Let me make sure that I have this correct. The President of the United States is dispatching his personal lawyer to a foreign country and asking their leadership to dig up dirt on his behalf for what could be a potential rival in the upcoming presidential election.
How is this not considered collusion?
55
“We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation."
So, Guiliani seems to acknowledge meddling in an election is bad, but excuses himself by saying that's not what he's doing.
But he's inviting a foreign power to meddle in an American presidential election - let's hear a GOPer explain how that's somehow okay.
32
Nadler and Schiff’s exhaustive tone on camera in response to the news that Trump’s shill is going to a foreign government to seek “information” from a foreign government, should put fear into every American. It is not enough.
This president is destroying every democratic institution that founded our country. It is time to realize what every person in New York who knows this family tells you behind closed doors; that he is a con man without a moral compass; that he wants to establish a dictatorship with a line of succession; and that he will not leave the White House willingly.
Our own DOJ would not investigate Biden. The President is calling on foreign powers to help him get re-elected. Perhaps NOW we know where that “$54,000,000” reported by the New York Times came from.
We need to hit the streets, pressure Congress to amp up their actions as a co-equal branch and start defending the ideals laid out in our Constitution, or it will be too late.
33
Somehow I feel that Giuliani's openly speaking to the press about his trip to speak to the president-elect of Ukraine, Mr. Zelensky, shows that Trump, et al, fears absolutely nothing anymore. This brazen, possibly illegal action should sound an alarm throughout America. Trump appears to be a rogue on the loose.
Could this be an open mini-coup on the part of the president to intertwine his personal political interests with other countries...again?
The Trump presidency evidently can work with impunity and openness in attempts to bring down a possible presidential bid against Trump, this time allegedly, by Mr. Biden.
We're seeing here a repeat the of behaviors found in the Mueller Report, Vol. I. Could it be that following the non-prosecution found by the Mueller investigation of Mr. Trump's campaign, that the president and his lawyer (and who knows who else is involved) are now thinking there will be no more efforts to stop this type of thing because Trump, et al is protected by a Justice Department mandate that stipulates that a sitting president cannot be indicted.
Besides, Trump and his minions are already so mired in Congressional subpoenas, contempt of Congress citations, lawsuits of all sorts that could drag on for several years--what have they got to lose? What's one more legal challenge to his conduct as president?
We can't keep up with these guys (Trump, et al)...it looks like it's time to get really serious about something here...the trouble is, what?
26
We are now presented with a crystal clear picture of how money and foreign governments are cooperating with the Trump Syndicate to poison our elections. Hunter and his dear old Dad may not be blameless in this instance, either, but their familial indiscretion is like giving a problem child too high-level a job in the family company, compared to the games Guiliani & Trump are playing with foreign governments. So now we get to choose between a Dad with a loose cannon, inept son and a dangerous criminal enterprise. I know which which one I prefer to usher into office, if it comes down to that. Meanwhile, note how the political families weave some sticky wickets throughout this dark tale. The scales should be falling off many American eyes, as more of our ugly political realities are dragged into the glare.
It's ridiculously easy to follow the money trail in this instance. (Thanks for the links to the PAC's tax returns, NYTimes.)
"Also involved in planning the trip and pushing the investigations is Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian-American businessman who knows Mr. Giuliani well."
Guiliani's helper, "Mr. Parnas is an executive of an energy company that donated $325,000 to a pro-Trump super PAC last year, prompting a Federal Election Commission complaint by a nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog accusing Mr. Parnas, his business partner and the company of violating campaign finance laws."
18
Representing DJT makes Rudy an envoy of the U.S. Any request he makes he will be making on behalf of the U.S. and it will be received as such. DJT is leveraging the Office to coerce foreign government's into carrying out political vendettas...and still R's remain silent. Perilous times indeed.
24
Listen closely while the Republicans say and do absolutely nothing in response.
While the press herds Democrats to hurry up and impeach (yes, this paper), no one even bothers to ask the president’s party where they stand. Get back to work, folks. Lets here from some Republicans on this and everything else.
10
“We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation, which we have a right to do,”. Uhhh ya, meddling in an investigation with the sole purpose of meddling in an election. Coercing a foreign government to pursue investigations in political rivals is extremely disturbing, this administration is beyond and sensible ethical standards. The Republican Party, who constantly wraps themselves in the American flag and the Constitution, is beyond shameful and complicit in the destruction of our democracy as we once knew it!
18
I'm sure that if Giuliani's "investigation" turns up anything, including real, actual crimes, he'll be leading the charge to declare complete exoneration, and urge everyone to ignore the findings and move along.
Oh, sorry, that only applies if Republicans are being investigated. Since the targets here are Democrats, the only logical outcome would be to line up any wrong-doers (and any innocent bystanders) and shoot them.
It's so hard to keep these things straight when crime and punishment are party-based. If only we had a system where a crime is a crime, regardless of who commits it...
9
The entire Trump presidency is "improper," Rudy. Might as well start shooting people in broad daylight on 5th Avenue. That, after all, is the metaphor for this travesty of a government.
My flag hangs upside down in distress with the slim hope that the Trump oligarchy will be stopped, but the underlying fear is that they will continue to rule beyond 2020 and complete the ruination of this country.
7
I guess since Trump and company are doing this out in the open, it’s ok. Giuliani has a law degree. Well, alright then.
4
I would say it’s a new low for Trump and his cronies, but they have already hit rock bottom and have been winging it ever since. It seems, when in doubt, seek help from foreigners to attack our own American citizens and again it is in the vicinity of Russia’s own back yard geographically.
They have already demonstrated that they have no problems colluding with our adversaries, even after they claimed to have been cleared of such activity in the Mueller Report. It’s not far fetched to assume that this trip is for cover so Rudy can secretly meet with Russians on behalf of his boss. I wouldn’t put it past them. With his poor polling numbers, Trump again needs help in his re-election bid from foreign sources. They have no shame. Something stinks to high heaven and it’s Rudy Giuliani who should be investigated. Who is financing this venture to again gather dirt on a possible political opponent and does he have to registered as a foreign agent?
With apologies to his family, friends, and many supporters, former President Ronald Reagan must be spinning in his grave over what has become of his beloved Grand Old Party.
6
How in the world does this not result in being put on some FBI/CIA watchlist, with hot-light interrogation upon his return?
If I were director of the CIA, I would be on the phone with the Ukrainians now, offering them $100M cash, to entrap Giuiliani and deliver video recordings of the event afterwards.
8
If Rudy's objective is to hurt BIden then he's wasting his time because, Biden won't be the nominee.
4
@Lifelong New Yorker Trump is very afraid of Biden. Whoever Trump is afraid of I'm voting for.
8
Given the fact that his charlatan boss is a known grifter and admitted tax scofflaw, who will be paying for this "fact" finding trip? I have a suspicion we the unsuspecting taxpayer may get stuck with the bill just like we have for every trip to the Florida royal palace.
9
In what universe is this OK? How is this not illegal?
18
What happened to Giuliani, “America’s mayor,” The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and viable candidate for the presidential nomination of the GOP, the Good Ole Party, the Republican Party, the Party of Lincoln?
What happened to him? Where did he go? Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio?
As former FBI Director Comey has suggested about member’s of Trump’s coterie, has Rudy’s soul been eaten?
Have a nice trip to Kiev, Rudy. Heard they’re selling some great MAGA hat ripoffs.
7
This sounds a lot like conspiring with a foreign government to influence an election.
This sounds vaguely familiar.
If it’s done openly does it mean it’s legal? OK?
Regardless of legal issues, isn’t this inappropriate? Even disgusting?
What do trump’s republican colleagues think? They must love it.
13
What will Trump give Ukraine, and Putin in exchange for dirt on Biden?
Giuliani's trip to Ukraine is an effort to negotiate a price for dirt on Biden.
Who is paying for Giuliani's trip? Who is paying Giuliani to take this trip?
It could backfire on Trump. Ukraine is not happy with their treatment by Russia lately. One of Russia's best friends (Trump via Giuliani) might not be all together welcome.
Would Trump get Crimea back from Russia for Ukraine in exchange for dirt on Biden? Not likely.
Paul Manafort's Ukrainian benefactor oligarchs might be able to pull a few strings for Trump. What would an oligarch want in return from Trump? (Note: All Ukrainian oligarchs belong to Putin.)
Is Giuliani's trip to Ukraine strictly legal? I don't know.
Is Giuliani's trip to Ukraine good for America? No.
9
This is clearly an effort by Guliani to pressure Mr. Lutsenko to find/manufacture something somewhere.
First, Trump and company accepted help from the Russians. Trump denies that. Now, Guliani is trying to collude in something else with an outgoing Ukrainian Prosecutor with Trump's OK.
It is time to impeach Trump, to stop the problems he is causing around the world. He has caused problems with all of Europe, Canada, South America etc. etc.
Also, how long is Clinton going to be used as a backstop for everything that Trump doesn't like.
It's time to point out that Trump is the problem, not the rest of the world.
8
Giuliani's actions speak volumes about his ethics as an attorney and begs the question where is the New York State Bar, that is allowing these shenanigans to go on unchecked.
When future history shows with preponderance that Giuliani, Trump, and the Republicans were working to sabotage and weaken American institutions to serve themselves and foreign adversaries, the New York Bar will have to explain its position of no action to defend our laws.
Silence and no action is tacit approval.
9
I was young during the Nixon years. It seems to me that he is making sure he makes it into the new book/movie of All the President’s Men!
I don't understand Putin's strategy here. Ordering Trump to befriend Ukraine only makes sense if this is the beginning of Putin's push to create more chaos before the 2020 election, with the goal of ensuring four more years for his puppet. Or, it could be to create distraction in both nations to enable a Russian putsch in one. I refuse to believe that this is just Rudy on the loose, trying to get on the gravy train; he's too ethical, too sane, and too honest to do that.
This is a new low. Actively admitting and engaging other countries who have their own agenda to influence elections. Didn't we just have a 2 year investigation about this very issue?
4
Giuliani's little foray into foreign intrigue goes way beyond the pale. First of all, it is absolutely outrageous that this president of ours is directing one of his personal attorneys to intervene in a sovereign right out in the open, in plain sight. This is the stuff of a Banana Republic dictator. All of this brings front and center the attorney general's openly voiced "concerns" about the findings in Mueller's report concluding Russian interference in the 2016 election that somehow require his personal investigation.
It is highly inappropriate, if not illegal, for POTUS to direct any investigation about any matter at all. Period. So where is the outrage among Republican "leaders"?
All of this is being done to assuage Trumps fragile fears about the legitimacy of his election. Anything to reverse the Truth. Anything at all. The congress must act decisively and swiftly with impeachment of both attorney general and president if our republic is to have any chance at survival.
4
I believe exactly zero of whatever Giuliani miraculously "uncovers" in this grandstanding move. In fact, if Giuliani told me the sun rises at dawn, I would probably not believe him.
1
Rudy Giuliani was a good mayor of NYC after the Koch-Dinkins Democratic malaise, except for police brutality and a failed stop and frisk program. He was a good leader after the 9/11/2001 attacks but he has moved far right in a sense--that didn't help him in his failed 2008 campaign and his failed 2008 and 2012 GOP surrogacy didn't help.
Is this allowed, for him to intervene in foreign governments' affairs?
Also, I am a bit ambivalent about a Biden 2020 candidacy. Someone like Tim Ryan of Ohio can be a better candidate and appeal to the same Biden Scranton-type blue collar bloc.
Biden may have a lot of baggage like Hillary Clinton and could cost him the election to a flawed president Trump. Period.
It is May 2019, anything can happen. A year from now, May 2020, a new Democrat could emerge.
Republicans don't believe they can win an election without interference or voter suppression.
Because they can't. From Scalia on, they have shown repeatedly they cannot win elections on a fair playing ground.
6
If the Trump team is willing to engage a foreign country to dig up dirt on Biden, why shouldn’t we believe they did the same thing in the 2016 election, probably with Russia? That would explain why Trump is so cozy with Putin.
5
It's hard to believe that some Americans are okay with the Trump campaign once again asking for foreign help to win an election.
First they beg the Russians for help, and now they are going to Ukraine.
I would be willing to bet my house that these same Americans will shriek if they find out that Bernie Sanders was actively courting China by talking about removing tariffs when he became President.
How was Bernie to know that China had all of Don Jr's. emails and copies of Trump's late night cell phone conversations?
4
HOW IS THIS LEGAL?
How can Congress stand by and allow this?
Just because they declared openly that they now intend to collide with a foreign government, doesn’t make it right!
This just makes it so very obvious that Trump did work with the Russians in 2016! It seems his natural, irresistible impulse is to do this anyway - to use ANY DIRTY TRICK available!
2
A Republican using a foreign government to meddle in US affairs against the wishes of the majority of Americans. Anyone notice a pattern here? Is this even legal? Well, it’s not like the rule of law applies to Trump or his surrogates anyway. Once again, I’ll apply the rule of reversal; if Obama tried to continually use foreign nations to meddle in Domestic affairs, what would they be reporting on Fox News right now? Indignation about selfie sticks and tan suits come to mind.
6
Interesting that Mr. Giuliani refers to information that "may turn out to be helpful to my government." I always thought it was "our government."
1
Nice to see that the NY Times has a sense of humor. Please do keep your readers informed about this upcoming trip; Giuliani is a known clown/puppet here in America, so it will be most interesting and informative to see how he is received in Russia. I do hope to read of his extensive inquiries about Russian adoptions, that, no doubt, Donald Trump Jr. has tasked him with pursuing. Again, thank you for keeping this important presidential representative front and center in the news. The Times stands out as a newspaper without a "comics" section; this will certainly make up for the supposed lack of humorous journalism.
6
What’s the problem here? Giuliani is a lawyer. Trump is his client. Is the objection here that a lawyer should not defend his client? That would be ridiculously unfair to Tump and Giuliani. Ukraine is investigating the episodes that indicate that Obama’s government applied pressure on Ukraine not to investigate individuals, like Soros. The erstwhile American ambassador presented this list to the govt. of Ukraine. Also, Hillary’s campaign also used Ukraine to damage the Trump campaign. I think the visit is totally appropriate and totally within the purview of Giuliani as Trump’s personal lawyer. In fact, he would be a bad lawyer if he did not try to protect his client.
14
@Gennady "Defend his client"?? This is not defense, it is going to another government as a representative of our "POTUS" (ha, ha) and asking that government to investigate and dig up dirt. That is proactively seeking another government's help in our next election.
154
@Gennady
Lawyers are not investigators, not in the criminal justice sense, but maybe in your "defense" sense.
33
@Gennady
That's all fine and good right up to the point at which the client is the POTUS, and this is sidetepping what should be a government investigation if said allegations are true. Guiliani is effectively going to the government of a country that is under existential threat from Russia and asking them to (out of official channels) investigate Trump's political rivals. This is very easily seen as a quid pro quo and is therefore deeply unethical and concerning.
145
I hope the new President of Ukraine laughs Giuliani out of his office. He is a comedian and Giuliani is a joke.
9
“We’re not meddling in an election. We’re meddling in an investigation,” Mr. Giuliani said.
Mr Giuliani has already admitted election meddling, but decided it was ok. As for meddling in the investigation it seems that he agrees with us that Trump is meddling with the investigation.
44
@Sutter
Let's see. Biden is running for President in the next election. Giuliani is going to Ukraine to get "dirt" on Biden's son -- BUT "we're not meddling in an election".
Glad we cleared that up.
9
Even though the commenters want to confuse things this is not complicated.
Did the Clinton campaign use the Ukraine authorities to investigate and open up Manafort's records in the 2016 campaign to damage the Trump Campaign.
That is what Rudy is trying to find out.
6
@True Observer, if they genuinely thought such a thing had occurred, they would refer the matter to the CIA. The White House has the best investigative foreign intelligence agency in the world at its disposal, the CIA; however, rather than utilize that tool, they're sending Rudy Giuliani? That only makes sense if you suspend your belief in reality.
14
@True Observer The minute I here the words simple or complicated I know it is a simple comment. Clinton has nothing at all to do with the nastiness of this administration. They are top in that game, bar none. What they are doing if not illegal is as close to it as anyone can come and they are pulling no punches, they show the world what untrammelled power is and how the Republicans use it. It is attested to by nearly all Republicans that I can see.
11
@True Observer
And what will the Trump administration offer in return for the cooperative assistance.
Enlisting a foreign government’s assistance in our political affairs is never a good idea...no matter who does it or to what end.
But my opinion in this is only one held by mature adults using good sense.
7
I'm tired of this nonsense. NO dark money. NO superpacs. RELEASE your tax returns or you are disqualified from holding public office. That is one of the sacrifices you make when you are a public servant.
Limit campaign contributions to individual contributors only--people, NOT corporations. Limit the amount of these contributions not to exceed $5K or $10K. Whatever is a reasonable amount, not a "you-owe-me-the-breaking-of-a-law" amount. This, or our democratic republic, which is already under siege, is TOAST.
58
One thing Donald Trump and his administration is really good at - sort of - is the art of deflection. Each and every time they are faced with legitimate criticism, they all go into deflection mode, as Mr. Giuliani’s latest move demonstrates.
Their responses always include a variation of “yes, but what about....?” I wish they’d give it a rest. It only makes them look guiltier if that is possible.
Hey Rudy, but what about all the misleading statements you’ve made these past two years?
10
Is Giuliani Trump’s new fixer? Maybe for once, the Trump team should be thorough. If Giuliani stays in the Ukraine for the rest of this year - and 2020 if needed- that will probably benefit the public.
2
Since when does a candidate for President, let alone the incumbent go to foreign countries to seek help and “dirt” on his adversaries? With the amount of unethical, if not downright criminal activity, proven between the trump administration and foreign entities, I would think the president would want to steer clear of even the hint of foreign entanglements.
9
Russian interference. Purposely sought interference from Ukraine. I must acknowledge that I, for one, do feel safer with China and Russia and eventually, the Ukraine, hovering around my country. Led by our fearless leader and his congealing minions. Right now, knowing that I must wait to vote, which is my sole option, and my duty and my responsibility as an American, does not feel enough. I want to take arms against this sea of troubles. Each moment of this administration or developing autocracy, makes me feel desperate.
2
“There’s nothing illegal about it,” he said. “Somebody could say it’s improper.
Yes, it's improper. Reminds me of this from back in the day:
“You don’t even have to be convicted of a crime to lose your job (as president) in this constitutional republic if this body determines your conduct as a public official is clearly out of bounds in your role,” Lindsay Graham said of Bill Clinton.
6
From Giuliani’s perspective, everything is legal, even bigamy.
10
Mr. Trump and his crew just can't seem to succeed without some sort of foreign interference.
2
In other verifiable reporting:
Pompeo met with Russia FM Sergey Lavrov on Monday and is going to Sochi next week to meet with Lavrov and Putin after canceling a planned visit to Germany.
6
Rudy, Rudy, where art thou going? We are not talking of travel but the Historian's pen years form now.
1
He's like an evil Don Quixote jousting with windmills of slander.
2
"Inquiries that could help Trump" is such a perfect NYT headline. Treating Giuliani as a reliable narrator (see author's tweets re revisions of this article) is also a truly remarkable failure by whoever edited and approved publication. There is certainly valuable information here, but to make the headline about the 2020 horse race is not journalism, it's opinion and really advertorial content. Step right up for your preview of election coverage 2020-style!
1
“There’s nothing illegal about it,” he said. “Somebody could say it’s improper.”
————————————-
Hey, Rudy, here’s a novel thought: if it’s improper, then DON’T DO IT!
(I’m not convinced your trip isn’t illegal as well as improper, BTW.)
3
A new curse:
May you be as honest as Rudy Giuliani and as successful as Donald Trump!
7
Giuliani is a disgrace! Seemingly, the Republican party has no integrity left, it now travels to other countries to try to bring down an American citizen.
3
So Giuliani is going to work with a foreign power against political opponents in the United States.
"None dare call it treason."
12
Giuliani was a terrible mayor, then 9/11 became his brand, and he coasted on that for many years.
This new role as Trump's toady is a new low, and his behavior is part abhorrent and part comedy. Do these people have no shame?
8
Of course they have no shame.
2
"I don't know" is one page one of Putin's Propaganda Playbook.
Now, Mr. Giuliani is taking ignorance to a new level: crime can never be committed in public.
His majesty is once again, above the law, leading rally chants of "Lock her up".
5
People of every political stripe should be afforded the opportunity to watch all this unfold from the perspective of an outsider. No matter what your values, your religion, your race, or your economic standing, one thing is absolutely clear: Donald Trump and his troupe of absurdists must be exorcized. He is making an abject mockery of your country and its citizens. Trump claims that America is finally respected on the world stage again. Trump is a delusional liar.
8
Did Giuliani register as an agent of s foreign government?
6
Who is funding this trip?
9
Apparently, Trump and his advisors now believe they can get away with working with a foreign power — one with links to the Kremlin, our greatest enemy state — with impunity. They did it out in the open for the 2016 election. Now, they want to do the same thing out in the open. It his is not treason, what in the world is it?
If Trump and his sycophants thought they were getting inundated with investigations and subpoenas thus far, they "in't seen nothing yet" with this revelation.
As for Giuliani and his place in American history, he has now joined the ranks of criminal defense lawyers like John "The Dapper Don" Gotti's infamous lawyer, Bruce Cutler, who kept him out of prison until, well — until he didn't. Gotti died in a super-max prison for his crimes.
Hopefully, the same fate holds true for Trump, his two adult sons, Jared Kushner, and other cronies in the Trump orbit.
3
Now we know what Putin and Trump talked about for an hour, the two criminals are planning another another attack on Ukraine, another excuse for some sort of intervention that Russia needs to take over another country. Implicate them in a ridiculous plot because we have a coward for a president who can not win anything without doing something underhanded, and criminal.
3
Sounds like Giuliani is seeking the assistance of a foreign power to help Trump in 2020. Time the FBI interviewed him!
9
The investigations in Biden jr Ukraine affairs are legit. Since the Democrats declared all out war on the Trump admin, this was to be expected
@Kristiaan No one said that an investigation by Ukraine into Hunter Biden wasn't legit...what we are saying is that the lawyer of the POTUS to convince a foreign government to continue to pursue an investigation ostensibly to provide damaging information on a likely political rival isn't legit. Get it now?
@Kristiaan
Legitimate investigations of Biden would (and should) be done by legitimate law enforcement agencies, not the President’s personal attorney.
There is nothing legitimate about this.
2
Time for congress to halt all spending resolutions until the white house complies with all subpoenas and requests for testimony and documents.
2
Man, “America’s Mayor” really fell from grace hard, huh?
5
The Russians must be drinking champagne, and Putin must be drinking gallons of it. Who could ever imagined that a few rubles spent hacking into the DNC computers and sending out propaganda to stupid Americans who believe everything they read on social media could come to this.
The Trump effect has practically destroyed the American form of democratic government, and we have a president who wants to be dictator. Trump would be dangerous if he were competent, but he's merely a congenital liar and complete lunatic.
Every time Trump talks to Putin, he plays footsie with Putin like a hooker at a cowboy bar. Putin must have to take drugs to be able to keep a straight face.
And now Trump's "lawyer" is taking off for the Ukraine to dig up more dirt and ask for MORE Russian (aka Ukrainian) help. Omigod. It's too surreal to be real. Collusion is collusion even if it's done in plain sight. It's got to be a horror picture show. The American experiment self-destructs because the Founding Fathers could hardly imagined that the president of the United States would refuse to obey the law. Trump makes Andrew Johnson look like a demigod.
First, I think "Benedict Arnold" Guiliani needs to stay home. Two, I think the dictator wannabe needs to resign or be impeached. And three, Americans need to reach between their legs and pull their collective heads out of their kiester.
7
Treason doth never prosper.
What's the Reason?
Why, for if it prosper
none dare call it treason.
-Sir John Harington
4
Let's just stop. Trump, Giuliani and the rest in our white house are out and out criminals. When Giuliani steps off the plane he should immediately be arrested for meddling in an election and treason.
6
Who is paying for his trip??
1
Collaborating with a foreign government to impact our elections? Sounds like treason to me.
9
Do you expect a political newcomer like comedian Volodymyr Zelensky to be at all receptive to American political lowlife? He campaigned on ridding the Ukraine of corruption. Guiliani plainly is not a representative of the U.S. government but a personal representative of a duplicitous U.S. President.
1
Another shiny object/Republican talking point to deflect and distract from Junior's mounting legal problems and Mueller's impending testimony before Congress.
Maybe Republicans will be retiring their Vince Foster/Benghazi/email/Comet Pizza/Uranium One/Seth Rich fever swamp tales now that they've got Joe Biden, Criminal Mastermind, to investigate. Republican donors, operators are standing by!
4
“It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a sick society.”
— Jiddu Krishnamurti
Is this what it is for the GOP?.....well adjusted to Trumpism? Well adjusted to the man who “fell in love” with Kim Jong Un? To the man who said, “I don’t see any reason why it would be” about Putin? To just submissively fall in behind a man who takes a sludge hammer to decency, integrity, truth, and, in many cases, simple intelligence? Combine that with Mitch McConnell, who characterized a democrat idea to declare a federal voting holiday a “power grab”, and you have the modern shameful GOP. I recently saw a lawn sign that said, “Any functioning adult...2020.” I understand the frustration.
5
“We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation, which we have a right to do,”
No, you absolutely do not have a right to meddle in an investigation being conducted by a foreign government. The Ukrainian government will accept you as a representative of the US Government which you most assuradely are not. You would be on Fox screaming like a stuck pig if a foreign national "meddled" in any of the ongoing Trump investigations. One could only hope that Trump gave you a one-way ticket (in coach) to Kieve.
3
Don't worry - if Giuliani obtains some allegedly secret dope on Biden, he'll go on talk shows chorteling about "big surprises" spilling beans the way he did in 2016 when the Trump campaign colluded with anti-Clinton elements in the FBI's New York office.
2
Sounds like Giuliani is now the most irrational president's EHM.
How terribly flaky the president's administration is.
1
So, let me get this straight, they're going to conspire with a hostile foreign power to see if said hostile power conspired to get trump elected, and conspire yet again to hobble the candidate they fear most in the coming election. Got it.
4
Meddling in an investigation has a different term when discussed in legal terms
It is called obstruction of justice.
It is the crime Donald committed so many times it is difficult to count being done in the open, and announced in the press.
4
Why should anyone care what any Biden relative did? Isn't that the way we're supposed to look at the Trump family? Isn't that what the base loves - the Trumps do possibly illegal things and get away with it? Why is it any different for any other candidate?
4
Representative Jerry Nadler (D-NY) to CNN:
"We've come to a very sorry state when it is considered okay for an American politician, never mind an attorney for the president, to go and seek foreign intervention in American politics."
Rudy Giuliani, Trump's completely obsequious lapdog, is an American embarrassment.
8
This reads like a conspiracy with a foreign government to assist with Trump's election by getting dirt on a political opponent, something that was apparently lacking in the evidence resulting from Mueller's investigation. What am I missing here?
2
Jennifer Rubin, opinion writer, The Washington Post, May 10, 2019:
"...the House should expeditiously pass a law making it mandatory for a campaign to report all contacts with foreign officials, prohibiting solicitation of information or action from a foreign government for the purpose of influencing a campaign, and making it illegal to knowingly use material provided directly or indirectly from a foreign government in a campaign."
If Mitch McConnell refuses, "Democrats should come right out and say it: The Republicans want to get hostile powers to help them win elections because those powers figure that Republican presidents will be patsies.
"I am often asked whether the Republican Party can be rehabilitated. A party is made up of individuals; in this case, a group of elected leaders who uniformly invite foreign intervention in our election should be permanently disqualified from holding office. They have violated their oaths in the most egregious manner possible and cannot be entrusted with power again. Ever."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/05/10/trump-will-betray-his-country-again/
2
Of all the wacko things that have come out of Giuliani's mouth in recent months, this takes the cake: "...We're meddling in an investigation." Isn't this the definition of obstruction of justice?
Someone please arrest these people.
2
I hear some experts say, that enforcing subpoena and putting people in jail will be unprecedented, but if we're dealing with this grotesque unprecedented trump's swamp this the only way to deal with it or lose the power of peoples congress forever.
1
Well, we can be confident that the incompetent, incoherent, and inept Mr. Guiliani will bumble and fumble whatever he purportedly turns up in his “investigation.” He, one of the most overrated New York mayors in history will take whatever credit he can, just as he did in his photo ops at ground zero after 9/11.
9
I trust that Mr. Giuliani will be registering as a lobbyist. His private citizen status as Trump's personal lawyer would indicate he is not speaking for the State Department or any branch of the U.S. Government, yet he is urging action by a foreign government. I'm sure he wants to be on the up and up, so I'm trusting him to register as a lobbyist right away.
10
Right. This doesn't stink at all. I'm sure there's no possibility Giuliani is going to mention anything whatsoever to the Ukrainians about how Trump might express his gratitude for "evidence" they uncover that by pure coincidence happens to help Manafort or harm Biden. It's certainly not as if Ukraine is in some kind of precarious position or would have anything to gain from a little extra U.S. assistance.
9
"“There’s nothing illegal about it,” he said. “Somebody could say it’s improper."
And, yet again, we are reminded of the low standard of behavior that we've allowed this particular President and those who work for him: if it's not illegal, then it's OK.
It's a far lower standard than we'd accept for any other President, or for anyone in any other position - doctor, police officer, high school student, etc - yet, this is where we find ourselves.
Does anyone with a shred of intellectual honesty really believe that this won't have devastating long-term implications for our country?
14
This smacks of impropriety. Any other president would ask our own agencies to investigate what is proper to investigate. There is no need to investigate who started the Russian investigation. Our own government did.
Surely asking another country's government to meddle in our affairs is a "high crime" or "misdemeanor." We need to get rid of Trump and all his minions.
12
There is one statement that stands out to me.
"... I’m going to give them reasons why they shouldn’t stop it because that information will be very, very helpful to my client, and may turn out to be helpful to my government.”
Obviously, we see where Giuliani's precedence is to what he considers most important. Trump first ... maybe the salvaging of American Democracy somewhere lower on his bucket list.
11
I'm old enough to remember when Rudy Guiliani had a reputation worth admiring. He's gone from America's Mayor to, well, whatever the name is for what he does now.
3
Trump and his allies are getting bolder, aren’t they? What happened to the “checks and balances” that we were taught in grammar school? If they’re still in place, they aren’t very effective.
We ordinary people need checks and balances to protect us from our President and his Administration. Wow!
6
Great idea, give Ukraine a chance to get Democrats angry. I’m sure the Ukrainians will jump at the opportunity to position themselves for American support during some future Democratic administration. Consistent with all previous Trump/Giuliani strategic forward thinking.
1
"Mr. Giuliani’s plans create the remarkable scene of a lawyer for the president of the United States pressing a foreign government to pursue investigations that Mr. Trump’s allies hope could help him in his re-election campaign."
Also known as, "Thursday."
5
Collusion, here and now, this is how it works. First Russia, and now Ukraine are welcome allies in Trump’s election campaigns.
6
“the real collusion began in @Ukraine,” as Ms. Toensing put it in a post on Twitter in March.
Think she's accidentally referring to the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops who aided separatists, the seizing of Crimea by Russia, followed by the repeated attempts by Trump to get sanctions against Russia removed, while all the time he disagreed with multiple, proved reports that Russia helped him defeat Hillary?
3
This is nothing more than asking foreign country to interfere in our elections. He needs to be arrested upon arrival.
11
We have sunk to the lowest level possible .
We must not allow Giuliani to use our money and the power of the USA to advance the political agenda of Trump. Frankly it is coercion of the worst kind
Maybe the Democrats should say to Ukraine they will enlist the help of the EU to pressurize Ukraine not to help Trump
The EU is far more influential with the Ukraine and would favor a Biden presidency.
It is a slippery slope one the Ukraine should not get on and one all true Americans should totally reject.
If any American has committed a crime then OUR agencies should investigate not a coerced Foreign country
2
You've got to give it to Trump. He's a master of manipulation. Knowing he's facing more scrutiny from the House on the Mueller report and a vigorous political opponent in Biden, Trump sends out Giuliani to dig up anything he can use to again deflect scrutiny away from himself when the political heat turns up on him. He's always looking for new deflectors to take pressure off him when he is called out for questionable if not illegal activity. And, for a man who calls foul when the media and others shine the light on questionable behavior of his children to now seek out something controversial on Biden's son speaks volumes about how Trump's moral compass has turned south for bad. Shame on him!
4
More collusion. More obstruction. More enlisting of foreign governments to help win elections. And here abetted by the former “America’s Mayor” who is now what? “Russia’s Mayor” or just Trump’s latest lackey and fixer?
4
So do we arrest Giuliani for seeking foreign influence in an election now? This is a felony. Or do we have to launch another Independent Counsel report?
3
Our president told us how he feels about America and Putin & his interference at Helsinki and after his call with Putin after the Mueller report was released. The idea that our president is working with a foreign country to investigate the one he ostensibly serves is as alarming as the idea his lawyer took a break from serving the interests of foreign countries to help trump do the same, just like Manafort. Our president refuses to respect the findings of his intelligence, judicial, and defense teams with regards to Russia- both undermining all those institutions and our election integrity. Our president is simply not fulfilling his oath- to defend, uphold, and protect our democratic institutions. The right has no claim to patriotism if they don’t call this what it is- treason.
3
Who's paying for this trip? It had better not be US taxpayers!
5
Rudy told the Ukraine government NOT to cooperate with the Mueller Investigation.
How is that not obstructuon?
6
How is requesting a foreign power's help to influence an election not illegal? I guess if you just do it publicly that makes it ok, and since beauty Rudy doesn't worry about Russian influence, why worry about Ukrainian influence?
3
This article misses the essential point: How does a totally unqualified, kicked out of the Navy because of cocaine use spoiled brat get a position on the board of directors of a huge Ukrainian gas company? The answer is simple: nepotism and trading favors. To be equitable, how does a mediocre son of a real estate developer get to shape the US Middle East policy? Same question, same answer.
3
I hope Biden wins and keeps Trump on trial for the next decade!
6
My question is who is paying for this trip? This needs to be answered truthfully.
2
Just when you thought that Giuliani couldn't possible sink any lower...
So the "president's lawyer" is headed to another country to dry to muddle up the sordid Ukraine antics by Putin and his gang -- and also to try to dig up dirt (no doubt Putin manufactured or dug up!) on supposed involvement by a son of Biden in a Ukrainian gas company?
This would be comical if not so sordid, disgusting, and potentially tragic for the USA.
But perhaps Giuliani's junket can be fodder for a subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee for deatails about this trip, who's paying for it, and just what sorts of similar backroom activities Giuliani has been involved on behalf of in the the last year or so?
4
@NYer
Sad to concur; this is "comical," albeit "sordid, disgusting, and potentially tragic" for us. Unfortunately, as we climb the ladder, ever higher, to become the pinnacle - the laughing stock of the entire world - Giuliani and Trump, together, lead the way, representing every one of us. Talk about sad.
2
The usual Trump trick , try to direct attention away from his underhanded doings by invoking Hillary Clinton and damage Joe Biden . Two birds , one stone ; Toensing and Lutsenko are Putin's creatures. It is so glaringly obvious what is behind Giuliani's efforts , a nasty vindictive man without any sense of ethics or morals . When will enough be enough with this off the rails skulduggery ?
2
Giuliani says “We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation," but as every knows, the investigation is campaign material for the election. If A=B and B=C then A=C. Guiliani's hair-brained propaganda statements need to be challenged more by the journalists reporting on them.
4
Astonishing news. It shows that trump’s is the crony government. Does Giuliani have any formal role in our government? No, he is a personal representative of trump to carry out political vendettas, now on an international scale.
Trump runs his government just like his mom and pop company (minus the mom), using cronies to conduct his misdeeds. Look what happened to Michael Cohen and others. Giuliani is treading on exceedingly tenuous ground in executing trump’s scurrilous, psychotic machinations.
The Republican Party has become a truly vile organization, bent on destroying our democracy. Republican voters have taken us down this perilous path to fascist totalitarianism.
We have to vote them *all* out in 2020 so that we can return to the great democracy that we once were.
8
Counselor Giuliani is the best player on Trump's team, that the Democrats ever had. Thank you sir.
5
And if this were an attorney for a Democratic nominee seeking "dirt" - what else can it be called - on Trump, can one imagine the response of the right? Giuliani is totally unhinged. Trump has become a joke. If Rudy's planned actions do not equal collusion with a foreign power in meddling in the 2020 election then I don't know what is. 2020 will be worse than 2016 in this regard.
4
Seems Democrats, who were all for “transparency “ and claiming “collusion”, are now worried about Giuliani exposing the extent of their own dealings with foreign governments. Let’s face it, American politics are in the hands of scoundrels.
6
@George Hawkeye If Giuliani told me today was Friday, I'd check a calendar. Neither he nor his 'client' have any credibility or close association with the truth. If a foreign government tried this ham-handed approach in a US investigation or decision to end an investigation the Republicans would go ape. Unless it helped Trump, of course.
1
Say what?
This is becoming absurd. It would be funny if it weren't so incredibly serious.
Ukraine was the nexus of the corruption at the Republican Convention, it was the site of Manafort's great efforts to aid Russia, the invasion of Crimea had until now made Republicans mad but now it's OK. Pro-Russian Ukrainian billionaires also play an outside role in this scenario.
And here we have Trumper Giuliani meddling on behalf of his boss?
What the heck.
This looks illegal to me, it looks treacherous and wrong, and I hope there are repercussions for it.
7
Mr Giuliani attempts explaining to us that all this is normal and rational .
Can you imagine the Facebook and Twitter traffic if Obama had ordered his personal attorney to the eastern block in order to save his presidency ?
Meanwhile back at Fox 'news', the #3 trending news item is that Trump has coined a new name for Biden. #2 is sage politico Gerardo Rivera (Al Capone's vaults) rallying his followers ("all-out") against the Democrats.
All Sensible and rational too , on an sixth grade play-ground.
5
And who is paying for this "fact finding" trip?
3
I'm sure the same people who are paying for Trump's rallies, for which we haven't seen an answer.
1
If there is nothing to hide, why worry? ... On the other hand ...
4
We let other sovereigns influence our elections and we also influence the elections of other sovereigns. No biggie.
— Rudy “I married my first cousin and divorced my wife via a press con” Giuliani
7
Let’s put this in simple, blunt language.
The Trump administration is taking no actions to secure the next election from foreign influences.
Furthermore:
With no open and shut case of conspiracy coming out of the Mueller report, Giuliani now feels entitled to return to the Ukraine, where Manafort had multiple ties, as does Giuliani himself, and to seek help in “meddling with the investigation.”
Oh, and in case you didn’t know, asking for Ukrainian help in digging up dirt on Biden’s son isn’t “meddling in the next election.” Which makes sense, right? No one was convicted for similar stunts in the last election, so it must be “ok”.
Our national security is pretty much in the dumpster at this point.
3
This is a job for Paul Manafort, but now that Manafort is in prison, Rudy is more than happy to take on this dirty work for Donald. And yes, Rudy, it's most definitely "improper." Giuliani has totally destroyed his reputation and legacy. What a fool to have done this in service to a man like Donald Trump.
3
“This story about the administration firing the ambassador to Ukraine this week after she took on the prosecutor Giuliani has been buddying up to merits a lot more scrutiny in light of tonight’s NYT story.” — Matthew Miller, former DOJ spokesman
This seems like a major facet of this story that needs to be reported on to understand what the Trump administration is up to sending the president’s personal lawyer to Ukraine to “find” dirt on his opponent.
1
Does the Logan Act apply here? Are you kidding me? For Rudy to say it isn't illegal is laughable. The POTUS is using his mighty power to pressure another government to act on behalf of his re-election - that must be a crime somewhere, somehow.
5
Biden bragged on video about getting the Ukrainian prosecutor looking into his son's dealings fired, using $1 billion in loan guarantees backed up by US taxpayers as a weapon.
Instead of "pay to play", Biden forced Ukraine to "play to get paid".
4
So sad.
Go to your enemies to "get dirt" on your opponent in an election.
Sounds like collusion and/or treason to me.
4
None of the comments I've read so far seem to care at all whether Joe Biden may be guilty of colluding with a foreign government to save his son from being prosecuted. But these same people relentlessly demand Democrats collaborate with foreign governments and foreign nationals at all costs to take down Trump.( Like enlisting a British investigator, Steele, to collaborate with Russians on a phony dossier, or the FBI spying on and trying to entrap Trump campaign members with secret agents peddling sexual favors, etc. The commentators here want to investigate Trump at every turn, but when it comes to Biden (or Hillary)... hey, nothing to see here! We don't care! No need to investigate!
4
May be it will turn out to be BLESSING IN DISGUISE for JOE BIDEN.
Isn't Giuliani also violating the Logan Act? He's not part of the government, and he's obviously acting in Putin's interests.
Disbar him. He's only fit to work in cleaning up sewage holding tanks, if even that.
3
If Mueller had not been what looks like “forced” to stop his investigation, he would certainly be following this new development as another obstruction of justice and election meddling act.
6
I had to reread this story several times to make sure that I understand it correctly. This is wrong on so many levels. Hypocritical, cruel, and pushing laws to the limits for self gain. Unbelievable.
16
The corruption continues in plain sight.
17
Mr. Giuliani described that work as related to emergency management consulting, but Mr. Fuks said in an interview that he hired Mr. Giuliani as “a lobbyist for Kharkiv and Ukraine” to lure American investors. “This is stated in the contract.”
Is Giuliani registered with FARA?
6
If Trump doesn’t leave office in 2020, it’s over. All this man thinks about is his ego, he doesn’t care to govern or lead. And there is no good reason for him to leave office.
2
Has anyone ever had a worse third act in politics than Rudy?
He has gone from America's Mayor to a late night punchline. All to stay near the whiff of power.
9
When the Mueller report comes out Trump will be done. Oh wait the report is out and found nothing. Now Trump is having his people look into the Mueller report origins. And he is asking the Ukraine’s too. The Mueller report may just take down democrats and the left instead.
And if Biden has nothing to hide why worry.
3
In this matter Giuliani is trying to distract by flipping the tables on this to blame Clinton when it was Manaforte who was guilty of wrong doing. What's the problem with Ukrainian officials releasing documents showing secret payments of $12 million to Manaforte no matter who might have encouraged them to do so. Since they were genuine documents what's the big deal. Manaforte had the opportunity to explain/defend them. It wasn't the payments but his fraudulent tax reporting of them and secret illegal lobbying in the US for Ukraine that got Manaforte in trouble. If Manaforte did the right thing this would be a non issue.
79
@P LockUkraine’s top prosecutor divulged in an interview aired Wednesday on Hill.TV that he has opened an investigation into whether his country’s law enforcement apparatus intentionally leaked financial records during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign about then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort
in an effort to sway the election in favor of Hillary Clinton
.
ADVERTISEMENT
The leak of the so-called black ledger files to U.S. media prompted Manafort’s resignation from the Trump campaign and gave rise to one of the key allegations in the Russia collusion probe that has dogged Trump for the last two and a half years.
Ukraine Prosecutor General Yurii Lutsenko’s probe was prompted by a Ukrainian parliamentarian's release of a tape recording purporting to quote a top law enforcement official as saying his agency leaked the Manafort financial records to help Clinton's campaign.
The parliamentarian also secured a court ruling that the leak amounted to “an illegal intrusion into the American election campaign,” Lutsenko told me. Lutsenko said the tape recording is a serious enough allegation to warrant opening a probe, and one of his concerns is that the Ukrainian law enforcement agency involved had frequent contact with the Obama administration’s U.S. Embassy in Kiev at the time.
@ron
If Manafort did criminal, corrupt things, why shouldn't the Ukraine tell us that? Also, the fact that they apparently favored Clinton for the most part is probably not even relevant. It isn't unusual for citizens of one country to favor the election of a person to an office in another country. As long as this doesn't rise to the level of conspiracy, I don't think that's a crime. Clinton really was better for the Ukraine than Trump.
4
What a lot of crooks.
Not that I’m an expert in any of this but my perception is that Republicans are becoming an authoritarian group and will defy any law and seek any means to discredit their rivals. If they’re so righteous in their beliefs why stoop so low?
11
@Josh Republican "gang" would be a more accurate term for the so-called party.
2
Guilini is probably going to give the Ukrainian government a heads up that Russian tanks will soon start to converge on the border (as planned), and Trump will be the only person who can save them.
Putin has the script. There was a recent meeting with the Russian thug and Trump. Trump said they talked for more than an hour.
Putin has intervened in Venezuela so threatening an invasion of Ukraine could be in the Trump playbook to help him at the polls and get him reelected.
Trump is not beyond doing this and so he sends Giuliani as his emissary with a "secret" communique that the Russians' are eyeing Ukraine. But rest assured, Trump will be there to help and support Ukraine.
This will deflect attention to Trump's growing problems with the democratic congress.
Sound crazy?
The U.S. has already seized a Korean commercial ship, and Bolton was drawing up plans to send troops to South America because of what is occurring in Venezuela. There has been saber-rattling against Iran, and China is upset because of the tariffs. China will increase support for North Korea as hot spots and world tension increase.
Trump needs a war. So he turned Giuliani and his Warlord Bolton loose to find a country to invade or create a conflict to deflect attention from his problems with the Democrats.
The Lunatic-in-Chief has the nuclear launch codes in his pocket and a cult following of millions.
National security is in deep peril.
7
@Raul Hernandez When they wanted to stop the Ukrainian government from releasing info related to their investigations of Manafort all it cost them was some guns and artillery. Trump will be holding the US Congress hostage to a war threat soon - either as a distraction or as another plot point in Putin's plan.
Obviously this is all part of the Trump re-election campaign. No doubt it will be as dirty, deceitful, and sullied by foreign interests as his 2016 campaign.
Giuliani’s moves also make sense in light of Devin Nunes’ support for the House Intelligence Committee getting the un-redacted Mueller report and supporting documents. They are desperate to create the narrative that the counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign was illegitimate. They’d like ‘evidence’ that contradicts the Steele dossier and subsequent Special Counsel findings. From there it’s a simple bank shot to claims the entire Trump investigation was a sham cooked up and paid for by Hillary and her supporters.
Trump also needs an excuse to pardon Manafort and reward his loyal silence. He, Roger Stone, and Julian Assange likely know the full extent of Trump’s conspiracy to work with the Russians. They need cover.
Apparently AG Barr plans to open his own investigations of Hillary and FBI ‘spying’. Giuliani, Nunes, and corrupt Ukrainians will supply plausible support for Trump’s innocence and the corruption of our national security deep state by Democrats. And all of this will be amplified by Fox Noise, Russian hacking, and St Petersburg troll farms.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration intends to block or stall all Democratic efforts at oversight. Trump isn’t going down without a fight, and he always fights dirty. Get ready for more chants of ‘lock her up.’
3
It's humorous and sad to see the hypocrisy on display here in these posts. They bewail Trump and Giuliani but ignored the serious infractions of Biden, Kerry and sons while in office. The Vice President negotiated with the Chinese in Beijing while his son was there making deals with state run enterprises as was Kerry's son. Same in the Ukraine. That was alright though and we shouldn't talk about that.
The hypocrisy and self-righteous is astounding. Or is it simple moral bankruptcy and ignorance?
3
@antonio gomez
And those supposed "deals" influenced the course of an election how? How Gomey. Tell us.
1
Why isn't this receiving more media/public attention and outrage? Trump is doubling down after the Mueller report and knows there will be no DOJ investigation into this attempt to influence and/or extort a foreign government to hurt Trump's potential 2020 political opponent because the U.S. attorney general is his lapdog. But where are the Democrats and the public outrage on this? Do we just accept political corruption now?
5
Because working with a foreign adversary worked out so great for the Trump campaign the last time. But seriously, this brings up the notion that Rudy had access to Paul Manafort's rolodex and contacts list. This is very unethical , if not illegal to say the least. He should be disbarred
8
How is this not illegal?
8
“We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation"
That's literally what Obstruction of Justice is!!
11
Did he just admit to obstruction of justice?
7
An American heading to Russian dominated Ukraine to find political dirt on another American who is running for president. RIP America it was a nice experiment while it lasted.
7
@Lou Panico He is not going there to "find" dirt. He is there to create lies with Ukraine and Russia and come back to tell trump minions.
You know, if I read that Giuliani and Trump made plans to attend a slumber party at Putin’s I can promise you that I would not be surprised.
9
President Trump and his team of traitors strike again. It looks like if we defeat him in 2020, we will by necessity have to basically investigate everyone in his orbit, not just for corruption, but for national security purposes. If we don't defeat him, I personally will not see our federal gov't as possessing legitimate authority. The social contract is being broken.
Is anyone else disgusted by the faux patriotism of the Republican party? Wrap themselves in the flag while actively undermining their country's institutions.
9
Is encouraging a foreign power to find (who knows, fabricate?) disparaging information on a political opponent legal? What is Giuliani/the Trump administration offering in return? I hope someone in the Intelligence community or Congress can put a stop to this. Tragically, the Republicans no longer care about the Constitution or contributing to the functioning democracy that the country's Founders envisioned. They only care about pandering to Trump and their limited base and getting re-elected.
8
Did he just admit to collusion? He can call it by other names but it is still collusion.
13
Can we please no officially call the US government a mafia mob?
A few years ago, under the George W. Bush administration, I thought and hoped that things could not become any worse and any more illegal than they were then.
And these days I find myself wondering, why I was so pessimistic then when I see that, compared to trump, Bush was a pinnacle of correctness.
I mean face it, a lawyer of the president who goes to a foreign country to try and find some dirt on the son of a potential competition in an upcoming election race by trying to convince a foreign government to run legal proceedings against one of his own country men?
I wonder what depths Giuliani and Trump will show the world next?
13
So, Giuliani was hired and paid for lobbying work on "behalf of the Ukraine.." according to Mr. Fuks, the person paying Giuliani for it. Did Giuliani register as a lobbyist of a foreign power as required by law? I don't recall ever reading or hearing that anywhere. If he didn't, wouldn't he have broken the law?
9
The only lesson that trump takes away from the Mueller report is that he can get away with colluding with foreign powers for political purposes.
9
Mr. Mr. Giuliani has shown us all he will go to Great lenghts to do Mr. Trumps bidding. There is Nothing Mr Mr. Giuliani says that I give much belief in. He's going to Kiev but he Not going to tell us the entire reason for the Trip.
5
This sounds odd, but perhaps familiar.
The President has unilaterally issued orders not to cooperate to those he sees as might be able to shed light on on-going legally permitted investigations at "home" concerning a yet to be concluded investigation on the Mueller saga and other related matters.
Simultaneously he plans to ship off a non-elected lawyer to a foreign sovereign state where he hopes, to coin a phrase "to dig up dirt" on opponent candidates for the up-coming election.
It would seem that "The King" trims the sails to suit his needs where clearly Madame Justice isn't blind if all these obstructions and interventions are allowed to proceed.
6
The Trump administration strategy seems to be that if you do it publicly, colluding with foreign governments to attack domestic political opponents is not conspiracy to undermine democratic elections. This aggressive "anything goes" stance is incrementally shifting perceptions of what has long been considered treason - a least among Republicans. Progressive Democrats now must therefore carry the conservative mantle to return us to our founding principles and protect democracy. Democratic conservatism and Republican recklessness. Our new topsy-turvy world.
186
@Craigoh
Guiliani (aka Trump) is performing a classic Mob hit. The 'anything goes' optics (or the dubious legality) doesn't matter - it's you've done this to us and now we'll do this to you. Hence going after Biden's son. Doing it out in the open convinces the unknowing citizen that it is all completely normal. The new normal, that is.
4
@Craigoh After the past 30-40 years of right wing dogma forced on us, I'm pretty much done with conservatism of any kind.
11
Hopefully Giuliani's foreign government collusion will be carefully monitored by the NSA and CIA.
25
Is it time for Civil War II yet?
I never lived under tyranny so I do not fully understand oppression. But now I see how citizens get to the point where they CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE. I don't want to live under a dictatorship and I don't want to move to another country. Ok he will soon be out, but look at the precedents being set: that the laws and Constitution are meaningless!
23
@Feline - The Democrats don't believe that the rule of law and the US Constitution are meaningless. It won't be enough to remove Donald Trump. The entire Republican Party must be annihilated at the ballot box. Republicans will be just as corrupt and unlawful after Trump is gone. They've shown us who and what they are. We must decide what kind of country we want to live in.
6
@Feline
Dear Feline. We are not going to let the rule of law nor the constitution be "meaningless." We are fighting back with our votes to return to something approximating normalcy.
5
At least the Trump administration now is not going mind interference from a foreign country. All hail the Chief who did not get enough attention from the Mueller investigation and really expects us to believe that it was a witch hunt. Now who is hunting.
10
No doubt the 90-minute phone call Trump made to Putin greased the skids for this move.
19
So Giuliani is now taking the place of Michael Cohen.
I just don't get it.
What is it about Trump that he has so many people who should know better in his pocket or his web.
How can that be?
And he's (Giuliani) going to Russia?? on a fact-finding mission?
It gives even more credence to the theory that Russia was indeed involved in our election to help Trump win.
So now the question asked anew is. what do the Russians (Putin) have on Trump?
I just don't get it.
16
@marriea
Nothing here about his going to _Russia_. But I don't blame you for getting your countries mixed up: too many plot lines, too many unbelievable characters with names that all sound alike.
But too important to ignore.
2
@marriea In this particular case it's more like Giuliani is taking the place of Paul Manafort. This sort of dirty work was Manafort's specialty. It landed him in prison. Giuliani is a fool playing at a very dangerous game.
2
This isn't the first time Team Trump asked for help from a foreign government yet seems to have had no consequences.
Is Rudy's trip at taxpayers' expense?
Is there no end to the corruption?
Should there not be more outrage?
20
I seem to remember Trump putting pressure on Ukraine to stop cooperating with Mueller's investigation. Since Ukraine depends on American support, guess what happened. Which is just the flip side of this story. I mean let's be honest, Guiliani doesn't officially represent the United States, but if he were seen as an ordinary citizen he would never get an audience in the Ukraine. Both this story and the older one are examples of subverting American foreign policy to the needs of Trump and his henchmen. I'm not sure if there is a legal definition of treason, but amending America's foreign policy to benefit Trump sure sounds like it to me.
12
So Trump is sending Giuliani to Ukraine to find the Russian oligarch in order to smear Biden’s son. This is not surprising. I say bring it, because (1) this is Biden’s son and not Biden, (2) Biden is not a top Democratic hopeful and (3) anything Biden’s son did pales in comparison to what Duck of Orange has done.
What people do not understand is Trump is also laying the groundwork for resumption of Trump Tower Moscow and other nefarious things like sanction removal.
Also what people do not understand is this is the ‘official’ Republican Party reaching out to Moscow. Let normalization between Russia and the Republicans begin here. While of course most of the Republican Party is not on board yet, that will come.
Republicans and Russia are aligned because (1) they both have a common enemy: Democrats and democracy and most importantly (2) they both are corrupt. Both are willing to do anything to win.
And there you have it. Out of the mouth of babes.
18
So not only is the GOP relying upon foreign adversaries to win elections, they're also using them to undercut America's counterintelligence organizations. The enemy is within the walls, and I'm not talking about Central American migrants.
18
We're going to call it the "Giuliani Dossier" and we'll start spying on, um, investigating the Biden campaign with wire taps et al just as soon as we can buffalo a FISA court to get warrants.
Perhaps we can send the spys, um, informants to other D party campaigns at some point when we renew the warrants
After all, we need to protect the country
1
@joe
Except we don’t need a “dossier” when we can just read it in the paper.
A patriot American would never find this acceptable. This is not a game. This is corruption of the highest order.
2
So Giuliani, on behalf of the Trump campaign is again seeking foreign help to win an election. That should be illegal.
12
It is amazing to me that this story is appearing the day after Trump accused John Kerry of violating the Logan Act, yet has has instructed his PRIVATE attorney to do exactly that. And the NYTimes ignores that point
15
#deleteGuiliani For chrissakes...we just concluded the Mueller report on Russian interference and yet provided cover by AttyGen Barr, the Trump campaign (yes this is a campaign tactic like the Hillary/Benghazi investigations) doubles down. This country is going to HECK! and the GOP and the 1% supporting them are essentially collaborating with our enemies to make more money and remain in control of Govt that they want to destroy but make a profit while they do. When are the Trump supporters realize they are being played and that their interest is the farthest thing this GOP has in mind.
6
@Melanio Flaneur
Perhaps they sense that in the coming rigors of climate change Russia will be one of the master countries?
So, Trump wants the Dems to stop investigating, but he's sending his doofus-lawyer to continue...investigating?
Can't have it both ways...or can he?
11
He is breaking the law.
& I want to ask, how much $ will he ask of Ukraine to lobby (again illegally) for them? -- because we know the hero mayor does nothing for free.
8
Only a matter of time for this. Expect more of the same. Brazen. Dishonorable. Disgusting. Where are the honorable men? Hard times in this country.
20
The founding fathers would call this what it is: treason in plain sight. Everyone involved would get exactly what traitors got in those days.
16
I am unsure why Giuliani and Trump would even do this? Biden's kid "employment' is known and doesn't need further investigation. Seems to be a Blasio-ian waste of taxpayer dollars.
3
It's just shocking to see how low they (Trump and his thugs) will go. I keep thinking they've hit bottom but now this.............when will Congress and his supporters wake up??????
11
Does Arkham Asylum know that former Gotham Mayor but now Super Villain side kick 'Rudy' has escaped and is planning on fleeing the country??
4
And I am sure that while he was in charge of the Southern District of New York he would have welcomed the agent of a foreign power telling him how to prosecute John Gotti.
An unashamed opportunist, who is always looking for the 'main chance'. And another chicken hawk who 'missed' Vietnam but loved to be on camera a half hour after he had another orchestrated perp walk.
5
Another Trump nothingburger. They’re really desperate to turn the attention away from the Mueller Report.
8
I guess Florida's full, all the alte kakers are schlepping to Russia to visit friends and look for retirement dachas. Kiev, he new Del Ray Beach! What's not to like?
5
Just when it looks like Giuliani has hit rock bottom, he continues to find new ways to sink to lower and lower.
He's now wallowing in the gutter.
12
It’s astonishing that this is the same Giuliani who led New York City, and our nation, after 9/11.
Never in a million years would I have thought he’d turn his back on Uncle Sam and resort to dirty tactics like this to help a guy like Trump get re-elected.
The kindest explanation I have is that Rudy has some sort of early onset senility.
7
@Dorothy Don't forget that Giuliani wanted to delay the mayoral elections after the attacks. He's always been like this.
4
@Dorothy guilianai has always been what he is. he shows up for the press photo after everyone else has done the job.
2
@Dorothy He also spearheaded the plan that moved emergency communications to the world trade center AFTER the first bombing. When the towers were attacked on 9/11, communications failed which lead to the deaths of first responders.
This is disgusting. So low class. They think they got away with accepting aid from a foreign government in the 2016 so why not now?
I wonder who is paying for this -- Trump or US taxpayers?
8
Is Giuliani looking to move in on Manafort's business and territory? I hear there is lots of money to be made by working for Russian oligarchs from Ukraine. Or is Giuliani prepping for an asylum location when it comes time for trump to flee the USA?
8
@PAN I've been wondering about that - where is he going to escape to? Or will he do something else like Jim Jones?
3
Similar to the way Democrats had no choice but to adapt to the reality of Citizen's United, by holding their hand out to megadonors, I see this becoming a standard part of the campaign process. Democrat campaign officials will find it necessary to keep pace with their opponents by enlisting the aid of foreign mischief makers.
It's like living in the twilight zone. Every day a new low is revealed and there seems to be no consequence. How do we get out of this?
16
@isldgrl
Vote all republicans out of office.
I would love to be able to talk to Mikhail Gorbachev about all this. Gorbachev presided over the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, and he may actually live long enough to watch the USA go down the same path.
7
It's disappointing to see Rudy 9/11 degenerating so; one assumes he wasn't always this way.
1
As a longtime resident of Manhattan & someone who had to run from the debris of the falling towers—Rudy’s always been that way. In fact, when people from other parts of the country wud remark on how wonderful he was re: the aftermath, we natives would roll our eyes
9
Add this the expanding list of possible articles of impeachment. Abusing the office of the presidency, example number ?
12
Good for the WH and Rudy to connect more dots. As each new day arrives, further evidence is exposed of the DOJ and DNC spying and lying in the run-up to 2016's Presidential election.
Although you won't read any of it here, if you'd like a truly fresh breath of air, try looking into the revelation today of the email written by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec, following her October 2016 meeting with Christopher Steele. Be sure to catch the entire report - especially how Comey lied about Steele's dossier to get FISA warrants.
We all want obstruction of justice and collusion brought to light, don't we? Well, here's your chance to see the real deal.
4
This is the start of Russian interference at the highest level? Is this one of the results of Trump and Putin private conversations? Beginning to look like 2016 was Russian Interference 101? Will 2020 be Grad School?
7
So, the Trump campaign got away with conspiring with Russia in the 2016 election and now they feel empowered to openly solicit the help of Ukraine for the next election! And they are still looking for "dirt" on Hillary and ready to fling dirt on Joe Biden and his son.
7
How Giuliani, who was once America's mayor and a presidential contender, could let himself be reduced to a lap dog frisking at the heels of a self-serving narcissist like Donald Trump, rushing about performing sleazy little chores at his bidding, makes me shake my head in wonder.
3
There is an almost unanimous anger and rejection by commentors of Mr. Giuliani's overt mission to gather information. The comments section is essentially a poll.
Is it possible that dissonance and discordance are being remove from the choir?
I was excluded from the school choir and I understood why.
Will my meta-comment survive the reviewers or will I be
naught but a falling tree in a speechless woods?
2
Why wouldn't the Trumps seek help from a foreign country? They obviously got away with it last time.
12
Nothing like conspiring with pro-Russian Ukrainians in order to prove there's no conspiracy between Russians and the Trumpolini campaign.
9
What happened to the once respected Rudy Giuliani? Sad. Very sad.
3
Mr. Guiliani has just as sick a mind as does Donald Trump! The thing is, Joe Biden will beat Donald Trump in 2020! Period. There is nothing Trump nor Guiliani can do to stop it!
5
A visit to Ukraine by a representative of Putin's best friend is not going to end well for Ukraine or America.
6
What's the word that comes to mind after reading this? Incredible? Ridiculous? Outrageous? Atrocious? Appalling?
Rudy has no honor.
5
It is a shame that it has come to this, but I have observed it coming for a long time. We have a gov't run by bureaucrats, (i.e., who have not been elected & have been delegated to make decisions that our politicians are afraid to make), and media companies that choose the narrative to fit their bias and revenue needs. On top of that we have politicians, on all sides, who see elections as a blood sport (i.e., win at all cost). Our Republic is not performing the way our Founding Fathers designed it to do. Soon we will not believe in the institutions that form the foundation of our Republic.
21
@Rod: don’t generalize. We have a government run by the dysfunctional trump and his self appointed cronies. Don’t let trump hypnotize you into believing that all government is all bad throughout all time. It’s one way trump gets control of unthinking people, one of the cleverer means that he employs to “make his deal”.
Vote trump out in 2020 and we’ll be able to climb back to the democracy that we had before trump. If “our Republic is not performing the way our Founding Father’s designed it to do,” then fix it. To paraphrase Barack Obama, don’t get depressed. Vote!
2
Well, if the 2020 election comes down to Trump and Biden, it may as well be the Russian presidential election from the way it will read in the papers.
Bizarre how Giuliani repeatedly uses the word “meddling” to at once invalidate yet validate his actions. “Meddle: to interfere without right or propriety.”
How much longer will this blatant criminality and continue? We should be protesting in the streets every day. Shame on this country.
15
If anyone is a foreign lobbyist, it is Rudy Giuliani. The only reason he wasn’t nominated for Secretary of State under Trump are his decades of foreign contacts that would serve as a conflict of interest.
“As a partner in a law and lobbying firm, Rudy Giuliani has profited from his firm’s work representing corporate clients before nearly every Cabinet department, exposing himself to a wide range of potential ethical entanglements.”
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2007/05/15/giulianis-firms-work-could-be-ethics-problem-3/
“Giuliani has never registered with the government as a lobbyist. Instead, he acted abroad as a security consultant and occasional political adviser, even though his actions sometimes sought to influence U.S. policy.”
https://www.businessinsider.com/ap-giulianis-ties-to-foreign-entities-could-be-a-complication-2016-11
7
I would appreciate honest feedback from anybody in the USA who believes a single word that Rudy Giuliani utters. I assume these would be the same people who believe that Trump honestly cares about them and has wholeheartedly committed himself to improving their lives. Seriously: please let me know if you fully trust & believe what Giuliani says and - this is important - why you have come to a rational conclusion that he is trustworthy.
Thank you.
13
@Jane
Do you believe every word of Nadler, Schiff, Comey and Brennen?
If he is going to do this, the Free Press should make it front page, headline news during his entire trip. Pictures, videos, interviews...every step he takes, every comment he makes, every Russian or Ukrainian he meets with and provide details on their backgrounds, particularly their anti American histories. let the American people watch the “attorney” for the President of the United States seek the advice, counsel and cooperation of decades old geopolitical foes to corrupt facts and truth only to advance the sick Trump agenda to further deceive his propagandized robots.
11
And who's footing the bill for this junket? The American taxpayers, I assume. A free trip for Rudie boy, one dementia-challenged mind, on behalf of another dementia-challenged mind, on our dime. All out for the whole world to see. What a circus of a government have we. It's no longer the White House, it's the Great American Big Top, complete with inept clowns of every shape and size. Elect a showman, and you get a showman. But it's no laughing matter. We are all suffering.
11
Guiliani wants to ask a comedian for help protecting Trump's corrupted Republican brand? is this supposed to be a joke?
6
We see here the folly of Democrats who still want to pretend that we live in a nation of law, principle and kingly restraint.... Time was, politicians of both parties could bilk the nation's wealth with a measure of decorum. No longer!
It doesn't help that Joe Biden's son, thanks to Joe Biden, was on the take. Do *your* kids get offered $50K a month by foreign governments?
So, sure. Vote for Uncle Joe. And on it goes ... down the drain.
3
Is Giuliani an elected official with the power to negotiate with foreign powers?
Trump continues to slap the Democrats in the face and dares them to do anything about it.
Say goodbye to our democracy, to a functioning government; welcome to a dictatorship - to the United States of Donald Trump.
9
So Trump is sending Rudy to bribe? threaten? a foreign leader into manufacturing "evidence" against people on his enemies list? Using a foreign leader doubtlessly installed by Putin, who wishes to control Ukraine, a self-discredited Rudy, Ukrainian criminals and secretive anti-Democracy Americans? Nothing to see here. Just another day in Trump's America.
10
@Renee Margolin
While I 'recommended' your comment, I heartily DISAGREE with your 'nothing to see here'. Sadly, there's EVERYTHING to see here - the continual dismantling of a Constitutionally based nation. And where are the republican'ts?? McConnell with his "Case closed-----case closed" is sickening at best. IMO, this is a dark day in our history and darkening each day. I can only hope the vast majority finally sees the light - of course, at 75, I haven't that much longer to be concerned but I hope to pass this life with my country still intact, not for me but for my and our progeny. As my father often said, "In a couple hundred years, I probably won't care much."
2
Trump and Giuliani sort of remind me of Abbot and Costello. You can decide which is which.
3
@RLW
Gotta disagree - I enjoyed the humor of Abbott and Costello - on the other hand, NOTHING any of these miscreants is humorous - quite the contrary - they're quite scary.
1
Democrats need to know what happened with the Bidens and Ukraine in order to make better informed decisions during the primaries.
@Kevin
Americans need to know what happened with the Trumps and Russia (including that so called call about "adoptions) in order to make better informed decisions during the primaries.
2
Giuliani is probably just visiting old friends in Ukraine, considering that Trump partnered with a Ukrainian oligarch to build a Trump Hótel in Canada and already extorted the last Ukrainian President to refuse to release information to Müller on his investigation of Manafort and Co. Giuliani is no doubt going to threaten the new President to follow suit. The problem here is that the lives of Americans and Ukrainians are all secondary to Donald Trump’s unending personal drama. Plundering the Treasury for personal use is where it’s at, forget about those suckers who work hard, pay taxes and get nowhere.
5
To think this mayor once united New York City in its darkest hour, only to become the henchman of the most malevolent actor in American history.
22
@The Buddy, yes how about that contrast. NY'ers have always known DJT to be a fraud, but RG was our rock. Like Jon Snow, I know nothing (anymore).
To think this mayor once united New York City in its darkest hour, only to become the henchman of the most malevolent actor in American history.
2
I don't know what Guilini is going to do in Ukraine but I know it's not what he claims. He is a liar. My guesses are (1) establishing cover for future Russia contact (and direction), (2) a silly attempt to shore up and feign sincerity around the claim that Russia investigation had a corrupt foundation or (3) a dumb attempt to intimidate and back off and/or distract from further digs into Trump's background.
263
@Rave
Wasn't Trump wanting to indict Kerry for similar activity?
23
@Rave:
maybe, they'll just talk child adoption prospects, after all.
31
perhaps also to set the stage for a Manafort pardon as part of an effort to exonerate his former partner Roger Stone?
17
Apparently Trump doesn't think he can win an election without help from foreign countries. First Russia, now Ukraine. The Republicans must be so proud.
21
Now we know why Trump likes to talk to dictators like Putin and Kim Jong Un. They are giving him advice on how to crush all political opposition and turn the US into his own personal dictatorship. He's studying at the feet of his masters. Well, Trump isn't actually doing the studying; he sends his errand boy Giuliani to do the real work. Trump just signs the decrees.
12
With a tip of the hat to Joseph Heller...
I knew this was meddling in an election when I read “We’re not meddling in an election..."
14
You go Looney Rudy - spin that web. I suspect the hitherto under-reported Outer Mongolian/Yugobolivian effort to undermine Trump in 2016 will be next on that crack operative's list after Ukraine comes up a dry hole. And it's heartening that he has the President's full support; with that endorsement, you know that this is another half-baked, rather dumb stab at creating as many distractions as possible, no matter how far-fetched. Or maybe Trump is smarter than we think: maybe this is a way to be rid of Giuliani's discombobulated counseling for a couple of weeks. Phew...
2
A spectacularly brazen abuse of power even by the corrupt standards of this Administration. If we don't jump out of this pot soon, we're cooked.
14
The Trumptroopers are taking a big chance by approaching Zelensky. Do they think a comedian is going to pass up his biggest chance to be very funny to a worldwide audience. Zelensky can be very funny and Giuliani is a comedian's dream. Ukraine doesn't need protection from Russia for 18 months when she can gain the world's support for that long via laughter. One thing we know about Trump and Giuliani is their inability to laugh and, thus, to know the power of laughter.
8
See, the funny thing about letting someone get away with something once... I read this alongside comments by the GOP senators furious at Burr for daring to question “Junior” and thought: this is why impeachment is so important. It’s about forcing them to vote one way or the other, for everyone to see. To those who say that since the GOP controls the Senate nothing will come of it and it will show future administrations that as long as they hold the Senate they may act with impunity: well what the heck message do you think we are sending by letting all this slide?
7
A skunk can't remove it's stripe and Trump can't win an Election without Foriegn Aid. I doubt Ukraine will care much about helping Trump to stay in power. The Trump administration has done little, to stand up to Putin's annexation of part of Crimea, seizeing Ukrainian Ships and holding their sailors hostage. Unfortunately, I doubt the Republicans will stand up to Trump for going on a another foriegn adventure. I think it's probably a Putin idea anyway, to sow American discord against the Ukraine. If it looks like a skunk, walks like a skunk and stinks like a skunk; it's a SKUNK.
4
Is this a joke? Who is paying for this junket? It better not be the taxpayers. Unlike Trump, patriotic Americans do not make voting decisions based on results of UKRANIAN "investigations". God help us.
7
He should get Paul Manafort's address book. Those Russian mafia contacts would help Trump for old time's sake.
7
What could go wrong?
4
May being Mental Health Month, I hope that Giuliani will be back in the States in time to help us celebrate it.
No politician in the land has down a better job of educating the American people to the need for mental health than he has.
http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/may
7
So Trump is sending his attack dog, Rabid Rudy, to Ukraine to attempt to bribe President Zelensky,to get political "dirt" on a former Vice President of the United States.
But "no collusion" here!
Can this Presidency get any more bizarre?
I hope President Zelensky uses humor to tell Giuliani to go fly a kite.
4
Rudy Drooliani says it’s not illegal. I don’t know about anyone else but that does it for me! Because everything emanating from the twin pie holes of Trump/Giuliani is so very, very reliable.
5
In 1984 Sen Edward Kennedy sent his college roommate, Sen. John Tunney, to Moscow to offer Yuri Andropov, leader of the USSR and ex head of the KGB, assistance in his negotiations with Ronald Reagan over nuclear arms reductions in exchange for the USSR's help in the 1988 election in which Kennedy planned to challenge Reagan. The memo detailing this offer was found after the Russians opened their archives. Think about that for a bit.
I remember being lied to concerning Reagan's diagnosis of dementia during his time in office.
2
@Abbott Hall
Oh good. I feel so relieved now that Rudy and 45 are doing the right thing here. So relieved.
2
As the agent of a Russian agent, I'm sure the Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service will have their own questions for Giuliani. My guess is that Giuliani, lacking any sort of diplomatic immunity, will recognize this and keep himself well out the jurisdiction.
2
hate to wonder, but i can't refrain: 'what next?'. are there any limits to what the money men and women can do to assist donald trump? one could imagine a scenario where money could be utilized to do something for an emergency to rescue the collective citizenry of our nation, but to aid donald trump? we have fallen so low since this individual, (trump), has entered the political realm.
4
If Giuliani were making this trip as a private citizen, wouldn't this be under question by our Intelligence agencies ? As a lawyer, he is not a cabinet member or someone who should have ANY political interference with a foreign entity for any reason, especially when it may have an affect on our country's national security. The fact that the President of the US is sending him to do this is outrageous. Congress and our Intelligence groups need to pull the plug on this fast. If for no other reason, taxpayers should never be spending money on this type of political boondoggle.
456
@JG Are we taxpayers paying for this? He's going as Trump's personal lawyer?
26
@JG
The GOP Congress is so bought and sold by Trump, they should place a giant gold sign on the Capitol,
"Wholly Owned Trump Subsidiary".
50
Why do you think Trump and his Trumplicans have been systematically discrediting all Intelligence Agencies, placing a treasonous troll as AG and distracting at every possible turn? There will be no justice, absolutely none, under Trump - only continued lawlessness and authoritarian power grabs until Americans finally see where they are being led. Hopefully this will be overwhelmingly decisive in 2020 and we can get rid of the Trumps, Giuliano’s, Barr’s, McConnells, Nunes’, Sanders and their lying sociopathic groupies.
52
So, Guiliani is only “asking them to do an investigation that they’re doing already and that other people are telling them to stop. And I’m going to give them reasons why they shouldn’t stop it because that information will be very, very helpful to my client, and may turn out to be helpful to my government.”
It begs the question, what’s in it for Ukraine to continue the investigation for Trump’s benefit? What are the “reasons why they shouldn’t stop it”? What quid pro quo might Giuliani be offering (as a representative of Trump, let us remember) to Ukraine’s president-elect before he has even taken office, behind the back of current president Petroshenko?
Shades of Michael Flynn making offers to Russian Ambassador Kislyak on Russian sanctions behind President Obama’s back while Obama was still president. Shades of Jared Kushner trying to establish back-channel talks with Russians out of hearing of U.S. intelligence services, to be set up inside the Russian Embassy, no less.
Yes, Guiliani is right that “Somebody could say it’s improper.” They could say it was more than improper.
496
@Jenny-And Flynn offering to sell nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia!
30
@Jenny
He's using the powers of the US government (foreign aid) to persuade them to provide dirt (whether they'd have it or not without the "persuasion") on a fellow American.
Despicable.
76
@Jenny. And how about Obama saying ostensibly off-mic to Putin that he would be more flexible after he was reelected. Oh, and the Clintons making $500,000 to speak in Russia just before the US agreed to sell Russia that uranium company... oh wait, that's not the stuff you mean, you mean just the republicans! Sorry!
1
I thought that direct solicitation of a foreign power for the purposes of digging up dirt on an opponent was illegal and unconstitutional. If it is not, it should be. How does this differ from the recent Russia situation? Trump and his gang can do anything they want and no one has the means to stop them. How did we get here?
835
@Paul Raffeld
It is both illegal and unconstitutional...if it is a democrat doing it.
104
@Paul Raffeld - Don’t blame Trump. The blame falls squarely at the feet of the craven Republicans in Congress who refuse to provide any checks on Trump’s unethical and illegal actions. Republican voters who would chase out any honest Republicans are also to blame as is Rupert Murdoch and Fox News for essentially brainwashing 40-45% of our electorate. Well, maybe not as those individuals should take accountability for their own ignorance and gullibility.
52
@Paul Raffeld The means exist it is called impeachment. They keep providing more and more evidence and grounds to justify impeachment. Just do it for God's sake.
32
“We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation, which we have a right to do,”
So Giuliani expects cooperation from a foreign government to investigate Trumps rivals, but refuses to cooperate with an investigation of the US Congress.
Does anybody see HYPOCRISY on this?
977
@MS "we’re meddling in an investigation" that I recall is one of the examples from the definition of Obstruction of Justice. Meddling aka obstruction!
60
@MS
And this, despite a denial:
Former Ukrainian official Vitaliy Kasko:
“There was no pressure from anyone from the U.S. to close cases against Zlochevsky,” Kasko said in an interview. “It was shelved by Ukrainian prosecutors in 2014 and through 2015.”
1
i thought it was the funniest thing Mr. Giuliani has said in ages
2
In over 45 years of reading the NYT, through the highs and lows of the Pentagon Papers, Watergate, Bert Lance, Iran-Contra, Whitewater, WMD, the torture memos etc., I have never read something as bad as the following, "...the remarkable scene of a lawyer for the president of the United States pressing a foreign government to pursue investigations that Mr. Trump’s allies hope could help him in his re-election campaign." The Republican party has blown through the guardrails of acceptable conduct these past 2 1/2 years to put its political life far above the country. The rest of us are the only thing standing between our democracy and a brisk walk towards authoritarianism. The 2020 election isn't about voting against "Trump", it's voting against a looming and dramatic change in our body politic.
1542
@Randy: its been a nice 246 year run for the American Republic. Certainly lasted much longer than Lord Cornwallis had surely thought as he looked back from his evacuation Frigate. P.S. Maga hat wearers understood exactly 0% of the above.
202
@Randy
It's been a particularly bad week for me and the Republican Party. My ability to be shocked has been stretched to the point it may never regain it's elasticity.
1. Trump flouting convention and sending Rudi aka LapDog to Ukraine to try and go after our nation's leaders for political score. Check.
2. TWO high school boys, with their lives ahead of them, and a woman in a synagogue made battle-field-like sacrifices to save the lives of others…..and our President joked about gun violence in a hateful rally.
3. In fact, said hateful rally shooting rant was about gunning down desperate migrants, at our border, with their children for the sin of what? Wanting to be safe and be able to work? I can't get the image of the Statue of Liberty being handed an Uzi to mow down the huddled masses.
4. It is now illegal in Ohio for an 11-year old girl to get an abortion after she was raped. Not theoretically—but an actual child pregnant and stuck. In Georgia, you can't abort a deformed fetus. you can't abort if you've been raped….and if you travel to another state, you are deemed a criminal. God help anyone who dares to miscarry and has to rely on the observably dubious judgment of the local police or hospital staff to not presume your criminality.
It's too much. It's just too much. Our democracy is shattering—and all Republicans care about is the economy, for now, fueled by debt, is doing well.
412
@Randy Looming? It's a reality (if we know what reality is anymore).
39
“We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation, which we have a right to do,” Mr. Giuliani said...
Rudy gives new meaning to the expression
?How can you tell when a lawyer is lying?
Their lips are moving
6
Let me get this straight, after spending all of his first term in office defending himself against accusations that his campaign colluded w/ Russia to win the election, Trump approves of his personal lawyer traveling to the Ukraine to actively encourage a foreign government to dig up dirt on his political opponents and fellow countrymen? It's really something else to see the POTUS' stupidity, moral bankruptcy and shamelessness at play here. Apparently in the age of Trump, as long as it's not illegal, any overtly immoral action is fair game. Giuliani, like Trump and the rest of his cronies, has no decency.
23
and remember, "if the President does it, it's not a crime." - Dick Nixon, R, CA
"We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation"
How is that not Exhibit A in his obstruction of justice case?
20
Does Gulianni's salary come from our tax dollars? Also if so, why?
7
This is precisely why we need checks and balances. Which authority is going to check an out-of-control executive branch? Who exactly is going to stop the expansion of Trump's egotistical power grab? For months, we expected Mueller would finally put Trump and his gang of criminals on ice. Now that Mueller has passed the baton to Congress, what exactly is Congress going to do? We American voters keep looking around, as if some superhero is going to emerge out of nowhere to save us. But the Avengers aren't coming, folks. This is our job. It is now up to ordinary citizens to stop this man from ruining the democratic structure of our government. How are we going to do this? 2020 is a long time coming, and in the meantime, Giuliani could make dozens of trips like this, to every country in the world, putting pressure on them to hand over intel about political opponents. It's a blatant abuse of power, so who is going to put a stop to it now, before it's too late?
13
Meanwhile security clearances were issues outside of normal process to Jared Kushner having given inaccurate information on his application. Foreign agents have nearly penetrated security at Trump's Florida home. Trump uses unencrypted media devices.
This is as ugly and partisan as anything in U.S. history and Trump supporters just wave and nod.
17
I suggest everyone see VICE, the film of Cheney's life, the man kicked out by Yale for drinking, because he was the evidence of this aggressive (us only) type of Republican bullying. I think Giuliani now shows his true character. Disgusting, and aggressive. Also, agree with Chris. This man will violate whatever law to carry on for Trump.
9
He's still around, lurking in the shadows. Nosferatu, for sure.
Seriously.
4
Remember when Giuliani fought the Mafia as DA in Manhattan? So, was that just opportunism, too, to establish his own reputation? Or has he progressively lost his mind, and his sense of morality, as he has aged? This conduct is not the “hired gun” conduct of a lawyer representing an unpopular client; it’s crossing over to the side of the devil.
8
Is there anyone in the Republican party with a conscience left? Politicians, cabinet officials, lawyers, voters . . . anyone? If so, where are you?
15
Rest assured that Putin would like to have Ukraine implicated in this Russia mess; it serves his ends too. Even if Trump and Putin did not discuss this (conspiracy) it’s part of their continuing collusion.
But I bet they did discuss it. Would an impeachment inquiry open the translator’s notes?
10
Have we really come to the place where the President of the United States uses his implicit leverage over foreign countries to force investigations to occur into his political rivals. Investigations that his own FBI doesn't view as appropriate. All done i broad daylight. Just... pause. And think about where this puts us as a country. We are no longer legitimate.
23
So, basically, Guiliani has admitted that he is trying to obstruct justice in the Ukraine, on behalf of the sitting President of the United States. This administration has been trying to normalize some really awful behavior. The rest of our government, i.e. the legislative and judicial branches, need to start utilizing the constitutional checks and balances that were created to stop such behavior from continuing.
13
Ok, so now he's seeking information on a potential opponent from a foreign entity in BROAD DAYLIGHT? This is looking desperate. Gerrymandering isn't enough? Can't the GOP win solely based on their candidates and policies?
Also, isn't this "harassment" of a candidate's family? How is this different from DJT Jr.? Of course, sane people know it's different because DJT Jr. has given misleading statements here and there.
6
We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation.
This statement says everything you need to know about the current administration. Sure it might look bad, and Trump basically knows what Rudy is doing, so he says, but how can any American support this insanity.
13
America is having a dangerous affair with authoritarianism.
14
The military industrial complex wants Trump to stay in power. You think?
4
Rudy is far past the stage where his law license should be permanently revoked. One has to question how honest a Federal lawyer he actually was. This man seems to know nothing of any ethics even the weak ethics that the law profession claims to have.,
Many people raise questions about Trump's mental condition, why no concern over Rudy's? He definitely has gone off the rails. In the 50s he would have definitely been a subject of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. The weird old man is more frightening than Trump.
I suspect Rudy's being kept on a leash around Trump is to make Trump seem half ways sane.
11
Please explain how this is patriotic? The President is soliciting a foreign country to undermine his own Justice Department and the US Congress. And, his lawyer is openly announcing that he is doing it for the purpose of undermining an lawful investigation. I thought that was the definition of obstructing justice.
Am I missing something?
And what will Trump owe this foreign nation when this is over?
But the funny thing is we may be saved by a foreign comedian that got himself elected. Who knows? He may be smart enough to know better than tie his fate to Dopey Don.
15
... all this OUT IN THE VERY OPEN?
for all eyes to see & all ears to hear.
have they even heard anything like it before?
little strokes fell big oaks.
CORRUPTION has struck very deep
and the oak of democracy is tipping.
where are the masses out in the streets
to at least EASE ITS FALL ...
and then plant a fresh tree,
for a much better society?
4
@°julia eden The masses are watching NetFlix while the republic burns. You get what you deserve.
Giuliani is asking a foreign government to investigate a political rivals son, so as to tremendously benefit his client the US President, as opposed to benefiting the United States. Is that not treason?
13
No longer conspiring to do it.
Just doing it.
7
It's time we take a page from the South Korean citizens playbook. Remember what happened when it was discovered that their president was involved in corruption? They protested and marched by the hundreds of thousands, demanding her ouster. They did not stop until their goal was reached.
We are witness to the most corrupt administration in our history. Watching as they systematically dismantle our democracy. We need to speak up.
14
So now that it's "no collusion and fully exonerated" the Trump re-election mob is operating right out in the open in a full court press to use every dirty, lawless and corrupt means necessary to maintain it's sullied grip on this country. We truly are in a constitutional crisis. I'm terrified the ability to stop this will take years and the damage being done will be irreversible.
9
As Vice President, Joe Biden used his influence to stop a Ukrainian investigation that could have uncovered graft and corruption associated with his son’s influence peddling scheme.
Thankfully, the Ukrainians had already restarted the investigation even before Giuliani got involved.
But this is only the beginning. Joe Biden’s recent statements suggest that he may also be unofficially working to promote Chinese interests in the U.S.
Thorough, wide-ranging counter-intelligence investigations are needed to get to the bottom of this.
Until then, the question will always be, “What’s Biden hidin’?
1
Mr. Giuliani described that work as related to emergency management consulting, but Mr. Fuks said in an interview that he hired Mr. Giuliani as “a lobbyist for Kharkiv and Ukraine” to lure American investors. “This is stated in the contract.”
Perhaps Rudy's business cards should say: "For A Few Dollars More" or "A Fist Full of Dollars".
Either one is appropos for describing the utter debasement of the character and integrity he once possessed.
2
“We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation, which we have a right to do,”
"Meddling in an investigation" used to be called obstruction of justice. Was that changed whilst I slept last night?
9
Giuliani is one of the better mayors our City has had since I've lived here....with Bloomberg probably edging him out. One side of me is glad to see him getting dirt on the opposition as they have done to the Trump Administration. Another side of me says......is anyone in DC a mature adult? Or are they all clowns? Would be better if they ALL spent their time passing legislation to help the American Citizens on healthcare, infrastructure etc....etc....etc....
2
And why is this not obstruction? If due process were possible at this stage of the game, we could actually lock this one up.
11
The Trump administration is bullying a country that needs U.S. support against Russian military aggression and cannot risk offending the American president by refusing even such a stunningly thuggish command. By what criteria does Giuliani claim the "right" to be "meddling in an investigation"? The investigator already did a big favor for Trump by smearing U.S. ambassador Marie Yovanovitch with corruption charges - "without evidence," according to Foreign Policy magazine - because Trump wanted her out after hearing rumors that she had criticized him in a private conversation. I'm not certain if this is more frightening or humiliating,
60
@Randolph Which is why for Giuliani to say "This isn't foreign policy" is laughable.
2
Who's paying Giuliani, and how much is he being paid?
40
As he is Trump's personal attorney I certainly hope he is being paid by the Trump campaign or from Trump's personal funds (fat chance) and not taxpayer dollars.. Also who is investigating how Guiliani knew (and smirking about it on TV) beforehand that something big was coming out on Hillary prior to the Comey press conference? inside info from the NY FBI? They're not all "angry Democrats that hate Trump."
5
@mocha So Rudy gets to go to Ukraine for the President on his behalf, pretty sure he'd be using military air. He says his sole obligation now is to his sole client, Trump. Who do you THINK is paying Giuliani?
4
@mocha Me thinks he does it for all for fun.
Didn't trump just call for John Kerry's prosecution for "violating the Logan Act"? Typical day in our new America.
37
Has Giuliani registerd with the U.S. government as a foreign agent given his efforts to work on behalf of Ukraine?
41
@William I agree he should have to register, but he is not working for the Ukraine, he is working for Trump. And this is where the problem comes in...he will do anything to push Trump along, he has sold out America already to do this.
6
This is likely to fly over the heads of the average US voter whose attention span for the long investigation by Mueller has dwindled. Trump will use the "evidence" that Rudy gathers to further stir up his angry base, claiming that he's been victimized by a Democrat plot and calling for investigations, prosecutions. It is a circus of deliberate confusion and unending deceit.
41
@blgreenie - Yes, you're probably right. What's going on here is probably an attempt to invent a new version of the "What about Hillary's e-mails?" get-out-of-jail-free card.
2
For some reason, this doesn't seem right.
14
What happened to Rudy Giuliani?
He used to be America's Mayor. Lauded by David Letterman, back in the day, only Michael Moore would say a negative word against him.
Now, he has sold his soul to a stone cold liar. I don't know what is more obscene, Kellyanne Conway's "alternative facts" or Giuliani's "the truth is not the truth."
When you can't answer questions without devolving into gob-smacking Orwellian gibberish, that should be a sign to get a new job.
Trump truly does sully everyone he touches. Why is Giuliani willing to overshadow his persona as the 9/11 hero with the Trumpian sleaze? Why?
29
Those of us who lived in New York in the years during and following his reign as mayor knew he was no hero.
8
Rudy's stint as America's mayor was based on the same kind of lies as Trump's successful businessman image. Remember that Rudy had figured out a way to personally profit, to the tune of millions of dollars, from the 9-11 attack before the ash had settled at ground zero, by setting up a phony security consulting firm. This is who he is.
2
@Ann, I think what Giuliani has shown over the years is that what he really cares about is Giuliani. He was a Democrat who volunteered for RFK's campaign in '68 and was a Democratic Party committeeman on Long Island in the 1960's. He switched his party affiliation to Independent when he was being recruited for a job by the Ford administration. One month after Reagan was elected, he switched his affiliation to Republican and was named an Associate AG for the Reagan Administration. In 1989, 1993, and 1997, he ran as a fusion candidate for mayor of both the Republican and Liberal Parties, shunning the Conservative Party. But then, when he ran for president in 2008, all of a sudden he was courting the conservatives for their endorsement, hoping that Republicans would see him as being more conservative than McCain. It's no surprise that he has now morphed himself into a Trump supporter. He seems to be willing to take whatever position he thinks is best for Giuliani.
2
Rudy Giuliani needs to read
§ 110.20 Prohibition on contributions, donations, expenditures, independent expenditures, and disbursements by foreign nationals
(b)Contributions and donations by foreign nationals in connection with elections. A foreign national shall not, directly or indirectly, make a contribution or a donation of money or other thing of value, or expressly or impliedly promise to make a contribution or a donation, in connection with any Federal, State, or local election.
(c)Contributions and donations by foreign nationals to political committees and organizations of political parties. A foreign national shall not, directly or indirectly, make a contribution or donation to:
(1) A political committee of a political party, including a national party committee, a national congressional campaign committee, or a State, district, or local party committee, including a non-Federal account of a State, district, or local party committee, or
(2) An organization of a political party whether or not the organization is a political committee under 11 CFR 100.5.
(g)Solicitation, acceptance, or receipt of contributions and donations from foreign nationals. No person shall knowingly solicit, accept, or receive from a foreign national any contribution or donation prohibited by paragraphs (b) through (d) of this section.
It looks like Mr. Parnas IS violating campaign finance laws, and Rudy is complicit.
27
Well, many Americans who voted and will be voting for Mr. T don’t care legality, empathy, decency or honesty. They want to get high watching Reality Show: court fights and related TV/SNS coverages are good things for them to chew and yell at. Then they go out to vote!
@Joe From Boston @LuLuRoche WELL DONE, JOE.
Working with a foreign government to try influence the outcome of a presidential election.
Now where have I heard that before?
64
To any Republicans that are out there, are you honestly ok with any of this? Is this conservative to you? I don't know what the end game is here or recognize what your party has become. Do you truly believe Democrats pose such an existential threat to the country that they must be kept from power by any means necessary? I'm an expat and the world cannot believe their eyes and ears of what is happening in America. Where does this end for you?
84
trump, trump, trump. I want to know why more is not discussed about how the Republican party is allowing this stuff to continue. Mitch McConnell is beyond ecstatic watching trump take all the heat and covering for The Party while it takes over and consolidates its power and acquires an iron grip on the United States of America.
31
@Chris Well seen and well said.
“We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation, which we have a right to do,” Mr. Giuliani said... In Trumpworld obstruction of justice is just fine.
40
I just don’t think our system of law and order and constitutional governance can keep up with the immense tidal wave of corruption that a presidential and senatorial partnership can generate. I never thought I’d see this but this is beyond what the framers’ imagined. It’s breathtaking and ominous.
40
Trump has never in his life been held accountable for his actions. Why should he expect anything to be different now?
The 2020 election is the fork in the road. Either we use it to fix and then strengthen our democracy; or we say goodbye to our beloved country as we grew up knowing it. It will be forever changed.
26
The old people from the left to the right are compete the foreign country money/ aka blood money. It's time to send them to the retirement home and let the younger generation to lead this country .
@Lle Asleep at the wheel if you don’t see it’s the right.
There is a good reason why George Washington didn't trust political parties, and today's Republican Party is a shining example of why he shouldn't have. The retention of power isn't everything, it's the only thing! In desperate times, such as any time they are threatened with losing power, they turn their back on the Constitution and wrap themselves in the flag. Gerrymandering, denying people the right to vote; giving the President the power of the purse; whatever it takes, whatever can be gotten away with.
17
Was not familiar with Rudolph's federal law enforcement background. Good to know. Locating his Russian contacts and resurrecting his illicit black-market-practicing pals should not be too difficult. Happy to know that Rudolph, as always, is looking after the interests of white, one-percent, American Manafortian criminals.
12
So why does Rudy Giuliani's planned visit to the Ukraine to dig up some dirt on Joe Biden's son, look like the same fishing trip Trump associates took while looking to undermine the Democratic nominee's election campaign in 2016?
Meanwhile American taxpayers are footing the bill.
Russia, if you are listening...
22
I am beyond disgusted that the 9/11 Mayor of NYC has turned on his country. In the end, he is doing more long term damage to weaken our Democrocy than those terrorists did on that day. This insanity must be stopped and our Democrocy and Constituion protected. Republicans will go down in history with a stain on their reputations that will have their families suffering the shameful consequences of being related to them. The rest of us will be suffering from and mourning our Democrocies weakened state at best and it's demise at the worst. Shame... VOTE
18
This is the same Rudy Giuliani that led a mob of white drunken and gun flashing cops against then Mayor David Dinkins. Remember why they were summoned by the 9/11 savior? Rudy was incensed that Dinkins had created the Civilian Complaint Review Board and planing to use the Mollen Commission Report to bring attention to Rudy’s old office, the Southern District Attorney’s Office, for a pattern of dismissing cases involving police misconduct that violated people of color’s civil rights.
And we act surprised now? We’re incensed now with this Ukraine business? Talk to people of color in NYC who bore witness, first hand, to Rudy’s encroachment of our civil rights.
We will never forget.
22
the word TREASON just kind of pops up in this conversation. actively working with a foreign government to affect domestic policies and politics. The GOP is no longer an american institution - it is a transnational criminal organization
39
First Trump asked the Russians to investigate Hillary, and then said he was joking. Turns out they took him at his word. But I just can’t seem to wrap my head around this. The attorney for the President of the United States of America is asking a another nation to conduct an investigation of its own people? This is not viewed as a criminal act? In a tsunami of alarming activities over the past 3 years, this deserves a 72-pt type headline. And no one — Congress, DOJ, FBI, DHS among them — is doing anything to stop this? How about revoke Guiliani’s passport, for starters?
If it wasn’t clear before, it certainly is now that this administration is overthrowing 243 years of democracy. This is the real coup, and it’s happening in broad daylight, and millions of MAGA hat wearing Americans support it. They support one-party rule, so long as it’s their party. They are begging for a dictatorship. In America. What they don’t realize is, once democracy is gone, you can never get it back.
35
Why is this clown not in jail yet? He is conspiring with a foreign power out in the open, for Pete's sake. Have we, as a nation, lost all sense decency?
27
New book coming soon:
"The Comedian and the Clown".
It will be dedicated to "The Biggest Loser".
5
Completely and utterly disgusting.
11
So we're gonna have a Giuliani Dossier?
7
this is just so-o-o-o wrong!!!
And, it is probably illegal. It appears there are no limits to what these people will do to support a madman.
20
Chicago has a large Ukrainian neighborhood.
I would like to hear what they think.
2
To all of you who are asking "what has happened to (the honorable?!) Rudy Giuliani"? - ask any New Yorker. Better yet, check out this John Oliver piece from one year ago when the brilliant ex-prosecutor had just jumped into the Trump dumpster fire:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXQuto1fMp4 He was never what he "played on TV".
5
Rudolph W. Giuliani is morphing into Don Rickles
10
This crew is as scary as being trapped in a room along with monkeys wielding loaded revolvers. Distraction politics gone off the deep end!
7
The only saving grace here is that it's the clown, Giuliani with zero credibility doing the "investigation."
4
Rudy is going to find just as much information as the president*’s investigators in Hawaii found when he was trying to “prove” that President Obama was born in Kenya. Sad.
11
Best case scenario: this doddering old fool gets lost in the airport and is never heard from again.
20
@Captain, that scenario seems unlikely. I imagine a smiling Rudy spending his days selling ice cream from a cart outside the Kiev Zoo, communicating by gesture until he picks up a little of the language.
1
This is so corrupt. We have become desensitized to corruption during this Presidency and at this point it is perfectly clear that Trump could kill someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and face no consequences.
9
Hypocrisy defined.
August 16th, 2018
@realDonaldTrump
“While Steele shopped the document to multiple media outlets, he also asked for help with a RUSSIAN Oligarch.” In other words, they were colluding with Russia!
May 9th, 2019
NY Times
Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, is encouraging Ukraine to wade further into sensitive political issues in the United States...
Deja Vu Translation: Ukraine, if you are listening...
10
It is sickening to watch Rudy Giuliani sell his soul piece-by-piece to Der Trumpenfuhrer. The man who once prosecuted gangsters is now the consigliere to the Gangster-in-Chief. Rudy has come a long way since 9/11. More's the pity.
9
The very fact that Trump is asking for a foreign government to help him get info on Biden for the 2020 election is a crime.
Trump is a traitor.
Vote straight Blue no matter who!
29
It is so depressing to read the news in the morning. I shake my head in shame and wonder what has become of the Republican Party I was once a member of, many, many, many years ago.
20
If a foreign agent worked to destroy everything positive about America...about who the majority of us are, and what we hold sacred...they could not execute a plan, better, or more efficiently than Donald Trump and his GOP enablers.
27
The corruption has overtaken our democracy...we are in serious trouble. Is there an honest leader that can stop this?
10
Isn’t this directly asking for aid from a foreign country to interfere in our elections?
And to help obstruct Justice?
Isn’t this about as Illegal as you can possibly get?
Congress? Anyone...?
Who is going to stop this?
33
Are lawyers held to professional conduct standards and is it appropriate for Giuliani's credentials to be placed under review.
Not only this latest news, but also the trolling and utterances of dubious claims.
10
@Steve Rudy missed the CLE (Continuing Legal Education) courses required of licensed, practicing attorneys... especially the Ethics portion! Beyond shameful!
1
I fear that this is just the beginning of how bad Trump and his administration is going to get. They will do everything imaginable to smear and destroy their political opponents. And anyone who thinks Trump leaves the WH in 2020, after he loses the presidential election, is delusional. He has no plans to leave. Democrats need to start fighting this war, with every tool we have, or our democracy is done.
26
@Raydeohed. This is the first time in my life that I can see any wisdom in owning a gun. — for defense against a government led by a fraudulent President.
3
Worse than simply smearing and destroying political opponents is using the machinery of the U.S. government to do it. Trump has already asked the Attorney General to investigate and prosecute John Kerry.
Who is paying for this trip? And who will pay for his entourage: security, press, assistants, staff?
Giuliani? Trump? Trump Re-Election Campaign? RNC? 501(c)(4) social organizations? US taxpayers? Putin?
Will he meet with the pro-Russian invaders in Eastern Ukraine? Collecting evidence or sharing US intelligence with those who might silence the sources of the Steele dossier?
Elicit support for Trump 2020 in exchange for what?
16
This, of course, will not be challenged by Congressional Republicans. This, of course, is why Biden is wrong about working with Republicans.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
13
@GD, I am also concerned about Biden working with Republicans. But any Democratic candidate needs to do things that might pull away Republican and Republican-leaning voters from Trump. You need to get elected before you can begin to bring us back to normality.
4
This time around it'll be open collusion with a foreign power to manipulate our elections. This is beyond sickening. The GOP is failing this country and its people. We must move forward with bipartisan impeachment proceedings.
14
So for this election Trump is trying to collude with Ukraine? Sending over his personal lawyer to get dirt on his US political opponents from pro-Putin faction in the Ukraine.
Probably no coincidence that the Trump administration just recalled our ambassador to the Ukraine right before Giuliani’s mission. No witnesses!
Trump impeded SC Mueller’s investigation into Paul Manafort by giving the Ukraine government military equipment for letting Manafort’s associate Mr. Kilimnik to return to Russia.
Grifter in Chief!
12
So Rudy Ghouliani is going to Ukraine seeking a foreign country's help in defeating the Democrats in 2020??? I wonder how many Russians he intends to meet with while he's there.
Obviously Trump is more confident than ever he can still fool some of the people all of the time.
11
I believe Richard Steele is available for contract work..
3
Peter Schweizer, author of the “Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends,” wrote that "In December 2013 Hunter Biden, son of Joe Biden, travels with his father aboard Air Force Two to Beijing...Shortly after they return to the U.S., Hunter Biden’s firm receives a $1 billion private equity deal from the Chinese government. It later gets increased to $1.5 billion."
So, not just Ukraine. We need an investigation to see if there is collusion with China. Let us do this proactively.
Mueller is available.
3
This appears to be a blatant violation of the 1890 Logan Act.
6
Rudy should have retired and not be heard from awhile ago.
His ego is enormous and he is still trying to part of the conversation.
He thought he was entitled to become President after 9/11, When the American people decided otherwise he decided to radically depart from his character for when he managed the SDNY. Long are the days gone when he took down the Mafia bosses.
He is trying now to become one those bosses but tearing democracy down at the same time.
Despicable may be too nice a word for what this no-talent fool is doing.
13
Joe Biden and his son belong in jail for what they did. Justice will not be denied.
2
@Adam, You have proof that Joe Biden was involved in this deal? His son is NOT running for President.
2
@Adam
Donald trump and his son belong in jail for what they did. Justice will not be denied.
4
Mr. Giuliani is Trump's personal attorney. He is not a government employee. How do these actions not violate the Logan Act, which bars private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments?
34
@Ken L Apparently there is no "stop" sign connected with ugliness. As to the Logan Act, however, we need to be careful as to the legal interpretation of "negotiating." I suspect there are ways around it, and am sure Mr Giuliani is hard at work on it.
1
Were he to stay there, Ukraine's loss would be our gain.
19
Mr. Rudolp Giuliani's actions grow more repulsive and in denial of facts every month he serves as Mr. Trump's attorney. Yes- Mr. Giuliani, back in late 2018 stated something along the lines that "the truth is not the Truth" Real attorneys establish fact patterns and establish a trail that leads to identification of the truth. Real attorneys do not try to impede proper and fully lawful investigations. Law school students know this. Very sad, Mr. Giuliani.
16
@InstructorJohn
Did Giuliani register as a foreign agent?
"Mr. Fuks said in an interview that he hired Mr. Giuliani as “a lobbyist for Kharkiv and Ukraine” to lure American investors. 'This is stated in the contract.'"
5
It's the Trump playbook--go on offense. If Biden is going to attack Trump, then Trump will "counter punch" by smearing him as having rid of a Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating a business deal his namesake son was involved in. Remember how Trump neutered the women's issue by bringing the four women who charged Bill Clinton with sexual abuse to the debate. It's the same play--immoral equivalence. And sadly, it worked then and may work in 2020 if Biden is the nominee. Caveat emptor: Another reason for the Democrats to avoid falling into the 2016 trap of nominating an establishment centrist, Wall Street [aka of the 1 percent] candidate will loads of baggage.
7
@Paul Wortman: how i do hope
they heed your word of advice!
@Paul Wortman, I didn't know that Biden's son was running for President. Do you have evidence that Joe Biden was involved?
1
@JerryV He is credibly reported to have intervened to get the Ukrainian prosecutor fired when he was Vice President.
Giuliani is asking Ukraine to offer free election help to assist Trump’s 2020 re-election. Why isn’t he being arrested and imprisoned? This is the latest example of the Trump regime’s collusion with foreign powers to impact our elections.
17
What has been/will be offered to Ukraine in return for this...meddling?
Meddling in an investigation sounds like meddling in an election to me. Which reminds me -
“If it hadn’t been for those meddling kids...”
7
Well, if this doesn't just beat it all. I thought there wasn't anything they could do that would shock me anymore, maybe something worse, but just a worse version of the usual dreadfulness.
But this is so outrageous as to be literally unbelievable. Were it not for the deadly seriousness of how close we are to becoming a dictatorship, I'd suspect this article was a parody.
My God, we are in so much more trouble than I think we realize.
35
Sounds like colluding with a foreign power to influence an election.
33
This president and his administration is the worse in US history.
But this, folks, has to be the lowest point yet, in this administration.
I truly cannot believe what I am reading.
This is not name calling, bullying, or lying.
This is the administration actively seeking help from Russia to bury a political opponent.
Let that sink in.
Even his base has to be cringing.
18
@confounded:
why should they cringe? they might think:
"those at the top know what they're doing."
and that might be just fine with them.
new strategies and tactics to keep in power.
[we've been reading about so many dictators
and their dealings around the globe these days
that we might begin to get used to lawlessness.]
It's Game of Thrones with less attractive players. Both sure to end in flames, scores of dead heroes and villains, a land in complete disarray, and lots of bodies of innocents.
This is seriously not television, it's real life, folks. Concerned citizens can rewrite the scenario -- it's time stop watching the horror and rise up to reclaim our rights, our country, and our morals.
15
@Jennie Chien
and do what? November 2020 is too far away.
Theoretically Mayor Giuliani's role was to bring some adult supervision to the mess at the White House. Except I can't think of an incident he was involved with where he didn't simply make things crazier. Sometimes President Trump and his minions do things that seem crazy and/or evil to most of us but at least have the logic of appealing in some way to his diehard followers in the red hats. Except with this one I can't see how this might even work in that way—this is just plain nuts.
There's been a lot of consideration in recent days of the possibility of impeaching the President. But I also think we’re coming to the sobering realization that removing him from office is very unlikely. So our strategy as a nation has to be to somehow survive until our next president is inaugurated in January of 2021.
7
So it’s not OK to investigate Trump’s grown children, but it’s OK to investigate the grown son of his opponent?
9
People here seem to be missing the point.
Biden, who has had well publicized financial problems within the past 15 years (supposedly even being offered help, which he declined, by then-president Obama), was in a position to assist Hunter Biden's career. Hunter Biden was the beneficiary of at least two very major deals involving Ukraine and China, deals that he likely would not have been able to close if Joe Biden was not the vice president. Substitute "Trump" for Biden in the preceding sentence and you can see why this raises red flags.
While Ukraine is not a competitor or adversary of the US, China most certainly is, despite Joe Biden's assertion that China does not pose any kind of realistic threat to American hegemony. There is broad agreement that the US is engaged in a very serious rivalry with China, one that could even end in war, particularly as China leaps ahead in setting up 5G networks and creates AI technology that it disseminates throughout the world. Given this situation, if Trump had minimized the threat posed by China, would everyone be forgiving it in the same way that they have done for Joe Biden? Or instead, would congress and the press insist on investigating Trump and his family for sacrificing US national security in order to personally benefit from a quid pro quo with China?
1
Biden isn’t the President, Trump is. That’s a huge difference.
7
@Middleman MD: Actually, the point is that Trump associates are once again manufacturing dirt on political opponents with the help of eastern European governments.
Giuliani is not an intelligence investigator. He's not going to access the state archives or talk to local banking authorities. Whatever contacts he has now or establishes in the Ukraine are likely to be high-level politicians and oligarchs, people with the power to supply him with any "evidence" he asks for. And they, without doubt, will be expecting something in return from Trump.
If Trump/Giuliani were serious about uncovering unethical or criminal behavior by Biden and his son, they'd hire investigators who'd quietly and skillfully research these charges before announcing this trip with all the hoopla. All they've done so far is arrange a high profile dog and pony show through the Ukraine.
Even if nothing at all is revealed by this stunt, the damage will have been done. With the help of Fox News and other rightwing media, the Trump base will always think of Biden's Ukraine scandal. No matter what's found (or not found), Trump will smear Biden and his son in tweets, at rallies, and in media interviews with this forever. And that, more than anything else, is the point.
3
@Middleman MD
Sorry. But anybody who can mix up Biden with Trump is "missing the point".
7
Having just watched a segment on CNN on situational ethics, maybe we should apply real ethics to this situation; with the president, we appointed a special prosecutor, a Republican with high standards, to investigate.
If there are questions about a possible presidential candidate, Biden, his son, we should appoint a Democrat with similar high standards, as a special prosecutor to investigate.
Putting Ukraine, whose eastern side seems to already be under Russian occupation/threat/pressure, in an untenable position of having to either aid or oppose a U.S. presidential attorney, is indeed foreign policy- and an insult to the millions of Ukrainians who just want to live in peace and determine their own destiny.
And frankly, we need to appoint Dan Coates (sp?) to head a bipartisan commission to oversee, monitor all our election systems. Now.
3
@Jo Williams Trump would never do this! and would never leave it alone. He would micromanage every minute by tweet. He ruins all who work for him and hires corrupt or corruptible people.
3
You’re probably right. But wouldn’t it be refreshing if both Parties had one standard- for all. CNN’s videos of situational changing standards...not our finest hours. Ethical amnesia seems epidemic.
Isn't this activity by the unrestrained Giuliani tantamount to the exercise of foreign policy meddling by an unauthorized private citizen, and therefore unlawful? When you are the "private attorney " for a U.S. President seeking information directly from a foreign government for his own upcoming election purposes, how can that be disentangled from the foreign policy implications? For starters, non-cooperation by that foreign government is fraught with potential adverse consequences for that country exerted by that U.S.President.
12
The House committees should subpoena Giuliani. Everything he has said in public is fair game and no longer covered by attorney-client privilege. He couldn't help but disclose more incriminating details and it would help provide evidence of all the illegal on-goings we already suspect.
15
This request for Ukraine to meddle in our election is only a concern as long as we have American voters who believe what comes out of Trump's surrogates. The rest of us need to get out and VOTE to save our democracy!
10
A lifetime ago, when he was making his bones in the U.S. Attorney's Office, and I was making my way through college and charting my own course to law school, Rudolph Giuliani was someone I respected. Thirty-plus years later, I know not whether I was simply horribly, horribly wrong about him way back when or he has fully descended into madness.
It matters not I suppose. All that matters to me is that every time I see his face now, the first words that come to mind are "partisan hack" and "an embarrassment". Note to self: never challenge Mr. Giuliani to a limbo contest. There is little likelihood that you will be able to go as low as he will, which skill he demonstrates every time he is dispatched on a "personal hit mission" by the Prevaricator-in-Chief.
23
I think he was honorable as US Attorney but perhaps we was just an opportunist who saw the right side of the law as the best play at the time. He has indeed descended into a cesspool of deceit and perhaps crime. So sad.
3
@Steve Cohen Fair point. You may very well be right.
@Adam Kenny, whenever I see his face I think "that's a skit-eating grin."
1
Irony alert: The President claims "no collusion" after two years of the Mueller investigation, then starts colluding with another foreign government to help his election chances.
31
This is not just politics as some people are saying here. It’s basically about the President using the power of the state (US) to influence a foreign country to help himself. It is plain and simple, an abuse of power that violates the constitution. It needs a response from the other branches of government and/or the people. We are being harmed and should be able to respond legally to this. Just because he is doing it in plain sight doesn’t mean it’s legal.
219
The President endorses an employee’s efforts to discover if he can collude with a foreign government for partisan Republican advantage. Trump’s anti-democratic excesses are limitless.
142
@JALH the Trump administration also just recalled our ambassador to Ukraine before sending Giuliani on his mission to find or create dirt on Trump opponents.
3
@JALH - Have you slept on US government behavior for the last 50 years? Nothing is the least bit new here, whether you feel a huge need to demean Trump or not.
1
Am not yet so cynical as to take Mr. Giuliani’s actions to be normal. He’s the private attorney for the President which makes his extra governmental actions all the more insidious. Doing this in the open is thumbing his and POTUS’s nose at normality. IMHO, it’s the facts that demean the President more than commentary on them.
1
It’s repulsive to see not only what GOP turned into, but what they think of the rest of the world. While Ukraine has been fighting Russia pretty much single handily Trump administration decided just now it even exists. Loyalty runs both ways and I think everyone is clear on where Trump’s loyalty lyes. He should have thought about Ukraine when he almost dismantled NATO. While Americans might not care about Trump’s infatuation with Putin, Eastern Europe does. Bottom line, no one trusts Trump unless they have something on him. Giuliani’s efforts are doomed.
44
@Anna true, but there are pro-Putin factions in the Ukraine government. The Trump administration was able to get the Ukraine government to let Manafort associate Mr. Kilimnik return to Russia before Mueller could get to him! And Trump also recently recalled our Ukraine ambassador. Something bad is up!
4
@Anna I can only hope that you are right...
1
I guess it is legal now for US lawyers and US politicians to ask a foreign government to help in winning elections. Apparently what Trump, and his campaign, did, in 2016, was all perfectly legal. This is how they interpreted the Mueller Report. And, the Republican Party is fine with this.
You no longer have a "constitutional crisis", you are well past that. It is only a matter of time that the US will be a one party state. Recent talks with Putin and Xi are giving Trump the information to do just that.
119
... and do recall, this is how Putin and his oligarchs gradually took power in post-Soviet Russia.
10
@Nick Metrowsky This wouldn't have happened if people had noticed the difference between Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump that was staring them right in the face. But, unfortunately, prior to the election, some people said things like:
"...as polarizing Mr. Trump is; so is Ms. Clinton. Both campaigners went out their way to play upon the divisions and created new ones. Another reason why both have negative approval ratings close and over 60%.
"...With Clinton's election; this country will actually become even more polarized. Her campaign, and her supporters, did a great job taking a divided country; and divided it some more, so she can win. They belittled men, Millennials, called 47% of the countries citizen "deplorable", attacked Christians and Catholics for their beliefs, anyone who opposed Clinton were called sexists and worse. Ms. Clinton scorched Earth to win at all costs, will get her the White House, but a far more broken country than what we had 15 months ago..."
Yes, that was you. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/23/us/politics/donald-trump-protest-san-jose.html
3
@Nick Metrowsky
Trump needs to be reminded that he is a "public servant", not a King.
And our spineless Republican Congress needs to be reminded that they serve the American people, not Donald Trump.
Both Trump and the GOP Congress need to be reminded that they took an OATH promising to uphold and protect our Constitution, NOT TRAMPLE on it.
2
Benedict Arnold. One brave state Attorney General should empanel a grand jury to determine whether Giuliani and Trump are interfering in the franchise guaranteed to the citizens of that state.
61
The donald and his team certainly have learned much in those undocumented phone calls to Putin. There's a reason why we learn that they have chatted from the Kremlin and not from the WH.
37
What Giuliani is going to do is imply that there will be benefits to Ukraine if the investigations to turn up evidence. Reminds me of the "yellow cake" letter that got us into the Iraq war. Giuliani is trying to incentivize the investigators.
38
So, is Rudy’s interference in this a Logan Act violation? Because trump sure seems bent on preventing something like that from happening!
Unless, of course, it’s to his benefit. Then full steam ahead.
29
This is like an advertising campaign jigged up to feed Trump’s base and distract the rest of us. At this point, I’d like Mueller to schedule an interview with 60 Minutes and just talk for a few hours.
Meanwhile, while these crooks think their clever refrain about investigating the investigators will delight the Republicans, our nation is suffering. How about doing something so children aren’t being murdered at school?
88
Am I reading this right? Giuliani is encouraging foreign investigators, in a country known to suffer from significant corruption, to spin investigations in ‘his client’s’ favor, possibly holding out carrots and sticks to them in the process? And we’re supposed to trust their conclusions over our own?
113
@Aaron
No. The correct reading is that Biden and the Obama admin put the kibosh on the corruption investigation as it would have painted their actions in a negative light.
@Aaron Sure, just like Trump would like us all to trust Putin's intelligence over our own.
3
@Aaron
More importantly, after two years of vehemently denying "collusion with a foreign government" to benefit his campaign, we are supposed to just ALLOW Trump to boldly get away with the same thing?
This country has gone nuts.
Trump is out of control.
Rudy is full blown crazy.
Congress is a disgrace.
1
Rudy's trip puts the lie to Republican claims that "It's over" and "case closed". They continue to work with foreign governments to dig up dirt on their political opposition.
If they're hoping that the country will "move on" from the Mueller report, moves like this will have the opposite effect. Asking foreign governments to help in Trump's election is exactly what Mueller said they did for 2016. Doing the same for 2020 gives even more credibility and urgency to Mueller's report.
The only good news is that Guiliani is taking the lead on this effort. Whenever he tries to "help", he does the opposite.
God speed, Rudy!
68
@David Yes, I totally agree! But there is more good news with this! Guiliani is leaving the country! Hooray.
1
@David I would like to know why the Trump administration recalled our ambassador to the Ukraine before Rudy’s trip.
1
@JCR Great questions! Maybe, since they've decided to go full-on crazy, they don't want a sane person in the room contradicting Rudy?
Apparently, it's a response to pressure from conservative media (e.g. Faux Newz) and Don Jr. (who's father says he hates politics). They're peddling conspiracy theories about links between U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and anti-corruption probes. Trump is decidedly pro-corruption, so you can see why she had to go.
Good question for Richard Burr, the only Republican with a spine, who has subpoenaed Jr. to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
For election 2016, Team Trump had their conversations with foreign entities in secret. For election 2020, they're doing it right out in the open.
Old dogs CAN learn new tricks.
57
@D Price As Rudi says: if it's done right out in the open, it can't be a crime. More legal advice from a luny tune.
3
So brazen. What's next, live streaming it on Facebook?
37
On the one hand, Giuliani is free to claim that Ukrainian prosecutors aided the Clinton campaign by uncovering evidence that Paul Manafort was being paid under the table by deposed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.
On the other hand, Manafort was duly convicted in an American court by an American jury for violating American tax and bank fraud laws.
Is there any doubt the Trump base will conveniently forget this trivial detail and conclude once again that the Clintons (and the Democrats) are the embodiment of dirty, corrupt, win-at-all-costs campaigning?
32
@Ned Ludd Also in exchange for military equipment from the US, the Ukraine government let Mr. Kilimnik return to Russia before Special Counsel Mueller could speak with him. Mueller indicted Kilimnik who is now safely back I need Russia.
Why do report anything said by Trump, his Admin, & his hangers-on credulously?
When Rudy says that his effort in Ukraine isn’t foreign policy, he is wrong. Attempting to get Hunter Biden investigated is clearly an attempt the influence the election -that’s foreign policy. Can you imagine if the US did something similar to affect a foreign election? (We probably have, and probably in Central America)
19
Hey, Ukraine, are you listening. You can keep Rudy as long as you like. He needs a good assisted living home as he lost his moral and ethical compass long ago.
118
@Dan - you beat me to it. They have lost their minds, what little was there. Incredulous. Pathetic even. Agree that they can keep Nosferatu, someone I used to admire.
5
@Dan Thanks for a great chuckle! Good one!
5
I love watching those who attempted this coup againt Trump freak out over the fact that attention is being turned to its corrupt origins. The threat to our Democracy comes from the people who have no use for it when they lose. The left seeks to destroy everything it doesn't control.
4
@TPierre Changstien Investigations into the executive branch by a special prosecutor (a Republican) appointed by Republicans is not a coup attempt and the suggestion that it is is irresponsible and pushes the country closer to a civil conflict (or war).
Having no use for Democracy looks something like declaring you will not except the results of an election that you think your will lose. Having a use for Democracy is electing a majority to the House of Representatives to provide much needed oversight to a lawless administration.
30
@TPierre Changstien: The threat to our democracy comes from a reality TV game show host who has NO prior experience in elected office, who has NO idea how the federal government works, who has NO idea what he legally can and cannot do as President, who has NO familiarity with the Constitution (which he swore to "preserve, protect, and defend," who does not care to learn the job, who uses the influence of his office to profit his private businesses, and who made it clear from the beginning of his campaign that he cares about NOTHING but himself. Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to the survival of the United State. If you have even an ounce of patriotism in your benighted soul, you need to stop trolling for this tyrant. Impeach Trump NOW!
4
Giuliani needs to brush up on his Goethe. Maybe the pinky ring is the mark of Mephistopheles for his aging TV fans.
9
@T. Rivers
Good analogy, but methinks that Giuliani is under the Faust of Trump.
1
As a renowned Middle East “expert”, it makes sense that Giuliani should be taking a trip to the Ukraine to present his strategic views on the region and offer his expertise to a local Ukrainian Jewish group who are sponsoring his “paid trip.” Netanyahu, the PM of the only “democracy” in the Middle East, who’s salivating for a US/ Iran war, is clearly paying back. Let’s be clear: Israel and its supporters want Trump re-elected in order to complete the takeover of the occupied territories. American working families will continue to suffer from the geniuses in control of our country.
23
Rudy is an admitted traitor in his pronouncement that it was okay to get info on a political opponent from the Russians to influence the presidential election. And now he’s openly seeking more dirt from a foreign government at he behest of our own traitorous Trump. Does anyone care? Is this not an act of treason?
43
To all the righteous Republicans out there, Rudy got wealthy as a security consultant, not lawyer, by using his influence and tying it to September 11, 2001. If anyone thinks he's guided by ethics, just remember that fact.
35
@merchantofchaos
Lawyers + Ethics = Does not Compute / Error
@merchantofchaos 9/11 was a photo op for him. He couldn't get enough airtime. I was disgusted then and now.
3
Where is the American Bar Association? We can leave it to a future Justice Dept. to determine whether his flagrant, Trump-style borderline criminality is prosecutable (what exactly is he, a private citizen, offering the government of Ukraine in exchange for their “cooperation”?); for now, the Bar has an ethical responsibility to sanction Giuliani and prevent him from practicing law.
37
@Michael
The ABA is a glorified trade union and has absolutely no power to sanction ethical violations.
The ABA does not license attorneys; state licensing bodies do that. But other than that, right on!
1
So what will the US Government give Ukraine in exchange for Trump-favorable information?
Trump’s obstruction in the Russia election interference continues. It is quite brazen.
Sorry but any even faintly Trump-favorable information from Ukraine’s government should be viewed as tainted.
18
Can someone please explain to me how this is not an abuse of power?
53
He’s betting that in the Upside Down where his supporters live, this makes sense and is perfectly in order.
7
Rudy can do what he wants, but there had better not be a dime of taxpayer money spent on this trip, including for Secret Service protection. He is no more a representative of the United States than Trump's hairdresser, nail guy, medicine carrier, or fixer.
38
@Steve
You think he's flying commercial? Seriously? Of course it's on our dime he's doing dear leader's work. This is official business.
1
Seems to take away all Republican argument against the dossier (which they themselves began).
15
To my republican friends - Is this what you really want for our country? The president's personal lawyer traveling to a foreign country to encourage them to investigate Americans for blatantly political benefit?
30
@JFM
In a word, yes this is what they want. Because we now know that this is perfectly OK. It's ok with his other personal attorney barr and all of the senate thinks it's ok too because they've turned mute on any given subject where bone spurs is concerned.
1
@JFM You still have Republican friends?
3
@Tom
Yeah, what's up with that? I certainly don't associate with R's any more than I have to. And includes family members.
2
A new level of scumbaggary, thanks Giuliani. When will it be enough for the GOP to say we need to pull the plug on Trump?
I looked at the RNC website, no way to email them directly to speak my mind? By design?
20
There were already many reasons why Biden should not be the Democratic nominee (the fact that he’s basically a Republican fraudulently running on the D ticket being one of them). Now we have yet another. Go Warren! (And, go home Biden!)
8
@EB Perhaps the Trump team will do "opposition research" on Warren and all the other "fake" Democrats as well. And perhaps, as with his Obama "research" in Hawaii, you'll be amazed at what they are finding.
Not to state the obvious but meddling in investigations is exactly why the President is accused of obstruction of justice. It is illegal. And given even the limited information available to the public, Trump appears to be guilty of at least 5 felony charges. Possibly more.
I guess we can stop wondering about one of those twelve ongoing investigations. Rudy Giuliani certainly fits the description. What a terrible lawyer.
14
"Meddling in an investigation" Sounds like more obstruction to me. Can't wait for trump to shoot someone on 5th Ave, what will they call that? Crowd control?
23
@M Vitelli Thanks for a much needed chuckle in this sad state of presidential affairs.
Well, well - it's all getting very interesting.
After his "if you are listening, Russia - please release her 30,000 emails " ; and now to Ukraine "please release Biden files" - POTUS is sure living on a political edge.
I guess we can expect a 2021 demand for investigation into how he colluded with Ukraine - to win a reelection.
On a larger note - Democrats asked for this with Russia collusion claims.
And should he lose in 2020 - as an ex POTUS - he could make life of a newly elected Biden - very difficult.
So, there is something to look to in 2021 - regardless of whether he wins or loses.
2
How did Democrats ask for this? This is collusion writ large.
2
Not sad. Horrifying. The disintegration of a former man. A shell of incompetence now.
15
Impeachment is not just for illegal behavior, it’s for anything that Congress deems inappropriate for a President. And I can’t think of many more things more inappropriate than a President of the United States investigating people in a foreign country for personal and political gain at home.
Beyond all the crimes of the President, this man is just an embarrassment to the United States of America. Is there anyone more un-American than Donald Trump?
20
@Greg Gearn
Um. . . no, not even close. High crimes and misdemeanors, not “anything that Congress deems inappropriate for a President.” Where do people get these ideas?
Giuliani: “”I’m asking them to do an investigation ... because that information will be very, very helpful to my client””
“Their motivation is to try to ... potentially to damage Mr. Biden, the early front-runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.”
This is very clearly “a lawyer for the president of the United States pressing a foreign government to pursue investigations that Mr. Trump’s allies hope could help him in his re-election campaign."
Can someone please tell me why this is NOT a conspiracy with a foreign entity to influence our election? Isn’t that illegal? Or does doing it in plain sight make it only “improper”? What am I missing?
And if it is somehow legal, what does it say that it is now ok for the president to openly engage in improper behavior.
36
So now the Trump administration is openly trying to collude with a foreign government to undermine our election.
23
@Don Why not? If something works it would be sensible to keep doing it. Legality has no place in this administration.
10
I really hope Joe Biden is prepared for the kind of election that is coming. The trump crime family, along with its propaganda arm Faux News, is going to do what ever they think they have to, in order to win. This is going to make Nixon and his Plumbers operation look like a grade school production.
Giuliani has already said that foreign interference in our election is okay if it help his side. What is trump going to promise these leaders if they help him? What parts of the United States will be auctioned off in exchange for interference that benefits trump's side?
Trump accused Secretary Kerry of interference in talking with Iran. Of course he got the facts wrong. But you will notice that trump ALWAYS accuses others of deeds that he, himself undertakes.
We have one more election to get it right. 2020 will be the tipping point between autocracy and democracy. Anyone sitting out this election, your non-involvement will be seen by future generations as treason.
22
Yet another Republican invitation to a foreign power to meddle in American politics and foreign policy. One cannot forget the Republican invitation to Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress about the negotiations with Iran in 2015. Or, of course, Trump's invitation to Russia to hack and publish Clinton's e-mails. Giuliani has even said he sees no problem with accepting election "help" from foreign powers. Compromising and seditious behavior is apparently just fine if it serves Republican interests.
19
“...that information will be very, very helpful to my client,”
“My only client is the president of the United States.”
We already know that Trump doesn’t pay.
Where are the funds coming from to pay Giuliani?
I hope our tax dollars are not paying for this client’s attorney.
16
So a 2 year investigation that details levels of wrongdoing, and has its conclusion made nebulous by confusing a criminal investigation with a non criminal description (collusion), is over. Oh! And Obstruction evidence that has clearly crossed the line to charge a "average" citizen is also over
But a criminal investigation that resulted in jail time (Paul Manafort), is not over?
Only in America.
4
@Bob
Note that the first thing they're doing is colluding with another foreign power here. Never mind that they're obligating themselves to that foreign power by doing so.
It's not a crime after all to favor another country so you can get dirt on fellow Americans! Hey, everybody does it! Amirite?
6
Yeah, and the Manafort prosecutions actually resulted in guilty pleas by the accused. What is Rudy 9/11 going to do, find evidence that Manafort was lying when he admitted his guilt to the court?
“We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation, which we have a right to do,”
I'm no lawyer but isn't that obstruction of justice, which is a crime?
24
This guy sold his soul to the devil. In the past he created ground breaking ideas to put the heads of the evil mafia behind bars for life but then jumped ship and became the lawyer for the modern day pol. mafia, Trump.
He is very much like a Benedict Arnold, a beloved American war hero who sold his country down the drain.
48
In related news, Trump has ordered his other personal attorney, Barr, to sign up for the Bezos moon flight in order to look for evidence that Obama and/of Hillary broke the law. “I judge know there is a smoking gun someplace, and we will spare no expense (taxpayer dollars, of course!) to create it!” Oops, I meant find it!
33
Treason by any name , this man is a disgrace.
72
@Donald
Personally I think it's pretty treasonous to accuse a someone of treason when the factual record shows the complete opposite. What are you so afraid of? If there's nothing in Ukraine to support his position, then he will return home empty handed. But if there is, and it proves that the counterintel program run against Trump was indeed corrupt, why would you not want to know this?
1
@TPierre Changstien
Ukraine's government is corrupt. Guiliani knows that anything produced by a Ukrainian investigation will be ginned up, or at least suspect. He's essentially promising favorable treatment by a Trump-led United States in exchange for dirt on the Democrat he most fears running against -- regardless of whether that dirt has any basis in fact.
4
@Donald YES.
@T Pierre Changstien
The "factual record" confers disgrace upon Giuliani and Trump. If there's nothing in the Ukraine to support Trump, Giuliani will still return with buckets of allegations and full pockets. Is he hoping to be the next Attorney General? What should we be afraid of? Liars and the people who promote them.
6
These are the people who are sick of investigations, right? And didn't they just tell us that cavorting with Russians is perfectly fine?
33
Rudy Giuliani is a Dorian Gray’s portrait of the decay inside the Republican Party. On one level we have the persistent Fox News propaganda; the daily trumpeting of “American Greatness” with seamless spangled chyrons and sparkling digital eagles squawking “This is so! Some of us are great!”
...And then we have Rudy. A once well-regraded U.S. attorney, then later “America’s Mayor” on 9/11. Once he entered the private sector and essentially capitalized on the fallout of 9/11 via his “security consulting business” we saw a man embrace fulsomely the dictates of the warped Republican worldview as packaged by Fox News.
And now, after being steeped in that dazzling dross for almost two decades, we have before us a wild-eyed blatherer. A gobbledygook generator. A complete nonsense-talker with zero scruples.
Perhaps that was always the real Rudy Giuliani? Or maybe all the dirt and grime from “cleaning up New York’s streets” has returned and karmically manifested itself in this, his final incarnation.
79
@Dudesworth
I never fell into that “America’s Mayor” bit (what did G do that any Mayor wouldn’t have done?), in fact I was dismayed from the beginning about the immediate ramping up and creation of all sorts of new agencies with nationalistic sounding names; ie, Homeland Security. Then came the invasion of Iraq. So little protest then, and now everyone is so amazed by the corruption. Bush vs Gore and the 9/11 response laid a lot of the groundwork. Citizens United clinched it.
7
Trump, the lying crook, has also surrounded himself with other lying crooks. Giuliani was responsible for trumps buildings not meeting code requirements. Most of giuliani commissioners all wound up in jail. He was the most crooked mayor the city has ever had.
38
"It's sad to see what has happened to Rudy Giuliani."- Adam Schiff
38
What's even more amazing is they are not even trying to hide this crude shakedown. "Nice little country ya got there. We'd hate to see you lose your foreign aid."
69
This is actually the very thing that Joe Biden said to Ukraine. If they didn't fire the prosecutor investigating Burisma, Joe would withdraw $1 billion in loan guarantees to Ukraine. Joe's son was on the BOD of Burisma when Biden demanded the prosecutor be fired.
4
@John
False claim. Ukraine's investigation of Burisma had been closed down between 2014-2015, long before the Veep got involved. Joe's influence had no relation to anything involving his son Hunter.
The beginning of the end for Joe Biden... folks forget in Giuliani
the opposition is dealing with the man that took down John Gotti
2
@SMPH - that was then. Lets not forget there is no John Gotti in this story line, other than our Chief Executive who wants to act like him.
8
@SMPH
He prosecuted many mobsters. I believe Gotti was taken down by Robert Mueller.
5
@SMPH: Giuiluani is the new Bruce Cutler.
2
Don Trump and his consigliere are openly attempting to engage a foreign power to discredit Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Here are the (politi)facts: 1. In 2016 Biden did threaten, openly, to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees to Ukraine unless prosecutor general Viktor Shokin was fired. 2. Shokin was fired was an overwhelming and nonpartisan vote of the Ukrainian legislature. 3. Hunter Biden was a director of Ukraine energy giant Burisma (owned by oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, who was a Viktor F. Yanukovych crony).
That is what Rudy has to work with.
What Rudy won't include in the report is that Christine LeGarde and other EU leaders also were pushing for Shokin's ouster because Shokin WASN'T doing ANYTHING to root out corruption in the aftermath of the utterly corrupt and blatantly pro-Russian Yanukovych administration. In fact, Shokin was actively blocking reform efforts.
I can't wait to read Bill Barr's "summary" of the Biden investigation. God knows we will never see the full report.
Can this get any more Kafkaesque?
63
@Scott Brown Please, cite your source that lends credence to your claims.
Otherwise they are as meaningless as a Trump promise.
2
@Scott Brown
Yeah, it would be more Kaftaesque if the origins or purpose were a mystery.
The only mystery here is how low Republicans are willing to go, consorting with foreign powers to smear fellow Americans.
10
@Dan
As posted by someone else earlier:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-07/timeline-in-ukraine-probe-casts-doubt-on-giuliani-s-biden-claim
3
Giuliani is an embarrassment to himself, his family and his profession. He has become a laughing stock and will only be remembered as Trump’s toady.
36
@Trento Cloz
As an Italian, he's an embarrassment on that front too.
2
The transition from America's mayor to hapless clown is all but complete. There's no fool like and old fool. Don't feel sorry for him because he shot both feet.
30
What is this? Spy vs. Spy now live from the late Mad Magazine?
19
The real reason for Giuliani's trip is probably to scout out another hot eastern European woman for trump. Melania is starting to look a little long in the tooth.
23
Rudy also rationalized marrying his second cousin, so there's that.
26
The man sold his soul to the devil.
In the past, he came up with ground breaking methods to put the evil heads of the mafia behind bars for life. He was a real hero like the Federal Tax guy who put Capone behind bars.
He wasted all of that by becoming the legal muscle behind the new mafia king pin, Trump, who wants to be King or dictator.
Giuliani is like a Benedict Arnold, a national hero who sold his country down the river.
8
Bill Clinton walked across the tarmac and said good morning to Loretta Lynch. The GOP went berserk.
54
America, as we knew it is over. The champion of self governance, the nation that gave birth to Rosa Parks and Neil Armstrong, shielded Einstein and sent man to the moon. Finally those that decry immigrants have achieved the ultimate. Creative minds and courageous souls will no longer want to move here, given a choice.
14
Mr. Giuliani is going to a foreign country to "ask" them to get dirt on potential Trump adversaries. What does that "ask" look like?
Promises of future 'deals' with lots of American money pouring into Ukrainian businesses? And what is in it personally for Rudy?
This smells like a dirty deal, an offer you 'can't refuse' mafia type shakedown.
But if a Republican does it? If it helps Trump? Then no big deal folks, move along please.
I guess Rudy is Trump's new dirty fixer now that Michael Cohen is in jail.
76
@Elizabeth
rudy is the "show", the "work" will be done by his entourage behind the scenes.
Fortunately President-Elect Zelensky is a professional comedian. He'll need a good sense of humor when the Giuliani-Trump circus rolls into town.
30
Giuliani is the perfect choice to travel to Ukraine and gin up stories about Hunter Biden. After all, Giuliani has had self-serving dealings himself with the Ukrainians, as has a sizable percentage of Trump's coterie of criminals. So he will know what rocks to turn over, having done so for his own purposes several times already.
25
Doesn't the president of the United States have anything better to do?
17
Hey, Democrats. Take off the gloves. Trump and his party are playing hardball. Stop playing softball. Get real. Save us!
43
Grandstanding posing as investigation. In today's world, a jailhouse lawyer could conduct such an inquiry via the internet. But, why deny the good people of Ukraine the opportunity to see in person the man who made a fool of himself in the Imelda Marcos prosecution while U.S. Attorney and has trouble making a complete sentence.
A character better suited for Jimmy Breslin's "The Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight," than an emissary for the Republican Party.
16
Wow. There is no depth these people will go to. Everytime I think I have been shocked by the administration I get surprised again. How do you Americans live with this...EVERY...SINGLE...DAY.
38
Rudy Giuliani’s trip to Ukraine to dig dirt on Trump’s opponents in the Russia probe might just be a wild goose chase.
Whether Ukraine leaked Paul Manafort’s ledger files to US media that led to his resignation as Trump’s campaign chairman in 2016 deserves to be investigated, even though they helped prove his greed and venalty.
Unlike Russia, Ukraine is a US ally and there’s nothing wrong with a transnational criminal investigation.
That Giuliani lets Victoria Toensing come along and that he is hellbent on uncovering Hunter Biden’s business dealing in Ukraine to undermine Joe Biden’s bid for nomination, show how desperate the Trump base is to help him win next year.
Toensing said she wants to visit prosecutor general Yuri Lutsenk while in Ukraine to whip up support for an investigation into whether Ukraine sought to meddle in the 2016 election in favour of Hillary Clinton.
Toensing and her husband, Joseph diGenova are – in the eyes of legal experts with integrity – publicity seekers with nothing to lose. They run a “boutique law practice” together and are mediocre lawyers with “dubious legal credentials.” But they are “heavyweights” in conspiracy theories.
They got Trump’s attention thanks to their regular appearances on Fox News, playing the role of Trump’s lawyers on TV, lambasting Mueller and his investigation, and making shabby and misleading comments.
It’s so sad to have a leader who runs the country like directing a reality TV show.
19
We are really going to miss the things that actually *did* make America great once Trump, Giuliani, Barr and their ilk destroy them for good.
13
@Bill Camarda
Barr was never that good people were asking him to resign some 20 odd years ago because of his conflicts. Both are errand boys for bone spurs. Nothing more.
4
Who is paying for this trip? How is he traveling?
18
I looked at this story and my reaction was one of sheer disgust. I can’t believe how the Trump administration has so soiled this country to the point where it’s almost impossible to be proud of it any longer.
I don’t care what dirt they may find on Biden or any other Democratic candidate. Nothing will change my vote because the alternative is too terrible to imagine.
29
Giuliani has "a right" to meddle in a foreign investigation, huh? Boy, he sure jumped down the slippery slope with both feet, didn't he? It's hard to believe I ever thought this arrogant husk of a person to be respectable. So, did someone tell Trump's new "fixer" that taking bullets for Trump doesn't always end up so well? You'd think he'd had the sense to quit while he was ahead.
21
Giuliani's going to Ukraine, Pompeo has already been there, and don't think one doesn't have to do with other... hhttps://www.stripes.com/news/pompeo-wants-nato-to-take-actions-to-help-ukraine-1.574607
6
It takes a snake to know a slither.
I hate to sound cynical but in 2019, the primary value of what either side is doing depends upon how it looks on television over the next 17 months. When it’s all said and done, who will end up looking like Nixon...not during Watergate...but rather during the Nixon vs Kennedy debates.
An impeachment will NOT remove Trump from office because there simply aren’t enough votes in the Senate. Trump “says” it’s “over” but one thing is clear...we are learning more and more about him every day. If Trump is continually creating a mother lode of material for late-night comedy, theoretically he should also be creating an endless supply of material for skillful opposition candidates to use while they also present their alternative vision from a policy standpoint.
I say...keep pounding away at him. It’s what he’d be doing.
18
The facts are the that Biden pledged US financial assistance to forward fracking in the Ukraine, his son Hunter was put on the board of directors of the largest private gas company, when that gas company was threatened with investigation for corruption, Biden threatened Poroshenko with the prospect of bankrupting the country if the prosecutor was not fired in 6 hours. Of course he complied.
7
It's mind boggling, but not surprising, that nearly every comment here completely ignores the facts about Biden's role in getting this prosecutor fired.
2
Time for the NY Bar Association to decide if Giuliani's "meddling" is legal and if it warrants his disbarment.
43
Oh come on, essentially the precedent has been set if they solicit foreign countries to interfere in the US election out in the open it isn't against the law. The fact that Trump has never shown outrage by the meddling, dismissed every agencies documented proof, did nothing to prevent a future occurrence, even stood by Putin and agreed with him is more than enough information to impeach him. Due to his and the Administration's ineptness the citizens of this country are now faced with conflicts globally, isolated from allies and the soapbox of lies Trump states on a daily basis does not cease. The people who need to hear the truth are not given it by their Representatives. The Florida panhandle, the farmers in Georgia and the Midwest, those victims of wildfires in California need to wake and and realize they are Trump's political pawns.....blame the Democrats. Puerto Rico was not given 90 billion, it's still devastated.
10
The key word here is meddling.
Giuliani is not an emissary of the USA, so anything he does has to be looked at as meddling in the affairs of this government, for which he should be locked up.
29
Using a foreign power for the domestic political purpose of manufacturing “evidence” against a political opponent is an impeachable offense. Again, where is anyone with any decency, patriotism, and moral fiber within the Republican Party who will speak up and protect us from the menace to our national security and our democratic republic residing in the White House?
26
@J. The Republicans are too busy protecting the President to bother protecting our country.
5
Guliani is suddenly qualified to conduct international diplomacy? Everyone in Trump's administration seems either wildly unqualified or criminally complicit. Guliani is both.
27
Are my taxes paying for this? I do wonder how much of the people's money is being spent to re-elect Trump. His claim that voters could trust him because he used his own money for his campaign and wasn't beholden to anyone, looks even more ludicrous now that we see his financial situation.
As many of these guys brag, only a fool risks his own money.
12
Donald Trump’s so-called campaign for re-election just veered off into farce.
9
Trumps MO
Just brazenly do it in plan sight. More than half the country will be appalled..and sit on their hands, or complain to their friends who will yawn and say, “ calm down, everything will be OK” as the democracy crumples before pure eyes. And the other 35% , who think DJT a god like creature, will applaud and say “ the swamp always did this, he’s just brave and bold enough to tell us the truth. I’m so proud of MY president”
McConnell will say on the Senate floor, “ now is NOT the time to talk about a his personal lawyers actions, the president is like any other citizen , he has rights” , as the thought bubble above his head thinks “ at least one, and maybe two more Supreme Court seats”
Traitors!
30
One question: Are WE the people paying for this trip?
11
OK, a couple of comment here: (1) Looks like the crazy-train just pulled in and now Rudy is on it with Donald and the rest of the Republican apologists that are in the Senate and House; (2) this looks like Rudy is asking a foreign government to meddle in the next election. Isn’t that against the law of the US?
You guys are in big trouble if you let this stuff happen.
24
The GOP's treasonous behavior and power grab will continue until stopped. The will of the people has to step up to save Democracy from these lunatics. The media must step up and call for jailing these traitors every minute of every day and that includes Fox News. If the media doesn't step up you can kiss them goodbye when the dictators take over. This is about the survival of what's left of our freedom.
8
I can see the Fox News Special Report now. They’re obviously scared of Biden.
9
"Mr. Trump has called attention to the scrutiny of Mr. Biden’s son Hunter Biden, and to questions about the former vice president’s involvement in the removal of a Ukrainian prosecutor whose office had authority over investigations of the oligarch whose company paid Hunter Biden."
Of course the Times has no questions about this. The hypocrisy boggles the imagination.
5
@Daphne What, exactly, is there to cover? This sounds like another "Seth Rich" Fox News conspiracy. If there's something to report, the Times will report it. Meanwhile there are 500,000 demonstrably proven lies and corrupt actions by the current President to cover.
Great time to cut financial deals . The proceeds may be needed for future intrigue.
2
In 2016 campaign Trump conspired with a foreign power. It resulted in his unlikely election to President. It seems smart to send Giuliani to get that ball rolling again for 2020. Trump can’t afford to lose the protections of the presidency.
11
I would have very much liked this article to include information regarding who is paying for this trip. Giuliani is Trump's "personal" lawyer, right? So, certainly the US taxpayers are not footing this bill. Giuliani is most certainly not representing the US, he is representing an individual, Donald Trump, who just happens to be the President of the United States? Um, my head is reeling. Oliver Stone, are you working on the screenplay yet?
31
Is this not blatant use of a foreign government to meddle in the 2020 election? All the right-wing talking heads on TV and radio are running the country, pounding away at the Democrats and in particular, Biden, because he is ahead in the polls right now and needs to be taken down. No wonder why we are in such a mess with North Korea, Iran, Russia, nothing to say of our Allies.
15
Giuliani had a good reputation. As for president’s representative pressuring a foreign government, goodness when will we decided that we have had enough? As for the Ukraine president, be where promises made by this administration flip-flop very easily. We have a new concepts in this country alternative facts. In the old days they used to be called lies.
4
"Sewing the seeds of Discontent"...In my 82 years,I have never been so
lost in a state of Lament in the consciousness that there could be so much
Active and personal sabotage by "elected Servants" actively "Sewing the
seeds of Discontent".
12
Why if it necessary to discredit Mueller's investigation if, as Trump said, there was "no collusion, no obstruction"?
15
Well, it worked before, but of course we are denying it, so why not repeat for affect?
It reminds me of someone accused of robbing a bank who proves he's not a bank robber by robbing a convenience store.
"See! I'm not a bank robber. I would never do that."
12
“We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation". Now we are back to "it depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is."
Where are the cries of outrage from the moralists in the GOP?
Who needs Assange anymore when you have Giuliani?
10
Wasn't the president just whining about John Kerry violating the Logan Act?
Mr. Giuliani needs to stay in his lane playing lawyer on Fox News instead of making diplomatic and political efforts to encourage foreign meddling in our elections.
12
Hmm, is this a Logan Act violation like Trump is accusing Kerry of doing?
But intermediaries for Mr. Giuliani worked to organize meetings with people who they believed would have insights into the incoming Zelensky administration and the investigations in which Mr. Giuliani was interested. And in recent days, Mr. Giuliani reached out through intermediaries to request a meeting with Mr. Zelensky, he said, adding, “It’s not confirmed yet.”
5
To save American democracy, blue state secession from the union will end up being the only solution. We must extricate ourselves from Trumpism, even if it means breaking away.
7
@Nelson Schmitz I completely agree.
The marriage cannot be saved. Don't even want to try.
1
@Nelson Schmitz
And we then can return all the red states to native americans.
1
I suspect that the government of Ukraine will be smart enough to not shack up with Russia’s closest ally.
3
Collusion in plain sight is still collusion!
190
@Bfrank4fr
Trump as usual has muddied the water by referring to a collusion, which implies a contract ,and henceforth everyone continued to refer to collusion. The correct term is collaboration which implies co-operation with the enemy which is what actually ocurred.
8
Ukraine makes America great again. Gotta love it. Where’s the popcorn.
23
So Mitch was wrong when he said the Mueller affair was over? Now Trump wants to prolong it.
62
Wait 10 minutes
2
So let me get this straight, Giuliani will be using tax payers’ money to get dirt on a political opponent? How is this different from authoritarian regimes around the world that use their position of power and control of the government purse to oppress opposition?
275
@M. M. L. trump stiffs his employees but how is taxpayer money used here?
3
Imagine, just imagine if Obama had done this?
It doesn’t matter who wins in 2020, Trump will not leave the Oval Office. Dictators don’t honor elections.
The humor in all this (if there is any) is that Trump is actually worried about Biden. That small glimmer of worry makes me smile.
79
@denise
I agree with you that Trump won't leave. What will your response/reaction be?
3
Thanks, Denise...That makes me smile,too. That Mueller has No Guile...
also makes Me smile. It's nice to have You out there helping me Smile!
2
This isn't even about politics for people like Giuliani. It's just a game, it's about the game.
Democracies are lost, and people might get killed. But, boy! Was that fun, or what?!
32
@ImagineMoments
It's not a game. It's about power, and the lust for power, at any price.
41
So Giuliani is going to Ukraine as a representative of the President Of The United States to use whatever pressure that implies to get * cough * evidence of wrongdoing by political opponents. Smells a lot like a bad cop planting evidence and looks a lot like blackmail, extortion and treason. But if he tells everyone on Fox he’s doing it, it’s ok? #notok.
240
@Rose ...and we taxpayers are paying for this trip??!
1
Boy Rudolph Giuliani had us fooled, didn’t he? That guy who seemed so all American, leading New York after 9/11?
Now we just see a puppet on strings being pulled by Donald J. Trump.
69
@MIMA Giuliani never had me fooled. I'm a former resident of NYC; I lived there for 31 years. I loathed the guy then and I loathe him now. He's always been a liar and a grifter, just like the liar and grifter-in-chief.
18
@MIMA
Nope, not a puppet: He had to abandon his honor himself.
Contrast this to Don McGahn, who at least had the stuff to say "No" now and then.
1
Nonsense, Giuliani is going there to drum up potential business for himself.
9
Trump SOP. Nurtured in the cradle of Roy Cohn, rather than operate on the level of numbers or policy, the weapon of choice was smear, innuendo, rumor, gossip, planted stories, killed stories. Every move was from the gutter which spawned Trump.
It's time for the good guys to pull out the smear vault on Trump. I'd give a lot for Keith Schiller to flip.
25
@The year of GOP ethic cleansing-2020
While I would also like to see Schiller spill the beans also, it's just not going to happen. Trump pays Schiller a hefty 6 figure 'salary' for who knows what and Schiller isn't going to give up the hand that feeds him.
Rudy learned a lot from the gangsters, thugs, and organized crime members that he prosecuted when he was a US Attorney. He learned how to be a mob attorney.
160
Trump is using the Presidency to leverage foreign states to destroy domestic political opponents. The Founders would impeach and convict this traitorous scoundrel in a New York minute.
472
@David And conviction would have meant being taken out back and shot at dawn.
14
It would be easier to simply put together an Instagram photo album of the hundreds of faces of girls, boys, and women uncomfortably squirming as Creepy Joe gave them unwanted “massages” and neck kisses.
I think a lot of the ministrations must have pressured other governments, as Trump and his group do now, but the plate and se I think a lot of them ministration’s must have pressured other governments, as Trump and his group do now, but bl
Frank: you think the Trump re-election campaign won’t do that too? The more Biden rises in the polls the smearier Trump will get.
3
@Frank. Trump sleeps with prostitutes and uses campaign money to silence them. Equally irrelevant to this article.
7
This is a new low in Republican smear campaigns.
25
Giuliani is disgusting. Going abroad to find dirt on private American citizens as Trump’s Attorney and then undoubtedly using any likely tainted information to create a diversion and a pseudo scandal in right wing media. It is typical Trump and undermines public confidence in our democracy and raises false equivalency. It is inappropriate and another indication of how aberrant the Trump administration and Giuliani are. It is all about scandals and epithets.
62
@IN
"private American citizens"
Joe Biden, though, right? You are no longer a private citizen if you're running for the US Presidency.
Joe, by his own admission, has interfered in Ukrainian politics and its justice system.
It's difficult to see how research into this is not fair game. How is this any different from the DNC paying Fusion GPS to compile a dossier on Trump-Russia dealings?
1
Desperation setting in. “Attack” on Don Jr leads to unraveling? One hopes.
19
Go Rudy! Let’s get to the bottom of this sad comedy. Help Mr. Barr put corrupt bureaucrats in jail. And, please, start with James Comey.
2
@Virginia Grandma
You have to be kidding
Send the FBI or someone with credibility, but Rudy is not the person. Now the GOP has their own "witch hunt."
5
@Virginia Grandma
Yes, Giuliani, Barr, and trump, three real American heroes. Glad they had the wisdom to stay out of the military draft back in the 60's-70's so we have the benefit of their great leadership today...
3
@Virginia Grandma-You mean our compromised AG Mr. Barr? The one who's former law firm represents Alfa Bank, a Russian criminal cartel-controlled and led by Mikahil Fridman with ties to Putin and Manafort? Barr received dividends from Vector Group, also suspected of laundering money via New York real estate--including Trump Organization holdings; a popular destination for Russian kelptocrats' money. Vector Group CEO Howard Lorber introduced Trump to the Moscow real estate market in the 1990’s. Barr is worth $20 million and has money in Deutsch Bank; a bank fined for illicit practices and rumored to be a conduit for Russian money laundering. Despite this--Barr was awarded the AG role without being fully vetted and has repeatedly lied as AG. Surely this is enough to concern patriotic Americans.
https://www.newsweek.com/so-many-conflicts-so-little-time-1396435
8
In an article on the impeachment question, Giuliani uses the term ‘slithering’ to describe Democrats’ efforts to thwart Trump. Yet that is the best adjective possible for his Ukrainian ploy.
47
So I guess it is collusion with Ukraine now supporting Trump's 2020 campaign.
36
A new low for Trump, this attorney and Trump.
They’re going to create “fake news” because they’re scared of Biden.
27
Apparently VP Biden threatened to pull a $1.8 Billion loan to the Ukraine if the prosecutor continued to investigate Hunter Biden who somehow got a high paying job with the Ukrainian gas company.
2
@MCH Evidence? DId Joe Biden have any actual say over this loan? Why would his son fear prosecutors in Ukraine? Want to pursue facts perhaps?
16
Interesting. Evidence?
3
@MCH Possibly, but don't believe everything you hear from people with a track record of lying to you constantly. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-07/timeline-in-ukraine-probe-casts-doubt-on-giuliani-s-biden-claim
3
Trump must be deathly afraid of a Joe Biden Presidential run in 2020 if he is sending his personal lawyer halfway around the world to dig up dirt on Biden's son.
Or perhaps this is a warning shot for some in the GOP, like Senator Richard Burr, the chair of the Intelligence Committee, who recently subpoenaed Don Trump Jr to give testimony before the committee. "I can take a run at your family too; look what I'm doing to Biden."
28
Trump is unraveling
this is the latest deflection attempt.
Ignore it
It seems the closer we get to the truth of what happened the more of this slime we’ll see from him and his confederates
Biden Beto Kamala ....
Compared to them he’s got nothing to sell so he smears.
Worst sales tactic possible
Losing sales tactic..
The end is nigh.
Sinister men have taken control of our country.
95
Seems like Guiliani is saying "I'm not going there to collude, I'm going there to obstruct and obfuscate"?
52
Rudy Giuliani was the worst mayor of NYC that I ever lived under. Just a cretin.
He overruled the experts and installed the emergency command center in the World Trade Center after the 1993 bombing. Of course, this meant that in 2001, it was knocked out. Communications were affected. It is probable that as a result, the loss of life was higher. And yet, somehow, like a phoenix from the ashes, he developed a reputation as America’s mayor after a September 11. This is about an accurate a portrayal of Rudy as the Apprentice is of Donald. In other word’s completely false.
He’s just ghastly. One can only hope that his incompetence will be at the fore on his latest endeavor.
88
There is a cancer in the White House, an incurable malady that threatens the American body politic in its entirety. Having a foreign government do your “wishful bidding” when that government is about as informed or as trustworthy as a Trump, is just ludicrous. Moreover, Ukraine has a respected intelligence service?
The entire Executive branch of our government is insane.
94
I love when Giuliani defends questionable actions as “perfectly legal”.
There is no law against bathing in slug but there are multiple reasons why nobody does it.
24
Let me get this straight. The President’s personal lawyer is traveling on taxpayers dime to negotiate with a foreign country so that they will begin a politically motivated investigation into Biden’s son and Paul Manafort? This is beyond outrageous. What will Trump Trade for this favor?
Our president nothing more or less than a budding dictator and the GOP stands a smiles.
197
Not to worry, whatever Trump promises the Ukraine, he has a history of not following through and you’re conveniently forgetting promises made.
1
@Justice Holmes Not sure there is any indication that Giuliani is traveling on tax payer dollars. Wouldn't that dilute the whole purpose of traveling as Trump's "personal" lawyer?
If Mr. Zelensky has half a brain in his head, and I suspect he has a full one, he'll either find a way to avoid meeting Rudy, or just listen politely, take note, and commit to no action--and take NO ACTION to aid Trump, who is a pawn of Ukraine's deadliest enemy, Russia, that has invaded and stolen Ukraine territory.
Working with Trump and Trump's private agents would constitute treason against Ukraine on Zelensky's part!
But these last few weeks have confirmed what I knew would happen if Trump was elected, and has happened: A full-court press to undermine and end our Democratic Republic and create a dictatorship in its place. We've already seen how the Senate has completely been dominated by the pro-dictator faction--look at the vicious attacks on Sen. Burr, a Republican. And the House? Who in the GOP in the House is willing to defend the Constitution?
McConnell has been ramming reactionary judges through as fast as he can, even ignoring "Blue Flags" from both of a state's senators used to block judges objected to.
And if Trump loses, or the Senate goes Blue (or both) McConnell will try to fill EVERY empty judicial chair in the Lame Duck session, as we saw states do in Wisconsin and North Carolina after they lost the Governership last fall.
Patriotism by Republicans is dead.
Comey gave the direst warning yesterday: "No, I don't think we are in a Constitutional crisis." Since Comey, honest as he is, is always inevitably WRONG, I am terrified!
31
The new normal- whatever Trump and his gang of thieves want to do, they do. And no one stops them.
You can tell your children you were alive when America ceased being a democracy.
65
Well Giuliani did say that he saw no problem with a candidate accepting aid from a foreign government. And unlike the Democratic candidates, Trump won’t commit to refusing such help in 2020. Why would he, it worked out for him last time. Corruption and criminal activity in plain sight, the new American way. Disgusting.
94
Readers of main stream media news are going to be blindsided in the very near future because the MSM has not been reporting about how far that the Obama administration went in spying on Trump. From putting actual spies in his campaign, to feeding lies to his campaign people and then arresting them for telling those very same lies, bugging Trump Tower and getting FISA warrants using a HRC paid for fake Dossier. It will all start to Happen when Mr. Horowitz completes his findings which is soon.
I’m always curious about a persons definition of MSM. When the comments about MSM are negative it generally seems that Fox News is not considered part of MSM. Hannity certainly has been “reporting” your assertions and he is number one on cable news so I’m not sure about your definition.
8
@P McGrath Thanks for the laugh.
5
Stop raggin’ on the dossier. It shows the best side of Trump.
2
Is Rudy trying to be every Batman comic villain at once or just achieving it by sheer coincidence?
57
Maybe Rudy can find Obama's real birth certificate at some point on this important trip. All jokes aside, Trump is not going to step down willingly. I hope 2020 is a landslide.
28
"We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation..."
That about says it all. He admits that he's going to engage in obstruction "because that information will be very, very helpful to my client."
And this guy had a sterling reputation as a by-the-book law and order prosecutor?
It's sad. It's shameless. And if unchecked it's an indication that we are well and truly out of control.
117
@SMKNC, I'm not sure that Giuliani had "sterling reputation as a by-the-book law and order prosecutor." I remember Giuliani having Wall Streeters arrested in the middle of the night because dragging them out of their apartments in pyjamas in front of cameras made for good publicity for Giuliani but then few were convicted of any crimes and the few who were had their convictions thrown out on appeal. It was all show and no substance even back then.
Wasn't Trump accusing John Kerry of violating the Logan Act only yesterday? If Kerry merely talking to foreign leaders is a violation (it isn't), how is Giuliani's behavior not?
335
@Julie
One set of rules for Democrats and an entirely different set for Republicans.
57
@Julie
Republicans can do whatever they want because they are corrupt--and since the rule of law has broken down, they have nothing to fear.
Mueller capitulated and meekly deferred his responsibility to reign things back in. Now anything goes.
23
@Cornflower Rhys
Republicans have no rules, just ever changing lies.
21
And we really believe anyone from this administration will report back with the truth, especially Giuliani and Trump tweeting it out in his usual inaccurate way.
These people are liars.
84
Amazing, I didn't think American politics could sink any lower. This takes the cake. Trump and Giuliani are advertising that they are going to collude with a foreign power to improve their election chances. The sad part is nothing will come of it. America you are doomed. Congress is impotent. The magic experiment of a democratic republic has failed. Trump has manipulated all the weaknesses of your constitution.
579
Wasn’t one of his arguments earlier arguments during the Mueller investigation that it can’t be obstruction if you do it in plain sight?
49
When a political operative for one’s own party asks operatives in another land to “investigate” an opponent, it starts to reek of treason. This is election meddling writ large. Giuliani even admitted as much.
As a nation, we’re in trouble. The only way out of this is for ALL left-leaning voters to support whoever wins the Democratic primaries. No more voting for third parties in the WiMP states (Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania - where some left-leaners voted for the purity of Jill Stein over the ‘sins’ of Hillary). There’s too much to risk here by not supporting the leading Democratic candidate for president. Now is not the time to seek out some kind of ‘wow-factor’ in a DNC candidate. Only the voters can oust Trump and the immorality that clouds our collective political infrastructure (congressional hearings and special prosecutors will help as much as screen doors on submarines).
345
@Benny We also need to turn the Senate Democratic or McConnell will still be in power and he is really frightening.
43
@Benny
I believe I would vote for an an alternate Republican candidate rather than a Democrat with an unimpressive base. So, another way of getting out of this mess is for a decent Republican to step up.
2
@William Sadly there are none. If there were, they would have stood up by now. I’m with @Benny. It’s truly our only chance.
32
You think they could not go any lower....and the next day they do. Worst administration in American history. Is it election night yet? Two more years! How will we survive.
279
@Michele Caccavanoi
542 days
13 hours and
40 minutes to be exact
4
@Michele Caccavanoi
We are going to impeach him and we will see justice done.
The American liberty tree may have decayed beyond retrieval, beset with terminal national rot exhibited more severely every day.
43
National rot, induced by rotting nationalists.
(I mean, just LOOK at the loser. Or McConnell. Ick!)
3
I wonder how Rudy feels about Dems working with foreign govs to take down Trump in 2020. China, are you listening? This is a very slippery slope Don and Rudy.
74
@Greg Waters
Maybe the answer is to have the Democratic candidate start visiting our former Allies and asking them for help in unseating Trump un 2020. I'm sure many of them would be happy to oblige.
From this side of the Border, it looks like the US has outsourced its Intelligence gathering to Foreign entities when gathering dirt on another US citizen.
Losing trust in one's own Intelligence agencies is a dangerous step for their democracy.
82
The list goes on and on and on. What will be the tipping point? When will the dominoes all fall down? Trump will be out soon but how soon?!
31
Are these guys totally tone-deaf? They just went through a years-long investigation regarding collusion with a foreign country, and here they go colluding with yet another foreign country. It's sad when our government provides the comic relief.
134
@Denny "Politics is the entertainment division of the military industrial complex." Frank Zappa
9
@Denny
"They just went through a years-long investigation regarding collusion with a foreign country"
And so far they've gotten away with it, and so now they feel empowered to do it again. I'm a political junkie, but this is making me nauseous. How do we STOP THIS!
4
@WhatConditionMyConditionIsIn I think we need to do away with the electoral college. Although I wasn't a big Hillary fan, she did win the popular vote and the will of the people was ignored.
2
Now the Trump gang is trying to extort foreign governments in its quest to stay in power. Is there no end to their corruption?
117
"Their motivation is to try to discredit the special counsel’s investigation..."
That pretty much says all we need to know - and, yes, it is bad for the country. What this intention says is that Trump & his team still want to sweep Russian interference in our elections under the rug. It is not hard to understand Trump's motives for his narcissism makes it impossible for him to admit that anything other than his own magnificent self won him the White House. However, what might feel good to Trump's ego - absolving Russia of any wrong-doing around our elective process - is very, very bad for our democracy.
This approach also means that the Trump administration will not really take that threat seriously for 2020. If Trump cannot admit that Russia helped him in 2016, he surely will also not want to do anything to taint his potential victory next year. He will have to pretend that Russia and his good friend Vlad would never, could never do such a thing. Putin seems to hold sway over Trump for reasons unknown to us. He also knows how to play Trump like a cheap fiddle. Our nation will suffer the consequences.
42
This is one of the things, one of several, that I found appalling about the Trump campaign and that is private parties going to foreign groups and powers to dig dirt on a political opponent. Maybe one of the most publicised low points in the campaign was when Trump jr (admittedly not the brightest bulb in the pack) organised that muck racking meeting with Russians in Trump Tower, and then to have Daddy cover for him. Giuliani is repeating the same dispicable and dubious deceit. Giuliani has not official status from any law or justice or intelligence agency and the Ukrainian government should send him packing. Even if Rudy should "discover" something, given his personal role with Trump it would totally lack any credibility. These sort of muck politics should have no place in a modern democracy, whether perpetrated by any party. But then it seems clear that Trump is in the process of abandoning democracy, the Constitution and the rule of law.
154
No one should be surprised at this strategy, this is the logical outcome of the republicans win at all costs election strategy starting in 1980 with Reagan. It's going to get much much worse my fellow citizens.
51
@Chris It began when Nixon sent Henry Kissinger to sabotage the Paris peace talks. The talks were nearing a settlement, and Tricky Dick was desperate to deprive LBJ of any kind of success. Sounds a bit like the current situation, with the blessing of McConnell and the whole sleazy GOP.
31
This started much earlier, remember Watergate? Now we have a gangster as president, he will use the tricks he knows with the power he now has.
11
A small country in the shadow of Russia receives a visit from a representative of the world's greatest power suggesting a local course of political/legal action. This isn't Foreign Policy? This isn't blatant political maneuvering to influence the US Presidential Election? This is an attempt to throw sand into the eyes of America's voters by pointing the finger at others so as to take the focus off of the current administration.
116
Upon Mr. Giuliani's return the appropriate congressional committee should subpoena the Presidents agent and investigate his actions vis a vis our Nation's Foreign Policy. Has the government of the Ukraine requested the visit? Is Giuliani going as a representative of the US Government? Who's paying for the trip? Are other employees of the Federal government involved in assisting Giuliani?
7
Thank You Mr. Mueller for enabling this to happen by your non conclusion about collusion and obstruction by Trump and his campaign . Hundreds of federal prosecutors disagree with your non conclusions which have empowered this administration to continue to thumb their nose at the nation. I keep hoping to wake up from this continuing nightmare.
228
To be fair, even if Mueller fully did his job and concluded that yes, there was definitely conspiracy by the loser and the GOP with putin, AND OoJ, AND Congress needed to impeach the [un-Fit to Print]er, Bill dis'Barr would spin the report til it became enriched uranium and the GOP would lockstep with their (immediate and ultimate) bosses anyway.
We still don't know whether *Mueller* was obstructed from making that conclusion within the report itself by dis'Barr, either, and thus forced to make a non-conclusion. I would all-in that he was—"read between the (hundreds of pages of) lines", and all that. But since dis'Barr won't dare incriminate himself, let's hope heroic whistleblowers from dis'Barr's villainous office tell us the truth.
12
Eight months ago Giuliani was defending a client in Romania charged with corruption. Now, he says his only client is the President of the U.S. When did Giuliani's work for officials charged with corruption in Romania end?
Ukraine has made considerable progress in combating corruption since the election of president Poroshenko in 2014 rising from 138th in the world to 120th in the Transparency Index. There are strong indications that president Zelensky will continue the progress and Ukraine will emerge as a normal country. We can hope Giuliani will not impede that progress.
19
They got away with multiple meetings and informal coordination with Russia, which is an unfriendly country, to win the last election. Ukraine is not considered an unfriendly nation. Why wouldn't they try to get Ukraine to help and support their re-election? If the Democrats did this, the world would come to an end, but Republicans know that God is on their side, so it's OK for them.
I'm not sure what they think the outgoing administration in Ukraine can do for them in the short time they have left, but with plenty of money sloshing around from Moscow to the Mercers, they'll find somebody to pay the former government lawyers there to produce something about Biden's son, and they won't care if it's true or not. They never care if anything they say is true, as long as it helps them. Fox News will report it uncritically, and the Fox News talking heads will repeat and exaggerate it as if it were verified. It will then get echoed in the right-wing blogosphere, and that will eventually be reported by the mainstream media.
The Republican Party always comes first, before truth, country, humanity, planet, and God.
653
@Barbara Reader-Giuliani continuously shoots himself in the foot.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-07/timeline-in-ukraine-probe-casts-doubt-on-giuliani-s-biden-claim
6
@Barbara Reader - "The Republican Party always comes first, before truth, country, humanity, planet, and God."
What do you mean comes before? Those things don't exist as entities outside the party to come before. Trump's GOP *is* truth, country, humanity, planet, and Trump is God.
15
@Barbara Reader The only reason party comes first is that's where is the power and money is. So it is the "power and money" that comes before anything for them.
10
For a moment in time, this was a man New Yorkers (and America) thought the world of. He has dedicated so much effort ever since to destroying those warm feelings. It’s almost impressive.
312
@Hey Now ? It is perfectly acceptable in the US' culture.It is called 'monetizing' his experience. Sad.It is hard to see how all this ends well.
19
@Hey Now Those "warm feelings" were on display at Yankee Stadium. https://youtu.be/s_ViD1dxP3g
6
@Hey Now-Somehow whenever Giuliani comes up, I can't get the picture out of my head of him mincing along in drag (very convincingly, I might add) and flirtatiously encouraging Trump to mash and smooch him up. Ukraine, if you think Putin is bad, beware:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IrE6FMpai8
10