It might have been something he said privately to a foreign leader in a room. The whistleblower was obviously in a privileged position to hear it.
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Trump's Card
Collapse
X
-
This is the WaPo story she was riffing off of.
The whistleblower complaint that has triggered a tense showdown between the U.S. intelligence community and Congress involves President Trump’s communications with a foreign leader, according to two former U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
Trump’s interaction with the foreign leader included a “promise” that was regarded as so troubling that it prompted an official in the U.S. intelligence community to file a formal whistleblower complaint with the inspector general for the intelligence community, said the former officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
It was not immediately clear which foreign leader Trump was speaking with or what he pledged to deliver, but his direct involvement in the matter has not been previously disclosed. It raises new questions about the president’s handling of sensitive information and may further strain his relationship with U.S. spy agencies. One former official said the communication was a phone call.
Comment
-
Originally posted by ursus arctos View PostAs to who "the foreign leader" was, as the article notes, during the relevant time period, the president interacted with Putin, Kim, Imran Khan, the Emir of Qatar and the PM of the Netherlands.
Comment
-
There is increasing speculation here that the conduct at issue relates to threatening/cajoling Ukraine that their refusal to come up with dirt on one of Biden's son who has been active there has had negative consequences for their relationship with the US. This particular witch-hunt happens to have been Giuliani's primary obsession for the last several months.
Comment
-
The Post now has multiple sources confirming that it is Ukraine
Which has led to
[URL="https://twitter.com/kevinmkruse/status/1174854781103497216?s=21"]https://twitter.com/kevinmkruse/status/1174854781103497216[/URL]
Comment
-
[TRUMP]https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/1175131274723377154?s=20[/TRUMP]
oops that should be
https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/1175131274723377154?s=20
Comment
-
This increasingly feels like it should be a massive fucking deal. This is the literal smoking gun that demands impeachment. If the President can blackmail foreign countries by refusing aid for personal gain, and everyone knows about it, and nobody does anything... well, then there's basically nothing he could do that would warrant impeachment proceedings. The Mueller obstruction of justice stuff is obviously illegal but is not the kind of thing that the public would get worked up about - it looks technical and a bit second level (a possible crime about a possible crime). Bribing and blackmailing the new Ukrainian government using the US government is pretty damned transparent and easy to understand.
Comment
-
Originally posted by BrunoWhy would this change their political calculus on impeachment? It's still not a crime that matters to the GOP.
As I said before, in the previous instance it's not 100% clear that there's harm to the US from Trump's obstruction of justice from the Mueller report. And that obstruction of justice meant that it was impossible to determine if Trump committed a crime.
This time, Trump has been using $250m of US government money for personal gain. It's clear and transparent. If you can't get behind impeachment here, then the process basically is meaningless and the Presidency really does have unrestricted power.
This time, Trump has shown that US foreign policy can no longer be trusted to be about the US's (perceived) interests and instead might be for Trump's personal benefit. That means that every other US foreign policy decision is now suspect.
This time, Trump has decided to withhold aid that Congress voted for that is meant to benefit US security. By withholding it he is, in theory, damaging US interests (as voted by Congress) in order to get a foreign government to interfere in our next election.
It is a massive fucking deal. I don't see how you can not impeach on this, even if it might damage you politically. And of course there's no crime that would matter sufficiently for 18 GOP senators to vote for impeachment. I don't think that matters at this point.
Comment
Comment