Minerva @ Midnight: people like Giuliani's records, they're not thinking about the first impeachment
Remember when Trump said: “I know people that like the Confederate flag and they're not thinking about slavery”. Maybe we can finally get to that obstruction of justice because the former United States President tried to blackmail Ukraine into helping him cheat in our 2020 election. We’ll have more chances to think about it if military action ramps up in Ukraine this summer, because it’s always been about mobsters.
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The return of Rudy Giuliani's legal troubles reminds us of what an extraordinary betrayal the Ukraine scandal was – not just one of the worst things Trump did, but one of the worst presidential scandals in our history.@ThePlumLineGS and I break it down: https://t.co/XfhgpS7MUQ
Given all the ways President Donald Trump betrayed this country — the Russiagatescandalof 2016, the catastrophicmishandlingof the coronavirus pandemic, the incitement of deadlymob violenceto disrupt official ratification of his 2020 loss — it’s easy to forget about the importance of the Ukraine affair.
Trump’s corruption of U.S. foreign policy to strong-arm an ally into helping his reelection is almost like the forgotten stepchild of Trump scandals, even though it got him impeached (the first time).
But thenews that federal investigators have executed a search warrantagainst Rudolph W. Giuliani is a reminder of just how crowning a betrayal Trump’s subversion of the national interest in that scandal truly was. It’s also a reminder that the full puzzle of that complex tale is still being filled in.
Did Russia pay Rudy illegally as an unregistered foreign agent to lobby Trump to fire US Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, a thorn in Putin’s side? The electronic devices seized by FBI on April 28 from Rudy’s apartment with AG Garland’s approval may contain the answer.
Was Rudy doing Putin’s bidding or Trump’s — or his own — when he illegally took Russian rubles to lobby Trump to fire our Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch to hurt Hunter and thus Joe Biden, injure Zelensky, and line his own ample pockets? O what a tangled web we weave!
So, it looks like Trump's dismissal of Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch is at the center of the Giuliani inquiry. Rudy urged Trump to axe her. You may remember Trump said she “would go through some things.” Flashback to that story https://t.co/VgcMjlcT0Z
If the search of Giuliani's electronics is about Ukraine, it is also possible, if not likely, that there will be evidence of his illegal collusion with New York FBI agents in 2016 that probably cost Clinton the election– and thus cost hundreds of thousands of lives to Covid.
UM. SO GIULIANI AND TOENSING AND DIGENOVA WERE SIMULTANEOUSLY UNREGISTERED AGENTS OF UKRAINE *WHILE ON THE PAYROLL OF RUSSIAN MOB BOSS DMITRO FIRTASH* – while working for Trump. When he was President. And they all were conspiring with Russian intelligence. https://t.co/r8x2q9CCc8
Late2018:Nunes-Parnas connection, and designation ofHarveyas intermediary
“Following abrief in-person meetingin late 2018, Parnas andNuneshad at least two morephone conversations, and…Nunesinstructed Parnas to work withHarveyon the Ukraine matters,” according to Parnas’s attorney Bondy,CNNreports.
Nov. 6, 2018: Midterm elections – Democrats win a majority of seats in the House
November 2018: Parnas helps arrange meetings and calls in Europe forNunesand his aide, DerekHarvey, theDaily Beast’s Betsy Swan reports.
Nov. 30 to Dec. 3, 2018:Nunes,Harveyreportedly meet Shokinsecretlyin Vienna
The timing of the trip was designed to keep its detailssecretfrom Congress, Lev Parnas’ attorney Bondy toldCNN. “Mr. Parnas learned throughNunes‘ investigator, DerekHarvey, that the Congressman had sequenced this trip to occur after the midterm elections yet before Congress’ return to session, so thatNuneswould not have to disclose the trip details to his Democrat colleagues in Congress,” said Bondy.
Nunesmeets with the highly corrupt former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Victor Shokin in Viennato dig up dirt on Biden, according to Parnas, who says he is willing to provide congressional testimony under penalty of law (CNN). Parnas helps arrange the meeting.“Nuneshad told Shokin of the urgent need to launch investigations into Burisma, Joe and Hunter Biden, and any purported Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election,” Bondy tellsCNN.
(Asked during a Nov. 24, 2019, interview on Fox News whether he met with Shokin in Vienna,Nunesrefused to answer.)
TheWashington Postcites “an individual close to Shokin” as saying the prosecutor has never heard ofNunesand that no such meeting took place.
On May 13, 2019— President Trump instructs Vice President Mike Pence to not attend President Zelenskyy’s inauguration, according to Pence’s aid Jennifer Williams’testimony.
Late June 2019: Giuliani group joins up with Kremlin-linked Dmitry Firtash
At Giuliani’s direction, Parnas and Fruman offer Dmitry Firtash, a fugitive Ukrainian oligarch living in Vienna, help with the Justice Department in exchange for dirt on the Bidens, according to theNew York Timeswhich cited Firtash and Bondy. Firtash has been fighting extradition to the United States on federal bribery and racketeering charges related to an Indian titanium mining project.
Giuliani’s proposal is that Firtash hire Toensing and diGenova as his lawyers. The married couple were already working with Giuliani on his effort to find dirt on the Bidens.
“Mr. Parnas reasonably believed Giuliani’s directions reflected the interests and wishes of the president, given Parnas having witnessed and in several instances overheard Mr. Giuliani speaking with the president,” Bondy told the Times.
In a 2017 court filing, federal prosecutorsstatedthat Firtash and his co-defendant in the alleged scheme, Andras Knopp, `have been identified by United States law enforcement as two upper-echelon associates of Russian organized crime.’“ Senator Roger Wicker, (R-Miss.)wrotein an April 2018 letter to then-Attorney General Sessions that Firtash had served as a “direct agent of the Kremlin.”
July 2019: Firtash hires Giuliani associates and sets to work on getting dirt on Bidens
Firtash hired Toensing and diGenova and says he has paid the couple $1.2 million as of November, including a referral fee for Parnas. The Times reports that “a person with direct knowledge of the arrangement said Mr. Parnas’s total share was $200,000.”Bloombergreported in October that Firtash paid the couple around $1million, and that “Firtash’s associates began to use his broad network of Ukraine contacts to get damaging information on Biden.”
It’s unclear whether the activities involving Firtash intersect withNunes. The same cast of characters who met regularly as a group — Giuliani, Fruman, Parnas, Solomon, Toensing and diGenova — were involved in the Firtash scheme, andNunesrepeatedly amplifies their work including Solomon’s articles, whichNunesreadinto the congressional record during the impeachment hearing.
