May 10, 2019

“We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation, which we have a right to do. There’s nothing illegal about it," said Giuliani.

"Somebody could say it’s improper. And this isn’t foreign policy — I’m asking [Ukraine] to do an investigation that they’re doing already and that other people are telling them to stop. And I’m going to give them reasons why they shouldn’t stop it because that information will be very, very helpful to my client, and may turn out to be helpful to my government."

From "Rudy Giuliani Plans Ukraine Trip to Push for Inquiries That Could Help Trump" (NYT).

What is Ukraine currently investigating that Giuliani wants to encourage? According to the NYT, it's "the origin of the special counsel’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election" and "the involvement of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s son in a gas company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch."
The investigations had been opened by Ukrainian prosecutors serving during the term of the country’s current president, Petro O. Poroshenko. He lost his re-election bid last month to Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian and political newcomer. Mr. Zelensky has said he would like to replace the prosecutor who oversaw some of the matters, Yuriy Lutsenko, who has met multiple times with Mr. Giuliani to discuss the issues...

Mr. Giuliani has been working on the effort with other allies of Mr. Trump whose involvement has not been previously reported, including Victoria Toensing, a lawyer who was named last year, along with her husband, as part of the legal team representing the president in the special counsel’s investigation. The appointment was rescinded less than one week later amid concerns about conflicts of interest, but Mr. Trump’s legal team suggested that Ms. Toensing and her husband, Joseph E. diGenova, would assist the president “in other legal matters.”

On social media and in regular appearances on Fox News, the couple advanced the theory that the special counsel’s investigation was the result of a Justice Department effort to frame Mr. Trump. They increasingly began pushing the claim that “the real collusion began in @Ukraine,” as Ms. Toensing put it in a post on Twitter in March.

The tweet spotlighted a story in the conservative media in which Mr. Lutsenko, Ukraine’s top prosecutor, announced he was opening an investigation into whether Ukrainian officials tried to help Mrs. Clinton during the 2016 presidential election by disseminating documents related to Mr. Manafort’s work in Ukraine before 2014.

Ms. Toensing has also met with Mr. Lutsenko, the Ukrainian prosecutor who has pushed the investigations, Mr. Giuliani said..... Ms. Toensing will accompany Mr. Giuliani to Ukraine....

58 comments:

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The leftwing = the mob.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

oligarch

*drink*

the walls are closing in

Fen said...

"We want full transparency!" chirp the Democrats in union.

Do I really need to say it? Okay..Fen's Law. The Left doesn't really believe in the things they lecture the rest of us about.

daskol said...

This Joe DiGenova?

The problem for Brennan and Clapper and Comey and Baker and all of them now is that the FISA court has already communicated with the Justice Department their findings.

The findings are that for more than four years before the election of Donald Trump there was an illegal spying operation going on by FBI contractors, four of them to steal personal electronic information about Americans and to use it against the Republican Party.

There are going to be indictments, there are going to be grand juries. John Brennan isn't going to need one lawyer, he's going to need five...


Very strong words, indicating he has inside information, in his appearance on Laura Ingraham's who last week.

Lucid-Ideas said...

I've been to Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Kiev. Moscow is horrid. Avoid at all costs. St. Petersburg is nice but small. Kiev was the best. And the girls? Damn.

Ukrainians are super-nice and very hospitable, but there's a lot of Soviet era operat a maskarovka that lingers. I.E. I have no doubt Dems have a lot of fingers in a lot of pies over there.

daskol said...

Admiral Rogers: not a lawyer!

More from diGenova, who is apparently working with his wife and with Rudy on this:

There’s a hero in this story and it is not a lawyer. There is a hero. His name is Admiral Mike Rogers. He was the head of the National Security Agency.

He [Rogers] discovered the illegal spying. He went personally to the FISA court and briefed the Chief Judge and worked with her for months to uncover the people who did it. The FISA court has already told the Justice Department who lied to that court and that has been given to [Attorney General] Bill Barr already.

Michael K said...

The Obama ambassador to Ukraine was heavily involved in the attempted coup.

paminwi said...

daskol: I truly hope that your comments have real validity. I am tired of lots of wrong doing but no consequences.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Maybe hunter biden/burisma

Ray - SoCal said...

Can spygate get any more complicated?

Latest question is how much involvement did the Russian to US ambassador have?

He keeps on appearing at critical moments...

traditionalguy said...

First Bill Barr and now Rudy Giuliani. There are now two trained drug sniffing dogs on the scent. And the Dem/Soros/Clinton Cartel have to destroy them both. And they have so little air time left in which to slander them as criminals. Panic City.

Bruce Hayden said...

I find it interesting that Trump seems to be building up Biden publicly as the Dems most formidable challenger to him, and then has his attorneys working with the Ukrainian government to uncover corruption that is likely to seriously taint his son Hunter, who profited greatly with his father as VP.

glenn said...

Rudy bashing to commence in .... 5 ..... 4 ..... 3

Drago said...

"Admiral Rogers: not a lawyer!"

Admiral Rogers is a distinguished and accomplished military officer who refused to allow the democrats to continue weaponizing intelligence capabilities for their corrupt East German Stasi-like purposes.

Needless to say, this will inevitably trigger a vicious attack on Adm Rogers by LLR Chuck and the rest of the left.

I would recommend Adm Rogers increase security around his children given the historical record of LLR Chuck's antifa pals.

tim in vermont said...

The walls are closing in! The end is nigh! Repent sinners!

tim in vermont said...

I want to know who authorized all of those unmaskings using Susan Rice’s authority, since she denies she did it.

Wince said...

Why did Giuliani use their word “meddle”, which I’m sure he was prompted with?

What’s wrong with the word “assist” or “cooperate”.

RG is not a great flack.

StephenFearby said...

I've posted this before but I'm posting it again because I haven't seen any follow-up in the press. There is an enormous increase in the number of warrants the FISA Court either required modifications to or outright denied in 2016 and 2017. The number of denials in these two years far exceeded the total number denials from 1979 to 2015.

The only logical explanation to explain this strange anomaly appears to be the FBI's partisan investigation of Russiagate. To my knowledge, no one yet has called for an examination of the denied warrants:

FISA warrant requests for electronic surveillance

#Requests Modified Denied
Year Submitted Approved
1979 199 207 0 0
1980 319 322 1 0
1981 431 433 0 0
1982 473 475 0 0
1983 549 549 0 0
1984 635 635 0 0
1985 587 587 0 0
1986 573 573 0 0
1987 512 512 0 0
1988 534 534 0 0
1989 546 546 0 0
1990 595 595 0 0
1991 593 593 0 0
1992 484 484 0 0
1993 509 509 0 0
1994 576 576 0 0
1995 697 697 0 0
1996 839 839 0 0
1997 749 748 0 0
1998 796 796 0 0
1999 886 880 0 0
2000 1,005 1,012 1 0
2001 932 934 4 0
2002 1,228 1,228 2 0
2003 1,727 1,724 79 4
2004 1,758 1,754 94 0
2005 2,074 2,072 61 0
2006 2,181 2,176 73 1
2007 2,371 2,370 86 4
2008 2,082 2,083 2 1
2009 1,329 1,320 14 2
2010 1,511 1,506 14 0
2011 1,676 1,674 30 0
2012 1,789 1,788 40 0
2013 1,588 1,588 34 0
2014 1,379 1,379 19 0
2015 1,457 1,456 80 5
2016 1,485 1,451 310 34
2017 1,372 948 310 34

TOTALS 41,222 40,668 1,252 85

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Court

StephenFearby said...

Well, the table didn't format in the same way it appeared in the comment box. The last column is the # of denials, just after the # of modifications.

etbass said...

I will be impressed when I see a grand jury convened or warrants for arrest issued and charges filed. Anything less than that is just more show.

Yancey Ward said...

Well, it would only be proper to appoint a special counsel to investigate Hunter and Joe Biden. We could fill it with DoJ personnel who were Trump donors. I mean, this is how it is supposed to be done, right?

Dave Begley said...

Slow Creepy Joe isn't as smart as the Clintons. He had the money going direct to Hunter. He should have set up the Biden Family Foundation.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

There's no question high-ranking Ukrainian officials "interfered in our election" by the Russiagate standard. I can keep linking to these articles, but it's ridiculous that people treat this stuff as newly-discovered!

The Hill: As Russia Collusion Fades Ukrainian Plot To Help Clinton Emerges

That's from three months ago but includes links and references to public news reports from more than a year before that.

The Hill: Ukrainian Embassy Confirms DNC Contractor Solicited Trump Dirt in 2016

The only real difference between the allegedly-shocking, criminal, unthinkably treasonous act of Don Jr. meeting with a Russia-associated person who said they had dirt on Clinton and the Clinton campaign doing the same thing with Ukrainian officials to get dirt on Trump associates is the number of cut outs/intermediaries used. The Clintons and seasoned DNC pros knew to hire a law firm that could hire an operative and that'd insulate the party & Clinton, but political amateur Trump just did it himself. That's it!

If one is criminal and treason and a horrible example of encouraging foreign interference in our election then so is the other.

The Left and their Media allies hold strong to the belief that "it's different when WE do it" is a valid, principled stance that excuses any and all behavior of this sort and permits the obvious double standard. There is no reason for the rest of us to pretend they're doing anything other than that.

daskol said...

Don Jr. meeting with a Russia-associated person

I think this is a hoax. Natalia Veselnitskaya, this supposedly Russia-associated person, was very closely associated with Glenn Simpson of GPS. On the night before and after the Trump Tower meeting, she had dinner with him. She was his client. That makes both of the supposed Russian contacts from the Trump campaign--the other is Mifsud, who appears to be an asset of western intelligence agencies--look like set ups.

paminwi, I said the same thing when I caught the Joe diGenova segment on TV. I sincerely hope he's not pulling a Brennan himself, and that he actually had good authority behind his claims.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

It's OK for the anyone to "find dirt on Trump"

Totally illegal to find dirt on the Clinton Money Grubbing Inc.

Mark O said...

Drag them to a Grand Jury. Indict them. Prosecute them. Bankrupt them. Give them heavy sentences. This is the greatest and foulest misuse of government power in the history of America.

robother said...

I can't understand what the Democrat/MSM issue with this is.

First the incumbent party funds foreign sources to compose a dossier on the challenger. Second, that dossier is used to get FISA warrants to monitor and infiltrate the challenger's campaign. Finally, if it looks like the challenger may win, you convene a meeting of the FBI, DOJ and CIA to develop an insurance plan against his presidency. This is all by the book, as written by the Democrats in the last election.

iowan2 said...

Know it seems Robert Mueller hired Christopher Steele to do investigations for the Special Counsel. Mueller has a line Item of $780k outside services identified a investigation/anaylsis. It does not name Steele, but the description involves foriegn agent working for Fusion GPS.

Everyone thinks Mueller is going to testify in front of congress, and the Republicans are scared. No one thinks that Republicans have a lot of questions. This would be just one. Another would be how early did Mueller know that the conspiricy was a hoax, with no predicate to base an investigation on. There are lots of others. I don't think Dems have any notion of opening this can of worms. Even they can't be this stupid

Bruce Hayden said...

“I think this is a hoax. Natalia Veselnitskaya, this supposedly Russia-associated person, was very closely associated with Glenn Simpson of GPS. On the night before and after the Trump Tower meeting, she had dinner with him. She was his client. That makes both of the supposed Russian contacts from the Trump campaign--the other is Mifsud, who appears to be an asset of western intelligence agencies--look like set ups. “

She also apparently didn’t have an American visa at the time. Yet she was able to get into and out of our country fairly easily, which strongly suggests that she had someone high up in the Obama Administration facilitating the meeting. My guess is that it was probably either DNI Clapper or CIA Dir Brennan. State Dept or maybe Homeland Security might also have been able to pull that off, but I find that unlikely. Sec Kerry doesn’t seem to have had any involvement in the plot, and Foggy Bottom appear to have been trying to keep away because it was political (with the recently disclosed communications with Nusenbaum), with the only State Dept involvement having been overseas.

Bruce Hayden said...

“Everyone thinks Mueller is going to testify in front of congress, and the Republicans are scared. No one thinks that Republicans have a lot of questions. This would be just one. Another would be how early did Mueller know that the conspiricy was a hoax, with no predicate to base an investigation on. There are lots of others. I don't think Dems have any notion of opening this can of worms. Even they can't be this stupid”

I fully expect that if Mueller does testify before Congress, that he will have a DOJ attorney sitting right next to him, a minder who will be in a position to control what he testifies about. This shouldn’t surprise anyone, because that is how FBI employees testified before Congress over the last two years.

narciso said...

so the son of the actual vicepresident, who actually intervened to fire the prosecutor in another country, which is being investigated five years later, but vogel, manages to twist it into irrelevance,

narciso said...

as with akhmetshin, who had preexisting ties to us state department, also miss butina was meeting with Obama officials at treasury and the fed during 2015-2016, reuters omits the context from the headline,

narciso said...

deripaska had been retained to assist with the search for fbi agent levinson, that's why he hired adam waldman, who negotiated with the foreign ministry, he was the back channel to Assange as well,

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...


narciso has posted many links and relevant keywords days/weeks ago re: info and players who are tangled up with the Bidens

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/436816-joe-bidens-2020-ukrainian-nightmare-a-closed-probe-is-revived

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/world/europe/corruption-ukraine-joe-biden-son-hunter-biden-ties.html

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

dems going after don jr. may result in DJT going after biden jr.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

So is it Trump’s plan to save it for an October surprise or is it to knock Biden out of the nomination race, thereby elevating Trump’s preferred opponent? You’d be crazy to think there isn’t a plan.

Original Mike said...

"I fully expect that if Mueller does testify before Congress, that he will have a DOJ attorney sitting right next to him, a minder who will be in a position to control what he testifies about. This shouldn’t surprise anyone, because that is how FBI employees testified before Congress over the last two years."

Why would Barr want this? In fact, if it happens Barr will be pummeled for 'muzzling Mueller'. Why would he open himself up to that?

Let Bob be Bob.

narciso said...

but the hill is the one, with john Solomon, that is actually reporting, the times is covering with a pillow, btw, you wonder how the magnitsky act got past. it was through the efforts of super lobbyist julianna glover Weiss, who is quelle surprise, a doyen of the nevertrump movement, unlike Jackson vanik, which was about a real pressing issue, instead the accountant for bill browder, whose grandfather was a presidential candidate of the communists in the 30s, who worked for Edmund safra, the mysterious banker who met an equally bizarre end at the hands of his ex green beret nurse, ted maher, sounds like something out of the blacklist,

bagoh20 said...

Busted:

https://pjmedia.com/video/digenova-ig-horowitz-has-concluded-that-the-final-three-fisa-extensions-were-illegally-obtained/

narciso said...

who's attorney are loyal to what faction, yes it's game of thrones on the hill,

narciso said...

comey is still insisting everything is kosher, halper is putting his best wallaby deadpan, says he doesn't know why Papadopoulos said what he did, real life alex parrish, ashrappa, insists the dossier is kosher, etc etc,

narciso said...

deripaska had retained manafort, who got McCain to issue him new visas, despite his kerfluffles in the aluminum business, much more than he did with waldman, of course I think the seed of this matter was when manafort was riding high, and the crash of aluminum adversely affected deripaska, it's my pet theory gleaned from watching mcmafia, and the data dump that foer published (the same foer who woul front the silly alpha bank matter)

Michael K said...

I don't think Dems have any notion of opening this can of worms. Even they can't be this stupid”

Have you been Watching them recently?

Slow Creepy Joe isn't as smart as the Clintons. He had the money going direct to Hunter. He should have set up the Biden Family Foundation.

"Once the air hits your brain.."

Nichevo said...

Nobody said...
I want to know who authorized all of those unmaskings using Susan Rice’s authority, since she denies she did it.

5/10/19, 3:26 PM


Why, the 44th President of the United States, of course. Who else could do such a thing without alarm bells going off? The curious incident of the witch in the night-time.

Fen said...

I want to know who authorized all of those unmaskings using Susan Rice’s authority, since she denies she did it.

That's a neat trick.

"Well hello Secret Service Agents! What? No, I have no idea who sent those emails under my name... Sure thing, you have a nice day too."

Think that will fly?

It's all good. Susan Rice will be punished, and when that time comes she will wish she had thrown herself on the mercy of the Rule of Law.

Oh there's the doorbell, brb...

Kevin said...

This shouldn’t surprise anyone, because that is how FBI employees testified before Congress over the last two years.

Didn’t Barr say Mueller could testify AS A PRIVATE CITIZEN?

As far as the AG is concerned, Mueller worked for him and doesn’t get to speak for the DOJ to Congress.

If Mueller wants to go around taking about his theories, he can do it without the government picking up his legal tab.

I’m sure this is what all the back and forth has been about. Does he wish to voluntarily testify under oath without a DOJ lawyer provided?

walter said...


Blogger Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...
dems going after don jr. may result in DJT going after biden jr.
--
Change may to will

walter said...

Or rather, Is.

Ken B said...

Grandstanding. What can Mueller say? Here's what I left out of my report? Here's where I said the wrong thing in my report? Here are the lies in my report? None of the above. So what exactly can he have to say?

Brian said...

No way Mueller testifies. Why be subject to cross examination?

The media and Democrats keep expecting Trump to ban him from testifying (like McGahn). Trump won't stop him though. He knows they are bluffing.

Ray - SoCal said...

I don't think it is only the Dems going after Trump Jr, but rather the uniparty trying to have some influence, especially Burr, over Trump. Typical beltway stabbing in the back, while publicly saying something else. McConnell may also be involved. Only problem is Trump will not stand still and allow himself to be a target, he hits back. A nice change for a Republican. There is already a lot of GOP anger against Burr, nice... Sounds like it will be resolved with answers to written questions, so everyone can claim a win.

Ray - SoCal said...

I don't know if Mueller will testify, my gut feeling is if he does, the entire stack of cards that his report will come crashing down, and it will destroy even more of his credibility with the general public. And I am sure he does not want to destroy even more of his credibility. And the Democrats also don't want that.

My guess is the Democrats will make some insane demands, which will be used as an excuse for Mueller not to testify.

The joker in the deck, is Trump may agree to the demands. And throw it back on the Democrats and make them say No. Or troll the Democrats and cause them to say no. Somehow I expect Trump to make it a Democrat headache and fault, for Mueller not going before congress.

Original Mike said...

"Didn’t Barr say Mueller could testify AS A PRIVATE CITIZEN?"

Really? Do you have a link for that? Because that would be encouraging.

exhelodrvr1 said...

"I find it interesting that Trump seems to be building up Biden publicly as the Dems most formidable challenger to him, and then has his attorneys working with the Ukrainian government to uncover corruption that is likely to seriously taint his son Hunter, who profited greatly with his father as VP."

He likely views him as having the most exploitable flaws of any of the Dem frontrunners

Nichevo said...

Original Mike said...
"Didn’t Barr say Mueller could testify AS A PRIVATE CITIZEN?"

Really? Do you have a link for that? Because that would be encouraging.

5/10/19, 11:40 PM


No link on hand, but I thought I heard that too.

Rusty said...

Brian said...
"No way Mueller testifies. Why be subject to cross examination?"
And a potential purjury charge.
If he's a smart boy he'll make himself as unobtrusive as possible'

tim in vermont said...

I seem to remember the comment too, but there’s this:

WASHINGTON — Special counsel Robert Mueller was expected to step down days after concluding his investigation in March. Yet he remains a Justice Department employee — and the department won't say why.

That's just one of the complications at play in the high-stakes, secret negotiations over whether Mueller will testify before Congress.

Whatever role Mueller now has, keeping him on the Justice Department payroll offers one clear advantage to President Donald Trump's administration: It makes it easier for Attorney General William Barr to block Mueller from testifying before Congress.

Democrats, who control the House, have been eager to hear from Mueller. They hope he can shine more light on his investigation into interference in the 2016 presidential election, possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, and potential obstruction of justice.
. - NYT May 6

Original Mike said...

"Yet he remains a Justice Department employee — and the department won't say why."

He's hiding. IMO, the NYT has it backwards (I know, I know). Why would Mueller want to testify? Why would Barr want to stop him?