US Congress impeaches self | 254 comments (254 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: US Congress impeaches self: D2 (none / 0)

o. look. a Congressional Record entry for ... 22 Jan
ORDER OF PROCEDURE, Congressional Record Vol. 166, No. 13, Opening Statement

Mr. Manager [!] SCHIFF. Mr. Chief Justice, Senators, counsel for the
President, and my fellow House managers: I want to begin by thanking
you, Chief Justice, for a very long day, for the way you have presided
over these proceedings. I want to thank the Senators also. We went well
into the morning, as you know, until I believe around 2 in the morning.
You paid attention to every word and argument you heard from both sides
in this impeachment trial, and I know we are both deeply grateful for
that.
It was an exhausting day for us, certainly, but we have adrenaline
going through our veins. ....

by Cat on Thu Jan 23rd, 2020 at 05:12:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: US Congress impeaches self: D2 (none / 0)

Mr Manager Jeffries, pp 8

He told President Zelensky:

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.
Think about this contrast. The President bashed a career American diplomat [YOVANOVITCH] and an anti-corruption champion whom he unceremoniously removed because she was viewed as an obstacle to his efforts to solicit foreign interference in the 2020 election and then at the same time praised someone who he thought could be an asset--a former Ukrainian prosecutor whom the free world views as an obstacle to the rule of law. The idea that President Trump cares about corruption is laughable. It is laughable.

< wipes tears >
Top Ukrainian justice official says US ambassador gave him a do not prosecute list, 20 Mar 2019

The State Department called Lutsenko's claim of receiving a do not prosecute list, "an outright fabrication."
[...]
Lutsenko also said that he has not received funds amounting to nearly $4 million that the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine was supposed to allocate to his office, saying that "the situation was actually rather strange" and pointing to the fact that the funds were designated, but "never received."

Prosecutor General admits U.S. Ambassador didn't give him a do not prosecute list 18 Apr 2019

by Cat on Thu Jan 23rd, 2020 at 06:45:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: US Congress impeaches self: D2 (none / 0)

The Ukrainian Prosecutor Behind Trump's Impeachment, Dec 2019

On October 3rd, Kurt Volker, Trump's former special envoy to Ukraine, said in a closed-door deposition, "My opinion of Prosecutor General Lutsenko was that he was acting in a self-serving manner, frankly making things up, in order to appear important to the United States, because he wanted to save his job." In a closed-door deposition on October 11th, Yovanovitch described Lutsenko as an "opportunist" who "will ally himself, sometimes simultaneously . . . with whatever political or economic forces he believes will suit his interests best at the time." On the first day of public testimony, Kent accused Lutsenko of "peddling false information in order to exact revenge" against Yovanovitch and his domestic rivals. Lutsenko told me they were all liars. In our conversations, which took place in the course of several weeks, he veered between self-pity and defiance. "I gave my country so many years," he told me one night, after his third or fourth Scotch. "I had a good story and good results, but I became a bad person. I can't understand it."

by Cat on Thu Jan 23rd, 2020 at 06:58:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: US Congress impeaches self: D2 (none / 0)

birth of a twitter "meme", p 8

Mrs. Manager DEMINGS. After the meeting, Dr. Hill followed up with Ambassador Bolton and relayed what transpired. Bolton was alarmed. In other words, Ambassador Bolton didn't want any part of it. He directed Dr. Hill to brief the NSC's top attorney, John Eisenberg, as she explained during her hearing.
(Text of Videotape presentation:)
GOLDMAN. What was that specific instruction?
Dr. HILL. The specific instruction was that I have to go to the lawyers, to John Eisenberg, our senior counsel for the National Security Council, to basically say, you tell Eisenberg, Ambassador Bolton told me, that I am not part of this whatever drug deal that Mulvaney and Sondland are cooking up.
GOLDMAN. What did you understand him to mean by the drug deal that Mulvaney and Sondland were cooking up? Dr. HILL. I took it to mean investigations for a meeting.
GOLDMAN. Did you go speak to the lawyers?
Dr. HILL. I certainly did.
Mrs. Manager DEMINGS. As a former chief of police, I think it is quite interesting that Ambassador Bolton categorized the corrupt scheme--the pressure campaign--as a "drug deal."