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The New Defense is that Trump Did Nothing Wrong

  

Category:  Op/Ed

Via:  john-russell  •  5 years ago  •  48 comments

The New Defense is that Trump Did Nothing Wrong

Excellent commentary from Washington Monthly. 

The timeline makes it clear exactly why Trump is impeachable. 


As you can hopefully see, the White House did not release the aid until after it became publicly known that there was a hold. They didn’t release it until after congressional committees announced an investigation into a potential quid pro quo. ...
The timing was unfortunate for Trump because it’s now well-established that Zelensky was  preparing  to meet the president’s demands and make an announcement about investigations during an interview with Fareed Zakaria on  CNN .


S E E D E D   C O N T E N T



As the  New York Times   reports , the Republicans spent the weekend backing away from their previous strategy of insisting that the Democrats have not provided any firsthand witnesses to the president’s instructions on Ukraine. That talking point will become less and less effective over time, starting with the testimony of E.U. ambassador Gordon Sondland this week. Should former national security advisor John Bolton ever testify, the “firsthand” argument will become completely inoperative.

So, instead, the president’s congressional and media defenders are shifting to a blanket defense that he did nothing wrong. This is typified by an argument Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio began making during former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch’s testimony on Friday.


“The Ukrainians did nothing to — as far as investigations goes — to get the aid released,” Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, one of Mr. Trump’s chief defenders, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “So there was never this quid pro quo that the Democrats all promise existed.”

This has a surface plausibility. Trump wanted the Ukrainian president to publicly announce that he was looking into the possibility that some of his countrymen had interfered in the 2016 campaign to help Hillary Clinton and perhaps had possession of one of the hacked DNC servers. Trump wanted Zelensky to go on CNN and state that he was investigating possible corruption on the part of Joe and Hunter Biden. But Zelensky never actually did either of those things.

On September 11, Trump released the aid to Ukraine, and he met with Zelensky at the United Nations in New York City on September 25. As has now been well-established, the president had refused to meet personally with Zelensky prior to September and put a hold on the military aid in an effort to pressure Zelensky into meeting his demands for “investigations.” But Zelensky eventually got the aid and a meeting despite never delivering on his end of the bargain.

However, these talking points are extraordinarily weak.

To demonstrate this, I need to put a few things in a timeline for you.

On July 18, the Office of Management and Budget announces to Pentagon and State Department officials that the aid packages to Ukraine are on hold.

On July 25, Trump has phone call with Ukrainian president Zelensky and demands investigations in return for javelin missiles.

On July 28, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats announces his resignation, effective August 15.

On  August 14, 2019 , CIA General Counsel Courtney Simmons Elwood and deputy White House counsel John A. Eisenberg call John Demers, the head of the Justice Department’s national security division, and refer the whistleblower’s case for possible criminal investigation.

On August 15, 2019, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats’s resignation becomes effective. Principal Deputy Director Sue Gordon also resigns after President Trump makes it clear that he doesn’t want her in the job.

On August 26, 2019, the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community, Michael Atkinson, forwards the whistleblower complaint to the  acting  Director of National Intelligence, Joseph Maguire.

On August 28, an  article  was published in  Politico  that publicly revealed a hold on Ukrainian military assistance initiated by the Office of Management and Budget back on July 18.

On September 9, after being briefed on the whistleblower report by Michael Atkinson, three Democrat-controlled House committees  announced  the launch of a “wide-ranging investigation” into whether military aid is being withheld in order “to pressure the government of Ukraine to assist the President’s reelection campaign.”

On September 10, national security adviser John Bolton was either fired or resigned, depending on who you ask. Prior to this, he quietly  authorized  the release of the State Department’s  portion  of Ukrainian aid.


…shortly before Sept. 9, Bolton had relayed a message to the State Department that the funding could go ahead. It’s not clear whether Bolton, who resigned from the job a week later, did so with Trump’s approval.
Bolton’s handling of the funding struck officials in the White House as violating protocol and caught [White House chief of staff Mick] Mulvaney by surprise, according to another person familiar with the matter.

On September 11, the State Department  informs  Congress that their aid package has been released, formalizing the decision Bolton had made before quitting/being fired.

On September 12, the formal announcement came that the Pentagon’s aid package had been released too.

As you can hopefully see, the White House did not release the aid until after it became publicly known that there was a hold. They didn’t release it until after congressional committees announced an investigation into a potential quid pro quo. The State Department portion was actually released by John Bolton on his own authority, and the Pentagon portion wasn’t rebased until after Bolton was gone.

The timing was unfortunate for Trump because it’s now well-established that Zelensky was  preparing  to meet the president’s demands and make an announcement about investigations during an interview with Fareed Zakaria on  CNN .


The New York Times  reported  on Thursday that Zelensky had planned to announce an investigation into Trump’s political rivals during a September interview on CNN, but those plans had been scrapped once Trump released promised security aid. Zakaria told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin on Thursday that the interview had been months in the making, but it fell apart when the Ukraine scandal began to unfold…

So, Ukraine wasn’t freed from Trump’s pressure by a change of heart on Trump’s part. Bolton appears to have betrayed Trump as a kind of last act. The rest of the aid was released once the cat was already out of the bag.

As for the meeting with the president, Zelensky never received the White House meeting he desired. The meeting at the United Nations would have been a poor substitute in any circumstance, but was made infinitely more unsatisfactory when Trump decided to release the “transcript” of their July 25 call without giving Zelensky any  prior notice .


The White House annoyed and embarrassed Ukraine’s president by releasing his comments in a private conversation with President Donald Trump — and may have violated the Ukrainian constitution.

The  rough transcript of Trump’s call  with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy released Wednesday shows that Trump pressed Ukraine to “look into” his Democratic political rival Joe Biden. The July 25 call is now at the center of a U.S.  impeachment  probe.

“I think such things, such conversations between heads of independent states, they shouldn’t be published,” Zelenskiy told reporters at the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

So, when Rep. Jim Jordan says that Ukraine could not have been pressured since they received the aid without Trump receiving the investigations, that’s inaccurate. The suggestion that they were not harmed is also ludicrous, since the whole world now knows that the president of the United States does not consider them an ally. This will hurt their efforts to negotiate a satisfactory peace with Russia.

Apparently,  70 percent  of Americans disagree with Rep. Jordan’s assertion that Trump did nothing wrong, and a majority want him removed from office as punishment. This suggests to me that the new talking points aren’t going to be any more effective than the old ones.


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JohnRussell
Professor Principal
1  seeder  JohnRussell    5 years ago

The aid was not released until after the scandal was becoming known. Sorry Trump. 

 
 
 
MrFrost
Professor Expert
1.1  MrFrost  replied to  JohnRussell @1    5 years ago

Exactly. 

 
 
 
Greg Jones
Professor Participates
1.2  Greg Jones  replied to  JohnRussell @1    5 years ago

It's not even a sure thing that Trump will even be impeached, considering the weakness of the Trumped up accusations. Hard to tell how many Democrats will defect because they will be afraid of being voted out of their coveted House seats. Once this circus goes to the Senate, Pelosi's worst fears will be realized when the Republicans are in charge of the proceedings, and there will be no earthly chance that 67 Senators will vote for removal. After the Republicans win back the House, Pelosi will retire saying "I told you so"

What the Democrats will be left with is dried out crusty egg on their faces and tears in their eyes, as they ponder what to do next. The voters will see the Democrats as sore losers who once again have failed in a huge way. Trump will still be in office and will be reelected by large margin. By early next spring the Barr/Durham investigations will have begun bearing bitter fruit for the left wing nuts. There will be great wailing and gnashing of teeth and rending of garments in liberal lala land. It's going to be fun to watch.

 
 
 
devangelical
Professor Principal
1.2.1  devangelical  replied to  Greg Jones @1.2    5 years ago

guess again. it will only take 3 republican votes to make the senate vote to convict or not in an impeachment trial a secret ballot.

 
 
 
devangelical
Professor Principal
1.2.3  devangelical  replied to  XDm9mm @1.2.2    5 years ago

you must not be aware that a 2/3 vote in the senate to convict is a very real possibility if that vote is by secret ballot, and the now corruption tainted VP cannot vote. care to predict the GOP senators unyielding allegiance to trump in a secret ballot? 22 are up for re-election in less than year and they're very nervous. a secret ballot will allow them to lie about how they voted depending on which way the political wind blows then. fear of loss of that future power and those future paychecks almost always trumps the political thinking of the powerful and greedy on the right, historically. the united front of the GOP now is nothing but a mud fence with a typhoon approaching on the horizon.

 
 
 
devangelical
Professor Principal
1.2.5  devangelical  replied to  XDm9mm @1.2.4    5 years ago

if it's such a slam dunk in the senate, what's with all the obstruction in getting it there?

P.S. - trumpski has already made quite the positive impression on justice roberts

 
 
 
devangelical
Professor Principal
1.2.7  devangelical  replied to  XDm9mm @1.2.6    5 years ago

uh-huh, sure. roberts is a rightwing thumper SCOTUS judge that thinks he's about to get the staff of god handed to him in the senate. (in his mind) keep on thinking you're dealing with the sane. 

 
 
 
Paula Bartholomew
Professor Participates
1.2.8  Paula Bartholomew  replied to  devangelical @1.2.3    5 years ago

A secret ballot will allow the repubs who are seeing the light to do the right thing without fear of reprisal from Trump's goon squad.

 
 
 
MrFrost
Professor Expert
3  MrFrost    5 years ago

#devinnunesisanidiot was trending on twitter 10 minutes after his opening statement, which didn't even address the impeachment hearings. 

 
 
 
It Is ME
Masters Guide
4  It Is ME    5 years ago

For those that like to make Shit jrSmiley_90_smiley_image.gif , and for those that like Giggles jrSmiley_18_smiley_image.gif :

It was released before the "Congressional Deadline" ….. as set by "Congress" ! jrSmiley_81_smiley_image.gif

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
4.1  seeder  JohnRussell  replied to  It Is ME @4    5 years ago
the White House did not release the aid until after it became publicly known that there was a hold. They didn’t release it until after congressional committees announced an investigation into a potential quid pro quo.

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
4.1.1  seeder  JohnRussell  replied to  JohnRussell @4.1    5 years ago

It is a very easily understood two sentences. 

 
 
 
It Is ME
Masters Guide
4.1.2  It Is ME  replied to  JohnRussell @4.1    5 years ago

It was released before the "Congressional Deadline" ….. as set by "Congress" ! jrSmiley_88_smiley_image.gif

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
4.1.3  seeder  JohnRussell  replied to  It Is ME @4.1.2    5 years ago

Next you will try and tell us the aid was never held up, because, after all, it was released before the congressional deadline. 

That is the "all's well that ends well" theory of human actions.  

 
 
 
It Is ME
Masters Guide
4.1.6  It Is ME  replied to  JohnRussell @4.1.3    5 years ago
Next you will try and tell us the aid was never held up, because, after all, it was released before the congressional deadline.

And what was " YOUR FEELING " on why it made it to Ukraine "Before" the Deadline CONGRESS set ? jrSmiley_87_smiley_image.gif

 
 
 
Greg Jones
Professor Participates
4.1.7  Greg Jones  replied to  JohnRussell @4.1    5 years ago

Like I said repeatedly yesterday (or was it someone else) no one fuckin' cares, certainly the national electorate.

 
 
 
MrFrost
Professor Expert
4.1.9  MrFrost  replied to  JohnRussell @4.1.1    5 years ago
It is a very easily understood two sentences.

One too many for some to understand. 

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
5  seeder  JohnRussell    5 years ago

Another thread where all the comments by the right are clowning. 

 
 

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