If this is a crime, then the moon is made of swiss cheese!
Trump
I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike... I guess you have one of your wealthy people... The server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the whole situation. I think you're surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it's very important that you do it if that's possible.Zelensky
Yes it is very important for me and everything that you just mentioned earlier For me as a President, it is very important and we are open for any future cooperation. I will personally tell you that one of my assistants spoke with Mr. Giuliani just recently and we are hoping very much that Mr. Giuliani will be able to travel to Ukraine and we will meet once he comes to Ukraine. I just wanted to assure you once again that you have nobody but friends around us.Trump
I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that's really unfair. A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved. Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what's happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great. The former ambassador from the United States, the woman, was bad news so I just want to let you know that. The other thing, There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it... It sounds horrible to me.Zelensky
The next prosecutor general will be 100% my person. The issue of the investigation of the case, is actually the issue of making sure to restore the honesty so we will take care of that and will work on the investigation of the case.
Again, nothing resembling any Quid pro quo or even any pressure. There was no badgering and there were not eight demands that Zelensky investigate Biden. The rumors of the Whistle Blower complaint turned out to be largely overblown (once again) from what happened in reality.
It would appear that Zelensky likely initiated the contact between his assistant and Rudy Giuliani. This fits in with the original allegations (from Ukraine) that information was provided to members of the intelligence community and it was passed to the Southern District of New York Prosecutors office, and nothing happened.
Zelensky appears as eager as Trump does to engage in the investigations as to whether or not the Prosecutor in question was fired under political pressure and whether or not the Hunter Biden situation was swept under the rug. If it was, then once again, this is a major scandal for Obama/Biden and not for Trump.
For those Democrats who are so investigation happy. It would seem that they should join us all in demanding that we find out if the Obama Administration (and Joe Biden in particular) engaged in political pressure in having the prosecutor fired and the Hunter Biden case terminated.
29 comments:
President Trump told the Ukrainian president to work with Attorney General Bill Barr on investigating debunked allegations around his political opponent Joe Biden, according to a White House record of a July 25 phone call between the two leaders.
The five-page record of the call has been at the center of a political firestorm over Trump’s – and his attorney Rudy Giuliani’s – efforts to pressure Ukraine into manufacturing political dirt on Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden. The call – with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky – is reportedly the subject of a complaint filed by an anonymous whistleblower from the intelligence community, which the Trump administration has withheld from Congress.
The White House’s version of the call appears to contain notes that constitute a “memorandum” of the telephone conversation between the two leaders.
Trump referenced “Rudy,” the memorandum shows, and asks Zelensky to “speak with him.”
Trump also references “a lot of talk about Biden’s son.” He goes on to tell Zelensky, the memorandum says, that “Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that.”
Trump goes on to say that “whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great.”
Zelensky replied that the chief prosecutor he then intended to appoint would be “100% my person.” The Ukrainian president added: “He or she will look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue.”
“I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call and I am also going to have Attorney General Barr call and we will get to the bottom of it,” Trump later told Zelensky, according to the record.
“whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great.”
Solicitation of dirt on his opponent and his son .
I just wanted to assure you once again that you have nobody but friends around us.
He is not requesting an objective investigation.
‘Do Us a Favor’
The entire transcript is available.
Trump call transcript shows he pressed Ukrainian president to probe Biden — live updates. CBS news.
The Trump administration has released the much-anticipated transcript of President Trump's phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, after Mr. Trump announced on Twitter Tuesday he had authorized publishing the transcript, which shows that he urged Zelensky to probe Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, who sat on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company.
The transcript released by the Justice Department is not, according to the administration, a verbatim transcript. The text, according to the document released by the administration, is the record of the notes and recollections of the officers and National Security Council policy staff "assigned to listen and memorialize the conversation in written form."
According to the document, the president said on the call that he would like to find out what happened with "this whole situation with Ukraine" and he said his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani would be traveling to Ukraine. Zelensky said he would meet with Giuliani when he visited.
Zelensky pledged that his new prosecutor would look into the case, and he asked for additional information.
Trump told Zelensky he would have Giuliani give him a call, and also have Attorney General William Barr call "to the bottom of it."
"I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call and I am also going to have Attorney General Barr call and we will get to the bottom of it. I'm sure you will figure it out," Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump asked Zelensky to "do us a favor" and "find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine" with regards to Crowdstrike, a cybersecurity company which helped investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Mr. Trump also asked Zelensky about the Bidens. The president has claimed without offering evidence that Biden, as vice president, worked to remove a Ukrainian prosecutor specifically because he was investigating a company where Hunter Biden. That prosecutor had been condemned by the international community for corruption.
"There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution, and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it ... It sounds horrible to me," Mr. Trump told Zelensky, referring to former Vice President Joe Biden.
The full transcript released by the White House is now availble.
Mr. Trump, under pressure to release the transcript, had already confirmed he had discussed former Biden with Zelensky and confirmed he slow-walked aid to Ukraine, although he claimed the two acts were unrelated. That call and a whistleblower complaint involving Mr. Trump have pushed growing numbers of Democrats to call for impeachment proceedings, which are now formally beginning, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Wednesday afternoon.
In a statement, Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec said that the Justice Department had determined that "there was no campaign finance violence and that no further action was warranted."
"In August, the Department of Justice was referred a matter relating to a letter the director national intelligence had received from the inspector general for the intelligence community regarding a purported whistleblower complaint. The inspector general's letter cited a conversation between the president and Ukrainian President Zelensky as a potential violation of federal campaign finance law, while acknowledging that neither the inspector general nor the complainant had firsthand knowledge of the conversation," Kupec said.
"Relying on established procedures set forth in the justice manual, the department's criminal division reviewed the official record of the call and determined based on the facts and applicable law that there was no campaign finance violence and that no further action was warranted. All relevant components of the department agreed with this legal conclusion, and the department has concluded this matter," Kupec concluded.
In another statement, Kupec said that Barr had not spoken with Mr. Trump about Ukraine investigating Biden, and that the president had not asked Barr to contact Ukraine or Giuliani.
The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) determined that the complaint needed to have a "connection with the operation of any U.S. Government intelligence activity, and the alleged misconduct does not involve any member of the intelligence community" in order to qualify as an "urgent concern." The OLC found that since the president is not a member of the intelligence community and that the activity in question did not pertain to any ongoing intelligence matters, that the complaint did not meet the standard of an "urgent concern."
Mr. Trump said Tuesday the transcript would reveal it was a "very friendly and totally appropriate call."
"No pressure and, unlike Joe Biden and his son, NO quid pro quo! This is nothing more than a continuation of the Greatest and most Destructive Witch Hunt of all time!" the president tweeted Tuesday afternoon. He suggested the next day that Democrats should apologize after seeing what was said on the call.
"They should, a perfect call - got them by surprise!" he tweeted Wednesday before its release.
Mr. Trump had previously said he hoped the public would see the transcript, but he feared the precedent it might set for other world leaders who want to keep their conversations with him private.
Biden, who called for the release of the transcript, insisted Tuesday Mr. Trump should be impeached if he continues to stonewall Congress.
"If the president doesn't comply with such a request from the Congress, he continues to obstruct Congress and flout the law, Donald Trump will leave Congress in my view no choice but to initiate impeachment," Biden said in a brief statement Tuesday afternoon. "That would be a tragedy but a tragedy of his own making."
But Democrats still aren't satisfied. That phone call is just one part of a whistleblower complaint Democrats want to see. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff tweeted Tuesday that the whistleblower wants to testify before his committee.
“There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that, so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great,”
Dirt dirt dirt dirt dirt dirt
@seanmdav
Democrats want to impeach Trump because he asked Ukraine’s president to cooperate with a DOJ investigation of the role of Ukraine and Crowdstrike in foreign meddling in our 2016 elections.
I though Mueller was supposed to have done this?
And why did democrats in Congress then threaten Ukraine to "help" investigate Trump.
And what was really "urgent" here as "whistleblower" and deep state (partisan hacks) claimed
BIGGEST POLITICAL SCANDAL OF ALLTIME
guess Obama can put it next to his Nobel Peace prize and LIE of the YEAR trophy. History will not be kind.
"The other thing, There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it ... It sounds horrible to me."
So what Roger!
We are entitled to investigate Democrats too...
Even those (or especially those) who want to become President!
Have you lost sight of that simple reality?
Scott, to solicit a foreign government to assist the President to win reelection, to me, is unacceptable behavior by the President of the United States.
Are you going to start shouting "lock her up " again?
You have lost site of simple reality.
this bomb blew up Alky .
Roger..
The President simply asked the Ukrainian leadership to look into whether the prosecutor was let go for bad reasons and whether or not Joe Biden had anything to do with the investigation into Hunter's company being shut down.
(and no Roger - the investigation was not complete. The actual investigator who was on it has stated that it was prematurely taken away from him and then illegally shut down.)
Are you now suggesting that it's illegal to investigate someone who is Democrat and running for President?
Because certainly it is not considered illegal to investigate a Republican who is running for President.
Are you now suggesting that it's illegal to investigate someone who is Democrat and running for President?
Nope.
Asking a foreign nation to assist his reelection is not acceptable behavior by any President of the United States of America and is a high crime and misdemeanor.
Trump not only asked Zelensky to look into Hunter Biden, but also into the bizarre conspiracy theory that Ukrainians were behind the DNC server hack.
Why hasn't the President ordered the FBI and the Department of Justice to investigate these allegations?
Instead he asked a foreign power to investigate the allegations
Not a high crime when it's Democrats:
NEW: Democrat Senators reached out to Ukraine in May 2018 and asked for their assistance in investigating Trump
“In the letter, they implied that their support for U.S. assistance to Ukraine was at stake”
I am not a crook!
Why hasn't the President ordered the FBI and the Department of Justice to investigate these allegations?
Instead he asked a foreign power to investigate the allegations
Well for one thing it's primarily a Ukrainian matter . If and when there is evidence US laws were violated than it's wholly appropriate to investigate Biden and his son.
As the Democrat have been saying for the last couple of days. No one is above the law. Even Democrat candidates for president.
Blogger Roger Amick said...
I am not a crook!
But it's very definite you may be a drunkard again.
Roger Amick said...
I am not a crook!
Democrats in 2019 - We are not crooks
People are not buying your next "scandal". "bombshell" or shoe droppings.
Democrats are willing to sell their souls to the devil and have now shown that many times since Trump won. We don't believe any of them anymore.
Start focusing on America and our citizens then maybe 2024.
TRUMP 2020 !!!
Trump not only asked Zelensky to look into Hunter Biden, but also into the bizarre conspiracy theory that Ukrainians were behind the DNC server hack.
Actually it was Zelensky who brought up the Bidens.
Like lemming running over a cliff so are the days of the Democrat lives.
Well Roger...
Because the FBI has no authority to investigate in the Ukraine.
And because the Ukrainian President appears to be more than on board with reopening these investigations (likely with or without any prodding from the United States).
Your only argument IS that Biden is a Democrat and therefor it's illegal for anyone (including the Ukraine) to investigate him.
@1776Stonewall
So the Democrats want to impeach a president for trying to expose a crime, and then elect the person who committed the crime
Dems best chance - Biden, now has no chance.
"At one point, Zelensky brings up the prospect of further lethal military aid from the U.S. to Ukraine. It’s at that point when Trump immediately replies: “I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it.”
DOJ Reconfirms: Ukraine's Role in 2016 Election Interference is Being Investigated
In 2016, a DNC operative met with Ukrainian officials in Washington D.C. They were looking for dirt on then-candidate Trump. From The Hill:
In its most detailed account yet, the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington says a Democratic National Committee (DNC) insider during the 2016 election solicited dirt on Donald Trump’s campaign chairman and even tried to enlist the country's president to help.
In written answers to questions, Ambassador Valeriy Chaly's office says DNC contractor Alexandra Chalupa sought information from the Ukrainian government on Paul Manafort’s dealings inside the country in hopes of forcing the issue before Congress.
Chalupa later tried to arrange for Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to comment on Manafort’s Russian ties on a U.S. visit during the 2016 campaign, the ambassador said.
Chaly says that, at the time of the contacts in 2016, the embassy knew Chalupa primarily as a Ukrainian American activist and learned only later of her ties to the DNC. He says the embassy considered her requests an inappropriate solicitation of interference in the U.S. election.
The hypocrisy of the Democrats is nothing short of breathtaking.
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