The incredibly damning Ukraine texts from State Department officials, explained

[swag]

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/10/4/20898215/trump-text-messages-ukraine-impeachment

By Andrew [e-mail] Oct 4, 2019, 10:25am EDT

The texts are ugly. They reveal that top State Department diplomats worked with the president’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani to try to get Ukraine to commit to politicized investigations demanded by President Trump into the gas company Hunter Biden served on the board of — Burisma — as well as into Ukraine’s role in the 2016 election. Trump has been trying to drum up phony scandals on both topics, to hurt Biden’s presidential run and discredit the Mueller investigation.

The texts reveal that the pressure campaign was presented this July as a quid pro quo — if Ukraine committed to these investigations, the US would agree to a White House meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky. For weeks, these State officials tried to get Zelensky to publicly announce he was conducting these investigations, in exchange for the meeting — but Zelensky apparently refused. (The Bidens are never mentioned by name in these texts, “Burisma” is used instead, but Trump was not so careful when talking to Zelensky on the phone in July.)

Kurt Volker, the special representative to Ukraine who recently resigned, provided the texts to Congress in advance of his closed-door testimony Thursday. The texts were Volker’s exchanges, or exchanges he was copied on, with State Department officials, Giuliani, and an adviser to the Ukrainian president. The House Intelligence Committee released them Thursday.

The texts get even uglier in late August and early September. That’s when Trump’s decision to hold up $400 million in military aid for Ukraine entered the discussion. One State diplomat, Bill Taylor, twice raised concerns that this was connected to Trump’s demands for investigations and with US politics. And, twice, Ambassador Gordon Sondland responded by urging him to talk on the phone rather than by text message.

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1. ICYMI, read at least the summary letter here:

https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/_cache/files/a/4/a4a91fab-99cd-4eb9-9c6c-ec1c586494b9/621801458E982E9903839ABC7404A917.chairmen-letter-on-state-departmnent-texts-10-03-19.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2edF6XUM_VUt6mVhD5mjrXjZFvKQGiLDginPYD_2FW4NzlsspOmRhnSJs

[cilla4progress]

2. If this ain't a smoking gun....

Can we please dump drumpf and get US back on track?

So much wrong with this...including wprking to corrupt a country (Ukraine) that was trying to dig its way out of corruption!

Drumpf acts like a 3rd rate dictator of a Banana Republic. He must be dumped and we need a whole new government, to reclaim any of our former status! Could be lost for years....

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Mueller should have charged rump with all of the crimes he was suspected of doing that he...

uncovered during the course of his investigations...now look at this whole mess...because of some stupid, ignorant ruling/rule that a sitting president can't be charged during his tenure/term, rump has decided that he's free and clear to do as he pleases, breaking all sorts of laws and such, regardless of consequences, after all, he won't be charged/etc. and as president, he can do no wrong.

This is surely what the framers of our Constitution and/or Amendments never ever intended. Never!

Mueller and the DOJ should be ashamed of themselves for allowing the gross distortion and gross dereliction of the laws of our Country, as well as the GOP and the GOP-controlled Senate. Sure they are retiring in droves (the GOP) but what this means is that they are cowards and NOT doing what it will take to restore the integrity of this Country back to what it was.

They (the GOP) are not facing up to the fact that their political party messed up, in cooperation with obviously sworn enemies of the US (Putin, others), to gain political sway in the US.

[KPN]

5. I tend to agree. Our faith in Mueller was obviously misplaced.

[Celerity]

6. He already had a bad track record, so it was not surprising

When Comey and Mueller Bungled the Anthrax Case

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2017/05/21/when_comey_and_mueller_bungled_the_anthrax_case_133953.html

In the wake of Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey, the Justice Department named Robert S. Mueller III as a special prosecutor to investigate possible Russian interference in the 2016 election. It was a decision greeted with a chorus of supportive croaking from inside official Washington, aka The Swamp.

“If anyone can stay on course and not be deterred by the whims of politics, it’s Bob Mueller,” said former Missouri senator and U.S. attorney general John Ashcroft. “A great choice,” added John McCain. “Somebody we all trust,” echoed California Congressman Darrell Issa. “Impeccable credentials,” chimed in Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah. “Should be widely accepted.” Democrats were even more extravagant. California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said that “no better person” could have been named. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin tweeted, “I have the highest regard for his integrity and intelligence.”

All this was dutifully reported in the press, which gushed over Mueller just as effusively. “Robert Mueller: The Special Counsel America Needs,” intoned the New York Times editorial board. Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, revealing a lack of self-awareness worthy of Trump himself, gleefully predicted disaster for the president.

“Mueller is a Trump nightmare: a pro, who ran the FBI for 12 years and is broadly respected in both parties in Washington for his competence and integrity,” Kristof wrote. “If Trump thought he was removing a thorn by firing Comey, he now faces a grove of thistles.”

Kristof never mentioned why he had as much reason to recuse himself from this subject as Attorney General Jeff Sessions did. I’ll explain later. First, I’ll say that when I heard Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had appointed Bob Mueller as a special prosecutor, I didn’t experience the same rhapsody as my capital compatriots. Why? Three reasons.

snip

[KPN]

7. Yeah, thanks for that. It always frightened me that so many people praised and proclaimed faith in

Mueller, especially here. Group-think is a remarkable force.

[KPN]

4. So like everything else, esp re: foreign interference in US elections, the regime having been caught

with their pants down seeks to normalize the practice, to make it appear to be fair game, to change American voter's perceptions of what is right and what is wrong.

They have had success at this with mf45s base in particular but most Rs as well. Will we ever be able to recover from this as a nation? If so, how? What will it take?