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    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.

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      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.
      As 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.

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        Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
        As 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.
        That is excellent. Maybe Mark Rutte finally finagled Trump's support for our impending annexation of Flanders.

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          And all it cost was a thousand pounds of cheese.

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            There'll be a golf course involved in the deal somehow.

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              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.

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                [URL]https://twitter.com/TheViewFromLL2/status/1174763559802327040[/URL]

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                  Well, now. That seems very naughty, doesn't it? Not so naughty that Republican Senators would vote to impeach on it, but it may be naughty enough to actually be damaging to the President.

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                    Not to the base, of course.

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                      Yes, but it's genuinely hard to think of anything he could do that the base would reject.

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                        That is of course true, but I'm not sure that this would peel off a meaningful number of non-base voters who went with him in 16 are still there.

                        That said, it could be the kind of thing that puts another thumb in the scale for those inclined to jump ship.

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                          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]

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                            Should I (were I a baddie) actively want Giuliani as my lawyer?

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                              Who could have imagined that someone whose campaign slogan was "lock her up" would improperly use the powers of office to seek to have his political opponents prosecuted?

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                                Originally posted by San Bernardhinault View Post
                                Yes, but it's genuinely hard to think of anything he could do that the base would reject.
                                Ban pick up trucks.

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                                  [TRUMP]https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/1175131274723377154?s=20[/TRUMP]

                                  oops that should be

                                  https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/1175131274723377154?s=20

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                                    They will spin that as a positive since the report claims that there was no direct quid pro quo

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                                      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.

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                                        You would think so, but Nancy and Joe just aren't sure

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                                          And now I'm sure we're all wondering what inducements Saudi Arabia paid in order to get US troops to go for a visit. Because that's where we are now.

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                                            If Biden got the nomination, it would look very odd if he weren't calling for impeachment given Trump would be running a "lock him up" campaign if positions were reversed.

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                                              I'd much rather see him legitimately defeated and then spend the rest of his natural life defending all his personal and business crookery in court.

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                                                Originally posted by Bruno
                                                Why would this change their political calculus on impeachment? It's still not a crime that matters to the GOP.
                                                Because if this isn't impeachable, nothing is.

                                                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.

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