September 20, 2019

"A potentially explosive complaint by a whistle-blower in the intelligence community said to involve President Trump emerged... While the allegation remains shrouded in mystery..."

"... it involves at least one instance of Mr. Trump making an unspecified commitment to a foreign leader and includes other actions.... At least part of the allegation deals with Ukraine, two people familiar with it said.... Though it is not clear how Ukraine fits into the allegation, questions have already emerged about Mr. Trump’s dealings with its government. In late July, he told the country’s new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, that Ukraine could improve its reputation and its 'interaction' with the United States by investigating corruption, according to a Ukrainian government summary of the call. Some of Mr. Trump’s close allies were also urging the Ukrainian government to investigate matters that could hurt the president’s political rivals, including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his family...."

I'm trying to read this very confusing shrouded-in-mystery report in the New York Times, "Whistle-Blower Complaint Sets Off a Battle Involving Trump/The complaint, from a member of the intelligence community, remained opaque but involved at least one of the president’s communications with a foreign leader."

Is there some idea that this is the issue that will be used in the future against Biden and that it ought to come out now?

ADDED: Trump's tweeted reaction:
The Radical Left Democrats and their Fake News Media partners, headed up again by Little Adam Schiff, and batting Zero for 21 against me, are at it again! They think I may have had a “dicey” conversation with a certain foreign leader based on a “highly partisan” whistleblowers.. ....statement. Strange that with so many other people hearing or knowing of the perfectly fine and respectful conversation, that they would not have also come forward. Do you know the reason why they did not? Because there was nothing said wrong, it was pitch perfect!

131 comments:

whitney said...

The desperation is palatable

Fernandinande said...

Potentially shrouded in mystery unspecified other actions not clear.

Smells like teen collusion.

tim maguire said...

Simple question: Did the president know people in the intelligence community were listening to his calls?

If yes, he didn't say anything he wasn't entitled to say. If no, then there's your scandal. People in the intelligence community are still spying on the president and more arrests need to be made. Probably many more arrests.

Chris said...

What we are supposed to just trust the NY times this time?

rehajm said...

Some of Mr. Trump’s close allies were also urging the Ukrainian government to investigate matters that could hurt the president’s political rivals, including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his family...

A leftie free solo to claim the high ground. Accuse your opponent of what you are guilty of...

Mike Sylwester said...

Vice President Biden pressured the Ukrainian Government to fire a prosecutor who was investigating an energy company that had hired Biden's son Hunter Biden to be on its Board of Directors.

President Trump suggested in that phone call that the Ukrainian Government re-open that investigation.

rhhardin said...

The desperation is palatable

De gustibus non est disputandum.

Wince said...

On the whole, this is worse news for Biden than Trump.

RMc said...

Orange Man does things.
Orange Man bad.
Therefore, Orange Man does bad things, QED.

Mike Sylwester said...

Now the Trump-hating media are being suckered into reporting that Vice President Biden had pressured the Ukrainian Government into terminating an investigation that involved his son Hunter.

This scandal is blowing up in the face of Joe Biden and his supporters.

c365 said...

Is wrong to say, "Hey I suspect there's some corruption going on because the son of a famous US politician just happens to be working for a Ukrainian company on its board, which was under investigation for corruption, but the person leading the investigation was fired after said son's father, the famous politician, said he'd withhold $1 billion unless the prosecutor was fired."?

Can you imagine why a Ukrainian energy company would find it advantageous to employ said son? Doesn't that alone merit corruption investigation, let alone what they were actually being targeted for?

Why is this supposed to be a scandal for Trump. It's exactly in line with Hillary setting up an illegal server to hide emails from the government, that gets hacked, and suddenly it's Trump's fault.

I'm no Trump fan, but this is all pretty transparent what's really going on.

NEO-FIDO said...

If it is fair to apply that standard of collusion to Trump, it is fair to apply that standard of collusion to Biden.

Except that there seems to be a hell of a lot more 'there' there with Biden.

This will not change the minds of any Lefties, but it might bump out Slow Mo Joe and leave them with the rest of the assorted wingnuts in the party.

Temujin said...

Another "explosive" report.

Questions:
1) If he's doing deals with Ukraine, wouldn't that go against the years of talk that he's Putin's agent in the White House? After all, Ukraine and Russia are in a sort of low-grade war right now.

2) What's good for the goose? What about Obama's comments to a foreign government? Tell Vlad.... I never did hear a good explanation for that one.

Qwinn said...

If only we had heard Trump on a hot mic asking someone in the Russian government to pass along to Putin that he'd have more flexibility after the 2020 election, then everything would be fine, since we could just dismiss it as "political sniping" by the Dems. Wait, what do you mean by "Calvinball"?

Darrell said...

Donald J. Trump
17 mins ·
The Radical Left Democrats and their Fake News Media partners, headed up again by Little Adam Schiff, and batting Zero for 21 against me, are at it again! They think I may have had a “dicey” conversation with a certain foreign leader based on a “highly partisan” whistleblowers statement. Strange that with so many other people hearing or knowing of the perfectly fine and respectful conversation, that they would not have also come forward. Do you know the reason why they did not? Because there was nothing said wrong, it was pitch perfect!

AlbertAnonymous said...

New York F’ing Times.... ‘Nough said.

Mike Sylwester said...

Did Hunter Biden study the Ukrainian language in college?

Is that why he was qualified to be hired onto the Board of Directors of a Ukrainian energy company?

Was Joe Biden an expert in Ukrainian investigations of corruption in that country's energy industry?

Is that why Vice President Biden was qualified to pressure the Ukrainian Government to fire the prosecutor who was investigating that corruption?

The Trump-hating media intended to ignore such questions until after November 2020.

Now that whistle-blower in the US Intelligence Community has opened this can of worms 14 months too early.

MadisonMan said...

"said to involve President Trump"

Uh-huh. Right.

Jaq said...

Read this “Fact Check” by ‘Politifact’ that purports to get Biden off the hook for interfereing in Ukraine’s prosecution of a company which had hired his son and you will see a sordid tale of insider enrichment from big time Democrats.

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2019/may/07/viral-image/fact-checking-joe-biden-hunter-biden-and-ukraine/

Biden’s Burisma directorship attracted attention because Burisma was owned by Mykola Zlochevsky, a minister under Russia-friendly President Viktor F. Yanukovych who subsequently went into exile after a popular revolution. After Yanukovych was ousted, Zlochevsky faced a variety of corruption-related investigations involving his business.

And this:

The company also retained the law firm where Biden had been working, Boies Schiller Flexner.

The position with Burisma came at a time when the younger Biden had joined with Christopher Heinz (the stepson of then-Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.) and Devon Archer (a Kerry family friend) in a string of investment and consulting firms. Firms run by Biden and Archer "pursued business with international entities that had a stake in American foreign policy decisions,


But not to worry! Biden didn’t anything about his son’s business ties to Russian oligarchs until he "read about it in the papers”. just like his boss!

Oh yeah, and Boies:

David Boies, a “Democratic superlawyer” and major donor, is reportedly representing Peter Strzok, the FBI official accused of unsuccessfully conspiring with others in the agency and elsewhere to help Hillary Clinton

Yeah, I am sure Democrats are handling this with kid gloves.

Jaq said...

""said to involve President Trump”

Yes, his enemies were caught with their hands in the cookie jar, and this would help Trump get re-elected if it came out!

oldirishpig said...

Wow. This 'explosive' turd has even less heft than the Kavanaugh 'bombshell'.

Qwinn said...

Obama's "Tell Vladimir..." hot mic moment could have and should have, all by itself, warranted and justified a Mueller-level 2 year investigation. Hell, if we had a sane polity, it could have and should have triggered impeachment proceedincs, all by itself.

But instead the investigation and impeachment gets projected onto Trump based on nothing whatsoever.

I don't see a way out of this.

Mike Sylwester said...

John Kerry’s son cut business ties with Hunter Biden over Ukrainian oil deal, an article written by Alana Goodman and published by The Washington Examiner on August 27.

The article begins:

John Kerry’s stepson rushed to play damage control at the State Department after his business partner Hunter Biden cut a deal with an oligarch-owned Ukrainian gas company in 2014, according to internal State Department correspondence obtained by the Washington Examiner.

The correspondence adds to the questions about Biden's business activities, which have dogged the 2020 Democratic primary campaign of his father Joe. Hunter Biden's long history of drug and alcohol abuse, which contributed to his divorce and his dismissal from the Navy Reserve, has also attracted unwelcome publicity for the Democratic front-runner.

An email released to the Washington Examiner shows that Biden’s decision to join the board of Ukraine’s Burisma Holdings sparked immediate concern within his inner circle about the political optics. Biden’s father Joe — now vying for the 2020 Democratic Party nomination — was then vice president and overseeing the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy.

At the time, Hunter Biden, now 49, and Christopher Heinz, the stepson of then-Secretary of State John Kerry, co-owned Rosemont Seneca Partners, a $2.4 billion private equity firm. Heinz’s college roommate, Devon Archer, was managing partner in the firm. In the spring of 2014, Biden and Archer joined the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian gas company that was at the center of a U.K. money laundering probe. Over the next year, Burisma reportedly paid Biden and Archer’s companies over $3 million.

Hours after Biden’s board appointment went public on May 13, 2014, Heinz emailed Matt Summers and David Wade, two of his stepfather’s top aides at the State Department.

“Apparently Devon and Hunter both joined the board of Burisma and a press release went out today,” wrote Heinz. “I cant speak why they decided to, but there was no investment by our firm in their company.”

Jaq said...

"It was a mistake for Hunter Biden to join the Burisma board, particularly given that the vice president was the senior U.S. official engaging Ukraine," Pifer said. "Hunter Biden should have been more mindful of his father's position."

I doubt it was possible for Hunter Biden to be more mindful of his father’s position in making this deal.

narciso said...

He washed out of the navy, on a positive test for coke, so what was the ask to get that board assignment

Mike Sylwester said...

Hunter Biden surely speaks no Ukrainian, and he is a coke addict involved in an affair with his brother's widow.

Nevertheless, he was hired onto the Board of Directors of a Ukrainian energy company.

J2 said...




Here's Video of Biden at CFR bragging about threatening to withhold 1 Billion in US aid to Poroshenko government unless Ukraine's General Prosecutor investigating Burisma was fired (w/Richard Haas)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCF9My1v

Bob Boyd said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mike Sylwester said...

That whistle-blower sure is showing everyone how to "get Trump".

That whistle-blower sure is a smart guy in The Resistance, causing trouble for Trump.

iowan2 said...

The Intelligence Community is as slimy and crimminal as President claims.

Explain how any information has found its way into the public sphere, if not for the IC leaking classified information to the press. For Political reasons.

narciso said...

Ah its the fusion gps dump, quelle surprise.

Jaq said...

"Obama's "Tell Vladimir..." hot mic moment ...”

That’s how you know it’s all bullshit from the Democrats. There was actual evidence of collusion on videotape which nobody disputed and “yawn.” Liberal does “blackface...” yawn. Democrats make money off of the presidency.... yawn. Some formulation is created by which, if enough facts are omitted, a remotely plausible charge of Trump family members profitting comes up? Constitutional crisis!

Darrell said...

кукурудзяний поп

Corn Pop.

Bob Boyd said...

кукурудза поп

Darrell said...

цукру СОЗ вершини

Sugar Pops Are Tops.

Birkel said...

How dare Trump ask the Ukraine to investigate the alleged bribery of Joe Biden.

Republicans should not POUNCE on the criminal behavior of Democratics.

readering said...

Potus gives permission for conversation to be publicized? Mueller report all over.

readering said...

Trading investigation on biggest rival for hundreds of millions in aid.

Mike Sylwester said...

Now even CNN will have to report that Vice President Biden pressured the Ukrainian Government to fire that Ukrainian prosecutor.

CNN will have to report it in September 2019, not in December 2020.

Dave Begley said...

When did the IC start listening in the President's phone conversations and passed value judgments on what the president said? Can we now get the tapes of Obama's phone calls and promises with Iran's mullahs?

Birkel said...

Bribery by Joe Biden.
Apologies.

Mr. D said...

This is an exercise in “whataboutism.” The Donks know the whole spying on Trump thing is coming, and we already know the Five Eyes were asked to investigate Trump. That’s less of a scandal if the Donks can argue “Trump did the same thing to Biden.”

Hagar said...

Simple question: Did the president know people in the intelligence community were listening to his calls?

Official calls are listened to and recorded by White House staff.
Our own intelligence agencies bugging the President's private phone is quite another thing.

Here, I would not be surprised if it turns out to be a trap to get Adam Schiff to subpoena the records of an official call and the White House being more than happy to dump it on him (and "The Press") after an initial show of resistance.

wendybar said...

As an American citizen, I too, want to know what the Bidens did to get rich of the Ukraine. Imagine if this were the Trump kids making millions when they traveled on the Vice President Air Force 2 to make a secret deal with Ukraine???

Dave Begley said...

Rudy didn't frame the issue very well last night. The Bank of China gave Biden's son, Kerrey's son and Whitey Bulger's nephew $1.5b in manage in their private equity fund. What experience did these three have in managing money? What is the bench mark for the 2/20 deal? I bet these three clowns just bought SPY ETF's and the benchmark is 2%.

That's the corruption of this deal, but not a crime.

Joe is owned by the Chinese.

Dave Begley said...

China Joe. Ukraine Joe. Whatever. This guy doesn't put America first. It is Biden first. And that's my word as a Biden.

Caligula said...

Wasn't there a story about, umm, a boy and a wolf? At this point, even if someone did find something, who'd actually believe it?

chuck said...

Anyone see where that torpedo went? It's around here someplace.

narciso said...

'You maniac, you blew us all up'

Leland said...

Well that boring story didn't last long.

narciso said...

So how much of the princelings money did they lose?

HoodlumDoodlum said...

The allegation is pretty straightforward: that Trump, in a call with a Ukraine official, said that the US would withhold funds (or something equivalent) if that country didn't investigate Biden/Biden's son. Rudy seems to be saying that he, and possibly Trump, have been pressuring Ukraine to investigate 2016 interference that benefited Hillary (which has been documented).

There are a couple of problems with the idea that an intelligence official can violate the most important and well-established privilege (two heads of state discussing matters of state), but on the other hand what principle would govern a case where one head of state committed crimes during a conversation of that sort?

That's a interesting question of how the conflicting aims and powers of the Executive and Legislative branches should be resolved...but I have a feeling that what we'll all focus on instead is getting Trump, leaks from Schiff, etc.

readering said...

The place to come to for Trump fan fiction (which as an original anti-Biden guy I kinda enjoy).

narciso said...

So thats the biden, kerry and bulger clans all in deep in china and ukraine, well the first two were easy marks in the soviet era.

narciso said...

None of this concerns intelligence, thats about troop movements, the disposition of rival leadership.

narciso said...

So instead of watching say the iranian drones fueling up to attack abquaiq we have this.

Infinite Monkeys said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCF9My1v

Video unavailable.

narciso said...

Youd think counterintelligence would be concerned about such matters

Mike Sylwester said...

Ha!

YouTube removed the video of Biden bragging about how he compelled the Ukrainian Government to fire that prosecutor.

traditionalguy said...

A pre-emptive strike to brand this cover Biden's ass by an intelligence deep state operative pretending he is a Whistle Blower. The Fake News Operatus is blowing smoke fast and furious to make Bidens admitted corruption scandal into a Bad Orange Man scandal.

narciso said...

I think its still here:
https://mobile.twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1174875147179835392

Mike Sylwester said...

It will be hilarious if Trump deliberately provoked this whistle-blower scandal in order to compel the Trump-hating media to report about the Bidens' corruption in Ukraine.

TreeJoe said...

There's so many ways to take this story, none of them good for Biden.

- If Trump pressured them to re-open the investigation into Biden's son with a threat, and that's bad, then why was it ok when Biden did it as VP in 2014?

- Why was Biden's son previously under investigation? Why did he get the job?

- Etc.

What's amazing is that something that reeks so strongly of corruption can be buried for YEARS, come up again in the media, and still not be investigated.

narciso said...

Because they protect their own, he bought the siviet line on the nuclear freeze as well nicaragua, like half the senate in that era.

Drago said...

Mike Sylwester: "It will be hilarious if Trump deliberately provoked this whistle-blower scandal in order to compel the Trump-hating media to report about the Bidens' corruption in Ukraine."

Which can then be pivoted to the Biden's running the same scam's with the ChiComs. A very very cool $1.5 Billion moved into Hunters little investment vehicle by the ChiComs......out of the goodness of their hearts no doubt.

BTW, you wanna know who was in with John Kerry's stepson and Hunter Biden on that ChiCom investor scam?

You won't believe it.....the nephew of famed Boston Mobster Whitey Bulger!!

That's right. John Kerry's stepson, Joe Biden's cocaine-addles nitwit sister-in-law schtupping son and nephew of a Mobster!!

BTW again, it should be noted that it was Robert Mueller's corrupt Boston FBI office that let mobster Bulger hide all those years and sent 4 innocent men to prison for decades to help cover for good old Whitey.

It's easy to see why the left so adores these figures......

Amadeus 48 said...

Man. That Trump guy is really lucky in his opponents.

Does anyone else think that the antics of the NYT newsroom cause one to lose confidence in Ivy League educations? Not only are they idiots, they get played like violins by Trump.

And then there is our "intelligence" community. Just wait. The "whistleblower" will turn out to be James Comey wearing fake whiskers.

pacwest said...

"Trading investigation on biggest rival for hundreds of millions in aid."

That would one of the reasons for the story. Gotta give the choir something to sing about, but I think the man reason is to damage control for Biden. 'Trump is doing the same thing Biden did! Or at least close enough.'. As if that would make Biden unguilty. The level of corruption during the Obama administration was truly jaw dropping.

Drago said...

readering: "The place to come to for Trump fan fiction...."

Yes.

A strong believer in Trump-Russian collusion and the hoax dossier and every other hoax Trump fake "scandal" wrote that.

Just now.

Without irony.

gilbar said...

this Trump guy,
WHO THE HELL DOES HE THINK HE IS?
Only The President of The United States is allowed to negotiate with foreign countries!
Some unelected civilian has NO BUSINESS talking to foreigners!

Oh, wait a minute? you mean President Trump? never mind

Bruce Hayden said...

This can’t really have been by SLO Joe Biden’s people, because I think he will be the big loser there. And likely not Trump’s. My guess is Warren and her people.

narciso said...

Now the bidens bought into the chinese state avionics firm, and they inturn bought into a major parts supplier.

Drago said...

pacwest: "The level of corruption during the Obama administration was truly jaw dropping."

Once all the dems saw the Clinton operation deliver literal $Billions into the Clinton's pockets by usurping every mechanism and lever of the Federal Govt, which conveniently has become a pure democrat fiefdom, it must have been hard to resist.

Creepy Sleepy Slow Joe was just imitating what he was seeing as a successful lefty strategy to turn himself into a billionaire.

The swamp trough has many piggies swilling from it......

Drago said...

Not to mention the sure knowledge on the part of Hillary and Biden and obama and the rest that their fully owned media would never call them on it.

And they are right about that.

wildswan said...

Somewhere there must be Doom Line, a line of shuffling hacks who have been forced to agree to make up a silly story about Trump and on a specified day go public on America's Got Talentless. And so they step into the spotlight and quaver out a little song in a shrill off-key voice like kindergarteners, only not cute; and then run off to snivel to Mommy Dearest but she's busy forcing the next one on stage. Yesterday it was Nadler's Band of Bores having all their careful sound bites ruined by Corey Lewandowski talking into them. The day before a Kavanaugh Smear rerun. Today somebody is whispering or whistling, I'm not sure which, or who it is, or what is alleged or how they knew, but it seems they didn't realize it would inevitably implicate Biden, or maybe that was the idea, pretend to attack Trump for the clicks but actually get Biden, or but and when then if I wait till tomorrow another hack non-truth semi-lie will spong forth its contents like a popped zit. This is the American version of the Communist takeovers of the Thirties - the show so awful you have to watch. They'd kill us all if they weren't too old to catch us when we run.

Drago said...

This overall deflection campaign by the deep staters/dems simply shows that the decision to cast Joe Biden aside has not yet been fully fleshed out.

They are still in protection mode since Joey is still viewed as a possible standard-bearer.

Mike Sylwester said...

YouTube did not bother itself to remove that video, which has been available for many months. Since the Trump-hating mass media would not report how Biden pressured the Ukrainian Government to fire that prosecutor, the video was not a problem for the Democrats.

Now that the whistle-blower has opened the can of worms, however, the mass media have been tricked into reporting about the Bidens in Ukraine.

So, now YouTube had to get rid of that video -- immediately but belatedly.

MayBee said...

In all the mainstream reporting about Obama’s FBI investigating Trump, I never once heard it reload Obama investigating a “political rival”. Interesting that language now appears

MayBee said...

I think the other goal is for Adam Schindler to make the IG look political

narciso said...

Yes its like outside purgatory in beetlejuicem

Michael K said...

IM love how readering mentioned Mueller and we were discussing Whitey Bulgar. "Never mention rope in the house of a man who has been hanged."

David Boies, a “Democratic superlawyer” and major donor, is reportedly representing Peter Strzok,

Boies was also defending Elizabeth Holmes in her fraud of Theranos investors. She goes to trial next summer.

rcocean said...

This was a political hit job on Trump and an abuse of the whistle-blower function. Its not the job of some intelligence staffer (probably a Brennan appointee)to 2nd guess the US President and "blow the whistle" on him. I read the IG head's letter to Congress, and the guy needs to be fired. He's obviously a member of the "Resistance" and trying to help the D's damage Trump.

narciso said...

And boies gave miss rutnik (nee gillebrand) her first job.

rcocean said...

You've got to give the D's credit. Their ability to find new ways to hurt their opponents by abusing the rules and the law, along with politicizing and "weaponizing" things that used to non-partisan or apolitical is amazing. How many people in Jan 2016, knew Brennen, Clapper, and Comey were such Democrat/liberal Hacks? How many knew the lower-level career DoJ types were mostly R hating liberals who'd stop at NOTHING?
Who knew all these District Court Judges would abuse the injunction process in order to stop Trump from enforcing the immigration laws? All we all knew the press was biased, but who knew they were lying partisan hacks? Trump has exposed it all.

JAORE said...

Hey, lay off Joe. It's not like someone rented a room in his hotel.....

MayBee said...

At the time, Hunter Biden, now 49, and Christopher Heinz, the stepson of then-Secretary of State John Kerry, co-owned Rosemont Seneca Partners, a $2.4 billion private equity firm

Emoluments!!!!

MayBee said...

The "whistleblower" seems like we are going back to the early days of the Trump admin where IC staffers just blabbed out reports about what the new POTUS talked about on the phone. I think they wrote it up in "whistleblowing" format so the IG would have to get involved, and then the IG would look political if he didn't do the "right" thing. And then how can we trust anything the IG reports?

MayBee said...

Dave Begley said...
When did the IC start listening in the President's phone conversations and passed value judgments on what the president said? Can we now get the tapes of Obama's phone calls and promises with Iran's mullahs?


That's what I've been thinking about. Those pallets of cash didn't just fly themselves, and someone had to come up with the genius idea that it was all cash payment because some court was going to say we owed the Shah's government some money.

Bruce Hayden said...

“Its not the job of some intelligence staffer (probably a Brennan appointee)to 2nd guess the US President and "blow the whistle" on him.”

Keep that in mind. It’s the President’s job to deal with foreign governments however he pleases. He has the entirety of the Executive power of our government under our Constitution. Everyone else, even the VP, only has as much power as the President cedes or delegates to them. The one remedy available to Congress to rein him in is impeachment, and that isn’t going to happen here, because it would boomerang back and hurt Biden and Obama worse. Giuliani last night was going on about the legal case against Joe Biden, accepting something of value ($millions$ for his son) in exchange for an official favor (allowing over a $billion$ go from the US govt to the Ukrainian govt).

MayBee said...

Mike Sylwester - that Heinz/Biden in the era of Kerry/Biden is so crazy. Thanks for that info.

Yancey Ward said...

The reason the story is being reported obscurely and opaquely is because it has to do with Vice President Biden pressuring the Ukranian government into backing off investigating a company of which his son, Hunter, had financial dealings. Biden even bragged about it on tape because he was successful in getting the corruption investigator fired by the Ukranian government.

The media are in a bind here- they can't really open up this story completely without ending Biden's campaign.

Ray - SoCal said...

Conservative Treehouse posits this is lawfare to protect Biden against charges of family corruption / influence peddling.

This way journalist can change the subject / focus to badman Trump. And with the usual gop modus operandi it would be dropped like a hot potato. I look forward to see what Trump does...

Whistleblower Complaint Now Looks Like Democrat Effort to Protect Joe Biden from Investigation… - The Conservative Treehouse

Michael K said...

This was a political hit job on Trump and an abuse of the whistle-blower function.

It looks like it is blowing up in Democrat faces.

However, as things are starting to shake out, the current obfuscation to protect Joe Biden is President Trump asking Ukraine’s new president Volodymyr Zelensky to take another look at the issues surrounding the former government’s decision to fire the Ukrainian prosecutor. This is presumably the call concerning to the whistleblower. To wit, democrats see this as Trump asking Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election.

Washington Post – A whistleblower complaint about President Trump made by an intelligence official centers on Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the matter, which has set off a struggle between Congress and the executive branch.


The complaint involved communications with a foreign leader and a “promise” that Trump made, which was so alarming that a U.S. intelligence official who had worked at the White House went to the inspector general of the intelligence community, two former U.S. officials said.


Obama "former officials" Trump has always been lucky in his enemies.

Martin said...

I stopped reading when I got to "questions have emerged." When they lapse into the passive voice and start saying that other people are raising questions... I know they have nothing but bile.

Yancey Ward said...

"YouTube removed the video of Biden bragging about how he compelled the Ukrainian Government to fire that prosecutor."

They have been removing religiously for months. It keeps getting posted though. This is, itself, corruption, since there is literally no doubt the video itself is legitimate- Biden did, in fact, say these things.

William said...

I don't think Biden's son could stand up to much coverage. That's probably why there hasn't been much coverage of him. The contrast between him and Trump's children is as stark as the difference in the coverage. Has anyone in the press ever noticed that Ivanka is more attractive and personable than Chelsea Clinton?

hombre said...

One article wrote of the impropriety of the President calling for an investigation by a foreign country into allegations of corruption against a presidential candidate of the opposing party.

Seriously?! Is there no end to the chutzpah of Democrats and their pet mediaswine? Is corrupt abuse of the Vice Presidency and other offices so endemic to Democrat politics that it is a greater sin to investigate it than to engage in it?

Ken B said...

“Some people did something.”

Michael said...

"The executive power is vested in a President of the United States" - full stop. Article II does not say "...vested in the Intelligence Community."

Yancey Ward said...

I think it is probably not an accident the way the story is being framed. What I see in story after story is it is described this way: "involving Trump", not "Trump asking". This sort of phrasing tells me that there is nothing in the phone conversation even related to the Biden matter, but, instead, the complaint is about Giuliani's public exhortations to the Ukranians to reopen the investigation. I am going to make the bald assertion that the whistleblower complaint is claiming some offer Trump made to Zelensky is the quid for Giuliani's quo. Good luck with that.

At some point, Giuliani is going to simply point out that he was just making sure the Ukranian government didn't have Joe Biden over a barrel with blackmail material should Biden become president.

Earnest Prole said...

Having learned the hard way that you must take care with your foreign contacts during a presidential campaign, Trump is now ensuring that Biden and his son follow the same rules. I was reliably promised that nothing less than the future of our Republic is at stake, so why all the fuss?

iowan2 said...

The complaint involved communications with a foreign leader and a “promise” that Trump made, which was so alarming that a U.S. intelligence official who had worked at the White House went to the inspector general of the intelligence community, two former U.S. officials said.

Obama "former officials" Trump has always been lucky in his enemies.


DNI Dan Coates, and the Deputy DNI Sue Gordon, are by coincidence, "former govt officials" Let's just name names and get this going. Surely the White House has some underling that can leak names of the instigators. Leaking is good, let the light in. As Comey taught us, leaking for the right reasons is courageous.

Roy Lofquist said...

Blogger iowan2 said...
The Intelligence Community is as slimy and crimminal as President claims.
------
Actually I think that President Trump is slimier and criminaler than the intelligence community. In a Sun Tzu kind of way.

J2 said...

I still find video here maybe different version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCF9My1vBP4

Yancey Ward said...

I have bookmarked that video at least 3 times only to find the video gone when I go to link to it again. I suspect the new bookmark will also be gone by tomorrow.

gadfly said...

Bottom line: Ukraine needs aid to fight the Russians. Trump promised to give said aid -- if the Ukrainians cook up bogus "evidence" against Joe Biden's son.

Remember that Trump's campaign manager, Paulie Manafort, resides in prison right now for lying to Special Counsel about his involvement in politicized prosecutions in Ukraine.

So what we have here is an obvious quid pro quo—a presidential monetary offer of a U.S. payments in return for Trump’s personal benefit in the 2020 election . Did this happen? Rudy Giuliani acknowledged on Thursday that he had asked top Ukrainian officials to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.

John henry said...

Speaking of money, PDJT was photographed with a "wad" of $20 bills sticking out of his back pocket when the wind blew his coat up.

This seems to me unlikely. There was nothing to keep them from falling all the way out if they were as he said.

My suspicion: I think he arranged them carefully and pinned them in the pocket so they would look like they were falling out but wouldn't. Then catch the wind just right to blow his coat up and expose them. The press is snappety snapping all the time so it would be bound to be noticed.

Then he would claim "I always carry money to tip people like waitresses and drivers that I meet"

He gets popularity because 1) He tips and 2) He tips with $20 bills! What's not to like about a guy like this?

On the other hand, it also conjured in my mind an image of Scrooge McDuck with his pockets bulging with money to the point of falling out. Like this: https://www.bing.com/th?id=OIP.KDNhAtniXX6_FLBmUP9gHwHaGv&w=195&h=176&c=7&o=5&pid=1.7

That put in my mind that it would be really cool to fill up a swimming pool in the Mar-A-Lago basement with $20 bills. (They would not have to be real) Then plant it in the press just for giggles.

John Henry

John henry said...

Yancey,

YouTube videos disappear all the time. That is why, instead of bookmarking videos, I download them if I think I might want to look at them again.

They can't remove it from my hard drive.

If you use Chrome, you can't download videos. Another reason not to use Chrome.

If you use Firefox a button below the video lets you do it with one click.

John Henry

narciso said...

and greg craig helped fix a case in the Ukraine, and is acquitted and Podesta and Weber did the actual lobbying they haven't charged, Chertoff and lanny davis, kept dimitro firtash out of new York, kristol is Chertoff's underboss, lanny last torpedoed Michael cohen,

Michael K said...

Remember that Trump's campaign manager, Paulie Manafort, resides in prison right now for lying to Special Counsel about his involvement in politicized prosecutions in Ukraine.

Manafort was "campaign manger" for three months when nothing happened.

And you are lying about why he was prosecuted and why Podesta wasn't. You are so tedious.

narciso said...

it's what fits on his cue card, david Vitter took over deripasha's account at mercury, without skipping a beat,

MeatPopscicle1234 said...

Based on CTH, this about Trump asking Ukraine to consider re-opening its corruption investigation into Biden's son, which Biden previously squashed by threatening to withhold billions in US aid to Ukraine... so by lib logic, this is a scandal because Trump is asking a foreign country to investigate something that could potentially interfere with the 2020 election... but by their same logic, Obama using the US intelligence apparatus to spy-on and attempt a coup against an American president, well that's just inside baseball...

MeatPopscicle1234 said...

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/09/19/whistleblower-complaint-now-looks-like-democrat-effort-to-protect-joe-biden-from-investigation/

Big Mike said...

In revealing a sensitive communication between the President of the United States and any foreign leader has violated numerous American laws, and needs to be treated like the spy he is. Spending the rest of one’s life in Leavenworth, Kansas, on the wrong side of the bars is appropriate.

Jaq said...

readering said...
The place to come to for Trump fan fiction...


Feel free to call bullshit on any specific point, readering. This is your chance to show us we are all wrong!

You won’t, because you can’t. Your only play is to say “it’s all bullshit,” except a lot of what is up there is documented with links to mainstream news sources.

So I take your silence to come as an admission that you are wrong.

Jaq said...

This is battlespace prep for 2020.

This stuff isn’t going away. If Trump tweets the video and Google subsequently 86s it again? Just makes Google look like the wannabe “Big Brother” that they are.

Sebastian said...

"This is battlespace prep for 2020."

By O and his minions, against Slow Joe?

narciso said...

Not as advertised:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-defends-conversation-with-ukraine-leader-11568993176?mod=e2tw

Jaq said...

"By O and his minions, against Slow Joe?”

No, this is Kabuki aimed at Trump, but it reeks of desperation. The original Kabuki theatre was also known, per Wikipedia, as "prostitute-singing and dancing performer” so that fits too.

readering said...

Manafort was the key figure in the '16 campaign. Instrumental in getting Pence picked over Christie (unfortunately).

Birkel said...

Manafort was key.
That's why his firing by Trump made Hillary president.

Let's not mention Parscale.

narciso said...

Pence was a smart recommendation, stay puft gave me gas,

Drago said...

readering: "Manafort was the key figure in the '16 campaign. Instrumental in getting Pence picked over Christie (unfortunately)."

Nothing unfortunate about it at all.

A NY/NJ ticket was not going to be as acceptable to the great middle of the country as Trump/Pence.

Drago said...

Birkel is quite correct. Manafort was only there for a handful of months and set no long term campaign strategic direction.

At all.

He was just a Washington insider who knew everyone....precisely the sort of person who flourishes in the swamp.

Drago said...

The Poor Man's LLR ***** gadfly: "Bottom line: Ukraine needs aid to fight the Russians. Trump promised to give said aid -- if the Ukrainians cook up bogus "evidence" against Joe Biden's son."

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

Tom T. said...

The most recent tweet by Aaron Blake of the WaPo says that the call contains no quid pro quo, but that there might still have been one some other time. If they've *already* reached the stage of "well, Trump hasn't proved that he never did anything wrong," I'd say this "scandal" has already run its course.

Mark said...

Here's Video of Biden at CFR bragging about threatening to withhold 1 Billion in US aid to Poroshenko government unless Ukraine's General Prosecutor investigating Burisma was fired

That's called extortion.

Anonymous said...

"You mention extortion again I'll have your legs broken" -Mayor Carmine De Pasto

Narayanan said...

We have whistle-blower.
I say Trump gave him whistle, showed him how to blow it and also get protection.

Chessmaster Trump.

Whistle also work on sonar principle for target acquire by torpedo.

Anonymous said...

Hah, its hilarious to see this turd ball of a story break up in the toilet bowl before the media has time to bloviate about it this weekend. They can't get around having to explain that Slow Joe really did threaten the Ukraine to drop an investigation of his son. Otherwise the story makes no sense. It was an easier smear when all they had to do was bleat "COLLUSION!!!!"Now they have to provide a back story that just looks bad for a democrat and we know we can't have that now can we?

Roy Lofquist said...

You people don't really believe that the leak was from a Trump enemy, do you?

This is a clear case of Diddled by The Donald, again.

viator said...

Take this story and just reverse the names, Biden for Trump, Trump for Biden. Then think about what the reaction would be in the media echo chamber and the political battlefield.