for this stuff, and it looks like he is, kind of makes you wonder if he stays in office, what comes next? This is an escalating pattern…What else might they[Russia] possibly want given everything they’ve gotten thus far? “

In other words, Democrats cannot afford to make Ukrainegate an isolated, out of the blue incident in which Trump somehow got caught up in. Instead, they must adopt the powerful case laid out by Speaker Pelosi and brilliantly illustrated by Maddow that Ukrainegate is just the latest example of what Trump has been doing ever since he became President and that is, consistently making decisions that go against America’s national security interest and seemingly aligned with the Kremlin. Then and only then, can Dems make a forceful case that impeachment is a necessity—that the Russian thing has gone too far if you will.

Bottom line folks, Trump’s strange daliance with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, a murderous dictator hostile to the United States and who meddled in our 2016 elections, is now way beyond the specularory phase. Any reasonable person presented with the fact pattern Rachel Maddow laid out would conclude that Trump has been doing Russia’s bidding all along up to and including Ukrainegate. Therefore tying Trump’s impeachment over Ukrainegate with his other actions vis-a-vis Russia is a brilliant move by Speaker Pelosi which will put the 53 GOP Senators in the very uncomfortable position of publicly defending Trump’s favors towards Putin.

More importantly, it will give Democrats an upper hand in the 2020 U.S. Senate contests because it will hand them the very simple but powerful campaign message, “If you are okay with Putin taking over the U.S., vote for Republican X“–the perfect Xs of course being Maine’s Susan Collins, Colorado’s Gardner and Arizona’s McSally.

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You may reach the author via email at author@grassrootsdempolitics.com or author@emolumentsclause.com

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American Hero Fiona Hill Eviscerates “Ukraine Did It” Conspiracy Theory

Former Trump Adviser on Russia Dr Fiona Hill arriving for her impeachment inquiry testimony

In newly released transcripts from an October 14, 2019 impeachment inquiry deposition, former Trump adviser on Russia and newly minted American hero Dr Fiona Hill, eviscerated the “Ukraine did it” conspiracy theory advanced by a GOP staff lawyer who works for Rep Jim Jordan. Ever since Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded his investigation into Russian interference in our 2016 elections, there have been concerted efforts by President Trump and key Republicans to advance a counter narrative–that it was Ukraine, not Russia who interfered in our 2016 election to help Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

There is consensus among U.S. intelligence agencies not only that Russia interfered in our 2016 elections but more importantly, that they are poised to do it again in 2020 if we don’t get our act together. This is the pointed message Special Counsel Mueller emphasized when he made his final address to the American public on May 29, 2019. Specifically, Mueller left us with this message, “I will close by reiterating the central allegation of our indictments, that there were multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election. And that allegation deserves the attention of every American.”

One would think that given Mueller’s dire warning about Russia, the U.S. government would commit massive resources to not only eviscerate Russia’s cyber offensive capabilities, but also to shore up our defenses against any future cyber attack by Russia or any other foreign nation for that matter. Instead, and shockingly, the Trump administration has embarked on a totally opposite tangent of highlighting and then setting out to investigate the conspiracy theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, who interfered in our 2016 elections.

What’s even more troubling about this Ukraine conspiracy theory is that there is evidence suggesting that it is Putin’s Russia who manufactured the theory and then fed it to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Yes, as crazy as this sounds, the Trump administration is committing taxpayer funds to promulgate a conspiracy theory manufactured by Putin’s Russia in an effort to hide its interference in our 2016 elections–an absolute travesty. As usual , Yours Truly has called out this travesty on twitter.

With the impeachment inquiry into Trump now in progress, it appears one of the tactics the Trump administration has settled on is muddying the waters by injecting the Ukraine conspiracy theory into the proceedings. At a closed door deposition on October 14, 2019, this is precisely what a Republican staff attorney attempted to bombard Dr Fiona Hill with. In one of the best take downs Yours Truly has seen in a while (second only to Rep Gutierrez on Kirstjen Nielsen), and for which Yours Truly considers Fiona Hill an American hero, she did not give the GOP staff lawyer’s attempts to inject the Ukraine conspiracy theory into the impeachment proceedings any light of day.

Dr Hill sternly rebuked the GOP staff attorney for spreading a debunked conspiracy theory and to his face, told him he was doing Russia’s work. Folks, we need more Dr Hills!! Dr Hill should be hailed as an American hero for giving members of congress a blueprint on how to deal with the Russia-manufactured “Ukraine did it” conspiracy theory. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow show did a segment featuring Dr Fiona Hill’s heroic take down of GOP staff attorney Lee Zeldin.

The exchange between Dr Hill and the GOP lawyer is long, but these are some of the responses Dr Hill used to take down the Republican staff lawyer peddling the Ukraine conspiracy theory.

“…I am very confident based on all of the analysis that has been done and again, I don’t want to start getting into intelligence matters. But the Ukrainian government did not interfere in our election in 2016……[There is no] Ukrainian government effort to subvert our elections which is comparable to anything that the Russians did in 2016. And if we start down this path, not discounting what one individual or a couple of individuals might have done, ahead of our 2020 elections, we are setting ourselves up for the same kind of failures and intelligence failures that we had before…. I feel very strongly about this….and so you[GOP lawyer] should too, in terms of our national security….It is a fiction that the Ukrainian government was launching an effort to upend our election, upend our election to mess with our Democratic systems….I’m not sure where we are going with this line of inquiry…Because if you’re also trying to peddle an alternative variation of whether the Ukrainians subverted our election, I don’t want to be part of that, I will not be part of it.”

It also bears pointing out that Dr Fiona Hill took a lot of risks in testifying at the impeachment inquiry against Trump’s wishes. There are media reports that prior to her testimony she received death threats and was the victim of other despicable forms of intimidation, all aimed at silencing her. The despicable intimidation tactics however did not deter Dr Hill from doing what she believed was in the best interest of the country. This is very significant because there remains a lot of congressional Republicans who from their reported private interactions with reporters appear to indicate that they are troubled by the Ukraine scandal, yet still choose to remain silent for fear of Trump’s twitter attacks.

Hopefully the fearful Republican members of congress can take some cues from the heroic Dr Hill testimony and begin speaking up for what they know is right and that is, that a U.S. President should not enlist foreign help in our elections. More importantly, the fearful Republican members of congress should insist that it is in our national security interest that we get to the bottom of what happened in Ukraine instead of turning the upcoming televised impeachment hearings into another podium for Russia to promulgate its debunked “Ukraine did it” conspiracy theory.

Bottom line as we approach public impeachment hearings, members of congress must adopt Dr Fiona Hill’s tough approach towards Republicans trying to muddle the impeachment proceedings using the “Ukraine did it” conspiracy theory. If and when Republicans deploy this deplorable tactic, members of congress should not hesitate to do what Dr Hill did and call them out for working for Putin’s Russia. It would be great if the 53 Senate Republicans would be moved by Dr Hill’s courage to grow a spine but don’t bet the house on it. Dr Hill’s heroic actions further cements the argument Yours Truly has repeatedly stated, that by not taking an aggressive stance and insisting that we get to the truth of what Trump did in Ukraine, these 53 GOP Senators are essentially destroying America. Simply put, if Dr Fiona Hill can stand up and do what is right for the country without fear of Trump’s twitter attacks, so can the 53 GOP Senators.

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You may reach the author via email at author@grassrootsdempolitics.com or author@emolumentsclause.com

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Indicted Giuliani Associates Gave $325K To Trump Super PAC

President Trump, Rudy Giuliani with Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas

With today’s bombshell news report that two associates of Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas, have been arrested on a multitude of charges including campaign finance violations, President Trump is yet again thrust right into the middle of the burgeoning Ukrainegate scandal. While there is nothing in the indictments so far that directly mentions President Trump, they serve as a clear reminder that Ukrainegate is definitely not the “hoax” President Trump has worked very hard hard to convince the public that it is. Reasonable people will agree that because the suspects in the scheme to dig up dirt on Joe Biden donated $325,000 to Trump’s Super PAC America First Action, Trump is necessarily implicated. Furthermore, one of the indicted men, Ukrainian-American Lev Parnas, is reportedly the guy who introduced Giuliani to Ukrainian officials to help him dig up dirt on Biden. Parnas has also spent thousands of dollars on Trump’s properties and donated to the main super PAC supporting his reelection. Simply put folks, Trump is implicated.

Trump’s super PAC was quick to respond to today’s indictments through its spokeswoman Kelly Sadler who issued a statement saying, “America First Action placed that contribution in a segregated bank account, it has not been for any purpose and the funds will remain in this segregated account until these matters are resolved…….We take our legal obligations seriously and scrupulously comply with the law and any suggestion otherwise is false.” Kelly Sadler you’ll remember is the former Trump White House staffer who joked about Senator John McCain’s death.

The growing problem for Senate Republicans whose decision it will be on whether to remove Trump from office is that with every new revelation, Ukrainegate just seems to be getting worse and their defenses nonsensical. We went from Ukrainegate is a “hoax”, to there was “no quid pro quo”, to “it was bad but not impeachable” to now where the 53 GOP Senators may have to be put in a position where they defend out and out criminal conduct by Giuliani (implicating Trump) and his associates. Even worse the suspects at the center of Ukrainegate can now be directly linked to Trump’s campaign given the $325K donation bombshell. There are probably more ties between these two suspects and Trump’s campaign that will be revealed during the course of the impeachment inquiry. Such revelations, if any, will only deepen fears among many Americans that the Trump campaign is enlisting foreign assistance in U.S. elections—TrumpRussia 2.0.

As Yours Truly has repeatedly stated even before these criminal indictments were announced, a vote by these 53 GOP Senators to keep Trump in office given the national security implications of Ukrainegate would be a vote to destroy America. These latest indictments only work to buttress that argument.

There is also an interesting tidbit from the indictments that says these two suspects enlisted former U.S. Congressman Pete Sessions in an effort to remove former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovich. According to CNN, the two promised to raise $20,000 for Sessions’ 2018 campaign in return for Texas Congressman helping them in their effort to oust Ambassador Yovanovich. Rep Sessions for his part, penned a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2018 calling for the removal of Ambassador Yovanovich, arguing that Yovanovich was “disloyal” to Trump.

It has been widely reported that Ambassador Yovanovich was opposed to efforts by Giuliani and his associates to get Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden. It is not clear, even though it’s totally plausible that it’s Yovanovich’s opposition to this anti-Biden scheme that earned her the “disloyal” label. The indictments show clearly that former Congressman Sessions was part of the scheme to take out Ambassador Yovanovich thereby making way for Giuliani’s criminal scheme– conduct that should definitely lead to criminal charges against the former Texas Congressman. This also raises questions as to whether these two suspects, or indeed other foreigners, were involved in the campaigns of other Republicans during the 2018 election.

Bottom line folks, ever since 2016, Americans have been yearning for a time when we did not have to worry about foreigners meddling in our elections, and certainly not with the abetting of the U.S. government. It has now been proven beyond any reasonable doubt that as long as Trump is President we will not only have to worry constantly about whether our elections are free and fair, but that the President himself has no problems with that as long as he is the beneficiary of the foreign meddling. The 53 GOP Senators whose decision it will be whether or not to remove this President from office will be forced to decide whether we should continue having free and fair elections (voting to removing Trump) or having our future elections decided by foreign meddlers like Russia (keeping Trump in office). One only hopes the 53 GOP Senators will sober up and make the right decision–but don’t bet the house on it!!

For those of you very happy with @Emolclause’s activism don’t shy away from the “tip jar” below on your way out.

You may reach the author via email at author@grassrootsdempolitics.com or author@emolumentsclause.com

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53 GOP Senators Set To Destroy America Over Ukraingate

As the scandal over President Trump’s efforts to get the Ukrainian government to investigate his chief domestic political rival Joe Biden continues to spiral out of control, the question is no longer whether the President engaged in impeachable conduct but whether Senators from his own party would do the right thing and remove him from office. Since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry on September 24, 2019, overwhelming evidence has been presented to show that President Trump and several of his administration officials were actively involved in a scheme to pressure Ukraine to investigate leading Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden as a condition for the European country getting the military assistance it desperately needs to fend off Putin’s Russia.

The latest reports show that House Democrats are all but set to vote to impeach Trump for the Ukraine incident and possibly other infractions that are currently under investigation. If and when House Democrats vote to impeach Trump, it will be up to the U.S. Senate to vote on removing Trump from office. The latest reports are that the U.S. Senate as it is currently constituted (53 Republicans, 45 Democrats) will never vote to remove Trump from office regardless of the damning evidence the current impeachment inquiry uncovers. This is clearly a violation of their oath of office and is why Yours Truly believes a vote to keep Trump in office in spite of his clear threat to our national security would be a vote to destroy America for which these GOP Senators must be called out for.

You don’t have to take Yours Truly’s word for it, just listen to how this concerned Iowa voter cornered her Senator Joni Ernst regarding this very topic.

It also bears pointing out that Republican Senator Mitt Romney has gone on the record and chastised Trump over his actions vis-a-vis Ukraine. This is therefore not just a partisan liberal attack on Trump but something all U.S. Senators know is both wrong and a threat to our national security.

So you say “@Emolclause, don’t be like the mainstream media and bore us with all these stories about Ukrainegate. Cut to the chase and give us a handy list of these GOP Senators set to destroy America.” Alright folks, your wish is my command. Here’s the handy list of the 53 GOP Senators set to destroy America by voting to keep Trump in office despite the damning evidence brought forth as a result of Ukraingate that his presidency is a threat to our national security.

Bottom line folks, Congress is very well known as a revolving door where politicians serve for a few years and then upon leaving office, morph into other careers with little to no question about their previous records in Congress. For the rest of us, what you do in one job can often be used against you in future applications for employment. In other words our records follow us. It is very important for the public to watch very carefully what transpires during the Trump impeachment inquiry proceedings. If these GOP Senators vote to keep Trump in office despite evidence showing without a shadow of a doubt that he is a national security threat, their shameful records should forever follow them. They should never be allowed as political pundits in any credible news media outlet and any high profile company that rewards them with a high paying board position should be called out. Simply put folks, these GOP Senators must not be rewarded for destroying America.

For those of you very happy with @Emolclause’s activism don’t shy away from the “tip jar” below on your way out.

You may reach the author via email at author@grassrootsdempolitics.com or author@emolumentsclause.com