Ukraine Phone Call Is the Russian Trump Tower Meeting on Steroids

[babylonsister]

September 21, 2019 10:57AM ET
Ukraine Phone Call Is the Russian Trump Tower Meeting on Steroids
Emboldened by a Congress that refuses to impeach, Trump is taking his dirty tricks to a whole new level
By Tim Dickinson


If the emerging details are accurate, Donald Trump’s efforts to get Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election are not just a repeat of his overtures toward Russia in 2016 — they’re worse.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that, on a late-July call with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump pressured the Eastern European leader “about eight times” to support Rudy Giuliani’s efforts to dig up dirt that could damage the presidential campaign of Joe Biden.

(A bit of context is helpful here: Biden’s son Hunter was involved in an energy deal in Ukraine. Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, has made unsubstantiated claims that Joe Biden pressured the Ukrainian government, during his term as Vice President, to benefit his son. “Not one single credible outlet has given credibility to these assertions,” candidate Biden told reporters Friday. Ukrainian officials have previously said they have no evidence of wrongdoing by the Bidens.)

At the time of the phone call between Trump and the Ukrainian leader, $250 million in U.S. military aid to Ukraine had been authorized by Congress, but not yet delivered by the Trump administration. The aid was vitally needed: Ukraine is menaced by Russia, which annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. According to the Wall Street Journal report, the status of this funding was not directly mentioned by Trump on the phone call. But it was, inescapably, hanging in the balance.

Trump’s demand of the Ukrainian president resembles the infamous Trump Tower meeting — on steroids. The Trump Tower affair, of Mueller Report fame, took place in June 2016 after Russian interests promised incriminating information about Hillary Clinton. They secured a meeting with Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, son Don Jr. and son-in-law Jared Kushner. The reunion, while fishy as hell, was not enough for Mueller to establish a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians, in part, because it was carried out by surrogates. Mueller could not establish that Trump had prior knowledge of, or approved, the meeting — which ultimately delivered little of political value.

If the Wall Street Journal‘s reporting holds up, the Trump phone call with the Ukrainian president is quite different. First, Trump himself is at the center of the action. Second, Trump is using his official powers as president to solicit foreign election interference for his direct political benefit. Third, hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military aid were, implicitly, in jeopardy if the Ukrainians didn’t play ball — adding a layer of corruption and coercion to this equation.

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https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/ukraine-russia-trump-tower-meeting-888003/

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Something strange happened

a few weeks back. Vin Weber who was a principle in the Mercury Lobby shop suddenly quit the firm. Believe he and his firm were playing in the same sand box as Manafort at about the same time Hunter Biden was associated with that Gas Company. Weber and Mercury have had a long relationship with the Ukraine for some time. And old Vinnie has been known in the past for his political missteps.