Tag: Donald Trump

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National Security Officials Raised Concerns Before & After Trump Call With Ukraine President

President Zelensky of Ukraine with Donald Trump
President Zelensky of Ukraine with Donald Trump (image via Flickr/WhiteHouse – public domain)

The Washington Post is reporting at least four national security officials found the Trump administration’s attempts to pressure Ukraine for political purposes so disconcerting that they raised concerns with a White House lawyer both before and immediately after Donald Trump’s July 25 call with Ukraine President Zelensky.

The nature and timing of the previously undisclosed discussions with National Security Council legal adviser John Eisenberg indicate that officials were delivering warnings through official White House channels earlier than previously understood — including before the call that precipitated a whistleblower complaint and the impeachment inquiry of the president.

At the time, the officials were unnerved by the removal in May of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine; subsequent efforts by Trump’s lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani to promote Ukraine-related conspiracies; as well as signals in meetings at the White House that Trump wanted the new government in Kiev to deliver material that might be politically damaging to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Those concerns soared in the call’s aftermath, officials said. Within minutes, senior officials including national security adviser John Bolton were being pinged by subordinates about problems with what the president had said to his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky. Bolton and others scrambled to obtain a rough transcript that was already being “locked down” on a highly classified computer network.

So, basically, the ‘transcript’ of the call released by the White House is the PG-13 rated version.

And the Justice Department refused to pursue the whistleblower complaint even though security officials had already sounded urgent alarms…?

In related news, NBC News reports that Fiona Hill, Trump’s former top aide on Russia and Europe, plans to tell Congress that Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland circumvented the National Security Council and the normal White House process to pursue a shadow policy on Ukraine.

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Appeals Court Rules Against Trump Attempt To Hide Tax Returns

Donald Trump has ordered US military forces to the Middle East following an Iranian attack on Saudi oil facilities

Donald Trump has ordered US military forces to the Middle East following an Iranian attack on Saudi oil facilities CNBC reports that Donald Trump has lost in a second attempt to block a Congressional subpoena requesting his tax returns. What is this guy hiding?

A federal appeals court in a split ruling Friday rejected President Donald Trump’s bid to block a House committee subpoena for his income tax returns. The subpoena was issued earlier this year to Trump’s accountants at Mazars USA by the Democrat-controlled House Committee on Oversight and Reform for his tax returns.

A federal judge in Manhattan had denied Trump’s effort to block the subpoena. Trump then appealed that ruling to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.

That appeals court, in a 2-1 decision, upheld the lower court’s ruling on Friday. The dissent came from Judge Neomi Rao, who was appointed by Trump to that Manhattan-based appellate court.

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White House Advised Diplomats To ‘Play Down’ Release Of Ukraine Funds

Donald Trump (photo via Flickr/WhiteHouse – public domain)
New reporting shows the White House advised diplomats to “play down” the release of security funding to Ukraine once the money was finally approved. Newly-released emails show the officials knew the funds were being held for corrupt purposes but chose to look the other way. From the New York Times:

“Keep moving, people, nothing to see here …” Brad Freden, the State Department’s acting deputy assistant secretary overseeing issues in Europe and Eurasia, wrote in a Sept. 12 email obtained by The New York Times.

He said the National Security Council would not publicly announce that $141 million in State Department assistance was being restored after being held up in what the White House described as a normal review.

The money is now at the heart of an impeachment inquiry by House Democrats into whether President Trump withheld a total of $391 million in funding as he sought damaging information on his political opponents from Ukraine’s newly elected leader.

Much more at the link.

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Trump Rants At Fox Poll: “Oh Well, I’m President!”

Donald Trump has vented his anger at Fox News after a poll commissioned by the network showed most Americans want him to be impeached. The new poll indicated 51% of those surveyed feel Trump should be impeached, a notable rise from the 42% who said so last month. Trump, predictably, tweeted his rage at the usually supportive, conservative news outlet. “From the day I announced I was running for President, I have NEVER had a good @FoxNews Poll,” he wrote on Twitter. “Whoever their Pollster is, they suck. But @FoxNews is also much different than it used to be in the good old days.” And, for a bit of added snark, the Donald closed with, “Oh well, I’m President!”

Fox News polls in the current election cycle consistently show Trump losing in 2020 to several top Democratic presidential contenders, including Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, and Pete Buttigieg.

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Joe Biden Calls For Trump To Face Impeachment Proceedings

Joe Biden has publicly called for Donald Trump to face impeachment proceedings
L-R Donald Trump, Joe Biden
Former Vice President Joe Biden is DONE with Donald Trump. For the first time, Biden publicly called for Trump to face impeachment.

Trump, characteristically, couldn’t help himself from trolling Biden on Twitter:

But Biden was just getting warmed up. He clapped back with SASS! And he threw in a remark about Trump’s eternally-being-audited tax returns while he was at it:

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Turkey Begins Attack On Northern Syria

The New York Times reports:

Turkey launched a planned military operation in northeastern Syria on Wednesday aimed at flushing out a Syrian militia backed by the United States, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote on Twitter.

Mr. Erdogan said the operation aimed to “prevent the creation of a terror corridor across our southern border,” but provided no other information about whether Turkish ground troops had entered Syria or how far in they would go.

A spokesman for the United States-backed militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces, said that Turkish warplanes had begun carrying out airstrikes.

Turkey’s long-planned move to root out United States-allied Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria accelerated rapidly after President Trump seemingly gave a green light in a call with Mr. Erdogan on Sunday. The operation has sparked fierce debates in Washington and could open a dangerous new front in Syria’s eight-year-old war.

Donald Trump tweeted that he wants the Middle East to take care of itself:

Republicans in the Senate and House of Representatives underscored their opposition to Trump’s decision to move U.S. forces out of the area:

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Hillary Tweets ‘Don’t Tempt Me’ After Trump Dares Her To Run Again

Donald Trump attempted to drag Hillary Clinton back into the fray by suggesting she run again for president in 2020 – on the ‘condition’ that Clinton “explain all of her high crimes and misdemeanors.” But Hillary clapped back tweeting, “Don’t tempt me. Do your job.” #FTW

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Ukraine Prosecutor: Hunter Biden “Did Not Violate Anything”

L-R Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani (screen captures)
A former Ukraine prosecutor says Hunter Biden ‘did not violate anything’ in regard to Donald Trump’s ongoing allegations about the son of former Vice President Joe Biden. From MSN.com:

“From the perspective of Ukrainian legislation, he did not violate anything,” former Ukrainian prosecutor general Yuri Lutsenko told The Washington Post in his first interview since the disclosure of a whistleblower complaint alleging pressure by President Trump on Ukraine’s president, Volodymr Zelensky.

Lutsenko’s comments about Hunter Biden — which echo what he told Bloomberg News in May — were significant, because Trump and his personal attorney Giuliani have sought to stir up suspicions about both Hunter and former vice president Joe Biden’s conduct in Ukraine in recent weeks. Joe Biden is leading Trump in many opinion polls ahead of the 2020 election.

Hunter Biden has denied any wrongdoing, and there is no evidence he was involved in any lawbreaking in his work in Ukraine with the country’s largest private gas company.

Giuliani has alleged that Hunter Biden was involved in corruption during his nearly five years on the board of Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company. Giuliani has not offered any evidence.

Burisma’s owner came under scrutiny by Lutsenko’s predecessors for possible abuse of power and unlawful enrichment, but Hunter Biden was never accused of any wrongdoing in the investigation.

“Hunter Biden cannot be responsible for violations of the management of Burisma that took place two years before his arrival,” Lutsenko said.

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Criticism From Right & Left As Trump Announces Withdrawal From Syria

Donald Trump defended his decision today to pull support for America’s Kurdish allies in northern Syria saying it was “time for us to get out” and let others “figure the situation out.” From the Washington Post:

President Trump faced a swift torrent of Republican criticism Monday as lawmakers rebuked his plan to withdraw troops from northeast Syria, a move Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said would undermine America’s national security and potentially bolster Islamic State terrorists.

McConnell (R-Ky.), in a rare public split with Trump, said that a supermajority in the Senate disagreed with the president’s abrupt withdrawal announcement, raising the specter of veto-proof action to oppose the decision.

“A precipitous withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria would only benefit Russia, Iran, and the Assad regime,” McConnell said in a statement Monday. “And it would increase the risk that ISIS and other terrorist groups regroup.”

McConnell’s statement, in which he called on Trump to “exercise American leadership” and reconsider his plan to withdraw troops from Syria’s border with Turkey, echoes the comments of other Republicans who have condemned the president’s decision Monday.

The Donald took to Twitter to try and defuse the criticism:

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Trump Ordered To Turn 8 Years Of Tax Returns Over To Manhattan DA

Donald Trump ordered to turn over 8 years of tax returns to Manhattan DA Donald Trump is that much closer to losing control of his tax filings after years of stonewalling against the presidential norm of disclosing them to the public. A federal judge on Monday rejected Trump’s argument that sitting presidents are immune from criminal investigations, and ordered Trump to turn over eight years of personal and corporate tax returns to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. The NYT reports:

The Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., has been investigating whether any New York State laws were broken when Mr. Trump and his company reimbursed the president’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, for payments he made in the run-up to the 2016 election to the pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels, who had said she had an affair with Mr. Trump. 

In a 75-page ruling, Judge Marrero called the president’s argument “repugnant to the nation’s governmental structure and constitutional values.” Presidents, their families, and businesses are not above the law, the judge wrote.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers sued last month to block the subpoena, arguing that the Constitution effectively makes sitting presidents immune from all criminal inquiries until they leave the White House.