Simultenious impeachment process with underlying constitutional issues surrounding pivotal legal breaches , while some polls suggesting extreme popularity.
A dramatic reversal splinters Trump’s impeachment defense
Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN
Updated 8:12 AM EST, Wed November 06, 2019
Washington(CNN)President Donald Trump’s impeachment defense is being stripped away plank by plank by some of the administration officials caught up in his scheme to pressure Ukraine for political favors.
A dramatic reversal by Republican donor turned diplomat Gordon Sondland, who now says that a quid pro quo was needed from Kiev to free up military aid, rocked Washington Tuesday and undercut GOP strategy.
In testimony released by impeachmentinvestigators, the US ambassador to the European Union also testified that he assumed it would be “illegal” for Trump’s fixer and personal attorney Rudy Giuliani to push Ukraine to investigate the President’s political opponents.
Sondland’s adjusted testimony did much to dismantle the President’s core and repeated defense: that he did not hold up aid to Kiev to force it to open a probe into Joe Biden and that any suggestion to the contrary is simply the “crazed” delusion of “Never Trumpers.”
Key diplomat changes testimony and admits quid pro quo with Ukraine
But his deposition was still punctuated by admissions that he could not remember what happened or did not know the motivations of key players – signs of a potential attempt to protect the President.
Yet given the ossified political partisanship in the Congress, there were also signs that no disclosures, however damaging to the President, are likely to turn a party in thrall to his faithful political base against him and lead it to contemplate ejecting him from office.
Still, Sondland was not the only senior diplomatic figure to contradict the President’s version of events on the second day of releases that threaten to turn into slow moving political torture for the White House.
The former US envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, threatened another pillar of Trump’s defense – that the July 25 call with the Ukrainian President that Trump has said was “perfect” was in fact a “surprise” and “extremely unfortunate.”
Tuesday’s developments were a critical twist in an investigation that is on the cusp of a new and public phase that could further imperil the President and his 2020 election plans.
The disclosures appeared to significantly weaken the White House case that there was no quid pro quo with Ukraine and therefore no abuse of presidential power worthy of impeachment.
Democrats immediately seized on Tuesday’s events to argue that a devastating hole had been blown in Trump’s defense.
“This is a very grave development for both Ambassador Sondland and frankly for President Trump and his Republican defenders,” Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
“The entire defense by President Trump and his Republican acolytes in Congress that there was no quid pro quo has now collapsed.”
A growing list of witnesses, including the top diplomat in Ukraine William Taylor and National Security Council aide Tim Morrison, have testified that Ukraine opening political probes was linked to $400 million in aid and a potential meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Further damaging revelations are possible in the coming days as Democrats preside over the release of testimony taken behind closed doors as they prepare for public impeachment hearings.
The evidence from Sondland and Volker was far from the only damaging development over the last few days for Trump and his loyal troops on Capitol Hill.
Hundreds of pages of transcripts show that GOP lawmakers and counsel spent hours cross-examining witnesses in days of hearings, despite claims they were shut out of the process – another pillar of the GOP objections to impeachment.
Growing evidence, meanwhile, of a shadow foreign policy scheme masterminded by Giuliani and stretching over months undermines Trump’s focus on two events – the call with Zelensky and a whistleblower report – as the only significant data points in the scandal.
At one point, Sondland deepened the political plight of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who appears to have been aware of the Giuliani scheme but did nothing to stop it: "Pompeo rolled his eyes and said: ‘Yes, it’s something we have to deal with.’ "
The White House responded to Tuesday’s events in characteristic fashion, with press secretary Stephanie Grisham ignoring the existence of newly disclosed facts.
“No amount of salacious media-biased headlines, which are clearly designed to influence the narrative, change the fact that the President has done nothing wrong,” she said.
But Grisham also seized on Volker’s statement that he was not aware of the existence of a quid pro quo and belief that the new Kiev government did not know aid was held up. She also pointed out that Sondland did not directly tie Trump personally to the demand for a quid pro quo.
“Both transcripts released today show there is even less evidence for this illegitimate impeachment sham than previously thought,” she said in a statement.
Grisham’s commentary was undermined by Sondland’s new testimony itself since he now says he told a Zelensky aide that the security assistance an announcement of a public investigation were in fact linked.
McConnell stands firm
McConnell advised Trump to stop attacking Senate Republicans
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, said on CNN’s “The Situation Room” that Sondland’s profile made his revised testimony even more significant and damaging to the President.
“This is not some anonymous whistleblower. This cannot be argued to be some action by a deep state opponent of President Trump,” Coons said. “Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the EU, was a major Republican donor and a supporter of President Trump.”
Tuesday’s disclosures seemed to wound Trump in the fact-based environment of an impeachment probe, but his political future is playing out in front of diverse audiences. While Democrats see further proof of guilt, Republican lawmakers seem likely to simply fall back on a new set of arguments.
They can make the somewhat implausible case that since Sondland did not implicate the President in the quid pro quo, he could have been acting on his own initiative or the orders of someone else.
They can try to repurpose the argument that a quid pro quo is not illegal and a fact of foreign policy – a point made last month by White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney that was quickly withdrawn.
Or they can reach a last resort position that Trump’s conduct may not be acceptable but is not impeachable – however much that might anger a President who insists he did nothing wrong.
Whatever they say, Tuesday’s developments, while changing the legal and logical context of the impeachment inquiry are unlikely to shift the locked in political dynamics imposed by America’s tribal partisan environment.
“I’m pretty sure how it’s likely to end. If it were today, I don’t think there’s any question it would not lead to removal,” GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday, speaking about the prospects for an impeachment trial in the Republican-led Senate.
That doesn’t mean Republicans aren’t sweating. A source close to the White House who speaks to Trump regularly offered a grim assessment to CNN’s Jim Acosta of the aftermath of Tuesday night’s races in Virginia and Kentucky, where Democrats made solid gains.
“Totally bad. Kentucky and Virginia signal to GOP they are underestimating voter intensity against Trump, and it could be terrible for them next year,” the source said.
“Bad omen for impeachment,” the source added.
But the wider politics of impeachment are still tough to call. No revelations, however damning, are likely to shake Trump’s hold on his political base glued together by his claim, last made in Kentucky Monday night, that the Democratic tactics are the “crazed” actions of a party seeking to overturn an election.
And new polls show that in the swing states that will decide whether he wins a second term, public opinion is closely divided on whether he should be impeached and removed from office.
But Sondland’s testimony offered a preview of how damaging testimony by witnesses close to the President could undermine his narrative on Ukraine and wrongdoing. That could have the potential to reshape wider public opinion among more moderate voters Trump also needs a year from now.
© 2019 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
While,-
POLITICO
Poll: Majority expect Trump to win in 2020
The president’s reelection prospects appear to be a motivating factor for potential voter turnout.
With less than a year to go before the 2020 election, a majority of registered voters say they think it’s at least somewhat likely that President Donald Trump will secure a second term in the White House, a new poll has found, with more than two-fifths of voters saying the president will be top of mind when casting their vote next November.
According to a POLITICO/Morning Consult survey released on Wednesday, 56 percent of voters expect the president to be reelected next year, including 85 percent of Republicans and 51 percent of independents. By comparison, more than a third of Democrats (35 percent) say the same.
The poll found that voter enthusiasm for the election remains high, even one year out.
More than eight in 10 voters say they are motivated to turn out and vote in 2020, with 69 percent saying they are “very motivated.” Majorities of voters across the political spectrum say they are “very motivated” to vote in the presidential election. That enthusiasm is driven by Democrats and Republicans — roughly three-quarters of voters in each party describe themselves as especially energized.
And that enthusiasm would seem to translate into voting prospects — 92 percent of respondents say they are likely to turn out and vote in the election next year, including 96 percent of Democrats and Republicans and 86 percent of independents.
“President Trump’s reelection prospects seem to be energizing voter enthusiasm across the political spectrum,” said Tyler Sinclair, Morning Consult’s vice president. “Our data points show that Republicans and Democrats are equally inclined to say they are motivated and likely to vote in next year’s election.”
Indeed, about four in 10 voters say they will be thinking “a lot” about Trump while casting their ballot for president next year, including 68 percent of Republicans.
But Democrats and Republicans both have different potentially motivating sentiments about the election — voters are more likely to say they are hopeful about the presidential election (21 percent), followed by worried (18 percent.)
Democrats were most likely to say they are hopeful (26 percent) and worried (24 percent) about the election, while Republicans were most likely to say they are hopeful (19 percent) and confident (17 percent) about the election.
The POLITICO/Morning Consult poll was conducted Nov. 1-3 online among a national sample of 1,983 registered voters. Results from the full survey have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
Morning Consult is a nonpartisan media and technology company that provides data-driven research and insights on politics, policy and business strategy.
© 2019 POLITICO LLC
The significance of this exemplifies how the intenational vacuums of contraindicating lack resulting from the phantom ideological dialectic has effected internal politics, and viva versa.
The loss of meaningful substance in international relations, due to abrupt policy changes, as caused a n equally substantial constitutional demolition Dolby which such issues can be verified and substantiated.
That procedural shift, is appearent in the charge by Republicans of improper procedural clarity, and a disregard of accentuating the legal-rules of law within which the checks and balances between the parts of government can proceed.
The ultimate question may resound within perimeters of compatibility of democratic principles and the internationalization of capital methods of autonomous to authoritarian controlled ways of interpreting the intentional bridge between the construction and the erosion that is manifest in the will of society.
If arguments can reduce the appearent executive violations to politically justified ways and means, then, there may be forthcoming signs, that present social processes have wirm out heretofore conflicting results between viewing the evolving parallel between the authorities control of the ancien regime, and the new, capital based one.
If Trump wins in 2020, the new capital aristocracy will validate the idea, that a thousand years old conventional political structure will have always been an underlying element in life.
Viewing the myth of the nature of democracy, tangentially shifted alongside, and Das Capital was a mere play within a larger theater -within extreme validation of structural basis of the major caveat, the relationship between pure and material dialectics.
The almost mythical inception of it, in the very ancient classical source, belittles it"s modern counterpart.
Lot of events this week:
Trump impeachment inquiry: public hearings to begin next week, Schiff announces – live
House intelligence chair announces Bill Taylor and George Kent to testify on Wednesday and Marie Yovanovitch to appear next Friday – follow liv
Wed 6 Nov 2019 12.53 EST
Key events
Rep Ayanna Pressley endorses Warren
Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley has broken with The Squad… to endorse Elizabeth Warren for president.
Pressley’s close House allies Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have all endorsed Bernie Sanders, but Pressley announced she would back Warren in a Twitter video this afternoon.
Big structural change can’t wait. pic.twitter.com/8Sanof9COD
— Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) November 6, 2019
Pressley, like Warren, represents Massachusetts, and is now set to join Warren on the campaign trail on Thursday.
“You’ve all heard about the senator’s plans but here’s the thing: The plans are about power, who has it, who refuses to let it go, and who deserves more of it. For Elizabeth and for me power belongs in the hands of the people,” Pressley said.
“That’s why she’s fighting for fundamental change that restores power to those who’ve been left behind, and centers those who’ve never had access to it in the first place.”
Updated at 12:53 EST
12:38 EST
Reuters is reporting that a meeting between Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping to sign an interim trade deal could be delayed until December “as discussions continue over terms and venue.”
US stock markets have hit record highs on suggestions that a trade deal is imminent, something Trump has been boasting about this week. They are now slipping back into the red.
Updated at 12:38 EST
12:17 EST
Donald Trump will travel to New York City next week, to kick off the city’s Veterans Day Parade.
According to the White House, Trump will offer a tribute to veterans at the opening ceremony of Monday’s 100th annual parade.
Trump has been roundly booed in larger cities recently – see the Washington Nationals-Houston Astros game – and he is far from popular in NYC.
The president might see the Veterans Day ceremony as safer territory. But who knows.
According to the White House, Trump will offer remarks then lay a wreath at the Eternal Light memorial in Madison Square Park.
Donald Trump, left.Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Updated at 12:21 EST
11:57 EST
Roger Stone trial begins in DC
The trial of Roger Stone, a longtime advisor to Donald Trump, began this morning in Washington DC – a trial resulting from charges in Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
Stone has pleaded not guilty to charges of obstructing justice and witness tampering. He is also accused of lying to the US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee about the Trump campaign’s efforts to obtain emails hacked by Russia, which were published by the Wikileaks website.
The Guardian’s David Smith – @SmithInAmerica – will be reporting and tweeting from court throughout the day.
At US District Court for DC. Roger Stone, sitting at desk, fiddles with glasses and papers. Judge Amy Berman Jackson: The jury will be sworn in and given instructions. Then we will move to opening statements.
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) November 6, 2019
Jackson: “The defendant has pleaded not guilty to all the charges contained in the indictment. He is presumed innocent.”
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) November 6, 2019
Updated at 11:57 EST
11:42 EST
The open hearings that Adam Schiff will be closely watched and could be incredibly revealing.
Bill Taylor’s behind-closed-doors testimony was particularly damning. Taylor testified that Trump explicitly put pressure on Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to investigate former vice-president Joe Biden.
Taylor became the US’s top diplomat in Ukraine after Marie Yovanovitch was removed. The Guardian’s Luke Harding and Julian Borger reported that Taylor found in Ukraine:
It was clear that Trump wanted Zelenskiy to “investigate” two things. One was the conspiracy theory that Ukrainecolluded with Hillary Clinton in 2016 to help her win the presidential election. The other was Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company where Hunter Biden – son of Joe Biden – had served on the board. The allegation, subsequently found to be untrue, was that Joe Biden had put pressure on the previous government of Petro Poroshenko to fire the prosecutor investigating Burisma, in order to help his son. Taylor said Giuliani was behind the “irregular policy channel” and that Trump would only meet with Zelenskiy if the Ukrainian president carried out these investigations. There was an explicit quid pro quo, Taylor suggested.
Bill Taylor leaves Capitol Hill on October 22 after testifying before house committees.Photograph: Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images
Updated at 11:42 EST
11:26 EST
Public impeachment hearings will begin next week
Open impeachment hearings will begin on Wednesday November 13, Adam Schiff has announced. Bill Taylor, the US’s top diplomat in Ukraine, and George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of state, will testify first.
Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch is due to appear on Friday November 15.
Next week, the House Intelligence Committee will hold its first open hearings as part of the impeachment inquiry.
On Wednesday, November 13, 2019, we will hear from William Taylor and George Kent.
On Friday, November 15, 2019, we will hear from Marie Yovanovitch.
More to come.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) November 6, 2019
Updated at 11:31 EST
11:21 EST
It seems flipping off Donald Trump is quite a successful campaign strategy: the woman who lost her job after famously giving Donald Trump’s motorcade the middle finger in 2017 won a local government seat in Virginia last night.
Woman who gave Trump the finger elected in Virginia
Updated at 11:21 EST
10:56 EST
Virginia Democrats are “promising swift action” on a host of liberal policy proposals after sweeping the state’s legislature, according to AP.
Democrats took control of the state House and Senate – they already had Ralph Northam in place as governor – on Tuesday night, and will now push through gun restrictions and raise the minimum wage. From AP:
Northam said at a cabinet meeting Wednesday morning that he’s going to push for the same gun safety laws he proposed at a special session earlier this year called in response to a mass shooting in Virginia Beach.
[Democrats] have also promised to approve the Equal Rights Amendment, making Virginia the final state needed for possible passage of the gender equality measure.
The Virginia State Capitol, where swift action is due to take place. Photograph: Jay Paul/Reuters
Updated at 10:56 EST
10:26 EST
Tulsi Gabbard has repeatedly said she won’t run as a third party candidate if (when) she fails to win the Democratic nomination. That hasn’t failed to stop chatter about her potentially going rogue, however… chatter that Democrats appear keen to shut down:
NEW — DNC Chair Tom Perez said Tulsi confirmed to the DNC last week that she wouldn’t run as a third party candidate.
— Sam Stein (@samstein) November 6, 2019
The speculation about Gabbard running as a third party candidate is fueled in part by her unconventional fanbase, described by the New York Timesas “an unconventional mix of anti-interventionist progressives, libertarians, contrarian culture-war skeptics, white nationalists and conspiracy theorists”.
But Gabbard could also be becoming disillusioned with aspects the Democratic party. Gabbard recently claimed that Hillary Clinton said she was being “groomed by the Russian government”. Clinton didn’t actually say that, but it riled up Gabbard nonetheless.
Updated at 10:30 EST
10:12 EST
Trump’s EU envoy ‘fabricated’ parts of testimony - lawyer
Yesterday Gordon Sondland changed his impeachment inquiry testimony to confirm that the US president offered Ukraine a quid pro quo to investigate a political rival.
Now, it seems there are other aspects of Sondland’s original testimony that might not have been entirely correct.
Fiona Hill’s lawyer saying that the conversation Gordon claimed to have had with her over coffee - when she was supposedly shaking with anger at Trump - never happened https://t.co/cAg168rQZP
— Julian Borger (@julianborger) November 6, 2019
Updated at 10:12 EST
09:58 EST
The Democratic presidential candidates are out in force today… Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris and Andrew Yang are in New Hampshire, Joe Biden is in Washington, DC, and Tom Steyer is doing something in Wisconsin.
Here’s Klobuchar getting herself on the ballot in New Hampshire yesterday:
.@amyklobuchar is now officially on the ballot in New Hampshire pic.twitter.com/VSlZyhFefS
— Trent Spiner (@TrentSpiner) November 6, 2019
(And here is Tulsi Gabbard doing exactly the same thing yesterday.)
Updated at 09:57 EST
09:30 EST
Trump distances self from Kentucky GOP loss
Donald Trump, true to form, is insisting that the devastating Republican loss in the Kentucky governor’s election had nothing to do with him.
Early this morning Trump claimed Matt Bevin, the Republican incumbent in Kentucky, “picked up at least 15 points in last days” due to Trump’s appearance at a rally with Bevin. The polls suggest otherwise, however.
According to a survey by Trafalgar Group, Bevin was actually five points ahead at the beginning of November – before Trump’s rally. Make of that what you will. (And don’t forget thatTrump himself saidon Monday that defeat for Bevin: “sends a really bad message”.)
Meanwhile Trump, a man who famously managed to lose $1bn in less than 10 years, has also been tweeting out some financial advice.
Stock Markets (all three) hit another ALL TIME & HISTORIC HIGH yesterday! You are sooo lucky to have me as your President (just kidding!). Spend your money well!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2019
Updated at 10:14 EST
09:20 EST
David Hale is presumably being sworn in right about now. According to the AP report, Hale will tell Adam Schiff et al more about the circumstances behind Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch being hung out to dryafter she was targeted by Giuliani and other Trump allies.
In her own testimony, released on Monday, Yovanovitch revealed her “shock” upon learning that Rudy Giuliani was running a shadow foreign policythat involved attacks on her reputation. When she reached out to the State Department to ask for some defense against smears against her, none was forthcoming.
Hale will apparently say that Pompeo worried defending Yovanovitch could lead to further delays in releasing military aid to Ukraine – andthat the State Department “worried about the reaction from Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, also one of the strongest advocates for removing the ambassador”.
Updated at 09:20 EST
Good morning! And welcome to live coverage of the day’s political news.
•The State Department’s third-ranking official will tell Congress today that political considerations were behind the agency’s refusal to defend former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. According to Associated Press, David Hale will testify that Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, decided that defending Yovanovitch would hamper efforts to free up US military funding to Ukraine.
•Hale’s behind-closed-doors appearance on Capitol Hill comes as more testimony could be released in the impeachment inquiry: potentially that of Fiona Hill, Trump’s former top Russia advisor.
•Meanwhile, Mike Pompeo, who is increasingly getting drawn into all this, is in Germany at a to meet with leaders on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. With him on the plane: State Department Counselor T. Ulrich Brechbuhl, who was subpoenaed to give testimony today. So it looks like that won’t happen.
•This all comes against a backdrop of a strong Tuesday night for Democrats, of course. The party won control of Virginia for the first time in a generation after turning the state legislature blue yesterday, while the Democratic candidate for governor of Kentucky also claimed victory.
•Trump will be hoping to combat those losses when he holds a campaign rally in Louisiana tonight with Eddie Rispone, the Republican running in the state’s upcoming governor’s election.
© 2019 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
Public hearings:
BBC News
Trump impeachment hearings to go public next week
06 November 2019
Congressional Democrats have announced the first public hearings next week in an inquiry that may seek to remove President Donald Trump from office.
Three state department officials will testify first. So far lawmakers from three key House committees have heard from witnesses behind closed doors.
The impeachment inquiry centres on claims that Mr Trump withheld aid to Ukraine to prod it to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden.
Mr Trump denies any abuse of power
House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, who is overseeing the inquiry, told reporters on Wednesday that an impeachment case was building against the president.
He said: “We are getting an increasing appreciation for just what took place during the course of the last year - and the degree to which the president enlisted whole departments of government in the illicit aim to get Ukraine to dig up dirt on a political opponent.”
The Capitol Hill hearings will now be broadcast live, with both Democratic and Republican lawmakers questioning witnesses.
The first public witness will be Bill Taylor, acting US ambassador to Ukraine, who delivered some of the most explosive private testimony last month.
On Wednesday - a week ahead of his scheduled public hearing - House Democrats released a transcript of his evidence.
It shows Mr Taylor told lawmakers it was his “clear understanding” that the president had withheld nearly $400m (£310m) in US military aid because he wanted Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.
Mr Trump has been making discredited corruption claims about former US vice-president Mr Biden, whose son, Hunter Biden, worked for a Ukrainian gas company.
Joe Biden is a Democratic front-runner for the presidential election a year from now.
Also scheduled to testify publicly next Wednesday is career state department official George Kent.
Mr Kent reportedly told lawmakers that department officials had been sidelined as the White House put political appointees in charge of Ukraine policy.
He testified that he had been warned to “lay low” by a superior after expressing concern about Mr Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who was lobbying Ukraine to investigate the Bidens. Mr Giuliani has denied wrongdoing.
Former US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who was recalled in May after falling from favour with the White House, is due to testify on Friday next week.
She told the hearing last month that she had felt threatened by Mr Trump’s remark to Ukraine’s president that was “going to go through some things”.
House Democrats formally launched the impeachment inquiry after an intelligence official filed a whistleblower complaint in September.
The whistleblower raised the alarm about a 25 July phone call in which Mr Trump asked Ukraine’s president to investigate the Bidens.
Quick facts on impeachment
Impeachment is the first part - the charges - of a two-stage political process by which Congress can remove a president from office.
If, following the hearings, the House of Representatives votes to pass articles of impeachment, the Senate is forced to hold a trial.
A Senate vote requires a two-thirds majority to convict and remove the president - unlikely in this case, given that Mr Trump’s party controls the chamber.
Only two US presidents in history - Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson - have been impeached, but neither was convicted.
President Richard Nixon resigned before he could be impeached.
Copyright © 2019 BBC.
Barr demurred:
Democracy Dies in Darkness
National Security
Trump wanted Barr to hold news conference saying the president broke no laws in call with Ukrainian leader
Attorney General William P. Barr, left, and President Trump before Trump signed an executive order on Oct. 28 creating a commission to study law enforcement and justice at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Convention. (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)
Attorney General William P. Barr, left, and President Trump before Trump signed an executive order on Oct. 28 creating a commission to study law enforcement and justice at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Convention. (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)
By Matt Zapotosky, Josh Dawsey and Carol D. Leonnig
November 6, 2019 at 8:02 PM EST
President Trump wanted Attorney General William P. Barr to hold a news conference declaring that the commander in chief had broken no laws during a phone call in which he pressed his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate a political rival, though Barr ultimately declined to do so, people familiar with the matter said.
The request from Trump traveled from the president to other White House officials and eventually to the Justice Department. The president has mentioned Barr’s demurral to associates in recent weeks, saying he wished Barr would have held the news conference, Trump advisers say.
In recent weeks, the Justice Department has sought some distance from the White House, particularly on matters relating to the burgeoning controversy over Trump’s dealings on Ukraine and the impeachment inquiry they sparked.
People close to the administration say Barr and Trump remain on good terms. A senior administration official said Trump praised the attorney general publicly and privately Wednesday, and deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley said in a statement: “The President has nothing but respect for AG Barr and greatly appreciates the work he’s done on behalf of the country — and no amount of shady sources with clear intent to divide, smear, and slander will change that.”
But those close to the administration also concede that the department has made several recent maneuvers putting it at odds with the White House at a particularly precarious time for the president. Like others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the politically fraught situation.
The request for the news conference came sometime around Sept. 25, when the administration released a rough transcript of the president’s July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The document showed that Trump urged Zelensky to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter — while dangling a possible White House visit for the foreign leader.
Trump offered Ukrainian president Justice Dept. help in an investigation of Biden, memo shows
By then, a whistleblower complaint about the call had moved congressional Democrats to launch the impeachment inquiry, and the administration was on the defensive. As the rough transcript was released, a Justice Department spokeswoman said officials had evaluated it and the whistleblower complaint to see whether campaign finance laws had been broken, determined that none had been and decided “no further action was warranted.”
It was not immediately clear why Barr would not go beyond that statement with a televised assertion that the president broke no laws, nor was it clear how forcefully the president’s desire was communicated. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment. A senior administration official said, “The DOJ did in fact release a statement about the call, and the claim that it resulted in tension because it wasn’t a news conference is completely false.”
From the moment the administration released the rough transcript, Barr made clear that whatever the president was up to, he was not a party to it.
Though the rough transcript shows Trump offering Zelensky the services of his attorney general to aid investigations of Biden and his son, a Barr spokeswoman said that Barr and Trump had never discussed that.
“The President has not spoken with the Attorney General about having Ukraine investigate anything relating to former vice president Biden or his son,” spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement released at the same time as the rough transcript. “The President has not asked the Attorney General to contact Ukraine — on this or any other matter. The Attorney General has not communicated with Ukraine — on this or any other subject.”
It would not be the last time the Justice Department would have to distance itself from the White House on a matter relevant to the impeachment inquiry. After acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said at a televised briefing last month that Ukraine’s cooperation in the investigations Trump wanted was tied to hundreds of millions of dollars of aid that the United States had withheld from Kyiv, a Justice Department official quickly made clear to reporters that the department did not endorse that position.
“If the White House was withholding aid in regards to the cooperation of any investigation at the Department of Justice, that is news to us,” the official said.
The department — and Barr in particular — has similarly sought separation from Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer who was leading the effort to investigate the Bidens.
In addition to asserting that Barr and Trump had never discussed investigating the Bidens, Kupec said in her statement that the attorney general had not “discussed this matter, or anything relating to Ukraine, with Rudy Giuliani.” Barr’s allies had previously confided to reporters that the attorney general was unhappy with Giuliani, particularly over his going outside of normal channels to pursue investigations of interest to the president.
Last month, after the department arrested two Giuliani associates who had worked on investigating the Bidens’ activities in Ukraine, the New York Times reported that Giuliani had participated in a meeting about a separate case with Brian A. Benczkowski, the head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, and lawyers in the department’s fraud section.
Two business associates of Trump’s personal attorney Giuliani have been arrested on campaign finance charges
The day after that report, the department issued an unusual statement saying those in the meeting were unaware of the case that led to charges against Giuliani’s associates for alleged campaign finance violations. Giuliani also is being investigated as a part of the case, though he has said he has not been told of that.
“When Mr. Benczkowski and fraud section lawyers met with Mr. Giuliani, they were not aware of any investigation of Mr. Giuliani’s associates in the Southern District of New York and would not have met with him had they known,” Peter Carr, a department spokesman, told the Times.
People close to Barr assert that while Barr is a strong believer in the power of the presidency, he has always recognized there might be times when he has to preserve the Justice Department’s independence.
“My take is that Barr hasn’t changed one bit, that he has had a healthy distance from the beginning,” one person close to the administration said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe Barr’s relationship with Trump. “He knows the parameters of the relationship between a president and an AG.”
Trump had a famously dysfunctional relationship with his first Senate-confirmed attorney general, Jeff Sessions. The president blamed Sessions for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into whether his campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the 2016 election because — in the president’s view — Sessions’s recusal from that case allowed for Mueller’s appointment and everything that followed. Mueller, though, was appointed by the deputy attorney general at the time, Rod J. Rosenstein, weeks after Sessions recused himself.
Trump publicly and privately attacked Sessions for virtually Sessions’s entire tenure in the top law enforcement job and toyed constantly with firing him. He finally did so after the 2018 midterm elections and nominated Barr as his permanent replacement. His resentment lingers to this day, as Sessions is expected to announce a run for his old Senate seat.
Though Barr was a relative outsider to Trumpworld when the president picked him as attorney general, he quickly won the president’s affection. In announcing Mueller’s principal conclusions — before Mueller’s final report had been issued — Barr declared that the special counsel had found insufficient evidence to allege coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. And while Mueller had not reached a determination on whether the president had obstructed justice, Barr said he had reviewed the case himself and determined Trump had not.
Barr’s descriptions so agitated Mueller that the special counsel sent a letter to the attorney general complaining that Barr “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance” of the special counsel’s work. Barr ultimately would release Mueller’s final report — which painted a far more damning picture for Trump — but even as he did so, he held a news conference and endorsed one of the president’s famed talking points.
“As he said from the beginning,” Barr declared, referring to Trump, “there was, in fact, no collusion.”
Detractors have criticized the attorney general as eroding the Justice Department’s independence, though Trump has generally been pleased. Most recently, allies say he has been heartened as Barr has sought to investigate those involved in the Russia case, tapping U.S. Attorney John Durham to lead an inquiry into the origins of the Mueller investigation and whether the U.S. government’s “intelligence collection activities” related to the Trump campaign were “lawful and appropriate.”
Barr’s review of Russia investigation wins Trump’s favor. Those facing scrutiny suspect he’s chasing conspiracy theories.
On Ukraine, though, the White House and Justice Department have been somewhat out of sync.
Some time after The Washington Post began reporting on the nature of the whistleblower’s complaint about Trump’s phone call, the Justice Department pushed to release the rough transcript. Leaders there believed — perhaps misguidedly — that doing so could quell the budding controversy, because in his conversation with Zelensky, Trump did not explicitly push for a quid pro quo tying U.S. aid for Ukraine to the politically beneficial investigations he sought. The White House was initially resistant.
The Justice Department had not always been on the side of full transparency, blocking transmission of the whistleblower complaint to Congress after its Office of Legal Counsel determined it was not appropriate to do so— even though the intelligence community inspector general felt the law required it to be handed over. Unbeknown to the public, the department weighed whether to investigate a potential campaign finance crime, though ultimately concluded there was not sufficient basis to do so after an inquiry limited essentially to reviewing the rough transcript of the Trump-Zelensky call.
Though Barr did not hold a news conference clearing Trump of any wrongdoing, the Justice Department did issue its statement saying it would not investigate the matter — at least for campaign finance violations. While that was a partial win for Trump, it has allowed Congress to expedite its impeachment inquiry without fear of impeding law enforcement — and make public unflattering testimony about the president and his allies’ dealings in Ukraine.
Tom Hamburger contributed to this report.
Impeachment: What you need to read
Updated November 6, 2019
Here’s what you need to know to understand the impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
How we got here: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the beginning of an official impeachment inquiry against President Trump on Sept. 24, 2019. Here’s what has happened since then.
What’s happening now: Lawmakers are conducting an inquiry, which could lead to impeachment. An impeachment would mean the U.S. House thinks the president is no longer fit to serve and should be removed from office.
© 1996-2019 The Washington Post
Whistle blower: intel problem:
IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY
Intel officials want CIA Director Gina Haspel to protect Ukraine whistleblower from Trump
As Trump allies denounce the whistleblower, pressure is building on CIA Director Gina Haspel to take a stand, say current and ex intelligence officials.
CIA Director Gina Haspel at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on May 9, 2018.Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg via Getty Images file
Nov. 6, 2019, 4:42 PM EST
By Ken Dilanian
WASHINGTON — As President Donald Trump and his allies continue to denounce the CIA whistleblower whose complaint led to an impeachment investigation, pressure is building on the spy agency’s director, Gina Haspel, to take a stand on the matter, current and former intelligence officials tell NBC News.
“It will be incumbent on her to protect the whistleblower — and by extension, the organization — moving forward,” Marc Polymeropoulos, a recently retired CIA officer who oversaw operations in Europe and Russia, said in an interview. “This is a seminal moment for her leadership, and I’m confident she will do the right thing.”
So far, Haspel has been publicly silent as Trump has railed about the whistleblower, a CIA analyst, on Twitter. So has the director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire.
On Wednesday, during Ukraine testimony, the lawyer for Republicans on the House Oversight Committee asked former Ambassador Bill Taylor about an individual who has been identified by some right-wing news organizations as the whistleblower. The president’s son Donald Trump Jr. had already tweeted out the same name.
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Trump Jr.'s tweet came after Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Monday he would probably disclose the whistleblower’s name, and he urged the news media to do so. Also Monday, the president tweeted: “There is no Whistleblower. There is someone with an agenda against Donald Trump.”
Andrew Bakaj, the whistleblower’s lead lawyer, has said that disclosure of his client’s name would deter future whistleblowers and he has threatened legal action against anyone who reveals the name. In a statement Wednesday, the whistleblower’s lawyers said “identifying any suspected name … will place that individual and their family at risk of serious harm.”
The inspector general for the intelligence community, Michael Atkinson, found the whistleblower’s complaint about Trump’s alleged pressure campaign on Ukraine to be credible. The description of events in the complaint, which has been public for weeks, has largely been confirmed by the transcript of Trump’s July phone call with the Ukrainian president and by the publicly available testimony of other witnesses in recent weeks.
Atkinson found that the whistleblower had an arguable political bias, but that it didn’t undermine the credibility of his account.
Former CIA Director John Brennan, a Trump critic and NBC News contributor, said intelligence leaders should be pushing back both publicly and privately against what amounts to a campaign to punish the whistleblower.
“Since the affiliation of the whistleblower is unacknowledged, it is up to the Acting DNI Joe McGuire to take a firm public and private stance against any effort to expose the whistleblower,” Brennan told NBC News. “Other leaders of the Intelligence Community should privately oppose any attempt to name the whistleblower. Senator Paul’s appalling call for the naming of the whistleblower by the media should be denounced in the strongest terms possible; a statement signed by the heads of all the intelligence agencies would be most appropriate.”
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Another former senior CIA official, who asked not to be named, added, “I think you would have to tell the president we cannot unveil this person — it will create a very bad feeling in the building that will not be good for national security or you personally, Mr. President.”
U.S. intelligence officials say they have taken unspecified steps to assure the whistleblower’s personal safety, but they have not said whether Haspel or Maguire have urged Trump behind the scenes to stop encouraging efforts to out him.
The law governing intelligence community whistleblowers makes it illegal for the inspector general or others who handled the complaint to reveal his name, but that provision is not binding on others who learn the name outside that formal channel, experts say.
CIA personnel in particular are watching Haspel closely, since the whistleblower is one of their own. That has long been clear, since he first complained to the CIA’s general counsel before putting his concerns in writing to the inspector general.
Current and former intelligence officials say Haspel is widely liked and respected within the spy agency, even as she has managed to maintain a cordial relationship with a president who repeatedly has denounced the intelligence community.
Asked why Maguire has not spoken out publicly in response to efforts by Trump and his allies to denounced the whistleblower, a spokeswoman for the acting DNI pointed to his comments when he testified to Congress in September.
“I am committed to ensuring that all whistleblower complaints are handled appropriately and to protecting the rights of whistleblowers,” Maguire said. “In this case, the complainant raised a matter with the Intelligence Community Inspector General. The Inspector General is properly protecting the complainant’s identity, and we will not permit that complainant to be subject to any retaliation or adverse consequences for communicating the complaint to the IG.”
A CIA spokesman said Haspel would have no comment.
“I agree with people who say it’s defining moment and I’m confident she’ll do the right thing,” said Kevin Carroll, a former CIA and Army officer. “She absolutely has a responsibility to stand up for her office.”
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Some former officers have said that Haspel should resign if Trump names the whistleblower. In 1998, then-CIA Director George Tenet threatened to quit when President Bill Clinton was considering pardoning an Israeli spy, Jonathan Pollard. Clinton backed down.
“Threatening to resign or resigning would be a normal thing for a leader to do in these circumstances,” said Larry Pfeiffer, a former senior CIA manager, who noted that he was not saying the whistleblower was a CIA officer. “But in this administration, we seem to see people making the calculation that they can do more to support and help the situation by not resigning.”
Some former senior agency leaders told NBC News the risks to the country would be too great if Haspel were to step down and Trump were to appoint a partisan figure to lead the CIA.
“If Trump names the whistleblower, all intelligence community leaders should publicly condemn his blatant disregard of the law and the rights of Intelligence community officials,” Brennan said. “They each would need to determine whether their resignation — if Trump didn’t fire them first — would be in the best interests of their agency and national security.”
Ken Dilanian reported from Washington, and Robert Windrem reported from New York.
Ken Dilanian
Ken Dilanian is a correspondent covering intelligence and national security for the NBC News Investigative Unit.
Robert Windrem contributed.
Mow unto Lousiana: damage control
Trump races to avoid a second electoral debacle in Louisiana
The president is itching to take out the state’s Democratic governor.
Eddie Rispone has received the full support of President Donald Trump, including tweets lavishing praise on the Louisiana Republican gubernatorial candidate and rally appearances. | Gerald Herbert/AP Photo
By ALEX ISENSTADT
11/06/2019 08:14 PM EST
Donald Trump couldn’t save Matt Bevin in Kentucky. Now, the pressure is on the president to avoid a second black eye in Louisiana next week.
Trump is thrusting himself into the state’s gubernatorial contest: He held a Wednesday evening rally for Republican candidate Eddie Rispone, who is trying to unseat Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, and will make another visit two days before the Nov. 16 election. The president is also expected to record get-out-the-vote videos and robocalls, and on Wednesday morning he calledinto a popular Louisiana morning radio show to talk about the race.