The prepared statements of the witnesses of the Ukraine deal have made it pretty clear that I think no one is actually disputing.
a) The President wanted Ukraine to investigate the Biden's and the mythical DNC server.
b) And that the President wanted Ukraine to make a public announcement of the investigation.
(statements from Sondland, Tayler and Volker)
Anyone want to dispute either of those statements? If you do- please provide more than just your opinion.
But what isn't being really discussed is that
a) The President wanted the public announcement of the investigation and
b) The President didn't want to be associated with the announcement and actually took several steps to prevent others from knowing that the Administration was pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political rival.
What supports this claim?
a) Remember- Trump didn't just release the 'transcript' of his conversation with the Ukrainian President- he released it only after the Whistleblower reported the conversation through legal channels and the information was going to come out- in fact Trump had restricted the number of participants to that conversation to far fewer than usual and his staff had arranged to have the records stored in a super secure facility- even though there was nothing in the conversation that was harmful to the interests of the U.S.
b) Trump was utilizing an irregular channel to negotiate this with the Ukraine- a channel including his personal attorney- Rudy Giuliani. Regular state department participants were excluded from conversations:
Quoting Bill Taylor:
I sensed something odd when Ambassador Sondland told me on June 28 that he did not
wish to include most of the regular interagency participants in a call planned with
President Zelenskyy later that day. Ambassador Sondland, Ambassador Volker,
Secretary Perry, and I were on this call, dialing in from different locations. However,
Ambassador Sondland said that he wanted to make sure no one was transcribing or
monitoring as they added President Zelenskyy to the call
There are other examples cited by Taylor.
So what are the possible reasons that Trump
a) Insisted that the Ukrainian government make a public announcement it was investigating Trump's political rival and
b) Took such efforts to prevent the American public from knowing that the Ukrainian government was announcing the investigation at the express insistence of the President of the United States?
a) The President wanted Ukraine to investigate the Biden's and the mythical DNC server.
b) And that the President wanted Ukraine to make a public announcement of the investigation.
(statements from Sondland, Tayler and Volker)
Anyone want to dispute either of those statements? If you do- please provide more than just your opinion.
But what isn't being really discussed is that
a) The President wanted the public announcement of the investigation and
b) The President didn't want to be associated with the announcement and actually took several steps to prevent others from knowing that the Administration was pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political rival.
What supports this claim?
a) Remember- Trump didn't just release the 'transcript' of his conversation with the Ukrainian President- he released it only after the Whistleblower reported the conversation through legal channels and the information was going to come out- in fact Trump had restricted the number of participants to that conversation to far fewer than usual and his staff had arranged to have the records stored in a super secure facility- even though there was nothing in the conversation that was harmful to the interests of the U.S.
b) Trump was utilizing an irregular channel to negotiate this with the Ukraine- a channel including his personal attorney- Rudy Giuliani. Regular state department participants were excluded from conversations:
Quoting Bill Taylor:
I sensed something odd when Ambassador Sondland told me on June 28 that he did not
wish to include most of the regular interagency participants in a call planned with
President Zelenskyy later that day. Ambassador Sondland, Ambassador Volker,
Secretary Perry, and I were on this call, dialing in from different locations. However,
Ambassador Sondland said that he wanted to make sure no one was transcribing or
monitoring as they added President Zelenskyy to the call
There are other examples cited by Taylor.
So what are the possible reasons that Trump
a) Insisted that the Ukrainian government make a public announcement it was investigating Trump's political rival and
b) Took such efforts to prevent the American public from knowing that the Ukrainian government was announcing the investigation at the express insistence of the President of the United States?
