Thank you, thank you to Eric Lipton, Maggie Haberman and Mark Mazzetti. What an incredible piece of investigative reporting. The truth shall set us free from the crushing burden of this corrupt President and his henchmen. So thankful for the free press and the brave legislators who are keeping democracy alive. You are our light at the end of the tunnel.
61
Mr. Bolton, this is your moment in history. Don't be a coward. You may have your causes, but please consider who you are protecting. Imagine if we are suddenly confronted by a country-wide crisis what kind of decision making is this? Be the patriot and protect our country.
41
Trump believes Putin and baseless conspiracy theories because they flatter his outsized vanity and ego, rather than hard facts from his nation's own intelligence community.
How much so? To this extreme of putting his own interests solely above those of his country's.
That's treasonous.
And the GOP are nothing but hypocritical Lemmings.
When his NSC advised Trump repeatedly that witholding the funds for Ukraine was "not in the nation's interests", they misjudged completely the person who took that solemn duty and oath. They should have said "your interest" instead and renamed themselves 'Trump's Security Council'. That would have guaranteed his action.
Great reporting, NYT. Please keep this in the headlines.
35
Well, I guess it's pretty clear that Mick Mulvaney, Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo have been lying right from the start, and I would add William Barr to that list.
I think Congress should pressure those liars to resign as a minimum and William Barr, along with Rudy Giuliani should both be disbarred.
37
I have a question. On top of all this Ukraine corruption, is donnie getting away with using federal funds allocated for something else to build HIS wall? We don’t hear about that anymore. Is there a coverup there too?
I guess he saw how easy it was to bamboozle the congress once.
20
Maybe a million citizens marching around the Congress building will force Trump to resign or get enough Senators that will standup for Justice & provide direct eyewitnesses & documents.
Regardless, Senator’s are on trial now! And mainstream media has them in the spotlight. Senators can’t duck & hide for 10 more months ! What’s that expression, “Death by a thousand cuts.”
32
I just read this entire article and didn't see one instance of a law being broken. I see a bunch of lifelong bureaucrats questioning and second guessing their boss on his decisions. I find it funny that only in regards to Trump is it ok to take the word and advice of some entrenched GS14 or SES over the President. Their job is not to question his decisions but to carry out his orders or resign.
It's also strange that every quote in this article further demonstrates that Trump was acting on a suspicion of corruption, I see quotes that Trump says things like "they are all corrupt, they are terrible people". I haven't seen a quote yet with regards to Biden. Seems to me, his quotes speak to his state of mind.
If I remember correctly, the illegality was due to him wanting "dirt" on Biden but no one has provided any quotes about him being worried about Biden beating him.
7
As I said in a reply below, the idea that trump is interested in fighting corruption is extremely laughable and strains credulity. He's been the poster boy for corruption his whole adult life (and possibly prior). It's the only religion he knows.
39
So, let’s see. The White House blocked Mulvaney, Pompeo, Esper, Vought, Bolton, Blair and others from testifying or turning over documents to House impeachment investigators.
Therefore, Nancy Pelosi should hold onto the articles of impeachment until the Court rules on the matter. Yes, the Democrats did claim that the matter was urgent and now it doesn’t seem so urgent; an apparent contradiction. 
But that was before McConnell said he was going to align himself with the White House. Since when does the foreman of the jury align himself with the defense? 
Pelosi is correct about her plan. It’s a brilliant strategy.
29
Most is us cannot control or influence what decisions our adult children make; if only sometimes we could. That aside, please think again about Putin’s influence over Trump. It’s staring you and your 2115 recommends in the face.
11
For the first time in my adult life, I'll be a "single issue voter" in 2020 -- that issue will be to get trump and his corrupt minions out of office. I don't feel great about it, but the damage that trump will do if he remains in power for another 4 years has left me no choice. We can't risk another 4 years of Trump's chaos and corruption chipping away at our national security -- it won't be safe for any of us.
46
Put this back on the front page and leave it there with updates.The American people have a right to know the truth and to learn about the depth of the Trump administration's corruption! All of these men should testify at the senate trial. And now more than ever, it's time for the media to stop elevating lies and/or clearly disingenuous statements by Republican politicians like Senator Kennedy (R-LA), Graham, McConnell or their counterparts in the House (Scalise, Jordan, Nunes etc) as "good faith arguments" when they are nothing but attempts to discredit the factual evidence of the administration's multi-faceted misconduct. Trump poisons everything he touches, and part of the most disturbing aspect is the depth of corruption taking place under Barr in the DOJ and within the other legal offices of the executive branch. Great reporting! Proof that the press is the champion of the People in a free democracy.
63
Rumors say that paper shredding machines are overheating in the White House---a 4 AM door-kicking, loud, FBI intervention there would not be inappropriate. ("Rumors say" ... eh? heh heh; get it? The shoe and foot quip; or the gander and goose refrain).
10
The emperor wears no clothes. Again.
25
From the article: "Aides speculated that someone had shown Mr. Trump a news article about the Ukraine assistance and he demanded to know more."
But weren't military aid packages to Ukraine approved and delivered in 2017 and 2018, without Trump "demanding to know more"? As has been said, the major difference in 2019 was that Joe Biden began his candidacy for the presidency, and literally all indications are that Trump wanted to use the 2019 Ukraine aid package as leverage to get Zelensky to "investigate" the Bidens, and the fantasies about the DNC server. Hence impeachment.
39
With this article's new revelations, one cannot still be in denial of Trump's Quid Pro Quo bribery plot facts & cover up schemes revealed during the House's Impeachment Inquiry.
This additional revelation of his key White House aides' needs and communications to discourage Trump in dispute, further depicts why Pelosi is withholding the two Impeachment Articles from the Senate, until McConnell first fully cooperates with fair rules, and has the House's requested for documents finally forwarded, along with permitting witnesses to testify.
If Trump's phone call was so "perfect" as he has repeatedly stated, then why was it necessary in the first place for those key aides of his White House, to be in dispute of his personal political benefit criminal scheme deployed; along with his subsequent directed & massive cover up scheme?
Otherwise, one the most massive in U.S. history by a president would not have been deployed in withholding every single document, along with not allowing witnesses to testify during the House's Impeachment Inquiry, (except for those Patriots who flipped on him on their own in favor of the Law).
That due to Trump and his White House aides being in the greatest of fear for the full truth to then be exposed, and for all especially Trump, fearing to testify under oath if still lying, rather than reveal that full truth.
14
This article begs the question: if all of Trump's national security leaders (Pompeo, Bolton, Esper) were pleading with Trump not to hold up military aid to Ukraine, who was arguing on the other side? The obvious answer is Putin.
Putin finds it easy to poison the mind of a gullible and greedy man like Trump. I suspect that there are a number of records of conversations between Putin and Trump, of which we are as yet unaware, that will shed further light on this.
Every effort must be made to secure the records of all of President Trump's conversations. I fear the full story on Trump's interactions with dictators around the world, Putin included, is far worse than what we already know.
35
According to news announcing the impromptu visit by Pompeo to Kiev, well, what that is saying is that we're assisting to a full reverse gear in Ukraine's satirical Quid pro Quo... in view of the coming elections. Too late however. It takes thick coat to want to add to perpetual buffoonery but the WH looks unperturbed...
2
Well written article, but it still does not tell us whether or not Trump withheld the aid because of perceived corruption in hte Ukraine or in order to help his upcoming political campaign. That has always been the question and America has NEVER gotten an answer. So why is Trump being impeached. Please give me a fact and not opinions?
2
You make a great point for why we need those witnesses to testify before Congress under oath.
Then America will know.
22
@hapEguy - how about Obstruction of Congress? It's clear as day that Trump is purposely impeding the investigation.
26
@hapEguy The fact is that he was trying to extort the Ukranians. If you look at the timeline you can see that it had zilch to do with corruption and everything to do with his reelection campaign. He may be kicking sand up and tweeting more and more trash in a desperate attempt to divert attention from the swamp that he is and may be succeeding with people who want it all in writing with his sharpie signature for validation. That will never happen because he is a master at diversion.
You could also look at the man's character. His entire life is corruption and cheating. If ever his tax returns are examined in full, the entire game will fall apart. The idea that a man who has devoted his entire life to corruption and cheating and lying is now worried about corruption is utterly laughable.
18
A most incredible and remarkable document to read when you realize how so many people have tried to stop the ongoing coercion of POTUS. I wonder how many sleepless nights of how many public officers have occurred since Donald Trump took office. I feel so much gratitude towards them, and for the research and writing of this inside story.
22
We will eventually learn all the details. And they will, of course, be appalling. But the broad picture has been clear for some time. To advance his own prospects in the 2020 election and damage his assumed opponent Trump used the power of the presidency to advance the strategic imperatives of Russia in its war against Ukraine. He was more than willing to hobble the national security of the US to accomplish this.
The entire GOP understands this and yet are willing to look the other way and give him a complete pass on this. It's impossible to say which of them, Trump, enablers like Mulvaney and Rudy, or the GOP congress are the biggest threat to our nation and rule of law. Perhaps it's not a contest. They are all equally culpable.
34
Excuse me, but, at the risk of sounding incredulous, are the readers of this article to conclude that Trump's actions were only due to a concern with corruption and not extortionate in nature? And, that despite Mr. Sondland's testimony that “Everyone was in the loop. It was no secret”, Mr Mulvaney, because of the Giuliani/Trump attorney-client privilege, was in the dark as to what was going on? Am I missing something?
8
There is no justification for Trump on one count of the impeachment - obstruction of congress. This cannot be denied as he has told aides not to testify nor provide documents. The very definition of obstruction.
It's not the POTUS' job to determine if the ask is credible; it's their job to comply.
Nothing to hide? Nothing to fear - a common refrain on the right (which, I do believe is abhorrent to suggest)
11
Trump is a gangster, aided by totally unethical sycophants. Their only redeeming feature is that they are all incompetent.
35
"...to carry out the investigations Mr. Trump sought into Mr. Biden and unfounded or overblown theories about Ukraine interfering in the 2016 election." Why do Trump conspiracy theories get any pass at all? What do you mean "overblown". Hasn't this supposed Ukrainian interference with the 2016 US election been put to rest? Or are we still paying Barr and Guiliani to investigate this bogus diversion from clear Russian interference?
16
None of this would be public knowledge if Republicans had retained control of the House with Devin Nunes Nunes chairing the Intelligence Committee and Trey Gowdy overseeing the Oversight Committee. Makes one wonder what else might've been covered up during Trump's first two years in office.
Democrats are the only ones trying to do their job of keeping a check on an out-of-control executive branch. They're the only ones trying to limit and minimize Trump's damage to our Constitution. Republicans know the danger trump poses, but they're too power hungry to defy trump's threats and risk the wrath of trump's fanatical followers.
What a poor example of Republican leadership if they're too scared to even try speaking the truth to their constituents.
Compare their craven behavior to those Democrats from vulnerable swing districts who chose to uphold their oaths to protect the Constitution by voting yes on impeachment, despite the risk of losing their seats.
The "both sides" argument no longer applies when it comes to Democrats vs. Republicans. The Democratic party has its flaws -- it's far from perfect. But a Democratic win in 2020 is a step in the more preferable direction for the country -- far more preferable than the path our country will go down if an unchecked trump and his Republican regime remain in power for another 4 years.
40
Sen. McConnell tried to fake out Rep. Pelosi by saying he wants her to hold onto the articles of impeachment. The fact of the matter is that Trump wants to get this trial over with by the SOTU address so he can brag about being acquitted.
It won’t happen. Pelosi knows more and more damaging evidence will come out because of the great investigative reporting by the news media.
Freedom of the press. I wonder why the Founders made that the first amendment?
37
If there is a silver lining to the Trump presidency, it is that we are getting to see from the inside--with the assistance of a still free press--something previously unseen in American history: the dynamics of brutal authoritarianism, which are well-known in some other countries, and in which a thuggish leader bends bureaucrats and legislators to his will.
Let us hope to God that this is an aberration and that we as a democracy recover soon.
35
Both Pres. Trump and former Pres. Obama was concerned about corruption in Ukraine and wanted to ensure their aid wasn't misused.
There is enough prima facie evidence collected by Rudy Giuliani (rightly or wrongly) to give Pres. Trump, like Obama, the suspicion that his aid would be misused and he wanted this point and the CrowdStrike issue investigated.
What must be looked at is each presidents' mens rea for withholding aid to Ukraine. Both presidents had a legal intent to withhold aid until their issues were addressed by Ukrainian officials.
Again, what matters here is "intent." Both Obama's and Trump's intent was legal, or at least can't be proven corrupt to the exclusion of their legal intent.
8
Other than President Trump doing what he does for his sole personal benefit always and without fail, your comment 'sounds' reasonable.
Even then, you're asking folks to disregard everything else we know about the man.
30
@David Farrar Really? I don't recall men and women from Obama's White House coming forward with serious concerns about corrupt intent, with evidence to prove it. Deep state maybe? The gargantuan cover-up of Obama's corruption that extended from the halls of the very right-wing FBI to the corporate media?
All things are *not* equal.
23
How does investigating Joe Biden's son have anything to do with whether military aid was properly utilized?
They aren't connected.
Trump undermined the key players combating Ukrainian corruption. There is no evidence he was concerned about corruption.
Mens real doesn't mean that no inference may be drawn, short of confession. This isn't a criminal trial with a reasonable doubt standard. Even if it were a criminal trial, Trump's corrupt intent is the only obvious inference.
34
84 days of conflict and confusion, otherwise known as policymaking which always, and inevitably, end with the president making and owning the decision. The only difference this time is you don't like the President. Try to win an election.
5
@JMR - Nice try but Trump hasn't owned the decision. He did his best to cover it up and distance himself from his minions and now he's obstructing justice by refusing to allow people to testify.
49
@JMR
"otherwise known as policymaking"
No, the policy was already approved by congress and your man in 1600 decided to hold it up for all the wrong reasons
I don't know how people like you do it... defend the indefensible no matter what evidence to the contrary
35
I'm shaking my head in disbelief seeing how easy it is to influence (manipulate, even brainwash) people to share your views. In its milder form, it is just flowery oratory in writing, but peel away the top and you see pure, unadulterated propaganda. And whether it is for, or against something, makes no difference.
9
We're pretty much able to corroborate the reporting done here by our own observation of the man Donald Trump, his 'pattern of behavior', and all other factual reporting on the planet.
Give us some credit.
These opinions are formulated through our own perception, education, observation, and experience.
Nice passive aggressive way of attacking both reader and writer though!
24
My main takeaway from this article is thank God someone is looking out for the tax payers money. I support President Trump unconditionally and will be working and voting for him in November.
1
@Peter
Speak for yourself. I'm fed up with trump and the republicans. I'm thrilled that someone has stood up to them and said enough is enough! I think that it is a brilliant move to delay taking the impeachment hearings to the senate. McConnell and the trumpists let the cat out of the bag. McConnell's big mouth bragging on fox news who he answers to was no surprise, but it just adds to the mounting case of trump's obstruction of justice. It won't be a fair hearing with republicans running the show. In the meantime, trump will continue to shoot himself in the foot like he did with his cruel and stupid attack on Represenative Dingle.
21
Yes, he’s putting your taxes to good use covering his weekly golf outings. Thank God!
16
We are at this point where everything is fully partisan, and I have no hope for a Republican change of heart. The response to the Christianity Today article calling for a Trump to be removed was the final nail in the era of values greater than party. Everything, race, religion, economics, even friendships is now tied up to one’s party.
The only path to victory is at the ballot box at this point.
12
One of the great strengths of our nation - (U.S.A. that is...can't be too careful these days!) - are the 3 co-equal branches of government. This is a massive lynch-pin of our enduring success and international influence. With this maladministration by the executive, the equilibrium of these distinct elements is grossly unbalanced. This weakens us all and gives comfort only to our adversaries. Inevitably, the thought - Treason! - comes to mind.
12
This is an ongoing story with several lines of investigation bearing fruit - either documents, emails and convictions when it comes to Giuliani. Hopefully more pundit/public pressure will cause Bolton to come forward on his own and do the right thing for his country.
Clearly Speaker Pelosi is doing the right thing in pausing the turnover to the Senate while more incriminating evidence is coming in.
21
The emails just keep coming. Except this time, they prove something criminal took place.
17
It's bad but not as bad as it will be from 2020. Unless you the voters unite and vote for the constitution and democracy and not according to creed or greed you will have far worse to come than has yet been seen. The dictator will get back in and will really set to work. He will change whatever needs to be changed to attain and thereafter retain absolute power. Germany 1931 if you aren't careful. He'll ensure he gets control of both houses, De-impeach himself, use the power to ensure there won't ever be another and will end the max two-term rule so only death will rid your country of this and any subsequent tyrant. We in the UK had our own despot who Trojan-horsed her way to power in 79. We had a chance to get rid but instead were too goo-goo eyed by the murders of Argentinean seaman aboard the Belgrano to turf her out, even giving her the landslide that saw policies enacted that have now become, sadly, and to the nation's detriment, part of my country's fabric. By comparison, because of your nation's size, your status, the way your politicians see themselves as the planet's policemen, the U.S. and the world are in far greater jeopardy than one now thankfully heavily-rusting iron lady could ever have even dreamed of achieving. She didn't believe in family or community. Next year I and billions of others will be hoping that you shed your party affiliations and vote for the furtherance of the wider democratic family and community. There may not be a better chance.
30
“...unfounded or overblown theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election”?
The second adjective in this sentence implies that there was some kind of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election. This is a dangerous implication as it lends credence to the president’s lies.
23
Obama withheld military aid. He only provided humanitarian aid such as blankets and tents.
That is reality and the fact of the matter.
Look it up.
2
Conflate.
Look it up.
9
@Frank
Trump would not let Ukraine use the Javelins against the Russians. He stipulated they only be used in Western Ukraine specifically where the Russians were NOT
FYI Frank:
Under the conditions of the foreign military sale, the Trump administration stipulates that the Javelins must be stored in western Ukraine—hundreds of miles from the battlefield.
Trump’s claim about supplying far more critical military aid to Ukraine than Obama is hyperbolic at best in other ways. The Obama administration did draw criticism for its refusal to approve lethal assistance to Ukraine, including the Javelin missile sale Trump cited. But it did commit to Kyiv more than $600 million in security assistance and equipment, including armored Humvee vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles, countermortar radars, night vision equipment, and medical supplies.
While the Obama administration slapped sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine and had provided Kyiv with substantial financial aid, the administration stopped short of providing lethal weapons to Ukraine—including the Javelins—due to fears that they could fall into Russia’s hands or prompt Moscow to escalate. Officials also worried that the untrained Ukrainian military would not be able to use sophisticated equipment such as the Javelins, said Jim Townsend, a former Defense Department official."
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/03/far-from-the-front-lines-javelin-missiles-go-unused-in-ukraine/
Look it up Frank
4
All roads lead to Putin.
18
Yes, ALL roads lead back to Putin. And when is this shoe going to fully drop? That is, exactly what is the “deal” between the two, what is the leverage that Putin has over Trump, and what is the desired outcome? We have skirted around this speculation way too long.
12
It was a well-presented article. But as a lifelong New Yorker and admirer of the NYTimes, I am appalled that Trump has now successfully bullied you. His "agenda"? Not an agenda, but an extortion scheme. Agenda makes it sound like something that's part of his job, and this was not. This was a flat out crime. Please NYTimes, don't you buckle just because he's going to tweet at you. Act like a New Yorker and call things what they really are.
23
The Gallup poll shows President Trump the most admired man in America for the first time. Most Americans dont care about Ukraine and impeachment. They care about the economy.
2
@Julia You do realize that Trump is borrowing $1 trillion a year to keep this fiction of a good economy going? He slashed taxes for the wealthy and for corporations, handed out $28 billion over two years to farmers harmed by his trade taxes, and made an enormous bill that will come due on the backs of our grandchildren.
Meanwhile, many of us are struggling to pay for steadily worsening health insurance plans that would leave us bankrupt if we got a serious illness.
17
@Julia I think he tied with Obama, but popularity contests aren’t a good measure of anything important. In its time, the television show Beverly Hillbillies was hugely popular, twice the #1 show of the year.
9
@Julia Speak for yourself. You don't speak for me or the many Americans who care about our Constitution and the rule of law.
14
I live in a state that turned blue in my lifetime. I remember many honorable Republicans. Where are they now? Counting their money? Keeping check on their women? Testing the gates to their neighborhoods? Shame shame shame.
19
Excellent article. So well researched. Why I read the New York Times.
22
@Marcie Martelli: I 100% agree with you, Marcie. What I don't understand is that NYT has picked a bunch of anti-Trump comments as favorites. Surely the staff knows that the majority of readers are in the anti- camp, but the article itself, if read with an unbiased eye, the real culprit was Guliani, who entered into discussions with the government of The Ukraine without any official status. Anti- readers believe that President Trump sent him to apply muscle. Pro-readers believe that his contacts went beyond the wishes of President Trump. The facts will probably never be known.
2
@Kenneth Cowan - Giuliani and Trump talk with each other all the time--Giuliani regularly says so, and he also often says that everything he does, he runs by Trump first, and that he also gets orders from Trump.
6
How will all the Republican Senators up for re-election in 2020 fare next year when, after they prevent any high-level witnesses from testifying at Trump's impeachment trial, John Bolton drops a tell-all book that reveals everything they are trying so hard to hide?
Election night 2020 will be awfully sweet if Trump goes down, he takes Mitch and a half-dozen other Republican Senators down with him.
16
It is astounding to me that Republican Senators would enable this kind of behavior simply to keep their jobs. There is so much more at stake.
22
This truth, in all of its condemning detail, needs to travel beyond our shared echo-chamber audience. Terrific, clear reporting like this is incalculably important.
Yet, how is it that half the country will never know this information because Fox News will not report it? If his base would open not just their ears and eyes, but their collective minds and hearts, to the Facts, this whole process would not have to be so agonizing - and so doomed.
12
"Price...to pay"? I wonder how long it will take most people to realize that Trump doesn't care about consequences because he usually doesn't face them or when he rarely does, they are never enough to have any significant impact on him. He continues blithely to go on his self-absorbed way, doing things solely in his own interest, period. The only problems he notices are other people having problems with his behavior, and his reactions are very primitive--merely denial and projection. I've commented that he is the personification of a dangerous retrovirus of the HIV type that attacks the defenses of the body politic and justice system, ever mutating to continue doing so upon each attempt and with varying degrees of success. Pictured in this article are his catalyst enablers. Whenever the body of our country with its rule of law will ultimate be "cured" of him is difficult to predict, but the only sure thing is that there will be much suffering in the meantime.
8
Trumps corruption is undeniable. This should be the Democrats mainly selling point for campaigning up to November.
1. Summarize Trumps lack of ethics: lies told, Ukraine debacle, co-conspiracy with Russia in 2016, Mueller’s refusal to exonerate, etc.
2. Summarize Trumps harm to our world: Climate accord cancel, roll back of environmental regulations, incentives for carbon, etc.
3. The Senate’s refusal to abide by the laws of this nation.
After the Supreme Court sides with Trump...
4. Summarize the withholding of Trumps tax returns from the public; this man is above the Law.
5. Economic gutting of the middle and lower classes. American business pays little or no taxes. No R&D, no investment, stock buybacks, no jobs, no real growth, gig economy, etc.
12
let's hope for surprise croaking at the top to start the new year and make it truly Happy!
3
Trump is a person whose only metric for respect is wealth. Putin is reportedly one of the richest men on earth, with enormous assets plundered from the privatization of Russia’s resources and consequent power over lands and oligarchs. If, years from now, as I fully expect, we discover that Trump’s fealty to Putin was born from a desire to open a chain of post-presidential Trump-branded Russian resorts, what will we think?
Why all the meetings in private? Why seize the notes from the translator? Why block lawful subpoenas for testimony? Why the secret server for various leader-to-leader call records? Why the desperate need to keep his tax returns secret?
Americans want to know.
16
From the start, budget office officials took the position that the money did not have to go out the door until the end of September, giving them time to address the president’s questions.
Next.
1
@P&L Clearly, you didn't read the whole article.
7
@P&L - Trump's "questions" were all bogus, and everyone knew it. Trump's people simply expended a lot of effort on pretending that Trump's extortion of Ukraine could be portrayed as being part of a normal process.
5
@P&L The budget officials aren’t being impeached; Trump’s behavior and motivation is at issue.
6
This is what passes for the decision making process in this Administration! Incompetence all round!
Now a relatively minor matter has been blown into a Constitutional crisis because of the crass stupidity and arrogance of The President.
He needs to get rid of RG who is getting him into real trouble and if possible silence him for the duration.
12
@wjth
He needs to not commit crimes. Whoops... too late.
11
@wjth - Trump's extortion of Ukraine didn't arise solely from Giuliani's fraudulent efforts, nor is extorting a foreign country for help in an upcoming political campaign a relatively minor matter. Hence impeachment.
5
A lot of Ukraine's history of corruption is attributable to the likes of Putin's puppet, Yanukovich. Anyone who can read this article and still not believe Trump has been totally played by Putin is simply sticking their head in the sand.
25
This article looks very much like Pulitzer material to me.
32
All the people in this detailed article need to testify. If they do, and what is being reported here is true, then Republicans in the Senate will have to decide whether to obey or betray their 'oath of office' to 'support and defend the Constitution.'
Their integrity is on the line.
19
All the people in this detailed article need to testify. If they do, and what is being reported here is true, then Republicans in the Senate will have to decide whether to obey or betray their 'oath of office' to 'support and defend the Constitution.'
Their integrity is on the line.
6
@Stephen
None of Administration’s “people in this detailed article” had any integrity to put on the line.
Every single Republic Senator already betrayed their oath of office, that’s been obvious for more than a decade.
4
Throughout this article it is said that multiple administration officials tried to convince Trump that withholding aid to Ukraine was a bad idea for many reasons. But Trump was resolute in his position and only took the advice when he got caught in September.
And we readers are left to wonder why Trump would take such a position in the first place, ignoring informed arguments against withholding the money.
My guess is that Trump was taking orders from Putin who seems to have quite a bit of control over Trump. Mulvaney and Bolton didn't have enough persuasive powers to pull Trump away from Putin's influence.
Putin had a good reason to keep military funds out of the hands of Ukraine. He has been trying to annex Ukraine for years, but he has yet to be successful.
Luckily for the US, we still have citizens and elected officials who oppose Russian interference in our affairs and have acted accordingly.
Hopefully this situation will change in the 2020 election when Trump and his cohorts will be defeated and Russia will loose much of its control over our nations business.
21
All the people in this detailed article need to testify. If they do, and what is being reported here is true, then Republicans in the Senate will have to decide whether to obey or betray their 'oath of office' to 'support and defend the Constitution.'
Their integrity is on the line.
2
@Stephen Unfortunately, according to Mitch McConnell who speaks for them, the Senate has already decided to betray their oaths. Their very silence reeks of guilt and complicity!
4
Trump doesn’t need Ukraine to beat Biden. His preoccupation with Biden’s and Hunter’s dealings with Ukraine is just tit for tat. If Biden can accuse Trump of quid pro quo, then Trump can throw it right back at him. It’s pure revenge which may not be pretty but it has nothing to do with trying to affect the outcome of our elections. Biden needs no help in losing.
3
@Edward You assume Biden will be the nominee. I predict he will not be. Trump thinks only an old white guy can beat him. I think Americans are more left leaning and less bigoted than he realises because he refuses to listen to anything outside his bubble.
The bottom line is that Trump* may have got himself impeached for nothing. It reminds me of his deal making capacity with Kim. Kind of unintelligent.
The right in their Dunning Kruger bubble still have not realised that quid pro quo is not necessarily illegal. My wife might say if you cook I will wash the dishes. That is legal quid pro quo. It depends on what it realties to. It is not legal to invite foreign government electoral assistance on the basis of releasing or withholding already allocated funding.
Your comment that Biden has done the same thing is another favourite conservative tactic- the false equivalence.
6
@Edward You make it sound as if you believe that the Bidens started the war of words with Trump; if so, you need to review the timeline of this affair.
4
@Edward - You've got the sequence of events backwards. Trump's "preoccupation with Biden’s and Hunter’s dealings with Ukraine" isn't a tit for tat reaction to Biden accusing Trump of a quid pro quo. Trump's demand of a quid pro quo from Zelensky--investigate the Bidens or else you don't get military aid nor a meeting with Trump--predates Biden's (and many other people's) accusation of it. That extortion of Ukraine is what led to the accusations of a quid pro quo. Trump's extortion of Ukraine was his attempt to smear Biden to try to reduce Biden's chances of winning in 2020. That should be clear to everyone by now.
4
Trump had to pay $25 MILLION dollars as a penalty for the Trump University scam.
That alone is enough to impeach even if the Ukraine thing never existed. But the Ukraine thing does exist.
19
Wow. This is the kind of reporting that will go down in history. This is the record. What a shame so many Americans are exclusively consuming televised talking heads for their information about our fragile democratic republic.
Dear Zuckerberg et al: fix it or be responsible.
18
No one should be surprised at Trumps behavior. This is the slimy way he has acted his entire adult life. But even worse than Trump are the Republican Congressmen and women who acquiesce to his every illegal demand. They could have stopped him in his tracks if McConnell and other Republican Senators refused his demands, but they were terrified of his hold on the Republican electorate. This is the way democracy ends. This is the way democracy ends. “ Not with a bang but a whimper.”
13
It makes no difference how overwhelming the evidence is against Trump. The Republicans will deny its existence, insist the impeachment is a Democrat conspiracy, and either acquit or refuse to hear the case at all. Trump has gotten away with the Costitutional version of shooting someone on 5th Avenue. And he didn't lose any supporters either.
25
Imho, an often overlooked possibility is that Trump’s primary motive in withholding the aid for Ukraine was to aid and abet Russia generally, along with a dab of debt repayment toward his special benefactor, one V. Putin.
22
I'm convinced our national disgrace of a president released the aid to Ukraine because "he got caught", as are many others who know "The Great Divider" Trump deserves impeachment for a whole host of corrupt activities. (See Mueller Report for most formal presentation.) Yet basing the case for impeachment on this Ukrainian scandal is not as clear-cut as Dems have been making it.
The bad consequences of allowing Trump to continue in office if he gets away with using his office for personal gain are tremendous. Yet the American people need the added evidence of his emoluments corruption, of Mueller, of payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. Republicans may not feel enuf heat to bend in the current environment, but who says they're smart enuf to know what the right thing to do is? The next month--and the next election--should see more exposure of his corruption, because all Americans need constant reminders of it.
If a president lies and dissembles as much as this one does, we need a political process like impeachment to remove him, before he does more damage. If Republicans insist upon defending this president in his corruption, then this should be a primary election platform for Dems. Let GOP Senators pay for whatever they come up with in terms of how they absolve him.
16
Finally, an article that mentions -- albeit in passing -- that most of the money for foreign military aid is spent right into our economy. Anyone who thinks legislators in DC vote for military aid without a sharp eye on which Congressional districts the money will go to is living in a child's world. As is any taxpayer who believes he or she is not part of the giant killing machine that is our "defense" industries.
16
Trump has destroyed any semblance of decency. He’s so eager for accolades and enriching himself, he’ll do anything and is tearing down any last vestige of morality and ethics. He’s straight out of a Stephen King novel.
10
" . . . has often had to find creative legal reasoning to justify the president’s unorthodox policy proposals . . . "
Instead of unorthodox, did you mean: illegal, allegedly criminal, unethical, amoral, or immoral? In America, "unorthodox", "unusual", "outside the norm" "breaking with tradition" - the typical euphemisms used by this newspaper and others - are considered compliments in many circles, and do not adequately convey the assault on the rule of law that Trump is conducting on a daily basis.
14
Not everyone should be President. He should not continue to remain in office. Just blunt, hard, simple truths.
18
Aside from one sentence fragment stating opinion instead of facts (...unfounded or exaggerated...) this article completely debunks the assertion that Trump's pressure was for personal gaing related to the 2020 election. It is now clear, from this reporting, that it was, in fact, all about dealing with one of the most corrupt nations on the planet. One has to wonder how many pockets were lined in the House and Senate to get the funding to begin with.
4
America is in this dire situation because businessman Donald J. Trump sold his soul to the highest bidder (Russia) in an attempt to salvage his failing businesses from additional bankruptcies for our own U.S. financial institutions wouldn’t lend to him or his family anymore due to their high risk classification, couple with an ignorant enabling Republican electorate who help elect him President of the United States. What could go wrong?
Donald J. Trump governs in a irresponsible way for he feels he can do no wrong. As has been documented in the Two House Articles of Impeachment and the Mueller Report, he has repeatedly violated his sworn oath of office and abused his presidential powers, Period.
Mr. President, time to face the music. Your day of reckoning is upon you. No more free rides!
10
“And, he wrote, it might further fuel the narrative that Mr. Trump was pro-Russia.“
Alrighty then, so did Trump already know he wanted dirt on the Bidens, or did he come up with that as cover for his Russia prone proclivities?
8
Thank you for your stellar reporting on this and for every investigative article that you have written since Donald Trump has taken office.
Dedicated journalists and a free press are the first line of defense against the non-stop nefarious machinations of Trump and his minions.
29
Ladies and gentlemen, the Trump administration reduced to its essence: "In a previously unreported sequence of events, Mr. Mulvaney worked to schedule a call for that day with Mr. Trump and top aides involved in the freeze, including Mr. Vought, Mr. Bolton and Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel. But they waited to set a final time because Mr. Trump had a golf game planned for Monday morning with John Daly, the flamboyant professional golfer, and they did not know how long it would take."
29
Excellent reporting, once again, by the NYT. However, to obliquely insinuate that Trump's sending Pence to Poland in his place was because of a hurricane, surely you jest? So our resident "genius" stayed home simply to play with his Sharpie?
John Bolton has a lot of questions to answer, and he should get his backside up to Capitol Hill and testify at once. Anyone who buys his book, without him testifying before Congress, is simply furthering the erosion of our democracy.
As for Cipollone, he is the poster boy for the reason attorneys have such a bad name. I can't wait for these folks to be out of our White House.
27
Let’s not forget in all of this that Ukraine & Russia are adversaries. Whatever weakens Ukraine benefits Russia. Russia aspires to engulf Ukraine, largely to obtain control of the Black Sea. Russia’s desire to annex Belarus, Ukraine’s neighbor to the north, is part of the plan to encircle Ukraine. As well as to build “Soviet 2.0”. Recent rhetorical attacks by Russia against Poland, one of Ukraine’s neighbors to the west, are also part of the scheme. And, oh, by the way, Black Sea coast has beaches, popular with Russians and ideal spots for Trump properties. Mix in Turkey, nice new friend of Donald, with its northern sea coast bordering the Black Sea. Examine the map. Geography is destiny.
20
Putin is the clear winner in this, no matter how it finally settles out.
He has successfully manipulated the US administration to distance itself from the Ukraine, and even hold back critical aid at a time of sincere need.
In addition.. with the now clear waffle-weakness of the Trump administration on all of this... The Ukraine is effectively forced to sit down and negotiate with Russia in order to try to stave off further Russian sponsored military aggression in the eastern border region of Ukraine with Russia.
Putin wins both ways here.. and THAT rests solely on the back of Donald Trump... because nothing happens within the White House without this control freaks explicit order or approval.
Trumps actions have strengthened Russia in the region and has weakened the Ukraine. Anyone that is OK with this is a tacit Russian supporter and a Putin supporter, and does not care about historically important allies in the region.
15
@Chuck Now, now. There are legions of Republicans who want to be tough on Russia, and are they complaining? They know that Trumpolmacy has the Russian bear on the ropes.
They privately are complaining, as several leaks attest. But they’re too afraid of Trump and of not being re-elected to say anything.
5
In point of fact.. the entire effort by Trump and his willing enablers have demonstrated once again.. that Trump is a willing sock puppet for Russia and it's leader Putin.
It has been proven objectively over the ongoing disclosure of the facts uncovered during the House inquiry that Trump relied on embracing proven Russian disinformation about the Ukraine as the premise for everything he has done here.
Now.. it could be argued that Guiliani is largely behind the narrative to convice Trump that said disinformation of Russian origin was true (in spite of even Trumps best intelligence advisors point blank telling him the narrative is false)... but at the end of the day... the buck stops with Trump. As president, it is his decision and his decision alone that matter here.. and his decision was to embrace a disinformation campaign by Russia against the Ukraine. And his motives have now become clear.. as Russia used a second disinformation wrapper concerning Biden's son as the icing to entice Trump to bite fully on the larger anti-Ukraine narrative sourced by Russia.
So.. either Trump is an easily manipulated fool (my vote on this is yes.. just watching the right wing news manipulate him into all manner of reactions to false narratives).... OR... he is an actual Russian asset being controlled by the Kremlin. Either way.. this is a very real crisis to the US democracy.
22
@Chuck Have you considered Trump may be both? An easily manipulated fool being influenced by his admiration for oligarchs, dictators, as well as the latest person who speaks to him.
6
My favorite is how they all love to use their faith while dancing with the devil. That's a hoot.
22
Trump's corruption is a stain on the decency of most Americans. He must be removed.
23
Trump's behavior and actions are indefensible. And, before anyone says "but the economy's doing great," a pet rock could have been elected President in 2016 and the economy would have continued its upward trajectory; all Trump's managed to do (despite his seemingly best efforts) is not derail the economy. In 2020 it's not just "the economy, stupid," it's the survival of American democracy, which, as the Ukraine scandal clearly reveals, cannot be entrusted to Donald J. Trump and his greedy, unpatriotic, pro-Russian enablers.
25
Is there anything in this set of facts that indicates a high crime and misdemeanor was not committed??
Lindsey?? Kennedy?? McConnell?? Mr. Cruz? I didnt think so.
11
@MB anything to indicate crime was not committed?
Wait ! Aren't we supposed to prove guilt instead ?
1
This is a story of total corruption, with nary anyone to object. The Pentagon demonstrated corruption. The State department is totally corrupt. Republicans in Congress are totally corrupt. department heads like Pompeo and Barr are totally corrupt.
Get the picture?The entire trump clown show is wallowing in corruption. And the Republicans could care less as long as they maintain their illegitimate control of power and money.
27
Tacky, tacky, tacky. Just as tacky as bridge-gate was.
4
I applaud the Times on this good work, but everything I have read about this drama is missing an important part of the story, what was going on in Ukraine?
Mr. Zelensky is formerly a comic whose rant concerning corruption went viral in Ukraine and led to his election as President in April, 2019. Upon inauguration he called for Parliamentary elections which led to an huge victory for his party in late July, just before the phone call. Neither Zelensky nor the new parliamentarians had any track record.
Parliament first met in late August. Mr. Pence was in Warsaw on 1 Sept. where he met with representatives of Zelensky, then Pence went to Kiev to visit Zelensky. On Sept. 5, Sen. Ron Johnson also visited with Zelensky.
The previous Parliament had created a court to deal with corruption in June, 2018. The previous President had appointed 38 judges in March, 2019, and then the court took 6 weeks to settled on its leadership. The court finally held its first public hearing on 5 Sept. 2019.
On Tuesday, 10 Sept, Mr. Trump had lunch with Mr. Pence. The next day the hold was lifted.
Mr. Trump believes Ukraine is corrupt. Everyone seems to agree with that, and the question is whether that is improving. In his meeting with Pence, Zelensky said that 94 bills dealing with corruption had been submitted in Parliament.
Was it solely domestic pressure or was it actions in Ukraine, or a combination, which led Mr. Trump to relent? This should have been looked at before Impeachment.
6
@A.S.R. According to Trump-he was convinced of the corruption in Ukraine by his confidant and mentor-Putin. The House had been well aware of conditions in Ukraine since at least 2014 when President Obama named Vice President Biden to oversee American policies re Ukraine. Which led VP Biden to announce US aid would be withheld until a corrupt prosecutor was removed-the EU also publicly supported withholding support. You can Google how much aid has been provided to Ukraine from the EU. The independence of Ukraine from Russia is a benefit to the rest of Europe also.
3
@A.S.R. - There's been quite a lot of testimony before Congress, and a lot of reporting such as this article, about Trump's motives for delaying military aid to Ukraine. Nowhere in any of that has there been any testimony or reporting that Trump expressed any contemporaneous concern for the change in administrations in Ukraine in 2019, whose timeline you describe--instead, all of Trump's known statements to others during those events, regarding his motivations, as well as his known actions, point towards the other, personal motives that have been attributed to him (extorting Ukraine to help him win the 2020 election, etc.). There have been claims by some people that the events you describe were "what was really on Trump's mind", but those claims come after the fact, have no corroborating witnesses, and are belied by Trump's statements and actions, so that's why we don't hear a lot of people repeating those claims.
1
"Behind the Ukraine Aid Freeze: 84 Days of Conflict and Confusion"
Isn't it blatantly obvious That Trump is and has been working with Vladimir Putin of Russia to weaken our national defenses against Russia who continues to be our national enemy. The "Conflict and Confusion" is exactly Trump's methods.
We were publicly put on notice of Trump's closeness to the Putin Russian connection when, in the 2016 republican primary campaign, Trump called on the Russians to illegally hack into the Hillary Clinton and Democratic email servers to "find dirt" on her and the Democrats.
Now, Trump using the Ukrainians to "find dirt" on Joe Biden was just a move to hide the actual beneficiary, Putin and Russia.
Mitch McConnell is either a pawn of Trump's or of Putin in his attempts to have no witnesses at Trump's Impeachment Trial.
Remember that Putin signed the law in Russia that makes it legal for the Russian spy's to kill Europeans working against Putin's plans to turn the European Countries toward Russian interference and control. And Trump is totally OK with that.
McConnell and Trump must be stopped from having no witnesses. Trump must be removed from office. The republicans in congress must be voted out of office next year because of their active or silent approval of Trump since the 2016 republican primary race.
If We The People don't act now and in next years General Election, we will have given American to Putin and his new Soviet Empire he is recreating in Europe.
17
It seems clear that it could be in Sen. McConnell's interest to allow a proper trial with the people mentioned in this article as witnesses. Trump could build a case that his involvement was limited to some inconsistent and incoherent nudges (so typical of his tenure in office) and that the real harm was done by underlings who misunderstood his real intent and whom he failed to manage. If McConnell leaves the record as the House presented it, Trump will be judged as guilty as all get out, regardless of what his lackeys in the Senate want.
3
If the definition of treason is consorting with the enemy and assuming that this reporting is accurate 9see how I'm weighing my words), how is this not treasonous behavior? And how can Republicans that have always railed against Russia not even consider that this behavior is, at the very least, problematic. We have come to a very sad time in our country's history.
11
This report once again confirms that the main villain in the Ukraine drama is Mick Mulvaney. Impatient to get his chief of staff status changed from ‘acting’ to ‘permanent’, he would do just anything to expedite his boss's criminal enterprise.
The country could have spared itself this infamy, if Mark Esper and Mike Pompeo had quit their jobs, as John Bolton did, when the president dismissed their warnings. Maybe holding on to their jobs was more important to them than serving the country's interests.
A word about the disgusting role the OMB lawyers played in enabling the president's criminal enterprise. They were being stupid if they thought that as commander in chief, the president has the authority to override Congress. The 1973 War Powers Act took away that authority even vis-à-vis war. We are talking here about a congressionally approved foreign aid. If the president had misgivings about it, why didn’t he the Congress's resolution on it?
The finale of the drama will be the much-anticipated testimony by the main villain, Mulvaney, at the Senate trial. The Senate should do everything in its power to get him to testify. Once he spills everything, under oath, at least some Republican senators could open their minds. Once they are convinced that the impeachment of Trump was fully justified, they would join their Democratic colleagues and vote for his removal from office. Do we have enough conscientious Republican senators willing put the country's interests before theirs?
8
@M. P. Prabhakaran Interesting. Someone posted this exact same comment earlier in connection with yet another story.
1
@M. P. Prabhakaran Agreed! However, they won't -all- quit but a sweeping win for the forces of decency and justice-(or at least a lot of Democrats)-will get rid of the whole bunch.
1
Your country is deteriorating, its reputation is fading by the day. Please do something about that as a voter! The world looks at you and trusts your common sense and understanding.
33
Nice job NYT.
11
We must all remember that whatever Trump does, he does to benefit Putin and Russia.
15
@Ilene Don't be fooled. Whatever he does, he does to benefit Trump. If others also get a little something, well that's just the way it is.
2
Thanks for this helpful and clear summary, NYT reporters. This illustrates not only Trump's indifference to violating the law and acting against the best interests of the U.S. when it serves his perceived interests, but the lack of moral courage on the part of the higher-level appointees around him (not to mention the VP and political appointees at every level).
28
The Impoundment Control Act was passed in 1974 after Congress got tired of Nixon impounding funds authorized by Congress. In fact, many presidents dating back to Thomas Jefferson had exercised this authority, and all presidents since Nixon have asked for this power to be restored. Trump is not alone in his belief in the power, but he's the only one who broke the law to get it.
21
The July 25th phone call takes on more clarity as a negotiation, since the money withheld was not for more Javelin anti-tank weapons Zelensky said in the call he wanted to buy.
Javelins are certainly something that Putin did not want to see Ukraine get, and explains why the hold was put on after the call. Zelensky notes later in the call that he is willing to do what Trump wants, which was confirmed by Sondlund the following day.
Ambassador Taylor's nightmare looked inevitable. The added pressure of withholding the arms was to get Zelensky "in a public box." After that happened, Ukraine would probably not geting the aid. Ukrainian sovereignty would become the same dream the Kurdish people once had in Syria.
When Trump released the aid, nearly a third of it had already expired (most added back in by Congress). Were it not for the whistleblower (who is Trump's obsession), and Pelosi's announcing an investigation, Trump would have continued to sit on the aid, and in a few days nearly all of it would have expired as the now-fired Taylor feared.
21
@Carl Lee
Exactly right.
Not only was Trump engaged in a bribery extortion scheme to force Ukraine to help him cheat in the 2020 election, he was going to welch on the quid pro quo agreement to supply the aid after the public announcement of the investigations.
10
I have long admired the work of the three journalists on this byline. However I'm compelled to observe that the conspiracy theories mentioned in this article, about Ukraine interfering in the 2016 election, are not "unfounded" or "overblown": they are discredited and known to be false. To say otherwise is to misrepresent the truth of the matter, and in effect to give support to disinformation having a presumptive Kremlin origin.
42
@Marc Thank you, Marc. You've observed your "compelled" observation now several times in just the last few days. You can relax now.
2
It's easy to blame president Trump for his lack of character, honesty and morals. It seems possible he just doesn't know any better. He does whatever he can get away with.
But Fox News, by their omission of any of this, is doing even greater damage. Since it has become impossible to spin Trump's behavior as making America great again, the folks at Fox News have chosen not to report his crimes at all. You can read about his scandals in the NY Times, or about the budget deficit in the Wall Street Journal, but over at Fox, the big news is how some Texans shot a guy in church who was shooting at them.
29
@JR
Interesting. I hadn't realized, until you pointed it out, that this story was really about Fox News.
5
Excellent reporting.
Please don’t stop.
27
Trump: "Ukraine is corrupt and they own Crowdstrike. They were responsible for opposing my election. Putin told me so." "California can go ahead and burn, because they don't sweep their (Federally owned) forests. And they didn't vote for me." Seeing a pattern her? Narcissistic mob boss in charge, and the Capos respond by jumping.
34
Great article; well sourced, exhaustive and very telling. Too bad it won’t make any difference in the impeachment trial or the coming election. Watching the Republican response to Trump’s retweeting of the whistleblower’s identity, it’s clear there is nothing Trump could do, say or tweet that would weaken his support. Trump’s support comes from the souls of those who feel they have been wronged by the non-White, non-Christian cabal that has taken away their privilege. What news could possibly change their hearts?
24
The House could hold on to the impeachment until, if ever, the Senate agrees to hear evidence. Otherwise, let Trump, to use a phrase of John Erlichman on the Nixon tapes, hang there and "twist slowly in the wind".
25
Yes, not only is Trump extremely worthy of his Impeachment charges, the truth will blacken Republican Senators who defend and ultimately acquit him. Not to mention Mulvaney, Duffey, Pompeo, and others in the Trump administration.
The result of the long battle to bring the truth to the public despite Republican stonewalling, deflection, and outright lying will be a big win for Democrats in 2020.
Trump will be unseated as the man who would be king, then prosecuted for several crimes, and will serve time in prison. Trumpism will become a cautionary tale for the ages.
26
@Dennis | I hope with every fiber of my being that you're right, and I'm not even American.
27
The sad part is that there was only one whistleblower when in fact Trump's actions required an entire marching band.
37
Great observation !
2
As Pelosi rightly said, Trump self impeaches himself every single day. The longer the delay in getting the Articles of Impeachment to the do nothing Senate Majority leader, the more will come out.
31
@Thoughtful1 Maybe, but how much more will it cost us while we're waiting?
The Walter Cronkite Republican notes Senator Graham got it right at the beginning of this debacle: If we nominate Trump, he will destroy us, and we will deserve it.
33
@Gregory West What's a Walter Cronkite Republican? More to the point, how many people remember who Walter Cronkite was?
Maybe today we should be speaking to today's readers.
1
Not really central to the article, but I just freaked out at the idea that the nation's business, even if being dishonestly conducted by Trump, came in second to his scheduled golf game. I don't know how much more of this I can take. Maybe time for a personal news blackout till I can get my head calmed down.
45
Mr. Trump being pictured as a "corruption fighter" is laughable by any standard, given the grift and corruption within the Trump WH and Cabinet. If Mr. Trump and his enablers were sincere in their attempts to withhold funds from Ukraine, why did they not speak before the appropriate House Intelligence or Foreign Affairs Committees to exculpate their actions? So-called "transparency" within Trump's administration is ludicrous beyond belief. Indeed, as a fellow commentator noted, one needs to wonder what more has been transpiring within this administration in terms of funding, security, and other matters.
27
This put a bit more color on this picture of a scrambling administration trying to implement illegal edicts from their bosses. Seem like what corporate America "Enron style" works. The ends justifying the means... it is Ok if you don't get caught.
Thanks god for the whistle blower to elevate all of this corrupt activities into the light of Judicial oversight. A Judicial oversight that also was not doing much to get congress involved.
Thanks to investigative journalism the hold did crack.
25
Throughout the world it seems that some men who never grow up find a new playpen in politics. Too bad the toys are lethal.
17
I wonder if Republicans in the Congress can look themselves in the mirror, once NYT and WP are done with their revelations regarding Trump and Giuliani's Ukrainian adventures.
15
Either we are a nation of laws, or we are not. It is that simple. The place-holder POTUS ignores laws, not that he knows they exist, but because he is so inept, incompetent, and totally unprepared for the awesome responsibilities required for the office of the Presidency, he seems to be of the understanding Americans work for him, not the other way around as outlined in the Constitution. Not only has he violated the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, in which he is required, by law, to inform Congress of any impoundment of appropriated funds, he violated it for his own 2020 campaign, not for the interests of the American people whom he WORKS FOR. It ought to be obvious to even the most skeptical, after 15,413 lies (Dec 27th), crude vulgar, childish, narcissistic behavior, a plethora of evidence sowing chaos and mismanagement within his administration ( a method of "control" for the most insecure), a revolving door of the most corrupt cabinet officials in any administration, this POTUS has no business occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. For the sake and continued survival of our precious republic, this "imposter" must be removed from office; one he had no business occupying.
31
Very good work. But this reference to "unfounded or overblown theories about Ukraine interfering in the 2016 election."
I'm sorry, "overblown"? Is there any reason not to characterize these theories as "false," or as "Russian disinformation"?
22
It's amazing how much damage one man and his sycophants can produce.
I would say, "God help America," but the real solution will be "voters help America."
23
@Steve
Your comment made me laugh, many true a word said in jest...
I must say that I have more faith in "God help America" than "Voters help America".... which is messed up because I'm an Atheist
:-S
2
So, do I have this right? A guy who looted his charitable foundation to fund vanity purchases and pay some bills, a guy who paid $25m to settle a claim of fraudulent practices by Trump University, a guy who paid out hundred and forty thousand dollars to silence a porn star about his marital infidelity, a guy, who last count, has made over 13 thousand false or misleading claims since assuming office - is concerned about corruption in Ukraine?
Trump has learned from the best. Who knew he had ever read Baudelaire who wrote: ‘The Devil’s cleverest wile is to make men believe that he does not exist.’
29
Impeach this corrupt president. Oh wait...we already did.
13
I love the depth of this reporting, but it could use an executive summary. Would that be amiss in this sort of journalism?
4
Congratulations on this well-researched article. It attempts to and largely succeeds in establishing some order on what was going on in the summer of 2019. In a sense it undermines the claims of the first article of impeachment. Maybe that's why Ms. Pelosi is hesitant to send them to the Senate, knowing that this article will be quickly set aside.
6
And at the end of the 83 days Ukraine was given the lethal aid to wage war on Russia. Since then, Ukraine and Russia have agreed a seize fire, with the help of Marcron of France, and completed a pack to build a second gas pipeline to Europe through Ukraine so that Russia can have a reliable source of hard currency from the EU. Russia gets the added benefit of making our our NATO allies dependent on her for energy. Win win for all involved, excepting of course the USA.
8
@Mkm Ukraine is defending itself from Russian aggression as Russian forces invaded its territory and has been killing thousands of Ukrainians. Javelins, as Putin knows, will be valuable in preventing Russian tanks from invading Ukrainian land.
2
Republican enablers help Trump because they think or thought that they can control Trump and get him to approve programs and policies and deals that others less willing to bend the rule would not. They are backing Trump not because they are afraid of him, but because they get to stay in power and periodically they get him to give them what they have been pushing for decades.
20
And by the way, Republican Trump-enablers, when exactly did President Zelensky have his White House meeting with Mr. Trump, since you assert that Ukraine ultimately got everything it wanted?
We see world leaders meeting with Trump every week, many of them sitting by his side in stunned silence as the president initiates yet another tirade against those who have dared to criticize his actions. Yet Mr. Zelensky has yet to receive the prestige and world attention of a White House meeting with the president.
Meanwhile, Trump engages in another lengthy phone conversation with Putin this very weekend. We know because the Kremlin reported the phone call; the White House made no mention of it.
But, of course, all of this is just "perfect".
39
@pczisny Maybe Zelensky should wait until Jan 2021.
Kudos to Lipton, Haberman, and Mazzetti. They are the best journalists in the country. And thank heavens for their dogged work.
29
WE need to hold it up. He meant we need to hold them (the congress) up. If there is now any doubt by anyone that Trump and gang did this knowingly and purposefully then they have been asleep for the past year.
McConnell and Graham and the rest need to admit yes he did it it was a bad idea but we approve regardless. We accept that bribery and extortion and interference in our election is is a new repub policy. It will be written in .
6
While this abominable assault on US policy was initiated by Trump, it could not have proceeded w/o the support of his many enablers in the WH, OMB and Congress. It is clear that there were many individuals who could have pulled the plug on this gambit before the whistle blower reported his/her concerns with "the call" in the context of the hold in aid to Ukraine. Americans of any political leaning should be appalled by this episode. For our Democracy to succeed, all involved, including appointed and elected officials as well as voters, must respect the "rules of the road" and speak out when other don't follow them.
19
Not as important as the rampant corruption by trump in the story, but rather telling that an important conference call on this national security issue could not occur due to a round of golf with John Daly.
17
Today on CNN, a commentator asked a republican senator from Tennessee whether he believed Russia was our enemy. The senator stumbled as he said yes, then added "but I like the way Trump is handling it."
Isn't it high time this question was asked of all US senators and House representatives?
Also, the president and every member of the White staff and his cabinet should be asked that question.
Khrushchev once said Russia will take you over without firing a shot. Are we at that point now?
27
That Trump withheld military aid to the Ukraine is not refutable. Nor is the fact that he did so illegally, in that he did not notify Congress. But the intent is a bit more muddy. The Democrats claim that the intent was to find dirt on one of his political foes. The Republicans claim it was an effort to address corruption in the Ukraine vis-a-vis Biden's confession to withholding a billion dollars of aid while serving as Vice President unless the Ukraine stopped the investigation into his son. If it had been a Republican ally that Trump wished to investigate instead of Biden, the intent would have been perceived as in order. If Biden did nothing wrong, and no "dirt" would be discovered, the entire event would probably have never occurred. And, he would not announce that he would refuse to testify about the matter.I think it's clear that both Trump and Biden used quid pro quo illegally and both should be investigated and castigated equally.
1
Actually, you have your facts wrong. What Biden did was perfectly legal, since it did not involve withholding funds specifically authorized by Congress and approved for release by the Pentagon. These were discretionary loan guarantees. Also, his demands on Ukraine were fully in line with US foreign policy and actually were trying to force removal of a prosecutor who was NOT investigating Burisma, or any other potentially corrupt company. So if anything, his actions had a greater chance of hurting his son than helping him, so there simply is no there there. The same can’t be said for Trump. Whether he just wanted dirt on Biden or his motives were also influenced by his hate for Ukraine and for foreign aid in general, what Trump did was clearly not in the best interests of the USA.
12
@B.T. What!!!??? Please research your facts. At the behest of the EU and the ENTIRE US government including republicans, money was withheld from, the then, corrupt Ukrainian government. There was nothing shady or underhanded going on.
8
@David L Of course, he has his facts wrong. If he had them right, he'd have nothing to say. And he's still so anxious to demolish Biden, even though most readers don't even know whom or what he's talking about.
6
This is the "brilliance" of Trump's mendacity. He gives his lap dogs plenty of leash to do his bidding so that he can plausibly claim that he was unaware of the "details" that may rise to the level of criminal activity or impeachable offense (see also today's story about Giuliani "going rogue" in Venezuela. Then, to ensure none of the dots are connected to Trump, he invokes executive privilege and attorney-client privilege and is willing to take everything to court which will, at the very, least run out the clock. This should not surprise any of us.
It is the same game plan he executed to steamroll his competitors, contractors, employees, etc. throughout his entire business career. When you have money, in the case of his business, and power, in the case of his control over the 3 branches of government and the GOP, combined with an absolute absence of any sense of ethics or morality, you can get away with this.
11
As I read this report, I keep wondering: who or what was behind Trump’s strongly held notion to block the military aid to Ukraine. I keep coming up with only one answer: Putin.
28
Perhaps Times reporters could ask tangential questions of the administration to rebuke the claims that Trump is so interested in punishing corruption. We've recently been alerted to the massive corruption in Afghanistan. Billions diverted to corrupt officials and no doubt a boondoggle for defense contractors. Has Trump ordered any withholding of aid to Afghanistan. How about Saudi Arabia? Of course not. Joe Biden's son hasn't worked in these places.
24
This is so obviously wrong. There is a separation of powers for a reason. Congress controls the purse strings. The money for the aid had already been appropriated by Congress. The president ordered a hold on the aid until Ukraine would agree to investigate an American Citizen who was a member of the opposition party. This is Nixonian an is blatantly illegal. Why is is acceptable for any president to do this?
If this president is allowed to get away with this, what is to stop him from doing it again? The question that citizens must ask themselves is: Is it acceptable for a president to ask a foreign country to investigate an American citizen for the president's political gain?
As the truth comes out bit by bit, it is increasingly clear that the Senate trial should not be started until all the evidence has been gathered.
13
Trump frequently uses the word "coup" to describe the action by the Democrats to impeach him. However, the real coup is occurring in real time in this administration. And the coup is against the Constitution.
When a non-government employee such as Rudy enters the picture and conducts a shadow foreign policy on behalf of the president and both use the rationale of attorney-client privilege to maintain the secrecy of that policy, then what else do we have but a coup against the Constitution?
Republicans in the Senate are now making the argument that their pending trial of the president is not a legal trial. They can act as judge and jury. Based on what we have heard to date from this group of sycophants, evidently the term "high crimes and misdemeanors" does not include a coup against the Constitution. If that doesn't, indeed I wonder what does.
12
If the president of the United States can usurp the authority of Congress and withhold necessary funds for a country fighting Russian aggression, then we have taken more steps toward a dictatorship in this country. This is not a partisan matter anymore. These actions of the president threaten our Democracy.
18
Great piece of reporting!! I'm curious that why wasn't the President advised besides, "Congress would become unhinged", these actions could be impeachable? Perhaps those words could have changed his mind. Maybe that was the idea....
7
@Eric Interestingly, Gen Kelly told Trump not to replace him with a 'yes man' because-if he did-he would be impeached. There are many in the White House-and now-out of it-who do understand 'what is happening in our country.
2
In addition to the treason, it seems a lot of Trump and his people's work was just good old-fashioned line-their-pockets corruption.
14
Exactly! How many Trump cronies and Administration officials are making big bucks in Ukraine, following in the footsteps of Giuliani and Manafort? Just follow the money — that’s what Mueller should have done.
6
I would love to know how many of our senators will actually read this amazing reporting.
17
@Backwash Most of them will read it, or at least part of it. What's more important is that their constituents become aware of all this.
4
Great reporting, a very thorough, informative and coherent article that sheds new light on this matter. It provides further proof of the corrupt intent of Mulvaney and his lack of concern about what is in the best interest of our nation. The fact that Trump's golf plans can't be interrupted to deal with something as important as aid for an ally in active conflict with our primary adversary shows how incompetent Trump and his administration are. It is another sad, depressing example of how dysfunctional our government has become under this administration.
16
After reading this along with other articles which lay out facts, etc., I would have thought that some of Trump’s base would desert him.
However, after reading yesterday’s article about “Trumpstock”, I realize that I gave too much credit to his base.
Many , perhaps most, know who and what Trump is...they don’t care. At bedrock, they are like him.
18
@Patrick alexander You're assuming that THEY read it too.
Why would they? It would only contradict the "truth" they've been fed.
1
The obvious solution to this problem is to remove tRump from the position of decision maker. Impeach him and everything will be solved. We have the Pentagon, OMB, Bolton, Pompeo and Mulvaney running around trying to satisfy and appease this one person who is the creator of all of the chaos. They should all testify to the truth of the matter and remove tRump. Then finally this country can get on the governing for all the people. We the country can deal with a Pence for the next year. Let's just do it.
10
“This is in America’s interest,”
They should have known that approach wouldn't work with Trump. He couldn't care less about America's interest, only his own.
16
Trump and his Republican co-conspirators have decided that Trump can do whatever he wants, and that his commands have replaced the rule of law.
The response in defense of America has proven to be mild at best.
It is hard to fathom how easy it is to damage or destroy the country.
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.”
- WH Auden
7
Several critical events were glossed over in this excellent chronology. The legally required transmission of the whistleblower's letter, which was dated August 12, 2019, to Congress, was held up for nearly a month, because the letter had been referred to the Barr Justice Dept. for possible criminal violations of campaign finance laws.
The Justice Dept. then notified the WH general counsel about the existence of the letter (this is how Trump found out about the complaint). The Justice Dept. delayed the IG's submission of the complaint to Congress beyond the statutory deadline, while it made its absurd finding that no laws were violated because the Ukranian Biden investigation was not a "thing of value" to Trump.
Meanwhile, Adam Schiff had gotten wind of the withholding of the whistleblower letter and went public with the delay over the Labor Day weekend. It was the resulting Congressional pressure that finally forced the IG to transmit the letter to Congress on Sept. 9. In turn, it was the Sept. 9 IG transmission that ultimately forced the release of the Ukranian military aid.
This is all critical because, shockingly, as a result of this delay, Trump nearly got away with his bribery scheme. As we now know, the American TV interview with Zelensky, in which he was to announce the Biden investigation, had been scheduled for CNN on Sept. 22. Had the complaint not been released by then, the interview would have gone through and Biden smeared, exactly what Trump had wanted.
21
@John M It is actually rather 'wonderful' that so much of the facts of this debacle have been published, and read, by so many in this country and abroad. Small libraries have been collected about the malfeasance of this man and his collaborators. Election boards are anticipating a large turnout next November 3. We know and we will vote.
2
It isn’t just Trump but the people he’s appointed who need to go- Pompeo, Mulvaney, and all the ‘acting’ holders of office who just do his bidding.
11
@Lev Or is it the other way around?
1
You know that scene at the very end of Raiders of the Lost Ark where the ark (and with it the whole story that precedes) is crated up and stored away for eternity? That’s what I imagine reality will be doing to this amazingly enlightening reporting. Thanks, New York Times, and condolences, America.
7
I hope the Pulitzer Prize Board is paying close attention because Maggie Haberman, Eric Lipton, and Mark Mazzetti have done it again with this story, which should be right up there in nominations for the public service category. Thank you for your continued excellence in journalism, which may just end up saving our democracy.
17
This article convinces me even more that Trump was holding back the money because of corruption and wasted spending by the US and not on the condition that Ukraine announces an investigation of the Bidens. Hopefully, we will see a quick end to this nonsense in the Senate.
1
@Rob A - I suppose it's easy to come to that conclusion if you don't actually bother reading it.
11
@Rob A "corruption and wasted spending?"
The man from Mar-a-Lago ?
2
The issue is more complex than the article makes it seem. The Congressional Research Office provides a through analysis of the Impoundment Control Act issue at https://www.gao.gov/assets/700/695889.pdf.
However, an Office of Management and Budget letter to the Government Accountability Office debunked the claim that the temporary hold on Ukrainian Security Assistant Initiative (USAI) funds left Ukrainian soldiers in dire straits. OMB said the impact was “miniscule.”
According to OBM the Department of Defense “did not plan to obligate most of the USAI funds until September, and most of that amount in mid-to-late September.” OMB removed the hold on USAI funds on September 12. So the hold delayed the obligation of funds only a few days, if at all. Ukraine may never have learned there was a temporary hold if Politico had not published an artful about it on August 28.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/military-aid-to-ukraine-white-house-budget-office-justifies-freeze-in-new-letter/
A careful reading of this article makes it clear that a quid pro quo has not been established beyond a reasonable doubt. (And it's fun to see the Times now hold up Bolton as a figure of moral rectitude.)
Trump felt strongly about both Ukrainian corruption and Europe's need to shell out. The article does not show that Trump personally demanded the investigations before releasing aid.
Reference is made to an article in the "conservative" Washington Examiner (why does the Times not refer to the Washington Post, CNN, or MSNBC as "liberal"?). Yet this and previous stories which refer to the Examiner article never mention the substance of that piece.
What did it say which might have influenced Trump? Did it suggest using aid as a means of compelling Ukraine to investigate the Biden's? I suspect not, since the national media certainly would not have let that go unmentioned. It's more likely that the Examiner article supports the view that Trump withheld aid for reasons having nothing to do with investigating the Biden's.
1
@HurryHarry - Have you looked at the number of Trump cronies in jail or awaiting prosecution?
How about the number of Trump cabinet members caught in corrupt activity?
Trump's only interest in corruption is how he can use it to benefit himself and Putin.
11
@HurryHarry Slow down Hurry and actually read the rest of the paper.
2
@DR - in this country we don't believe in guilt by association. Paul Manafort cheating on his taxes does not support the case that Trump demanded a quid pro quo with Ukraine. In fact, nowhere in this article is there evidence specifically tying Trump to a quid pro quo.
Bribery and extortion are federal crimes. Trump is quite obviously guilty of both felonies. It is time - past time -to remove him from office.
12
Trump's enduring future legacy:
The National Playground Bully Registry.
6
This excellent investigative reporting unravels the tangled web of the Trump administration's corruption and deception in the Ukraine saga. Imagine the depths of what can further be exposed by revealing and examining Trump's secretive conversations with Putin and his equally secretive tax returns. We must count on reporters like these at the NYT to keep on digging for the truth. They are the true allies of the American people, not the enemies.
13
@Helen unravels a small piece of the "tangled web."
This piece gives great context to Trump administration and all of its corrupt behavior from the Border to the USDA. If there was any question about the fitness of this President and his questionably reluctant enablers, this piece gives the answer. Trump's focus on the whistleblower highlights the ignorance and moral depravity of a chief executive who knowingly works against the tenets of our Constitutional Republic. Vote Him Out 2020!
5
President Trump’s decision that the law doesn’t apply to him has brought us closer to a Constitutional crisis. Had necessary checks and balances not been in place, the president would have continued in secret to withhold aid to Ukraine indefinitely.
All of the truth of this scheme is coming to the surface, but it has been slowed by the obfuscation coming from the White House. This president has carried on a secret war against the authority of the Congress in its Constitutional duties.
People can no longer remain silent opposing this president’s idea that he can do anything he wants with this nation and with its government. It is time Americans started raising their voices against a president who believes acting as a tyrant is acceptable.
William Manchester, in his amazing history of the United States entitled, “The Glory and the Dream,” quoted Edward R. Murrow during the dark days of Senator Joe McCarthy. Murrow said, “This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy’s methods to remain silent. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities.”
It is time to raise the volume of dissent against Trump’s autocratic rule in our democracy.
697
@John Trump could have taken the constitutional route and vetoed aid to Ukraine if he felt that American tax dollars were being misused by a corrupt Ukrainian government. This was not what happened. Trump wanted "a favor, though" = something of value for Ukraine in exchange for something of value for Donald Trump, not for the benefit of the American people. End of story.
No matter how Republicans spin it they appear foolish. Time for a replacement in the White House. No delusional "reality TV" personality, please. We need a real human being with real moral upbringing who can undo the farce Trump has made of the Presidency and of the American Government, which should be "For the People", not a government for the Republican Party and those who have paid for the members of Congress they control.
91
@RLW He could of course had vetoed the bill, but it was apparently adopted by a veto-proof majority and would have been overridden. There are two possiblities: he didn't want to take the heat for vetoing the bill, so he thought he could just unilaterally put a hold on it, or maybe the order from the Kremlin came in after it was too late to veto it. This is transparently what Putin wanted him to do.
38
@RLW End of story?
Oh, how I wish it were !
11
Outstanding reporting.
Please put together a similar piece that details Devin Nunes' role in all of this. I'll bet he has a pile of skeletons in every closet in his house.
18
Too bad Trump didn't just follow Obama's policy of denying all lethal aid to Ukraine in the first place..send Don Jr over there and strong arm him onto a high paying board of directors gig. Should have just played the game like Biden el al.
1
@Lane huh?
and what does "lethal aid" even mean? we're killing those who receive it ?
4
The way this story reads makes it sound less about politics (i.e. Biden investigation) and more about Trump hating Ukraine. That would point the finger more at Trump doing Putin's bidding that was the #1 motivator here, even more than the politics. The biggest shoes that haven't dropped on this story are how was Putin pulling the strings here and how was Trump personally making money by shaking down Ukraine in concert with Parnas and Guiliani (Trump hates people making money off his celebrity without him getting a cut)
10
Yes, to carry out HIS personal agenda, not OURS.
9
How did the alternate Right and the Freedom Caucus, ostensibly fiscal conservatives and Christian Evangelicals, become persuaded that Russian National Interests should supersede US National Interests. How did they become persuaded that McCain, the Khan family, children lost to their families and imprisoned, and/or more recently Rep Dingle, should be regarded as an enemy but not Putin?
White Christian Nationalism is how Putin sells himself to Catholic Conservatives and Evangelicals as the savior of the White Race.
Putin pushes this narrative with the help of his propaganda machine the Russian Military GRU.; and yet Putin is no more religious than Trump.. they use other peoples belief systems as a weapon against them to manipulate them.. a very old KGB tactic.
Trump is pro Russian.
10
@gardener in the
"How did the alternate Right and the Freedom Caucus, ostensibly fiscal conservatives and Christian Evangelicals, become persuaded that Russian National Interests should supersede US National Interests"
All republican candidates been supplied with an endless stream of koch/mercer/adelson monies and have been told what to support, who to support, and how to support them, or else they'll face a challenger during their next election who will receive all their money, and then some, and those who fail in their rigid support will receive nothing, and lose.
Now, someone tell me how George Soros, who supports positive initiatives, is somehow the equivalent of these despicable people? He's not.
3
The GOP defense rests on the claim that Democrats are simply sore losers. They say Democrats and the liberal media have had it out for Trump since the moment he declared his candidacy.
Now why would elected officials and news organizations be so suspicious, concerned and upset over a man who was:
1. bankrupt twice.
2. a failed casino owner.
3. responsible for overt scams like Trump University.
4. a megalomaniacal narcissist who slaps his name in giant, gold letters over everything he owns.
5. a reality TV star.
6. known to promote baseless conspiracies like President Obama's "fake" birth certificate.
7. I could go on...
I wonder... why do so many people have such "unfounded" contempt for the Trump "presidency?"
14
'But a hurricane was bearing down on the United States, and Mr. Trump sent Vice President Mike Pence in his place.'
I thought I'd misread this, but no.
10
@FMW Yes, and Trump promptly headed for his NJ golf course.
8
This is another example of a lawless president. The law required that if the aid was put on hold, the Executive had to notify Congress. Of course this administration ignored the law. The Republican Party is as lawless as the president. If we did not have a Democratic House, the aid would have probably not been released and the will of Congress would have been frustrated. Trump and his administration have gotten into the nasty habit of ignoring the law to suit their needs every chance they get. America was a beacon because you could always depend on the rule of law. Not any more.
7
Everything this administration does now looks suspicious. I hope the NYT will revisit Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement, and the role his son, Justin, may have played with the Trump Organization and Deutsche bank.
12
Why does foreign aid to Ukraine look so much like aid to U.S. weapons manufacturers? This seems like a big, dirty circle to me.
4
@S Baldwin
Because it is.
"Foreign Aid" in this situation, is mostly, but not all, credits with which to purchase American military hardware. It's how the USA maintains presence in a lot of the world.
2
The complex importance of our national security in the Ukraine saga is not likely to be understood by many Trump supporters nor do they care. "We're #1" is all that matters. Their strongman president can do no wrong for he is their patriotic hero defending the U.S from all perceived enemies around the globe who are trying to rip us off. Facts as those exposed in this article are simply discarded as "fake news."
7
This article should have been entitled "Trump's Deep State".
10
“They are all corrupt, they are all terrible people,” Mr. Trump said, according to testimony in the impeachment inquiry.
Well, well, well, Captain Projection strikes again!
11
Any news on how many Ukrainians needlessly died during those 84 days? Oh, I remember. It doesn't matter.
10
I hope the Democrats have learned something from this experience.
The GOP started trampling on the Constitution a while ago and the Democrats did nothing.
Continue to do nothing.
There is more that one way to secede from a Constitution.
1
Would you buy a used car from this man?
6
So how many of Trump's campaign folks are in prison now? 4,5, 6? Poor Trump. Everyone is trying to bring him down. Rudy is working with the commies just to make Trump look bad and everyone else just lies to him. My question is who has the Ostrich jacket now? Put that on with a Trumpy Bear Impeachment hat and you too can be a winner.
6
Madame Speaker saw self-impeachment long before most of her Democratic Caucus in the House who were calling for outright impeachment after Mueller Report was released did. She calmed frayed nerves by these beautiful prescient words " give him time, he will self-impeach". Alas the president pressed the red button all by himself.
Now by delaying the transmittal of articles of impeachment to the Senate. It appears Speaker Pelosi sees a path to self-conviction as well as more damning evidence and information come to light before Senate trial commences. Even the mighty McConnell decked in all his political ingenuity and chicanery (dubious) glory won't be able to manage this impending train wreck.
9
I have just unpacked this article on my whiteboard.
Besides Trump and the Ukrainian head of state, 14 officials of the Trump Admin are named; three legal offices (W.H., OMB, and State; no names); four departments (State, Pentagon, OMB, White House [both OMB and NSC]); 12 exact dates, four approximate dates, three cities, and one golf course.
Is today the 12th day of Christmas?
13
I cannot understand how the Republicans can continue to ignore the clear evidence that trump abused his power. So far not one gop member has provided any defense of these actions. How can they support the fact that trump willfully ignored the wishes of Congress? They are making themselves obsolete to the detriment of our country. Shameful!
8
We are fast on our way to becoming a banana republic. Republicans are fine with it though since they have a bunch of new federal judges to impose Evangelical White Supremacy on the land.
Imagine being so sacred of someone who isn’t white that you be willing to give up your freedom.
9
@Sterling
Indeed, the US economy is shrinking to the point where we will be, sooner or later, dependent on the export of bananas in order to survive.
2
@matty But no! the US cannot grow bananas. Unless! with global warming?
1
Mulvaney used to be a deficit hawk.
Now he is the presidents pawn.
Sad.
8
There is no confusion.
There is a treason against USA by Trump and GOP leadership; nakedly supported by 30% of our GOP voters.
9
Quid pro Dough.
Thanks, GOP.
11
Gordon Sondland under oath and as a Trump campaign donor of big money, said all the high up Trump people knew and were in the loop. Connect the dolts.
13
It sickens me to read this account.
8
I'll still take "big" Mick Mulvaney's words he initially uttered on television which I heard him say: There was a quid pro quo!
Mick. Get over it!
10
At last glance,Ukraine was still owed some 35 million.Is that still outstanding?
Our carelessly cruel illegitimate president has also withheld millions of dollars from Puerto Rico.Is he pocketing all this money?
Wouldn't put it past him.
8
It’s for his golfing week-ends: 296 millions.
5
Come on Mr. Bolton. Now is the time to be an American. Speak up.
13
The most damning point is that the genuflecting sycophants in Trump’s cabal “had grown used to convention-flouting requests from the West Wing.” But that somehow implies they might have once questioned his immorality, whereas they have gleefully and enthusiastically supported everything he has said or done no matter how venal, lawless or immoral. this is the most disturbing, the bank robber needs a getaway driver. The murder needs an accomplice to hide him. The thief needs help to launder his I’ll gotten gains. They all need help, and the law puts them away in prison because they all aid and abet the crime. So will justice prevail one day when the evil deeds of Trumps helpers in the Republican Party and the White House are eventually revealed.
5
The following people should be subpoenaed to testify since they consulted together and drafted the legal argument for Trump’s action after the fact.
William Barr (AG)
Tyler McGaughey (Barr’s son in law, WH attorney)
Mark Paoletta (counsel for the OMB)
Michael Duffey (associate director for national security programs at the OMB)
John Eisenberg (NSC lead attorney)
Pat Cipollone (WH attorney)
Michael Williams (counselor to Mulvaney)
Brian Benczkowski (head of DOJ criminal division)
Jeffrey Rosen (deputy AG)
Russell T. Vought (the acting director at OMB)
Robert Blair (assistant to the president and senior adviser to Mulvaney)
14
I would include Rudy Giuliani and Roger Stone.
However, they are such proficient liars that nothing that they might say could be trusted.
The benefit of such testimony is that Giuliani and Stone could then be tried and convicted for lying under oath and sent to prison. (Stone could have time added to his time.)
9
So many cowards and scoundrels in "service" to our country. Depressing and frightening.
9
This is why I gladly subscribe to the New York TImes and the Washington Post. Both produce great investigative journalism and outstanding writing.
Thank you, NYT, for your excellent work!
55
Yes, prompt disbursement of the aid would have been in the interests of the United States. But it was not in Mr. Trump's perceived interests, so he (again) sacrificed his nation's interest to his own.
This is our leader.
58
ding ding. we have a winner.
6
I find it curious that Pence isn’t mentioned in this discussion. We know he went to Poland to meet with Zelensky right before the aid was released. But he’s absent from these other meetings? Plausible deniability?
41
Pence's sole job as Vice is to stand alongside Trump in the photos with that admiring Nancy Reagan look on his face all the while saying to himself under his breath " I just can't say no." Unfortunately, when he steps in to take over the presidency, he would have learned nothing useful that is in the national interest.
9
Speaker Pelosi should withhold the impeachment indictment from the Senate until either Senate Republicans agree to hear from Mulvaney and others identified in this article or the Supreme Court rules that Congressional subpoenas must be obeyed and the House takes testimony and evidence. The Court will rule by June. Hearings and an impeachment trial in July are not ideal, but essential if Senator McConnell and Senate Republicans insist on a fake trial of President Trump.
37
Would someone please explain to me why Trump’s tax returns cannot be readily obtained. My naive view is that the tax returns of any public servant should be made available upon request to ensure compliance of that public servant to the rule of law.
36
appeals. Trumps strategy to win any lawsuit has been revealed: just keep appealing until the other side runs out of money now of course we the taxpayers have more money so it goes to the supreme court. ridiculous that justice is this perverted by people like Trump
7
“Price he was willing to pay?”
You really are giving dt more credit than he deserves. He has no long term consequences in mind or anticipation about any of his actions.
23
“Expect Congress to become unhinged” if the White House tried to countermand spending passed by the House and Senate - how quaint! As if congressional Republicans had a shred of self-respect for their institution or its core functions of appropriation and checks & balances on the executive branch. Trump got his orders on May 5 from Putin to withhold the aid and all but a few (Sens Johnson and Portman) were - and are - perfectly willing to fall into line. The Republicans’ cries now of Democrat hyper-partisanship in pursuing impeachment and removal only underscore this truth: if “hyperpartisanship” is what it takes to protect the institutions of our democracy, bring it.
40
@LRosenthal
Ah, no. It underscores their sheer ignorance of an investigatory stage of this process. It wasn't the time or the place to be screaming about due process or calling witnesses and demanding cross examinations..... it was an investigation. And these ignorant people never ceased letting loose, and deliberately misinforming their constituents.
Now comes the TRIAL phase, where they're no longer concerned with any process, due or not, or witnesses. They endeavor to produce a show TRIAL, the very thing they wrongly accused the investigatory phase of being, and they're laughing in your face about it.
3
This article, the most detailed to date on what happened with U.S. aid to Ukraine, illustrates an important governing principle in the Trump administration: When all about you is chaos and the true facts are unknown, all decisions default to the person at the top. Thus it becomes possible for political appointees to strong arm the State Department and the Pentagon to withhold aid to Ukraine even if doing so violates the law and has no articulated rationale.
The rationale is entirely in Trump's head. We can infer it from the players in this matter, but in the chaos of the Trump administration, their information is imperfect. The clearest statement comes in the rough transcript of Trump's July 25th call with Zelensky, where he asks the Ukraine president to "do us a favor, though" and investigate the Bidens and Ukraine's role in the 2016 election.
More details on this matter will emerge, but the outlines are clear based on the rough transcript. It strains credulity to argue that the withholding of aid for Ukraine and Trump's desire to see an investigation of the Bidens and Ukraine's role in the 2016 election are purely coincidental.
18
@J.C. Hay, 45 didn't. Really want an investigation, merely an announcement that one was intended. Just to throw shade on his leading contender.
2
The obvious reason trump became interested in Ukraine is that Putin wanted him to be interested. trump is and has been pushing the Russian line and he never disobeys Putin. I'd sure like to know what Putin has on him. The Steele dossier tells us some of it and it has never been disproved.
37
@Bill how does this make any sense at all? First, how does President Trump providing military aide to Ukraine help Putin? This is the complete opposite of helping Putin. President Trump has done more to help Ukraine in 2 years then Obama did in 8 years. Aside from that, you can’t be serious with the Steele Dossier comment. Have you completely ignored the IG Horowitz report? The Steele dossier is anything but truthful. There is nothing in the Steele dossier that has been proven truthful or accurate.
@Thesilentones - Please stop repeating silly right wing talking points.
Trump couldn't find Ukraine on a map. Congress authorized that aid and Trump did his best to thwart it.
7
@Thesilentones If you bother to look up what's been corroborated by the Mueller report, you'd know there's quite a bit there. Tell me what's proven false. I know of one or two things but it's largely stood the test of time.
trump has only helped Ukraine when he's been forced to. He is actively promoting the theory, with absolutely no proof, that Ukraine hacked the DNC server and that they have it in Ukraine.
5
“Expect Congress to become unhinged” if the White House tried to countermand spending passed by the House and Senate - how quaint! As if congressional Republicans had a shred of self-respect for their institution or its core functions of appropriation and checks & balances on the executive branch. Trump got his orders on May 3 from Putin to withhold the aid and all but a few (Sens Johnson and Portman) were - and are - perfectly willing to fall into line. The Republicans’ cries now of Democrat hyper-partisanship in pursuing impeachment and removal only underscore this truth: if “hyperpartisanship” is what it takes to protect the institutions of our democracy, bring it.
5
Strangely enough, this article actually calls into question the received opinion that Trump was basically acting out of his desire to prove that his 2016 election was legitimate and to harm Joe Biden whom he considered his most serious Democratic rival. That is the theory that I have always supported.
But what if Trump is just a cranky 72 - year old Fox TV watcher who decided to fight corruption in Ukraine? Since he knows nothing about what is actually happening in the world and refuses to listen to our intelligence services, maybe he just acted on the conspiracy theories that are currently popular on Fox News and the right wing media and really thought he was fighting corruption when he asked Zelensky to investigate Fox's favorite conspiracy theories?
I think that that is entirely possible. We may be dealing with a low information president who is simply following Hannity's directions and investigating the issues that Fox News thinks worthy of investigation?
4
The trump intelligence is not in doubt, it is low, but not the question. On many matters he is being “fed” by fox opinion, but in many cases he is just doing his handlers bidding, Putin and MBS hold his purse strings, he is following their orders. Any other notion of trump working for America is a fallacy. We have to make America great again by getting rid of the grifter in our White House.
8
It would be enlightening to see a similar narrative regarding the Justice Department’s decision not to pursue an investigation of this matter.
(Also the “overblown” language seems designed to cede ground to the idea that op-eds constitute election interference. Not on the same level as hacking the DNC.)
7
Pelosi needs to keep her powder dry and allow journalists more time to continue turning over rocks to find previously unnamed participants in this drug deal. In this one article, we hear more names: Duffey, Blair, McCusker, and the three national security hacks -Pompeo, Bolton and Esper- who we’re totally apprised of Trump’s scheme and knew it was wrong. Sunshine is the best disinfectant.
Let the pundits and McConnell cast doubt on Pelosi’s strategy. The Speaker knows what she’s doing.
29
@Vernon Rail I can’t help wondering if she has sources telling her there’s more coming.
4
@Susan Well, of course! I know that there is "more coming".
1
The article asserts that "American diplomats used the withheld aid as leverage in the effort to win a public commitment from the new Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to carry out the investigations Mr. Trump sought into Mr. Biden and unfounded or overblown theories about Ukraine interfering in the 2016 election.” This false assertion appears to be based solely on Ambassador Gordon Sondland’s conflicting testimony.
Sondland testified, “I do not recall any discussions with the White House on withholding U.S. security assistance from Ukraine in return for assistance with the President’s 2020 re-election campaign.” In the addendum to his initial testimony, Sondland testified, “I did not know (and still don’t know) when, why, or by whom the aid was suspended. However, by the beginning of September 2019, and in the absence of any credible explanation for the suspension of aid, I presumed that the aid suspension had become linked to the proposed anticorruption statement.” Based on this presumption, Sondland testified that he told Yermak that “resumption of U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks.” This was a prediction that proved inaccurate.
The other U.S. officials who directly engaged with Zelenksy and his aides—Ambassador Kurt Volker and White House liaison Timothy Morrison—testified there was no quid pro quo attached to military aid.
2
@William Case
The democrats' case for impeachment is as weak as their case for Russian collusion. They have connected "dots" to try to construct a case but that does not a real case make.
They're just dragging the nation through another of their political escapades.
1
@William Case Sorry but this argument is simply not convincing when considered with a modicum of common sense. However, if this is the best defense that can be offered, let the other first hand witnesses — Giuliani, Mulveney, Bolton, etc. — come forward during the Senate trial to testify under oath to corroborate this defense.
6
@William Case But we all heard Mulvaney’s confirmation of the quid pro quo, and David Holmes’ testimony about Sondland’s remarks.
2
"But they waited to set a final time because Mr. Trump had a golf game planned for Monday morning with John Daly..."
Never mind making the interests of the United Staes a priority. Even when they are committing crimes, this criminal enterprise ensures that GOLF remains the interest which receives full prioritization.
28
Interesting confirmation of Taylor's email objection - that Ukraine would agree to the investigations Trump wanted, but still would not get the aid. Trump wanted to fulfill his obligations to Putin by weakening Ukraine's bargaining position in its attempts to bring an end to their war. He also embraced Giuliani's dirty tricks advice to leverage withholding of aid in order to extort Ukraine to engage in investigations that offered nothing for Ukraine but much political upside for Trump. So after his call with the clear "ask/threat" to Ukraine, Trump promptly ordered withholding of the aid. A "two-fer" for him, with complete defiance of Congress. And yet the Republican Senate wants to give him free rein to do it again. The next time the consequences for our country could be much more dire.
12
None of this, so far, has moved the needle of polling for and against Trump. So, he's still winning. His life-long playbook of lying, stonewalling and slow-walking everything through the courts continues to work for Trump. The congressional oversight function is essentially toothless, and not even impeachment can break through the wall Trump has thrown up against it. That's the sad, bottom line. Republicans have tied their wagon to this legal-criminal, and put on blinders. And Trump has not revved up his slime mill on Facebook and Fox News and Hate Radio. Not feeling confident we'll drive him out of the Oval Office, come November.
14
McConnell may try to block witnesses, the Courts may delay the process, and Rudy can claim fake attorney/client privilege. But thanks to excellent reporting by the NYT, WaPo and others, the media will unearth the truth.
23
This article is deeply chilling, detailing as it does the chaos driving the administration's national security behavior driven entirely by political self-dealing.
Not being a constitutional scholar, I cannot be sure if the argument that the president's Commander-in-Chief role trumps Congress's power over the budget but if it does, then the constitutional principle of separation of power has no meaning.
The president's ever-vacillating rationales for withholding aid to Ukraine are absurd on their face. He was soliciting a vulnerable foreign partner under existential threat to feed his his parochial political needs.
That is against the law. It puts at-risk American national security, If this is not impeachable, then nothing is.
19
Outstanding reporting. Thanks.
17
And on, and on,and on it goes. Or as Mulvaney put it himself, "We do this all the time; get over it!" I wish Americans could read a brilliant poem written by a brilliant American poet I have shred with friends and family across the world about how he felt nothing but PITY for what has become of his nation. There is obviously no depth too deep for these sycophants to go to carry out the wishes of Trump the Almighty. Democracy is dead in the U.S. until this administration of tyranny is brought to it`s knees once and for all. Otherwise the U.S. is just another sad tale of power mad tyranny having the final say in the destiny of a land that is so lost it no longer even knows what it stands for anymore.
13
It's clear that Mr. Tump has used congressionally-approved taxpayer funds in the same way that his Trump Foundation used charitable donations: to advance his own self-interests.
This is from a NYT article detailing a court settlement in December of this year:
"Mr. Trump, who at first dismissed the [NY Attorney General's] suit as a political attack, made 19 detailed admissions, acknowledging, for example, that the foundation had purchased the $10,000 portrait of himself that was ultimately displayed at one of his Florida hotels.
"He admitted to using the foundation’s money to settle obligations of some of his for-profit companies, including a golf club in Westchester County, N.Y., and Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida which he frequently visits.
"And he admitted that the foundation had given his presidential campaign control over about $2.8 million that the foundation had raised at a veterans fund-raiser in Iowa in January 2016. Mr. Trump acknowledged the fund-raiser was in fact a campaign event."
A year earlier, in December of 2018, the Trump Foundation had already agreed to dissolve under court supervision. This corrupt misappropriation of funds was an obvious abuse of the public trust. The Trump Foundation needed to be shut down.
Do not believe anyone whose pants are on fire. What happened with the congressionally-approved aid to Ukraine was just as morally corrupt - and, in terms of an abuse of power, even worse.
The Trump presidency needs to be shut down.
27
Seems the American taxpayers should be asking why all this support for Ukraine including billions prior to the Trump being in office. The media and the Democrats have taken a selective issue and made a mountain out of it to use against Trump. If I recall Russia was not aiding the Ukrainian separatists or annexing Crimea until after the coup in Ukraine. We need the whole story, NYT.
I am not a Trump supporter but have become very disappointed with the Democrats.
3
@e.s.
Ukraine was corrupt when Biden was VP but now it's suddenly become a paragon of virtue and democracy all to shore up the trumped up impeachment case.
Ukraine is corrupt, and so were the payments to Biden's son. I don't care whom the Ukrainians want to throw money at, BTW. It's their business, but let's not pretend it's not totally corrupt.
1
@e.s.
You are not correct about the timing of Russian involvement in the separatist issue in Ukraine.
Russian intelligence has been engaged in destabilizing the Ukaine.
When they had a compliant Ukrainian leader, the Russian involvement was more covert.
When the leadership changed, the Russian involvement became overt and very kinetic.
6
@e.s. In what way could anything be found that would justify the President’s requirement for Ukraine to investigate his political opponent? If Trump was actually interested in truth, the US Justice Department would be conducting the investigation.
8
Anticipating a flurry of uncritical partisan support for Trump's actions it might be useful to consider a similar scenario if enacted towards US combat forces. Telling soldiers stationed in areas of danger-- that critical equipment such as arms or night vision equipment was delayed for dubious or personal reasons --would likely not be appreciated.
8
Trump was the sole decision maker in managing his real estate business - no shareholders, no corporate board, and several enablers, i.e. Michael Cohen, and Weisselberg.
Trump tries to run the White House the same way - he makes his own rules, only listens to those who agree with him.
Trump is not accustomed to accountability and legalities. He operates like a sleazy Mafia boss.
This is the President of the United States of America? This imposter?
25
@Pat Boice
What is surprising about Trump's business experience is that in most cases he didn't even manage his properties.
Typically he bought an interest (30%, 40%) in buildings managed by realty groups like Vornado LLC.
All that the Trump Corporation had to do was collect their monthly payout from the management group.
Very little executive experience to be gained this way.
7
Lawlessness will be the legacy of the Trump Administration and Republican Senate.
Surely the Greatest generation did not defeat the Nazis in order to burn the Constitution.
Trump needs to be gone. Our nation is capable of an
orderly transfer of power. IMMEDIATELY
20
Hmmmm...what I don't understand is this: how do Mulvaney & Pompeo sleep every night knowing they still serve such a criminal-minded president? Why don't Bolton hurry up and complete & publish his 2-million dollar book if that's what's keeping him from testifying for free?
This is another example of White Privilege! Because if Obama had done this and surrounded himself with black sycophants in the Oval Office carrying out this "drug deal," people would have cried: "There goes the neighborhood."
22
If Obama did this...
15
The clown version of The Godfather.
64
@mjbarr
I say again though, one of my best friends is a professional clown. Please do disparage clowns.
Although, this is right-on.
5
Public support for Trump's removal is now at 55% and climbing. The cracks are forming and do not for a second think that Mitch McConnell is not paying attention to these polls. If I was Trump I would be very worried that my days as president are coming quickly to an end.
51
@Raydeohed I hope you are right.
1
Thanks once again to the reporters of the NYT for putting all the bits and pieces of evidence together in a coherent way. This must have taken alot of work and I certainly appreciate it. Anyone can easily understand by reading this article how the Trump administration has attempted (and I'm sure often succeeded) in subverting and overturning the laws of our nation. The most chilling aspect is how large portions of the public and their representatives have accepted and even seem to be delighted by this reallity. I say to them be careful what you wish for because there will be a day of reckoning that no one will find to be enjoyable. Pelosi my pray for Trump but millions of Americens are praying for her right now.
69
Great reporting, generally a helpful timeline. But the chronology is set out in a muddled way in the last 12 paragraphs. If you want a better answer to the question of why the hold was lifted on 9/11/19, it is important to note that on 9/9/19, the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, Mr. Atkinson, officially notified Congress of the whistleblower report which had occurred in August. That public notification is the impetus for the three House committees opening an investigation that day. A reader could assume from your telling that Dems have one story about the release of the hold, Repubs have another, and gosh throw up his/her hands and say “who knows?”
The reason seems clear: the WH was caught, and the intelligence and diplomatic communities were not going to cover for it any longer.
52
@Siobhan Millen And to further amplify your point about the muddled timeline, the IG transmission itself was held up because the CIA general counsel had referred the whistleblower report to the Justice Dept. for possible criminal prosecution over campaign finance law violations. As we know, the Barr DOJ refused to prosecute on the absurd grounds that the Ukranian Biden investigation did not constitute a "thing of value" to Trump. Good grief!
12
The article is illuminating, as is this comment.
What I kept wishing for was a diagram as an, admittedly, complicated cross between an organizational chart and a timeline/flow chart—illustrating the many connections between and among the players from the WH, OMB, DOD, DOS, and so on. But for now, congrats to the NYT reporters!
7
A story this complex needs a graphic with bullet points.
5
During the 2016 Trump campaign, especially when he did the ‘Russia, are you listening?’ broadcast, a congress person asked a Trump associate/staff member for copies of any dirt drummed up on Hillary Clinton. Evidently, the congress person made the request for damaging documents prior to the theft from DNC servers and Wikileaks disclosures. Both the Facebook report and the Mueller report assert these facts. What is the name of the congress person who made the request?
12
@Dan Holton Just guessing: it could be any one of the Republicans-Nunez seems likely-or maybe Jordan? or it could be .....
1
"One campaign, spearheaded by Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, aimed to force Ukraine to conduct investigations that could help Mr. Trump politically, including one focused on a potential Democratic 2020 rival, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
"The other, which unfolded nearly simultaneously but has gotten less attention, was the president’s demand to withhold the security assistance."
Exactly, which is why the Democrats, the media, and the impeachment process was so much less on-target and effective than it could have been.
The Democrats (self-servingly?)gave the greatest weight to Trump's pursuit of the Bidens. However, the most criminal act was Trump's decision to withhold aid from Ukraine, which was fighting a hot war with Russia -- Trump's love child.
Then the Democrats and the media flunked the test for moral integrity when the Democrats relented and withdrew an order from the budget bill passed in mid-December that required Trump to deliver additional aid to Ukraine without delay, the media barely uttering a peep about this stunning act of cowardice.
Trump's threat to veto the bill over this single provision would have cemented his role as a virtual Russian agent. But once again we see a missed opportunity by the Democrats ... and the media because even in this lengthy article there's not a word about the budget bill and the removal of aid to Ukraine.
"A plague o'er both your houses!"
8
@Gluscabi You seem to be referring to 'additional aid' other than the previously approved $400 million. What is your source-I may have missed it.
1
Among all the revolting tidbits in this piece, the idea that Congress might "become unhinged” if the White House withheld duly authorized aide is the one that really sticks: What is truly unhinged is that our nation has a president who has zero interest in national welfare and is evidently under the thumb of a foreign nation, and more than half the members of the Senate, all Republicans, have willingly subjugated themselves to his treasonous actions.
31
The irony is his lawyers gave him the advice on how to “legally” withhold the money, and now must give him advise on this impeachable offense with which they actually set him up
19
And Miller played no role in any of this?
7
By what Congressional schedule was aid required to be provided?
1
The congressional schedule that congress had approved that military aid like they had for at least two previous years in Trump’s presidency. Next the new Ukrainian President had been evaluated for corruption by the Pentagon and deemed aid worthy. Trump never vetoed, never made a public peep about any concerns through both the aid approval phase or the vetting phase. He opted by himself to sit on the aid, dispatch Giuliani to the Ukraine to remove potential obstacles to his scheme like Yovanovitch. We know much of the rest of that story despite few documents and Trump’s blocking key admin officials like Pompeo, Bolton, and others Mulvaney from testifying. No one has the unvarnished story from Rudy except Donald.
3
@Dr. John Some percent would expire in late Sept. You could google it.
Bottom line: Trump should be removed from office. Mitch McConnell, the number two criminal in the country has already admitted he is interfering with the jury to issue a verdict of “not guilty”. Jury tampering is also a crime. The only hope left for our democracy is on the day of November 3, 2020. On that day if there is not a massive turnout of American patriots prepared to flush Trump and his fellow criminals into oblivion then this once great nation is doomed.
24
“They are all corrupt, they’re terrible people”. Perhaps the single most important projection of his behaviour and morality that Donald Trump has made ... and every complaint, confrontation, argument and act of bullying is all PROJECTION.
20
There’s a difference between his “agenda,” and his “private/personal agenda.”
The former is legitimate and he campaigned for it, however unpopular.
The latter is corrupt and he can’t do it without consequences like the recent impeachment.
This headline, as it is currently, I think, leaves room for him to confuse the two types of agendas.
Given how dishonest he is, such lack of clarity in these articles covering his corruption, can allow him to twist and confuse these issues.
In this case, he can say to his rabid people “you see, they’re stopping my agenda which I campaigned on, they’re undermining me, your vote, they’ve done it since I was in office.”
So, it would be helpful if the news media would be clear and unequivocal, and stop leaving him the room to continue his corrupt rampage.
15
Why can't the democrats lay this out as a flow chart with footnotes to the corroborating evidence? Maybe the broader public would understand. Particularly important are the warnings about the threat to our security and illegality of the moves that came from republicans and Trump appointees.
24
Agree a flow/organizational chart, with dates and footnotes about who all these people are, would be helpful!
Perhaps color-coded, so all the Russia players could be in red?
8
It is pointless for the Dems to waste time showing more of the same A B=C. The Republicans are quite aware of what Trump did, but choose to bury their heads in the sand regarding their morally-bereft leaders. For them if they do not acknowledge Trump’s corruption, it must have never happened. Interesting logic!
4
Excellent reporting and connecting all the threads. When the adults had a slim chance of preventing T from implicating himself (Muller investigation) and subsequently left, now T unleashed has done himself in finally. Now Miller has T's total influence in his grip.
11
Forty-Seven (47) people went to jail as a result of Watergate, including attorneys like the Attorney General, John Mitchell. It seems that the trump administration will easily surpass that number when it is all said and done.
28
From your pen to God’s ears!!!
5
Why didn’t President Obama allow this same military aid to be provided to Ukraine when thousands of Ukrainians were being killed by Russian forces?
5
@Dr. John, President Obama allowed all the military aid authorized by Congress without obstructing any of it even a tiny little bit because that is the right and proper thing to do. He did not ever in any way whatsoever hold up military aid to an ally in order to try to rig his re-election on his own behalf. No more whataboutism please. Look at the facts of what your guy did and deal with it directly.
37
What does that have to do with this?
Besides, you seem to miss the point that Congress has to pass the spending bill. That’s the source of the controversy here: Trump illegally held up money appropriated by Congress.
26
@Dr. John Because unlike Donald Trump, President Obama did not believe he had the power of a dictator to override congressional decisions on authorized spending. He released every dime authorized by Congress.
15
If trump didn't want to be Impeached, and it was truly the perfect phone call, then why did he sit on his hands and only claim his innocence, and call it a hoax or witch hunt by the Democrats. Guess what "dude" your now in the history books for the rest of your life and then for your future relatives to read about. It's amazing that an innocent person would have allowed this to happen without a fight, by producing testimony and evidence to stop the Impeachment in its tracks. It won't matter if the Senate GOP members do vote to aquitt you, and if there are no new witnesses or evidence from the White House, then for me and many Americans, the House Impeachment will even loom larger as your conviction. I don't find that standing on the out side, sitting on relevant testimony/evidence and good argument for innocence. Your base might continue to stand with you, even if one day you actually shoot someone on 5th street in New York City, but more Americans will not. You won in 2016 by a small number of votes, 80 thousand to be exact, to win the electoral college, over a 5 state span. You lost the popular vote by 3 million, and I really believe looking at the past two election cycles you will loose the popular vote by an even wider margin. So that just leaves your hopes of repeating an electoral college victory. I guess its possible that could be what happens, but you will never be "truly" able to claim you were the most popular choice in American history.
14
@Ricky Smith There is another excellent piece here in the paper today about Michael Bloomberg’s strategy to discredit 45 in the minds of the swing state voters. It will benefit anyone running against the current occupant in those locations and could help sway some to vote for the D this time, especially those who despise his “character”.
8
This story lays out the essence of what I think will be Trump's defense. Trump, it will be alleged, was concerned about Ukraine corruption, the amount of US foreign aid to Ukraine compared to the Europeans and that Trump, as president, was within his power to withhold it for the time that he did, and it was just "Trump being Trump" that this was done chaotically. That the bureaucrats were all concerned was a symptom of them disliking Trump's policy, but policy is not their job. It's a plausible defense except for two things. The July 25 phone call and Rudy Guiliani. If Trump was truly concerned just about Ukraine corruption, he neither needed to make the call as he did ("do us a favor"), nor did he need Rudy messing around trying to get Foreign Service officers fired with the help of corrupt Ukrainian ex-government officials. This story, and the ones sure to follow, demonstrate beyond a doubt that for the Senate trial to be fair, everybody in this story needs to be called before the Senate to testify under oath, and the documents the NYT has need to be introduced as evidence. If not, the Senate trial will be a sham, whitewash cover-up.
15
@Joe Smith The problem with that defense is that a) Trump never uses the word “corruption” in his phone call with Zelensky. He names Biden as the target of investigations; b) our ambassador to Ukraine was fighting corruption, but Trump smeared her and removed her from her post; c) Trump released the aid almost immediately after the whistleblower report becomes public; d) if Trump has nothing to hide, why so much hiding?
17
Also, Ukraine had already met the Pentagon’s certification for corruption reforms per the article.
2
Republicans are so partisan, it is fascinating. Trump is so corrupt, he should be rejected by everyone. but they still support him, embracing an incredible alternative reality.
everything they see should convince them Trump is destroying America and the world. but they refuse to understand what their eyes and ears capture.
their refusal to dialogue is crazy. they live in a bubble of their own creation. they cannot be reached, they are just stubborn ideologues.
11
@exo You might want to read the current op-ed about Barr and the scary religious crusade the Rs are executing. It explains a lot of their behavior; the rest is purely about the almighty dollar.
2
Who were the White House officials that spoke to the House on this matter? I’d like to hear from them.
4
Read the transcripts of their testimony.
5
National security.
The party that allowed the world trade centers to crash to the ground ,now uses the subsequent laws as a get out of jail card.
12
Brilliant NYT standard of reporting as per usual. Being in Australia, I don't normally subscribe to US newspapers, but in these days, it's virtually a requirement to be reliably informed. US sneezes, we all catch colds.
RE: Bolt & those other GOP witnesses / accessories to crimes, I have only this to add:
#don't buy bolton's book
If John Bolton has something to say, he can tell the country the honourable way, rather than holdout & peddle his version for profit.
27
Never.
Never has our nation has such inexperienced.
light weight,
fumbling
lads in the oval office.
15
Our president is a crook. Any other conclusion is a clear indication of a tribal association that fears losing ground by acknowledging the facts.
17
What is nobody talking about Trump’s snap order to withdraw from Syria? That was only a couple months ago, in October! I don’t believe a satisfactory explanation had ever been supplied.
I’m suspecting either a cash bribe from Russia, or else some kind of blackmail shakedown against Trump; maybe even both.
Is nobody looking into this? Instead we have this nonsense article about xenophobic fringe conservatives supporting Trump for supposedly protecting America from foreigners, meanwhile Trump almost single-handedly reactivates ISIS!
16
“In Bedminster with Mr. Trump, Mr. Mulvaney finally reached the president and the answer was clear: Mr. Trump wanted the freeze kept in place. In Washington, the whistle-blower submitted his report that same day.”
Thank you for an excellent piece.
The whistleblower should continue to receive protection, but if the Senate does not require Mulvaney and other key players to testify on the particulars of exchanges such as this one noted in the article, the trial will not exonerate Trump. He will remain guilty, as charged by the impeachment.
Speaker Pelosi is so right to hold up transmittal of the impeachment documents until an agreement with Dems is reached that should include in-person witnesses subject to questioning.
22
“In Bedminster with Mr. Trump, Mr. Mulvaney finally reached the president and the answer was clear: Mr. Trump wanted the freeze kept in place. In Washington, the whistle-blower submitted his report that same day.”
Thank you for an excellent piece.
The whistleblower should continue to receive protection, but if the Senate does not require Mulvaney and other key players to testify on the particulars of exchanges such as this one noted in the article, the trial will not exonerate Trump. He will remain guilty, as charged by the impeachment.
Speaker Pelosi is so right to hold up transmittal of the impeachment documents until an agreement with Dems is reached that should include in-person witnesses subject to questioning.
2
Sorry to burst the bubble, but no military aid was ended.
5
@Dr. John it was delayed to enable a extortion attempt, then released when the evidence of that attempt became public
20
It was held up until they were caught.
6
"84 Days of Conflict and Confusion"
Why the confusion?
You publish a narrative based on selective quotes from Mr. Mulvaney and Mr. Blair in an e-mail exchange.
Readers will create their own narrative about what really happened and why.
Why create the confusion that Mr. Trump thrives on and Republicans are only too happy to propogate?
3
When is the main motive of the blaming of Ukraine for the 2016 Russian election meddling going to be examined?
Putin is waging a war using money instead of bullets. Forbes magazine says Putin is the richest man in the world, with control over hundreds of billions of dollars. Russia is a kleptocracy, where an army of billionaires own the industries that formerly belonged to the people of Russia.The billionaires Putin created are his puppets, and their money is his money.
Putin’s oligarchs are pumping money into the Trump campaign, GOP, NRA, and who knows where else. But if they are unable to launder rubles into dollars, Putin will not win his war.
And no thanks to Mueller, we know why it was so important for Trump to gain control of the Justice Dept..
Every road, from Putin to Trump; Manafort and Michael Flynn; to Rudy Giuliani and, Lev Parnas, leads to relief of the Russian sanctions
That’s the reason that Russia aided Trump in 2016 and is going to do so in 2020, using billions and devastating cyber attacks. With Bill Barr's and the GOP's blessing.
42
Donald Trump's conditions for releasing the aid to Ukraine were to serve the interest of his banker Vladimir Putin.
28
Mr. Chairman, i request that a New York Times article dated December 30 2019 be entered into the record.
So ordered.
i am just practicing for the next Trump impeachment.
23
When Christine Blasey Ford made her experience with Judge Kavanagh known during the Judge’s confirmation hearing, the FBI was told NOT to interview witnesses who could provide additional background information to the charges. With these impeachment matters, the witnesses who could confirm or exonerate President Trump are not allowed to testify. If these few witnesses are not allowed to testify by the executive branch, or do not voluntarily testify, then America’s exceptionalism of a constitution of laws and checks and balances between the three branches of government is demolished and America becomes nothing more than “tinhorn” authoritarian dictatorship.
America is facing a bleak future if the Republican Party Senators do not step to the plate and insist on the hearing, under oath, the handful of people who “know things” and could provide the information to make an informed decision of this impeachment matter. Or course, they won’t risk their own political future while tearing down the “wall of separation” of power that has prevailed in America’s experiment with democracy.
31
Hunter Biden became involved with Ukraine much before trump settled into the Oval office and was not really of any concern to trump; until Joe Biden announced his campaign, then polls began popping up indicating that Biden could beat trump in the next presidential election. trump, whose personal history as a lying and cheating businessman is well documented, its no stretch of the imagination to assume this behavior will continue as president. By last count the lying and cheating while in office for the past three years has reached upwards of 15,000 according to various polls. As trump has practiced in the business world, when confronted with anyone standing in your way, he rely's on the words of his mentor, Roy Cohn, lie, cheat and above all attack, attack, attack.
23
This hysterical anti-Trump impeachment for what is probably business as usual in Washington... unfortunately... looks like a spiteful coup attempt.
Equally unfortunate for US democracy was the Washington Post article, headlined, “The Campaign to Impeach President Trump Has Begun.”, the day Trump took his oath of office.
Everything about the coup attempt, or, if you prefer, impeachment, reeks of politics and mendacity.
The US would be so much better a country if those who enabled the Iraq War, torture, and the Great Recession had been held accountable.
That no one was held accountable for those horrific actions, makes the anti-Trump hysteria impeachment look silly.
8
You left out one central issue: Trump is a career criminal.
4
It takes a lot of gall for Donald Trump to refer to any other leader as "corrupt." Or is it just a case of "it takes one to know one?"
23
Rudy can clear all this up in 2 seconds. Did he want Yovanovitch out to clear way for Biden investigation or was it to line his own pocket getting deals for his clients Parnas et al? Trump became obsessed with Joe Biden after he announced his run.
9
What were Trump's real reasons to hold up the money. He was told that it might anger Congress since the funds were appropriated to go to Ukraine directly. Trump will miss no opportunity to try to put his thumb in Pelosi's eye.He hates the idea that he is not in control of the entire government. And with Bill Barr's help, he will now continue his reign of terror. Another obvious reason to hold up the money was pure politics. Not the fair kind but the cheating type. He wanted Ukraine to do his dirty work and try to dirty up Biden since it looked like he might be his competition.
13
Loser.
It's glaringly apparent that's how Trump sees himself.
How else to explain that to win re-election in 2020, Trump perpetrates extortion on Ukraine to be a ringer he can call into to help him ; the same Ukraine he holds in such low esteem.
Trump believes, apparently, that his fellow American voters and his own political re-election apparatus aren't enough to accomplish that. He needs Ukraine, a country he despises, to help him do so.
Trump's self-disgust and his deep-down knowledge that he's a Loser, a characterization he loves to ascribe to others, is profound. Almost, feel sorry for him.
I like a President who isn't captured by fear.
12
@Jung and Easily Freudened
Trump said he liked those "who weren't captured.." (like John McCain. )
I like the Presidents who weren't impeached. I never liked Nixon and never liked Trump.
7
This has Putin all over it like a chess game he’s manipulating Trump. This is on all of us ignorance is different than ignoring one you have to work at. Vote
10
Isn’t it time we called it the Red House?
14
Satisfying Putin, while attacking his best polling opponent.
Disdain for Ukraine is simply the show.
9
People who thought the Tea Party adherents could not get lower obviously have not met Mulvaney. Forget about worrying about nation's deficits, now he would do anything to please his newly pledged Family - it makes Mafia look like a bunch of boy scouts - including putting the Family's interests before the country
16
Arguably right, but perhaps the most evil and scary person these days, for America’s survival, is AG Barr.
He is likely trying to start a new Inquisition getting underway, and none of us, even perhaps some of his co-religionists awaiting the Rapture, is going to be safe.
Ironic, when you think about the unreligious, immoral, or non-Christian members of the Trump family!
2
We have never had such a corrupt and venal group of incompetents in the White house. They take their lead from Trump. In fact, they try and anticipate his moves and prepare alternative explanations that might make his illegal acts seems acceptable. His shrill and predictable PR people from Grisham to Kellyanne Conway then get out their megaphones, indict the media, cast aspersions on any one who questions them and bring up Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama as the cause of all of their problems. It's not just sickening....it's wearing thin. I just don't see any upside for any of the sycophants sticking with him...none.
16
“They are all corrupt, they are all terrible people,” Mr. Trump said while speaking about himself, his family, McConnell, Lindsay, the other GOP senators, Guiliani, Cipollone, Kellyanne Conway, Mulvaney, Sondland and the rest of the merry trump gang.
9
As far as I’m concerned, the facts don’t matter. Anyone who considered all this nonsense has got to go.
8
We apparently never learned anything concerning electing a power hungry individual who would stop and nothing to insure his reelection.
Richard M. Nixon was the first in modern times. Hopefully Trump will be the last.
7
"Conflict and confusion" seems to sum up Trump Donald Trump's administration. How anyone can continue to support him is a mystery to me. The Ukraine situation is just one of many instances of personal gain over national interests, and ignorance over facts.
13
Someone realized in the indeed -- manufactured chaos - that the Ukraine was a malleable vein to the overall efforts to dethrone the President. The emerging uncover crutched by the press will in the end prove a dismal surprise to the fed resistance ..
4
@SMPH
Democrats blew their chance when they pursued Russian collusion. That ended badly for them. Now they just look like sore losers.
1
I would not refer to those OMB attorneys developing an argument that Trump could simply override Congress on appropriated Ukraine aid as “top” lawyers.
6
“One campaign, spearheaded by Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, aimed to force Ukraine to conduct investigations that could help Mr. Trump politically, including one focused on a potential Democratic 2020 rival, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.“
I’ve got a problem with a few characterizations in this excerpt from the article. For one, Trump spearheaded this scheme, not Giuliani, and he bears full responsibility for it. Rudy didn’t force this scheme onto Trump. Rudy was also clearly acting beyond his role as Trump’s “personal lawyer.” And it certainly WOULD, not could, help Trump politically.
As for the origin and timing of the “quid pro quo” idea, wasn't there a White House meeting in the Spring where Trump told Sondland to “talk to Rudy?” The quid and the quo were already being cooked up in the Oval oven, so the suggestion that some conservative news article a few months later was the catalyst for the idea of withholding aid is not passing the smell test for me.
9
At the root of this dispute is the co-equal division of power that has made our democracy work for 230 years. Congress allocates the funds, the executive branch issues the checks.
If a president, any president, is able to attach strings for personal political gain to every allocation, it is the end of our two century experiment.
Republicans should be aware that if this stands, and dems gain the presidency, they can and should withhold any spending to any and all red states. So no more defense spending, no more medical spending, no more block grants — nothing sent to red states. And Republicans, you can eat it.
11
Concise and brilliant synopsis. Thank you NYTs. If only Trump and his base would read it.
7
Outstanding reporting on an important issue.
5
God bless the free press!!! Without this kind of reporting, we'd probably never learn about the criminal activity described in this article until after it was too late to do anything about it. Trump would continue to stonewall and the courts will act too slowly, and perhaps SCOTUS too timidly, to force disclosure.
7
I don't believe there is a player with a full deck in Trump's entire entourage. None of them are fit to govern anybody.
11
Excellent piece of work. Thank you at the NYT.
6
The vice is tightening on vulnerable Republican Senators concerning the fact documents/witnesses being entered into the trial by both sides. The press concentrates on those that support impeached Republican President Donald 'Individual-1' Trump and ignores the majority that totally opposes him. I'm from Maine and truly enjoying the vice that our Senator Collins has put herself in. It couldn't happen to a more deserving two-faced liar.
9
Spare me yet another story about how valiantly a bunch of administration Republicans worked behind the scenes to countermand Trump’s wishes. If you want to be part of the resistance, quit and switch parties.
14
Yet another demonstration of the chaos reality tv presidency in action.
Donald Trump is a cear and present danger to uor country.
His enablers are complicit in his illegal acts, and they do not have the "cover" of the bogus OLC memo that says a POTUS cannot be indicted while in office.
All they have as cover is Bill Barr.
When the Trump maladministration ends, it will be time to call a large number of people to account for their illegal acts.
10
@Joe From Boston, luckily Wall Street doesn’t sense the danger, better take the clothespins off their noses. Who wants to retire anyway?
I read this constant barrage about Trump holding back money from "our ally" Ukraine and Russians involved in our election. People act as this is the first time this has ever happened, that "aid money" has never been traded for political purposes, that "only the Russians" have tried to interfere in an election. How soon we forget about the $400 million in cash, delivered by aircraft, on pallets, part of the $1.7 billion, all in cash, to Iran (2016) or the constant involvement by the CIA et. al. in any and every foreign election deemed of interest to the United States. Grow up.
2
Those dollars to Iran were Iran’s own dollars that had been impounded since the takeover of the US embassy in 1979. It was Iran’s OWN money being returned to them nearly 40 years later—part of the nuclear negotiations.
8
@Mark Aid money can be disbursed contingent on political POLICY aims. Not for PERSONAL purposes. Congress had made the decision about the aid; it was not trump's to undo for his own reasons.
8
@Barrie, "In Cash, on pallets, in various currencies, on our aircraft", not at the push of a button for an electronic transfer.
Help me understand why journalists can see these emails through the Freedom of Information Act but members of Congress cannot see them, even after issuing subpoenas.
8
It is interesting because if you read The Wall Street Journal they don’t
really disagree with the gist of this article. They simple don’t think any wrongdoing took place. The president is within his rights to withhold aid. He was fighting corruption. ‘All presidents do that’. Considering these defenses, I think a stronger case needs to be made for why this is bad, in my opinion. (Personally, I think it’s an abuse of power and violates the letter of the law as he solicited a thing of value from a foreign national. But, I’m the choir and the NYTimes is the preacher. Convince the skeptics and get rid this mendacity monster.)
5
There is only the tiniest percentage of voters who remain convincible skeptics. The rest either clearly see the show in front of their faces for what it is... or they are cultists with no interest in reality as long as they are flattered and played to like the groundlings they are (and/or they’re paid off). Even if some - or even if all - remaining “skeptics” or “undecideds” or “been asleep like Rip van Winkle” since 2015 were to magically awaken, there wouldn’t be enough of an Electoral difference to swing a pendulum.
But wait! There are several routes to at least partial salvation: unlikely conviction and removal by the Senate (and then trials as a civilian on criminal charges); removal as unfit and unable to meet the obligations of office under Article 25; a strong turnout next Election Day (enough to overcome election dirty tricks); a medical emergency or severe accident; an offer Trump can’t refuse.
You will fail to convince us the safety and security of the US was at risk because Ukraine had their grease payments delayed by a little over a month.
Obama wouldn’t give them military aid for eight years.
My guess is Trump terrified the deep state in the beginning by asking the obvious question “what the heck are we doing giving them billions in the first place?”.
How would Biden and Pelosi’s kids eat?
4
This is what I find bizarre:
Biden undeservedly, and stupidly takes credit for "withholding money" from Ukraine to oust Viktor Shokin, the "corrupt prosecutor" and replaces him with a "solid guy" according to Biden.
The reality is that the "money" that was withheld was from the IMF, unlike the U.S. taxpayer appropriations from congress that Trump personally withheld.
In addition, the so called, "solid guy" prosecutor Viktor Yushchenko, literally did not even have a law degree, and ultimately ended up working for Guiliani and Company to attack Biden.
What a perverse comedy of errors.
7
Senator Ron Johnson calling Trump to seek the truth about the Ukrainian defense spending is almost hilarious.
Johnson has been a joke of a Senator for us Wisconsinites. He fumbled and stumbled in every way possible on “Meet the Press” with Chuck Todd when this whole thing blew. I guess we see why here.
Johnson’s nothing but a fool and will never get re-elected again. Any of his thoughts running for Wisconsin Governor in the future is a big fat joke, too.
6
Incompetence combined with malevolence makes for a disturbing portrait of the White House, a place where whim replaces policy and oligarchy replaces democracy.
9
Why does this article not list the Javelin anti-tank missles as an important part of the aid package to Ukraine, held or given?
That was critical in active warfare, we are told.
1
Gee, no wonder Mitch McConnell doesn't want any witnesses or documents in the Senate trial.
10
This article details a lot of the administration's slime, but one nugget in particular stands out: the Pentagon had to wait to hear if the blocked funds would finally be released on the August 12 deadline until after the president finished playing a Monday round of golf with John Daly. Joel and Ethan Coen, I hope you're taking notes.
9
I have no confidence that in a Senate trial the presumption of the honesty of a Mulvaney, a Pompeo, or a Bolton is assured. The alleged DC "swamp" has been bested by a bigger and better "swamp."
5
Note to Congress:
For most Americans this display of congressional "give a ways" of hard earned taxpayer monies from our paychecks has come to light. STOP taking money from our paychecks and giving it away all around the world!
We are not the worlds piggy bank!
2
How many documents and testimonies, (even from Trump's own Staff !), does it take until the Issue of withholding Aid to the Ukraine, for Trump's own Political Gain, is brought forward and into the Light of Truth ? What IS it with all of this "withholding of evidence" from everyone ? Why is everyone so afraid, or smothered, from talking about it ? Can we have some clear Testimony here, under Oath, in Court ?! Why all of this stone-walling from Trump's Administration ?
What happened in the Ukraine Situation was 100% un-Constitutional, and 100% illegal in my view. Further, those kind of Trump-Policies are setting far more unrest in the World, both Politically, Economically, AND Environmentally.
So - why does all of this Political/Bullying/Mess of Trump's keep getting swept under the carpet; by Atty. Gen. Barr, by Mitch McConnell, and even by the entire Supreme Court ?? Well,
Why does a dog ... chew on it's foot ? And the answer is ...
Because - He Can.
1
The simple answer: Trump and his henchmen try everything conceivable to hide the truth, withhold evidence, and prevent testimony because Trump is totally innocent of any wrongdoing and is in fact “perfect”. Makes sense, right? Certainly those are not the actions of a guilty party; someone guilty would sing like a canary or simply vanish in a puff of red smoke.
I'm still at a loss as to why Trump isn't being forced to testify, along with Mulvaney, Pompeo, Bolton, Esper, Eisenberg.
This is a farce by the House to do the bare minimum. It takes spine to lead, and current Pelosi doesn't have one, nor does any sitting republican.
It's time to do a mass retirement of the geriatrics!
This seems all perfectly proper.
I fear that this article, which should be enough in itself to insure that our dangerous fool of a president be removed from office, is not in fact enough.
If this is true, it shows how far down the path of acceptance of the unacceptable we have travelled.
Every newspaper, every television station that clings to even a threadbare notion of civic responsibility needs to clearly state that this narcissistic conman is incapable of fulfilling the duties of the presidency and needs to go.
5
Does anyone know the reaction within the Ukrainian government when they were notified of the “halt in military assistance”?
To all of you who believe he is innocent, then why not demand to the WH Administration officials testify as well as have the documents released?
4
This ranks right up there with Iran Contra affair, a truly impeachable offense that Reagan got away with. If this isn’t the epitome of corruption (using government power to pursue personal political aims), I don’t know what is. Thanks NYT for consistent investigation and reporting. You set a world standard.
5
I have read with interest these comments by sincere people who are prepared to claim they understand the motives behind Mr. Trump's actions. They may be correct, and I may even think they are. But I am a scientist and must see hard data. Opinions finally do not matter.
This is a very serious time of trial for the United States. I personally suspect Mr. Trump came to the office of POTUS without any real understanding of the US government, including the presidency. He understands raw power very well, and the application of that in New York real estate.
The people who wrote our Constitution understood the danger of raw power and very shrewdly limited its application. Can we as a nation follow their guidance and adhere to the Constitution. Or will we now cave in to the exercise of raw power applied in the GOP by Mr. Trump and Mr. McConnell? Will the senators be too frightened of losing their seats to follow the data and their oaths to office?
This is a serious position in which we find ourselves. But this is not the end of our democracy.
5
A few questions:
e) Has it been demonstrated that the
"Impoundment Control Act" is Constitutional
in terms of the President being the Chief Executive ?
r) Why was the State Department involved in providing
equipment to the Ukraine ?
i) Have we had a national discussion as to whether we should
be so deeply involved in the Ukraine. Are you willing to
send your children to die for the Ukraine ?
c) Why is the Times so reluctant to reveal the name of the
Whistle Blower when other outlets have and when the Times
Prides it self on investigations like this which involved
revealing somewhat privileged information.
c) LBJ faced a similar situation in Vietnam where he was advised
not to follow his gut instincts but listen to JFK's advisors, whom
he retained after JFK's deaths.
i) Perhaps the Times can provide
a multi-part
report concerning the
allegations that
many in the State Department
even in the CIA
longed to stop Trump
leaving Trump little option but to go
around those who opposed him.
Or is that for only the Elites who have ruined this country to know ?
8
@John Brown
"Have we had a national discussion as to whether we should be so deeply involved in the Ukraine. Are you willing to send your children to die for the Ukraine ?"
Now THAT is the question we should be asking especially since we have engaged in so many failed and expensive foreign wars that produce nothing but casualties and chaos while running up massive debts. I for one do want my grandchildren or my neighbors children fighting and dying in Ukraine . I lived through the Vietnam war and am saddened that my country learned nothing from that debacle and has just repeated those mistakes time and time again.
2
I like your whimsical approach to the alphabet, as it perfectly suits.
By the way, we’ve supported Ukraine because a) we used to try and support democracy when we could, b) it’s in our interest to have a stable Eastern Europe, c) it’s in our interest to keep Putin’s Russia in check, d) it’s in our interest to keep NATO strong.
Sorry you object. My advice is, read up on how isolationism worked for us in the 1930s.
15
@JohnBrown Your questions, and the conspiracy theories and Kremlin talking points that drive them, are completely irrelevant to the facts of this case.
This was NOT a matter of the President discovering and thwarting some secret CIA / “deep state” / Democrat plot.
The Ukraine aid was part of bipartisan budget legislation passed in both Houses of Congress and signed by the President. The national security leaders who opposed Trump’s corrupt game-playing included his own conservative GOP appointees like Pompeo and Bolton.
10
Thank you for laying this out in such easy to understand detail. The events tell the story.
10
Is it just me or does Bolton seem to hold out simply to profit by this via book sales and more name recognition? This infatuation with fame and fortune is no longer an admirable trait. I’m looking forward to the day when the pendulum swings back to honor and country.
18
For whatever reason Trump is right to hold up the money. Only humanitarian aid should be considered. Continuing to send weapons to Ukraine in the hope that they will used against Russians is a wrong policy. There are very important negotiations going on to end the ethnic fighting in Ukraine. This whole affair was started with US encouragement. The national security bozos in the US think its a really good policy to foment an ethnic war there. This is a dangerous foolish decision that must be stopped. The US is not involved in the peace negotiations because neo con neo cold war diplomats are still in place in the State Dept.. Trump is suffering from his refusal to form a working gov't so the US is left with holdover diplomats from previous administrations. The NYTs makes much of Maidan complaints but Zelensky was elected by a large majority and his party controls the legislature. Putin has made serious concessions. The Maidan complaints revolve around Russian autonomy. The Russians no longer feel their rights and security will be respected by the post coup anti Russian cabal that grabbed power in 2014.
1
Thanks for the details. Maybe if the Russians had their sights and weapons aimed at the Carolinas, you might think differently. But you’ve got Lindsey Graham colluding with Trump to keep them at bay. Right.
3
Trump withheld the money to try and cheat his way into another 4 years. That’s it!
3
Whether he was right as a matter of policy is not the question. That’s a question for your Senator. These funds were budgeted and approved by both houses of Congress in a budget signed into law by Trump. He did not have the legal authority to withhold the funds without first notifying congress and providing his reasons. The fact remains that he tried to use the funds to extort political assistance from a foreign government. Also illegal. You want to talk about why we’re giving money litany assistance to Ukraine, fine, let’s talk policy. But that’s not what the impeachment is about.
1
"Speechless," "astonished," words expressed by normal, competent federal officials. Draining the swamp, really? It always gets worse with Trump on every single front.
13
“With the money having been appropriated by Congress, it would be hard for the administration to keep it from being spent by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.” Let’s get a few language things clarified before jumping whole hog into the writer’s claims. Re: US obligation of money to Ukraine to purchase military supplies. The administration does not spend the money; neither does the Pentagon or the State Dept nor the Dept of Defense. It is the nation of Ukraine which allocates the money to eligible entities. The money is spent, a dollar is spent, when the first invoice for military items is paid by an eligible entity, and logged in the books. Since the aid was frozen for more than two months, it is highly unlikely that the money was spent within the terms of the contract; no doubt, the spending was late and war fighters on the front died or were injured due to lack of ammunition and medical supplies. No one is talking about this. Why? While Trump, et.al., were sitting on their thumbs, soldiers were dying and children left parentless, in their one sided effort to keep Russia at bay. I am a war fighter veteran, and can tell you now there is little more disgusting and immoral than a fat cat twiddling thumbs while good people die in war unawares.
13
If the issue were really rooting out Ukrainian corruption, and the Ukrainians were "all terrible people," then coercing the Ukrainian government itself to investigate would be a completely ineffective waste of time.
On top of that, consider how compelled you would feel to comprehensively root out corruption if someone promised to release your billions in funding as soon as you ANNOUNCED an investigation! All Zelensky had to do to secure funding was go on TV and say the words "Biden" and "investigation." Not exactly the recipe for a corruption-free Ukraine.
Lastly, if the president had really believed that Ukraine was too corrupt to support, he should have argued with Congress to NOT approve the aid package. Temporarily DELAYING the funding until he got something in exchange does not achieve anything with regard to reducing corruption in Ukraine.
18
What’s amazing to me is the corruption in Trump’s amoral Administration, with him as the instigator-in-chief, has had so little impact on Americans who call themselves evangelical Christians. There can be no possible reconciliation between their professed piety and its abandonment given their fealty to him.
14
This incident, and Trump's actions, do demonstrate that the greater the power involved, the less important facts are.
This shows me just how brazen are those who wish to distort the record with fiction and lies and how far American governance has fallen.
9
If getting rid of corruption was Trump's goal why did he get rid of the professional diplomat who was known for rooting out corruption? Why did he put up with his personal lawyer's behavior of associating with corrupt officials in The Ukraine? Biden's account of being sent over there to get rid of a corrupt Ukrainian prosecutor has been verified. If Trump was so concerned about Hunter Biden's role why didn't he act years ago? Why won't the Republicans in Congress understand that Ukrainian officials were afraid of Candidate Trump in 2015-2016 because he made a public announcement of support for Russia's takeover of the Ukraine? Why Why Why? are we stuck in this nightmare of having a dangerous man at the helm of our nation?
19
Is it not also breaking these laws, "foreign election interference solicitation" . when all the news channels comment about the removal of the 7 seconds of Trump from the home alone movie. This was removed by a foreign government controlled corporation, the CBC. So trying to now influence them to act , one way or another is against the law. Even comments are breaking the law. Do you now see how silly this law really is. It should be removed.
Trump's promise to keep America out of International agreements has done what.... Putin expanding his grip into many lands, North Korea and Iran threatning nuclear harm to America. Trump has failed is so many areas with all the above nations posing the most damage to our national security.
5
Excellent reporting, if only GOP Senators gave a hoot about the Constitution and their oaths of office. Thanks, nonetheless.
How any Senator can swear to be an impartial juror and have already said they will vote to acquit Trump - how is that not impeachable on its face for any Senator charged with impartially determining Trump’s fate?
Fellow citizens - this is a tipping point and about much more than than the serial liar and professional grifter in the WH; the stakes for us, our children and the world-at-large could not be higher.
It is bad enough that Donald Trump was (and is) compromised by the Russian intelligence community - should he win in 2020 - with four more years and nothing to lose we will not recognize our democracy by 2024 - if, indeed, it survives at all. Forget the hate Trump spews daily - we are better than that - and vote him out!!
10
Seems to me the POTUS isn't the only corrupt person in this mix. Looking at you Mulvaney. Why is it it took only one whistle-blower to reveal what was happening? Thank goodness we have some decent Americans, true patriots, who stand up to the truth and testify, but there are plenty of others who need to speak about what was going on.
I hope Senators read this article and vote appropriately when deciding whether to impeach. Trump's corrupt nature needs to stop.
9
Excellent account. This puts together about all we currently know.
Lets see if we can get some Republicans to read it.
8
Far from being a clear indictment of Trump for withholding Congressionally approved aid to Ukraine as leverage for the specific quid pro quo of the announcement of a criminal investigation into the Bidens by the Ukrainian government, this article reads more like a cataloguing of events set in motion by an ignorant, vindictive man with few core beliefs – none of which have been subject to rigorous analysis – who exercises his authority with no regard for the consequences, aided by an untethered clique of sycophants swirling around him trying to implement his whims.
What emerges is a picture of a chaotic rush of fools desperately back-filling an ever-deepening crevasse created by the man currently occupying the Oval Office. And there is one other ingredient in this toxic mix – a plethora of lies. One can hope, but it is a slim hope, that the Senate Trial might be an opportunity to have the key players testify under oath, and maybe then, we could get to the bottom of this mess. However, as with so many other dark chapters in our history, I fear the truth of this will only be revealed long after many of us have returned to dust.
5
Trump probably can't find Ukraine on a map.
It worked in favor of Russia to hold back military aid to Ukraine.
Connect the dots.
11
Makes me wonder how many other allies Trump is extorting/bribing for personal "favors." The level of corruption in this presidency is off the charts.
8
This reporting makes our government seem incredibly incompetent and childish. If only we voters would have higher standards when we vote. I realize the popular vote was close but it should never have been anywhere near close. 2020 is here. Clean this up.
7
Excellent article providing detail and clarity to a sordid and quite possible corrupt decision making process. Three questions remain unanswered:
1) If aid to Ukraine was withheld because of corruption in 2019, why wasn't this an issue in 2017 or 2018? Was it that Biden wasn't an official presidential candidate?
2) Why wasn't the fact that EU countries provided $16B in loan guarantees to Ukraine far outpacing the US outlay made clear to the President? Or was it?
3) Why wasn't withholding the aid made public if the President was so certain that he was doing right by the US taxpayer. Clearly this is something his base would "celebrate" and support. Was it that "they" were hiding something nefarious?
I'm fairly certain some of the sycophants who won't testify can answer some of these questions. Why aren't they if there is no wrong doing and there is nothing to hide.
The likely reason is that there is plenty of wrong doing to hide. The majority of the American public is not stupid.
11
Great article.
Pity McConnell and Graham and majority of Republican Senators don't know how to read because they might just want to make the honorable, patriotic and moral choice and call witnesses to the Senate Impeachment Trial...
3
Could conservatives please educate themselves before expressing an opinion. That would be great. Thanks.
6
This is basically a mirror image of what Trump did in Venezuela, and his essential technique, namely a shakedown protection racket for personal gain, masked by bombastic ideology to cover the racket:
1) Threaten a vulnerable mark with loss of power;
2) Increase the pressure until it threatens survival (regardless of consequences to a nation’s citizens);
3) Bring in backchannel figures to “negotiate”—e.g. see what you can shake loose in terms of personal gain, such as foreign attacks on high polling political opponents, business deals for allies, satisfying the Russian patron;
4) Slather it with bombastic ideology to distract;
5) Take your cut, and distribute to others for payback.
Giuliani has been riding along in this protection racket for some time now, searching for his own crumbs.
7
Mulvaney should be subpoenaed to testify before Congress tomorrow, and if he refuses to comply should be thrown in jail. What is Barr's role in all of this?
8
The most troubling aspect is not the President’s perfidy, which I’ve come to expect, but the efforts by White House lawyers to come up with plausible rationales for clearly illegal actions.
When the lawyers forget their first allegiance is to justice and the rule of law, we are a long way down the slippery slope to banana republic land.
Counselors, we are better than that.
16
So, according to this article, Trump wanted to withhold the aid to Ukraine before he even spoke to Zelensky. In my opinion, this weakens the allegation that there was a quid pro quo.
3
@Fatso perhaps, but strengthens the proposition that he did it for someone else who would greatly benefit, and who he needs to protect him. Hmmm. Who might THAT be?
Donald J. Trump is guilty as sin. The American people will be the ones to decide his fate. The majority led Republican United States Senate will fail to uphold their oath to pursue a fair and impartial trial. Proceed than at your own risks also. Onward!
8
The President acts as a Russian asset. His administration just provides justifications on acting on behalf of Russia. If there were real justifications, his administration had time to raise them during the budget processed in which Congress approved a budget that was then approved by the President.
Only a king would believe that he can re-assess policies based on his personal animus. Corruption wasn’t a concern when it came to Trump University or Trump’s charitable foundation. There are plenty of law suits accusing Trump of corruption in his business dealings. Corruption is not a concern when it comes to the Kushner’s activities around the world as they both work in the White House as unpaid aides.
Corruption is just the excuse when it comes to why policies assisting Russia are implemented. As Pelosi has stated, it appears all roads lead to Russia.
16
At the end of this article I'm left wondering, did Trump hold up the aid to get dirt on Biden or to help Putin win the war in Ukraine? And does it matter? Neither of those goals are in the US national interest. Both of those alternatives demand Trump's removal from office.
And either of those alternatives demand that those who abetted his illegal actions - Mulvaney, Pompeo, Esper, Sondland, Volker - all deserve to be prosecuted.
13
@ Peter
Both! He plays both sides. He needs re-election to continue to be in position to be Putin’s puppet in our Oval Office.
Traitor!
1
I find this article to be very informative on the timeline and relevant details surrounding these events. The one thing I think it is lacking, as most reporting on this seems to be, is that because of this delay in aid, it took another act of Congress to ensure the money mue it to Ukraine. The reason I think this is relevant is the GOP continues to tout the fact the aid was released as a reason Trump did nothing wrong. In reality, he withheld the aid so long it was in jeopardy of not being spent by the September deadline for FY spending. Perhaps this is related to the concerns raised by Ms. McCusker? "Ms. McCusker, the powerful Pentagon budget official, notified the budget office that either $61 million of the money would have to be spent by Monday, Aug. 12 or it would be lost. " The other relevant story that seems to get little media attention is what was going on with Rick Peret and the pressure on Naftogaz. Fiona Hill seemed to mention this in part when talking about Giuliani and associates furthering their personal business interests. I find it ironic the GOP pushing the line of Biden's role on a Ukrainian gas board while at the heart of this scandal is Trump an Co. pushing to get specific individuals on the state owned gas company. It is also concerning that few articles explore that aspect. Perhaps that will change as we learn more from Parnas.
9
You’re not getting the money unless you give me something I want.
Personally.
The nation’s money.
It’s that simple.
6
It’s interesting and terrifying reading people comment that they don’t believe the facts in this article.
It is terrifying that Americans don’t see Trump for what he is.
A guy who lives in a golden tower on Fifth Avenue, who has lied and cheated his entire life, completely detached from reality but now seems to have found his moral compass.
There is a swamp I agree. Under democratic rule wealth gaps and a whole load of other horrible things have occurred but Trump is not the answer.
4
Has Pompeo had a change of heart, as suggested here by that scene at the Resolute desk where he argued for the funds to be released? Pompeo was seemingly complicit months before in getting U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch out of the way so Guiliani could continue to construct the attempted shake-down of Ukrainian President Zelensky. And Pompeo was in on the July 25 "quid pro quo" phone call, a fact he feebly tried to obscure.
If Pompeo is not called as a witness, then the Senate impeachment trial will indeed be a farce.
8
Trump is acting like the head of a private business who has absolute authority over spending. He doesn’t accept the fact that Congress appropriates spending and he is forbidden from stopping it.
That’s what we get by electing a man who doesn’t know the rules - or refuses to play by them.
7
In a previously unreported sequence of events, Mr. Mulvaney worked to schedule a call for that day with Mr. Trump and top aides involved in the freeze, including Mr. Vought, Mr. Bolton and Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel. But they waited to set a final time because Mr. Trump had a golf game planned for Monday morning with John Daly, the flamboyant professional golfer, and they did not know how long it would take. This shows the President’s poor work habits.
7
"When Mr. Johnson asked Mr. Trump directly if the aid was contingent on getting a commitment to pursue the investigations, Mr. Johnson later said, Mr. Trump replied, amid a string of expletives, that there was no such demand and he would never do such a thing."
How is it that such men who base their careers on others' perceptions of their integrity provide naked cover to such lies and deception? And then get torqued and red faced when anyone confronts them with being accomplices in such obvious cover-ups.
3
Apart from the core issues, it interests me, that Trump initiated this hold based on an article he read in the Washington Examiner. Doesn’t he get briefed daily on what the US government is doing around the world so he can presumably ask intelligent questions of his own team ?
Isn’t it literally his job to stay on top of it all because he runs the show ?
It also begs the question - What else doesn’t he know that he should know before the media finds out so that as President, he acts in time, to keep the US and the world safe ?
11
Great report. The detail of this timeline confirms the impeachment of President Trump and why the President allowed the assistance to go forward.
There is a separate story yet to be told on the history of the Giuliani-Trump relationship and how Mr. Giuliani has used the relationship as a source of income for his private practice.
It seems to me that the Trump foreign relations follows the rules of the old fashioned shakedown.
7
It is heartening to read about the career employees who risked their jobs fighting this hold up of funds. All the while, Trump's appointees using the same processes and what was normal Presidential powers to do Trump's bidding. Yet these same people know the risks they take of going to jail, like ex-Trumpies, thus no testimony. I really hope several of them, Giuliani, Pompeo, and Mulvaney et al will join Manafort in his lodgings. Looks like Bolton is the only one in the clear.
6
This is much different from Watergate.
In the Watergate impeachment proceeding (which was cut short because Nixon resigned), the anti-Nixon forces (I was one) routinely asked the courts to rule on "executive privilege" questions, and the rulings usually went against the President.
Here, in contrast, Democratic Party leadership insists the courts would take too long, or would rule for Trump because he of Bush appointed most of them. But this isn't really an excuse. We have a clear conflict between two of the three branches of government: the legislative branch, which insists that Trump must send officials to testify and provide documents, and the executive branch, which insists that Congress is asking for too much and thus is treading on "executive privilege" territory.
Whenever that conflict has arisen in the past, the third branch -- the judiciary -- has played referee. We can't have Congress itself decide the scope of its jurisdiction. Nor can we have the President decide on the scope of executive privilege. The courts must decide.
2
You are incorrect, Trump has not cited executive privelidge, he is claiming he is not subject to congressional oversight.
@Terry I believe he has cited executive privilege to keep others from testifying.
1
As the song goes, “Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.” But, I believe a man hears what he *needs* to hear, and most people haven’t a clue what they need. It seems the entire country needs psychotherapy.
4
Even without the Biden/Clinton angle, Trump was actively undermining US foreign policy by weakening the defense of a former Soviet region - one that had been ravaged by them throughout the first half of the 20th Century. Weakening Ukraine - opens a door to Putin. Pulling troops out of Northern Syria and allowing Turkey and Putin to control the region also benefits Russia. Cutting military aid throughout Europe and putting pressure on these countries to spend more also perversely benefits Russia - cutting social programs to invest in military aid is causing widespread unrest and distracting leadership from leading. Maybe this isn’t organized but perhaps it is - but we are not benefitting from these moves.
3
The hurricane- was that during the hurricane trump insisted was going to hit Alabama?
A question to ask senator Mconnel would be- how does trump get to suspend funds? What allows him the ability to suspend funding?
4
Although this account claims that Trump’s suspension of aid was secretive, it mentions a dozen or more who were angry and outraged. Clearly the aid suspension was, in fact, open and flagrant.
Despite a long history of wrongdoing, Trump has never been charged with an open and flagrant crime. So the theory here is that on this one occasion he cast his fate to the wind.
This is a rough one to prove particularly because Trump gets the benefit of the doubt. And you have to ask why the Biden smear was the thing Trump pursued more aggressively than anything ever. The smear was not credible and he surely knew that. It just doesn’t add up.
Someday, whether the Republic survives or not, the world will know why Donald Trump made key parts of US foreign policy an instrument of the Kremlin.
Frankly, I don't much care about the reasons. They may derive from Kremlin knowledge of Trump's weaknesses or from the dark matter which impels his cruelty and shapes his liking for tyrants.
The effect, however, is devastating to America's character and interests. Trump's subservience to Putin is a "high crime by any definition but while the evidence is unimpeachable our tradition says terrible policy is not impeachable.
Nonetheless, there is a utility to this unending stream of information to the Impeachment process. At trial, we may expect that new paper trails and information will inform the presentation of the Articles of Impeachment by the House's impeachment managers.
This new evidence makes clear the President and his minions did in fact hold hostage the nearly $400,000,000 of U.S. assistance to President Zelinsky's ordering an investigation of the Bidens and initiating investigation of Kremlin charges that Ukraine rather than Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election. The new disclosures make it harder for Republicans to say Trump did nothing wrong,
Note:In slamming Trump's stance on Crimea during the campaign the then Ukrainian Ambassador was defending Ukraine's claim to the Crimea, invaded by Russia. A U.S. Ambassador would do the same if a Mexican Presidential candidate proposed retaking Texas..
2
Framing this event as "a price Trump was willing to pay to achieve his agenda" is unbelievable. The man broke the law for his personal purposes. His "agenda" was about his election. We are losing any pretense at critical thinking here.
7
Apart from the dodginess and immorality, more than anything it shows that he is a president who thinks he knows more than everyone else when he does not- a classic case of the Dunning -Kruger effect.
As the article points out, there was a "previously undisclosed Oval Office meeting with the president where they tried but failed to convince him that releasing the aid was in interests of the United States."
He does not know the job and should not have been chosen in the primaries.
5
The article seems to exonerate President Trump from the first impeachment charge of abuse of power
(a) the aid hold was going on long before and after the call that precipitated the impeachment inquiry,
(b) the hold had nothing to do with the whistleblower complaint,
(c) DOJ lawyers had a legal justification on why aid can be withheld because corruption was still rampant in opinion of the president of the United States.
2
@Francis Please try to read with a more careful eye toward accuracy. Aid was withheld UNTIL whistleblower complaint became known, then expeditiously released. Aid was withheld because it benefitted....someone (hmm. Who?) If corruption was the reason for the withhold, why then was trump asking those purportedly corrupt to investigate the supposed corruption, and why not until AFTER Biden became a potential threat?
1
This is great reporting. You couldn't make this stuff up -- it's much too good. Thank the three of you, You never let me down.
Our democracy is safer because of you.
2
A path to Trumps impeachment? What we are actually seeing coming out of this whole affair, is path to Joe Biden not getting the Democratic nomination; that's a disaster, since the polls clearly show that Biden has the best chance of dislodging Trump.
The votes required for impeachment just aren't there. A 2/3 vote is - and was intended to be - a massive barrier to impeachment. The vote in the House should make it clear, to anyone who is capable of being objective, how impeachment will play out.
More evidence coming out in the Senate trial? If the development of additional evidence is permitted, we Democrats will be stabbing the guy, who is our best shot, squarely in the back. You can't play the "more evidence" game, for just one side; and no matter what, Trump has the Senate vote locked.
The correct venue for chucking out Trump, is the voting booth - not the courtroom.
1
As the Senate prepares for impeachment, the White House lawyers who will present Trump's case are the same lawyers who were instrumental in the cover up. They should be called as material witnesses by the House of Representatives lawyers if the Senate decides not to have fact witnesses, or be asked to recuse themselves by the Chief Justice.
4
"...to bring pressure on a country he viewed with suspicion, if not disdain."
As do most clear thinking people.
The number one growth industry in Ukraine is corruption.
Their need for money (most of which would be pocketed) for weapons is about as legitimate as my need for a new Ferrari.
Ok, well, my need for a new Ferrari is kind of legitimate.
The action of people who take a visible and, yes, dangerous stand against tyrants who are destroying lives and democratic freedoms is one of the few things to celebrate in the political world in 2019. Even though, despite the exponential growth of autocrats, mass resistance of any magnitude is happening in but a few pockets around the world. Mostly, I am baffled why mass resistance like that in Hong Kong isn't happening here where democracy is in equally perilous waters.
2
I don't buy at all that Trump is distressed about all of this, he's in the spotlight every day, center stage in the daily drama reality show, it's exactly what he wanted. It will boost his viewership, and profits, on his own news channel when he's out of office. I thought it impossibe that we'd see another president as devious and corrupt as Nixon, but here we are. Allow Bolton, Mulvaney, Pompeo and others to testify under oath, release the requested documents. It will be for nought as McConnell is not a Senate man but a presidential stooge, but it should be exposed for history sake. That's what an innocent man would do. A silver lining in all of this administrations drama is that it has exposed the weaknesses in the Constitutional checks and balances guidelines. The Executive can quite clearly run roughshod over the Legistrative and Judicial branches of government, many flaws have been exposed. Going forward we hopefully fix it before the next Trump comes along.
1
It surely is no longer news that Trump in his various roles, including now as President, is willing to go beyond civility to get what he wants. He rants about walls; he has no sense of boundaries!
What are the boundaries that a citizen in the USA, of whatever ethnicity, age, gender, gender identity, religion and religiosity, political beliefs and party membership, etc., will respect, being personally accountable to democratic principles, norms, values, ethics, mutual trust, mutual respect and civility?
1
If the Senate won’t get to the bottom of this scandal, then the press will. How many more in depth stories do we need to get on with removing Trump?
4
No matter how many times or ways this story is told or re-told, at the center of it all is the simple fact that Congress allocated the funds and Trump withheld payment to pressure Zelensky into investigating Biden's son and floating a fraudulent narrative about Ukrainian interference in 2016. The reason that remains solidly at the center despite the swirl of confusion and posturing is because it is the truth. Also the majority of Americans are painfully aware that the witnesses that refused to cooperate with the Congressional investigation were not holding back exculpatory information. We know a con and a con man when we see one. And we see it all in Trump.
5
This is a magnificent and highly useful piece of reporting.
Should be studied carefully by those moving the impeachment forward.
6
After reading a number of comments, I couldn’t help but conclude that we are indeed living in two alternative universes with entirely different sets of perspectives vis a vis FACTS and TRUTHS depending on what tribal beliefs we hold. It’s sad to say that Truth/fact is just like beauty nowadays. It is in the eye of the beholder.
59
@Fe R
Truth is objective. One can have one's own opinions but not one's own facts. The problem is that most people don't know the difference between fact and opinion.
7
@Fe R
One person says Buenos Aires is the capital of Ecuador.
Person B says no it is Quito.
It is a mistake to give equal weight to both opinions when only one can be true.
False equivalence.
4
@Fe R
No it is not. That is a fake narrative and a false equivalence. It is not a matter of tribal interpretations of the truth. It is a more simple matter of the truth. The pro impeachment people are not indulging in ridiculous conspiracy theories and flagrant absurdity. Trump and his brigands are. Witness after credible witness testified at the House investigation all saying the same thing; and some of them like Sondland were pro Trump even donating a massive amount to Donald's campaign. Sondland held the same tribal belief as Trump so your comment is disprovable. The truth does NOT depend on what tribal belief you hold.
4
Thank you for this excellent background report.
If POTUS wants a defense in the Senate over this shamimpeachment trial - this will be an exhibit 1
Nothing here tells us that aid hold had anything to do with Biden investigation as far as POTUS was concerned.
Unlike what the House alleges in its shamimpeachment charges - POTUS was indeed concerned with corruption.
And he told his top 3 aides to their faces - not to mention to those 2 senators.
I wish he had taken this fight public - rather than cave in at the last minute.
I also take solace in the fact that unlike shamimpeachment charges - there was a legal opinon that POTUS had every right and a responsibility to hold aid as a Commander in Chief.
I have been to Ukraine and worked with Ukrainians in Azerbaijan..
All agree with POTUS that this president of Ukraine is not any different from all previous - when it comes to corruption.
6
If Trump wants to combat corruption, he should look in the mirror. It’s risible that anyone thinks that someone of Trump’s character who associates with convicted felons has any animus towards corruption,
2
How about this for wishing: I wish he had allowed his staff to testify. I wish he had not hidden documents. I wish he had not redacted so many testimonies.. i wish the GOP had at least tried to defend his actions.. i wish..
2
@Neil Trump has a 40 year career as a wannabe mobster. His MO is to use people, not pay them, then sue them, and if the business he is in, goes south, and ruins people's lives, so what, they got a $1 did they not?
Donald's life has been a charicature of 'I do what I want', because Daddy left me $413m, and when I had blown that, I blagged my way into borrowing our money from anyone who would lend it to him, or the Russians crawling all over Trump Tower, would do a bit of money laundering for him.
Why would you believe that he would suddenly turn into a humble public servant, who would learn the rules and constraints he is now living under?
The man is terrified that when he is thrown out of office, that the LAW is after him, his tax records, his business records, and probably the end of the 'Trump' brand.
Get the criminal out of the White House, it is an embarassment, at the very least.
"Forty-three minutes later, the Pentagon official, Elaine McCusker, hit send on a brief but stinging reply. “You can’t be serious,” she wrote. “I am speechless.”"
One would think that Ms. McCusker was speaking for the entire nation and both chambers of the Congress. Unfortunately, she wasn't for large swaths of the country and a majority in the Senate. The country is alarmingly divided and it wont come together if we keep pretending that both sides are right when they clearly are not.
76
Sniper rifles, RPGs, night vision equipment, medical supplies. So, just run of the mill military stuff, then. Not the 'essential, exclusive US tech' this aid was alleged to be, in earlier narratives. A shabby bribe, no less.
6
A shabby bribe except if you are in a ground war with Russia.
It all leads to the same conclusion, Trump is demented. And we are simply left with story after story of government employees and appointees who without experience with this type of president, are placed in one dilemma after another.
93
Mulvaney should resign. And then testify.
80
@Portola
Remember when we had gop politicians who weren't immune to shame?
2
It is clear the the “really terrible people” are in the White House, not in Ukraine. The corruption that should be addressed is in this administration. America does not have kings or emperors, the president is not all powerful and frankly needs to be removed from office. He is corrupt and a liar. And all his lackeys should go too. Disgusting and disturbing, and yet Republicans defend this reprehensible man.
181
Donal Trump is a clear and present danger to our nation.
168
So much in regard to reputation is already done dint you think and-in the undermining of our agency in the world as the most important protector of democracy. We are not trusted after the quick withdrawal Syria without consult of generals in the ground. It all seems a joke.
2
Treason through and through.
Doing Putin’s bidding all out. Selling Ukraine, NATO ideals and hopes of decent, thriving democracies down the river. He belongs up the river- sing sing comes to mind.
80
Please prove all your charges. You’d be doing the country a great service.
Were it not for investigative reporting, democracy would have already died. It is still gravely ill. Thank you NYT for these important stories.
320
@Katydid
Investigative reporting is chemo.
2
When Trump’s own Defense Secretary and Secretary of State disagreed with Trump, it is clear that Trump is the one going rogue, against the interests of the United States, and for his personal power. Not only impeachable, but treasonous.
139
@ml Well said. Yes, it is treason.
5
@ml I wouldn't use the 't' word, but it is a strong indicator of a president who ignores the professional diplomatic and military staff serving the White House, instead choosing to follow his own counsel. The motivation for that is what concerns me - is Trump serving his own (thoroughly corrupt) interests or doing someone else's bidding?
2
It is wonderful of you to put the pieces together, based on facts and testimonies. What a story! The way you told it, the story is on its way to becoming a movie.
28
I sure hope this movie has a happy ending.... and fast.
3
No truer words were ever spoken....”He got caught.” Now for the ‘billion’ dollar question: will he pay the price that anyone else would pay?
71
Unfortunately I can answer that question
“No”.
2
It is important that details come out. The people who know Trump's past or have read about it, did not need additional information to be convinced that Trump is a corrupt ruler. People, especially Republicans, who are Trump's die hard followers can be convinced with any amount of evidence. Hence, no change in public opinion despite all the testimony. We, as a country, are in big trouble.
We won cold war, but Putin won social media war with hands down. There is good chance of four more years of Putin rule.
25
Another example of the elected doing as they please while in office. They think nothing of spending taxpayers money as they want for things that they want. No one is going to say or do anything about it. Wait and see.
4
Trump needs to be pushed back to New York and it's system of rich owners that extract money from the economy on the backs of the poor and working class. This cancer would not have spread if the Southern District of New York was doing it's job in the first place.
19
Except that his holdings consist of a small handful of office buildings. And those are marginal properties at best. You give the guy far too much credit. He ranks nowhere near New York’s major real estate players.
18
So true. Every step of the way, people have enabled Trump by turning their back on truth and kissing up to a corrupt player. Somehow he makes people feel special to be on his team (even if they are disposable). People have no values or self respect.
3
Trump has got to go, along with every willing co-conspiring scoundrel in the administration, political appointees and bureaucrats, including DOJ willing to help him cook up legal excuses for his illegal acts. The DOJ is not his criminal defense law firm. Everyone in gov't needs to be made to understand that when a treacherous, criminal scoundrel acts to make them feel like they're between a rock and a hard place, where the scoundrel is the rock - that hard place is the American people, and we will not tolerate this incompetence and criminality.
35
“They are all corrupt, they are all terrible people,” Mr. Trump said, according to testimony in the impeachment inquiry.
That quote is classic Trump hypocrisy and self-interest.
We've heard similar iterations of it many times before toward many other countries -- from Europe to Africa, the Middle East and South America...including Mexico, Canada and our most long-term loyal allies. There seems to be only one country and leader that Trump spares in his disdain -- it is the only one proven to have helped him get elected, and is likely to do the same next time around. Russia has achieved substantial influence over our country, with a U.S. President that reliably reliably trusts and idolizes their "great leader" Putin. ALL of us and all of our elected Congressional leaders should be alarmed
48
Was the “Ukrainian corruption” miraculously cleaned up in one week thus allowing the $391M to be sent to Ukraine?
58
....the funds were released once:
1) two republican senators said knock it off and released the appropriated funds
2) the whistleblower memo became known to the administration, and
3) house committees announced investigations into why the appropriated funds were being held up.
It was a miracle.
6
Trump's putative concern with Ukraine's corruption strikes me as a tad ironic given his own submersion in smarmy payoffs, business corruption, grifting, and general swamp-dwelling. If there is a politician who has been more involved in corruption in both his personal and public life than Trump, I am not aware of them. The man lies when the truth would do just as well. His lofty concern with ethics in Ukraine is laughable.
53
Same tactics that NYC landlords use: threaten, don’t put it in writing, get a lackey to send the message, use euphemisms that can be denied in court. And spew a stream of invectives and four letter words at anyone that doesn’t have the resources to defend themselves. This is the well worn hustle that poor people see every day. Strange that his “base” doesn’t get it, they’re very familiar with this game.
92
Again, NYT uses the language that Trump via Guliani "aimed to force Ukraine to conduct investigations that could help Mr. Trump politically". Is there in fact any evidence that they tried to force Ukraine to *conduct* investigations, or merely *announce* them? It's a critical difference, because if they really wanted investigations conducted, the Republicans can claim it was a genuine effort to root out corruption (as difficult as that may be to believe). If all they wanted was an *announcement* as Sondland has testified, then it shows they were just looking for propaganda that could sully Biden's reputation. for Trump's personal political gain. An actual investigation would be of no value to Trump, since it would likely clear Biden - as indeed the actual investigation already did.
If I'm wrong, if there is evidence that Trump was after an actual investigation, not just announcement of one, could someone please correct me? If I'm right, then NYT please try to avoid playing into the Republicans hands by saying he wanted an actual investigation if there is actually no evidence of this. They don't need your help!
24
@A. Nonymous
What "actual investigation" cleared Biden?
Burisma founders were investigated, and the investigation open/closed as Ukraine went through several chief prosecutors as they changed presidents.
Each chief prosecutor was fired for allegedly being corrupt -including the guy Joe Biden called "solid" - yet nobody in the EU or Ukraine ever charged any of them with the corruption allegations that resulted in their firing.
4
@A. Nonymous You, dear sir, are right. TImes reporters do great work and service to our country. But sometimes they pull their punches, as if someone is looking over their shoulder and trying to impede them.
9
@A. Nonymous
Of course you're right. Real investigations into corruption aren't announced before they're begun. The last thing Trump wanted was a quiet, professional investigation into whether Joe Biden exerted any political influence on behalf of his son.
28
This is the most comprehensive and updated timeline I’ve read regarding Trump’s bribery and treason regarding Ukraine.
The damage one Donald John Trump has caused this country is so staggering it makes the head and eyes roll and the mind reel.
68
Why have a staff if you never listen to them? President Trump is trying to run the country like a Mom & Pop Grocery store where he makes all the decisions, unencumbered by the thought process.
34
I'm certainly not a Trumpt fan, but this article clearly points out the opposite...
1
@ Nate
That he has thought process? There is absolutely no evidence of that.
4
That’s right. He goes to any lengths to carry out *his* agenda, not the agenda of our national interest. Just what he wants to benefit himself. Sickening.
27
Trump’s corruption and disloyalty are described in unsparing details in this report. His entire administration participated in this treachery and demonstrated loyalty to Trump but not to the rule of law and our national security. Trump and his entire administration that facilitated this policy must be removed from office for this treachery. No wonder they have obstructed Congress and refused to testify under oath and release subpoenaed documents.
The Republican Party reveals their utter lack of morality and patriotism in their willingness to tolerate this perfidy. By their cowardly appeasement they too have become partisan participants in this conspiracy.
If they fail to conduct a fair and impartial trial, they must all be removed from office by the electorate for choosing power and corruption over their oaths of office to their country and the rule of law. Where is their outrage at such a flagrant abuse of power and treachery to our national interests? Are they concerned about their country or are they touting the propaganda spin of Putin to conceal the truth from the American people? If Pence were part of this conspiracy, he must face the political consequences as well and must not become President. This scandal makes Watergate pale in significance. Where is any patriotism? McConnell’s name will rest in shame for his acquiescence and cooperation with this administration and his willingness to conduct a partisan sham trial. He is no conservative traditionalist at all.
35
In situations like that, a president should not be the Commander in chief , ( obviously by the Constitution he is unfortunately), Most of presidents never had military experience, Trump is extremely ignorant and extremely dangerous. He has zero military experience . We are in bad hands, and our National Security is extremely weak.Who will remove him? Nobody!! We the citizens are totally in limbo. We have a Senate against us, a Secretary of State, a Secretary of Defense, Chief of staff.. and many others with crucial positions and much more knowledge ( like general’s, career diplomatas and many lawyers councils , have to watch this stupid , unhinged president demands and nonsense. How low America became ! What a shame!We were the policeman of the world , Now We need someone, from any place around the globe to save us , because our political system is broken, this ignorant president are destroying our values. The Supreme Court Conservatives are against most of Americans .
12
@Linz I wish Ukraine's president didn't have to depend on our help and could speak freely about what happened. That would knock down at least one of Trump's arguments. Maybe we'll hear from him once Trump's out of office.
15
@Shanda
The 'help' consisted of $0.4bn worth of routine military materiel. I mean, sniper rifles, night vision goggles, shoulder launch anti-tank missiles? It's not as if Ukraine couldn't have gone shopping pretty much anywhere in the world for those, is it?
And the actual money value? The EU is a far larger cash donor to Ukraine. More than double the US - but not weapons.
Does Ukraine really depend on US help?
Good grief, is this really all that important? I mean Ukraine, for goodness sake.
5
@BD This really has nothing to do with Ukraine. It has all to do with Trump trying to shift blame for rigging of the 2016 election in his favor by the Russians to the Ukrainians (who were trying to help Hilary get elected, really) and also to help rig 2020 for Trump by merely announcing corruption investigation involving the Bidens to get him out of the way.
27
@BD
Do you really not understand that this is all about Trump trying to rig the 2020 presidential election?
30
@BD ... to my friends above, Biden is afraid to face a Senate subpoena. Maybe afraid corruption will be uncovered?
1
Can anybody explain to me why Giuliani was not subpoenaed to testify? It seems that as a private citizen and not a member of the administration, Trump wouldn't have any power to protect him.
26
He would just claim attorney client privilege.
2
Giuliani is not a reliable witness the guy flip flops. He can't tell the truth stating truth is not truth....and so on
2
Keep in mind that an actual quid pro quo does not have to occur in order for an offense to be impeachable. Trump's words "I want you to do me a favor though" are damning enough all by themselves because they ask a foreign power to gather information on a political opponent.....To those who say "the President has the right and the responsibility to look into corruption" I remind them that the money had already been cleared. The agency in charge determined that Ukraine was doing enough to combat corruption to justify the release of the aid. I'm sure Trump's aids told him this during their attempts to get him to release the aid. If Trump had truly been holding up the aid because he was looking into corruption in Ukraine, don't you think everyone would have been told this? Why would so many people be at a loss to determine why the aid was held up?
21
What does Russia have over him? Speaker Pelosi is absolutely correct - all roads lead to Putin.
4
excellent reporting. this is banana republic stuff.
31
We Americans have a criminal government in the White House and the Senate.
If we don’t use our scant constitutional authority to regain control over the government and the country then the future will include less and less democracy.
51
What we must not forget is that this sad saga is only half the story. Concurrently Rudy Guiliani, Attorney at Law(lessness) conducted a campaign to strong arm the Ukrainian officials to “investigate” the Bidens and “interference” in the 2016 election, which included his successful plot to recall Ambassador Yovanovich. Rudy was “advising” the Ukrainians on how to satiate Trump’s hunger: serve him Joe Biden stuffed in a cabbage. To understand Trump’s corrupt intent you must see the whole picture.
Trump talked “policy” wih the legitimate bureaucrats, Bolton, Esper, Pompeo, and Senator Portman, while he told the three amigos to “speak to Rudy.” He offered a rational to the official chain of command (wasting aid to a corrupt country), while his current (not yet incarcerated) personal fixer was setting up the shakedown of the neophyte Zelensky.
But when the whistle was blown, so was Trump’s shell game. Trump then learned a new phrase for his twitter rants: quid pro quo. He can also add to his resume/rap sheet the distinct honor of “impeached” to the accolades he has achieved such as bankrupt, deadbeat, fraudster, con man, and reality tv star. And like he reminds us everything was “perfect.”
30
@Asher Fried Add “racist” to that list of accolades, apropos of his family’s practice of discrimination in housing.
Loved the “Joe Biden stuffed in a cabbage” :)
8
@Henry Biden may very well be guilty, and I would think that would apply to Jr. But that has nothing to do with what Trump was trying to accomplish. He has no interest in corruption.
15
Why not? Biden was not the one impeached by all the testimonies and documents. Trump was. Now let the senate defend his nefarious behavior covered by the Articles of Impeachment.
1
So, are we allowed to speculate on why Comey revealed the re-opening of the investigation into Hillary Clinton just before the election?
2
@Bruce Thomson You could read his book to find out!
3
Let’s break this all down - again:
In 2017, the Ukraine has a corruption problem, Joe Biden isn’t running for president, Hunter Biden is on Burisma’s board, and Trump doesn’t interfere with the military aid.
In 2018, the Ukraine still has a corruption problem, Joe Biden still isn’t running for president, Hunter Biden is still on Burisma’s board, and Trump still doesn’t interfere with the military aid.
But in 2019, after Joe Biden announces his candidacy and after Trump officially kicks of his 2020 re-election campaign, then Trump conditions military aid on investigations into Burisma and Hunter Biden.
These still aren’t difficult dots to connect.
96
@Julio Wong
Yes but the NY Times reporters are very careful NOT to present that clear timeline because that is not part of the Republican narrative that is the guiding part of their reporting.
Remember, this entire article intentionally makes it "plausible" that Trump could have really been concerned about corruption and to do so the reporters intentionally leave out all the evidence that can't be undermined by the right wing talking points that these reporters always present as having the same credibility as facts and evidence.
You will not ever see a NY Times reporter asking the White House why Trump was not concerned with Ukraine corruption in 2017 or 2018. They never ask questions that might undermine the right wing talking points their sources expect them to present as the NY Times reporters did throughout this article.
That is why there is no mention in this article that Giuliani was rejecting Zelensky statements about corruption that did not sufficiently smear Biden - and was basically putting words in Zelensky's mouth to smear Biden while the aid was withheld.
It makes Watergate look like jaywalking.
22
@Julio Wong
Good points.
However, see these quote from some publication called "Defense News" (9/25/19):
"One irony is that the Trump administration was going further with its aid than the Obama administration by deciding to provide Ukraine with lethal weapons. In 2017, Trump announced his intent to provide the Javelin, and Congress approved an assistance package of 210 missiles and 37 launchers, together worth $47 million."
"To be clear, Ukraine has a robust military and defense-industrial base on its own, and according to Simakovsky, Kyiv is likely looking less for small arms than for larger and more sophisticated training, as well as maritime capabilities, intelligence and cyber support."
This last para indicates that the stuff Trump held up wasn't really very important, or time sensitive.
you leave out one major point in your timeline. the Mueller report comes out proving no Trump collusion with Russia. but of course now know that the Democrats were colluding with Russians and others in Ukraine ,(Steele dosier and Manafort ledger) to impact the 2016 election. with Trump free from the Russia collusion hoax he wants to expose the Democrats who set him up.
I approve of the Trump impeachment and believe he should be removed from office, Still, this is a much more nuanced accounting of the timeline that weakens the argument that Trump withheld the funds for only blatant political reasons. And Trump comes across as having a ten-year old’s capacity to understand the complexities of what he was doing, so he gains a defence from stupidity.
Nevertheless, damning factors remain. In the article, it is clear that the testimony of Mulvaney, Bolton and others would partly support the Republican version, but not in an clear and unambiguous way. For this reason, preventing them from testifying constitutes Obstruction of Congress. Even if the whole inquiry turned up nothing, it’s not up to the investigated to decide the outcome and prevent due process.
Second, two things can be true at the same time. Trump may have blocked aid for other reasons, but he can certainly have still used that as a lever to extort Zelensky, which it seems clear he did. A secondary, legitimate reason doesn’t sanitize an illegitimate use, like if the Trump Foundation had actually contributed to causes, while embezzling money.
Finally, Zelensky not knowing about the withholding no longer works in Trump’s favour. Now we see that Zelensky might was left free to imagine a quid pro quo, and Trump’s failure to say funds were being withheld for the reasons he would say they were, means it can be expected to have the same effect as a strong arming political move.
11
We all know that sinister forces exist within this corrupt administration- people who are prepared to subvert justice, trash the Constitution and US values. I am incredulous that Giuliani has not been indicted. Trump is not smart enough to think of this stuff. Barr is. Mulvaney is. Miller is. I am hopeful that one courageous individual- to save his own skin- will come forward with direct, compelling testimony to this attempted "drug deal."
16
Donald Trump cares about corruption? That's his motivation?
Ok, then let's look at the most corrupt countries in 2018, according to the Corruption Perceptions Index. And then let's look at how much money the U.S. government disbursed in 2018 to those countries, according to USAID.
Funny thing. I don't recall Trump holding up money to any of these countries last year ...
#1) Somalia ($637 million)
#2) South Sudan ($397 million)
#3) Syria ($713 million)
#4) North Korea ($3.5 million)
#5) Yemen ($565 million)
#6) Sudan ($224 million)
#7) Afghanistan ($1 billion)
#8) Libya ($62 million)
#9) Burundi ($49 million)
#10) Venezuela ($15 million)
#11) Iraq ($1.1 billion)
#12) Angola ($52 million)
#13) Republic of the Congo ($11 million)
#14) Chad ($81 million)
#15) Democratic Republic of the Congo ($482 million)
And if you're wondering:
#40) Russia ($160 million)
#57) Ukraine ($350 million)
Yeah. Sure. Donald Trump cares about corruption.
78
So? Joe Biden had no connection with most of these countries. And in case you missed it, the aid to Ukraine was only released under pressure.
5
@kls
SHHH the NY Times reporters hope that no one notices that Trump didn't care about Ukraine corruption in 2017 and 2018 when Biden was not a candidate for President.
The goal of this article is to present the right wing talking points of how Trump "could" have been concerned with corruption, so it is very important that the NY Times leaves out the fact that the timing of Trump's newfound concern with corruption proves that it was always about Biden. Otherwise, their right wing sources would be mad at them. They might call the reporters "biased" because they reported facts that hurt the righty wing narrative that the NY Times are supposed to report as unquestionably credible and just as likely to be true as Trump having any nefarious motives.
8
@kls
The US gave $160 million of 'aid' to Russia? Excuse my doubtful face...
Or, does 'disbursements' actually mean something else - and much more general?
1
This article could also be title 84 days of presidential cover up and obstruction. What am I missing?
14
The very idea that national security officials were twiddling their thumbs all day, while vital military aid was being held up and Ukrainians were dying on the battlefields, in order not to interrupt Trump's golf game with John Daly, is the perfect commentary on the Trump presidency.
62
Although the NYT article represents good reporting, Time Magazine’s account in its Person of The Year issue with Greta Thunberg on the cover does a much better job of tying together both the efforts to withhold the aid and the scheme to pressure Ukraine to announce the investigations. NYT Magazine needs to do a similar story. More newspapers need to tell this narrative in its entirety instead of leaving it in bits and pieces to be spun by the Republicans and the President on Twitter.
8
@TT
The NY Times reporting likes to leave out the details of the scheme to pressure Ukraine to announce the investigations, with Giuliani and company writing the exact words for Zelensky to say smearing Biden.
After all, this article is supposed to be presenting the Republicans talking points as having the same weight as facts. There is no good reason to leave out the timeline and Giuliani's drafting of Zelensky's Biden-smearing statement. The only reason is because those facts undermine the right wing narrative the NY Tikmes keeps presenting as having as much credibility as what was revealed during the impeachment hearings.
Trump only had one motive -- the election. That's why he didn't care about Ukraine corruption until 2019 when Biden polled higher than them. But you won't learn that fact reading this NY Times article which tries to mislead readers into believing that Trump had been concerned with corruption in the Ukraine before Biden became his most popular opponent.
4
@RJ
I’m glad the Ukraine corruption angle was noted. My cursory reading had not picked up on this hilarious plot point. And the Times really should look at the years when Ukraine got its security allowance without pause. That’s a huge storyline. Without that, Times, it’s just a B+
Me. Pelosi, hold off on giving the Senate the impeachment, every day more damning information sees the light of day. Information that would make a Senate acquittal look more and more criminal.
31
Funny how undercutting Ukraine became more important to Trump as Russia became less successful in attacking it.
One might almost think that Trump wished for Russia’s national interest to be served before America’s.
20
Every Trump appointee is a traitor and must be excised from public office. All of the judges must go, the people destroying government agencies must go, Trump's family must go, Mike Pence must go, the entire criminal cabinet must go and Trump himself must be banished.
For god's sake, act, Pentagon chiefs, Democratic legislators and remaining uncontaminated judges. ACT.
24
" Aides speculated that someone had shown Mr. Trump a news article about the Ukraine assistance and he demanded to know more. "
Please stop printing lies by Trump and his aides.
Putin told Trump to block the aid.
Remember Helsinki ... Trump looked like a beat puppy at that news conference with Putin and no one has seen the interpreter's notes.
Impeach , convict and imprison .
30
The read I get is that the “must investigate the Bidens to get aid” is a red-herring put out by Trump, a condition attached to the aid as a cover story for why the aid was withheld, which presumably was actually withheld to appease Putin and help Russia. But Trump can’t reveal that latter, true reason why he didn’t want Ukraine to get the aid, so they concoct the “investigate the Bidens” and “fight corruption’ condition as an excuse.
Biden and re-election weren’t the real, or primary, agenda, helping Russia was. While presenting the agenda as being about Biden and re-election is troublesome enough, Trump absolutely cannot say aid was withheld because it's what Putin wanted.
What I want to know is, before the phone call and the Biden condition was communicated to Zelensky, what reason(s) were government insiders given--or what did they believe was the reason(s), as Trump's explanation for withholding the aid?
I don’t recall the testimony getting at that issue in great enough detail and in clear-enough relief. There was plenty of talk of two tracks and the “investigate Biden” angle, but what about prior to that track being revealed—what did they think was going on? Do any of them see the “investigate Biden” condition as a cover story to obscure the real reason (it's what Putin wanted) why the aid was withheld?
15
@AnotherCitizen That suggests a conspiracy with Russia. Now, if you had evidence of this, that would be an amazing "art imitates life" kind of thing (Manchurian candidate). But if you did have such evidence, would Republicans still support Trump?
One thing is that Trump is often guilty of what he accuses other people of. He accused Obama of being a Manchurian (muslim) candidate....
1
@Reva Cooper, Verses the joke of an impeachment by the House?
1
I have backed up all my statements. Support yours.
8
It's head-shaking, mind boggling to think that the 'very stable genius" residing in The White House can actually pull this off. He's not of course, it's his minions and sycophants. If he is a genius, he is a genius at getting others to do the dirty work and to keep pushing, pushing, pushing back, pushing forward, blazing a path to destruction. And he's had decades of experience in this sort of play. He loves it and it's sad that it's come to tear the country asunder. And more sad is the unquietening fear that he will continue to succeed.
1949
@Joseph
Trump is a generous at getting the NY Times to do his dirty work. Thus, the NY Times spent the entire campaign mischaracterizing his opponent, Hillary Clinton, as more corrupt than Trump. And the week before the election, the NY Times ran huge headlines announcing that the Trump campaign was completely cleared of having any ties with Russia whatsoever.
Thus this article which bends over backward to take seriously the most absurd Trump-provided narrative and carefully leaves out all evidence that shows how ridiculous it is (like the lock up of the phone call transcript and Trump's errand boy Giuliani drafting the "let's smear Biden" statement for Zelensky.)
If you read the NY Times as your only news source, you would be convinced that there is just as much evidence that Trump is a true corruption fighter as any evidence that he had any bad motives for his actions.
If one didn't know the facts, this article would give a Trump supporter plenty of evidence that Trump just wanted to fight corruption, as it carefully leaves out the most incriminating actions that the Trump narrative can't explain. So the NY Times reporters simply ignore those.
99
@Joseph
Just recently, an investigation was opened on contractors for "The Wall", especially one from North Dakota, and Senator Kevin Cramer.
Do you see a pattern here. From chronic stiffing contractors, casino bond defaults, Trump University fraud, Trump Charities corruption, adultery cover ups, etc.
205
@shimr attacks on Trump and his supporters should not be allowed to hide the fact that instead of offering a good Democrat in November and fostering him/her, people like you and the MSM have focused on attacking Trump. And, a thousand attacks on Trump will not hide the fact that Hunter Biden was up to something fishy no in Ukraine.
3
My view is that this article undercuts the impeachment proceeding and narrative. The one UK official who was supposedly told of the connection between aid and announcing investigations has emphatically said that he wasn't told that (by Sond). No emails and no one who is talking/testifying has connected Trump directly to the connection between the quid and the quo. It's just the transcript of his call, which really isn't that clear. 2016 election and Burisma, a favor, no mention of aid, UK didn't know then that aid was being withheld. UK president supports Trump'a view.
No direct evidence that Trump's favor request etc was to investigate a rival for purposes of the election.
Trump genuinely thought UK was corrupt and the US shouldn't be supporting things like this. In some conversations, he and others denied quid pro quo.
It's doesn't seem to me that any delay was illegal. Trump reversed his position in a call with Portman. Only speculation that the whistleblower report caused the reversal.
An argument that Trump as commander in chief could withhold the military aid, altho apparently not used.
Which is not say that I don't believe the impeachment narrative.
5
I agree that this article muddies the story quite a bit at least in terms of what different players were hearing or understanding about the rationale.
All the more reason to have a fulsome trial with all evidence and discovery on the table. This is the first I’ve seen of a credible alternate interpretation of events. The accusation leveled by the house should be taken seriously by all parties and a defense based on facts rather than process should be mounted by the president.
I’m not too fond of this president but if everyone involved rose to the occasion and played their proper part it would be a relief even if he’s exonerated genuinely, because at least we’d have the appearance of a a competent and honorable leadership across the branches.
Not holding breath alas.
5
Here is where the sheer stupidity of people never ceases to amaze me.
There are those who believe that Mr. Trump genuinely believed Ukraine to be a corrupt country. Fair enough.
Those same people believe that when Mr. Trump asked Ukraine to investigate the Bidens and “look into what happened with the server”, he did so out of genuine concern.
Yet, it is already established by those same people that Ukraine is corrupt. So why would you ask the Ukraine Government to investigate US persons or US election interference. Doesn’t make any sense, from a logical point of view.
What’s next? Should we ask North Korea or Saudi Arabia for a hand in other “investigations”?
Mr Trump has his designated lap dog (US Attorney General) which is happy to do his bidding. If these corruption concerns on the part of the Bidens had a shred of truth, The United States Justice Department would be all over it.
He is asking Ukraine for a reason, and its not a good one.
24
There are many points in your comment I could dispute, but the prime one is this: Do you really think Ukranian officials would be so stupid as to say: "Yes, President Trump and his minions pressured us to open investigations in the Bidens, and it made us very angry and worried. We're glad you caught him doing this terrible thing to us." C'mon. It's easy to understand why they would deny pressure. Think what Trump would try to do to them if they threw him under the bus. Especially if, God forbid, he is reelected.
31
I find the whole quid quo pro issue to be rather mundane, as commonplace in politics as it is in business.
5
@Ted Wampus Did you actually read this report?
20
You must be running quite a business.
24
Liberal left trying to dictate how the Senate conducts its assessment of the articles of impeachment. Typical liberal overreaching.
2
And of course Mitch Mitch McConnell’s and Lindsey Graham’s statements about not being impartial jurors is totally above board. As well as McConnell’s decision to let Trump’s lawyer dictate things.
43
You responded above with a general statement about a “joke of an impeachment” with no backup. Support it, with facts? And there’s no legal timetable for the House needing to submit the impeachment articles, so unlike Trump they’re not breaking any laws.
8
@Reva Cooper
Are Dems like the presidential candidates "impartial" jurors. Of course, not. They have made their views known.
I heard a Rebub talking head say today that Clinton's people consulted with the Senate in his impeachment too. Another head seemed to clarify that. I just tried to Google, but didn't find anything in one search.
The same "geniuses" who have predicted the demise of Trump endlessly are against him here. As always, they will prove themselves to be of low intelligence here. Trump paid a price to carry out that agenda of cleaning out the swamp because he was fulfilling his promises to those that elected him.
2
@Dan And that price is? Do tell!
9
@Dan It actually really stings when beer comes out of my nose like that.
10
If Trump was truly serious about curtailing corruption, he would present himself to FBI headquarters , hands outreached (for handcuffs) and tell them the actual truth of his life story.
13
Leverage!
Get it. keep it. Use it. Lose it. No new evidence, no tax returns means 4 more years and you "ain't seen nothing yet".
Marquess of Queensberry rules vs. all means justify the end.
What's the cost of winning? and what is winning?
After 19 years of useless wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria . $6+ Trillion and 1000s of US troops killed or wounded , shouldn't we be asking why we are involving ourselves in a potential hot conflict with Russia? Haven't we wasted enough blood and treasure ? I know one thing : I have had enough. How about the rest of you?
12
The United States of abject idiots has chosen the most corrupted individual in its sewer of psychopathy to clean up its corruption? Good luck with that.
28
Somewhere in this article someone worries about the "appearance" of helping the Russians. Is that a joke? It has been clear since day one that Trump has been doing everything he can to aid the Russians, as in, taking orders directly from Putin.
The Mueller investigation did not follow the money, laying out in detail Trump's financial ties to the Russian oligarchs. Why have they, especially the Republicans, been so willing to look the other way on this? Going forward are they, along with Trump, counting on the Russians to help them in the next election. By holding up legislation to guarantee election security, McConnell gives every impression that that is also his plan.
20
@loveman0: Vlad Putin chose Trump to dissolve the US union. He's the greatest talent scout of all time.
13
Congress should start an investigation into the criminal behavior of Mick Mulvaney and his staff at OMB. Trump may be able to get away with murdering someone on fifth avenue; but, Mulvaney and his gang should be in prison, the sooner the better.
22
Trump’s motivation for holding up the aid to Ukraine has yet to be clearly established. His desire to have Kiev help him smear the Bidens is clearly only part of the story. What needs to be nailed down with greater precision are the sources of his hostility to Ukraine and refusal to take advice from his own officials regarding Zelensky. We need to know who is influencing this president and how. We can all take a guess. Or is he flying entirely solo? And if so, does he have any idea what he’s doing or where he’s trying to take us?
9
@Simon Barber Zelensky is Jewish, so there is that.
1
@Simon Barber: Trump is a stooge of Putin who is indeed dissolving the US union.
8
Thank you once again, dear professional journalists.
20
It appears that the only "conflict and confusion" was with Mulvaney and his office; that is- how to circumvent the law.
6
Trump created the corruption. Never in our history has an Administration been so tarnished with the help of the Party it represents.
24
How to fight the coming civil war when it opens around election day about 10 PM EST?
8
Several of his highest and closest advisers told him that ‘it was in America’s interest’ to release the aid.
He still didn’t.
That’s pretty telling.
35
This is the clearest timeline that I’ve seen to date about the Ukrainian Aid Freeze. Some of the details were released just last week as part of a freedom of information suite so there is more here than we saw at the house hearings. A federal judge forced the WH to release email communications that they had no intention of ever releasing, and so we have many missing pieces falling into place. It doesn’t look pretty, they knew that what they were doing was breaking the law, and were frantically trying to figure out a legal justification to allow it. SOP for the clown’s WH. It continues to get worse. There is a real world out there, with players in it that seriously want to do us and our system of government great harm, and mean to at every opportunity we give them. I believe that is the basis, for the concern and anger about this entire episode; it goes against everything that anyone that has ever served our country honorably has stood for.
26
@Dick Montagne: The harm this relic of slavery government does to us is our problem.
2
LOL, people who think Trump worries about US interests are insane. Trump only worries about his personal interests.
29
The Attorney General, instead of ensuring that the President upholds the rule of law, continues to side with the crime boss in the White House. With the Supreme Court stacked in favor of the President who is bent on abusing his power, are there any legal recourse to force witness testimonies from Mr. Mulvaney, Mr. Bolton, Mr. Pompaeo and Mr. Giuliani?
How do we dismantle the crime syndicate?
16
Assuming at least some GOP members of the senate read the NYT (or maybe their staffers), it seems to me that some light should begin to dawn as to how the impeachment trial should be conducted. The people who have been ignoring subpoenas should be called to testify under oath or be incarcerated. This is too critical a juncture in our country's history to railroad the impeachment trial like the Merrick Garland nomination. The future of our democracy hangs in the balance. Where are the patriots? Have they gone completely around the White Christian Nationalism bend?
33
@Frank
It seems that these guys should be called based on this comment in the article which indicated that lawyers were writing up legal excuses for Trump's misconduct 2 months after he withheld the funds:
"By late summer, top lawyers at the budget office were developing a proposed legal justification for the hold, based in part on conversations with White House lawyers as well as the Justice Department"
William Barr, his son in law and WH attorney Tyler McGaughey, Mark Paoletta, Duffey, John Eisenberg, Pat Cipollone, Michael Williams, Benczkowski, Jeffrey Rosen, Russell T. Vought, and Robert Blair.
12
@Frank
The people issued subpoenas have every right not to appear unless ordered by a court. It's our system of government. It's the separation of powers in the Constitution. Congress is welcome to try to enforce their subpoenas in court.
Trump has exerted executive privilege in at least some of these situations. It is up to the courts to decide.
1
@Henry
Withholding US money to battle American corruption you mean. Trump intended to force an investigation into Joe Biden and his family. In case you hadn't noticed, the the Bidens are American citizens and Joe is an election rival to Mr Trump.
1
SO WAIT- the VERY SAME DAY that Trump called Zelensky and said "we need a favor, though" and then 90 minutes later had Mulvaney email OMB to hold up Ukraine aide was also the VERY SAME DAY that Ukraine announced it had seized a Russian tanker to the Pentagon— a potential escalation in the conflict between the two nations.
It would seem that Trump KNEW about that tanker seizer and KNEW that if he held up aide, it would give Zelensky a less powerful position to negotiate with Putin on any ceasefire agreement AND he knew that withholding aide at the same time would really put Zelensky in a position to do "anything Trump wanted", just like Sondland told Congress.
So, my question is: Which side is Trump on? Putin or a US ally?
30
Treason. Putin. Russia.
We were lucky the hurricane came when it did; otherwise, there would have been a DJT-Zelensky face to face meeting in Poland and the issue might not have come to light.
21
Trump is a stench on our Democracy. From demonizing John McCain,Gold Star Family, urging rally supporters to acts of violence, lying about inauguration crowd, giving national intelligence information to Russians , lying about payments to silence women, use of insecure cell phone, destroying records of talks with Putin and others.
If the man were truthful he would open his tax returns and send his people to testify in the Impeachment trial to clear his name and restore respect to America.
The man is guilty. He is destroying America.
48
@Seymour Your Greatest Hits List of his corruption is welcomed, but incomplete. The actual list would fill 50 years worth of Sunday papers.
2
Pelosi should hang onto the impeachment articles until Bolton agrees to or is ordered to describe this drug deal before House Intelligence. The Trump and McConnell argument that the indictment is based on second-hand knowledge is crazy when those with first-hand knowledge refuse to testify. And if Democrats take everything in 2020, they should demand to know why federal courts allowed Trump to run out the clock. Maybe it's time for some serious court reform.
37
The POTUS’s most vociferous core support does not care if he cheats, lies, and steals to benefit the Russian federation and his own family’s entrenched ill-gotten wealth. In their mind, it’s a Caucasian conservative Christian nation with a bend towards authoritarian control and white Christian hegemony. They want that for America again as well. It’s the same thing they hope for domestically. The proposition that our executive is being guided by such a foreign influence is not only acceptable but welcome. Note via those like Williamson in National Review that the clear assessment from conservative U.S. intelligencia is that the POTUS is a rank failure of almost every mark. The GOPs Southern Strategy kept a constituency beaten and starved in a cage for decades, now they’re angry and willing to go to any measure to preserve demographic dominance, regardless of it endangers our basic frameworks of meritocracy and personal freedom. They will simply follow the loudest pontificating voice seething the most anger in pursuit of rage. They crave to fall in lock step behind a thriving old codger like POTUS. This is about 30% of the GOP, somewhere in the realm of 20 million people. Their rural spatial distribution gives them an inordinate level of political power through the Senate and electoral college. They tend to be binary, dogmatic, and prone to conspiracy, as is clear to most.
14
@Michael Yerwol
We just have to live with it until the the white Christian rural male cohort over 50 without higher education finishes their life cycle. The GOP is now a southern white rural and western party, steeped in ethnic-nationalist authoritarianism, nothing more; full stop. Boomers like Johnson in Wisconsin realize this is the only route to preserving any relevance. Those like him and the Senate leader will engage in any or all forms of malfeasance to preserve their lot. It’s simply a waiting game on life cycle while hoping the damage is only minimal. That said, if one is watching the uptick in hate crimes and separatist violence rhetoric across the country, it becomes difficult to maintain optimism. Yet, it is still possible and necessary. This unholy union of the zealots, authoritarians, racists, grifters, and tin foil hats is fragile in many regards. Keep calm, carry on, and use common sense fellow Americans. This too shall pass.
10
OK for the typical whataboutism?
6
@Henry Typhiod doesn’t make malaria good. In short, it’s like this. I point out that the big tree in the front yard is diseased and dying - and you respond with rage that the little shrub in the backyard is also losing its leaves.
One has nothing to do with the other. The nature of your response having nothing directly to do with what I’ve asserted just shows that you’re mad and know what I’ve stated is fairly accurate. I say that a dog is sick with a disease, and you essentially respond “no it isn’t, look at the turtle across the street with the flu!” Sir, I hope you can find some peace. You may be unhappy with one side of our politics but constantly changing the subject and pointing out other problems, even if they are valid, just shows that you’re angry. It doesn’t support any point in terms of disagreement with my post.
1
Mick Mulvaney was drinking the kool-aid not the tea. What a disgrace for the United States of America that he was and is a part of this charade on the American people.
25
Say again McConnell, why we don't need witnesses at the impeachment trial.
33
Corruption and Criminality - carried out openly and proudly.
Happening still, even as Congress impeaches Trump for the exact same set of issues...
Even as Trump openly solicited foreign aid from Ukraine, colluding and extorting - a day after Mueller testified to Congress about his last cycle of collusion with a foreign power for his own gain...
Now, we know, the same foreign power (Putin’s Russia) was behind all of it: advising, passing information and instructions... overriding Trump’s own Intelligence community!
Dear God! He is STILL President!
We are no longer a nation of laws. Our leaders no longer even pretend to follow the law or the Constitution. We are just led by a bunch of profiteering thugs.
Is there NOTHING Washington will do to stop the free fall into lawless corruption?!
29
What this relevant that he and he alone was elected to make those decisions. Not his appointees not anyone else.
1
That would apply except he doesn’t have the sole authority.
9
I suppose it could be argued that Trump really believed that Ukraine was corrupt and that was one justification for withholding military aid. The question remains whether Putin was responsible for convincing Trump that the Ukrainian government was corrupt, or was Trump doing Putin's bidding by withholding the aid with the intent of weakening the Zelensky government for Putin's advantage and to the detriment of Ukraine and the Western Democracies? Whatever the reasons for Trump's actions, there can be no doubt about Trump's motivations for attempting to coerce Zelensky into conducting a pseudo investigation of Biden and the discredited theory that Ukraine, and not Russia, was responsible for attacks on the 2016 election. That was simply an attempt to use the power of the presidency to involve a foreign government in influencing the 2020 election. Clearly an impeachable act. However, his motivations, if they were intended to aid Putin, would be treasonous, not only a basis for impeachment and removal, but also a serious criminal act.
12
@Kevin Cummins
I assume that Ukaine wasn't behind most of the 2016 election interference, but where was that "discredited" or debunked, by anyone other than the media or a po
licitican saying it. Can you cite us to the investigation?
Also the "ledger" that got Manafort into big trouble came from the Ukraine? Is that not potential election interference?
"Handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from Mr. Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012, according to Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau." April 14, 2016 NY Times article.
@Green26 I have no reason not to trust the judgment of of the FBI and the Mueller report that Russia (Putin) was solely responsible for the 2016 election interference, and not Ukraine. Manafort's involvement with the corrupt Yanukovych government for financial reasons, has not been shown to link him to Putin and the interference in our 2016 election. I believe the Mueller report concluded that there was insufficient evidence to link the Trump campaign with Russian interference in our election.
With all of those people witnessing the chaos and “drug deal”, you would think at least one, if not more, would step forward and volunteer to shed more light. They can’t ALL be expected to be pardoned by the president.
On another note, how did The NY Times obtain all of these emails? Was it stated in the article?
3
Fox News does a wonderful job exonerating Trump.
Trump views the separation of powers in the Constitution as a mere inconvenience to be circumvented either secretly or overtly. His attorneys have asserted absolute immunity. Hopefully next November the voters will show their opposition to absolute rule.
23
This irresponsible telephone contact by Trump with the President of Ukraine was followed by a telephone conversation accepted by Trump with President of Turkey. Again no documents or other experts included in that telephone call and Trump alone agreed to take the US military out of Syria without consulting the US military experts. The Secretary of Defense under Trump, Jim Matis gave up his position because he could not agree to move out all military from Syria. The irresponsible telephone with the President of Turkey was really a very bad decision : Isis members left their confinement in Syria that was guarded by the allies of our US soldiers- the Kurds. Many of the Kurds were killed by the Turks who came to replace our US soldiers. UN refugee assistance at UNICEF said that 125,000 refugees from Syria were produced from that telephone event of Trump and Turkey president. Last week while driving and listening to the radio, Reuter journalists were interviewing Syrians who stated that Russians bomb them from 9am to sunset- the radio recorded the voices of desperate people.
A telephone call without support of formal documentation and consultation can be very dangerous for any president but especially a unreliable and ignorant person such as Donald Trump.
11
“Some key players are now offering a defense that they did not know the diplomatic push for the investigations was playing out at the same time they were implementing the aid freeze — or if they were aware of both channels, they did not connect the two.”
Just like Volker and Sondland saying they didn’t know that Trump’s demand for “investigations” had anything to do with Joe Biden?
If these people are so clueless that they can't put 2 and 2 together, they should get out of Washington and stop collecting salaries from the taxpayers. Claiming ignorance isn't gonna cut the mustard.
20
@Bob ..."Just like Volker and Sondland saying they didn’t know that Trump’s demand for “investigations” had anything to do with Joe Biden?"....Sondland said that it had everything to do with Biden
7
Honestly, what more / else will it take??
The Republican Senate members, turning a blind eye and deaf ear to these very scary realities is absolute abdication of duty and sworn oath to country.
Dark, dark times we are in.
20
To be this servile to someone who you just know will inevitably humiliate and discard you at the drop of hat is pretty compelling if terrifying to watch. It is not only fear or ambition or even greed or shared hatreds it seems like something else. A certain of masochistic glee in the humiliation. Just look at those faces. Something really deep and unsettling is going on with them.
15
@Robert Roth This is all straight out of The Sopranos. Life imitating art.
2
Who are these “top lawyers”?
2
Well, if anyone had doubts we all know 45 definitely runs the show and knows exactly what he was doing in 2016 and now.
8
Let’s be clear trump is an idiot who has done more damage to this country then any president in history. He is no Christian by my Jesus. I refuse to be a truly evil fake Christian and support his true evil. My Jesus helps the poor and disenfranchised. Now that I have once again stated the obvious I feel better. I am proud to be a highly educated and very successful professional tech engineer, why do I point that out? Truth matters!
14
Actually the stock market and job gains were larger under Obama and Clinton. They didn’t inherit strong economies, they built them. In the case of Obama it was done with the Republicans fighting every inch of the way. So yeah, they did a better job in tougher conditions and they didn’t crater the budget either.
6
@Henry
I encourage YOU to keep an open mind and watch something other than Fox for your news.
Those officials did a grave disservice to our country by using policy arguments with Mr. Trump to unfreeze the aid. Instead, they should have reviewed the provisions of the Impoundment Control Act with him.
It spells out how the president may hold congressionally appropriated and approved funds and the steps that must be followed. Like our other laws, it's not supposed to be optional for the people covered.
Harvard should recall the law degrees it granted to Amb. Bolton and Sec. Pompeo.
10
POTUS 45 endangered Ukrainian civilians and military personnel so he could dish dirt on his 2020 campaign rival.
trump is a clear and present danger to national security; international security; free elections and human rights.. What's not to impeach?
13
The supposed rationale that President Trump was withholding the aid to pressure an end to corruption in Ukraine makes no sense whatsoever. He had just recalled the US ambassador who was strongly leading our anti-corruption policy, and thus undermining those efforts. He did not in any way inform the Ukraine government that the aid was being withheld for this purpose. If this had been actually been such a critical focus of policy toward Ukraine, important enough to risk weakening that country in its war with Russia, Mr. Trump certainly would have emphasized this strongly in his call to the Ukrainian president. But no... not a word about it.
20
Eighty four days of conflict and confusion. Why would you expect anyone of those eighty four days to be any different from any other day of the trump administration?
12
John Bolton said releasing the money, “is in America’s interest.” In whose interest was holding the money?
All roads lead to Russia.
21
Great reporting, and you really stuck the landing...!
The decease WAR HERO and long serving United States Senator from the Great State of Arizona might rightly argue: I liked serving presidents who did not get I/M/P/E/A/C/H/E/D during their first term in public office...!
11
More than anything else, the secrecy is the problem. In a democracy, people hold politicians accountable for their actions by endorsing them (or not) with their votes. But if all their actions take place behind closed doors, with no public announcement or explanation, how are we supposed to judge the actions of our leaders? How can policy be carried out by the president's personal attorney, who is not subject to public records' laws and who claims attorney-client privilege to shield his shenanigans? No one would have any complaints if Trump publicly announced he was holding the aid due to concerns about corruption. But his secret campaign looks like something completely different.
9
It will take our nation decades to recover from the slimy acts committed by our madman president. Nothing like it ever. He makes even Nixon APPEAR relatively legitimate and decent.
16
There are no “commander in chief powers” that give any president total power over foreign policy. The commander in chief bit is about the armed forces, to the State Department and diplomacy. The Trumpists are making stuff up, and the news people just print it without any analysis or thought.
16
Nothing ambiguous here on who was directing the hold and seeking investigations of the Bidens...POTUS.
14
The way reading this is that top Trump Officials and their ringleader Trump are going to Jail..
Leavenworth..
10
On the one hand, there is no reason for Biden to stand trial, as Trump wishes. Trump is the guy who has been formally impeached and needs to stand trial; NOT Biden. But I think it might be useful for Biden to say that he would agree to testify before the Senate with witnesses to be called under oath IF Trump did the same. This would put Trump on the spot. Put up or shut up.
16
What's missing in this article is how many conversations Trump had with Putin during this timeframe. If there were any, one can easily conclude Trump was getting directions from Putin to hold the aid to Ukraine. Someone should look into this.
23
Lies, lies and more lies. If a Democrat did anything as corrupt, Republicans would demand impeachment. But it’s our cult leader, Donald Trump, apparently some sort of divine figure for wacky evangelicals, so he gets a pass. But he will most assuredly lose the 2020 election, and his arrest on any number of charges will follow.
19
Thank you for another well researched article.
15
"the president’s unorthodox policy proposals"
"Unorthodox" seems overly decorous. You need to do better.
10
Great reporting!
We know Roy Cohn mentored Trump. Would love to see more background on Mitch McConnell's deal with the devil.
A free press is our most important defense for democracy over these would-be dictators. Support responsible journalism!
16
Thank you for a thoroughly researched and carefully presented article.
I hope your other readers grasp the negative affect an article like this has on a citizen of a one time ally.
Do I expect the United States to deal honestly with any other country? Of course not.
19
Sanctimonious comments in the NYT from our neighbors to the north are more and more frequent and becoming very annoying. Canadians have plenty to do to clean their own house.
1
He is correct though. We can dislike criticism from strangers but it is the truth. Trump has damaged long term relationships with many allies while cozying up to despots.
12
@John
Canadians clean house? From where I sit, Canada looks a model of stable, competent, clean democracy. Unlike its southern neighbour currently.
Why do Trump supporters loath Canada so venomously? Is it an insecurity thing?
3
84 days? Can we please stop pretending this all blew up over the summer? Team Trump pressured/extorted the PRIOR government of Ukraine for political advantage, long before they set their sights on young Mr. Zelensky. Here's the May 2, 2018, NYT headline: "Ukraine, Seeking U.S. Missiles, Halted Cooperation With Mueller Investigation".
Trump, his campaign officials, his personal envoys and senior members of the Republican funding machine (Manafort, Gates, Elliott Broidy ...) have been up to their armpits in Ukrainian influence peddling for years. They've done it for old-fashioned greed, to thwart investigations into their misdeeds surrounding the 2016 election, they did it again this summer to gain advantage in 2020, and to take the focus off of Putin's election meddling and territorial expansion.
This latest effort wasn't a fast-moving train wreck fumbled by inexperienced political appointees trying to please a mercurial President. Rather, it's one part of a years-long coordinated campaign by a criminal President and his criminal companions.
25
Ukraine is a worthless corrupt country whose borders are incorrectly drawn. We don’t need this country as any sort of ally. All it is just a welfare recipient living off the US taxpayer who must borrow from China to supply its needs.
The current president is in thrall to the most vicious and corrupt Oligarch in Ukraine - Igor Kolomoisky who financed his campaign for President. It has a border dispute with Russia and a silent one with Hungary. There needs to be an international conference to adjust its borders. Under the USSR the Ukrainian Oblast had borders drawn for ease of administration and to satisfy Chairman Khrushchev. Ukraine NEVER existed as a separate country until the collapse of the USSR. The closest it came to being a real country was when it formed the major part of Galicia and therefore its modern borders should really resemble those of Galicia and Lodomeria as they existed in 1914, not as the result of Victoria Nuland’s efforts at drawing borders and then enshrining them into law. In no case should the boundaries of the former Oblast be considered Ukraine’s national boundaries today.
We need to cease financial aid to the Baltics, Ukraine, Romania etc. Our aid to them is a holdover from the Cold War Mentality that grew up in the State Department at the end of WWII. We need to cease having a foreign policy that harkens back to 1945.
3
Well, continuing your logic, then there is no country called America. Most of the territory was stolen from the indigenous peoples who lived on it for thousands of years. Or maybe you should live in the present and respect Ukraine’s rights as a sovereign nation fighting an evil empire who meddled in elections in your country in 2016.
11
But what say you regarding Trump abusing his authority, which is the main point of the article?
9
Obama withheld lethal aid from Ukraine and sent stuff like blankets, mre etc. He told Congress that it was still too corrupt. Nothing has changed! It is still too corrupt. A big part of its problem are because it lacks settled borders and there is a legal issue about the borders going back to 1954!
"It was June 27, more than a week after Mr. Trump had first asked about putting a hold on security aid to Ukraine, an embattled American ally, and Mr. Mulvaney needed an answer."
When did Putin first ask Trump about putting a hold on security aid to Ukraine? Anything is possible with this administration.
9
Irrespective of Trump withholding the money for political ends, he trampled all over the Impoundment Control Act when he withheld it. Congress, not the president, controls the purse strings.
What we are learning is the powers of the president need to be put back in the box.
The irony here is that it was Obama who moved the office in the direction of a dictatorship. When Republicans refused to work with him, he took a long hard look at what he could do without them and away he went.
The trouble with Trump is that he is not a constitutional scholar. His methods are more akin to the old saying, "It better to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission."
Even so, our branches of government must remain co-equal and the president has usurped congress' control. Given the theories being spouted here a president could site a military emergency and cut SNAP to zero.
The lesson here is that we must keep the controls intact irrespective of the party in power.
7
All the anguish I -- and vast numbers of other Americans -- felt the morning after election day in November of 2016 has not only been fully realized by the events that have unfolded since, it has been redoubled. At first I thought and hoped I may be overreacting. I thought the institutions and GOP establishment (despite my distaste for the GOP) would hold him in check. I thought eventually the voters who put Trump in office would see the light after having been so profoundly duped and would turn on him. His power as President would be crippled and he would be voted out of office overwhelmingly.
To state the obvious, my first instinct was correct but hugely understated. The GOP simply became the lieutenants to the cult leader, and the Trump voters became the starry-eyed servile followers. The horror is that this group forms 40% of voting Americans. I just hope that we can rely on the other 60% to send a message and vote him or his potential successor Pence -- and all the other complicit members of the GOP out of their jobs in all the states where such is possible.
16
It is best to use Ockham's razor when trying to explain all of this:
It should now be perfectly clear that Trump makes sleazy corrupt deals over the telephone for his own benefit solely.
Putin helped to get Trump elected.
Trump etal have been lying their heads off about this ever since and obstructing any effort to discover just what exactly happened there.
Trump has been acting as a Russian agent
Now what could be the simplest explanation tying this all together?
18
All these emails, whistle blowers, documents showing the doings of the President. We had those things with Hillary Clinton too, except those were written off as stolen by Russians, possible whistle blowers lost to botched robberies, and any evidence to the contrary dismissed as unfounded or overblown theories.
2
She was investigated eight times by Republicans, sat for questioning for eleven hours, and has been exonerated by at least two federal judges. The GOP tried its hardest, couldn’t pin any guilt on her. If you don’t believe it, you should at least question Republican competence. There is no comparison with your hero.
15
Nobody is trying to convince the base Trump supporters of anything in the media now, if they ever could. After all they read at or below an eighth grade level on average.The average Trumpite couldn’t read this lengthy analysis if his life depended on it. This is for posterity. This is for that fine timeless entity we call truth. And, in practical terms it adds to the case for impeachment. Which needs not be rushed.
17
Many thanks to the NYT journalistic team for this informative, well-researched and intriguing exposé.
23
Excellent reporting! What a riveting read that pulls all the strings together, making everyone of sound mind see the scary and outrageous level of presidential corruption and governmental cronyism ! We now need investigative reporting more than ever, if all else fails, I am so glad that we have tireless reporters that still care about the truth. We should all be reminded that the constitution won't defend itself and neither will a democratic system stay alive on "auto-pilot." Current events make this so plain obvious, I feel as if I have never recognized it so clearly: Today we see, in the United States (of all places), in a country that still symbolizes for millions and millions of people "the beacon of hope in the darkness," authoritarianism, xenophobic nationalism, the cult of personality, amoral corruption, cruelty and greed in action - if nothing else, THIS should scare us all to the polls and we should put more pressure than ever on those folks in government still deemed to be "decent" to do the right thing and to stop this Machiavellian nightmare before the damage cannot be undone. I am afraid it may almost be too late. What will we answer to our children and our grandchildren when they ask "What did you do?" As a person who grew up in Germany, it sounds too familiar to me! Thank you NYT for continuously trying to provide us with the evidence needed to wake us up. The time for action is now!
21
The frightening thing to consider in the whole Ukraine matter is how close Trump actually came to successfully pulling off the whole bribery scheme and potentially knocking Biden out of the presidential race, maybe only a matter of a few days.
As we now know, the American TV appearance that Trump demanded from Zelensky, in which he was to announce an investigation of Biden in exchange for Trump releasing the military aid, was in fact scheduled for Sept. 22 with Fareed Zakaria of CNN and was only called off when the aid was released under Congressional pressure.
Just imagine if the whistleblower had not come forward and Zelensky had actually made the Biden announcement. It almost certainly would have knocked Biden out of the race.
Directly analogous to what happened with Jim Comey and the Clinton emails, the announcement would have unleashed a media firestorm with investigative reporters crawling all over Kyiv looking for dirt on Biden, a story that would have lasted for weeks and likely would have fatally wounded the Biden campaign, to Trump's and Putin's immense benefit.
As this story points out and as Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi have both stated, there is still much to this story that we don't yet know. All the more reason to delay the impeachment trial until the key inside witnesses, such as Bolton and Mulvaney, can be compelled to testify.
And, God help us, who knows what other horrors are lurking on that classified White House file server, waiting to be revealed.
28
The rigmarole we let White House lawyers get away with gets wilder and wilder. Under Bush Jr. it was justifying torture, etc. Now these White House lawyers (and I include OMB, which functions as an arm of the White House) work like mob lawyers. "I want this." and they find a way to twist the laws to justify "this" by a hair. They have no conscience and no citizenship.
Case in point:
"By late summer, top lawyers at the budget office were developing a proposed legal justification for the hold, ..." -- which had already been put in place without the legal justification.
"The president, the lawyers believed, could ignore the requirements of the Impoundment Control Act and continue to hold the aid by asserting constitutional commander in chief powers that give him authority over diplomacy." The lawyers "believed"? This is illegal on its face. The commander in chief does not do diplomacy; he only is the military commander in chief, and the military is separate from diplomacy. As commander in chief he has no authority over diplomacy, and as president he is constrained to follow the law, including Congressional appropriations -- as the article itself says that lawyers knew. These lawyers are willfully concocting justifications for violating the law. They know. They belong in jail.
25
Isn't America great? A con man at the top and no one with any integrity to question him, let alone to stop him. Let's see how the keepers of the American myth about American exceptionalism and other such nonsense keep going after this!
23
The US is in the grips of a would-be despot who is in turn beholden to Vladimir Putin.
Those who can't or don't see this need to have their heads examined.
Those who won't need to re-assess their morality.
17
Can we all agree that in a pre-social media world, in a world without propaganda outlets like Breitbart and Fox, in a world when people read the morning paper and weren’t functionally illiterate boobs, that he would’ve already been removed from office?
This is maddening to me. How is this not enough for Republicans to stop protecting him?
24
All of this really does show that it doesn't matter one iota (or smaller quantity) what trump does or says to his supporters. We don't need the truth any longer- yes, there was no quid pro quo, yes, we don't need science, yes, I can tell as many lies as I want and get away with it, yes, the tax break will help the blue-collar work force, yes, coal will be king again, yes, there is no such thing as climate change, yes, all our ills are caused by immigrants, and yes, I am the greatest president there ever was. Wake up trumpers the grifter-in-chief has had you all.
25
What horrifies me is how so many government officials are willing to participate in Trump's corruption. The OMB lawyers who approved every footnote blocking Pentagon spending should be named, shamed and outed. The lawyers at OMB, the White House and the Justice Dept., who developed that contemptible justification to hold the funds should be named, shamed and outed.
Finally, those two hero budget officials at OMB who resigned rather than participate in this corrupt drug deal should be named, praised and honored.
27
The Times' diligent work unearthing more and more facts that prove Trump is guilty and should be impeached is laudable, but will never convince Republicans. This 30% of Americans do not shift their beliefs because of facts or logic (see also: global warming). I give up on them.
18
I didn’t read the article - I didn’t need to. I also passed on the comments - the mmajority is predictable.
Instead, I focused on things that truly matter for Ukraine: the gas transit agreement with Russia, that guarantees the badly needed transit fees; the payout by Gazprom of almost $3bn to satisfy the Stockholm arbitration court decision, followed by all claims and counter claims and of course a huge prisoner swap. Then there are also talks about mutual sanctions relief.
The magnitude and the values represented by these measures surely dwarf the pittance of that military aid making all that noise in Washington.
Things arevstarting to move slowly but surely
So how many naive, small minded theorists out there that don't understand the science of politics and back room deals!
At every level this is the game, the rules and the reason why politics is a very rewarding system.
Again let me cite Pelosi and Menendez as the poster children of greed, corruption and exploitation.
How many middle class politicians remain middle class for long? All love the fat bank accounts, none are immune.
1
Yes, most of them may have their hand out, but no presidential corruption has ever reached this level. Trump’s rampant lies, deliberate ignorance and irresponsibility has not only divided this country, threatened our safety both domestically with shootings and other hate crimes every day, and in foreign policy, with North Korea ready to exploit the Trump naïveté; increased the level of planetary destruction; and made us internationally distrusted as well as a laughing stock.
Not even Richard Nixon or Warren Harding or other examples of corrupt presidents have ever done this much damage to the US and in such an astonishingly short time.
11
@Reva Cooper. Looking from the outside, what you say is totally correct, except you need to add incredulity and disbelief to distrust and laughter from other western democracies.
So, that's how our country is run under President Trump. He's golfing at his resort in New Jersey over a weekend with big John Daly, so no-one dares to disturb his golf game to discuss the loss of authority for Ukraine military aid that will occur that Monday. Jeez. Comforting to know.
29
@Art and yet there are times when I'm grateful beyond words that he is busy golfing. He is too occupied with that to do more damage to the country.
2
Moral bankruptcy - that what makes america chafe again. (pun intended - sarcasm galore). Wishing the universe a trump-family free existence in 2020.
23
This is so much better than Watergate.
The crooks who ended up in federal prison
(Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, Liddy et al.)
learned a valuable lesson that the current
sycophants seem to have forgotten.
7
This is obviously a criminal organization in the WH that is dealing with Putin to take over the Ukraine. They have sent Rick Perry to snatch up petroleum related contracts in the Ukraine for cronies while at the same time weakening the Ukrainian defenses so that Russian backed forces can take over the nation.
The fact that the republican cult of the US is fully involved with this criminal activity is beyond doubt. They are in full forward in order to subvert our electoral process so they can complete the deal in the next term.
Criminal, treasonous, immoral, typical for-profit behavior by the Oligarchs of the US.
22
Hello Donald, nice to see you again. You know, it would be such a pity if America were to sacrifice her sacred constitutional values, democracy and freedom for money and power. But it depends on who has the money and power. Remember, voting is so beautiful, but counting the votes is divine.
Think of it: together, we would be invincible!
4
Read this Seth Abramson thread. Trump's obsession with Ukraine goes much further back, to 2016, and his view or Ukraine seems to come straight from Putin. https://threader.app/thread/1209549406283980812
6
Trump is becoming more and more desperate and is actually losing it. His rants and tweets are completely off the wall. Why would he tweet the name of a protected whistle-blower? Why would he call his accusers names like a schoolyard child? Dementia? Rage? ..most likely a combination of the two. The highly unstable Trump is a danger to our nation and is also the face of the Republican Party.
29
Wow, what an overblown headline and grasping at straws here... I’m not a Trump supporter, but there’s nothing new of note here, and much of what’s written does not overtly contradict the GOP narrative to date. Meanwhile there’s not an electable Democratic candidate to be found on the debate stage and much of the country continues to yawn at the impeachment. If this is the best three Times can come up with, Pelosi has truly made a major strategic blunder.
2
“I’m not a trump supporter” !!
Gee, how many times have we heard that disclaimer.
I’m sure you have “You can keep your Doctor” all reved up and ready to go.
6
Looking at Mulvaney's photo evokes in me feelings of sympathy for the guy, as if he got caught in something he didn't know how to get himself out of, and is worried.
@NotKidding
No sympathy at all for these people, they know what they got themselves into, they are adults they can leave their place of employ any time they wish.
12
No sympathy. Don’t forget his personal financial corruption. He’s perfect for the job. And by the way, whatever happened to the investigation of he and his wife’s misuse of funds?
8
Esper, Bolton and Pompey tried to convince releasing the aid was in the interests of the United States. That’s the problem. It wasn’t in the interest of Trump.
18
Thank god for the intelligence of some Congressional members, a long time ago, for passing the Impoundment Act. Don’t we wish we had such intelligent members today, other than Pelosi and her buddies? A few on the GOP side would be really nice, but they, apparently, have not read the Constitution. Actually, I don’t think they’ve even heard of it.
9
When it comes to deciphering Trump's motives for foreign policy decisions it is really simple and obvious to anyone who doesn't have blinders on. Just ask yourself what Putin would want.
Holding back military aid to Ukraine benefited Putin. At a time when the new Ukrainian president wanted to negotiate an end to their war with Russia, he needed to negotiate from a position of strength. Holding back the aid weakened Ukraine and helped Putin. Throwing in contingencies about Biden investigations was just Trump's way of killing two birds with one stone.
Trying to show that Ukraine and not Russia were responsible for interfering in the 2016 elections also benefits Putin. The only reason there are sanctions against Russia is because of the election interference and Trump and those closest to him have been trying to get rid of those sanctions from before day 1 of his presidency. Again, Putin benefits.
What else would Putin want? Well he would not want any public show of support from Trump to Ukraine, such as a White House visit by Zelensky. would afford. As of this date, Zelensky has still not received an invitation to the White House, but a rogue's gallery of despots and human rights abusers have, not to mention some of Putin's underlings.
Pulling US troops out of northern Syria? Who Benefits? Putin of course! Criticizing NATO allies? Who benefits? Putin of course! There is nothing erratic about Trump's foreign policy. It is clear, focussed and simple!
22
The burden of proof lies fully on Trump and the Republican Party. I don't think that anyone whos saw the testimonies in Congress and the evidence presented would believe that Trump and White House is not guilty. Whatever new legal move they'll come up with, it is what it is. It's like the WMDs in Irak in the Bush era. The thing is: many people prefer a crook or a liar as POTUS than someone honest. Its just the way the cookie crumbles, potus-wise.
3
The Times insists on covering politics as a dramatic story told by aliens who have love soap operas and who have never heard of America.
The president gets to carry out his agenda as long as he is following the law and is not committing high crimes and misdemeanors.
This alien story with a dramatic conflict about intense opposition and how far the President will go is just bizarre. No one who tells such a story has any grasp of American government or why it was made the way it was made. But boy do they think they are the Boss of what the truth is.
It perfectly fits the alien soap opera drama of a polarized country run by insider gossip.
It has no connection to the United States of America or to the constitution of the United States of America.
The Times can be counted on to make things worse with this bizarre coverage.
2
@In deed
Ah yes...it’s the “aliens.”
3
@Apm
Missing the point is so rewarding.
But I have an open mind. Quote the part of the constitution that gives executive branch insiders the power to oppose the president.
Right. Cannot.
And who benefits from pretending that a deep state is out to get trump?
Hmmmmmm?
Those selling soap opera as their business model, the Times, and the trump fascists who sell that soap opera derp state to justify high crimes and misdemeanors.
2
Why has the size of the aid not been contextualized? The aid package provided is worth more than 3 times the entire economic output of Ukraine for an entire year!
NYT can do better. Put those big numbers in context to economic output of countries or states please to help people understand better. Thank you!
4
We have the key facts of Trump's abuse of power. We have his clear motive. We know that he illegally pressed a foreign leader to attack Joe Biden and Hunter Biden under a thin pretext, using the withholding of military aide as his persuader. He has stonewalled the House investigation refusing to release any documents, or allow his primary advisors to testify. Trump has been impeached as the Constitution allows.
The Senate has already held their "trial". McConnell and the leadership are working hand in hand with the White House to deny a fair, impartial trial. He will not be convicted in McConnell's Senate, so why would Pelosi bring the charges to that Senate. Why not let the people decide in the next election? Just as McConnell held President Obama's nominee for Supreme Court in limbo, why should it be mandatory that House leader Pelosi hand over her indictment to the Senate? Perhaps a new Senate leader will produce a different trial result.
6
a prison sentence would be justice
16
"The inside story of President Trump’s demand to halt military assistance to an ally shows the price he was willing to pay to carry out his agenda."
I have a question. Is Ukraine an ally of the United States ?
Is Ireland ?
Which of the two countries would American citizens feel more aligned with ? Does that matter ?
2
It doesn’t. No President should ask a foreign power to help advance his own domestic political cause. Using the leverage of aid and the prestige of an Oval Office visit makes it worse.
13
No!
Isn't Ireland the country that has sent hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens to the pristine United States? Does that make them a better ally?
4
There's no doubt Trump had one goal, and that was to shoot down Biden's chances before the former VP could raise a threat. The weapon was having Ukraine certify they were investigating Biden, which then would become the Clinton Lost Emails bludgeon for 2020. Holding back the money was the leverage Trump wanted to have if needed. Kudos to the professionals in the government who fought and stopped the scheme. All this is proof that there's a gangster in the White House. The Senate won't convict him. But come November, we the voters can and must evict him.
17
Only the irrational could believe Trump was fighting corruption in Ukraine by withholding military aid, by demanding Russia get absolved from 2016 election sabotage, by firing an honest ambassador and zeroing in on Joe Biden's son from years past.
This argument is insulting.
If Trump wants to argue he has the right to see his reelection as America's highest priority, that he is essential to US global strategic positioning and that Putin is our #1 trusted ally - then he should stand up and say it!
8
Looks like we can expect more leaks from this Ms. McCusker. Go Elaine go!!!!
8
HE GOT CAUGHT!!!
19
Ok, what immediately stands out for me is the enormous time, energy and resources - generally, this administration puts toward finding ways to game the system.
Rather than follow convention, rather than obeying the rules, instead of obeying the law, this administration wants to go its own way - invariably, in pursuit of something most likely to be seen as nefarious.
Imagine if the administration used the same commitment in pursuit of the common good?
For anyone concerned about government waste and inefficiency the Trump administration is a classic case study.
21
I believe that’s called corruption.
11
The Senate has been taking a nap on “see no evil, hear no evil” lane. I won’t be surprised that every day passes, new revelations are nudging them awake.
All I can say is: time is not on 45’s side.
At this time, McConnell and Graham’s attitude is just their opening bid.
This is not over.
12