
Magoo flailing .. again and again


William Taylor, the charge d’affairs of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, told lawmakers in secret testimony two weeks ago that his opinions about an alleged quid pro quo demanded by Trump were formed largely from conversations with anti-Trump staffers within the diplomatic bureaucracy.
“[Y]ou’ve never spoken to Mr. [Rudy] Giuliani?” Taylor was asked.
“No, no,” he replied.
“Has anyone ever asked you to speak to Mr. Giuliani?”
“No,” Taylor said.
“And if I may, have you spoken to the president of the United States?” Taylor was asked.
“I have not,” he said.
“You had no communications with the president of the United States?”
“Correct,” Taylor said.
He also admitted he had never spoken to Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s chief of staff.
When asked who exactly he had spoken to about the brouhaha, Taylor confirmed that his only contacts about the matter were with John Bolton, the former national security adviser who was fired by Trump, Fiona Hill, Alexander Vindman, and Tim Morrison. Both Hill and Vindman are rumored to have been sources for the so-called whistleblower who filed a complaint against Trump in August.
Taylor also testified that his knowledge of the phone call between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelensky wasn’t first-hand knowledge.
“And this isn’t firsthand. It’s not secondhand. It’s not thirdhand,” Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., said to Taylor. “But if I understand this correctly, you’re telling us that Tim Morrison told you that Ambassador Sondland told him that the president told Ambassador Sondland that Zelensky would have to open an investigation into Biden?”
“That’s correct,” Taylor admitted.
Zeldin noted that the only reference to Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden in Taylor’s opening statement stemmed from that convoluted game of telephone. The New York lawmaker hammered Taylor for relying on third-hand information about the state of mind of an elected official to whom he had never spoken.
“So do you have any other source that the president’s goal in making this request was anything other than The New York Times?” Zeldin asked.
“I have not talked to the president,” Taylor said. “I have no other information from what the president was thinking.”
Under questioning from Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, Taylor also testified that the Ukrainian government wasn’t aware U.S. military funding had been temporarily suspended until late August, and then only after the information was leaked to the news media, meaning an alleged quid pro quo would have been impossible.
“So, if nobody in the Ukrainian government is aware of a military hold at the time of the Trump-Zelensky call, then, as a matter of law and as a matter of fact, there can be no quid pro quo, based on military aid,” Ratcliffe, a former federal prosecutor, said. “I just want to be real clear that, again, as of July 25th, you have no knowledge of a quid pro quo involving military aid.”
“July 25th is a week after the hold was put on the security assistance,” Taylor testified. “And July 25th, they had a conversation between the two presidents, where it was not discussed.”
“And to your knowledge, nobody in the Ukrainian government was aware of the hold?” Ratcliffe asked.
“That is correct,” Taylor responded.
Taylor also testified that he didn’t see any official readout of the July 25 phone call until it was declassified and released by Trump in late September.
“I did not see any official readout of the call until it was publicly released on September 25th,” he said.
Kpdemello wrote:It does sound pretty far-fetched, but we'll see what shakes out. Things are about to get really ugly in Washington now that these impeachment hearings are going public. Trump seems to be more unhinged than usual. I mean claiming Schiff will edit the transcripts? Why wouldn't republicans just immediately release correct transcripts in response? They were there, after all.XtremeJibber2001 wrote:The latter would be a bombshell, but I'll wait to see what comes of it ... too much noise these days. Maybe this explains how cock sure Pelosi is all of a sudden.
https://www.scribd.com/document/4335853 ... from_embed" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;House Democrats on Tuesday released excerpts of closed-door depositions with former US Special Envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker, as well as revised testimony from US Ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland
maybe it's time to close gitmo....right after we fill it up w all these traitors, lock the doors and set it on fire...Mark Zaid, one of the attorneys representing the intelligence community whistleblower at the center of the Democrats' ongoing impeachment inquiry, tweeted conspicuously in January 2017 that a "coup has started" and that "impeachment will follow ultimately."
Then, in July 2017, Zaid remarked, "I predict @CNN will play a key role in @realDonaldTrump not finishing out his full term as president." Also that month, Zaid tweeted, "We will get rid of him, and this country is strong enough to survive even him and his supporters."
Amid a slew of impeachment-related posts, Zaid assured his Twitter followers that "as one falls, two more will take their place," apparently referring to Trump administration employees who defy the White House. Zaid promised that the "coup" would occur in "many steps."
The tweets, which came shortly after President Trump fired then-acting Attorney General Sally Yates for failing to defend federal laws in court, are likely to fuel Republican concerns that the anonymous whistleblower's complaint is tainted with partisanship. Trump's call with Ukraine's leader, which is the subject of the complaint, occurred in July 2019.
“The whistleblower’s lawyer gave away the game," the Trump campaign's communications director, Tim Murtaugh, told Fox News. "It was always the Democrats’ plan to stage a coup and impeach President Trump and all they ever needed was the right scheme. They whiffed on Mueller so now they’ve settled on the perfectly fine Ukraine phone call. This proves this was orchestrated from the beginning.”
Added House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy: "We should take [Zaid] at his word that this is a coordinated, premeditated plot to overturn the election."
Kpdemello wrote:If you can't tell from what you just posted that there were multiple conversations, some of which were between Taylor and Morrison, and some of which were directly between Sondland and Taylor, then you fail at English.madhatter wrote:again w the comprehension?
madhatter wrote:prove otherwise...I mean its right there in plain english...maybe call morrison to verify? in fact why didn't morrison testify in the first place?Kpdemello wrote:Ah, so when Taylor says, "Sondland told me..." he's talking about a call in which he wasn't speaking directly to Sondland? On what planet does that make sense?right here on earth where it says that taylor is recounting what morrison told him...
Why am I even arguing with you? You're clearly misconstruing the facts to support your position, and no amount of fact-checking is going to change your mind.
you can pretend what you want...they are taylors accounts of morrisons alleged accounts of a conversation...Taylor testified that Trump told Sondland himself in a September 7 phone call that Zelensky must “go to a microphone and say he is opening investigations of Biden and 2016 election interference, and that President Zelensky should want to do this himself.”
The contents of this conversation were given to Taylor by the White House official in charge of Europe, Tim Morrison, who after hearing that call notified Bolton and National Security Council lawyers, Taylor said.
House Democrats are expected to use Taylor’s account of histhis clearly refers to Morison , not taylor... conversations with Sondland to show that Trump had issued clear orders about what he wanted from Zelensky.
“During that phone call, Amb. Sondland told me that President Trump had told him that he wants President Zelensky to state publicly that Ukraine will investigate Burisma and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election,” Taylor testified.
Taylor also testified that his knowledge of the phone call between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelensky wasn’t first-hand knowledge.
“And this isn’t firsthand. It’s not secondhand. It’s not thirdhand,” Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., said to Taylor. “But if I understand this correctly, you’re telling us that Tim Morrison told you that Ambassador Sondland told him that the president told Ambassador Sondland that Zelensky would have to open an investigation into Biden?”
“That’s correct,” Taylor admitted.
Graham is a good example of how Republicans have debased themselves to support Trump. Graham has proven himself to be one of the most two-faced liars on Capital Hill with his about-face on Trump after he was nominated and elected.XtremeJibber2001 wrote:
first day in politics?Kpdemello wrote:A good example of how Republicans have debased themselves to support Trump. Graham has proven himself to be one of the most two-faced liars on Capital Hill with his about-face on Trump after he was nominated and elected.XtremeJibber2001 wrote:
EXCLUSIVE: Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, a key witness in House Democrats' impeachment inquiry, communicated via her personal email account with a Democratic congressional staffer concerning a "quite delicate" and "time-sensitive" matter -- just two days after the whistleblower complaint that kickstarted the inquiry was filed, and a month before the complaint became public, emails obtained Thursday by Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight" show.
The emails appear to contradict Yovanovitch's deposition on Capitol Hill last month, in which she told U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., about an email she received Aug. 14 from the staffer, Laura Carey -- but indicated under oath that she never responded to it.
Executive Privilege.Kpdemello wrote:How do Trump supporters feel about Mulvaney defying Congressional subpoena?
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump- ... n-n1078656" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
In any other context, this sort of thing can land a person in big trouble. Of course enforcing a Federal subpoena requires Federal agents, who work for Mulvaney's boss, so it'd be pretty hard for Congress to enforce anything. Still,the Presidency is known to change hands - if it does, Mulvaney could be prosecuted in the future for a criminal act.