A Friday night wrench in impeachment defense
By Aaron Blake
November 16, 2019 at 9:25 a.m. EST
The idea that President Trump truly cared about corruption in Ukraine was always far-fetched. The only two investigations he has pushed for were ones in which he had a clear personal interest, and Trump hasn’t shown a similar interest in corruption in many other countries that received U.S. aid — including even more corrupt ones ...
The White House on Friday morning released a rough transcript of his April call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky ... It was quickly noted that the transcript didn’t match a public readout of the call provided by the White House, which said Trump told Zelensky that he was committed to working together to “strengthen democracy, increase prosperity, and root out corruption.” There is no mention of any of that on the call.
... it turns out the readout was actually drafted before the call took place and never updated. But importantly, the readout did reflect the talking points Trump was given ahead of the call. In other words, Trump was told he should talk to Zelensky about corruption ... and he didn’t.
... The top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine .. testified Wednesday that Holmes told him he heard Gordon Sondland .. remarking that Trump .. “cares more about the investigations of <Joe> Biden” than about Ukraine ...
“I noted that there was ‘big stuff’ going on in Ukraine, like a war with Russia,” Holmes says of his conversation with Sondland on July 26, “and Ambassador Sondland replied that he meant ‘big stuff’ that benefits the president, like the ‘Biden investigation’ that Mr. Giuliani was pushing” ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/11/16/big-developments-david-holmess-testimony/
= new reply since forum marked as read
I've often wondered if Ghouliani's rep as a "crime fighter" was more of a clean up of competition to let the Russian Mob take over the Tri-State area.