Go Cougars!

Deny, Admit, Repeat:  Yesterday, Trump entered the last stage of his Ukraine lie cycle.  He has now gone from denying that he ever pressured Ukraine President Zelensky to investigate both the Bidens and the debunked conspiracy theory that the real story of the 2016 election was Ukraine interfering on behalf of Hillary Clinton to admitting he did all that to standing on the White House lawn and asking another country, China, to get into the investigating Biden act if they want to see any progress on those trade negotiations.  And why not, the strategy worked well with Russia and now despite all the impeachment talk and what was revealed during yesterday’s testimony by former Special Envoy Kurt Volker it appears to be working with Ukraine.  This morning Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office announced that it is reviewing past investigations into the gas company linked to Biden’s son Hunter, an indication that Ukraine will do what it has to do to keep US military aid flowing.  As to Kurt Volker yesterday during nine plus hours of closed door testimony he told an audience made up mostly of Congressional staff members that officials understood that Trump would not agree to meet with Zelensky unless Zelensky first promised to launch an investigation into Biden and Ukraine’s involvement in the 2016 election and do so publicly. The US team was told that by Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s Ukraine whisperer and unofficial Secretary of State for all things Ukraine.  Volker provided a trove of implicating texts that revealed the pressure that he and other members of the Ukraine team were under to get Ukraine to bend to Trump and Giuliani’s wishes.  Notably, Gordon Sondland, the political appointee and Trump megadonor who serves as Ambassador to the EU was heavily involved in the process even though his very involvement was questionable given that Ukraine is not a member of the EU.  Sondland, who, at least for now is following Secretary of State Pompeo’s direction to stay away from testifying before Congress, appeared to realize that pushing Ukraine to act in Trump’s personal interests was far from kosher because several times he requested shifting from texting to voice communication to eliminate any implicating “trail” of what they were doing on behalf of Trump.  Among other things the Volker provided texts reveal that Bill Taylor, the career diplomat who assumed the role of chief US diplomat after Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, who is still on schedule to testify next week, was forced out at Giuliani’s urging, was stunned by the fact that Trump was holding up aid to Ukraine in exchange for personal favors; in one text to Sondland he said “I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.” Sondland’s response was that they should take the conversation offline.  For his part Volker comes off as very conflicted.  He appeared caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place.  On the one hand he wanted Ukraine to get the military equipment they needed, on the other hand he thought that he could only help that happen by getting Ukraine to do whatever Giuliani said Trump wanted. One of those things involved drafting a statement that was to be delivered by President Zelensky.  The statement, which was ultimately rejected by the Ukrainians, had Zelensky publicly agreeing to open an investigation into the Bidens and Ukraine’s involvement in the 2016 election in exchange for Trump agreeing to a face to face meeting, one where Volker hoped that Zelensky would be able to convince Trump that the idea that Ukraine had helped Clinton during the 2016 election was off the charts wacko conspiracy nonsense and that the Biden thing was a nothing burger and that Ukraine’s former prosecutor had been removed because he was failing to go after corruption not because Joe Biden wanted to cover for his son. Yesterday, Wisconsin’s Republican Senator Ron Johnson who had co-signed a letter calling for that former prosecutor’s dismissal, said that he has no recollection of doing so, leaving the impression that he’s either suffering from early onset dementia or can’t keep his lies straight.  Moving back to China, CNN reports that Trump discussed his concerns about facing both Biden and Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 election with China’s President Xi on an earlier phone conversation, one in which he also assured Xi that he would stay quiet about China’s repressive actions in Hong Kong in exchange for successful trade talks.  Apparently records of that call are now housed in the super-secret server alongside Trump’s Zelensky call and his chats with Putin.  One light moment, in response to a claim by right wing conspiracy nut Jacob Wohl that she had been having an affair with a twenty something sex worker and former Marine, Elizabeth Warren sent out a tweet saying go Cougars!

So What:  Though most Republicans members of the House and Senate are refusing to return calls from anyone from the press, fearing that they might accidentally say something that might enrage Trump, a few of the usual characters have come forward to support him.  One hour into yesterday’s long day of testimony, Jim Jordon announced that it was a waste of time and that if anything Volker was disappointing the Democrats by proving that Trump was as pure as the driven snow. Okay, he didn’t use those exact words, but you get the point.  House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi asking her to end the impeachment inquiry.  She responded saying I received your letter shortly “after the world witnessed Trump on national TV asking yet another foreign power to interfere in the upcoming elections,” if you think we are ending this impeachment inquiry you are nuts, okay she didn’t say it that bluntly but she did make it clear that the impeachment inquiry isn’t going away.  Axios reports that the White House plans to send Pelosi a letter as soon this morning arguing that Trump and his team can ignore lawmakers' demands for documents and testimony until she holds a full House vote formally approving an impeachment inquiry.  

More Whistlers:  Though he hasn’t gotten as much attention, there is at least one other whistleblower out there.  This one reports that at least one Treasury Department political appointee has been trying to interfere with the usual audit of the Trump and/or Pence’s tax returns.  The Washington Post reports that whistleblower number two is a career IRS official who submitted an official complaint and sent it to House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley and the Treasury Department inspector general for tax administration on July 29. As to the Ukraine whistleblower, we still don’t know who he is but we do know that he’s a he, but probably not that former Marine/sex worker  .