crickets
crickets's JournalNaftogaz about to become an important new data point in impeachment inquiry?
Background on Suriya Jayanti, the second staffer to overhear Sondland's phone call:
https://twitter.com/gvravel/status/1195034179953713152
This may or may not get explored in detail at tomorrow's hearing, but it should come up, and it should stay meaningful for the rest of the investigations. What's the big buzz about Ukraine, aside from trying to fight off Vladimir Putin? Corruption. Whose corruption?
Team Trump screams about Ukrainian corruption while shaking down Ukrainian officials for profit OCT07
Three big Republican donors with ties to Trump and Rudy Giuliani—Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman, and Harry Sargeant III—were working to replace the CEO of Naftogaz, the Ukrainian state gas company, with another executive at the company, Andrew Favorov, who they apparently perceived as being more friendly to their profit motives. The men met with Favorov in Texas to propose a plan to import large quantities of liquefied gas from the U.S. to Ukraine, telling him that Trump supported the plan.
Dale Perry, a former business partner of Favorov’s, “told AP in an interview that Favorov described the meeting to him soon after it happened and that Favorov perceived it to be a shakedown.” Perry and a second source say that “Favorov said Parnas told him Trump planned to remove U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and replace her with someone more open to aiding their business interests.” On Friday, Giuliani took credit for having Yovanovitch fired.
At the same time, soon-to-be-former Energy Secretary Rick Perry was also pressing for a shake-up at Naftogaz that would have moved a connected Republican into leadership there. A person in the room during that meeting, “who spoke on condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation, said he was floored by the American requests because the person had always viewed the U.S. government ‘as having a higher ethical standard.’”
https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1180992023299596290
https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1180991635070562305
Profit, not politics: Trump allies sought Ukraine gas deal OCT07
Their aims were profit, not politics. This circle of businessmen and Republican donors touted connections to Giuliani and Trump while trying to install new management at the top of Ukraine’s massive state gas company. Their plan was to then steer lucrative contracts to companies controlled by Trump allies, according to two people with knowledge of their plans.
Their plan hit a snag after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko lost his reelection bid to Volodymyr Zelenskiy...
It’s unclear if Perry’s attempts to replace board members at Naftogaz were coordinated with the Giuliani allies pushing for a similar outcome, and no one has alleged that there is criminal activity in any of these efforts. And it’s unclear what role, if any, Giuliani had in helping his clients push to get gas sales agreements with the state-owned company.
But the affair shows how those with ties to Trump and his administration were pursuing business deals in Ukraine that went far beyond advancing the president’s personal political interests. It also raises questions about whether Trump allies were mixing business and politics just as Republicans were calling for a probe of Biden and his son Hunter, who served five years on the board of another Ukrainian energy company, Burisma.
https://twitter.com/realhabbas/status/1180993519776862208
We shall see.
Kent and Welch win for well placed zingers of the day.
Also of note in that article:
Taylor did not identify the aide, but NBC News says it was David Holmes, a State Department official just added to the calendar to testify in closed session Friday. Holmes is the counselor for political affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine.
Boom. Each hearing will provide more breadcrumbs to the next information bomblet, and the next...
This is why the public hearings will gather a momentum of their own.
The information avalanche is just getting started.
I was impressed by his questioning of Taylor (a Viet Nam veteran)
when he made the point that a commanding officer could not hold up action on the battlefield, placing his troops at risk until someone provided him a personal benefit, without betraying his responsibility to the nation and the men and women under his command. He pointed out that such behavior would require disciplinary action, a court martial.
Bam.
She held up the 'transcript' of Jul 25th call and began addressing Schiff.
She got as far as "you yourself mischaracterized the call, in fact, in the first open hearing... you had a parody..."
At that point Schiff interrupted with, "The gentlewoman will suspend. By unanimous consent will be happy to enter the call record into the record." He then recognized the next person to speak as she smiled smugly and put the paper away.
Favorite line of the day so far from Kent:
(paraphrase)
Q: Do you think Yovanovitch's anti-corruption efforts upset anyone?
A: Well, any time you engage in anti-corruption policy, you are going to piss off somebody.
Wry smile at the irony from Kent, zing.
Yup, everyone else understands the problem except the jokers on the phone call.
https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1194655455684919296Michael McFaul
?Verified account
@McFaul
Sondland calling Trump on a cellphone from Kyiv is extraordinary for all sorts of reasons. Normally EU Ambos don’t call presidents. They never do so to discuss Ukraine policy. Doing so on a cellphone from Kyiv means whole world was listening in.
8:37 AM - 13 Nov 2019
And a great reply:
https://twitter.com/QHPodcast/status/1194658699551395841
B.L. Purdom, host of Quantum Harry, the Podcast
?@QHPodcast
Replying to @McFaul @shoreboy1961
None of them care about secure lines or secure servers until they need to hide evidence of their criminal activity.
8:50 AM - 13 Nov 2019
Taylor was the first one on the inside to get a picture of what was going on
and to object. His texts re same may have played a big part in saving the country. This man is good people.
I love how his current statement is so passionate, really making the point of how Ukrainian lives have hung in the balance. Trump's games have gotten people killed, and he is making that plain.
I still can't figure out how they're getting away with the Trump store.
We have a 'president' hawking political t-shirts by tweet. WTFF?
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