Impeachment hearings

[_EAllusion]

Russia is a principle benefactor loosely allied ethnonationalist (i.e. neo-fascist) right-wing movements across the developed world. They're having varying levels of success in different democracies, but they're all the same in trying to use democratic processes to win power to subvert them with an illiberal authoritarian government. It's going well for them in the US.

Russia sees this as an opportunity to smash the world order preventing expanding their sphere of influence to something like the Soviet era. Fascists, are, at the end of the day, short-sighted and incompetent, and if they get what they want, these hyper-nationalist gangster states are going to eventually be at each others' throats. Some of them have nuclear weapons. *Ahem* "populists" aren't known for their forbearance or wisdom in use of military power, nor their concern for humanity. Russia may get what it wants with America in the coming years, but it's not necessarily going to be in Russia's interest when illiberal America stops being frenemies for mutual benefit.

[_EAllusion]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/22/politics ... index.html

Sounds bad. Someone probably should look into it.

[_Icarus]

Mueller stated in his reported that Trump wasn't exonerated,...

he also did not state that Trump committed a crime.

I mean, i just checked the Internet and nowhere did it say you were not a pedophile.

An intellectually honest person would never say this. Mueller explained that he couldn't indict Trump because it was against DOJ policy, not because he didn't commit a crime. He did however lay out tons of evidence that he did commit crimes of obstruction and he recommended Congress to do their job for impeaching him because that was the only means to address it while he was a sitting President.

Republican Congressman Ken BUCK: Let me just stop. You made the decision on the Russian interference [conspiracy]. You couldn’t have indicted the president on that. And you made the decision on that. But when it came to obstruction, you threw a bunch of stuff up against the wall to see what would stick, and that is fundamentally unfair.

MUELLER: I would not agree to that characterization at all. What we did is provide to the attorney general in the form of a confidential memorandum our understanding of the case, those cases that were brought, those cases that were declined, that one case where the president cannot be charged with a crime.

BUCK: Okay, but the … could you charge the president with a crime after he left office?

MUELLER: Yes.

BUCK: You believe that he committed … you could charge the president of the United States with obstruction of justice after he left office?

MUELLER: Yes.

LIEU: You wrote there on Page 97, “Sessions was being instructed to tell the special counsel to end the existing investigation into the president and his campaign.” That’s in the report, correct?

MUELLER: Correct.

LIEU: That would be evidence of an obstructive act, because it would naturally obstruct the investigation, correct?

MUELLER: Correct.

...

LIEU: You wrote, “Substantial evidence indicates that the President’s effort to have Sessions limit the scope of the Special Counsel’s investigation to future election interference was intended to prevent further investigative scrutiny of the President’s and his campaign’s conduct.” That’s in the report, correct?

MUELLER: That is in the report. …

LIEU: … Now we’ve heard that the president ordered Corey Lewandowski to tell Jeff Sessions to limit your investigation so that he — you — stop investigating the president. I believe a reasonable person looking at these facts could conclude that all three elements of the crime of obstruction of justice have been met. And I’d like to ask you, the reason again that you did not indict Donald Trump is because of OLC opinion stating that you cannot indict a sitting president, correct?

MUELLER: That is correct.

[_Icarus]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/22/politics/nunes-vienna-trip-ukrainian-prosecutor-biden/index.html

Sounds bad. Someone probably should look into it.

Nunes buried evidence on Russian meddling to protect Trump. I know because I’m on the committee

No one really expected President Donald Trump, who benefited from Russia’s 2016 election interference, to counter that hostile regime’s active measures: Russia wanted him to win, and when they hacked, he invited them to hack more.

But America should have been able to rely on a united Congress to ensure that our next elections aren’t just as vulnerable if not moreso. Instead, due to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes’ persistent and pernicious obstruction, America has been spectacularly let down.

Just last week, hours before the Republican-led House recessed for six weeks, Nunes broke out his shovel yet again to bury even deeper the evidence of Russian interference, once again demonstrating there’s no distance he won’t go to protect this president.

Nunes and committee Republicans had promised that the American people would see our interview transcripts after the investigation was completed. When they abruptly ended the investigation without calling dozens of relevant witnesses, they voted to conceal the transcripts.

Suddenly, last month, Nunes agreed to release them. Perhaps he was worried about the burgeoning campaign of his Democratic opponent — a local prosecutor named Andrew Janz, whose argument to the voters includes powerful evidence of Nunes’ efforts to poison the Russia investigation.

But predictably, at a hearing last week on releasing the transcripts, Nunes still wouldn’t allow real transparency.

Committee Democrats asked to immediately send the transcripts to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who hasn’t been allowed to see them under Nunes’ rules. There’s good reason to believe many witnesses committed perjury or offered information relevant to the special counsel’s work. But Nunes opposed it, and it was voted down.

Committee Democrats then moved to have the transcripts released to the public immediately — after a 10-day intelligence community review — to avoid any selective release or other political manipulation. Again, Nunes opposed this.

This is his modus operandi. Though incomplete due to Republican obstruction, our investigation did reveal worrisome contacts between the Russians and candidate Trump, his family, his businesses, and his campaign. Yet every time we sought to learn more, we were blocked.

We sought to test witnesses’ accounts by subpoenaing third-party records such as cell phone, bank and travel records. Republicans refused to allow it.

To arrange the infamous June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting, Donald Trump Jr. called his Russian contact, then called a blocked number, and then called his Russian contact back. We had evidence from other witnesses that Donald Trump used a blocked number. Republicans refused to pursue whether it was the same number.

The Republicans ran a “take them at their word” investigation when most of the Trump team clearly didn’t deserve that benefit of the doubt. So at last week’s hearing, I moved to subpoena many of the records that could fill a lot of the gaps. Nunes nixed it.

Reviewing his plans, we saw a glaring omission: the transcript of Congressman Dana Rohrabacher’s interview. I took part in that lengthy interview and I was disturbed by his contacts with Russia before and during the 2015-16 campaign. So Democrats at our hearing moved to release Rohrabacher’s transcript, plus several others; Nunes killed our effort. He’s burying that transcript to protect his friend — also in a tight re-election battle against Harley Rouda in Orange County — just as he has protected President Trump.

The Nunes fix was in from the very start. Soon after 2016’s election, as we began to see the breadth of Russia’s interference, I had approached him with an idea: “Let’s have an independent commission look at what the Russians did,” just as we had after the Sept. 11 attacks.

“We can handle this on the committee,” Nunes insisted. I was doubtful, but I never expected that by “handle,” he meant “bury.”

We’re not helpless. A new Congress consisting of people who put fair elections and the rule of law above party can restore our democracy.

That’s why I support Andrew Janz: not because he’s “anyone but Nunes,” but because as a prosecutor, he knows that upholding the law is most important.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not giving up on Republicans. Many have told me privately that they knew Nunes and Trump were dead wrong, but they wouldn’t speak out for fear of incurring the president’s Twitter wrath. “When he tweets, he wins,” one told me.

In November, let’s show the president, and congressional enablers like Nunes, that we will not be bullied. And when Democrats hold the majority, it will be our responsibility to unite with any Republicans willing to defend this great nation.

Swalwell, a Democrat representing California’s 15th district, is a member of the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and is the ranking member of the subcommittee on the CIA.

[_moksha]

Nune's trip to Ukraine last year needs to be explored and Lev Parnas is eager to tell the story of Nunes' cooptation into the Russian plot.

[_EAllusion]

Nune's trip to Ukraine last year needs to be explored and Lev Parnas is eager to tell the story of Nunes' cooptation into the Russian plot.

I was half taking a sarcastic jab at wrapping up investigation quickly and half pointing out this should be investigated. Parnas isn't exactly a reliable reporter, so the goal would be to find corroborating evidence. Put him in a deposition and see what he's got. The claim obviously fits within what is already known and is genuinely quite bad if true, so it is worth finding out more about it.

[_Icarus]

Nune's trip to Ukraine last year needs to be explored and Lev Parnas is eager to tell the story of Nunes' cooptation into the Russian plot.

I was half taking a sarcastic jab at wrapping up investigation quickly and half pointing out this should be investigated. Parnas isn't exactly a reliable reporter, so the goal would be to find corroborating evidence. Put him in a deposition and see what he's got. The claim obviously fits within what is already known and is genuinely quite bad if true, so it is worth finding out more about it.

Would there be anything illegal here if true?

[_Icarus]

Fox News’ Andrew Napolitano Calls Evidence Of Impeachable Actions ‘Overwhelming’

Why is FOX News attacking Trump so much?

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Nune's trip to Ukraine last year needs to be explored and Lev Parnas is eager to tell the story of Nunes' cooptation into the Russian plot.

I was half taking a sarcastic jab at wrapping up investigation quickly and half pointing out this should be investigated. Parnas isn't exactly a reliable reporter, so the goal would be to find corroborating evidence. Put him in a deposition and see what he's got. The claim obviously fits within what is already known and is genuinely quite bad if true, so it is worth finding out more about it.

In the weeks since his arrest, Parnas has become disenchanted with Trump and Giuliani, according to Bondy as well as other sources who spoke to CNN. Parnas, these sources say, was particularly upset when Trump denied knowing him the day after Parnas and his associate Igor Fruman were arrested in October.

Last week, CNN reported that Parnas had claimed to have had a private meeting with Trump in which the President tasked him with a "secret mission" to uncover dirt on Democrats in Ukraine.

"He believes he has put himself out there for the President and now he's been completely hung out to dry," a person close to Parnas told CNN. Last week, the White House did not respond to repeated requests for comment to a series of questions regarding the meeting and Trump's relationship with Parnas.

On Thursday, Bondy promoted the hashtag #LetLevSpeak on Twitter in response to a number of questions about whether Parnas would testify in front of Congress.

Bondy tweeted directly at Republican California Rep. Kevin McCarthy Thursday night after McCarthy accused Schiff of blocking important witnesses from testifying, saying "I don't agree with your premise, but please, if you mean what you say, call my client, Lev Parnas. #LetLevSpeak."

If I were Rudy Giuliani I'd be looking into real estate around the Black Sea these days...

- Doc

[_Res Ipsa]

Nune's trip to Ukraine last year needs to be explored and Lev Parnas is eager to tell the story of Nunes' cooptation into the Russian plot.

I was half taking a sarcastic jab at wrapping up investigation quickly and half pointing out this should be investigated. Parnas isn't exactly a reliable reporter, so the goal would be to find corroborating evidence. Put him in a deposition and see what he's got. The claim obviously fits within what is already known and is genuinely quite bad if true, so it is worth finding out more about it.

Yes, they should. He should at least be deposed before the special committee prepares its report.