Talk Talk Talk: October 2019

Here is a link to a Reddit.com post about recent events:

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/dcqy4p/about_300_former_national_security_officials_and/

Below are two comments created by PoppinKREAM of Canada. I suppose he has been collecting these for some time.

What have we learned since the initial reporting of the President attempting to solicit support from a foreign government that relies on American aid in an attempt to take down a political rival? President Trump, Attorney General Barr, Secretary of State Pompeo, and Rudy Guiliani have been plotting to discredit the Mueller Report.

We learned that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in on the phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky.^[1] Last week he denied knowing anything about the whistleblower complaint, however he has recently changed his tune following reporting indicating that he was in on the phone call.^[2]
We have learned that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney General William Barr have been involved in President Trump's plot to try to rewrite the history of the 2016 US presidential election and Russian election interference.^[3]
We have learned that President Trump pressed the Australian Prime Minister to work with Attorney General Barr to discredit the Mueller report.^[4]
We have learned that AG Barr discussed the FBI Russia investigation with UK intelligence^[5] and that President Trump personally called Prime Minister Boris Johnson for help to discredit the Mueller report.^[6]
Congress has filed several subpoenas^[7] including the President's personal attorney Rudy Guiliani for acting as an agent of the President in a scheme to advance his personal political interests by abusing the power of the Office of the President.^[8] Guiliani has since hired a lawyer to represent him in the Ukraine scandal that's unfolding.^[9]
While the President of the United States has threatened to arrest Congressional house leaders for investigating the President's abuse of power^[10] and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has refused to comply with Congress' Impeachment inquiry,^[11] however 2 State Department officials rebuked Secretary Pompeo and have agreed to testify.^[12]

The Mueller Report is incredibly damaging to President Trump. The report confirmed that the Trump campaign attempted to solicit the support of the Russian government, however Mueller was unable to establish a conspiracy. The Mueller report points out that the Trump campaign had improper conduct with Russia on numerous occasions. However they found that the value of the contact was not sufficient to rise to the level of a federal crime. The report goes to lengths explaining how difficult the investigation was due to obstruction and lying by those that were being investigated. The Mueller report confirmed much of the reporting about the Trump campaign's contacts with Russian operatives including;^[13]

Mueller report confirmed that Trump campaign chairman and deputy chairman Manafort and Gates were sharing internal polling data with an operative who Gates had thought was a Russian spy.
The Mueller report confirmed that Trump campaign manager and convicted felon Paul Manafort offered to give private briefings during the campaign to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
Following Trump's public call for Russia to find Clinton's missing emails he privately directed former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to find them.
The Mueller report confirmed that foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos attempted to arrange meetings between Putin and Trump and that the President approved of Papadopoulos's work.
The report also confirmed that Trump campaign surrogates met with Russians in Trump Tower soliciting damaging information on their political opponent. The report goes on to mention that Trump surrogates who attended the meeting weren't charged with violating campaign finance law because there wasn't admissible evidence to show that Trump surrogates knew that what they were doing was illegal.
The report confirmed Russia's extensive election interference.
Over the course of the investigation we learned that a Trump campaign adviser was directed to find out about future DNC leaks. Roger Stone was in contact with Wikileaks and the Russian hackers known as Guciffer 2.0 and is currently on trial.
Over the course of the investigation we learned that the President's long time personal attorney and convicted felon Michael Cohen lied to Congress about the Trump Organization pursuing a lucrative hotel project in Moscow during the 2016 election.

The report outlines the Trump campaign sought to create a relationship with the Russian government. The same foreign adversary that was and currently is engaged in cyberwarfare with the United States of America. The report illustrates the Trump campaign showing a willingness to work with a foreign adversary to acquire damaging information on a political opponent. All while denying Russian election interference and refusing to notify the authorities of any overtures made to the campaign after they had been warned about election interference by the FBI. The report is quite illuminating and confirms many media reports including the fact that the President attempted to fire the Special Counsel while trying to force his subordinates to lie for him to investigators. It's all in the report and while its 448 pages long it's incredibly descriptive.

A breakdown of the significance of a phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky

In a phone call on July 25 2019 with newly elected Ukrainian President Zelensky, President Trump attempted to solicit the support of a foreign government and may be in violation of Federal Campaign Finance Laws.^[1] When President Zelensky asked about military aid to combat Russia, Trump immediately segued the conversation into requesting an investigation against one of his political opponents. President Trump repeatedly made requests including opening up an investigation into former Vice-Pesident Joe Biden and his role in the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor that Trump claims was supposedly unfairly shut down by Biden because he supposedly feared his son was being investigated.

This is a complete mischaracterization of events. Following Ukraine's revolution and Russia's annexation of Crimea, Ukrainian President Poroshenko was dealing with corruption scandals. Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin was a discredited individual who was leading an investigation into corruption. The corruption was staggering, for example following assistance from the International Monetary Fund a $1.8 billion loan to help the Ukrainian banking system disappeared offshore in accounts owned by a Ukrainian Oligarch.^[2] At one point Shokin fired prosecutors who were working on corruption cases against corrupt officials.^[3] Following pressure from Western Allies and the Obama administration the Ukrainian parliament overwhelmingly voted to fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin. The decision was celebrated by Western Allies that were providing financial support to Ukraine including the European Union to defend themselves from Russia.^[4] Moreover, in his most recent interview former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko debunked President Trump's conspiracy that Biden forced the firing of Shokin to protect his son, Hunter Biden, who had been working in Ukraine. Prosecutor General Lutsenko stated that ""[f]rom the perspective of Ukrainian legislation, he did not violate anything," and added "Hunter Biden cannot be responsible for violations of the management of Burisma that took place two years before his arrival."^[5]

Days before his conversation with Ukrainian leader Zelensky the Trump administration suddenly froze aid allocated to Ukraine.^[6]

The White House has attempted to mislead the public by claiming that aid was frozen due to corruption, however NPR obtained a letter from the Pentagon that certified Ukraine had taken action to decrease corruption 2 months before President Trump blocked aid.^[7] A month before this phone call in June the Pentagon announced plans to provide $250 million to Ukraine in security cooperation funds for things such as training and equipment in an attempt to build the capacity of Ukraine's armed forces following Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine.^[8] The State Department announced plans to provide $141 million in aid.^[9]

So why are the United States and Western Allies sending aid to Ukraine? In 1994 former Soviet Union member states including Ukraine signed the Budapest Memorandum. It was a diplomatic memorandum under which Ukraine removed all Soviet-era nuclear weapons and signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. In return for these concessions the former Soviet state consecrated the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine as an independent state by applying the principles in a Cold War era treaty signed by 35 states including the Soviet Union. Russia violated this agreement in 2014 when they invaded Ukraine.^[10]

Since this story broke President Trump has threatened the whistleblower and has tweeted a quote about civil war if he is impeached.

Following the phone call a whistleblower from DNI filed a complaint that stated President Trump was "using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the US 2020 election," characterizing the conduct as a "serious or flagrant problem, abuse, or violation of law". President Trump has been attempting to cover all of this up.^[11] A Trump appointed Inspector General detailed his concerns in letters where he stated that the whistleblower complaint being kept from Congress was both urgent and *"relates to one of the most important and significant of the (Director of National Intelligence)'s responsibilities to the American people."*^[12] President Trump attempted to block the whistleblower and called it fake news.^[13]

President Trump endangered the whistleblower by claiming he committed treason for notifying the authorities of the President asking a foreign nation to interfere with the 2020 election.^[14] Moreover, the President quoted and tweeted about a civil war if impeachment occurred which may be in violation of:^[15]

18 U.S. Code § 2383 Rebellion or insurrection

Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

Talk Talk Talk

Thursday, October 3, 2019

What We Know -- collated by PoppinKREAM of Canada