We should participate in the investigation---probably the only way we can learn about the corruption in the Ukrainian government and also Burisma Holdings. There is certainly a lot we don't know about Burisma, except that there has been corruption present in its business dealings. Clarifying the story of Burisma would be very helpful.
2
@Tom Carlstrom
I think the corruption in OUR administration is more pertinent.
26
According to President Trump, Ambassador Yovanovitch was "bad news," and I believe him. Thank you.
2
She was bad news for the gonuff. Look it up.
6
@Southern Boy
Why would you believe someone who has so clearly proven himself to be a liar?
19
You believe someone who lies as
easily as he breathes?
And by the way in case you don’t know the CSA lost.
16
What about illegal fisa warrants & surveillance of a presidential candidate? Wake up people.
1
@JOSEPH
In that case it's illegal for for Trump to investigate Biden.
You can't have it both ways.
5
Ukraine is seeking revenge on Trump. Long live Ukraine!
4
Parnas regarding the Ukraine shakedown:
"President Trump knew exactly what was going on"
Parnas was a Trump idolisor and had portraits shrine-like, around his house.
I anticipate GOP people saying Parnas has no credibility. He is a criminal. Yeah right like un-indicted co-conspirator Individual 1 - you know who- proven in court to be a crook but not in jail because he is the president.
Sondland, a Trump donor also said everyone was in on it.
I think the dam wall has widening cracks and that Individual 1 might be removed from office after all... still only a remote chance though given the disingenuousness of the craven GOP.
8
So the Republicans dismiss Parnas as un-credible while accepting that this Hyde character is 100% honest & truthful.
They were part of the same team on the same mission with the same goal. They were both working with Giulani.
Just from the statements both men have released, I find Parnas far more credible & believable than Hyde. Hyde sounds like a complete idiot. "It was just colorful, we were playing..."
5
The State Department has an Office of the Legal Adviser which is supposed to be the foremost and most highly regarded American legal authority on the application of international law. Was it even asked for its legal opinion by Pompeo or Barr regarding any aspect of the ongoing Ukrainian fiasco, including Trump's quid pro quo conversation with Zelensky or the firing and treatment of former Ambassador Yovanovitch?
4
Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences, ambassador. Social Justice 101.
1
Drip, drip, drip. Too bad the House didn't have this bombshell, plus Parnas' testimony and Accountability Office report before sending articles to the Senate.
Regardless, GOP Senators are under pressure to conduct a fair trial, but that doesn't mean they will. If it turns out to be a transparent whitewash, human nature being what it is, Republicans will face the retribution of a majority of voters.
10
I think we're being played.
Either Lev Parnas is telling the truth or he is a very convincing lier. Either way, the former owner and operator of the company "Fraud Guarantee" is not a credible witness.
Now we don't know who or what to believe. This is exactly what Trump and Rudy want.
If I were the media, I would proceed carefully.
1
The fascinating thing about watching Trump is that he has apparently spent his whole life using others to advance his dirty, shady deals, and can't seem to get it that such behaviour will catch him out now. He has miscalculated in his time as POTUS because he has never faced such scrutiny. His normal play book has tripped him up.
8
...Upon hearing of Parnas's dinner with Trump story --- The time for THIS president to also testify UNDER OATH has come.
Dare Trump to lie.
Who will champion that cause???
7
Yovanovitch should sue as many people as she can, and Giuliani and pals should be indicted for stalking with intent to do harm. Lock them up.
8
It’s just too rich! Who could’ve guessed the tables would be turned in such a short period of time? Let’s hope Ukraine can hold us to higher standards so that we can root out corruption!
20
@Janet Amphlett
Parnas said
"President Trump says a lot of things",
Ain't that the truth?
Don't forget how implicated Barr and Pence are as well.
There are enough implicated to form an NFL team in prison.
I guess Trump would be on offence and Rudy could be the quarterback on Mondays.
Oh yeah and Barr would be the impartial umpire
4
My wife, an English teacher, often expresses her frustration with peoples confusion of “irony” with “coincidence.” As a layperson, I understand this confusion, while I appreciate the distinction...
It is coincidental that this Ukrainian investigation is announced on the same day the Impeachment trial had begun. It is also ironic that this Ukrainian investigation is announced on the same day the Impeachment trial had begun, no?
But it would not be ironic if Ukraine also announced today that the call with President Trump was “perfect” (“terrific,” “radiant,” or “some call!”). That would just be coincidental.
1
Yup, it certainly worked and President Trump got his investigation going in Ukraine.
Oops, but perhaps it's not what the STABLE GENIUS (in his boundless WISDOM) expected.
6
Had a democrat done any of the things trump did, they'd be in jail by now.
Amazing how the Constitution is to be ignored by the republicans. They have no mores, no ethics and no ideas other than do everything to retain power.
As for our great secretary of state, if it's Bengazi and a democrat, he'll leave no stone unturned. If it's a republican, he'll cower in silence.
Disgusting.
Lock trump up.
19
If only Trump paid attention when irony was discussed in his English class.
6
How ironic that finally turnabout is finally fair play. Let Ukraine prove it's worth, prove its honesty by going after the most vile criminal in both of our countries, the Impeached Donald John Trump.
They will still get the aid that they need to help repel Russia - that is guaranteed by Congress, and Trump will get his comeuppance by a country that he cannot accuse of being Democratic (in the sense of OUR Democratic Party). They will take some flack from The Dotard but he's as good as gone. As more and more of HIS conspiracy surfaces that "Deep State" that he complains about is finally looking more and more like HIM - which it has always been.
How nice it would be for the entire world to have this crook in prison by the summer. We could all breathe (literally) easier and seek peace instead off chaos and war. Our economy will be here without the idiot, and will do whatever it does but without artificially goosing it with $1.4 TRILLION dollars of OUR tax money, fake emergencies, American currency manipulation and messing with our Markets.
8
The irony here is absolutely striking! The allegedly corrupt Ukranians are enforcing the rule of law, while Secretaries Pompeo and Barr sit on their hands and whistle in the darkness. Perhaps Zelensky should get the Nobel Prize...
14
Be careful what you wish for...
1
Oh, so NOW Ukraine "investigates!"
3
Ironic enough for ya?
4
His name would have to be Mr Hyde. After consumption of the appropriate amount of elixir he can't be held accountable for his actions. Unaccountability, sounds like he's working on his resume for a position in the administration.
12
@richard wiesner Surely you Jekyll, Mr Jest !
2
If you haven't watched "Servant of the People" do so. It is brilliant. It will open Americas eyes to how a smart, new democracy handles corruption.
I wish that young democracy all the best in their search to routing out corruption. Perhaps they will teach us a thing or two.
11
Thank you to the people of Ukraine for electing Mr Zelensky just when we needed him. He did a wonderful job of holding TrumpCo at arms length until the calvary arrived and now we have more evidence they made the right choice.
25
Trumps men do such outlandish things that they have the world confounded. This can't last forever. Everybody just wants things to run smoothly and function reasonably well. With Trumps wrecking ball and retreat style, the chaos is bound to get the upper hand but Trump will use up his ability to amuse after a while. It gets pretty stale quite soon. His moves are beginning to get predictable and that wlll do him in. Nobody is interested in being used and bored at the same time.
10
Pompeo hasn’t said one word and then leaves the country during all this? That doesn’t look suspicious at all does it!? I predict a tsunami of more hard evidence in the coming weeks by great journalism and this is just the beginning. If the GOP in the Senate really wants to maintain any shred of dignity or those seats in November they best think long and hard about what they’re doing in the Senate. This could get real dirty for them and Trump real fast including Pence. I think the FBI and SDNY have had enough, they’re racking up evidence and will surprise us all.
13
I sure hope so!
3
But, but, but, pompeo has god on his side. Just ask him.
3
Absolutely can't make this up. Pressed by Trump to announce it is opening an investigation into VP Biden and his son, Ukraine ends up announcing they are opening an investigation into Trump's henchmen and bagmen. Priceless.
23
I’ll take the comedian over the reality show host any day!
16
@db2 I think that Mr. Zelensky has just shown us what he is made of. He is no one's fool. I suspect that Mr. Trump thought that he himself was superior and could walk all over him. Well big surprise Mr. Trump! I guess the trip to the WH for Mr. Zelensky will never happen under Mr. Trump's watch but after November he will probably get an invite from the new President.
6
It will be interesting to see the extent to which both the State Department and the FBI cooperate with Ukrainian authorities to investigate the reported surveillance of the US ambassador by Trump's flunkies.
The gang that couldn't shoot straight strikes again and again!
We can be forever thankful that these people Trump trusted were so inept at what they were doing.
3
Understandable that Ukraine might ask for FBI help, but I cannot quite understand how they could possibly trust what the agency might do under the Trump administration and, in particular, the fascist/evangelical AG Barr.
Until Trump and Barr are gone, I can’t imagine really trusting the FBI again.
1
Seriously, who is this woman in middle without a camera or smartphone?Does anyone know her?
Pompeo, mick mulvaney, Giuliani, devin nines are part of a larger conspiracy. A conspiracy to to not only spy on the ambassador, Marie yovanovitch, but to embarrass and destroy her personally. Bill Barr the AG needs to recuse himself into any future investigations that may come of this. After all, he may be involved.
10
“... may be involved.” OF COURSE HE IS INVOLVED, and not to be trusted! He, like Giuliani, is the President’s lawyer, too.
3
Robert Hyde's correspondence with Lev makes my skin crawl. The FBI, perhaps among others, should be all over this guy. The "drunk talk" and "locker talk" excuses carry no water.
12
Watching the GOP senators swear false oaths. Isn't that against the rules of Christianity, Evangelicals?. They speak of acquittal before it starts then swear they will be impartial.
It is not seeking the truth to not call witnesses like Parnas.
They are shameless about it then whine about partisanship as if they are not being partisan.
American people will not I believe wear this outrageous falsehood.
6
I am so glad that Ukraine is standing up for this wonderful Ambassador. Where is Pompeo ?not heard a word from this fake West Point graduate and don’t expect to hear from this fake West Point graduate.
Thank god the ambassador is safe because the American government doesn’t care whether she is safe or not, she is a brilliant powerful woman who the draft dodger Russian lover was jealous of
Trump wanted one of his worthless sons to be on the energy board do they could extort money from Ukraine
16
Congratulations.
2
To quote Nelson, the bully teenager from The Simpsons: HA HA!!
1
I think it means C.I.A.
Former Director Pompeo, Giuliani former Prosecutor, Trump, you know.
What a wonderful turn of events. After being called a completely corrupt government by Trump and his minions, Ukraine has launched an inquiry into Trump's corrupt activity in Ukraine against his own Ambassador. Bravo!
38
So let get this straight. Ukraine is investigating Trump’s team for illegal activities.
Rich.
21
The irony is too delicious!!!
24
Well, the President did say he wanted Ukraine to investigate Americans.
28
Oh, the irony!
20
Hey Pompeo, see how it’s done? Shame on you for not investing the surveillance of one your staff. Your ship is going down!
18
Hello Donald, President Zelensky here. As you probably know we are negotiating an aid program with you, and yes it's much larger than the last one. But first I would like to ask you a favor though. We have opened an investigation into the former US ambassador and we would appreciate any records regarding the knowledge of Barr, Mulvaney, Pence, Pompeo, Bolton, Nunes might have in this matter. Say hello to your lovely wife for me. Bye Bye.
19
This loser Hyde is typical of a certain type. He thinks he's a 'big man' and a 'player' writing checks to, rubbing shoulders with, and being of service to Donald Trump.
However, these 'big men' and 'players' tend to utterly fall apart when paid a visit by the FBI.
Trump will say he doesn't know him, even though there are pictures of them together.
What utter creeps he attracts!
The Hartford Courant just did a very revealing story about him. Long story short - he's nuts. Stalking, child support issues, a paranoid meltdown at Trump Doral. Removed by the cops.
Typical Trump toady.
18
Typical Trump Toady, how very Dostoyevsky!
1
So many crooks and bullies in this administration. When will they get their just desserts?
15
There is honor among thieves, so there is a reluctance among them to blow the whistle.
2
A heartfelt solute to Ukraine and its new government under the leadership of President Zelensky, pursuing implications of corruption and violation of international law as is intended under a constitutional democracy with checks and balances.
It demonstrates both dignity and bravery for Ukraine's new government to investigate matters that could touch on the presidency of the United States. Our senate should pay attention and pursue a dignified path to a fair trial on the articles of impeachment against President Trump. Let the witnesses speak and the new evidence be admitted.
20
My tendency is to be cautious about news generated from Sinclair. It isn't as well known as Fox but also carries a strong Republican slant.
6
Well, it looks like Trump saying he was concerned about corruption in Ukraine has borne fruit. Only he was the apparent source of it.
And his party still wants to sweep it all under the rug.
13
It is truly an "out of world" experience when the President just piles on more lies in public as he did in a "scrum" today, regardless of what is occurring around him to validate the contrary facts.
This points more and more to his conduct and the disregard for fundamental rules applicable.
Add to this the oaths sworn by all the members today, several of whom have already expressed their conclusions in public before the process has even begun.
The least they should do is to recuse themselves, otherwise they are in breach of their oath.
9
Probably most of the GOP Senators did the verbal oath to Chief Justice Roberts with their fingers crossed behind their backs. Or, they simply lied. No way will they try to be, or indeed ever be, impartial.
We already know how they stand. Perhaps the main questions are how they can look themselves in the mirror in the morning, or answer their children’s or grandchildren’s questions about their behavior. The latter will be much more difficult than the former, but they will already have done the damage to American democracy.
2
Ukraine investigates. But Mike Pompeo remains disinterested in the security of personnel under his supervision threatened by figures in their own country.
What a boss! What a guy! A profile in courage!
16
The irony of the Trump administration is on full display with the Ukrainian investigation. Not that it will change his voters' minds. For all of Trump's flaws, he understands the mob, and how to keep them both riled up and on his side. If only there were a few GOP senators with a backbone bigger than a chipmunk.
8
Gee. I can’t even think of one GOP senator with anything resembling a backbone. Romney? Collins? Murkowski? Nah.
2
@Bill I agree, and certainly not Cory Gardner in Colorado.
3
He admitted the guilt of this when he claimed his campaign was “spied upon” - via a legal investigation by a duly empowered law enforcement body protecting our national security, mind you. Anyone who wants a roadmap to uncover his misdeeds need inly look at what he says about others - since he is always talking about himself.
8
So now. Trump finally has his Ukrainian investigation. Isn't it incredibly ironic that it's an investigation of his criminal cabal. And so well deserved, too. A true case of be careful what you wish for.
13
One may be well connected in NYC to shoot someone on Times Square and get away with murder, even get cleared in the GOP controlled Senate on impeachment, but taking help of a buddy from New York and illegally doing surveillance on then Ambassador Yovanovitch is a different case (may be an international crime). However, it is to be seen in November, if he loses any vote of his supporters, and someone like Cohen or Manafort is implicated.
5
Here's a big question I have in light of Ukraine Affair.
How many side ops like this has King Crooked been running since the downward escalator in 2015? I see no reason why Ukraine would be his only crime enterprise. He has had inexplicable linkages in many ports.
Apologies to Nancy Pelosi, but maybe with Trump, all roads do n-o-t lead to Putin. For instance, look at the unshakeable ties from the Trump clan to Mohammad bin Salman? Even after MBS dismembered an American resident, the Trumps clung tight.
Another example is his unexplained affinity for Turkey's authoritarian ruler, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The U.S. President forced our troops from Syria, despite the persistent ISIS threat, just for Erdogan to stamp out our allied fighters, the Kurds. (I guess the enemies of our friends are actually our better friends.)
Trump has had shrouded relationships with all sorts of bad guys, and some fools who threw donations with lots of zeros at Trump, like tossing fish at a caged seal. Then the seal does tricks -- like poof! you're my secret envoy to Ukraine. And poof! you're my personal attorney's 2-bit hood enforcers. And then poof!, again, I've never seen or talked to any of you'se in my life.
It can't just be all about erecting Trump Towers in every town nor all about Strongman Envy. And no one impeachment or GAO or special counsel will expose it all. Prosecutors, presidential historians and political reporters will need earth movers and decades to rake Donald Trump's muck.
13
So Trump disowns a Ukrainian born major donor who had been engaged to blackmail his own country via Rudy and when he sees he’s going to be the fall guy he spills the beans. Trump and Rudy need to be better at choosing their partners in crime. Always ends this way with the mob.
13
According to NPR, Robert Hyde says the WhatsApp messages in which he said he had Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch under physical and electronic surveillance were made in jest. The massage do read like parody that might have been generated by Yovanovitch’s testimony in which she said she suspected she was under surveillance. Hyde is a long-shot congressional candidate from Connecticut who says has never been to Ukraine. Iftseems unlikely he runs a spy ring in Kyiv.
https://www.npr.org/2020/01/15/796593183/new-lev-parnas-documents-suggest-u-s-ambassador-was-under-surveillance-in-ukrain
@William Case
Sure. Elaborate parody. uh huh. So funny.
2
Is it possible to name three or four persons in Trump’s political, financial and social orbits who is not a thug, criminal or unsavory character? Can anyone name one or two? Even citing just one decent, upstanding, honest, law respecting Trump associate might be impossible to do. I can’t do it, can you?
15
@EDJ nobody who is " decent" would have anything to do with the gangster trump family.
5
Let me think for a minute.....uhhh...no
3
Trump finally got Ukraine to announce the investigation. Too bad it was aimed at his own people.
149
@Ockham9 "O, what a tangled web we weave;
When first we practice to deceive!" -SIR WALTER SCOTT, Marmion
12
It seems that time has come to thank the Republican Party for its unflinching support for a person like Trump. It's they who actually saved our national representative, that too as high as an Ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch, from having the same fate of that top Iranian general, Qassim Suleimani.
Not sure how many more US diplomats and other national representatives, whom current ruling party boss do not like even for false reasons or for personal/political reasons, are facing the same vigilance with potential physical threat abroad with some knowledge, if not direct support, of Trump Administration! Not sure what other coercing tactics are being used to force pofessionals in various Govt agencies to fall in Trump's line of self promotion and profetering- financially and politically. This is potentially more dangerous to our national security than US embassy attacks by Iranians and others.
Not sure if the Republican Senators would have any interest to hear any newly emerging and old proof (that White House effectively prevented from testifying in the Congress), to come forward in this ongoing Senate impeachment trial of President Trump.
6
They *wanted* an investigation. I guess they got one.
17
Republicans and Russians have teamed up to fight Vladimir Putin's war on democratic nations. They are now espousing Russia's one-party under one-man rule, and are obviously maneuvering to delegitimize democracy everywhere, both in Ukraine and the United States. Russian oligarchs have been donating to Republican super PACs and supporting the NRA. They are helping to foment and fund would-be American guerrilla fighters, many of whom will be descending soon upon Richmond, Virginia, with their weapons in hand to battle the legitimately elected Democratic legislature over its right to pass gun control legislation. Do no underestimate what Putin is willing to do to destabilize the United States. He witnessed the breakup of his own country, the Soviet Union, and watched many Russian satelleite states, including Ukraine, turn to democracy and self-determination. Not only did this make him a bitter man, it made him a dangerous one, by showing him that it is indeed possible to break up a major power if enough discord is sown.
25
@Allison
In 1979, Russians were in Afghanistan, but internally economically damaged, controlled by inefficient state sponsored oligarchies, while corruption was endemic and life expectancies falling. Twelve years later the U.S.S.R. was divided, gone. This process is underway here. Trillion dollar deficits, rampant corporate corruption , falling life spans, falling investment in infrastructure, made worse by gerrymandered political regional fiefdoms. I give us 12 years here. If some think I'm wrong because of the stock market, my answer is, pigs get slaughtered.
2
Drumpf & Co wanted Ukraine to start investigations in various businesses and people that would directly aid Drumpf's effort to continue his reign.
These two investigations the timing of the Russian hacking into Burisma files and the unauthorized and illegal surveillance of the US Ambassador that Drumpf wanted to eliminate, is not the type of investigations Drumpf had in mind.
These outcome of these two could go along way into cementing Drumpf's legacy as a career world wide criminal.
9
Whether Ms. Yovanovitch was surveilled by Trump's people or not, they treated her abominably. Mr. Parnas appears believable; she was likely surveilled, given the texts we have seen. Trump can't be removed from office soon enough, especially given that he broke several laws while working to gain dirt on the Bidens.
19
Where is the State Department? Mr. Pompeo should be stepping forward to state they will provide all information and support necessary in order to investigate the allegation the Ambassador was illegally targeted. Instead we get silence. This is beyond shameful. There were also apparently veiled threats against the Ambassador. Why would any State Department employee assume at this point that this Administration is on their side and will assure their safety. Pompeo and Barr are rogue elements within our Government and along with Donald Trump should be on trial for violating their oaths of office.
27
Pompeo’s hiding under the table until it all blows over.
1
Agree. The ambassador has a great deal to fear from the administration. I hope she is being professionally protected 24/7!
1
I'm an American voter and I already know the impeachment articles are a "Trumped-up" hoax. Very obvious. Trump will be acquitted. If there is more to investigate the trial should be "withheld" or "delayed", no pun intended, and the House should re-open it's investigation and not issue their articles of impeachment until they are finished with their investigation.
Where is Secretary of State Pompeo? He is missing in action. Why is he not defending Ambassador Yovanovitch? He has a responsibility to speak out and fully explain his position. Did he have any role in the removal of the Ambassador? What does he know and when did he know it? Silence speaks volumes.
17
He’s in the bathroom. He’ll come out and speak to us as soon as he’s done. Full stop.
The text exchange between Parnas and Hyde are jaw dropping. Parnas laughed that exchange off in his interview with Rachel Maddow, saying that Hyde was a drunk.
The only problem is, the text exchanges were over the course of a week or so. In the TRMS interview, it was only when talking about Hyde that Parnas appeared uncomfortable, possibly lying.
The potential of surveillance of Ambassador Yavanovich by Hyde and the other Trump goons needs to be fully investigated and it is nice to see Ukraine investigating this. That is the right thing to do for Ukraine.
And the US government is silent on this matter.
14
This is choice. Trump attempts to corrupt election 2020 by strong-arming Ukraine to announce an unfounded investigation of the Bidens, and now the actions of Trump's minions are under investigation by Ukraine. And they announced it.
15
Ukraine's criminal investigation will likely implicate Trump in criminal wrongdoing the way Trump wanted Ukraine to implicate Joe and Hunter Biden.
Republicans will not take seriously Ukraine's criminal investigation that seems destined to implicate Trump as seriously as they would have surely taken one that Trump tried to get them to conduct on Joe and Hunter Biden.
Karma is a very real thing.
10
Oh brother! Spying on other countries' reps is one of the main reason for the diplomatic corp. Though the foreign service should be eliminated. Just a jobs program for the rich and connected. And the intelligence gathering via diplomats is not needed now that there is mass media and widespread international travel of the masses.
Strange twist to the story. An ambassador is such a high profile position that their every move is publicized so one wonders what is the purpose of surveillance. Sounds like Parnas trying to ingratiate himself to the prosecutors.
"The move was a remarkable departure from past practice for the government, which has studiously tried to avoid making moves that could make a political splash in Washington."
Zelensky has played a smart hand all the way through. Now is the time to hang up his neutral cap and put on the one labeled Make Truth Matter Again.
It's time for Zelensky to talk.
This period of extortionary demands has been so painful for him because he craves - like oxygen - the international attention and assistance needed to evict Russia from his homeland. But as the Times story notes, Ukraine considers the U.S. its top ally, which is like reaching for help from fog. Without aid, Ukraine can't beat The Bear and become sovereign again, while at this instant, an electrified world stands ready to listen.
All the Ukrainian leader and his top aides need do is recount the truth of their blackmailing by Trump and Trump's coterie of fixers, enforcers and useful fools. All the encircling documentary and eyewitness evidence will back Zelensky up. How many such instances of international coercion by corrupt rulers have been better recorded? And given how Donald Trump, World Bully, has rampaged across the globe, he's turned friends to foes and faithless dictators to rock stars.
Ukraine has already made a "political splash" the size of a tsunami and there's no way to stop a wave. Zelensky even now owns the compassion of Real America and everyone else offended by the existence of Donald J. Trump.
13
Maybe they'll find and release the evidence that our own government has been keeping hidden from us.
13
@mak Exactly...like their tape of Trump's infamous phone call. Talk about Kharma.
4
Hyde's statement to Sinclair News, "I thought we were playing," certainly lends credence to the notion that Trump is just the driver of a tiny car full of clowns, driving around and around in circles on the conservative "news" landscape.
13
@Allison With Nunes riding shot gun. It's really not that all surprising that Nunes is up to his eyeballs in this crime. Lock him up!
8
Perhaps Ukraine will preserve Democracy in the U.S. rather than the other way around.
18
Zelensky needs to publicly state the truth, which is that he knew very well what Trump was doing.
9
Lev Parnas mentioned Nunes staff Derek Harvey many times on Maddow last night. It’s worth noting that Harvey was hired by Mike Flynn to work in the NSC and later fired by HR McMaster- when he needed to clean house after Flynn. and then low and behold winds up working for Nunes and is the point person for Parnas. So very conspiratorial.
15
It is sad that the Ukraine opened an investigation into this unseemly business before our Justice Department did.
How much did Ambassador Yovanovitch's boss, Sec. of State Mike Pompeo know given his ties to Rudy? How much did Barr know? Lev implies everyone was in the loop.
Now, Moscow Mitch is going to start his coverup of the affair. He says the Clinton impeachment is the model, except depositions were taken from all the fact witnesses prior to the Clinton's trial, including President Clinton's sworn testimony. Neither Trump nor those directly involved in the decision making in this abuse of power have been deposed.
This isn't lying about sex. This is about putting the president's personal agenda above Congress by unlawfully failing to faithfully execute the laws they have passed, endangering our national security and that of our allies.
10
So the defense for stalking is now "playing" and drunk texting? Good to know!
11
Am staggered at the Trump moment today, where he "answers" a press question re: one of Giuliani's incriminating letters: "I don't know anything about a letter" (lie) followed by a 3-minute diversion about how Rudy is the Greatest Mayor-Crimebuster in all the recorded history of 5 planets and 3 stars.
I wish the press would treat him symmetrically: "Pres. Trump lied for the 15,000th time today; he has beaten all records for criminality, fallacy, venality, superficiality, dis-loyality, immorality, illegality, and mental incapacity.
13
Hey, at least Ukraine has the safety of our ambassadors in mind, even when our own state department and president are throwing them to the wolves.
17
With Trump and his fans it's always a joke when they are caught red-handed.
12
I love this photo by Erin Schaff. Ambassador Yovanovitch looks the part of an avenging angel of truth. Her House testimony was brilliant and off-the-charts brave. Also, add the following to the other bad news just for today, for the Trumpies: Trump, Giuliani and the Republican Robert Hyde possibly violated Ukraine law and the Vienna Convention when they put Yovanovitch under surveillance. Ukraine has initiated criminal proceedings. And Russian intelligence has just hacked the company for whom Hunter Biden worked--and Ukraine has asked the FBI to help with that investigation. Hyde and Russian intelligence to nation: It's all just a drunken joke.
11
Seems Ukraine is more interested in the safety and well being of US Ambassadors than our own current Department of Justice.
13
Where in the world is Mike Pompeo? His silence is deafening.
16
When you want to get rid of somebody in Washington, you don't fire them, you move them like a piece on a checkerboard.
2
By golly, Trump was right all along. The corrupt Ukrainian regime is now investigating the good guys, Hyde and Giuliani. We never should have released the nearly $400mm in aid. “I was drunk at the time” works for me.
3
This whole story has already been debunked!! Please folks, move on to next story.
Fill in, Victor. Please do.
@Victor Jones
Source?
No?
1
Unless the Americans in the senate actually make the impeachment an actual one, instead of a shambles as it's looking up to be, this is just another mini-tour into what Donald Trump is.
A liar, and a charlatan.
8
How ironic.
5
Believe, I have to believe that the majority of Americans watching this spectacle sees clearly that Donald J Trump is a crook and behaves like a mobster! What I can’t believe is the sycophants of the Republican Party!
9
After reading this, I am reminded of a scene in the beginning of the 1977 film "Star Wars" when Alec Guinness (as the wise Obi-Wan Kenobi) looked down on the spaceport of Mos Eisley before they entered. He warned the character Luke Skywalker that they must be cautious because "you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villany." The criminals of that fictitious sci-fi film have NOTHING on this band of hoodlums, hooligans and desperados creeping about the White House. Even killing off one of their own Ambassadors was acceptable to these cretins. What is being exposed is sickening; evildoers have taken control of the Executive brand of our government and Americans MUST take it back. New legislation must be passed as soon as this mess is cleaned up to ensure this never happens again. Starting with financial transparency of the President's past. Tax returns must be mandatory; as well as a complete physical and mental exam by a team of physicians at Bethesda Naval Hospital. No more thieves and no more crazies can ever inhabit the White House again.
9
Pompeo is a disgrace. One of his main objectives should be to ensure the safety of ambassadors around the world. He did nothing to ensure the safety of our ambassador to the Ukraine. What are all of our ambassadors to think?
Ah, well, in trumpneyland, where you have to be a third-rate thug to get close to the president, a goodfella. Where anything goes, so long as it's crooked, underhanded, smelly, wrong, stupid, immoral, unethical and awful.
11
Projecting is the word. Donald J. Trump tweets bizarre accusations, and now we can know he probably is in the middle of doing whatever dirty deed he is accusing others of. Spying? No quid pro quo? Working with the very most corrupt elements in Ukraine who he is claiming to be rooting out? Spying on and chasing out the ambassador with a reputation for fighting corruption? How can the GOP sit there repetitively claiming Trump was merely rooting out corruption? I sure hope they start coming around like Collins and Romney. Sure, Trump is no doubt in the process of cheating this election and could win, but the GOP will look like the worst crooks in history if they keep fighting for it. I think fighting for the non-issue of prayer in school today was a nice touch. Pandering to his base of older Fox news viewers who actually believe school aged kids really care about this issue. One smokescreen after the next!
23
The Washington Post has reported a Ukrainegate timeline, which supports a case for impeachable bribery.
The Ambassador was ordered recalled on April 24, 2018; Igor and Lev donated $325,000 to Trump’s PAC on May 17, 2018, from an assetless company that had just been formed. The donation was part of a $1.25 million loan.
One might say that for the donation to be a bribe it must have been made before the official act of removal. But this is just a matter of what came first, the quid or the quo.
It would be reasonable for anyone to doubt that Trump would follow through on a promise after receiving a generous donation, but Lev and Igor had Rudy to vouch for their “honesty among thieves”, and they did fulfill phase one of their mission impossible in that they generated enough “dirt” to give cover for the removal. And the more this wicked web is unwoven the million plus dollar “loan” to the gruesome twosome may have been their reward for opening the door to corruption by closing the door on Yovanovich’s tenure as corruption fighting Ambassador.
The House did not give this aspect of Ukrainegate the scrutiny it deserved. However, the various related misdeeds is likely the focus of the continuing investigation by the SDNY.
And it is also likely that Lev is seeking to leverage his role as conspirator to become a co-operator if further charges are brought. His allusion to AG Barr may be a Trump card he can play or discard. Barr fully knows if Igor is calling his bluff.
12
Well said. Mimi Rocah (who is running for WestChester county DA said it was unbelievable that Parnas does not have an agreement with SDNY and that it was probably due to Barr not allowing one. So much corruption as every level in every agency.
9
@Deirdre
Parnas gave the interview because he is scared for his life; it was bad for him legally but he is justly AFRAID. If he had kept this info to himself, his life might be in greater danger.
It is outrageous in what used to be a democracy,
3
@Bob Guthrie
Interesting observation. I just listened to his interview with Anderson Cooper and,Parnas said his life had been threatened.
3
If the "defence" in this impeachment trial can refuse to allow witnesses or evidence, then call it a win, expect every criminal in America to use it as precedence.
Law or no law? It's time to decide now, GOP.
20
Ukraine will be able to document that the whole Trump conspiracy was directed by Russia, something I'm sure the Republican Party already knows.
16
Our FBI should be leading on this. But, of course, our FBI won't because the Justice Dept headed by Barr is part of this monstrous, stupid situation.
Where is Pompeo?
I wrote to Marie Yovanovitch yesterday. Of all the things that have happened since Trump ascended to the throne, this is the one that bothers me the most. A brilliant, dedicated ambassador as this person should not have to deal with such a frightening situation. "She's going to go through some things". And she has. I was never more impressed with a person in my life as the person who gave such truth to power testimony before the nation.
Zelensky is doing the right thing. He will be punished, I have no doubt.
22
Hope Maine sends Susan Collins into retirement!
11
If I had anything to do with it, I would make Marie Yovanovitch the next Secretary of State: Knowledgeable, brave, experienced, calm, patriotic ... ALL the attributes lacking in ALL the Republican politicians and sycophants.
31
Me too!
12
Bravo! Excellent idea .... and a constant reminder of the Republican complacency and complicity!
13
What a "perfect" turnaround. Trump asks Ukraine to announce an investigation into Bursima and Biden as a "favor" to Trump so Trump will agree to release funds the GAO said TRump ILLEGALLY withheld (yes, Virginia, there still are laws that even bind presidents).
Now how perfect one of the coconspirators in this traitorous operation has seen the light and is producing documents and giving testimony about Trump's knowledge about this illegal withholding. As egregious we find that Trump's operatives (not legitimate government employees) were following/tracking/surveilling a US ambassador--a violation of international and Ukraine law. And Ukraine is not holding back on publicly announcing the investigation and asking for legitimate help --the FBI--not Barr or Guiliani.
11
Well, Trump said that he wanted Ukraine to investigate corruption...he's getting his wish. Ukraine is, apparently, going to investigate Trump's very own corruption.
20
When I read that Ukraine felt compelled to investigation possible corruption, I burst out laughing. Ukraine is quite corrupt; hence, Trump's questions about aide being sent there.
1
@AACNY
With respect you are in denial. Zelensky campaigned on rooting out that corruption in Ukraine. That is why he won. And are you really still falling for that Trump line about aid?
Really my friend?
The game is up.
Lev Parnas has blown off the lid.
Note that it accords with the very reputable testimony of
Gordon Sondland (Trump donor)
Marie Yovanovitch (impeccable corruption fighting record)
Bill Taylor (Trump appointed Ambassador)
Alex Vindman (War decorated veteran)
Fiona Hill ( impeccable reputation who heard Bolton call it a drug deal)
It is OK to have misplaced your trust because you were hoodwinked by con men)
But if you keep defending the clearly unhinged president you are fooling nobody but yourself. Sincere commiserations because as Bob Dylan sung
"Aint it hard when you discover that
He really wasn't where its at
After he has taken everything he could steal.
How does it feel?"
I imagine it feels pretty bad and I empathise with you
14
You were more than okay with Ukraine investigating possible corruption by the Biden’s. Now that they are investigating the obvious corruption of Trump, you have a problem with the investigators’ credibility? Typical Trumpists turnaround.
13
@AACNY
Try again.
The aid was cleared by the Department of Defense in May or thereabouts. Long before Trump became involved.
7
How does this not surprise me? In the background are the Russians who have orchestrated this whole affair to get Trump re-elected. They did it in 2016 and then tried to insinuate Ukraine were the guilty party knowing Trump would bite. Wouldn’t surprise me if Trump’s best friend Putin put the idea of getting dirt on Biden in his head
10
Trump's exoneration is the most likely outcome of the Senate's impeachment trial.
Does anyone expect that having been exonerated for the extortion of Ukraine when he and everybody else KNOWS that he actually DID extort the Ukraine, that Trump won't threaten the Ukraine again if he finds it politically expedient to do so?!
What then will his supporters in the US Senate have to say when he not only continues to commit High Crimes, but likely escalated the number, frequency and outrageousness of them?
And having then gotten away with all that, who would expect that Trump will ever leave the White House voluntarily even if he should lose the election or when his 2nd term (GOD FORBID!) is up?!
This outlaw "president" MUST be REMOVED! The alternative is insane!
10
Wow! Unlike our U.S. republican politicians, Ukraine is actively and actionably fighting corruption, as well as standing up for Democracy. Way to go Ukraine, and Thank You!
… and Ms. Yovanovitch, you are a U.S. hero for serving our country.
19
Throw in the towel and declare moral bankruptcy.
6
This is the height of irony.
Be careful what you wish for Donald. You wanted Ukraine to announce an investigation on an American citizen. You just didn’t know it would be your operatives under investigation.
I wonder if Trump knows what the word ironic even means.
You cannot make this stuff up.
13
So ironic!
Ukraine not only announcing, but actually opening, an investigation.
Not likely Zelensky will get an invitation to the Oval Office, though.
14
@c
Zelensky should turn down any offer of US visits until after the Mafia Boss and his henchmen are removed from office. He would be smart to distance himself from the mafia ring occupying the White House.
4
@Radha
Indeed. One wonders how safe he'd be.
2
Thanks to Mr. Parnas, the role of Marie Yovanovitch has become clear. Then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko wanted her removed and was willing to offer dirt on the Bidens to make it happen. The White House scammers were in league with Ukraine scammers, yet each was trying to play the other.
7
Hmm....I don't think this was the investigation Ukraine's Mayor was hoping for...
6
Considering how vulnerable the Ukrainians are to real violence and actual death to its citizens who are in harms way either in the military or as average civilians in the way of Russian supported conflict in their territory, they are remarkably brave in showing spine and behaving with integrity.
The contrast to our money grubbing, lying, immoral and treasonous senators and executive branch cabinet officials is stark and humiliating.
Shame!
13
"Also on Thursday, Ukraine said it had asked the F.B.I. for help investigating the reported penetration of computer systems belonging to Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company, by hackers working for Russian intelligence."
Do we really expect Bob Barr will do anything that smacks of integrity????
12
At last trump gets a Ukraine investigation. That there is funny; I don’t care whatcha say!
12
Thanks, Ukraine!
15
They've got a lot of nerve ! We are the United States,and Donald is our Leader. Nobody tells us what to not do !
1
How ironic and just if evidence of Giuliani's harassment of Ambassador Yovanovitch should tip the impeachment proceedings over the edge, confirming everything Trump has been accused of. The Ukrainian government has started its own investigation. uncovering a cesspool, or you might say a swamp, of corruption.
9
Trump surrounds himself “with only the best people.”
10
Jgarbuz
All those golf trips that we paid for stand out, though.
6
Guess the president finally got Ukraine to announce an investigation! The president always said he only hired the best people
10
We need Bolton to go on 60 minutes if the Senate doesn't allow him to testify.
12
How about him holding a press conference during the start of the trial.
4
This should make Trump happy. Ukraine is finally investigating corruption, just like he wanted.
Of course, it's his corruption, not Joe Biden's, but let's not pick nits.
16
Please remind me, republicans - why don't we want witnesses?
12
Looking forward to Ukrainian officials issuing an arrest warrant for Rudy.
14
Now this breaking statement from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. " .........."
11
Two Americans conduct creepy surveillance- and text about it! - of the American ambassador to Ukraine, and UKRAINE investigated?! Hellooo, FBI . . .?
12
@Carol
Don't call the FBI. Bill Barr, remember? Trump's lapdog?
2
The plot becomes more unbelievable by the day. We have not had any rest since this imbecile took office and republicans are still behind him. Third world corruption right here in the good ole USA.
13
How Mike Pompeo trashed himself , at this moment I can even hold Dick Cheney has more integrity than this cabal, Pompeo and Barr literally become puppet.
7
Re: “They are willing to help if we/you would like a price,” one message from Mr. Hyde read..."
The more I hear...the more this sounds like a 'b', or 'c' grade gangster flick, which, under the circumstances, is...OBVIOUS criminal behavior by this administration!
Granted...
I've laughed ALL, MY LIFE, (!!), when I hear and/or reflect on Republican, ('pro-life / pro-family'), rhetoric, but...this ISN'T just scraping the barrel_bottom; It's carving initials into the cement floor, below the barrel!
Were I a card_carrying Republican, my shredder would be gobbling that card like a starving sailor; having voted in local, 'N, national elections x's 44+ years...I've never considered any Republican candidate, period, full, stop!!
BTW: I'm caucasoid; that should be an irrelevant data point, in America, but the Trump administration's overt support of the Charlottesville_boy's neo-nazi-pretensions, antisemitic chants, 'N, continuing ties, to / employment, of the 2 Stevens...Bannon, 'N, Miller...make me ashamed of my U.S. citizenship!!
6
C'mon, CIA--do your job.
8
What a carry on (Brits will understand). While those of you in the US may be wracked with despair, or joy, depending on your political persuasion the rest of the world watches and laughs at this comedy show of a US administration. Keep it coming, we love it.
8
Why isn't the FBI doing this investigation? Where is Mike Pompeo? Why hasn't Giuliani been arrested?
Donald John Trump is now being charged by Adam Schiff, ol' pencil neck himself.
Trump, someday you will pay - bigly.
16
Trump is impeached but who's going to arrest Rudy, Bill Barr, Pompeo?
18
This situation sums up trump perfectly! How dumb does one have to be to set out on an elaborate scheme to get a minor piece of dirt on a political opponent (who very well might not even make it out of the primaries), only to end up impeached because you didn't have the self control or wits to stick to the script on one phone call. Seriously! It's not trump's criminality at this point that bothers me, it's his sheer stupidity and incompetence!
16
What a bunch of crooks. Trump is paving the way for the socialists to take over the Whitehouse and republicans are too stupid to see it. If they don’t kick him out of office either Warren or Sanders will be making all the important decisions using all the new rules Trump brought in.
This investigation could be the tipping point. Let’s see if McConnell has a brain. 
4
Or a soul.
3
@Uncle Peevish
We are going to pick neither Warren nor Sanders. So don’t worry about that. Let’s worry about the clear and present danger: a corrupt criminal is in our White House.
2
Try not to worry. Try not to be so terrified of the people laughably describe as "socialist". For one thing America has pretty naive ideas about what socialsm is, even though you and I both benefit from and take for granted everyday: weekends, no child labor, public education (unless you're one of those who doesn't want "certain" people to have that), libraries (try one), fairer tax rates (oh right, you're a temporarily embarrassed millionaire), highways, parkways, the military (we all pay them), police (protect the community not just you), fire departments (we all pay to put your fire out), postal service, bridges, landfills and war, FBI, polio vaccine...it goes on.
Really, come on in the water's fine.
5
How moronic! All ambassadors of the United States serve at the pleasure of the President. He needs no reason to take back their credentials and have them sent home.
2
@Kurt Pickard
Your description is true but lacks diplomatic decency or simply humanitarian decency.
but it is a fact.
4
@Kurt Pickard
So why did he go out of his way to conjure up dirt, harass her and worse? His idea of fun?
6
Trump is not a king. Process should be followed and Public servants who have served for decades shouldn’t be forced to leave a posting in fear due to a potential hit man coming to murder them.
6
So much bluffing about a Deep State and now we are finding out Trump is the one running it. What are the deplorables going to say now? (answer: wait for a Tweet from their leader with the "truth")
14
And that, my friends, is how comedian Zelensky has made Trump the butt of the joke. Thank you, and good night.
17
John Roberts needs to hear the whole story with ALL witnesses or else he will unleash and enable the anarchy of hell on our country.
7
If Hyde was intoxicated, as he asserts in defence of his actions, then this entire administration has an alcohol problem. It is rightfully unlawful to drive while under the influence. Governing while piddled should be too. However, it’s not booze that’s afflicting this presidency; it’s thirst for power at any cost.
Trump claims he’s teetotaller, but that does not elevate him from all other character aberrations that characterise him or his entourage. Marie Yovanovich, a distinguished public servant, has found herself in the sordid and uninvited focus of men and women whose judgement is not affected by debilitating addictions but who operate on a sober scale of decorum fit only for the most entitled or the least moral elements of our society. The Trump administration represents both quite amiably.
11
Never would I ever have guessed the US would ask a developing country to oversee an investigation into the safety of our senior ambassadors. This is a new low even for Trump. Secretary Pompeo has a lot of questions to answer.
26
I have to congratulate President Zelensky for stepping up and deciding he doesn't like himself nor his country being used by Trump and his cronies as cheap props.
One can hope (though after nearly 50 years of watching their behavior) that a corner is turned on the GOP, and they will finally be relegated to the dust bin where they belong. I emphatically disagree with conservative views and positions, but, trying to be sympathetic, if the party that 'supports' those views has to cheat to win, that ideology has a problem and deserves some serious soul-searching if it wants to remain relevant. They need a new party that contains none of the old players.
54
Can we trade presidents with Ukraine? First, according to reports and Mr. Parnas's interview, Ukrainian refused to be pressured into providing defamatory information about the Bidens, despite intense pressure. Now Ukraine is investigating allegations that a foreign diplomat may have been the target of criminal activity on its soil. Ukraine is behaving with integrity and professionalism.
58
@CH
Trump is just the cat's paw of Russia. They are defending themselves against Russia.
4
@CH
Rememeber Breaking Bad this saying
"I am the danger."
Trump is the CORRUPTION.
5
@CH
Ukraine is behaving with integrity and professionalism.
*****
This is why progressives shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the presidency and certainly not anywhere near our foreign policy.
1
And what is the response of the Secretary of State and Attorney General? . In their toadying corruption of the offices they hold they have become as mobbed up as their boss. Or perhaps they were prior to Trump putting them in positions where they can further damage our form of government.
32
I applaud this courageous move on the part of Ukrainian President Zelensky and his government. Trump's callous and criminal behavior has done Ukraine immeasurable harm.
I am impressed and pleased that the underdog Ukrainians are fighting back, especially because they are doing so in a manner that actually honors both their own and international laws.
It's a shame, isn't it, that we Americans don't have a president and a Republican party that honor our own laws and Constitution?
41
This investigation could easily be seen as a warning shot to Trump and associates that Ukraine now has gained the upper hand, and that Trump and associates best back off.
24
"We were playing. I thought we were playing." That seems to be the theme of the Trump administration--playing at being the president and playing at running the country (in his own interest, of course). How lame can an excuse be? But it is repeatedly trotted out by many in the Trump administration every time an incriminating tweet, Facebook post, or piece of email is uncovered :"We weren't serious. We were just joking." Trump must have recruited a lot of his administration personnel from animal-house frat parties. The capable ones have all left or been booted out.
25
I don’t think “just joking” will stand up in any court of law...
3
Mr. Hyde is a GOP candidate for Congress. Sounds about right. Purported inebriation does not get you a hall pass.
24
Remember what Trump said regarding Ambassador Yovanovitch on his "perfect" call, "she is going to go through some things."
Trump, Pence, Barr, Mulvaney, and Pompeo all need to be removed from office and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
62
The Ukraine government doesn't care any longer if they make a splash in Washington because they know Trump is the captain of a sinking ship. Even if the Senate refuses to remove Trump, it's clear to anyone watching him that he's growing more incoherent and unstable by the day. Countries are quietly turning their backs on the US until Trump is gone.
33
This goes far beyond Trump.
If Republican senators continue to be cowards and violate the oath they will take, the House should reopen investigation. Arrest a few witnesses. Compel testimony.
Then let’s see Republican Congress dismiss the allegations which are true.
30
The Trump administration appears to have become little more than a criminal cabal, exclusively serving Trump's interests. Giuliani has slid right into the role of mafia consiglieri, coordinating illegalities, and remarkably for a former US attorney, does no openly with no sense of shame or guilt.
Thank God there are dedicated, patriotic public servants such as Ambassador Yovanovitch who work for the good of the American people and to mitigate the damage Trump and Giuliani are doing to American foreign policy.
31
@Bill White: I think the fact that so many top Republicans continue to support this kind of illegal activity goes to show how dangerous Republican disinformation campagins have become to functional government. We have a dysfunctional Senate sitting on more than eight hundred pieces of legislation passed by the House, a cabinet busy selling off our lands and dismantling regulations to the advantage of private individuals, and a White House engaged in blatantly criminal activity, and yet we still see very little Republican resistence to any of this. Why? Disinformation and lies being disseminated through so-called conservative outlets. Not just news outlets, but through the offices of ccongresspeople and senators, as well. Try writing to a Republican senator and see what kind of disinformation you'll receive in reply. I myself see nothing conservative about today's Republicans. They don't even support the rule of law or even democracy itself any more, but would prefer the rule of one party under one man, based on the Putin/Russia model, and toward that end, everyone in the Republican Party is marching in lockstep. They might as well start dressing up in uniforms and jackboots.
6
The president should be very happy that Ukraine has started an investigation. Isn't that what he asked for?
34
Yovanovich is fortunate she was not harmed. The threat she faced grows more severe with each revelation.
33
How does the U.S. ambassador in a capital like Kyiv get followed without some sort of security personnel picking up on it? And she was surveilled by a drunken landscaper? There is either more to this than meets the eye, or less, and I am inclined to believe the former.
5
The President of Ukraine was a comedian before his new job. Does trump, Guiliani, Barr, Pence and the other corrupt souls in the U.S. Senate on the Republican side of the aisle understand the irony, the tragic-comedy of all this? This cannot stand in America. Though few expect a conviction of trump in the Senate (due to the corrupt Repubs in the Senate), the American people will vote down trump and these Senators in a landslide in November. America can't be that cooked (and crooked) can we?
15
If Trump believes that he's above U.S. law, why would he hesitate to break another country's laws?
The horrifying realty is that we have a lawless President, enabled fully by a complicit Republican Congress. All of them should be impeached and removed for failing to uphold their sworn duties. The next best thing is to vote them out of office.
America: do you really want to live in a dictatorship?
27
Could the real version of “House of Cards” be collapsing at last? How can portions of this nation be tolerating this rampant, shameless corruption?
20
Because they are glued to Fox News.
4
Trump may not know it yet, and he may even believe he is untouchable, perhaps charmed in some supernatural way, or maybe he does indeed believe as he said when he suggested he is "The Chosen One", but I'm convinced that this certifiable utterly corrupt embarrassing lunatic is about to meet his Waterloo.
Karma, fate, whatever, when least expected, comes knocking, and when it does for him I pray it is equal in intensity to the damage he has done to our once respected nation, and the world, these last three years; never have I known anyone more worthy of receiving his just deserts.
16
Alcohol consumption primarily causes emotional and intellectual myopia. Drunks loose their ability to foresee the consequences of their words and actions. It doesn’t turn them into liars. For me, the excuse of alcohol is more incriminating than exculpatory.
12
@Al Paz : A lot of murderers have awakened in prison not knowing what they have done. Alcohol has ruined many lives.
3
Republicans of the Senate: Your votes will be tallied in your children’s and grandchildren’s history books.
Chose your family’s history.
12
Marie L. Yovanovitch is fortunate to be alive.
Overseas those with tales to tell, or thought to have tales to tell, should amscray ikquay before an unfortunate accident occurs.
16
It’s a comedy of fools. The character that illegally pushed for false investigations is now himself being investigated? If it all weren’t so sad, it would be hilarious.
13
As the days go on we are finding out how deep the roots of this conspiracy go.
There will be more to come. Those involved will soon have a decision to make. Are they willing to be loyal to the guy in the White House and go prison? Or, will they come clean? Many will still see the inside of a prison. Time will tell.
The little boy isn't going to be able to hold his finger in the dike much longer.
12
Evidence points out that Marie Yovanovitch escaped a hideous assassination. The text messages don't literally say as much, but it is crystal clear for any prosecutor/intelligence agency what was at play there. No smoke and mirrors. This is not nuclear physics to understand. "In Ukraine money can do anything. They want to help. Just name a price".
How close was it? A few more lunches? A few more drinks in Texan or D.C. backrooms? Maybe the guy painting houses asked too much. Maybe Rudy wanted Ukrainian 'specialists' to do it on the cheap. Like a 1000 US dollars goes for 30.000 in Ukraine. Take it or leave it.
This is perplexing, flabbergasting proof that Donald & Rudi were actually chewing on what road to take, scanning possibilities, weighing the odds. Hyde and Pence in the dug out. Developping a roadmap. Toward a hit. Barr playing deaf.
Someone was supposed to get a green light to 'help' Marie Yovanovitch receiving her natural cause of death, right? It was in the making. Looks like Yovanovitch miraculously got spared from someone carrying out a heinous silencing. I bet she did. Escape.
If some gonzo like Parnas gets on TV to lay bare what happened... Lev better have some powerful friends now. And some muscle, to protect him in the coming weeks. If he uses 'Russians', they also might do it on the cheap.
What Marie Yovanovitch had to endure. Respect. For that kind of bravery. Professionalism. And courage.
Is the lid off now? Is this a defining turning point?
22
@Pvo
the lid will never be off and there is no bottom to the pit and three years of this has taught us there will be no turning point. This will be written off per the mob playbook as "we were just joking around" and Repubs will gather around and echo, of course they were kidding. And once again the American people will not band together in unison to say this is unacceptable and demand better. Instead, half the populace love a lying thug president, enjoy the fruit of that hideous tree explicitly or implicitly. Democracy is slowly being boiled to death and we do nothing.
2
The "corrupt" Ukrainians start an investigation before US even expresses concern!
15
@Dustin Mackie
The US doesn't have to. The alleged offending took place on Ukrainian soil and if true, violates Ukrainian and international law
Pay attention...State Department career public servants are throwing Pompeo and Trump under a giant bus........Their people were and are placed in serious jeopardy by the criminal activities of both this President and his zealot minions.
The Ukraine situation made it clear who Pompeo works for and watching a highly respected, over 30 years, career diplomat placed in harm's way is crossing a very basic line that they will not TOLERATE.
The Ukraine now has a cadre of loyalists in Europe now that would love to help them throw Trump under the buss, too.
He keeps expecting to be treated like the Monarch of the world and nobody is going to let that happen......He has worn out his welcome with his nasty mouth and craven bullying.....
This "reality show" is not being scripted by Mr. Trump anymore. Get the microwave popcorn out and enjoy....
17
@Margot LeRoy Our 'bad actors' are not being 'thrown under' any busses-that would mean they were being 'unfairly accused'. Trump and throughout his administration are now being seen for the tawdry low lifes they have always been and that they are today.
5
Well, they did want Ukraine to look into corruption.
17
Is this same person who President Trump said was "bad news"?
4
Ukraine is interfering in US elections.
Again.
2
@JQGALT
I would add to your post "Citation needed"
@JQGALT Wolf, wolf, there's a wolf.
Used to be we had to fear foreign terrorists for harming our diplomatic corps (REMEMBER BENGHAZI!) Turns out with the Trump Administration, it truly is an inside job.
17
Such sweet irony....Trump is hoisted on his own petard....
11
Pretty creepy. We have had lots of strange characters introduced to national politics by the Trump administration. Clearly many of them are just marginal people looking to make a name for themselves and they come across as unusually forgettable; think Corey Lewandowski. Mike Flynn, Sean Spicer. Robert F. Hyde is of a different category, people with serious issues who think that stalking a female ambassador is OK. Our level of outrage is tempered by all the past associates, Sebastian Gorkra, Steve Bannon, Anthony Scaramuci, Mathew Whitaker. Are these the best he can do?
8
Obviously he Ukrainians are smarter than Donald and have realised he is likely to lose in November even if his lemmings continually claim its a slam dunk for Individual 1 co-conspirator electorally, this year. So easy right?
Things that DJT said would be easy (just from my memory)
- Health care with the ACA being replaced with "something good"
- North Korea; how is that working out for the stable genius?
- Getting respect from the world (instead NATO leaders ridiculing him on hot mike)
- Draining the swamp. I haven't got the inclination to trawl through the countless incidents of ultra-swampiness in the last 3 years from Mnuchin's travel to Carson's office furniture.
I could go on but it would distract from the argument. OK I will throw in porn star payoff and lyng about it, privilege-redolent golf trips and endless emolument clause violations
The Senate trial acquittal is the point I am leading to. He was so sure that was going to be easy yet now look.
Thank goodness he did not take ver during the GFC.. America needed a president who knew it would be difficult and who consequently dragged America and the world back from the brink; trending unemployment downward until we have the current "good" economy; an economy the dear leader pumped up with the high-end tax cuts and punctured with his stupid trade war.
10
What law does NYTs believe DJT is "accused of breaking the law by pressuring the president of Ukraine to look into former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a potential Democratic opponent in the 2020 election"?
1
@PJB78 if you don't know by now you never will.
3
Remove the bogus Sec. of State! He sits idly by, silent as a lamb, while an outstanding public official from his agency is threaten by his American President! All Americans should be outraged by the actions of this Administration. Only a dimwit would give consent and cooperation to this situation.
13
The stench emanating from the WH swamp is rising to nuclear levels! Thank you Ms. Pelosi for your superb leadership!
18
[There's an extraneous "o" in the 4th paragraph - third line on my device - thought you'd want to know]
1
We'll have to follow Hyde's campaign in Conn. to see how he does. Just guessing he may be in jail in the US or Ukraine? Does Giuliani have any 'minions' left?
9
@pat smith
CT is a blue state and after these shenanigans, his hopes of being elected are shrinking by the minute
Will be a laugh to see what happens and, of course, the inevitable wailing and gnashing of teeth
1
Ukraine is finally helping to clean up corruption...ours.
15
According to Trump article 2 says that as president he can "do whatever he wants" . Of course that means if he wanted to whack our ambassador in Kiev he could do it and according to AG Barr (roy cohn stand in) Trump cannot be investigated for this crime or any other and if guilty of anything can pardon himself. Perhaps jealous of Putin to stay in power for Life Trump wants the same deal for him by executive order. Trump yearns to be our dictator and Barr supports that concept as long as its a republican of course being a GOP hack sent in to protect the gop investment in Trump . When Trump is out of power all the dirty deals he and his family have engaged in will be disclosed but Trump and Ivanka will be living in Moscow penthouse with a dacha on the Baltic sea like any Russian oligarch unreachable by American law folks.
10
Donald J. Trump, impeached president and international pariah.
12
Any future Democrat to win the Presidential election should reappoint Ms Yovanovitch as our Ambassador to Ukraine.
13
I’d like to see her as our next Secretary of State.
5
I’m surprised the NYT has not mentioned in this article that Yovanovitch was warned to leave the country for fear of her safety. Hmmmm, I wonder why her safety was in question.
13
So poetic. Ukraine is now opening an investigation, effectively, on Trump. It is a good day. The roaches are scurrying for the cracks.
12
Why doesn't President Zelensky step up and let the World know what Trump and his thugs have done in Ukraine?
4
House releases additional documents turned over by Lev Parnas - The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/house-releases-additional-documents-turned-over-by-lev-parnas/7de4189b-00cf-487f-b4cc-f7236c937b42/
390 pages to go through.
4
The republic is in grave danger. Nancy Pelosi is Princess Lea looking for Obi-Wan Kenobe. Bill Barr is Darth Vadar, trump, the imperial leader, Pence and pompeo are orbiting around in the death star invoking their god. These are dark times. It is an age old story. Good against evil.
8
@Armo
For a second I misread and thought Bill Burr is Darth Vader...
Burr is too funny to be a Sith Lord
To quote my daughter. “It just keeps getting worser and worser”.
To my GOP friends please think about how this is going to look over time as more and more information comes to light.
Do you really want to tie yourself to Trump. Could you really be that stupid? Even if you don’t care about country save yourself and run from this man and his family less you wind up in jail or targeted in a worse way.
Ahhhh for the days of Bill Clinton lying about oral sex.
13
Some movie screen writers must be salivating over this. The amount of material that just keep falling onto their laps!
1
"It was just colorful, we were playing — I thought we were playing,” Mr. Hyde said.
What an odd game to be playing. Why would two grown men be playing a game that involves potentially threatening the safety of a U.S. ambassador, and doing it in writing no less? Nice to see that the FBI has decided to look into it. I do wonder why they only did so after the public disclosure of these text messages.
49
"The police in Ukraine have opened a criminal investigation into whether allies of President Trump had the United States ambassador to the country under surveillance while she was stationed in Kyiv."
I guess this could be a lesson learned when trying to withhold something so vital as military aid, especially when it had been approved by Congress.
What goes around, comes around.
A heartfelt thanks to the country of Ukraine for very possibly saving this country's bacon.
45
These folks that have gained (or gamed) the executive branch of our government seem to have the idea, the ignorance, that they could do whatever they want because, well, they have all the power, including the Senate and (working on) the Judiciary. They have media. including social media. It's high ignorance and high impunity through and through. We are still seeing it by the minute. They are not running scared, not yet, from the rule of law, and rule of the people, by and for them, This is an historic moment.
18
I propose that for now on, illegal surveillance be made an offense the size that Congress has to step in.
The wire tapping by the NSA of the regular folk, the CIA spying on the president, that kind of thing needs to go away, and not only when it’s convenient for the party that lost an election.
That I could get behind.
2
Trump got the Ukraine to the announce an investigation. However, it was not the one he wanted.
36
An investigation is warranted. In his interview with Rachel Maddow, Parnas said that he did not take Hyde seriously. Parnas said that Hyde was a drunkard, who started drinking as soon as he, Hyde, woke up.
Hyde’s claim that he was playing a game is pathetic.
I hope that the good people of Connecticut will not elect this drunkard.
Hyde is the type of “only the best people” whom Trump attracts as acolytes of Trump’s personality cult.
22
If McConnell was working with the White House on Trump's defense as he claimed, did he know about the threats to Yovanovitch in the Ukraine? If McConnell, Barr and the Trump circle did, it is high time for removal. Certainly, McConnell should be censured. Oh wait, corrupt GOP Senators. Beyond sad.
20
I do like Hyde’s explanation of the texts “I was under the influence of alcohol” that’s ha ha hilarious!
8
@paco diablo
Trump doesn't have to be under the influence of alcohol to act dumb and corrupt at the same time.
5
"The police in Ukraine have opened a criminal investigation into whether allies of President Trump had the United States ambassador to the country under surveillance while she was stationed in Kyiv."
Looks as if Ukraine did the United States a favor and wasn't even asked this time.
Thank you Ukraine!!!
32
Methinks this is not the investigation announcement Trumpissimo tried to extort.
16
Now that Cohen's locked up, maybe Trump can have Giuliani give Zelensky $130,000 to get a favorable outcome.
9
That incorruptible Zelensky. You can't trust him for a minute.
7
Finally, an investigation in Ukraine!
13
The more of this squalid mess comes to light, the more it reads like the worst of the worst out of control, puerile, entitled, bully-boy frat boys on steroids. The White House being the fraternity and Republicans and made-men being the pledged members. These exploits would almost be comical if this were a movie: Beavis & Butthead meets Mean Streets ... But it isn't.
Thankfully Ambassador Yovanovitch managed to get home safely - no thanks to the current admin or her boss who were negligent at best, and ignored their duty of care in order to gratify and serve themselves.
16
I wonder how much Pelosi had to do with Ukraine opening this investigation. Maybe it was the ace up her sleeve? Check, Mr. Trump. Your move.
4
@Danny Jorge Torro
Actually: checkmate and I predict Trump- petulant child that he is- will up-end the chess board while whining "I like Tiddly Winks and Snakes and Ladders. This game is fake. It was supposed to be easy..... I got tired of losing it."
3
At this rate, we can expect Melania to be appointed the next ambassador to Ukraine. Everyone else in the administration will be declared PNG.
7
I have to hand it to Trumpists. Us Americans would actually care if some sleazeball wannabe pol and his crooked foreign buddies were following one of our important people around and mouthing threats designed to foul up her work on our behalf, but not them.
Boy oh boy, not them. They’ve gone right to the heart of the important stuff: how dare mere mortals object, and how dare Ukraine enforce its laws?
14
Irony defined
15
After watching the Parnas interview on Rachael Maddow's show (part 2 tonight) I finally realized why the Republicans are in lock-step with the criminal Trump.
If the allegations are true, then not only the president, but the vice president, the secretary of state, and the attorney general were all part of the scheme to smear Biden.
That would mean the extreme diminishment, if not the death, of the Republican Party and the possible installation of the dreaded (gasp!) Nancy Pelosi as POTUS!
22
@CW , they only have to get impeach Pence to have Nancy Pelosi as our president. But Pompeo and Barr do, indeed, need to go. They are disgraces along with that smug, holier-than-thou Pence.
11
Oh, the irony!
9
Looks like Trump finally got Ukraine to start an investigation :-)
10
Trump finally got the Ukrainians to investigate something.
Him.
10
It seems that time has come to thank the Republican Party for its unflinching support for a person like Trump. It's they who actually saved our national representative, that too as high as an Ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch, from having the same fate of that top Iranian general, Qassim Suleimani. Not sure how many more US diplomats and other national representatives, whom current ruling party boss do not like even for false reasons or for personal/political reasons, are facing the same vigilance with potential physical threat abroad with some knowledge, if not direct support, of Trump Administration!
Not sure if the Republican Senators would have any interest to hear any new or old proof (that White House effectively prevented from testifying in the Congress), to come forward in this ongoing Senate impeachment trial of President Trump.
3
Screenwriters in Hollywood could not make up a better story than this mess that is our president and his administration. If this is made into a movie I'm not sure if it will be a comedy or a tragedy. Some of both it seems.
13
@Kim Monty Python?
3
Just inked the rights to develop it as a musical.
1
@Kim
Comedy I think but then you would think a movie called Joker would be comedy.
Get a load of this comedic rant by the very stable genius of unmatched wisdom. As a comedy/tragedy it could be the sequel to Joker. Just get a load of this unhinged rant in Wisconsin only days ago:
" I’m talking about dishwashers. Wait till you hear the next one. I’m talking about refrigerators. Probably wanting to say to the union, I’ll leave it out because I want to get praise for making a ... You cannot make a brilliant speech where they say, “That was such an incredible, elegant speech,” if I’m talking about dishwashers, sinks, toilets, light bulbs. But sinks, toilets and showers, you don’t get any water. They put restrictors on and now they made them permanent. People used to take them out. They put restrictors on. Try going and buying a new faucet. You turn it on, no water comes out, right? We won’t talk about toilets, but you know that’s ... 10, 15, but we don’t talk about that. Because I’ve said this three or four times, the only subject they ever talk about is toilets, so I don’t mention ... but how about the shower? You go into a shower, and I have this beautiful head of hair, I need a lot of water. I need water. You go into the shower, right? You turn on the water, drip, drip, drip. I called the guy, “Something wrong with this?” “No, sir. It’s just the restrictor.” So you’re in there five times longer than you’re supposed to be."
Screenplay for Joker 2, anyone?
3
Way to go, President Zelensky. Your concern and actions regarding the safety of US ambassadors as well as Russian interference in your (and our) affairs is greatly appreciated.
Thanks for being an upstanding leader, and for demonstrating that you are taking Ukraine in a "law and order" direction.
You show great promise as the president of a democracy. You have already outpaced the leader of the most powerful country in the free world.
27
It’s the kind of alcohol-fueled colorful playing around the Cossacks did just before mounting up for a pogrom and everyone knows it. Mr. Hyde turning into Dr. Jekyll and claiming it was nothing, nothing at all, clinches the deal.
Note to Ukraine: reports have it you are keen to maintain good relations with the US but don’t be snookered. This might be a fool’s errand because it grows more and more likely President Trump is a creature of Putin’s, at least partly because he’s in hock to Russian oligarchs. Trump is nobody’s friend.
17
And rightly so, she needed to be watched. Thank you.
1
Beyond the eensy technocal detail that this is likely illegal and about the stupidest possible security breach, why do you say that?
By the way, this particular ambassador is about as much a liberal as John Bolton.
8
Remember that Trump said that Ambassador Yovanovitch was "going to go through some things?" Did he mean she was going to be targeted for assassination by the nefarious group following her? Pompeo must've been ok with that since he took no action to support or protect her. He's another one who should be impeached for dereliction of duty.
34
Recall that Zelemsky denied having been influenced by the withholding of aid because he could not risk angering the the president. Ukraine has no choice but to follow any corrupt scheme Trump advances.
This is not welcome news. If anyone believes that Ukraine is in a position to conduct an impartial investigation into Trump's corruption, they are out of their minds. Far more likely, Ukraine has been pressured to conduct a show investigation with the sole purpose of exonerating Trump.
7
@MarkMB Zelensky did not 'follow Trump's corrupt scheme'. Zelensky understood the dangers of getting involved with the corrupt Trump gang. He is working to clear corruption in Ukraine-clearly he is able to recognize what it looks like. He had to avoid angering Trump while not acceding to his wishes.
5
@MarkMB
I agree. There is something a bit funny about it. And if it did the opposite of exonerate him, guess who would be called a fake country, a fake president, a fake investigation? It could be a set up. Trump will do anything to avoid jail. He is in a panic visualising a cell mate with rippling muscles introducing him to other prisoners thus:
"This is Donald John. He is my Caucasian American".
2
At what point does following the law matter anymore? Sweeping lawbreaking under the rug seems to be standard practice now in America, especially among politicians and the rich and those who go to bat for them. Ordinary people can't selectively follow the law. Poor people are hawkishly policed. Because they don't know anyone with authority, they can't break the law and then get pardoned or treated with special dispensation. There are really two societies in America. The lower society is treated harshly while the upper society is allowed to behave however it wants.
8
@David Are you keeping up with the impeachment trial of Donald Trump at all?
2
@pat smith There is no need to keep up. We know the verdict already.
First of all, Ukraine was not trying to appear neutral. They were actively resisting for some time Trump people's demands to announce an investigation of the Bidens.
But, wouldn't it be poetic justice for Ukraine's investigation of Trump helped the democrat win?
13
Is this the Trojan Horse that Giuliani was setting up on his last trip during the impeachment. Has he struck a deal that once Mitch and friends exonerate Trump, there will be an announcement just in time for the election, that there was no such surveillance in order to shore up the righteous anger of Trump's base?
4
@Zoned
True. It doesn't smell right. The Trojan Horse is an apt metaphor. When Big Donny looks in the mirror he sees Brad Pitt. Maybe I am projecting because that is who I sometimes see when I look in the mirror. Other times I see George Clooney. Perhaps these delusions would qualify me to wear a MAGA hat.
1
The smell of irony is overwhelming and it smells like victory.
5
It would appear the Ukrainian 'democratic experiment' is a tad further along than some countries that have been at it longer.
15
If Trump's rampant corruption is not enough to impeach and remove him or cause him to lose re-election, then the USA now stands for nothing. It will have become a Balkanized shadow of the American Dream/fantasy.
If America's population continues to support this kind of corruption, the country has essentially ceased to exist. Left with only one tribe or another to belong to, the polarized states will eventually break apart.
One, a Midwest and Southern Theocratic Dictatorship and the other a Liberal Democracy similar to the Founding Fathers intention. Hey Canada, want to be part of something Really Great!
8
@Robert Pierce
What about Mexico? I mean it is not that there will ever be a wall there to get in the way.
1
@Robert Pierce
Interesting question Robert. Can we just have the blue areas? Also, you would need to implement our socialized medicine model...that would not be negotiable!
Sadly, I think you may be correct about the dissolution of the USA, hopefully peacefully but that seems more in doubt by the day.
2
@Robert Pierce
You'd have to join us, and on our terms, starting with 25 years' probation. We're not touching any part of the USA with a ten-foot barge pole otherwise, thanks. Not after this debacle.
1
Ironic in it's implication that a trump/Giuliani attempt to just get a statement from the Ukraine president of an investigation into the Biden affair never materializes but an investigation is now developing into whether in fact trump and allies violated Ukrainian and international laws in pursuing the removal of Ukrainian Ambassador Yovavovitch from her post. So trump and friends finally got a public announcement of an investigation from the Ukraine government. Success finally!
6
How’s this for national humiliation? Not only does Ukraine open an investigation about this before the U.S. does, but it does so before our stalwart Secretary of State even says a word about it.
27
Nice that Ukraine has opened an investigation. How about the US follow suit?
14
The president finally gets an announcement of an investigation from the Ukraine government.
13
We are in one of those tragic phases of history when lies, criminality and corruption trump (no pun intended) the truth, competence, experience, integrity and professionalism. Hopefully we can come out of it later this year with the ouster of Trump from the presidency, following by a long clean-up of government afterward. If not, then this country is indeed headed for dark times of a fascist-authoritarian bent.
9
Your missing key details about them trying to infiltrate her security protecting her. It looks like one little message instead of the string of messages.
More details are needed in the extreme in this. The fact they were entertaining an assassination of a diplomats is of the utmost importance NY Times.
7
The Ukraine government is more proactive to investigate crime in its country than the U.S. under Trump! Perhaps we have more corruption than Ukraine?
12
There's enough treasonous behavior by Trump, Barr, Pompeo, Guliani, minor league Nunes and others, to lead all of these criminal clowns to prison. Will it happen? Who knows? At this point we don't know what will remain of our country and democracy. But the actual director of this farce is Vladimir Putin. Russian money has compromised the Republican party. This will not end well.
13
The LA Times stated the alleged surveillance was by persons unknown. Not Trump allies. Although if it occurred it may be. The Russian hack of Burisima hack is another case where it is alleged, and the FBI has been called into assist. The NYTs reported the alleged hack was similar the ones that happened to the Clinton campaign of which has never been proven. The "hack" was not investigated until months after it supposedly occurred. A private company Crowd Strike was hired by the Democrats probably because of their anti Russian credentials. Wikileaks who made public the info has stated repeatedly it was a insider leak not a hack. Which many outside sources stated could not have been done as later alleged. That download of that much info is not likely because it was too large to do from an outside hack. Mueller indicted Russians in the case that was clearly not open and shut.
My concern is that Trumps base, and their trance like support
for him, will pay no attention to the details surrounding Trumps Impeachment and also any new information providing any new information about the criminal accusations against Trump and his 'crew'. Kinda like the Watergate burglary with a twist. I watched Pence for a brief moment on Lou Dobbs last night. Pence talking in his robotic manner about how Trumps impeachment is a disgusting sham based on the 'call' record
and other so called evidence. Pence predicted the American people would rise up in an electoral revolution and put Republicans in complete power in our government. Hmm
I guess he's hoping for some sort of divine intervention to help the Republicans in the upcoming election. All of Trump's 'crew' will need some help from above. Ha, I see Jay Suckalow
will be one of presidents lawyers for the senate trial. Suckalow has come along way from being Pat Robertson's legal PR boy in the fight against 'religious persecution'. Judicial Watch was a pet organization of Robertson's and Suckalow was one of their attorneys for a time. Yeah the Judicial Watch that ran the conspiracy theories about Vince Foster being murdered by the Clintons and fed the theory that Seth Rich was also murdered
by Hillary Clinton and the democratic party. There's much more. Jay Suckalow is part of that ilk and to see him anywhere
near the White House is spooky.
8
Ukraine investigates. Not the U.S. investigates. That speaks volumes.
Shameful.
13
I think Mr Hyde's remark's reveal his?? assumptions about Russian's and Ukrainians as well as how his own mind works. I have no doubt he wanted Parnas to think he was the kind of man who would have a US ambassador killed and could have it done for the right price.
5
I hope Trump is feeling a little more stressed this morning.
11
"Mr. Hyde told the Sinclair Broadcasting host Eric Bolling in a television interview on Wednesday that he was “absolutely not” monitoring Ms. Yovanovitch. He said he was under the influence of alcohol when he sent his messages to Mr. Parnas.
“It was just colorful, we were playing — I thought we were playing,” Mr. Hyde said."
His defense is that he was drunk? Just, WOW! And the GOP and their followers will simply nod their heads and accept the statement...as if it was okay even if it is true...and go about their cowardly business. I want to say that it's stunning....but nothing seems to be stunning anymore.
513
@MRose I wonder if Henry II was drunk and 'playing' when he said: "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?"
75
@MRose
That acceptance is them being tolerant. :) Well that's how I'd spin it.
10
@MRose Trump is a cancerous tumor and his ilk are metastases in this country and it affects us all one way or the other. The big question is how to get rid of this disease and what will it take to heal this country. Is there a competent "physician"with "competent assistantces" in this country who can cure this country or is it too late?
All I can say now is SOS, for this country is indeed in deep trouble.
45
It is gratifying to learn that Ukraine officials will investigate the possible surveillance of Ambassador Yovanovich, even if the allegation may be based on bravado or false information. This idea needs to be run down and either prosecuted or proved groundless. Ukraine has also requested FBI assistance to investigate the Russian cyber attack against Burisima. These actions show a high level of political and legal sophistication by Ukraine.
Too bad we can't expect the same level of political and legal sophistication by officials in the Trump administration.
14
It seems that time has come to thank our Republican party and its unflinching support for a person like Trump that our national representative, that too as high as an Ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch, did not had the same fate of that top Iranian general, Qassim Suleimani. Not sure how many more US diplomats and other national representatives, whom current ruling party boss do not like even for false reasons or for perceived political reasons, are facing the same vigilance with potential physical threat abroad with some knowledge of Trump Administration!
Not sure in Republican Senators would be much interested to hear anything, any new or old proof (that WHite House effective prevented from testifying), to come forward in this ongoing Senate trial of President Trump.
13
If it weren't so sad it would be hilarious...
But if you look back on virtually all of Trumps accusations of others, it is actually HE who is committing these offenses. Hunter Biden is a case in point. While I'm a little disappointed that Mr. Biden took a job that was obviously political "handout", it pales in comparison to the "friends and family plan" that seems to have permeated the White House.
I'm still waiting for the Republicans to put country over party and see how dangerous this man actually is.
84
@steve
Don't hold your breath.
5
I think those of us who want our nation to regain its honorable reputation in the world, who want to regain a modicum of decency and ethicality within the halls of our government, who care about the current tenuous state of our nation as a democracy under the rule of law, and who share my concern regarding our nation's standing as a moral and ethical model should write letters to my Senator, Mitch McConnell, in particular, and their own Senators, in general, demanding that the Senate's trial portion of President Trump's impeachment, including his fitness and right to continue in his position of leader of this nation, be a lawful and ethical proceeding in every sense, including the testimony of witnesses for both sides.
In addition to a letter to McConnell, I intend to write to our so-called President and request his resignation. While I am certain he lacks the honor or concern for our nation that former President Nixon had in resigning from office in order to set the nation on a road toward healing as well as the sense of shame that might serve as a catalyst to move him to action to resign, if he receives enough such letters, perhaps, he will resign in order to get us all off his back.
Trump and what is left of his administration are a malignant force in this nation that should be removed as soon as possible so we can, with any hope, heal and become united in moving forward.
47
@Gerithegreek518 In principle, I agree with you -- that we the people should contact Senator McConnell.
In practice, as one of his constituents, experience from other times when I've tried to express my views to my Senator, either his office phone line is "busy" and calls are impossible to complete, his office can't be contacted by email, and, well, you live in Louisville -- does your mail always get delivered? Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
11
@Gerithegreek518 :
Interesting. "The media is the message." If something is really important, show up in person. Going to one of their offices is interesting, even if they are not there.
I hope people who know how to do these things are currently planning protest rallies.
10
Letters written. I will soon take them to the post office.
3
Watching Cheryl Johnson deliver the articles of impeachment nearly brought me to tears. The diversity demonstrated by the group who walked from the House to the Senate would not be possible in the GOP. What the Democrats displayed in their diversity and solemnity was an act of patriotism.
54
@SNA Good Point: the Democratic Party really is the true representative of the American nation given its diversity, which makes it near impossible for Dems to march in lock step like the GOP reps do.
4
The March of the Documents was the most stupid political theatre in a long while. Monty-Python-like.
1
It is expected that the US Ambassador in Kiev would be monitored and followed - they are trained for this. But not followed by Americans, or by Ukrainians working on behalf of the US President, or his agents. It is an extraordinary occurrence that should send chills down the spines of anyone who works at the State Department. The Secretary of State should either demand a fulsome response from the White House or resign.
66
Trump and Rudy will support each other in the lie that Trump didn’t know Parnas, and that Trump had nothing to do with Yovanovitch being under surveillance. The GOP senators will believe this. They will state that Parnas is a criminal and he cannot be believed, no matter what documents are provided to the House. There are more and more names being added to the list of corruption. We are in a sorry state when a foreign country has to conduct an investigation into what has gone on because our government officials are covering it all up with their lies.
If Trump is voted out in November, this country is in being trouble.
4
@Lyndsey Hopefully you meant; “if Trump is not voted out.”
4
If McConnell wants any chance of a Pence/Haley or similar ticket to succeed, he has to move quickly on impeachment.
But I think the sad truth is that he wouldn't have the votes. So many Republican Senators are Trump sycophants now and their level of discourse is appalling, as will be on full display soon.
They would drop McConnell before Trump in a heartbeat.
So together with John G. Roberts Jr., he'll have to sit there powerlessly and listen to the poorly articulated lies and deceptions, with the difference that the former might cringe, just a little.
4
Why is Moscow issuing the press release saying Ukraine police are opening investigation into U.S. surveillance of U.S. Ambassador?
Isn't this EXACTLY the kind of provocation that would further threaten Ukraine-Trump relations? Who benefits from that?
4
@Caryl Towner Read the bottom:
"Anton Troianovski reported from Moscow, and Richard Pérez-Peña from London. Edward Wong contributed reporting from Washington."
The byline reads Moscow because that is where Mr. Troianovski is reporting from, not because that is where the press release announcing the investigation originated. The link to the press release is to a Ukrainian government web site, but seeing as I don't read or write Ukrainian, I'm relying on Mr. Troianovski's reporting.
4
@SA
How right you are! This is stunningly ironic. And the real heroes—Ambassador Yovanovitch and Speaker Pelosi—are women (of course).
The arc of the moral universe bends toward justice.
13
Clarification of a "government shutdown", mentioned by several respondents, would be extremely helpful: what would it involve, how it would be triggered and by whom, what might it accomplish, and what might its downsides be?
The important questions is, was this surveillance illegal *under US law?* If so, and if evidence of trump's knowledge of the surveillance is strong enough, there's a glimmer of hope on the horizon ...
7
Looks like Trump finally got Ukraine to open a criminal investigation....perhaps not the one he was asking for, but......
80
Looks like Ukraine is interfering in the US elections again.
2
Doesn’t the Ukraine know Trump has the right to do whatever he wants in America and on foreign soil? He is above all laws, foreign and domestic!
3
What??
1
@JQGALT
We saw it the first time, pal.
Here's something Biden can now say to Trump which even he, of the kindergarten mentality, will understand:
"I'm rubber you're glue, whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you!"
15
@Jay Orchard would that that were true...trump personifies teflon. He literally gets away with everything....this too will pass as another awful thing rears ugly head and he gets away with that as well.
1
Unfortunately he won’t be able to memorize and deliver that within a few short circuits.
So Ukraine is actually undertaking an investigation embarrassing President Trump ahead of the 2020 election? I will have a long wait until the fake-news Times and the rest of the Democrat haters admit that this is actually interference by a foreign government in the 2020 election in favor of the Democrats.
4
had you bother to read the article, you would have seen that Ukraine will be investigating the safety of an American national on Ukrainian soil. They will also be investigating the Russian hacking of a Ukrainian company. I don't see how that has anything to do with Trump except to expose his misdeeds. Trump is not the target of the investigation
37
@SHerman -- Correction: Ukraine, a sovereign country currently in negotiations with Russia over a host of thorny issues, and which needs all the cooperation it can get from the White House in 2020, is undertaking an investigation. Your springboard to a conspiracy by Ukraine has a few broken springs.
30
@SHerman the Ukrainians are starting this investigation on their own. No US person is asking them to look into this.
6
The real winner in this sordid affair will be John LeCarre.
The plot of his next novel has been laid out for him without any effort on his part. And what a great cast of sleazy characters! Yuri Letshenko, Lev Parnas, Rudy Giuliani, Richard Hyde, Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence, Bill Barr, Vladimir Putin, and Donald J. Trump.
26
@WmC John LeCarre's books were mandatory reading material for KGB trainees given how precise his predictions have been. Curiously, in an interview a couple of years ago, LeCarre predicted that Trump would be removed from office. From his lips to God's ears.
33
It won’t sell. Entirely too ludicrous a plot to be believable.
3
@WmC
P.S. Add Devin Nunes and Dimitri Firtash to the cast of sleazy characters.
5
This is a new level of harassment, but in this case Giuliani is the perpetrator for the supreme leader. Right from the playbook of Epstein. Perhaps Yavanovich needs to file a harassment ànd discrimination law suit against them all. Do it in New York. There are already pending cases. There is plenty of room in prison for everyone.
35
@Regina I was thinking a civil rights lawsuit against the President. All she will need is a preponderance of evidence to show the president's complicity in getting her canned, and even for putting her life at risk, as she was told there was a security threat against her.
4
The Ambassador should sue for protective services too.
2
Sounds plausible, even if Mr. Hyde was inebriated enough to play Dr. Jekyll to whoever would listen at the Trump hotel.
After all, if Giuliani Dirtdiggers Inc. needed some real muck on Biden, they would first need mud on Marie Yovanovitch as cover to get her out of the way because she was a strong woman standing up to crooked Giuliani. Therefore, where was she going? Who was she meeting? What was she saying to whom? Lev Parnas was predictably shifty when answering Rachel Maddow’s questions about Mr. Hyde on MSNBC.
In Ukraine, where even the shadows seem to have shadows, Giuliani would have arranged to have Ms Yovanovitch tailed through a Kiev contact and perhaps yakked about it over bloody marys within Hyde’s earshot at a bar. The tail failed to provide any useful info so Trump had her recalled from Kiev anyway.
6
So the Ukrainians are investigating but US Embassy Security is not? Oh, right, Tillerson dismantled the State Dept. But hey, the 1% can afford private security, so let’s not worry about anyone else.
30
Such irony. This all started with Trump wanting the Ukrainian president to announce a phony investigation into one of his political rivals, yet it is his people’s actions that are to be investigated by Ukrainian officials.
28
@Eric Unintended consequences is Trump's middle name.
2
"Oh, what a tangled web we weave
When first we practise to deceive!"
Ukraine announces an investigation of President Trump's minions for possible criminal violations.
Well Donnie, you got what you wanted. Sorta.
57
Oh, and from the WSJ:
Trump Hold on Aid to Ukraine Violated Law, GAO Finds
39
This is a joke. You have one of the most corrupt nations on earth, the Ukraine investigating the affairs of a country the US, run by a corrupt ego maniac demagogue like Trump (and those are some of the nicer things I can say about him) and whose countries leaders are owned and controlled by Putin, an ego maniac demagogue de facto dictator of Russia.
Gee, I wonder what they are gonna find?
8
America is becoming the laughing stock of the world.
Trump made a mistake in thinking Ukraine was so dumb they would participate in his plan without ramifications.
Marie Yovanovitch has been a servant of the United States for a long, long time. Little does Donald Trump get it that that means a lot around the world. He could never relate because he does not hold any, not one quality, that would even come close to those of Yovanovitch.
71
Well, the narrative will go as follows:
1) The Dems want to get rid of our most successful President any way they can.
2) Besides, they tried this before with the Access Hollywood tapes and it didn't work.
3) Real (American) Men get loose lips when drunk and that's not illegal! What do the wine cave-dwelling, Arugula eating coastal elites know?!
Then some weird website will repeat it, Fox will pick it up and legitimize it. CNN/MSNBC will find another excuse to bloviate for ad revenue, bots will go active on social media and everyone will move on to the next story.
Depressing.
6
@Linus 1) remains to be seen, looking doubtful now
2) should have been the end of him, but there is still so much misogyny in our country, that it didn't do him in.
3) " drunk" is a pretty weak excuse for plotting to intimidate or maybe kill a US ambassador. Would you feel differently about this if they had been plotting to kill a male US ambassador or your dear " fearless leader" ?
Your bias and sexism are so obvious here.
5
And there is ALWAYS a next story with Trump and the debris field of cronies and flunkies he attracts. It’s like the Perils of Pauline with a cliffhanger after each exciting new episode!
3
Do trump supporters have any qualms about this behavior ? It’s like a criminal enterprise with low level thugs . Every revelation brings more dirt to light and those trumpers just think it’s all ok ? Are they that desperate to get their Christian agenda through ? Well , good luck to them and this nation .
28
There is another Parnas episode tonight. More information, more documents and more republicans to be named.
Who will be in the barrel tonight?
Last night Parnas managed to implicate Pence, McCarthy, Barr, Nunes and Giuliani and their aides. There will be more names tonight-
35
It sounds like they were planning an assassination.
49
As with all the illegalities Republicans are caught doing, it was just a “joke”. Assassination of a diplomat on foreign soil is somehow supposed to be humorous?
11
Where is OUR investigation of his surveillance standing? The DoJ has had these documents for three months. It not only shows that Yovanovitch was physically and electronically surveilled, it has texts, from an American citizen, Hyde, offering to "do something about her" for a "price." Has Hyde been interviewed by the FBI? If so, do (or did) they view this as a credible threat?
Or, has a criminal investigation been opened? Was the State Department apprised of these threats, either contemporaneously (since they put her on a plane suddenly due to a purported threat against her), or after these documents were uncovered? And if so what are they doing now to investigate this?
47
@Brian Agee and how can this gangster be a candidate for congress ?
8
@Brian Agee Barr refused to investigate the Whistle Blower report. He said there was no evidence of a campaign finance violation; he didn't consider charges of extortion because a sitting president can't be indicted for a criminal offense.
Barr and the Justice Department have gone AWOL on the justice question.
6
@Brian Agee
Hyde's home and office were just raided by the FBI.
The head of the Republican party in CT has called on him to drop out of the race.
3
This must be the corruption our great and unmatched wisdom king was so concerned with, no? Oops
15
It's time to put an APB out on Pompeo.
15
How ironic...trump could soon be under criminal indictment in the Ukraine.
After trying to kick around Zelensky, it’s great to see the shoe on the other foot!
27
If you watched the Lev Parnas interview on the Rachael Maddow show last night, I think you would find he is not the buffoon Don the con would have you believe. Parnas was articulate and believable during that interview. .
73
Foreign service officers are sometime in danger - but from citizens of their own country?
29
Holy Chutzpah! WTG, Ukraine, seeking justice over Trump's lawlessness and impeachable behavior towards Zelensky. Let's hope this will signal Senate to conduct this trial impartially and thoroughly. With Witnesses.
15
Looks like surveillance of the Ambassador was just part of the "drug deal" John Bolton allegedly referred to. He needs to testify in the trial, but I'm not holding my breath.
30
Trump was doing SO good, then had to go get himself impeached. Why? Because he couldn't help himself.
1
@Moehoward According to Parnas, what Zelensky needed most was the recognition of the US administration. Trump might have plausibly withheld that, taking a “wait and see” attitude toward the new Ukrainian president. Instead, he held up Congressionally appropriated MONEY — because for Trump, everything is about money. What a stupid, cynical, venal man he is.
3
Why didn't America aka Mike Pompeo, Mark Esper, Bill Barr and Chris Wray open up an investigation of this affair regarding the American Ambassador to Ukraine?
41
@Blackmamba Why would they want all that to become more public? Their people were the ones involved. Maybe they thought it would just 'go away'? if they kept quiet? Bolton knew: the 'hand grenade' has blown up in their faces. And the Republican leadership is denying-concealing-how long can they pretend?
9
@Blackmamba I think we all know the answer to that question. Correction...Americans who THINK know why.
5
@Blackmamba They would need to recuse themselves being bit players in the affair, or is that star players and string pullers?
2
Can't wait for Hannity to tell us all how this is Obama's fault.
81
@Brett -- Mostly, it's Nancy Pelosi's fault. The common thread across all the conservative media -- from Fox, the WSJ, National Review, to Breitbart, the Daily Caller and talk radio -- is fear and loathing of Pelosi. Madam Speaker is worse than Lizzie Borden, Lucretia Borgia, and Valeria Messalina. She's all three rolled up into one.
4
@Brett Or Hillary's
3
The real danger is if the President is acquitted in the face of such damning reports and evidence, then accountability by our politicians will forever be limited.
27
@Hashim Raza: with mcconnell at the senate helm, it is unfortunately a foregone conclusion..the partisan party is already underway..kiss accountability goodbye.
3
And when our last constitutional barrier against an out-of-control executive falls before this party of power-crazed politicians, this party that can and does control both the Senate and White House despite turning out minorities of voters, and that through those two entities controls SCOTUS... indeed, what then?
We're in an era of autocrats in many countrys -- Russia, China, Turkey, China, Egypt, the Philippines, elsewhere -- successfully concentrating unchallengeable power in themselves. While this year in America we face a very real risk that our political system will fail us again, and the loser of the vote in November is re-electoralcolleged back into the White House for another term of this madness.
4
@Hashim Raza Limited? It will be non-existent, especially as the impeachment articles are the tiniest fraction of his, and the Republicans, abuses for which there has been no accountability to date. If anything, their abuses have been normalized.
1
Looks like Trump finally got Ukraine to look into corruption!
79
See, Ukraine WILL do investigations when appropriate.
17
And under what conditions? I'm too cynical to believe a government as corrupt as in Ukraine would be doing this out of a sense of being circumspect about this.
Well, it looks like Trump got his Ukrainian investigation. How did Rick Perry say it? Ooops.
24
There is more evidence that the rain came from the clouds.
But that doesn’t matter if you don’t care about getting wet.
3
Well of course Yovanovitch was being followed. If she was "going to go through some things" (Trump's words), they had to know where to find her!
14
@esox I hope Parnas has a security detail. I am honestly concerned for his safety, ditto Michael Cohen. And to think Nixon’s firing of Watergate prosecutors was known as the “Saturday Night Massacre”. Now we have a president who claims his base would not care if he shot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue.
11
I’m glad Ukraine is investigating this.
We know that Pompous and Barr will deep six any investigation here.
These are weird and scary times for the “rule of law” in these United States.
68
Oh, the irony!
Vote Blue.
No Matter Who.
96
At last Trump got Ukraine to announce an investigation.
16
So in trying to get an investigation announced into people immediately around your political rival, you get an investigation announced into people immediately around you. *slow clap*
Unfortunately, the media will largely let this pass where anything at all about Biden would have been plastered all over the front page for weeks, real or not.
Do better.
18
This just broke my irony meter
47
Well, I'll be.
18
If you want to pretense of fighting corruption, the one thing you shouldn't openly do is break the law! Once you do, you will be considered corrupt and using it for your own benefit!
12
It should give the American people great comfort to know that Ukraine can see itself clear to actually conducting a criminal investigation against Trump and his toadies while members in Trump's administration and Republican members of the Senate behave like a group of criminals paying homage to their self-serving "Boss."
Whatever we believed about the robustness of the democratic system and its virtues is being sorely tested. We can only hope that the foundations on which so many of us believed the US was built will be able to withstand this onslaught.
36
I am guessing Parnas will focus one whole segment tonight in the efforts of Mick Mulvaney.
A relatively young man, not from money, who will be totally unemployable when this is over.
11
Well, Trump got his criminal investigation in Ukraine : of his associates and his lawyer, Giuliani. You can't make this stuff up.
24
Trump and his henchmen claim the "beautiful and innocent" phone call was about rooting out corruption in Ukraine but lo and behold, it's the USA that's crooked and Ukraine being the good cop. President Donald J. Trump has tarnished this country forever.
61
And shockingly, our own Secretary of State continues his totally unacceptable and cowardly silence about this important matter involving “one of his own”! That silence, however, speaks volumes about his own potential corrupt involvement in the sordid scheme to remove Ambassador Yovanovitch.
952
The most insane part of this is that the president can replace diplomats at any time without stating a reason. There was no benefit to anyone to investigate and humiliate a diplomat with a 30 year service.
85
@John Grillo
Now, don't you go disturbing Mr. Pompeo.
He's busy waiting for The Rapture.
76
@John Grillo
Right; the word is out. If foreign countries want to stalk and threaten American diplomats Pompeo does not care. This is very dangerous
37
Mr. Hyde: “They are willing to help if we/you would like a price.”
This is sounding like the mafia. Given all the murders and mysterious deaths of various government officials, activists, and reporters in Russia and Ukraine, I’d take any threats very seriously.
23
I can just see Trump's spin on this at his next rally, "See, we're getting Ukraine to investigate..." Pathetic that his 40% will believe him.
23
It seems President Trump finally got what he wanted: the announcement of an investigation by the Ukrainian government. Sadly for him, the investigation is of his Giuliani's circus car full of clowns.
12
How ironic is that?
12
National Security....yet another reason to Vote Blue in 2020.
24
Trump's life is corruption. It's going to take a foreign government to prove it. Where are the American lawmakers? How has this man been allowed to hop, skip, and jump around prison time? Disgraceful to have other nations do what USA should have done decades ago.
47
Ah, the brave new world where everything means nothing. When Trump says something it's just locker talk or he's just joking. When Hyde said something it was just because he was drunk. Perhaps when Trump took the oath of office he just thought it was part of a reality show, not for real. And now, when we watch the Republicans take their impeachment trial oaths, we are going to see the nothing means anything phenomena on a massive scale. Heaven help our disintigrating nation.
36
The Ukrainian government and Soviet-born Lev Parnas are now becoming the champions of American democracy and the US Constitution!
Democrats, by having the guts to impeach this lawless, tyrannical, cynical, illegitimate "president" have set in motion unstoppable proceedings which will either expose the Republican Party-wide cover up of Trump's High Crimes or will end up forcing Trump out of office! It would be a first in 250 years of US history. But nobody has ever deserved to be removed from the presidency more than the illegitimate "president" who is a disgrace to America. The protection of American democracy and the US Constitution demands nothing less.
There is no other alternative.
Vote all Republicans out of office in 2020 (they're all corrupt including even Sen. Susan Collins) so that US democracy can be restored and enhanced by decent, honest and respectable people: ie. Democrats. To this also, there is absolutely no other acceptable alternative.
33
Trump: “The former ambassador [Yovanovitch] from the United States, the woman, was bad news. Well, she’s going to go through some things.”
Trump certainly put Yovanovitch through some rough things like firing, slandering & intimidation.
52
Ukraine is in an untenable situation. Any investigation will be pro forma; what teeth do they have with hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, perhaps once again, in jeopardy and maybe dangled as the carrot? Perhaps the White House will demand a CNN interview with Zelinsky himself clearing Hyde and Giuliani and all the others implicated in these cloak and dagger escapades. Oh, and that Hunter Biden is really the one at the root of it all.
3
@Adam Aid to Ukraine does not depend on the character of Donald Trump. The United States Congress has decided it is important for the national security of the US to help Ukraine in its conflicts with Russia. The EU is also helping Ukraine in many ways. (You can get the newsletter). Trump is not the 'White House'. He has at present, an official position there-which will have an 'end'. Trump can no longer have any effect on aid to Ukraine.
2
@Adam
The EU donates financial aid to Ukraine some THREE times bigger than the US. And, the largest donor of military aid is NATO, not the US.
3
Rudy Giuliani in a Ukrainian prison. That would be an image. And yet, from the reports, it would now look to be entirely warranted.
15
@Paul C. McGlasson
Do we have an extradition treaty with the Ukraine?
Maybe send Trump there too?
3
Oh man, I actually kinda love how the defense has degenerated to "I was drunk when I said that".
We're really scraping the bottom of the barrel here, guys.
59
@Dan -
Actually, something like: “I was drunk when I said that seven days in a row.”
7
Finally! The investigation Trump wanted to expose the total CORRUPTION of the Bidens & the millions of dollars...........wait I guess that's wrong. Oh, well.
5
Well, Mr. President, you got your investigation. Congratulations.
11
"Man is known by the company he keeps."
11
Parnas sees his only way out is to sing, loudly.
5
What sweet, ironic, poetic justice it would be were Trump, Guiliani and their band of not so merry men thus hoisted on their own pathetic petards. After desperately trying to cook up, as John Bolton put it, a “drug deal” of non-existent Ukranian meddling in US affairs, it turns out the real spies and meddlers were they and their Russian handlers, all the while attempting to stir up the empty pot of their conspiracy theories, Faux News and fantasies. The double irony is that it takes Ukranian authorities and law enforcement to do the job the hear-see-and-speak-no-evil Republicans refuse to do.
25
An American ambassador is being stalked by American citizens....you'd think that the USG would be taking the initiative to investigate, and that Ukraine would be taking a supporting role at most. But I guess when it comes to Republicans threatening a USG official, what happens in Ukraine stays in Ukraine.
14
So how will it take putin to shut this investigation down and eradicate it from the record?
2
Let me get this straight, the Ukrainian Government is investigating the White House in order to find out if it was surveying its own ambassador? Where is our own State and Justice Departments? Pompeo and Barr need to resign immediately.
45
@TMOH, So he could appoint even more craven people? No thanks. Our only hope for the next year is that senior civil servants have developed enough obstructiionist workarounds. And by the way I personally am more fearful of Mnuchen and Mulvaney.
2
@carol goldstein: yes, if you look closely at the people appointed by current occupant of WH...you will see they have $ $ in their eyes, so big it is all they can see, obliterates ability to see anything but $$$$$$$$$$$$$.
1
Interesting that Ukraine is investigating something our State Department does not seem to care about. I wonder why that is...
24
So basically in a ham-fisted attempt to dredge up dirt on a political opponent with a baseless accusation they managed to commit crimes themselves that are now being investigated themselves. Oh yeah. And get themselves impeached.
It can't be overstated how awful these people are. And awful at their jobs. They can't even crime correctly.
Still - it worked with Hillary so why wouldn't they try it right? I eagerly await the Times mea culpa on why they followed the Benghazi rabbit hole down to the depths they did. It will pair nicely with the Iraq mea culpa and one has to assume the next fact free Republican led "controversy" as well. Because clearly we haven't yet learned who these people are.
13
Trump is a liability to his "handlers" now, they will cut him loose in a way to cause maximum disruption to the US. I beg Trump to come clean with everything, do it today, walk to congress call in the cameras, don't call Nunes or Barr. Do something patriotic for once in your life.
4
Twenty GOP senators-- fewer than would fill two church pews, literally hold the destiny of the US in their hands. Surely Mitt Romney, Lamar Alexander and other principled individuals are talking seriously and in private to their colleagues to wake them up, before it's too late.
I realized why Trump Fatigue is a real thing. Trump years are like dog years. One Trump year is like seven normal human years. If those 20 senators would just break the spell, we would be rid of this nightmare.
19
It frightens me to think that there is probably other illegal activities undertaken by this criminal administration, some of which we may never know about. And what a hero this ambassador is. And what a terrible work environment.
18
A truly boggling story. Why on earth would the head of the executive branch need someone to surveil an ambassador to get her removed? He could remove her at any time for no reason whatsoever! In fact, he did just that a few months later!
It is no surprise that, once again, more corrupt Ukrainians are willing to assist their equally corrupt American counterparts.
This story is a truly pathetic spin on events, that attempts to demonstrate that an elephant is snake by only showing us the tail. Correspondingly, those peddling this nonsense seem to think we are blind. Disappointingly, it appears that a good many of us are.
6
@Wilbeaux Our ambassador and her colleagues in the State Dept-the honorable ones-were refusing access to Giuliani and his bunch of crooks. They got Trump to remove her in a way that tried to but failed to damage her credibility. Trump was helping Giuliani in his corrupt activities in Ukraine which must have been going on before Trump was elected.
2
Such stark contrast: this smart, experienced, steadfast, and sincere public servant, smeared and removed from her post;
and Trump and his corrupt enablers, destroying lives and our planet, flagrantly escalating their abuses of power.
The whole world is watching.
1000
@Betsy Todd
Yes indeed, the whole world is watching while this criminal syndicate in the form of the gop does whatever it pleases, and snarls at anyone impertinent enough to ask honest questions. Looking at you Joni Ernst.
Then the world can watch as they all get re-elected, again.
Voter suppression and voter machine fraud really works!
76
@Betsy Todd
Yes that is what bothers me too. A conscientious, skilled professional civil servant removed from her post because she would not participate in corruption. They wouldn't dare ask her to conduct an investigation into the Bidens. She'd know it was wrong. Trump then puts in another corrupt Republican yes man. But was she in danger? Why were they surveilling her?
63
@Betsy Todd, Meanwhile Senate Republicans behave as if nothing is happening.
44
Remember when the safety of our ambassadors and state department officials mattered so much to the GOP that they had to run investigation after investigation into what happened at Benghazi? Mike Pompeo’s turn for an eleven hour congressional hearing under oath. As long as he’s got nothing to hide he should be a-ok.
24
All we need now is for Ukraine to ask AG Barr to investigate Trump and Trump’s comeuppance will be complete. I wonder if there is anything Ukraine can threaten to withhold from the US.
12
Hyde’s texts describing the stalking like ”surveillance” of Ambassador Yovanovich was likely a creation of of Hyde’s inebriated mind. But the real crime not given sufficient consideration by the House impeachment inquiry was the recall of the Ambassador for the illicit purposes of corrupt Ukrainian political operatives, the potential business opportunities of principals of Fraud Guarantee, and Individual No. 1, alias No.1, a/k/a Donald J.Trump. The recall was an abuse of power and the impeachable crime of bribery separate and apart from the shakedown of Zelensky. It was the equivalent of the Watergate break in, except it was not a petty burglary but rather an abusive exercise of Executive power for personal advantage.
The House should have added the unwarranted, corrupt recall of Yovanovich as a separate Article of Impeachment.
3
Thank God someone is taking this seriously! Not one word from the State Department or President Trump!
15
Supposedly the most corrupt country in the world is investigating our country for corruption. Nice optics.
22
Trump and his associates keep "playing" with the facts. Pompeo has not only endangered Ms. Yovanovitch but all of te other people working abroad for the state department. Pompeo should resign.
14
Well, the President wanted Ukraine to announce an investigation. Here you go Mr. President.
10
Looks like an investigation, but not the one Rudy and the Donald wanted.
8
Watch McConnell and GOP paper over this one too, they’re wilfully blind, too far down their own rabbit hole. Of course it and the mountain of other evidence should mean Trump is convicted by the senate trial, but if the GOP senators haven’t changed course by now, this won’t likely sway them. It’s Trump world, facts don’t matter.
7
Yup ironic that Ukraine is now throwing Trump under the bus. Are we SURE that it wasn`t the US that shot the Ukraine plane down - someone was on that plane that someone wanted dead. Makes no sense that over two dozen flights took off with no interference and this one flight, with no US citizens on board.. hmmm ..
3
Another crack in the Trump Ukraine/Biden crime. The crime had been smoking and rumbling for a while now. That what seemed a mystery wrapped in an enigma, then sarcophaged in concrete at the bottom of the deepest ocean, now seems to come alive: from within. Can this be true? Will the 'police' find something officially damaging Trump? Maybe it only enables Ukraine to conceal whatever evidence can be found. Maybe the GOP asked Ukraine to execute the scorched earth tactic. In a world that finally starts to wake up, starting this Ukraine investigation against Trump crimes could also mean that Lev Parnas lid just blew the lid off the sarcophagus. And many, including Ukraine, start toclears the tables. Hello Republican Senators, until now your gambling and cowardice behaviour saved your careers from going downhill. But, today it seems that the bad guys just might lose in the very end. And Marie Yovanovitch, what she had to endure. In Ukraine and the United States. From her own government. Respect for her. For her true bravery. For her professionalism. For her courage. To stand up.
19
Looks like Trump got the investigation he wanted. Just not about the person he wanted investigated. Oops.
8
And if the US had a real attorney general, rather than Roy Cohn's revenant, we would be doing an investigation as well.
12
Under the influence of alcohol and just thought we were playing? Wow.......talk about the lamest possible excuse for the what is a serious crime if true. I think that things are about to get more interesting for a few people........
8
Manafort managed to get Viktor Yanukovych elected in Ukraine in 2010, though the aftermath was revolution and Russian invasion. Having brought American tactics to eastern Europe, Manafort now brought east European tactics to the United States. As Trump’s campaign manager, he oversaw the import of Russian-style political fiction. It was during Manafort’s tenure that Trump told a television audience that Russia would not invade Ukraine—two years after Russia had done so. It was also on Manafort’s watch that Trump publicly requested that Russia find and release Hillary Clinton’s emails. Manafort had to resign as Trump’s campaign manager after it emerged that he had been paid $12.7 million in off-the-books cash by Yanukovych. Right down to the last, Manafort showed the touch of a true Russian political technologist, not so much denying the facts as changing the subject to a spectacular fiction. On the day the story of his cash payments broke, August 14, 2016, Manafort helped Russia to spread an entirely fictional story about an attack by Muslim terrorists on a NATO base in Turkey. In 2018, Manafort was convicted of eight counts of federal crimes and plead guilty to two more, conspiracy and obstruction of justice, in a deal made with federal prosecutors.
10
Yovanovitch was, in fact, the first quid. Prosecutor Lutsenko wanted her out of the way, because she actually was fighting corruption in Ukraine. He offered trumped up dirt on Biden is she was removed. She was the purchase price. And she continued to be an obstacle to the schemes the President was running through Giulliani and Parnas. This makes Watergate look like kinder, gentler corruption.
12
While it’s good to see Trump held to some account for his actions for possibly the first time in his life, let’s not forget that Mitch McConnell is now in charge of the impeachment process. I hope that over the weekend, Senate GOP members thoughtfully consider all these events that are coming to light (at seeming breakneck pace) and do what they surely must know in their guts what is right.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Chamber, we, the people, know right from wrong; we can see inappropriate and criminal behavior when it occurs. Won’t you finally join us in demanding that the Constitution be defended? Thank you in advance.
10
How is it illegal to monitor the activities of a country's own ambassador who is working with opposition leaders when it would constitute a direct interference in the internal affairs of a country in which the ambassador is appointed to?
8
Because it wasn't official government monitoring. (Hyde is not a government official.) And sharing any info about State Department officials outside secure circles endangers them and American interests.
231
@Girish Kotwal Ukraine has laws pertaining to surveillance. The Vienna Convention and international laws have clauses pertaining to surveillance. It is totally within Ukraine's rights to investigate whether the Ambassador was being illegally surveilled on their soil.
239
@Girish Kotwal It's not legal to monitor the activities of other people. None of these people are agents of the United States government. (FYI--our ambassadors work with opposition leaders all the time to advance the interests of the United States.)
112
Pretty sad when Ukraine immediately (literally - took them ONE day) opens up a Criminal Investigation in light of U.S. Citizens hiring Ukrainians to monitor a U.S. Diplomat... at the bequest of the President and his attorney (criminally, illegal).
And in the U.S. - we can't even decide if we want to hold a trial on this or not. The constitution is truly in peril over partisan politics. These actions are black and white, not red & blue.
27
Where is the other breaking news story others are carrying?
The GAO just released its legal opinion that YES, the Office of Management and Budget (Steve Mnuchin) violated the law- the ICA ( Impoundment Control Act) by illegally withholding congressional appropriated funds to Ukraine.
It seems quite Orwellian that Trump is finally getting his Ukraine corruption investigation on the same day his administration is officially pronounced- crooked.
14
In Trump's view the purpose of gathering intelligence on Enemies is to get him reelected, so that, like Putin is doing, Trump can work on becoming president for life.
9
Trump is again tied to nefarious activities for his personal benefit, and Trump will again assert that he is the victim of his political opponents who he will dastardly accuse of being treasonous anti-Americans who should be prosecuted and jailed. It is a pattern with Trump, a man whose words are about 70% lies, mischaracterizations, or exaggerations - he is untrustworthy, and has all but destroyed the trustworthiness of the office he holds.
8
Well at least the Ukrainians are taking the charges seriously. Our Justice Department, that's another matter.
Sees like justice here in the U.S. has turned a blind eye.
11
Fighting corruption; just as we requested.
8
"Or maybe it was just bravado and fake conversation between two U.S. citizens."
Sounds like the National Police of Ukraine have already decided the results of this investigation.
@JM They are being careful with what they say and putting all options on the table given they cannot trust the current US admin. btw: That line is a Republican talking point.
Trump pushed Ukraine for an announcement of a Biden investigation, but he just received an announcement of an investigation into his own wrongdoing. Oh, the irony.
8
Just so the democrats know...everyone sees this as nothing but a political hit job. Pelosi has forever disgraced herself and her party. No matter how many things the democrats say...everyone knows this is nonsense. They can spin any tale they wish, arranging "facts" to fit their narratives, but at the end of the day this is a political hit job and thankfully it will go no where in the US Senate.
@Tom, I think the “everyone” you refer to is a much smaller group than you realize.
12
The only people who see enforcement of laws as a political hit job is Republicans, and only when it is Republicans violating the law. Says all anyone needs to know about the essential criminality and hypocrisy of Republicans.
5
@Tom : Whatever the motivation, the reported facts are either true or not. The reported and confirmed facts reveal multiple felonies.
Unless you reject the rule of law, these criminals must investigated, prosecuted, and convicted if guilty.
"Political hit job" or not, unless you have evidence that provides a different explanation for the demonstrated facts then the President (and now his cabinet) MUST be removed.
The US cannot have its government controlled by criminals -- especially if those criminals are Russian assets.
5
Zelensky is stuck having to parrot Trump's "there was no pressure!" lies for the sake of his country, because Trump still controls upcoming 2020 military aid. But he can, and is, signaling what's really been going on by refusing to cook up illegitimate investigations to smear Joe Biden for Trump, and now by what he is having investigated.
This will be a 100% warranted criminal investigation. The Trump/Guiliani/Hyde thugs were to the point of texting about what sounded like getting bids on whacking the American ambassador.
It was surely Ukrainian hirelings doing the actual spying on her, maybe Ukrainians helping monitor her phone and laptop, too. The texts sound like they were paying a Ukrainian who was working for the ambassador to spy on her and keep them apprised of her locations. And it was sounding like if they put physical muscle on the ambassador it'd be Ukrainian criminals doing that, too.
The Ukraine govt has a particularly strong interest in investigating these criminals of its own.
But like the American FBI, they're also free to file criminal charges against foreigners. And I'm sure we have an extradition treaty with them.
I would so love to see them ultimately ask us to extradite Hyde AND GUILIANI to Kiev to stand trial.
14
I certainly hope the FBI is investigating this apparent threat to a US ambassador, from both the external agents and the highest reaches of this administration and State department.
9
“Our goal is to investigate whether there were any violations of Ukrainian and international laws,” the ministry added. “Or maybe it was just bravado and fake conversation between two U.S. citizens.”
———————————————————-
I had begun allowing myself the smallest hope that the truth would finally out until I read the final sentence in the above-quoted lines. The fact that Ukraine’s Internal Affairs Ministry managed to sneak the Trumpian party line spin into their announcement of the investigation gives me little hope that said investigation will be anything more than an attempt by the Ukrainians to curry favor by ultimately “disproving” the accusations in the Parnas documents after a brief show investigation.
3
@David Salter I was taken aback by that last line too. But given the Ukrainians cannot trust this admin, or their reaction, which could well be deadly for Ukraine, they are probably playing it safe by putting all options on the table, even copying and pasting the Republican talking points!
@David Salter
I was really angry at their use of the word 'fake'.
I see more and more leaders from other countries - Netanyahu, Bolsonaro - using the term 'fake.' Before Trump, *nobody* used that word. Now it's the Word of the Day.
The Ukranians shouldn't lower themselves to using Trump's destructive and divisive terminology.
Whatever its faults, the Ukranian government has been much less corrupt than the Trump administration.
4
“'Ukraine cannot ignore such illegal activities on its territory,' Ukraine’s Internal Affairs Ministry said...."
“Our goal is to investigate whether there were any violations of Ukrainian and international laws...”
It seems Mr. Trump gets his wish for an investigation into Ukrainian corruption after all.
Sublime poetic justice.
2
Irony of ironies. Instead of the sham investigation into an optics-generated claim of Biden transgressions - which only needed to be announced, mind you - we have a real investigation into transgressions committed by Trumpsters (and undoubtedly orchestrated by Trump) that already have elements of proof in the wind.
Looks like Zelensky's new government is truly attempting to curb Ukrainian corruption. And maybe a little payback for the deep dirty arm twisting Trump et al. tried on Zelensky, which almost worked?
4
Just what does it take to remove these criminals from power?
Have we sunk so low that a foreign police investigation will do what our own currupt Department of Justice flatly refuses to do under its corrupt Attorney General -- himself implicated in this criminal conspiracy?
After all this whining and bleating about our much-vaunted system of checks and balances, what DO we do about compelling evidence of a criminal conspiracy that includes not only the President, but also the Vice President, the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Energy, and more?
What DO we do about what seems to be not only a credible criminal conspiracy, but a credible criminal conspiracy organized by and reporting to a hostile government -- RUSSIA.
What on earth has happened to the GOP and "conservative" party that allegedly opposed communism and the Soviet Union for generations?
Why is the direct connection from Mr. Parnas to Vladimir Putin not front-page news?
We KNOW that Dmitri Firtash was made wealthy by Mr. Putin in order to advance Mr. Putin's interests. We KNOW that Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Parnas, and Mr. Frumin are beomg funded by Mr. Firtash -- almost certainly with dirty Russian money.
Will ANY American media, including the New York Times, ever talk about what is actually happening here?
13
@BrooklineTom It remains to be seen if Speaker Pelosi will allow Chair Schiff to conduct hearings on the Firtash / Putin/Giuliani/ Trump quadrangle; I'm concerned that this is too embarrassing for the country to know about, so she might want to limit the Impeachment issue to safer topics like a simple "shakedown" of Ukraine and contempt charges.
1
So Trump wants Ukraine to announce they’re investigating Biden, but instead they announce they’re investigating Trump.
3
A few thoughts:
* Glad to hear that the Ukraine is looking into this.
* Sorry to hear that the Ukraine beat the US in leading this investigation. Why isn’t Secretary Pompeo out defending the safety of US ambassadors?
* The FBI should be paying a visit to Mr. Hyde. Besides his disgusting tweet about Senator Harris and his eviction from the Trump Doral, the Hartford Courant reported that, last summer, police removed firearms and more than 800 rounds of ammunition from his home after a protective order.
If you haven’t contacted your Senators yet about conducting a fair impeachment trial, please do so.
6
Ukraine is not doing the investigation trump wanted. Thank you Ukraine for standing up to the corruption in the US. The only problem is that trump has learned nothing from the impeachment or the blocked policies he has tried to use to ruin America. trump has said he will continue on & do as he pleases & will walk all over the laws of the land & The Constitution of the United States. He still thinks he is a king or dictator who can ignore everything & everyone who does not agree with him. Come on America do what is right & patriotic & vote this man out before he pulls a Putin on us & decides he will rule for life.
3
So now it is kidding under the influence of alcohol. That is the usual excuse for an underage person and on page one of the playbook. Oops, I forgot. This administration is sophomoric in its approach to foreign policy let alone its frequent display of pubescent cruelty to those who oppose their policies or even voice a reasonable concern.
6
Taking bets on how long it is before Trump does something illegal to punish Ukraine for opening up an investigation...
11
Looks like Trump finally got the Ukrainians to launch an investigation. Just not the one he wanted them to.
2
Delicious. Finally, an investigation by Ukraine. Only this time the tables are turned and the Trumpies are the object.
Maybe the chickens do come home to roost, after all.
4
Good.
Now, actually turn up some evidence. There’s got to be loads of it - at least as much as the arrogance of Trump-Giuliani.
3
Kudos to Trump and Giuliani! They’ve finally managed to get an investigation by Ukraine into the activities of American citizens within Ukraine.
If only they understood the word irony.
1243
@Dunn Arceneaux
This was the MOST PERFECT and appropriate comment! Made me laugh out loud.
101
@Dunn Arceneaux
Exactly my thought. Trump wanted an investigation that would benefit him, now it is the opposite. Talk about backfiring.
50
@Dunn Arceneaux
Best comment ever.
37
Whoever thought Irony could be so ironic. This is at the post-doc level.
10
“They are willing to help if we/you would like a price,” said a message from Mr. Hyde.
How were they willing to “help?” Do they paint houses? And this guy is a Republican running for something? Or is he running from something?
26
It's still shocking to consider just how much brazen law-breaking is taking place at the highest levels of government. It's also shocking that the president's party simply does not care. And I imagine, as was the case when Obama first took office, all of this law-breaking will be swept under the rug if a Dem wins the White House in November - in the name of "looking forward and not backwards" or some such nonsense. We've truly crossed a rubicon; I'm not sure if most Americans get the implications of this.
12
In all the shenanigans taking place surrounding Ukraine and involving Giuliani, this could be a clear indication not only of criminal activity in which Ms Yovanovich was a victim, but it shows extraordinary lengths to which these men went to interfere in her ability to do her job. It should not only be a crime under Ukrainian law, but also US law. Of course, the Trump toady-in-chief, William Barr, would never prosecute.
Someone should also tell Mr. Hyde that being drunk is not a legal defense.
20
Well I guess a meeting with President Trump in the near or not too distant future is out of the question. Can Trump get our money back?
Hoe much evidence will be revealed before the Senate decides they must allow witnesses to testify? Is it already enough? Or will they refuse to allow witnesses no matter what?
7
The contents of Parnas' phone show that our ambassador was under close surveillance by operatives led by a US House Representative, Robert Hyde. Hyde reported to Parnas “They are willing to help if we/you would like a price,” and said anything can be done for money in Ukraine. That sounds like they would assassinate our ambassador for a price!
So, Trump and Pompeo have denounced this strongly and started an investigation, right? NO, crickets! Why? They are probably afraid of unearthing more evidence of their mob-like activities to undermine Biden. And, they know it would create more pressure to actually have witnesses and documents in the impeachment trial of Trump.
Apparently, Pelosi will have to continue standing up for democracy and anti-corruption
13
Hyde and Nunes are in the wrong line of work. They clearly want to become spymasters. Maybe the CIA is hiring.
3
The CIA tries not to hire incompetents.
2
Mr. Trump and the cast of characters that have surrounded his Administration are worthy of a whole season of The Twilight Zone..
3
Just when I think nothing could surprise me - I keep getting proved wrong!
2
If we are being asked to believe that Peter and Lisa’s vague pillowtalk texts constitute a real conspiracy to rig the election, than surely we must take these texts,which contain specific threatening information,extremely seriously. They cannot be laughed off as a drunken joke. An investigation is warranted and needed. I want to hear from all of these people under oath.
10
So Trump is getting an investigation after all, just not the one he wanted.
7
Trump demanded Ukraine investigate the Bidens, which they ended up not doing, despite enormous pressure from the administration to do so. Now, Ukraine is investigating the surrogates of Donald Trump himself. Is there not some divine justice in this?
9
@DMN
"Trump demanded Ukraine investigate the Bidens"
Small correction - he wanted Zelensky to "announce an investigation." Trump only wanted to smear Biden - he couldn't care less what the facts actually were.
1
here we go!
it seems that the Suleimani interlude, that cost so many people their lives, may not do the trick, afterall.
5
The nature of the exchanges in the text messages between Parnas and Hyde should alarm everyone: I’ve become too cynical to think this could be what tips the scales, but let’s wait and see...
12
We have the SDNY, a naturalized Ukrainian immigrant and his attorney, and the Ukrainian government to thank for draining the swamp. You know it's getting bad in the United States when a foreign government takes the security of our diplomats more seriously than our own government. Just another in a long list of reasons why we need to reclaim our government from all Republicans.
109
Ukraine may have a reputation of being corrupt but compared to Trump's US Administration Ukraine's new government is is a paragon good government and honesty.
And our U.S. Senate is only making it worse if it fails to investigate and call witnesses. This has become a traitorous scandal far more dangerous to the security and future of nation than Watergate ever was.
9
The procession of Democrats headed for the Senate is emblematic of a flawless ability the Democratic Party now has to appear impotent bordering on ridiculous. The last time the mice roared was when party members clad themselves in white during the State of the Union address. These are not manifestations of a powerful political party nor are they anything resembling efforts to reestablish the party as a force to be respected let alone feared. If the nation is to go back to a true two-party system such that voters do not always have an eye out for a suitable alternative to what both parties have to offer, Democrats and Republicans alike will at least have to make an effort.
Funny, but to those of us not hopelessly floundering in the steady stream of Republican propaganda, the Democrats are looking not only powerful after their successful impeachment of Trump, but likely to take the Presidency and Senate in November after Senate Republicans violate their oaths of office by acquitting the career criminal in the White House. The revelation of a likely attempt by Trump associates to plot the assassination of loyal American ambassador only adds to the mountain of evidence of the dishonorable nature of Republicans and their political elites.
9
This is the perfect backfire. Instead of instigating an investigation of political enemies, it looks like the investigators themselves will be investigated!
3
I don't believe the Giuliani gang was investigating anything. They were engineering dirty tricks.
8
My heart goes out to Ambassador Yonanovitch. She was a dedicated public servant fighting corruption and the subject of, not merely a smear campaign, but a concerning surveillance with sinister overtones - and all by the US administration.
That Mike Pompeo might have known (much less under Trump's directive) makes this all the more disturbing. What kind of government has taken over? We have religious zealots running our government who believe the ends justify the means and that end could have resulted in harm to a US Ambassador getting in their way.
This is anti-American. We don't assassinate foreign leaders - even if they are bad. We certainly don't surveill and threaten the safety of our dedicated foreign service.
How can Republicans continue to protect this dangerous despot is beyond me. He is so anti-American ideals, anti-constitution and anti-democracy. They have really sold their souls.
Please Senate Republicans, for once search your souls, do what is right and break ranks with McConnell. Join the side of right and truth and justice.
17
@Bear Lass
There's gotta be a massive lawsuit in her future.
3
@Bear Lass
Actually, I was hoping Yovanovitch would have Pompeo's job or UN slot in her future.
2
Another crack in the Trump Ukraine/Biden crime. That what seemed a mystery wrapped in an enigma, then sarcophaged in concrete at the bottom of the deepest ocean, now seems to come alive: from within. Is it true? Will the 'police' find something officially damaging Trump? Maybe it only enables Ukraine to conceal whatever can be found. Maybe the GOP asked Ukraine to execute the scorched earth tactic. In a world that finally starts to wake up against the Trump atrocities, starting this Ukraine investigation against Trump crimes could also mean that the lid is of the sarcophagus. And everyone, including Ukraine, clears the table and starts to gamble the bad guys just might lose in the very end. And Marie Yovanovitch, what you must have endured. Respect.
7
Is there ANY aspect of the Trump Administration that is not criminal and/or Mob-like?
That is not a rhetorical question.
87
This is sweet justice. Kudos to President Zelensky and the wheels of justice in Ukraine for doing the right thing!
4
This is now shaping up to make Richard Nixon look like a choir boy.
I don’t think our institutions of government and the press have ever been tested so severely as they are about to be over the coming weeks. For the sake of the nation and the world, I hope they hold up as The Framers intended.
18
I doubt this is the investigation Trump wanted them to announce.
96
Two more people who should testify, but who probably won't be called upon. I suppose I can see the Republican point of view: if you aren't going to listen to the testimony and have already decided without seeing any evidence that Trump is innocent, why waste time going through the motions?
175
@Mr. Adams Gotta "totally exonerate" Trump before the State of the Union address on Feb. 4. Trump needs his victory lap.
17
@Mr. Adams
Please give the Republican senators a chance to either support the U.S, Constitution or violate it. This impeachment trial needs to be documented before future generations call it "fake news."
40
@Mr. Adams - Except they know that Trump is guilty. They just want to quickly put an end to these pesky Democrats' efforts to expose the truth about the deep level of corruption in the Republican party and the Trump Administration.
53
Ukraine’s recent election had the population voting for the anti-corruption candidate. He’s been doing his best to clean up their government. What does it say about the American government that Ukraine is now investigating illegal actions by non-government Americans? Where is our investigation of these illegal acts? Certainly does smack of corruption on the part of the trump administration.
457
@Lmb : Trump supporters love his policies.
4
@Lmb The new Ukrainian president was under fire from the voters for having provided coverage to Trump. It's good to see that he's found a way to prove he is not Trump's poodle.
21
@Lmb I suppose this means that Rudy Giuliani may become subject to the investigation by Ukraine; supposedly, though I haven't seen any paper work to confirm this, Rudy is being investigated by SDNY.
He may be under investigation by two countries, all at the same time! What an accomplishment for such a storied figure: "the nation's mayor," and the great crime fighting prosecutor who had the courtesy to drop a money laundering investigation into Trump back in the 80's.
21
I wonder what Ukrainian law surveilling Marie Yovanovitch violates. Under U.S. laws, iy would be illegal for federal, state or local police to conduct surveillance operations without a warrant, but it would not be illegal for private citizens to keep persons under surveillance. If it were, many reporters and paparazzi would be behind bars.
1
You miss the point sir. These were foreign agents—Trump’s people—doing the surveillance. Where in American law is it legal for, say, a Russian to put an international diplomat under surveillance? Surely charges of espionage would be in order.
16
@William Case
That may be, but there are also international conventions regarding the treatment of diplomats. The short answer is, regardless of who is doing the snooping, it's a Bobo-No-No.
2
@Paul C. McGlasson
Giuliani is nor foreign agent. Besides, it was probably Ukrainians working for the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office doing the monitoring. They might be illegal under Ukrainian law.
Frustrating to see another country doing what our country should be doing.
57
@Alan Klement Trump should have asked the CIA to investigate Biden or the American Ambassador. The problem is I don't think he trusted the CIA. I also don't see where the CIA would have better sources in Ukraine than Ukraine itself.
1
@Tom. The Bidens actually were investigated and exonerated.
2
@Tom
Investigate the Ambassador? FOR WHAT?
But your guess is correct - Trump doesn't trust the CIA. He thinks it's the 'deep state' and out to get him. In other words, he's a paranoid, delusional idiot.
1
Republicans are complicit if they ignore this new information. At what point will they say enough is enough? I suspect the time is near.
37
Well, Trump finally got Ukraine to investigate something, him! He may very well be the first president to be impeached twice. But really, are Republicans going to continue their stonewalling in the Senate with all the new information we've attained in the past few weeks? Lev Parnas gave some scathing interviews yesterday. There are also text messages. The Ukrainians are investigating Trump. Has the "everyone is lying except Trump" defense finally run out of gas?
50
Thank you Ukraine.
106
Release of the Parnas information was either fortuitous or a masterful stroke on the part of Democrats. They dumped a steaming load of garbage at the foot of McConnell at the moment when he was about to deny a trial. If he continues to deny a trial, Trump will be acquitted but the stink will coat every Republican in the Senate.
133
For all the carping about Speaker Pelosi dragging her feet on the Impeachment Articles, it looks more and more like she was bidding her time.
Maybe, just maybe, she knows what she is doing after all!
As Mark Twain might say, ‘it’s amazing how much she learned in just a few weeks’.
16
@Dave It is way beyond the cunning of Democrats to collude / coordinate with Parnas to get him to time the release of what he knows with the delivery of the Articles of Impeachment. (He was indicted by federal authorities, after all).
Parnas obviously has a modicum of self-preservation, or can do simple political / judicial calculus.
To the extent Parnas offers anything that will stick and hold the president to account is pure luck; just like the Whistle Blower was a lucky break for the Democrats.
There isn't any political genius being employed by Speaker Pelosi, except that she was savvy enough to know that Trump, in all likelihood, would step in it again, which he did when he conducted the shakedown of Zelensky, and terminated Yovanovich.
Real political genius would show up as a full investigation of the Mueller Report, Part A.
2
Given the seriousness of the accusations that include the possibility that one of Trump's associates was surveilling an American ambassador (and suggesting the possibility of an assassination), I think it's time for all of us to seriously consider demanding that Democrats shutdown government. Given the near certainty we're about to witness a sham trial in the Senate (irrespective of evidence), and the real possibilities that the Republicans are again conspiring with the Russians to steal the 2020 elections, I suggest it's time to stop acting as if our normal democratic processes are going to be sufficient to remove this criminal president and his co-conspirators in the Republican party. I understand that a shutdown would create enormous pain for many, but sometimes when the threat is so great, drastic actions are required.
56
@Richard Wilson How would a shut down help? Just throw those criminals in jail who refuse to obey their subpoenas. Fine them daily. There are tools yet unused.
13
@Richard Wilson Good Point! However, you are suggesting the House majority, as a "co-equal" branch of government, may have the authority to declare a "state of emergency," which may be the best language to use when discussing all the corrupt acts of our President.
The impeachment inquiry has gone way beyond a simple "constitutional crisis..." We are now in a full blown 'state of siege' and the country doesn't really know it.
On top of a corrupt Senate leader planning an acquittal, or dismissal, of the case against the President, we now have an indication of the president's "people" plotting against the Ambassador.
2
Just wait for Trump and the Republicans to turn this into a deep state conspiracy.
It will be good to see them try and talk their way out of this one.
22
@Bronx Jon
They're already doing it.
Have you seen some of the comments on this board?
1
It all comes to light right now, and proof once again why we should not doubt the utter wisdom and experience of Speaker Pelosi. When we look toward this present White House, its Cabinet, and its Republican Senate we need be grateful that there is not only one leader still standing strong but also one who has a moral compass, a characteristic in short supply in DC. This is growing to be not unlike a Scorsese or Tarantino movie. Fact does indeed imitate fiction. But the question remains: Will any of this make a difference in the warped minds and hearts of McConnell’s band of bandits?
457
@Kathy Lollock I fear not. McConnell will turn out to be a major player in all of this. The Fusion GPS testimony stated there were several Republicans in congress who were taking funds from the NRA which was being funneled to them by the Russians. So far, only Pete Sessions has been identified but more info will break on this. I just hope not too late. Will McConnell be one of them? Hmm? We'll see.
37
@Kathy Lollock it won't make a difference because when the dust is long settled you'll see that there have been many hands greased with illicit profits. It's self centered greed by many of these people. The Constitution doesn't even come to their mind unless it's how to bend it to breaking point. This is why all this matters not if we don't make gains in the Senate in 2020.
24
@Kathy Lollock
Of course not. Otherwise it would stop looking like a Scorcesse or Tarantino movie.
9
Wear it as a badge of honor Ms. Yovanovitch. I'm sorry you have had to go through all of this, but I appreciate you for your behavior while in service and since then.
154
I fear I don't quite understand what Hyde was trying to do with Parnas - was he actually assisting, or attempting to assist, in setting up a hit on the US ambassador to Ukraine? If not, was there a physical threat of violence, like the ambassadar suspected she was potentially up against? Shouldn't Hyde be arrested and barred from running for office?
431
@JM
Yes, and remember that the Ambassador was about to host a reception and instead was told to get on a plane to the US immediately.
It would seem reasonable to let her go to the reception and return to the US in a day or two.
I wondered when I heard that she was told to get back to the US immediately whether someone was aware of an immediate threat to her life, perhaps at the reception.
89
@JM
We must view Hyde's comments within the context of what Trump bragged during his campaign:
"I could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, and I wouldn't lose any of my supporters."
That should scare every citizen of our country.
61
@JM What a great campaign slogan: “Hyde—He didn’t threaten anyone. He was drunk at the time.”
56
Someone should tell Donald to be careful of what you wish for. As St. Theresa of Avila is thought to have said, there are more tears shed over answered prayers than unanswered prayers. That trip down the escalator in Trump Tower may not have been such a magic carpet ride after all. Perhaps it was the beginning of the end.
Impeachment is forever.
127
Thank you, Speaker Pelosi. Your patience in proceeding with the impeachment, and in delivering the articles to the Senate, virtually guaranteed that the smell of the Trump Corruption-Fest would, over time, become overwhelming. And it’s still rotting, on full display for the entire world to see. And this American family is so proud of the Ukrainians as well. They recognized America criminals as soon as they came through the door, and resisted. Welcome to NATO!
841
@Michael C she delivered the FIRST EVER partisan impeachment. That will FOREVER be her legacy. Period. Hope it was worth it.
Also, i'm a republican trump supporter and honestly wish we could all get past rhetoric like "smell of the Trump Corruption-Fest". Such a shame to our republic. I have no ill content towards democrats...i'm just not sure the same can be said about the other side.
@FosterXP
Your argument is specious on it's face. Trump has exhibited corrupt behavior since the day he took office. Just because you choose not to acknowledge it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
There was nothing "partisan" about the House investigation and ensuing impeachment. The partisanship is wholly on the side of corrupt Republicans who choose to ignore the clear threats to our Democracy!
I am grateful to both Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats for taking the threats from Trump and his associates to our Constitution and rule of Law seriously. You should be too.
185
@Michael C I actually think these events suggest that Pelosi should have shown more patience. It's clear that more and more incriminating information is out there to be uncovered. The dems made a tactical call in rushing through the investigation, not challenging in court the stonewalling of the administration. I'm not sure it was the right one, as it give the republicans cover to ignore any new evidence. If the House had delayed the impeachment vote pending the outcome of challenges to subpoenas, all of this new info would be on the record. Schiff made a reasonable defense of the rush by saying time was of the essence and the President's corruption was ongoing, but he could have played the same card in February or March.
18
Well, this shows the law of unintended consequences in action.
Sorry, not sorry, Mr. President, that this didn’t turn out as you had planned.
82
Mr Parnas’s claims that a Ukrainian oligarch under,US indictment, funded foreign interference first by harassing a US ambassador, the Ukrainian President, Burisma and Joe Biden to ensure Trump remains president and Barr drops the indictment.
This case ties so many of our highest ranking elected officials including McCarthy, Nunes and Pence.
Dear Democrats: Run against the corruption and grift- it’s the lawlessness of this presidency and the unwillingness of republicans to protect our constitution and institutions.
268
@Deirdre
Don’t forget Barr!
18
@Deirdre, Hate to have to break this to you but most voters care much less about process in government including corruption and grift than they do about issues directly affecting their pocketbooks and their health. They also respond much better to positive messages. Speaker Pelosi does know these things. That is why she was so reluctant to start the impeachment process. Democrats need to run primarily on messages of how they will make constituents' lives better. I am not saying do not mention Trump's myriad failings but his abject moral failure is not a winning campaign theme as much as we would wish otherwise.
3
I suspect Hyde was interviewing to be the next Nunes. It’s like a fraternity hazing with trump.
1
With the current US administration, one has to wonder if the results of this investigation will influence military aid.
35
This gets uglier by the minute. I watched Parnas' interviews from last evening and if what he says is true, they (Trump, Pence, Mulvaney, Guiliani Pompeo, et al) were all in on this.
Their actions not only subverted US foreign policy put also deliberately put on of our citizens, Amb. Yovanovitch in grave danger.
Thank heavens Speaker Pelosi waited to transmit the articles of impeachment. Obviously, there are things going on behind the scenes that we're not privy to. They must have known this new development was about to be exposed.
Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their party, whether Democrat or Republican. This simply cannot stand.
235
@Louis Smith Party? No. Country? Yes.
10
@Louis Smith
and Barr!
15
The big story is the Parnas confession interview to be continued tonight that verifies what the witnesses and documents confirmed in the House hearings, which is Trump is guilty. What does the press need at this point? A signed confession from DT? There is zero evidence disputing the mountain of evidence and testimony against Trump. He's guilty.
196
@kay As are Pence, Barr, Nunes, Pompeo, Guilliani, etc., etc.
8
@kay The real question is what do GOP senators need to remove Trump and what do the the Liar in Chief's supporters need to acknowledge his utter corruption and treason?
2
@kay
I agree, but almost as much time was spent by the CNN reporters last night on the Warren/Sanders dispute as anything about Parnas. Based on that admittedly small sample, my guess is that the press is likely to continue to focus on the female versus maIe issues in the debate. That takes less work than actually closely examing the questions about the Parnas revelations.
1
It appears that the administration is quickly losing control of the messaging. The opening of a criminal investigation by Ukraine of the Parnas communication rather than of Biden is of huge import.
McConnell is suddenly faced with something he feared, more incriminating information which takes off outside of his control. This sudden outpouring of documents may be the tipping point for many Republicans who needed cover to finally and bravely agree to witnesses in a trial.
McConnell should also consider this:
"Federal prosecutors described the material seized from Parnas and his three co-defendants to be "voluminous" including at least 29 electronic devices."
The documents released so far are only a portion of a Trump impeachment trove.
500
@GerardM
The entire GOP has considered no one other than Trump for three years, no matter how bad it looked for them or Trump. They've pretended the problems either don't exist or, worse, that the problems aren't actually what they are.
They've thrown in their lot with Trump. Their donors like not paying taxes, among other things.
117
The boat could capsize and it still wouldn't be the tipping point for Republicans based upon their actions the past 3-11 years.
41
To force guns, capitalism, Christianity on everyone and the planet, among other things.
17
Irony continues to be defined on a daily basis by the activities of Donald Trump. A person who claims to want to drain the swamp in Washington has inspired or allowed more corruption than anyone else in recent Presidential history. A person who claims he tells it like it is has more recorded lies than anyone else in Presidential history, recent or not. And a person who claimed to be investigating corruption in the Ukraine, is in fact having his allies investigated for...wait for it...corruption in the Ukraine.
Will irony be undercut by committed patriots - both Democrats and Republicans - in the Senate throwing off the shackles of Trumpism and doing their duty to the Constitution, the law, and the people of the United States? Another chance to stand up for the truth has been handed to the Senate.
593
@P. Quinn republicans will not stand against trump until he affects their own individual careers & elections. Why are they so afraid of him? Does he have his own J. Edgar Hoover gathering sludge on the republicans in Congress, Justice Dept., Treasury? Questions need answers.
33
@P. Quinn
Yes but Moscow Mitch is terrified of having a meeting in the old Senate Room, where the ghosts of real men still walk the floor.
My guess is that all the blather about 'originalism' and textualism' and professed love of the founding fathers would wither when the gop cult has to stand in that room and then commit perjury when they pretend to swear an oath.
11
@P. Quinn
"Will irony be undercut by committed patriots - both Democrats and Republicans - in the Senate..."
Surely you jest. There is not one committed Republican patriot in the Senate.
14
If this is an honest and complete investigation, and if it finds that the ambassador was under surveillance by Trump operatives, it will be a devastating response to Trump's alleged attempts at bribery and his misuse of his powers as President.
Imagine that American democracy is saved by Ukraine. Now that would be poetic justice.
You can't mess with Ukraine.
888
@SA
My respect for Ukraine increases as I learn more about its history and goals.
73
@SA
Except that the group of Americans that solidly support Trump don't care about these things.
23
@SA
I am not convinced that it is an honest investigation. Imagine the pressure Zelensky is facing to announce an investigation and then declare that it was all a joke on Hyde's part (I don't like the fact that this is specified as a possibility in the announcement).
9
Who would have thought unintended consequences could be so complicated.
361
@DWS Amen!!!
3