I went out last night for several hours—and I came back to find a release of documents linking Pompeo, Giuliani, and the White House.
This was after Giuliani openly admitted that his agenda was to look out for the personal interests of his client, Donald Trump.
PLUS Giuliani’s associate is willing to tell Congress Nunes met with ex-Ukrainian official to get dirt on Biden.
People, this is nuts. Nunes’s job on that committee is to find out if Trump abused his power to pressure Ukraine to investigate a political rival. Meanwhile, Nunes was abusing HIS power to pressure Ukraine to investigate a political rival. Good grief.
Before launching into summary and analysis of the documents, I’ll state the obvious: When Trump goes to work each day, he’s not thinking about how to make America better for its citizens. He’s not thinking about how to make the world a better place. He’s plotting ways to launch a smear campaign against an American like Marie Yovanovitch, he’s thinking about how to manufacture lies and a false narrative.
He’s thinking about how to HURT Americans.
He’s thinking about how to turn Americans against each other.
OK, so. Rant over. Back to the documents. We already know that in late 2018 / early 2019, Giuliani was talking to disgruntled former Ukrainian prosecutors willing to push false stories to ingratiate themselves with Trump.
We learn from the new docs that Giuliani sent memos to Pompeo and Devin Nunes detailing his discussions with Ukrainian prosecutors regarding Yovanovitch, the Bidens, and claims that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election.
We already knew that on March 20, John Solomon–using that information–published this piece in the Hill.
Lutsenko told Solomon that Yovanovitch gave him a “do not prosecute list during their first meeting.” He also accused the embassy of mishandling 4.4 million in funds.
George Kent testified that he saw the list, and it was a forgery, filled with misspellings. The nature of the misspellings indicated to him that the creator of the list was either Czech or Serbian. Attached to the list was a business card that he had used temporarily in 2015.
We learn from the new docs that on March 26: Secretary of State Pompeo had one of several phone calls with Rudy Giuliani.
At least one call was set up by Madeleine Westerhout, who was White House Director of Oval Office operations.
We also learn that on March 27 Westerhout complained that she had “been trying and getting nowhere through regular channels” when she tried to connect Giuliani with Pompeo.
Narrator: the contact was at Trump’s direction, but the State Dept. was reluctant to get involved
We learn that a March 28 State Dept. email list includes a list of scheduled calls for Pompeo.
One of those was a call scheduled with Giuliani on March 29 and Devin Nunes on April 1.
On April 5 six former ambassadors to Ukraine (including Taylor) wrote to the State Dept. to express their concern about the unwarranted attacks on Yovanovitch.
April 12: House Democrats, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and House Foreign Affairs committee chairman Eliot Engel objected to Yovanovitch’s treatment.
Sondland, remember, pushed back against the accusation that he was running a “shadow” or “back channel” operation in Ukraine:
Sondland said “everyone was in the loop,” and he (and his fellow Amigos) kept the NSC and State Dept. informed of their activities.
Sondland named all the big names and said, “They knew what we were doing and why.”
This new cache of docs backs up his testimony.
Also remember when the news first broke and Giuliani waved his phone around and said he had proof that he wasn’t going rogue; he was acting at the direction of the State Dept?
If you want to refresh your memory, this was the moment in Hill’s testimony when she described how she came to understand that Sondland was on a “political errand”—and that the highest levels of the administration were aware.
One more important bit: Volker testified that Pompeo didn’t always support Giuliani; Pompeo tried to distance himself from Giuliani.
Okay, now for my analysis on what this tells us about Trump, Giuliani, Sondland, Volker, and the State Dept.
This is the story of how Trump corrupts people and institutions. Sondland in his testimony, described it this way: At first, what Trump wanted was vague—he and Giuliani wanted a general commitment that Zelensky would pursue investigations.
Then gradually more conditions were added until, by August, both Sondland and Taylor realized that Trump was withholding both the White House meeting and security aid until the Ukrainians announced an investigation that would ensnare Joe Biden.
This is how Trump operates.
Trump corrupts people. He pulls them in. The increasing insidiousness is so gradual that the person gradually wakes up to the realization that he or she is deeply embroiled.
As James Comey said, “Trump eats your soul in small bites.”
The victim then, from fear of exposure, helps Trump obstruct the inquiry. This compromises them and embroils them even more.
Some people have the strength to withstand Trump’s overtures.
Those who do find themselves attacked with a vengeance.
With a meanness of spirit that can only be called cruelty, Trump crushes people who stand in his way or refuse the bait he dangles. He endangers their lives and ruins their livelihood.
If they take the bait (flattery, promises of wealth or power) this compromises them, and then he owns them.
It looks to me like Trump compromised Pompeo by pulling him into the discussions and leaving a paper trail.
Also remember this: The President cannot, by definition, run a shadow campaign. He is the nation’s chief foreign service officer.
What Trump can do is corrupt the system by setting people against each other. He can manipulate people, keeping them off balance and scared.
A house divided itself cannot stand—and Trump is intentionally creating division while infecting the system with corruption.
One way Trump inoculates himself is by making sure that lots of people at the top are guilty or compromised.
Putin operates the same way. Note that if Trump’s Ukraine shakedown had succeeded, he would have also compromised Zelenskiy.
I don’t believe the Republicans saying that the exposure of all of this hurts Zelenskiy.
Zelenskiy must take care to stay out of this. He cannot make a statement either way. If anything he has to appease Trump. Ukrainians understand the pressure he was under. Personally I think he demonstrated an extraordinary level of political savvy. He walked a tightrope.
I think Zelenskiy understands that he was saved by the bell.
Ron Johnsons’s suggestion that this should have been handled behind the scenes instead of in open hearings is absurd.
Really? The GOP would have stopped all of this if Schiff had told them privately they should.
Moreover, Ukraine is helped enormously by all of this evidence in open Congressional hearings that the theory that they interfered in our election is pure bunk.
Ukraine is also helped by these hearings educating the American public on their situation.
This is already long, so I’ll talk about the Nunes connection in another post.
I updated my timeline. The new stuff is in gold.
