Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[kaelleria]

LOL

Trump Pressed Australian Leader to Help Barr Investigate Mueller Inquiry’s Origins

WASHINGTON — President Trump pushed the Australian prime minister during a recent telephone call to help Attorney General William P. Barr gather information for a Justice Department inquiry that Mr. Trump hopes will discredit the Mueller investigation, according to two American officials with knowledge of the call.

The White House restricted access to the call’s transcript to a small group of the president’s aides, one of the officials said, an unusual decision that is similar to the handling of a July call with the Ukrainian president that is at the heart of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into Mr. Trump. Like that call, the discussion with Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia shows the extent to which Mr. Trump sees the attorney general as a critical partner in his goal to show that the Mueller investigation had corrupt and partisan origins, and the extent that Mr. Trump sees the Justice Department inquiry as a potential way to gain leverage over America’s closest allies.


And like the call with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, the discussion with Mr. Morrison shows the president using high-level diplomacy to advance his personal political interests.

President Trump initiated the discussion in recent weeks with Mr. Morrison explicitly for the purpose of requesting Australia’s help in the Justice Department review of the Russia investigation, according to the two people with knowledge of the discussion. Mr. Barr requested that Mr. Trump speak to Mr. Morrison, one of the people said. It came only weeks after Mr. Trump seemed to make military aid to Ukraine contingent on Mr. Zelensky doing him the “favor” of helping Mr. Barr with his work.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment. A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did a spokesperson for the Australian prime minister.

In making the request, Mr. Trump was in effect asking the Australian government to investigate itself. The F.B.I.’s counterintelligence investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election began after Australian officials told the bureau that the Russian government had made overtures to the Trump campaign about releasing political damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

Australian officials shared that information after its top official in Britain met in London in May 2016 with George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign foreign policy adviser who told the Australian about the Russian dirt on Mrs. Clinton.

Mr. Papadopoulos also said that he had heard that the Russians had “thousands” of Mrs. Clinton’s emails from Joseph Mifsud, an academic. Mr. Mifsud, who was last seen working as a visiting professor in Rome, has disappeared. Trump allies, like the president’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, have put forth an unsubstantiated claim that Western intelligence agencies planted Mr. Mifsud to trap Mr. Papadopoulos.

Mr. Barr flew to Italy last week and met with Italian government officials on Friday. The Justice Department spokeswoman would not say whether he discussed the election inquiry in those meetings, but former Justice Department officials said that Mr. Barr would need to ask foreign countries for cooperation in turning over documents pertaining to the 2016 election.

Trump is super fucked

[Yetanothernewbie]

Yeah okay.

I mean we're at the point Donald Trump clearly used his office to betray his country's interests and advance his own, and you're still not taking it seriously.

Given that the basis of Trump's support is White Supremacy, I just need to say, you must REALLY hate blacks and latinos. Because good lord. Donald Trump sells us out - big time national security issue - and you still defend him.

Like holy fuck, what does this that motherfucker have to do?

Vote Democrat.

[kaelleria]

It gets better

Pompeo Took Part in Trump-Zelensky Phone Call, Official Says

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was among administration officials who listened in on the July 25 phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a senior State Department official said Monday, a disclosure that ties the State Department more closely to the House impeachment inquiry.

Mr. Pompeo’s participation on the call hasn’t been previously reported. Last week, a State Department official disputed the contention in a complaint filed under federal whistleblower laws by a Central Intelligence Agency officer that another top State Department official, counselor Ulrich Brechbuhl, listened in on the call.

House Democrats have opened an impeachment inquiry focused on Mr. Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, and lawmakers are focusing on the whistleblower complaint and a record of the call released by the administration.

Three House committees on Friday subpoenaed Mr. Pompeo for documents related to the inquiry; the secretary has until Oct. 4 to produce them. Separately, the committees plan to depose five current or former State Department officials regarding Ukraine.

Earlier Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would hold a trial in the Senate if the House approved articles of impeachment for President Trump, addressing doubts he may circumvent Senate procedures.

“I would have no choice but to take it up,” the Kentucky Republican said Monday on CNBC. He added: “How long you are on it is a different matter, but I would have no choice but to take it up based on a Senate rule on impeachment.”

It was the first time Mr. McConnell has directly addressed the topic since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) said the House would begin an impeachment inquiry focused on allegations Mr. Trump sought to use the powers of his office to push Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden, and that White House officials acted to conceal evidence of the president’s actions.

The allegations, based on a complaint filed by the CIA officer under federal whistleblower laws and backed by the record of the July 25 phone call between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky, have reverberated internationally.

Mr. Zelensky said Monday that his administration wouldn’t release a transcript of the July phone call with Mr. Trump, while also saying he is open to investigating any alleged violation of Ukrainian law.

Also Monday, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated the Kremlin’s position that no phone-call records should be released without mutual consent. The comments came as Democrats demand to know how the White House used a national-security computer server, where records of Mr. Trump’s calls with leaders from Russia and Saudi Arabia—as well as Ukraine—are said to have been stored.

At the White House on Monday afternoon, Mr. Trump told reporters: “We’re trying to find out about a whistleblower.” He did not expand on that, and the White House didn’t immediately respond to a question about the comment.

Mr. Trump has said he deserved to confront the whistleblower and anyone who provided him information and has suggested they are spies who committed treasonous acts. House Democrats are eager to hear testimony from the whistleblower—though in a way that will protect his identity.

Shortly after Mr. Trump’s comment, Andrew P. Bakaj, a lawyer who represents the whistleblower wrote on Twitter: “The Intel Community Whistleblower is entitled to anonymity. Law and policy support this and the individual is not to be retaliated against. Doing so is a violation of federal law.”

The Republican-led Senate is considered unlikely to convict Mr. Trump in any impeachment trial. Removing the president requires approval by two-thirds of the 100-member Senate. Some Senate Republicans have voiced concern over the allegations outlined in a whistleblower complaint made public last week, but none has voiced support for impeachment.

Some GOP lawmakers may want the chance to exonerate the president should the House approve articles of impeachment.
Senate procedures bar the leader from simply ignoring an impeachment vote in the House, based on guidance contained in a 1986 memo from then-Senate parliamentarian Robert Dove.

In the case of President Clinton, the House passed articles of impeachment, and he was acquitted in the Senate. President Nixon resigned before a full vote in the House on articles of impeachment.

Mr. McConnell could move to dismiss articles of impeachment under Senate precedents, as then-Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd (D., W.Va.) attempted to when Mr. Clinton, who had been impeached by the House, went on trial in the Senate. The dismissal measure failed on a vote of 56-44.

Mr. McConnell also could refer the question of impeachment to a special committee. That is how the impeachment of former President Andrew Johnson was handled, but that occurred before the Senate had rules for handling impeachment. As a result, the parliamentarian wrote, the Senate would need to suspend its rules for impeachment to avoid going to the question of trying someone who had been impeached.

The revelations of the contents of the July phone call between Messrs. Trump and Zelensky thrust the Ukrainian leader into the middle of a partisan fight in the U.S., one of Ukraine’s most important backers financially and politically.

The call record showed that Mr. Trump asked his Ukrainian counterpart to “look into” political rival Joe Biden and his son and said he would direct his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr to contact Mr. Zelensky to help him in a possible investigation.

Mr. Zelensky, explaining his reasons for keeping Ukrainian records of the call private, said: “There are certain nuances and things that it would seem incorrect to publish.” Mr. Zelensky spoke to reporters on the sidelines of a military event.

Asked whether Ukraine would open an investigation into the Bidens, Mr. Zelensky said Ukraine would be open to investigate any violations of law. A Ukrainian official earlier this year said he had no evidence of wrongdoing by Mr. Biden or his son Hunter.

“We are open, we are ready to investigate, but this has nothing to do with me,” Mr. Zelensky said. “Our independent law enforcement agencies are ready to investigate any case that violates the law.”

He added: “We can’t be ordered to do anything. We are an independent country.”
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that the Kremlin didn’t believe contents of conversations between Messers. Putin and Trump should be made public without the consent of both parties.

Mr. Peskov told reporters that if “there are signals from the U.S., we will discuss it,” but he underscored that “in general, diplomatic practice, of course, does not provide for such publications.”

The Kremlin and Russia’s Foreign Ministry haven’t been shy about voicing their displeasure over diplomatic exchanges, such as the one between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky, being made public, and have sought to pre-empt any possible request that Mr. Putin’s discussions with Mr. Trump be exposed.
Mr. Peskov said that inquiry under way in the U.S. is “an internal matter.”

“We did not intervene and do not (have the right) to intervene,” he said. “As for the transcript of conversations, of course, to some extent publication is possible, only by mutual agreement of the parties.”

On Sunday, a top aide to Mr. Zelensky, Andrey Yermak, who spoke to Mr. Giuliani soon after the July call, said that Ukraine doesn’t want to get involved in domestic U.S. politics.

“What happens there is their internal political kitchen. We will not take part in this in any way,” Mr. Yermak said in an interview with Ukrainian television.
Mr. Yermak said the Ukrainian administration was preparing for another Zelensky-Trump meeting—this time in an official visit to Washington—without providing more details.

https://a.msn.com/r/2/AAI4zVT?m=en-u...rID=InAppShare

[Somewhatconcerned]

I thought the Mueller report was "total vindication" for Trunp?

So why does he need help in discrediting it? And why Australia?

[Shadowferal]

There's an image I'd like to see; Trump, Barr, Pompeo, and Guiliani, all dressed in prison garb and handcuffs.

[zorkuus]

Looks like the WH revolving door might hit Pompeo next. What a shitshow.

[Edge-]

Looks like the WH revolving door might hit Pompeo next. What a shitshow.

He's far too loyal to Trump for that. The only thing that will get him out is if Republicans somehow manage to put enough pressure on Trump or if he resigns out of a desire to protect Trump, and I doubt Trump would accept that since he'd have to look for a new SoS that will grovel as pathetically as Pompeo has.

[Skroe]

Australia now... trump did it again. This bastard has no loyalty to America.

[zorkuus]

he'd have to look for a new SoS that will grovel as pathetically as Pompeo has.

Looks like a job opening for Ivanka or Beavis & Butthead.

[Bodakane]

Fuck impeaching, it is time for the firing squad.

[Elegiac]

Yeah okay.

I mean we're at the point Donald Trump clearly used his office to betray his country's interests and advance his own, and you're still not taking it seriously.

Given that the basis of Trump's support is White Supremacy, I just need to say, you must REALLY hate blacks and latinos. Because good lord. Donald Trump sells us out - big time national security issue - and you still defend him.

Like holy fuck, what does this that motherfucker have to do?

I mean you've said yourself that Trump's base needs to be written off as irredeemable for the time being, and there's a reason for that.

What we're looking at is the end result of decades of being drip fed media explicitly designed to simultaneously stoke distrust of academic and political institutions while at the same time making it easy to channel that energy into whatever cause is required no matter how despicable or contrary to the interests of its supporters it is. This administration is just reaping the rotten crops sown by men like Roger Ailes, Karl Rove, and Rupert Murdoch; an appropriate analogy, I think, since in their greed to enrich themselves they run the risk of destroying the field entirely.

To put it more simply, I'll leave it to Valery Legasov in Chernobyl:

"What is the cost of lies? It's not that we'll mistake them for the truth. The real danger is that if we hear enough lies, then we no longer recognize the truth at all."

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

if trump starts a civil war which side will you take? Earth or Damnation?

[Edge-]

Looks like a job opening for Ivanka or Beavis & Butthead.

I think even he's aware enough to know not to nominate family for official positions like that. "Advisor" roles? Sure, what's a little nepotism between family, especially when it comes with a security clearance.

But I think he knows that there's no way in hell the Senate would approve any of them.

[Nurasu]

It gets better




https://a.msn.com/r/2/AAI4zVT?m=en-u...rID=InAppShare

I get that it was an incredibly embarrassing call for Zelensky to have released, but his face is already red. What else is he hiding by refusing to release his version of the transcripts? Do they match or not? I wonder if the House will be able to get an actual recording of the call.

[zorkuus]

if trump starts a civil war which side will you take? Earth or Damnation?

Trump's civil war will be him trying to fight the men in white coats who've come to put a straightjacket on him.

[Demolitia]

if trump starts a civil war which side will you take? Earth or Damnation?

The side that wins so much it's tired of winning of course. #MakeHellGreatAgain

[Noxx79]

LOL





Trump is super fucked

Isn’t this a tacit admission that the line that the entire mueller investigation being based on the Steele dossier is in fact a lie?

I mean if the Steele dossier actually started the investigation, Australia wouldn’t have anything to do with it.

[Edge-]

I get that it was an incredibly embarrassing call for Zelensky to have released, but his face is already red. What else is he hiding by refusing to release his version of the transcripts? Do they match or not? I wonder if the House will be able to get an actual recording of the call.

They won't match because Trump didn't release the actual transcript. What was released was based off of notes taken during the call. The actual transcript is hidden on a sever for secret information.

And I imagine Zelensky isn't releasing his side's transcript because he just wants to wash his hands of this bullshit without pissing off Trump.

[Orbitus]

He says that Barr might right in the transcript (and Barr wasn't happy about that).

Giulliani is just gathering evidence from Ukrainians.

Which he can't legally do.

[Demolitia]

Yeah okay.

I mean we're at the point Donald Trump clearly used his office to betray his country's interests and advance his own, and you're still not taking it seriously.

Given that the basis of Trump's support is White Supremacy, I just need to say, you must REALLY hate blacks and latinos. Because good lord. Donald Trump sells us out - big time national security issue - and you still defend him.

Like holy fuck, what does this that motherfucker have to do?

Time for a deepfake video of Trump getting humped by a black guy ?