[BeaverFever]

N_Fiddledog N_Fiddledog:

There's No Quid: It Looks Like A NYT Reporter Accidentally Gutted The Democrats’ Impeachment Narrative

$1:

Okay, so this is the story that got the House Democrats in an impeachment frenzy again. They couldn’t get Trump on collusion. I mean we all knew that, though the media peddled this myth for two years. The report from Robert Mueller totally debunked the unverified and politically biased Steele dossier, aka Trump dossier, which was used by the FBI to secure spy warrants on Trump officials. There was no evidence for their biggest case for impeaching this president solely for the reason that he won the 2016 election. So, they had to wait. Alas, the Trump-Ukraine call this summer. The president allegedly coerced the Ukrainian leadership into opening a corruption probe into Hunter Biden and threatened to withhold military aid. Gasp! Some anonymous whistleblower who is reportedly a CIA agent came forward with this complaint. He didn’t listen in on the call but got it from second and third-hand accounts. So, when the Trump White House released the transcript, it shouldn’t shock us that all of the major allegations were debunked. There was no quid pro quo. There couldn’t have been since the Ukrainians weren’t even aware that aid was being reviewed until a month after the call.

The point is there’s no quid. The Ukrainians were the ones who brought up the Biden tie-in and the “favor” that Trump was asking related to assistance in the Department of Justice’s investigation into the origins of the Russia collusion probe. That’s not illegal.

The New York Times’ Kenneth Vogel made this point—and it pretty much exposes the whole Trump-Ukraine circus as a nothing burger, just like the collusion nonsense. And shocker—no one is really highlighting that point, as The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel noted:

*

Kenneth P. Vogel
✔
@kenvogel
The Ukrainians weren't made aware that the assistance was being delayed/reviewed until more than one month after the call. https://twitter.com/rickwtyler/status/1 ... 5069431808 …

The Democrats needed to get the impeachment nonsense going. It was a 2018 campaign promise. The Democratic base wants this—and time was running out. With this narrative more gutted than the collusion myth, this impeachment push isn’t going anywhere in the GOP Senate. There will be no conviction. The GOP base will be animated. Independent voters will shy away. And Democrats will have nothing to show for their two-year House majority other than political games while blasting a booming economy that they’re trying to destroy with far-left economic policies from their favorite mixologist, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

*

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa ... r-n2553834

So. Many. Falsehoods.

As usual.

[N_Fiddledog]

Do you have some secret information you can't tell us about allowing you to believe that? Like the voices in your head information that allowed you to believe Trump was colluding with Russia even when a 2 year investigation could find no evidence of it.

All I'm saying is a New York Times journalist, tweeted "The Ukrainians weren't made aware that the assistance was being delayed/reviewed until more than one month after the call."

If you have evidence that didn't happen I'd love to hear it, but I don't imagine the voices in your head are giving links so I'll give you this one from Time Magazine:

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When President Donald Trump asked his counterpart in Ukraine to help investigate Trump’s political opponents, the Ukrainian President and his team did not see the request as linked to the release of U.S. military aid, a senior Ukrainian official tells TIME on Wednesday. . . .

Zelensky and his advisers believed that the White House may have frozen the aid package to Ukraine because of the proposed sale of Motor Sich, a Ukrainian factory that produces engines for missiles and jets, to a Chinese company. The U.S. has objected to that sale on national security grounds, and Trump’s then-National Security Adviser John Bolton urged Zelensky and his government to stop the sale during a visit to Kiev in August. “At the time China was more acute,” as an issue in U.S.-Ukrainian relations, than was the question of investigating Biden, says the official.

Ukraine Saw 'No Connection' Between U.S. Aid and Trump Request on Biden, Official Says

[N_Fiddledog]

You may have a point though Beave. We shouldn't trust dodgy media outlets like the New York Times and Time Magazine.

We should wait for more information. Be sure to keep us updated on what the voices in your head are telling you.

[BartSimpson]

The Senate Democrats are not siding with the House Communists...

https://freebeacon.com/politics/dem-sen ... s-hearsay/

$1:

Sen. Doug Jones (D., Ala.) said much of the Ukraine whistleblower complaint depended on "hearsay" and that Congress cannot impeach officials based on hearsay during a Sunday interview on MSNBC's Kasie DC.

Jones broke with House Democrats when he criticized the whistleblower allegation that launched the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. The first-term senator said he was skeptical of using secondhand complaints as the basis for removing a sitting president from office, echoing the sentiments of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.).

"A lot of that allegation, a lot of the whistleblower complaint is in fact hearsay. It is what other people have told him. That is clear on its face. I think Senator Graham was right, you don't impeach somebody based on hearsay," Jones said.

The whistleblower who raised concerns about Trump's July phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky did not hear the conversation firsthand, but learned about the call from U.S. officials who had direct knowledge of the call. Despite Jones's hesitation to impeach based on "hearsay" alone, the senator criticized the White House's attempt to dismiss the complaint. He said President Trump is wrong to criticize the whistleblower complaint as a sham and a setup, noting that concerns about Trump's potential abuse of power are legitimate.

Guest host Ayman Mohyeldin asked Jones why he is reluctant to move forward with impeaching the president.

"Well, we still don't have all the facts," Jones responded. "We need to get the facts. Whenever you get to an impeachment vote if it gets there, it needs to be based on facts. It doesn't need to be based on mere allegations and one transcript."

House Democrats announced the formal impeachment inquiry on Tuesday. The proceedings focus on allegations that Trump asked Zelensky to "look into" former vice president Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, over the latter's high-paid role at Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company. Democrats allege Trump used military aid as leverage to pressure Zelensky to interfere in the 2020 election.

[Tricks]

PDF warning

https://www.dni.gov/files/ICIG/Documents/News/ICIG%20News/2019/September%2030%20-%20Statement%20on%20Processing%20of%20Whistleblower%20Complaints/ICIG%20Statement%20on%20Processing%20of%20Whistleblower%20Complaints.pdf

Statement from the Intelligence Community Inspector General.

[BartSimpson]

This is from Larry Johnson, a former CIA analyst who posted this a few hours ago:

$1:

Now that we have seen the whistleblower complaint filed by a CIA officer against President Trump, there should be little doubt that it is a fraud and represents an abuse of the whistleblower process. I know genuine whistleblowers (e.g., Bill Binney, Kirk Wiebe, Ed Loomis, Thomas Drake, John Kiriakou, etc.) and have been one myself. I am familiar with the kind of information one must possess (or should possess) in order to initiate a complaint. This complaint does not even meet the stupid standard. It is a trumped up complaint.

This CIA officer who filed the complaint has no direct evidence or knowledge. He heard things from other people. He was not party to the phone conversation and did not have access to the transcript. Instead, he cited public media as “corroboration” for his allegations, including reports by John Solomon.

The whistleblower is supposedly an analyst. Pray to God he is not. If this is an example of this clown's analytical chops then we now know why the CIA has been on the downward slide. Rather than focus on evidence and facts, this guy relied on rumor.

The egregious conduct of the whistleblower is exceeded by the incompetence of the Intelligence Community Inspector General. When the complaint was filed a competent professional IG would have dismissed it immediately because it was based on hearsay. If we follow his logic, every single Presidential conversation with a foreign leader that involves discussion of a policy or issue an analyst does not support could/should become an IG investigation. That is not an intelligence function no matter how sincerely or fiercely the complainant believes their beef merits attention. It would appear that the Democrats who plotted with this CIA officer were counting on Donald Trump to claim executive privilege on his conversation with Ukrainian President Zelensky and, based on the same privilege, withhold the whistleblower complaint.

Whoops!! Trump did not play ball. He preempted the Democrat Kabuki theater by releasing the relevant documents and transcripts. President Trump pre-empted the ability of the Democrats to accuse him of illegal acts by citing his refusal to turnover documents.

How can anyone claiming whistleblower status be allowed to file a complaint on something about which they have no direct knowledge? The entire premise of the intelligence community is the access to reliable sources, i.e., people who have direct knowledge of what they are reporting on. The Dems are in a state of flacid erectus.

To appreciate the lies of the so-called Whistleblower, let us compare his claims with what actually transpired:

The Whistleblower Claims:

The President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election. This interference includes, among other things, pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the President's main domestic political rivals.

What President Trump Actually Said:

I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike… I guess you have one of your wealthy people… The server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the whole situation. I think you’re surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it’s very important that you do it if that’s possible. . . .

The other thing, There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it... It sounds horrible to me.

COMMENT--At no time did President Trump say anything about the 2020 election or the need to do something to Biden to preempt his ability to run for the Democrat nomination. Trump's request was specifically about what happened in light of Joe Biden's public claim--I REPEAT, PUBLIC CLAIM--that he used the threat of withholding aid from Ukraine unless they fired the Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating the company that hired Joe's cocaine head son, Hunter.

The Whistleblower Claims:

Multiple White House officials with direct knowledge of the call informed me that, after an initial exchange of pleasantries, the President used the remainder of the call to advance his personal interests. Namely, he sought to pressure the Ukrainian leader to take actions to help the President's 2020 reelection bid:

• initiate or continue an investigation2 into the activities of former Vice President Joseph Biden and his son, Hunter Biden;

• assist in purportedly uncovering that allegations of Russian interference in the 20 I 6 U.S. presidential election originated in Ukraine, with a specific request that the Ukrainian leader locate and turn over servers used by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and examined by the U.S. cyber security firm Crowdstrike,3 which initially reported that Russian hackers had penetrated the DNC's networks in 2016; and

• meet or speak with two people the President named explicitly as his personal envoys on these matters, Mr. Giuliani and Attorney General Barr, to whom the President referred multiple times in tandem.

What Zelensky Actually Said about Hunter and Joe Biden:

President Zelenskyy: I wanted to tell you about the prosecutor. First of all I understand and I'm knowledgeable about the situation. . . He or she will look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue. The issue of the investigation of the case is actually the issue of making sure to restore the honesty so we will take care of that and will work on the investigation of the case. On top of that, I would kindly ask you if you have any additional information that you can provide to us, it would be very helpful for the investigation to make sure that we administer justice in our country with regard to the Ambassador to the United States from Ukraine as far I as I recall her name was Ivanovich. It was great that you were the first one who told me that she was a bad ambassador because I agree with you 100%. Her attitude towards me was far from the best as she admired the previous President and she was on his side. She would not accept me as a new President well enough. . . .

I also want to ensure you that we will be very serious about the case and will work on the investigation. As to the economy, there is much potential for our two countries and one of the issues that is very important for Ukraine is energy independence. I believe we can be very successful and cooperating on energy independence with United States. We are already working on cooperation.

President Zelensky is asking President Trump for more help and strongly agreeing with Trump that the U.S. Ambassador was acting as a foe of Ukraine. To reiterate--the issue of corruption by Joe Biden and his spawn was already in public and was an issue for Ukraine, not just Trump. Again, not one word about the 2020 election or the Democrat scramble to find a candidate. No threat by Trump to withhold aid. No quid pro quo of any type. Joe Biden is on the record in public demanding Ukraine do what Biden wants or else the U.S. would withhold $1 Billion dollars in aid.

The Whistleblower lied. Not a single mention was made of "locating and turning over DNC servers." This is a complete fabrication by the so-called Whistleblower.

President Zelensky noted that his people had already spoken with Rudy Giuliani and voiced not one single concern about that. And Zelensky said that his Government would fully cooperate with a U.S. law enforcement investigation.

Worth noting that John Solomon of the Hill is out tonight with documents that expose Joe Biden as a liar in this matter.

The heart of the Whistleblower complaint is a lie. The analyst reported hearsay but, as you can read for yourself, was not what was said on that call.

This is an outrageous abuse by the intelligence community. The CIA cannot and should not be trusted. This analyst is an incompetent who does not know how to distinguish between fact and suspicion.

[Tricks]

Larry Johnson!?



The same guy who peddled a hoax about Michelle Obama, accused John Kerry of war crimes using edited audio, and peddled a false conspiracy theory about the GCHQ wire tapping Trump?

Yep, definitely a solid source you got there.

[BartSimpson]

OH SNAP!!!

Nancy Pelosi is getting hoist upon her own petard!!!

https://nationalfile.com/breaking-nancy ... n-ukraine/

$1:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s son Paul Pelosi Jr. visited Ukraine in 2017 to meet with government officials in connection to a business initiative. Now, unearthed records reveal that Paul Pelosi Jr. was an executive of a gas industry company that did business in Ukraine – and his mother Nancy Pelosi was featured in one of the company’s promotional videos.

MAGA!!!

[Tricks]

I'm confused, would he not be allowed to be?

[DrCaleb]

Tricks Tricks:

I'm confused, would he not be allowed to be?

First Degree Attempted whataboutery.

[PluggyRug]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Tricks Tricks:

I'm confused, would he not be allowed to be?

First Degree Attempted whataboutery.

Goose and Gander.

[Tricks]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Tricks Tricks:

I'm confused, would he not be allowed to be?

First Degree Attempted whataboutery.

It just seems unrelated. Are kids of prominent politicians not allowed to have prominent positions in companies?

Did they get there because of their parents? I mean probably, but a supporter of Donald Trump is the last person that should be calling someone out for getting somewhere based on their name.

Was there wrong doing is what I didn't see in that article. Is no one allowed to do business in the Ukraine because Trump asked them to assist in a federal election?

[DrCaleb]

Tricks Tricks:

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Tricks Tricks:

I'm confused, would he not be allowed to be?

First Degree Attempted whataboutery.

It just seems unrelated. Are kids of prominent politicians not allowed to have prominent positions in companies?

Did they get there because of their parents? I mean probably, but a supporter of Donald Trump is the last person that should be calling someone out for getting somewhere based on their name.

Was there wrong doing is what I didn't see in that article. Is no one allowed to do business in the Ukraine because Trump asked them to assist in a federal election?

All valid questions. And what does his working for an oil company in Ukraine have to do with the POTUS asking China to interfere in the 2020 US election, on live TV?

Nothing. Whataboutery.

[Freakinoldguy]

To be honest, the Democrats could give a shit about actually impeaching Donald Trump because, what they're doing is placing the seed of doubt in the heads of a nation before the next election. Even if he's exonerated, found guilty or nothing happens they'll still have achieved their goal which is to disparage his character and have something to attack him with come the next election.

It's an old tactic, either find or fabricate something on a politician and then run with it whether it's true or not. So, people shouldn't hold their breath about him getting impeached because that isn't the ultimate goal of his accusers. Although, if he did happen to get impeached it'd just be a bonus for the Democrats.

[Thanos]

"Innocent" and "Trump" don't belong in the same sentence together, hoss.