Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

Thanks What:  After pardoning Bread and Butter, this year’s lucky turkeys, Trump headed to Florida for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Naturally he started his festivities with a political rally, one that was more off the charts loony than usual, which says a lot because his rallies are always insane and filled with nuts.  Among other things he defended his pardoning of those “great American soldiers,” the ones who committed war crimes, assured everyone he was in tip top shape despite his recent unscheduled trip to Walter Reed, ranted about impeachment, and attacked the Democrats most notably “Shifty” Schiff, “Slow Sleepy” Joe, the Clintons and Barack Hussein Obama, with an emphasis on the Hussein.  Oh and he also claimed that if it wasn’t for him Thanksgiving would be cancelled or called something else, kind of a variation on his earlier and soon to be reprised say Merry Christmas or else theme.  The crowd, who shouted “lock her up” and “bull sh-t” ate it all up because that’s what cult members do when their chosen one whips them into a frenzy. Trump also cited some polls that “prove” that impeachment is getting increasingly unpopular.  Not true, 50% of us are still all in, women even more so.  It’s not even 2020 yet, it’s fair to say that we’re in for a very bumpy election year.

Filling in the Timeline:  As to that bumpy ride, Trump’s over the top insanity might have been spurred on by news on the impeachment front. Two more transcripts from the behind the scenes SCIF testimony were released yesterday. In one, OMB career official Mark Sandy testified that he had been told in a July 12 email that aid to Ukraine was being held up at the direction of Trump but that he wasn’t given any explanation. Notably, that holdup came after Trump read media reports about the aid package but no one used corruption as a justification. On July 25, the same day as Trump’s infamous call with Ukraine President Zelensky, OMB began the official process of withholding the aid.  Sandy also reported that two staffers, at least one of whom was from OMB’s legal division, resigned in frustration over the aid situation. On July 30, in response to questions he’d raised about the hold up and its legality,  Sandy’s responsibilities with regard to Ukraine were shifted to a more cooperative political appointee.  Though an interagency memo sent on August 7 to the acting head of the OMB  recommended that the hold be lifted, the hold remained in place until September 11, when it was lifted;  that was after the Whistleblower report went public and after Congress had begun their investigation.  As to the Whistleblower, the NY Times reports that Trump was briefed about his complaint in late August by White House counsel Pat Cipollone and John Eisenberg, the NSC attorney who had earlier stashed the transcript of the July 25 Zelensky call into the super-secret server.  In addition to updating Trump on the content of the complaint, the two lawyers told him that they were determining whether they were obligated to share its contents with Congress.  Though they and the Justice Department decided the report could be kept secret, as we all know by now it ultimately saw the light.  The bottom line is that Trump was aware of the Whistleblower’s accusations and the trouble they were likely to cause before he finally released Ukraine’s $400 million aid package.

More Smears:   The House also released the transcript of testimony provided by Philip Reeker, an assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. Like several before him,  Reeker detailed the "outrageous smears and attacks" against former Ambassador to Ukraine Yovanovitch who was recalled from her post after that discredit campaign led by Rudy Giuliani. If he isn’t already very concerned about his future, Giuliani should be.  Yesterday during a phone interview with former Foxy Bill O’Reilly, Trump insisted that Giuliani's push for a Biden investigation in Ukraine was not done on his behalf.  He noted that  Giuliani has “other clients” in Ukraine, implying that everything he did there was related to them not to him.  Further, Trump told O’Reilly that any questions about Giuliani’s actions should be directed straight to him.  If this sounds familiar, it’s because it’s classic Trump, first he embraces his “friends” and the wonderful work they are doing on his behalf, then he distances himself from their actions, claiming he barely knows them, and finally he throws them under the bus. Going forward Giuliani ought to look both ways every time he crosses the street.  Let’s not forget that other Trumpy, Secretary of State Pompeo, yesterday, though Senator John Kennedy walked back his endorsement of the Putin pushed conspiracy myth that Ukraine rather than Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election, Pompeo, the guy who we now know helped trash Ambassador Yovanovitch’s reputation, doubled down on it saying “Any time there is information that indicates that any country has messed with American elections, we not only have a right, but a duty to make sure we chase that down.”    

Next Up:  The House Intelligence Committee has already started writing its report summarizing their impeachment findings.  After that report, which could be amended if and when the Committee decides to hear more witnesses, is completed proceedings move to the House Judiciary Committee. The Judiciary Committee has scheduled its first impeachment hearing for December 4. It’s Chair, Jerry Nadler, has taken the unusual step of inviting Trump and his as yet unnamed lawyers to participate.  As to additional witnesses, John Bolton is still playing what Adam Schiff calls rope a dope; he keeps hinting that he has lots to say but his lawyer says that the recent McGahn court decision isn’t enough for him because unlike all those other State Department and NSC officials who have testified, Bolton still remains unwilling to stand up and be counted because, you know, he might lose some lucrative speaking engagement or a future perch at Fox.  

Happy Thanksgiving! 

All The King's Flunkies

Conan, Not the Barbarian: Yesterday,  Trump hung out with Conan, the hero dog from an earlier chapter of the Trump chronicles.  Trump seemed terrified that the “canine” would jump up and bite him, not an irrational fear since Conan is trained to root out bad guys, but it appears that VP Pence who showed genuine affection to Conan was less concerned. Because this White House has a hard time getting anything right, it was first reported that Conan is a he, then that he was a she and then back again.  Wonder if Pence knew he was petting a gender fluid animal?  Sticking with the military theme for a moment, the facts behind the firing/resignation of Navy Secretary Richard Spencer over the whole “does the disgraced/war criminal SEAL get to keep his Trident or not” issue remain fuzzy.  However, Spencer’s parting remarks are clear.  Like General Mattis before him, in his departure letter Spencer made it clear that he could no longer tow the Trump line by writing  “I cannot in good conscience obey an order that I believe violates the sacred oath I took in the presence of my family, my flag and my faith to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.”  As to that good conscience thing, it’s never been a problem for Trump so it shouldn’t be all that shocking to learn that, according to the Daily Beast, he wants some of those disgraced soldiers that he pardoned to show up on the campaign trail with him because nothing burnishes the Trump brand like standing by a war criminal or two. 

Legal Land:  War crimes aside, a few notable things happened in legal land yesterday. US District Judge Ketanji Brown issued her long awaited ruling on whether or not former White House Counsel Don McGahn could be compelled to testify by concluding that he could be.  Before all the Ukraine stuff had come to light, the House Judiciary Committee had subpoenaed McGahn to testify about all the Trump obstruction uncovered during Mueller’s Russia investigation. The judge wrote that the Justice Department’s claim to “unreviewable absolute testimonial immunity,” is baseless, and as such, cannot be sustained.” In other words, she concluded that no one is above the law, that Trump isn’t a king and that though McGahn could invoke executive privilege over some subjects, he’d have to honor the subpoena, show up and do so on a question by question basis. McGahn’s counsel said he will comply with Judge Jackson’s decision unless it is stayed pending appeal.  To no one’s surprise the White House and Attorney General Barr’s Justice Department almost immediately announced that they will appeal. Unfortunately the appeal process will extend the timeline, which is essentially what Trump’s wants to do, but it’s possible that some people, particularly former White House denizens like one time national security advisor John Bolton who seems interested in spilling his guts, will conclude that it provides them with enough cover to testify.  In other legal news, the Supreme Court stayed the release of Trump’s tax returns after five justices agreed to give Trump’s lawyers until December 5 to file a formal petition to the Supreme Court for a hearing.  It’s still not clear that the Supremes will agree to take this case but at least for now Trump’s tax returns remain where he wants them, in the deep freezer, alongside all those other secrets that only Putin is in on. And because yesterday was all about the law,  Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, another Federal district judge ordered the Defense Department and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to hand over certain requested records to a the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit news outlet, in response to their Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.  The requested documents relate to the Trump administration's withholding of military aid to Ukraine.  Does make you wonder why the House even bothers with subpoenas, they should just do FOIA requests.

Rudy, Rudy, Nunes:  Also on the legal front, Rudy Giuliani, who in an earlier life headed up the US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York now appears to be under its microscope.  Yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported that subpoenas have been issued to his consulting business and some of his colleagues, an indication that a broad federal investigation into the possibility that he’s been engaged in such things as money laundering, obstruction of justice and campaign-finance violations is ongoing.  Suffice it to say when you are Rudy and you appear to have been supporting your lifestyle and a number of ex-wives with money earned from questionable oligarchs and autocrats, it’s not a good thing when the Justice Department decides to investigate your sources of income.  As to oligarchs, according to the NY Times two Ukrainian ones with legal problems of their own, Dmitry Firtash and Ihor Kolomoisky, report that Giuliani pressed them to assist him in his “wide-ranging hunt” for Biden related dirt in exchange for some help with their US related legal problems.  To that end, Firtash met with Giuliani flunkies Lev and Oleg who “encouraged” him to replace his prior US lawyer Lanny Davis, whose name should sound familiar because he also represents that other Trump lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen, with the husband and wife legal team of Victoria Toensing and Joseph diGenova, whose names are also familiar since they appear regularly on Fox and at one point considered but declined the opportunity to   join Trump’s legal squad for all things Russia.  Firtash says that he never helped with the Biden dirt dig but that he did hire Toensing and diGenova, and paid them generously. The two lawyers managed to get some time with AG Barr’s office on his behalf though not much came of it, yet, and still represent him.  Kolomoisky, a media and banking tycoon who has helped finance Ukraine’s battles against Russia, said he met with Oleg and Lev in Tel Aviv but kicked them out as soon as it became clear that they wanted his help setting up a meeting between Giuliani and Ukraine President Zelensky, essentially telling them that they were barking up the wrong tree.  Separately ABC News reports that Lev has provided federal authorities and the House Intelligence Committee with audio, video and photos that include Trump and Giuliani.  To paraphrase former FBI Director Comey, Lordy, I hope there really are tapes. Then there is Devin Nunes, the devious Congressman, conspiracy theorist and avid Trump supporter. CNBC reports that should Lev be given an opportunity to testify before Congress he would say that Derek Harvey, Nunes’s top aide had planned to travel to Ukraine to interview some corrupt former prosecutors to dig up Biden dirt but had to settle for a Skype call instead once he realized that any trip would have to be reported to Committee Chair/arch enemy Adam Schiff.  And lastly, there is Lindsey Graham, who continues to assert that he has utmost respect and affection for former VP Joe Biden but that none of that will stop him from trying to dig up dirt on him, because Trump wants him to and Trump is his chosen one.  

Excrement Everywhere

Get Over It:  Last week Fiona Hill, the preeminent expert on all things Putin reiterated that Russia, not Ukraine, was responsible for intervening in our 2016 election.  She went on to say that every time anyone, politician or news pundit, says otherwise they are just falling for more of Putin’s nefarious propaganda.  We also learned that US intelligence agencies recently updated a bipartisan group of Senators on the Kremlin’s “blame Ukraine game,” a strategy that achieves two of Putin’s objectives, chipping away at the underpinnings of our democracy while destabilizing the already very vulnerable Ukraine.  Nevertheless, on Friday morning Trump called into Fox and Friends to once again push the debunked Crowdstrike conspiracy theory, the myth that the FBI helped the Crowdstrike computer security company, a company that the RNC actually employs for their computer security, hide the DNC server in the Ukrainian woods.  And because that wasn’t enough conspiracy mongering for one weekend, when asked by Fox News Host Chris Wallace who he believed was to blame for hacking the DNC and Clinton campaign computers: Ukraine, or Russia, Republican Senator John Kennedy responded “"I don't know, nor do you, nor do any others." Though the exasperated Wallace responded "Let me just interrupt to say the entire intelligence community says it was Russia," the message had been delivered to Fox viewers:  believe Trump and his fanboys, because as Energy Secretary Rick Perry says in a soon to be released interview, “Trump is God’s Chosen One.” We are now two weeks into public impeachment inquiry hearings, the facts are damning, Trump has been and is likely to continue demanding help from vulnerable foreign governments and those who think Trump is the lord their king or who just like his tax cuts and judges insist he did nothing wrong and if he did, it’s not a bigly deal. And to drive that point home one of the Republican’s newest Senators, Tennessee’s Martha Blackburn, tweet attacked Lt Col Alexander Vindman saying “Vindictive Vindman is the “whistleblower’s” handler” because when you are in Trump’s camp, it’s important to participate in throwing hate and not so subtle anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic trope spreading.   

More Twists and Turns:  It’s not clear that there will be more testimony as important witnesses such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney refuse to cooperate and former national security advisor John Bolton appears much more concerned about regaining access to his blocked for a while twitter account than talking truth to Congress but details of more behind the scenes dealing and obfuscation continue to emerge.  Though Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s State Department still refuses to provide House investigators with any of the documents that they have requested some 100 pages were released late Friday as the result of a successful lawsuit by government ethics group American Oversight.  That’s how crazy this is, an oversight group got the documents that Congress couldn’t.  Those newly released documents include emails confirming multiple March 2019 contacts between Pompeo and Trump lawyer/fixer Rudy Giuliani, at least one of which was facilitated by Trump’s personal assistant Madeleine Westerhout.  They reveal that while Pompeo has been pretending that he had nothing to do with the smearing and ouster of the highly respected Ukraine Ambassador Yovanovitch, he  knew all about it from the start and not only didn’t he try to stop it, he appears to have been in on it.  

Pompeo isn’t the only one who’s been knee deep in all this Trump/Giuliani excrement, so is Congressman Devin Nunes, the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee.  According to Giuliani sidekick Lev Parnas, Nunes and some members of his staff traveled to Vienna in late 2018 where they met with Viktor Shokin, the former Ukrainian prosecutor general who has emerged as a key figure in Republican attacks on Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Shokin was dismissed from his position at the urging of then VP Biden and our European allies because he failed to undertake promised corruption probes but Trump and his cronies continue to try to attribute his ouster to efforts by Biden to help his son and the Burisma gas company, a demonstrably false accusation.  Nunes, who is currently suing the person responsible for the @DevinCow parody twitter account says that he now plans to sue CNN too, for publishing the report of his meeting with Shokin, but has failed to explain those expense reports that show that he did in fact spend $60,000 of our tax dollars traveling to Vienna during the time period in question.  He may now find himself subject to an ethics investigation.  He should also be recused from the Ukraine investigation but that’s probably not going to happen any time soon.  And then there’s Mulvaney, the Washington Post reports that a confidential review by White House Counsel Pat Cipollone of Trump’s decision to place a hold on military aid to Ukraine has turned up hundreds of documents that reveal extensive efforts to generate an after-the-fact justification for the decision and a debate over whether the delay was legal.  The review turned up numerous August email exchanges between Mulvaney and White House budget officials seeking to provide an explanation for withholding the funds after Trump had already ordered a hold in mid-July on the nearly $400 million in security assistance.  Note that this “confidential review” is no longer confidential, that may be because Cipollone covets Mulvaney’s Chief of Staff position.  And let’s not forget Rudy, at one point this week he claimed that Trump couldn’t throw him under the bus because he’s got “insurance,” only to say he meant that if anything happens to him he’s got lots of proof of decades of Biden corruption.  It’s fair to say two things, there is no evidence of “decades” of Biden corruption because if there was it would have been released by now but Rudy probably has lots and lots of Trump stuff.  

Codes and Honor: Notably Trump hasn’t played any golf since last week’s rush trip to Walter Reed Medical Center.  Although he did travel during the week, contrary to usual practice he was at all times accompanied by the White House doctor, causing some to believe that he is not the healthiest president ever to grace the  office, to state the obvious. Healthy or not he’s still finding time to be disruptive, not just on the impeachment inquiry but also with regard to the military code of behavior.  Over the weekend Navy Secretary Richard Spencer was forced out or resigned, depending on who’s talking,  for questioning Trump’s decision not to have disgraced Navy SEAL Edward Gallaher’s SEAL Trident badge removed.  Gallagher was tried for war crimes earlier this year and while he was acquitted of murder after a key witness recanted some testimony, under rather questionable circumstances, he was found guilty of posing with the body of a dead prisoner, an bigly no no.  Trump and Spencer had been engaged in a dispute over whether Gallagher should be allowed to retain his Trident, the removal of the badge is about far more than the badge, it’s about things like honor, ethical behavior and military discipline.  Quite a few things are disturbing about this story.  First Gallagher’s actions were really bad, second Trump’s defense of his actions were even worse, and third Secretary of defense Mike Esper’s decision to stand by Trump on this one is hugely disappointing and provides another example of a senior official refusing to stand up to the so-called chosen one. As to health, distressingly, Trump isn’t the only one facing health problems, the Notorious RBG spent some time at Johns Hopkins Hospital this weekend fighting off an infection. The fragile Justice Ginsburg is back home now. Obviously, she is needed now more than ever. Decisions about the release of Trump’s tax returns and former White House Counsel Don McGahn’s subpoena to testify are imminent and decisions on DACA and the Affordable Care Act, not to mention all those percolating up reproductive rights issues, are on this year’s docket.

2020:  Mike Bloomberg is now officially in the race.  I have no idea why he thinks that he can prevail over all of his Democratic rivals but he’s a super smart and competent guy who is very data driven so maybe he knows something that the rest of us don’t.  As to those rivals, a few of them commented by saying that billionaires shouldn’t be allowed to do what he’s doing, kind of an acknowledgement that they wish that instead of running, he’d throw some of his funds their way.

Are We Better Than That?

Don’t Mess With Fiona:  Yesterday may have been the last day of the House Intelligence Committee’s public impeachment inquiry hearings, unless of course someone like former national security advisor John Bolton finds some decency, comes out from writing his lucrative tell all book and shows up to tell what he knows, and he knows a lot.  There’s still a small chance that Bolton will agree to testify, especially if a Federal court rules that former White House Counsel Don McGahn has to testify about the Mueller Russia probe stuff, that ruling is due on Monday afternoon.  Bolton’s failure to do his duty, or at least do it so far, was made even more glaring yesterday by Fiona Hill, the Russia expert who served as the National Security Council’s Senior Director for Russian and European Affairs. The NY Times reports that back when she, the daughter of an impoverished English coal miner, was eleven a classmate set her pigtails on fire during an exam. The resolute Fiona didn’t lose a beat, she put out the fire and continued taking the test.  Hill hasn’t changed a bit, she does not suffer fools gladly and is not shy about expressing her views so in addition to confirming what we already know about the Ukraine fiasco, she made it clear that the Trump endorsed conspiracy theory that Ukrainians were responsible for 2016 election interference is a self-serving false narrative pushed by Vladimir Putin and his Russian peddlers of misinformation to further damage the underpinnings of our Democratic system.  Among other things the impressive Hill whose book on Putin is the go to tome on the despicable leader, recalled John Bolton warning officials that “Rudy Giuliani was a hand grenade that was going to blow everyone up.”  She recounted that after EU Ambassador Sondland pulled Ukrainian officials aside at the White House to tell them that they had to announce Trump’s coveted investigations if they wanted to secure a White House meeting between Trump and their new president Zelensky, Bolton directed her to report Sondland’s “drug deal” to NSC counsel John Eisenberg.  When asked about Lt Col Vindman, she made it clear that despite earlier reports to the contrary she thought he was dedicated and extremely good at his job, she went on to say that when the Republicans and right wing media go after Jewish immigrants like Vindman, leaders like Zelensky, people like George Soros and push anti-Semitic tropes they are taking a page from the notorious Czarist anti-Semitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the fabricated text that purports to describe a Jewish plan for global domination.  The steely Hill hammered away at Gym Jordan, Devin Nunes and their compatriots but at times also pushed back at some of the Democrats.  She made it clear that seeking dirt on your rivals from any foreign official was wrong.  To that end she also threw mud at the infamous Steele Dossier, calling it a piece of Russian disinformation, an indication that she’s hardly a partisan.

Ukraine based US diplomat David Holmes, the guy who overheard Trump’s Kiev café conversation with Gordon Sondland, also testified yesterday.  In addition to recounting the call, he clearly laid out how Trump’s quid pro quos worked, and how they would have been understood by the Ukrainians to include not just a White House meeting but also military aid. Throwing shade at both Gordon Sondland and Kurt Volker, both he and Hill opined that only an idiot could miss that the request to investigate Ukraine gas company Burisma was a not so veiled demand to investigate the Bidens.  As to that, late yesterday Jake Tapper tweeted out text of an October 3 Trump Q & A on the White House lawn where Trump answered a question about what exactly he wanted Zelensky to do about the Bidens after their July 25 phone call.  Trump’s response “Well, I would think that, if they were honest about it, they’d start a major investigations into the Bidens.” Just another example of Trump admitting his intentions in public.  As to Devin Nunes, Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell played some hardball yesterday, he entered a recent Daily Beast article that reported how Rudy’s good buddy Lev Parnas, half of the Lev and Oleg team, helped arrange meetings for Nunes and his aides when they traveled to Europe in December 2018 seeking “information” on the origination of the Russia investigation.  Parnas, who keeps turning up everywhere, may well be the Zelig of this chapter of the Trump saga.  

Republican Reaction:  Before signing off, House Intel Chairman Adam Schiff quoted former Congressman Elijah Cummings by saying “We are better than this,” though judging by the Republican reaction we aren’t.  Despite the overwhelming evidence against Trump, it doesn’t appear that any members of the Republican caucus are likely to vote for impeachment.  Will Hurd, the “moderate” Texas Republican who is not running for reelection proved that he is just another Republican tool when he said that though he believed Trump's request to "do us a favor" and his reference to Biden on the call were wrong, that “both statements are inappropriate, misguided foreign policy, and it certainly is not how an executive currently or in the future should handle such a call, but an impeachable offense should be compelling, overwhelmingly clear, and unambiguous, and it’s not something to be rushed or taken lightly," and as far as he’s concerned he has “not heard evidence proving the president committed bribery or extortion."  Sad.  On the Senate front Senate Leader McConnell is coordinating the impeachment trial timetable with the White House while Trump has been inviting selected Republican Senators for lunch and schmoozing.  Yesterday, both Susan Collins and Mitt Romney, hardly Trump’s usual lunch companions, were among the invitees.  Both reported that impeachment was not discussed that they were just there for the hamberglers.  For his part, yesterday Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham sent a letter to Secretary of State Pompeo requesting documents related to Joe Biden and his communications with Ukrainian officials, a step seen as a part of the Republican effort to counter the House impeachment investigation of Trump.  Am I the only one wondering why it would be okay for the State Department to provide information and documentation to Senate Republicans when they won’t provide anything to House Democrats?  The Senate is also likely to call Hunter Biden in as a witness during the impeachment trial.  The circus has only just begun.

Indictments:  Yesterday, Israel’s attorney general formally charged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with bribery, fraud and breach of trust.  He of course denied all of the charges and, taking a page from the Trump playbook, called the investigation a witch hunt while also calling for an investigation of the investigators.  It’s probably only a matter of time before Trump says that he doesn’t really know that guy Bibi.  Trump may also start distancing himself from his long time CFO Allen Weisselberg.  The Manhattan District Attorney’s office criminal investigation of the Trump Organization is now scrutinizing his actions related to the payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about her “alleged” sexual  encounter with Trump.  The Manhattan DA’s office had previously deferred to federal prosecutors but with Attorney General Barr’s guys no longer interested in pursuing this case, New York is moving forward quickly.  Reportedly NYC prosecutors have recently been spending some quality time upstate with Trump’s former lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen getting up to speed.  

In the Loop and Under the Bus

Sondland Sang: Yesterday’s impeachment inquiry hearing seemed endless but most of it was worth watching.  As usual Committee Chair Adam Schiff set the stage, providing his usual overview of the inquiry, peppering it with facts brought to light during the previous day’s testimony.  Ranking Member Devin Nunes spewed some of his usual nonsense, asserting that the inquiry was a waste of time, just phase two of the Russian hoax, part of the Democrats’ never ending effort to unseat dear leader Trump.  Nunes warmly greeted EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland, an indication that he either hadn’t read Sondland’s opening remarks, a copy of which had been distributed to the committee early yesterday morning, or that he had read them and failed to grasp the import of what Sondland was about to say. Sondland then started speaking, reading from those remarks, the third revision of his earlier deposition.  He quickly dispelled any concerns that he was going to plead the Fifth by instead throwing Trump, VP Pence, Rudy Giuliani, Secretary of State Pompeo, Acting Chief of Staff Mulvaney, former national security advisor John Bolton and Energy Secretary Perry under the bus.  Acknowledging that his memory isn’t perfect in part because, unlike all the professional diplomats, he isn’t a note taker, he said his recollections had been refreshed by the testimonies and depositions provided by the other witnesses, lawyer speak for he now remembers the things he previously conveniently “forgot.” He said that he and those other two Amigos, Perry and Kurt Volker, were not part of some subversive group, they were working out in the open under the direction of Trump who had told them to take marching orders from Rudy, who is still trying to drum up investigations even though he’s being investigated for almost everything he’s done lately.  Although Sondland still doesn’t have access to all of his State Department records, something that he attributed to the White House and State Department’s decision to keep them under wraps, he brought along a few emails and texts that, together with the recollections of his Trump phone calls including the one in the Kiev cafe, proved that he had been keeping all the relevant parties, most notably Mulvaney and Pompeo, “in the loop.”  He said that there had been a quid pro quo, Ukraine announcing investigations in exchange for a White House meeting between President Zelensky and Trump and military aid, but that at first he didn’t realize that what the Democrats are now calling a bribe extended to the military aid.  Eventually, putting “two and two together,” he figured out that the aid wasn’t going to be released until Trump got the “deliverables” he wanted – a public statement by Zelensky that he would investigate Burisma and that faux Democratic interference in the 2016 election.  As to Burisma, that minor Ukrainian gas company that continues to get far more attention than it deserves, like Volker before him, Sondland claimed that he didn’t know that Hunter Biden was one of its board members until late in the game because apparently he doesn’t know how to use Google so as a result he hadn’t realized that the direction to investigate Burisma was part of Trump’s effort to dig up dirt on political rival Joe Biden.  Sondland agreed that getting a foreign leader to investigate a political rival was the wrong thing to do. Lastly, because it wouldn’t be fair not to soil VP Pence too, Sondland also relayed that he tried to get Pence to address the aid hold up during a meeting with the Ukrainians in Warsaw but the best he managed to get from Trump’s tool was a nod.  Republicans spent a lot of time pulling apart Sondland’s testimony and to a certain extent they did ding its veneer. Sondland who appears to be a people pleaser, seemed to be trying to make everyone, Republican and Democrat alike, happy with what he had to say so at times he watered down the damning assertions that his lawyers had included in his opening remarks.  Nevertheless, his testimony caused Trump considerable damage and every time the Republicans and their lawyer complained about Sondland’s faulty memory they instead ended up highlighting that the White House was engaging in obstruction by refusing to release relevant documentation.  It didn’t take long for Trump to emerge on the White House lawn, he showed up reading from large print notes written with his usual Sharpie to say that there had been no quid pro quo and that anyway he didn’t know that guy Sondland very well.  That could be a problem for Sondland who was in such a hurry to get back to his posting in Brussels that he requested the committee keep toilet/lunch breaks short so he wouldn’t miss his flight.  His remaining days as Ambassador to the EU are likely numbered.   

Shifting Timeline:  After Sondland dashed to Dulles for what might be his last government funded flight to Brussels, Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia and David Hale, the third most senior person at the State Department testified.  During her opening remarks Cooper revealed that after reading her SCIF deposition, a member of her staff alerted her that he had received an inquiry about the military aid hold up from the Ukrainian Embassy on July 25 and that during the week of August 6, other members of her staff saw officials from the embassy who also raised the issue.  That’s notable because it means that the Ukrainians knew that their military aid was being held back during the time period that Zelensky was being pressured to publicly announce the Burisma/Biden and 2016 election interference investigations, a bigly problem for Trump because part of his defense has been that the Ukrainians didn’t know that their aid was in jeopardy. For his part Hale, who had been invited to testify at the request of the Republicans, defended former Ambassador Yovanovitch saying what happened to her was “wrong” and that he believed “that she should have been able to stay at post and continue to do the outstanding work.”  He also provided a robust statement of support for all the diplomats serving at the State Department, something that Secretary of State Pompeo, who three senior Republicans say is coming closer to resigning to run for Senate in Kansas if he can still pull that off, still hasn’t done. More testimony is on tap today.  Fiona Hill, the Russia expert who left the NSC this summer and who reported that John Bolton called Trump’s quid pro quo demand a “drug deal” and David Holmes, the Ukraine embassy mid-level diplomat who overheard Sondland’s Kiev café call with Trump will start talking at 9 ET following Schiff and Nunes’  opening remarks.    

Democratic Debates:  I have to admit that hearing-ed out I only caught snippets of last night’s debates, that said I did catch Joe Biden’s back and forth with Cory Booker over the legalization of pot and Biden’s gaffe when he said that he had the endorsement of the only African American woman Senator, something that stunned that other African American woman Senator Kamala Harris. Biden almost immediately corrected himself to say that he meant to say that he had the endorsement of the first African American Senator, Carol Moseley Braun, but since everyone loves to jump on his gaffes the damage was already done.  As to Biden’s pot comment, Booker, who had a relatively good night, asked him if he was stoned but to be clear, Biden isn’t completely out of touch, he wants marijuana possession decriminalized and wants people in jail for possession released immediately with their records expunged, he’s just not supportive of complete legalization, a position that actually polls well.  Amy Klobuchar managed to zing Mayor Pete while making a statement about equality saying “Of the women on the stage, do I think we would be standing on that stage if we had the experience he had? No, I don’t.” adding “Pete is qualified to be up on this stage, and I am honored to be standing next to him but what I said is true. Women are held to a higher standard. Otherwise we could play a game called name your favorite woman president, which we can’t do because it has all been men.”  One of those women on stage, Tulsi Gabbard, was the evening’s punching bag but it probably doesn’t matter, her support is kind of baked in with elements who like her playing the 2020 version of Jill Stein.  It’s not clear that any of the debate performances, good or bad, will impact any polls.  As to women, Republican star Nikki Haley has an email problem, while serving as UN Ambassador she sent a whole series of them from her personal email account because she couldn’t remember her official government password.    

Third Time’s the Charm?  Israel may be headed for still another election.  Neither Bibi Netanyahu nor Benny Gantz have been able to form a government since kingmaker Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of the secular nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, is holding out for a unity government and at least so far won’t throw his group's weight behind either Netanyahu or Gantz unless their parties agree to work together.  Oy.

Dragging the Net

Just the Facts:  The facts aren’t really in dispute anymore, Trump pressured Ukraine President Zelensky to publicly commit to investigate the Bidens and Ukrainian gas company Burisma  and to investigate “Crowdstrike,” codeword for the debunked allegation that certain Ukrainian oligarchs worked with Democrats against Trump in 2016, in exchange for an Oval Office meeting and the release of Congressionally authorized military aid as well as the right to purchase more Javelin anti-tank missiles. Though Republicans still continue to quibble about some of those details, they know they’re substantially true, so now they are arguing that Trump’s intentions and crimes don’t matter because the Ukrainians got their aid and, at least so far, neither the Bidens nor the Crowdstrike crap are being investigated by Ukrainians authorities.  And of course, because we are in the Trump era, the Republican defense also involves threatening and besmirching the witnesses who brought Trump’s efforts out from the shadows.

It was Sunny and Cold: Yesterday’s testimony started in the morning and went on into the dinner hour.  That’s a lot of TV time, but nothing to worry about there, Devin Nunes who, when he wasn’t attacking the main stream media for their “biased” coverage used his allotted time to assert that the Democratic charade was a ratings bust.  On a far more substantive level, Lt Col Vindman, the morning’s keynote testifier, opened his remarks with a nod to his father, who he thanked for moving him and his two brothers from the former Soviet Union to the US, assuring him not to worry about him, that here in America, dissent and speaking truth to power are, or at least, are supposed to be protected rights. Defending his colleagues, he also said that the “vile character attacks on these distinguished and honorable public servants is reprehensible.” Dressed in full military regalia, attire that some of the Republicans questioned, Vindman came off as a straight arrow who truly believes that Trump’s efforts to tie the delivery of aid to an important and vulnerable ally to a favor for his own political gain was both wrong and contrary to stated US policy.  He reported his concern to NSC lawyer John Eisenberg and, as part of his NSC job, shared information with at least one person at the CIA.  It’s not clear if that person ultimately became the Whistleblower, but, despite repeated efforts by Intel Committee Republicans, with the support of Committee Chair Schiff Vindman refused to reveal the name of his CIA contact. Republican counsel Steve Castor followed a line of questioning intended to suggest that Vindman had “dual loyalties” by harping on an offer, one that Vindman assumed was made in jest and that he never took seriously but did report to his higher ups, to become Ukraine’s Defense Minister. Vindman, who characterized himself as a “Never Partisan” rather than a Never Trumper, made it clear that he is a loyal American who has no interest in returning to his birthplace.  Republicans also tried to question his capability pointing to assertions by some of his coworkers, including Tim Morrison, who testified later in the day, that he didn’t always have the best judgment.  The bottom line, Vindman,  the multilingual, Harvard educated, Iraq veteran, is the kind of guy who might be a pain to work with largely because he’s a smarty pants who sees things as either right or wrong but he’s very competent and a patriot.  And here he saw lots of wrong and, unlike, others who also knew what was going on around them wasn’t kosher, he did something about it and, despite his assurances to his dad that he’ll be okay, it’s not clear that he will be.  His days detailed to the White House NSC team are about to be cut short and, in the face of continuing tweet attacks by Trump, smearing by right wing pundits and threats against his life, the Army is now monitoring his safety and making back-up plans to move him, his twin brother and their families to an Army base for their protection.

He Wears the Medals: Jennifer Williams, an aide to VP Pence, shared Vindman’s morning testimony slot.  Though she didn’t report her concern about the content of the July 25^th Zelensky-Trump call to her higher ups, largely because her boss, Keith Kellogg, was also listening in on the call, she did find it to be inappropriate. Republicans seemed very focused on trying to get her to say that Trump’s decision to cancel VP Pence’s plans to travel to Zelensky’s inauguration had more to do with logistics than any warning to Zelensky that he’d better cooperate or face the consequences.  Williams, who started her career as a political appointee in the Bush administration, is clearly a Republican, nevertheless by showing up to testify she has now put her career at risk and she too had to assert that she is no Never Trumper.  During the afternoon it was Trump’s former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker and former NSC official Tim Morrison’s time on the hot seat.  Both were invited to testify at the request of the Republican members of the Intel Committee.  Volker, one of the Three Amigos, who made it clear that he rejects that moniker and doesn’t consider himself part of the so-called triad, revised his earlier deposition to say that he now sees that others in the Trump administration sought an investigation into the Biden family and that they told Ukraine's government that military aid depended on it, a shift in his account that he attributed to new information he'd only recently learned, legal speak for he didn’t tell the whole truth last time around.  He probably didn’t please any of the Committee Republicans or Trump when he said that he had nothing but utmost respect for Joe Biden and was confident that the former Vice President would never have committed any corrupt acts. That said, his testimony wasn’t all good news for Democrats, he appeared to be working really hard to thread the needle, he refused to say that he’d seen much that was horribly wrong.  He continuously asserted that everything was fixable, and that was what he was trying to do, fix things so that the Ukrainians got their aid and if convincing them to cooperate with some announcements to make Trump happy required some shady stuff, that was okay with him.   For his part Tim Morrison, another longtime Republican, came off as kind of snooty, he admitted that he too was concerned about the Zelensky-Trump phone call.  In fact he also reported it to NSC lawyer John Eisenberg, but not because he thought that asking for a favor was necessarily illegal but because he thought that if the fact that Trump had done so leaked out it would be a bad thing.  He says that as far as he knows the transcript of the Zelensky-Trump call was put into the super-duper secret server by accident, that it only was supposed to be placed in the regular server with some extra restrictions as to who could see it.  Michael McFaul, the former Ambassador to Russia who also worked in the Obama White House doesn’t buy Morrison’s assertion, he says that it’s impossible to “accidentally” put anything into the super-duper secret server.

The two best “shade” moments of the day included Lt Col Vindman’s snap back at Devin Nunes that when he’s in military garb Nunes should address him as Lt Col rather than Mr. and Democratic Congressman Himes diss of lawyer Castor for his attempt to paint Vindman with the dual loyalty trope saying that “They're trying to convince you that Lt Col Vindman, who wears a Springfield rifle on a sea of blue, with a purple heart is not loyal to our country. Just because it's cloaked in a Brooks Brothers suit and parliamentary language doesn't make it any more defensible.”   

Crawling Out From Rocks: A lot of yesterday’s testimony concerned that Third Amigo, Trump donor/EU Ambassador Sondland who is due to testify this morning.  Even if you haven’t watched anything else, tune in at 9 ET.  It’s going to be very interesting to hear how he digs himself out of the hole he’s put himself in, whether he pleads the Fifth and if he does, whether he’s granted immunity.  Trump, who insists reports that he had a cardiac episode over the weekend are false and that he has the “good” cholesterol test results to prove it, as if cholesterol test results are an indication of whether or not you’ve had a heart attack, may find his heart pushed to its limits this morning.  Assuming the morning round ever ends, later in the day, Defense Department official Laura Cooper and undersecretary of state for political affairs David Hale, one of the Republican’s invitees, are scheduled to testify. 

This is the City: As if impeachment inquiry testimony isn’t enough politics for one very long day, tonight the Democratic candidates are scheduled to go at it in another one of the DNC’s endless series of debates.  Tonight’s Atlanta debate will feature the first all women moderating team including MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow,  MSNBC and NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, NBC’s Kristen Walker and the Washington Post’s Ashley Parker. The 10 candidates that made the cut are: Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Andrew Yang, Tom Steyer, Amy Klobuchar, and Tulsi Gabbard.  Given recent poll results, Mayor Pete may find himself the designated punching bag.  As to those poll results yesterday a New Hampshire poll showed Mayor Pete with 25% of likely Democratic voters, way ahead of Warren and Biden with 15% each and Sanders with 9%. The poll sampled a relatively small number of voters, was skewed towards more highly educated respondents and New Hampshire is another one of those relatively homogenous states so it’s not clear that it is indicative of much but if you’re Mayor Pete it’s a good thing.  One last note, reports are that Secretary of State Pompeo, who is knee deep in the Ukraine mess, Sondland says he kept him fully in the loop, and who isn’t doing much to support his State Department diplomats is looking for an exit so that he can run for Senator in Kansas.  He of course continues to deny that, but who wouldn’t want to disembark from the Trump ship right about now?     

More Warnings

Tune in at 9 ET:  In case you are wondering, the White House finally released a “medical” statement on Trump’s visit to Walter Reed.  Apparently, Trump is in tiptop shape but then again previous statements have said that he’s taller, thinner and the healthiest president ever so there is no point in taking the statement at face value.  Curiously, although Trump’s twitter account was active yesterday, he made no public appearances.  If he decides to stay in bed today, he can keep busy watching some more public testimony.  Twin Lt. Col. Vindman, the top Ukraine expert at the National Security Council, and Jennifer Williams, a State Department official who has been serving as a senior aide to VP Pence, will share the stage this morning. Three Amigo/former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker who resigned almost immediately after the Ukraine fiasco came to light, and Timothy Morrison, a senior national security aide, will appear in the afternoon.  According to Morrison’s SCIF transcript, then national security advisor John Bolton, who remains a testimony holdout, met with Trump in August to push for the release of Ukraine aid.  He also says that Bolton tried to get a number of other cabinet secretaries and other security advisors to convince Trump that it was in the US’s best interest to unfreeze the funds to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia but that a frustrated Bolton couldn’t move Trump off his “drug deal.”

LOL: As to yesterday’s tweets, responding to a suggestion that Speaker Pelosi made during her Sunday Face The Nation appearance that Trump could “come right before the committee and talk…..or he could do it in writing” Trump tweeted “Even though I did nothing wrong, and don’t like giving credibility to the No Due Process Hoax, I like the idea & will, in order to get Congress focused again, strongly consider it.”  The odds of Trump following through on that is somewhere between zero and zip especially since the content of his last effort to provide testimony in writing, the deposition that he provided to Special Counsel Mueller, is once again raising eyebrows.  Yesterday during arguments before a federal appeals court related to Congress’s attempt to get hold of the still unreleased secret grand jury evidence from Mueller’s Russia probe, House lawyers questioned Trump’s truthfulness, suggesting that his deceptive Mueller deposition, particularly the part where he denied knowing about his campaign’s efforts to ferret out the timing of WikiLeaks DNC email dumps, could become part of the impeachment inquiry. Last week Roger Stone was convicted for lying about his communications and/or attempts to communicate with WikiLeaks as well as all those calls he had with Trump, in part, because former Trump strategist Steve Bannon said that he was Trump’s WikiLeaks whisperer.

More on Ukraine:  In other Ukraine news, the AP reports that State Department officials knew as early as May that Ukraine President Zelensky, then just the President-elect, was feeling pressured by Trump’s push for Ukraine to open an investigation into the Bidens.  Amos Hochstein,  a new but minor character in the Ukraine saga, who serves on the supervisory board of Ukraine’s natural gas company Naftogaz participated in a meeting during which Zelensky expressed his concern.  Hochstein relayed details of the meeting to then Ambassador Yovanovitch and two other US embassy officials, including Suriya Jayanti who, together with embassy staffer David Holmes, overheard EU Ambassador’s July 26 Kiev Café call between Gordon Sondland and Trump, a call that will get lots of attention tomorrow during Sondland’s much awaited testimony, assuming he really shows up and talks.  Zelensky’s early knowledge that Trump wanted a Biden investigation knocks down another Republicans talking point, that there was no quid pro quo because Zelensky didn’t know he was being pressured.  As to that Kiev call, David Holmes who is now scheduled to testify in public later this week, says that at least two of Ukraine’s three cell phone carriers, possibly all three, are owned or partially owned by Russians, which is one of the reasons that he was stunned when Sondland used his cell phone to call Trump. Vlad P, if you are listening, release the transcript of that call!  

Homeland Security? Going back to the Republicans, and all their attempts to come up with talking points, at the request of two of Trump’s faves, Congressmen Jim “Gym” Jordan and Devin Nunes, Wisconsin’s Republican Senator Ron Johnson penned a ten page letter detailing his role in the Ukraine mess.  Johnson, who traveled to Ukraine with Connecticut’s Democratic Senator Chris Murphy in early September to discuss the withheld military aid, had previously said that he winced when Sondland told him that Trump would only unfreeze Ukraine’s aid if Ukraine announced the investigations, has been trying to get himself out from under that insufficiently Trump friendly remark ever since making it.  He insists that Trump adamantly denied that there was any quid pro quo, and now, in his letter, in an attempt to deflect blame elsewhere, he’s casting aspersions on Lt. Col Vindman’s judgement saying he fits the profile of a “never Trumper,” one of those deep state people, while also blaming the Whistleblower because “we’d would have been much better off if we were just taking care of this behind the scenes.” In other words, wouldn’t it better to allow Trump to carry out his extortion in private?  Senator Johnson, who is Chair of the Senate’s Homeland Security Committee, also believes that the DNC server is hiding in Ukraine and that the Ukraine investigation is just a continuation of the assault on Trump by those who never accepted his presidency to begin with, just more “sabotage” by those evil all powerful, but not powerful enough to win the election, Hillary Clinton forces.

Other Items:  Secretary of State Pompeo came out of hiding yesterday.  He announced that the US no longer considers Israel’s West Bank settlements a violation of international law. There are lots of settlements and even with a peace plan most of them were probably staying put, however worldwide almost everyone else, including the UN and the EU, still view them as illegal.  Notably, even AIPAC, the Israel American lobbying group, was less than thrilled with the announcement expressing concern that the Trump administration’s unilateral moves without any progress on a peace plan, does more to erode bilateral US support for Israel and may lead to the EU taking more onerous trade positions with Israel.  The timing of Pompeo’s announcement was probably mostly about Trump wanting to remind his evangelical base that he’s still their man.  As to Pompeo, he gave some barely lukewarm support to his State Department professionals but refused to stand up for any of them by name, saying that questions about people like Ambassador Yovanovitch should be addressed to the White House. Separately, Senator Lindsey Graham announced that the FBI Inspector General Michael Horowitz is scheduled to testify on December 11 to review his soon to be released report on FISA warrant abuses, that’s the report that various Fox pundits and some Republicans insist will excoriate the FBI’s treatment of quirky Carter Page and that others think or hope will be a big yawn.  A Warning, the book by the Anonymous author, is out today.  Happy reading.  

Paging Dr. Kildare

Weekend Update:   On Saturday, while an OMB staffer was being deposed in the House SCIF Trump took an unscheduled, rushed trip to Walter Reed Medical Center for what his staff said was “half” a physical with the rest to be completed in February, a nonsensical explanation that no one, except maybe Judge Jeanine Pirro, who insists that Adonis Trump is the model of health and perfection, believes.  Keeping in mind that the White House has a fully staffed medical facility and that no one at Walter Reed was alerted to Trump’s “half physical” in advance, it’s likely that something is up.  We’ll just have to wait to find out whether Trump is paving the way for a medical excuse to step down, his heel spurs are acting up, or whether he really has a serious medical condition, something beyond impeachment/tax return anxiety and his obvious narcissistic personality disorder.  

A Friday for the Books:  Friday had everything: more testimony, mean tweets, a Roger Stone conviction, some pardons, and a bona fide standing ovation.  Starting with the testimony,  it was Former Ambassador to Ukraine Maria Yovanovitch’ s time at bat but before she got a chance to speak, Chairman Adam Schiff gave his opening remarks, Ranking Member Devin Nunes spewed some conspiracy nonsense and then, in what was supposed to be an exculpatory bombshell, read what the White House said was the transcript of Trump’s April call to President Zelensky, the call Trump made right after Zelensky won his election to become Ukraine president.  According to the transcript Trump briefly congratulated Zelensky on his victory and then bragged about his Miss Universe contest, adding that the Ukrainian contestants were very lovely, but said nothing about corruption.  Unfortunately for Trump and Nunes within the hour the press reported that an earlier read out of the April call was completely different than what Nunes had just read.  After some additional Republican shenanigans, the soft spoken Yovanovitch started testifying, she came off as smart, dedicated and totally impressive, a long-term State Department professional who prioritized service to the US over her private life. She recounted her time in Kiev, discussing her career and some of her earlier hardship posts including one in not so lovely Mogadishu, Somalia. She talked about the importance of pushing back against the corruption endemic to republics of the former Soviet Union, a mission she took seriously, as opposed to any of that Biden nonsense or the debunked conspiracy crap about Ukraine, rather than Russia, being responsible for 2016 election interference. She clearly understood that ambassadors serve at the will of the president but said she still couldn’t understand why her firing had to be preceded by the relentless smear campaign orchestrated by Rudy Giuliani and his buddies Lev and Oleg who we now know also discussed Ukraine strategy with Trump and Giuliani at last year’s White House Hanukah party.  She was gone from her post at the time of the Trump/Zelensky July 25 so her testimony focused on events that preceded the summer.  Republican plans to discredit her were foiled by Trump who impulsively smeared her some more just forty-five minutes into her testimony by tweeting “Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad. She started off in Somalia, how did that go? ….” Later in the day, claiming he was just exerting his right to free speech, Trump doubled down on his ill-timed and inappropriate tweet but the damage had been done.  Republican efforts to defend him, already muddled, evolved into gratuitous appreciation of Yovanovitch for her service leaving Trump looking crueler and pettier than ever. For his part, Schiff didn’t let Trump’s nasty tweet slide, he read it out loud, asking Yovanovitch if she found being publicly slammed by Trump intimidating, and of course she did, threatening to add witness intimidation to Trump’s list of impeachable offenses.

As a result of Trump’s tweet idiocy, as well as his remark to Zelensky on their July 25 call that suggested that Yovanovitch ought to watch her back because bad things were coming her way, the best the Republicans could do was go after committee procedures, attack “Shifty” Shift, and again call for the Whistleblower to reveal himself, etc. They also repeated that Trump wasn’t guilty of any crime because despite his best attempts, aid to Ukraine was eventually provided and the investigations he wanted were never announced but they avoided acknowledging that Trump’s intentions were foiled only after his and his cronies efforts got public attention.  This time around Republicans contracted some of their dirty work to upstate NY Republican Elena Stefanik.  That didn’t turn out all that well for her. In response to her slime throwing, Stefanik’s 2020 opponent, Democrat Tedra Cobb, raised around $1 million over the weekend with George Conway, who now says that he thinks his wife Kellyanne is trapped in a Trumpist cult, giving her $2800.  At the end of her testimony, Yovanovitch received an unprecedented standing ovation, leaving those Republicans who hadn’t ducked out early stunned. Over the weekend she continued to get hero treatment, being greeted by another ovation when she visited a local DC jazz club.

More SCIFfing: After Yovanovitch time was up, the action moved to the House SCIF where another embassy official, David Holmes. recounted overhearing Ambassador to the EU/Three Amigo Gordon Sondland’s call with Trump.  That’s the Kiev call where Trump spoke so loudly that everyone nearby, including the Russian waiters/spies heard him ask whether President Zelensky had committed to start those key investigations he wanted while also hearing Sondland tell Trump that Zelensky “loved his ass” and “would do anything he wanted.”  Ugly American diplomacy at its worst.  Holmes explained that he hadn’t come forward earlier because he thought his testimony wasn’t necessary but after hearing Republicans assert that the whole investigation was bunk because only third hand accounts, or worse, were being presented he concluded he had to step up.  As to that Republican assertion that there have been no first hand accounts, that’s because the White House continues to work at barring testimony from first hand witnesses such as national security advisor Bolton, acting chief of staff Mulvaney, Energy Secretary Perry and anyone else who is still adhering to the Cult Leader’s instructions.     

Stoning Stone:  Before Friday ended, Roger Stone’s jury reached their verdicts, finding him guilty of all seven counts, including lying to Congress, tampering with a witness and obstructing a House investigation.  None of that pleased Trump who tweeted “So they now convict Roger Stone of lying and want to jail him for many years to come, well, what about Crooked Hillary, Comey, Strzok, Page, McCabe, Brennan, Clapper, Shifty Schiff, Ohr & Nellie, Steele & all of the others, including even Mueller himself? Didn’t they lie?”  Stone who is due to be sentenced in February was allowed to go to Florida to hang while waiting for his sentence or his pardon, whichever comes first and he clearly is counting on a Trump pardon, one that Trump whisperer Tucker Carlson is now demanding he get.  Odds are Stone will get that pardon eventually though he might have to wait until the day before Trump leaves office whenever that is. He’d better hope that Trump’s medical emergency involved bone spurs rather than an exploding heart.  Notably, Trump did exercise some of his pardoning muscles on Friday by pardoning three servicemen accused or convicted of war crimes. He did that over the objection of senior Pentagon officials who firmly believe that letting war criminals off the hook sends the wrong message to the troops.

More to Come:  In preparation for this week’s testimony which begins on Tuesday with NSC twin Lt Col Vindman, Pence aide Jennifer Williams and former special envoy to Ukraine/Three Amigo Kurt Volker, transcripts from testimony by Jennifer Williams, a career foreign service official and Tim Morrison, the former national security council official who resigned shortly before providing his deposition, were released.  Among other things, Williams, who listened in to Trump and Zelensky’s July 25 call found Trump’s references to be “inappropriate” more “specific to his personal agenda as opposed to a broader foreign policy objective of the US.”  She said that she put a hard copy of the call in VP Pence’s briefing book though she couldn’t confirm if he ever read it.  Trump responded to Williams’ remarks by calling her a “never Trumper” who he “doesn’t know and mostly never even heard of.” Tim Morrison’s transcript revealed that he had heard from that other Three Amigo Sondland that US aid to Ukraine was conditioned on Ukraine’s announcement of an investigation into Joe Biden and his son Hunter providing additional corroboration to the testimony of others, like acting US Ambassador to Ukraine Taylor, that Sondland said he was acting at Trump's direction when he was urging Ukraine to announce political investigations.  As to Sondland, last night the WSJ reported that there are emails showing that he kept Mulvaney and Perry informed of his push for Ukraine to launch investigations in the weeks leading up to the Trump-Zelensky July 25 call.  Though there will be eight people testifying in public this week, Sondland’s Wednesday appearance is the most anticipated.  Unfortunately for him a lot has come to light since the last time he updated his behind closed door deposition. The question now is whether he will come clean, plead the Fifth, lie in hopes of receiving one of those dangling Trump pardons or get hit by truck. Another question, is when, if ever, will Secretary of State Pompeo reemerge to speak up and defend his State Department officials.  

Election Updates:  Louisiana’s Democratic governor John Bel Edwards narrowly defeated Republican Eddie Rispone, a Trump backed business man, in the state’s run-off election.  Trump, who won Louisiana by 20 points in 2016 traveled to Louisiana multiple times to campaign for Rispone.  The anti-abortion Edwards is hardly a Democratic poster boy but his victory which was attributed to a large turnout by African American and white city and suburban voters, the crowd that the Democrats need to attract to win in 2020, is not a good omen for Republicans. As to the 2020 race, recent polls indicate that Pete Buttigieg who has very little African American support has leapfrogged past Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden to the top of the Iowa polls. That’s notable for two reasons, first because Iowa Democrats tend to be more liberal than average and Buttigieg is a moderate and second because Iowa is very homogenous so it’s not clear what, if anything, winning Iowa will mean in more diverse states. While all were focused in Buttigieg, it’s also interesting to note that another moderate, Senator Amy Klobuchar, while behind the leaders, is also quietly gaining. Though he’s still not officially in the race, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent part of his Sunday in a Harlem church apologizing for the stop and frisk program that he supported while and after he was mayor, acknowledging that it had some very bad consequences for the Black community. His mea culpa was probably spurred by last week’s Charles Blow op-ed, the one that said that Blacks should never vote for Bloomberg because of stop and frisk. Bloomberg also announced that he’s funding a $100 million anti-Trump ad campaign.

Other items:  Hong Kong demonstrations against China continue to escalate with dire consequences for some. Reports of how badly the Chinese are treating their Uighur minority in those harsh detention “reeducation centers” continue to leak out. Though there is now a shaky, very shaky, ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, last week a barrage of Gaza rockets rained down on Israel, payback for Israel’s targeted killing of an Islamic Jihad leader who was earlier responsible for attacks in Israel.  Former US bases in Northern Syria continue to be taken over by the Russians, while hostilities between the Kurds and Turkey escalate.  Bolivia’s socialist leader has fled to Mexico and Chile is suffering from dramatic social unrest and reactionary violence.  Oh, and Venice is under water. All is not okay.

Do Your Job!

Impeachment Front:  There was no public impeachment testimony yesterday but there was some related news.  It turns out that that call between EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland and Trump, the one that took place in a Kiev restaurant over an unsecure cell phone was overheard by at least two US Embassy staffers.  It was probably also overheard by Putin since Russia surveils calls in and out of Ukraine; at least for now Putin isn’t sharing his transcript but he could, in the past Russia has publicly aired recordings of embarrassing foreign dignitary calls. Getting back to the Trump-Sondland café call, the first staffer to report hearing Sondland update Trump on where things stood vis a vis Zelensky’s plans to publicly announce an investigation into the Bidens as well as Sondland saying that Trump cared more about that investigation than Ukraine is David Holmes, a respected mid-career foreign services officer who serves as a political counselor in the Kiev embassy.  Holmes is scheduled to testify in the House SCIF on Friday.  The second embassy officer, Suriya Jayanti, who also overheard the call will probably receive a similar invitation.  Trump, who claims he has no recall of the call will have a hard time disputing what was said absent a sudden burst of recollection, perhaps some extra Adderall will help him focus.  There was also news on the home front, Mark Sandy, the deputy associate director for national security programs  a long term career employee of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is breaking rank with his bosses and colleagues, he has decided to cooperate with the investigation and given the importance of what he knows, he is scheduled to testify in the House SCIF on Saturday. Sandy is expected to provide insight into the process by which the $400 million in military and security aid to Ukraine was held up over the summer. It’s reported that he was among the career staffers who questioned the aid delay, his signature was on at least one of the related documents. The White House has been working hard to keep OMB staffers from testifying so Sandy’s decision to move forward is significant. Though the White House insists that his cooperation is no big deal, it is, a bigly one.  Sondland is still scheduled to testify in public on Wednesday.  He probably should be packing his bags to return to his Oregon hotel empire, but he insists that he’s staying put working away at his EU day job. He is quite a multi-tasker, in addition to mucking around in Ukraine, apparently he’s also worked with Trump’s immigration whisperer Stephen Miller and son-in-law Jared Kushner  on a plan to fast track the immigration of white people and only white people from Europe to the US. As to Miller, pressure is building for him to be fired over his 46 plus racist emails, the ones where he promoted white supremacist literature and ideals, they spread the narrative that immigrants of color were not only dangerous and violent but that they “posed an existential threat to America.” Like Trump would ever fire him or anyone else for any of that.  And because the July 25 Zelensky transcript was so perfect, Trump plans to release the transcript of his earlier call with Zelensky, the one where he simply congratulated the then Ukraine president-elect for winning his election because that call was short and probably was close to perfect.

Hotel for Sale:  If you have any interest in buying a really big hotel in Washington, now is the time.  The sales brochure for Trump International DC, the hotel frequented by Trumpkins and foreign dignitaries eager to curry favor with Trump.  CNN reports that the brochure cites the ability to profit off of foreign governments as one of the hotels best selling points, pointing out that there is ”tremendous upside potential for a new owner to fully capitalize on government related business upon rebranding of the asset.” Apparently the Trump facility has been underperforming other hotels in DC, not because of a lack of foreign dignitaries, or Republican related events, but because revenues aren’t what they should be despite, or perhaps because of above market rates, because a lot of others have no interest in paying up to stay in a Trump owned facility.  Anyway, since the Government Services Administration (GSA) owns the land that the Hotel sits on, any sale will have to be approved by GSA officials, which shouldn’t be much of a problem given who they report to.  As to Trump owned facilities, there’s still no word where the next G 7 summit, or G 8 if Trump invites Vlad P, will be held but don’t worry too much about Trump’s Doral resort.  The Republican National Committee will be holding its winter meeting there so in addition to praying at the altar of Trump, they’ll get to feed his till.  Does make you wonder how desperate the Trump businesses are for cash, maybe they have some big, loans coming due?  It’s not just Trump’s domestic businesses that are in the headlines, according to the NY Times Jared Kushner has a particularly cozy relationship with Turkey President Erdogan’s son-in-law and the son-in-law of an influential Turkish tycoon and Trump partner.  Together the three sons-in-laws have helped boost Trump’s relationship with Erdogan.  For the record before the election Trump bragged about his Istanbul Trump Tower, at that time admitting that owning it probably was a conflict of interest for a president. Of course, now not so much, right?  And you know how much Trump hates windmills, he frequently blames the alternative energy source for causing cancer.  The Trump organization has finally agreed to pay a 225,000 pound legal bill owed to the Scottish government after losing a long court battle against a windfarm near its Aberdeenshire golf course, another one of their unprofitable properties. 

Russia, Russia, Redux:  The Roger Stone jury deliberated for five hours yesterday, asked the judge a few questions about one of the counts against him and then went home for the night.  They are due back for further deliberations this morning.  Stone has been charged with lying to Congress and obstructing the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.  As to that probe, the much awaited report from the FBI’s Inspector General Michael Horowitz that, among others things, is supposedly focusing on whether there were FISA (Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act) abuses related to the monitoring of Carter Page, the eccentric Trump advisor with lots of Russian ties, is due out shortly.  It had initially been reported that though Horowitz had invited those referenced in the report to read relevant sections he would not be incorporating any of their corrections into the final report, which would have been highly unusual and probably reflected pressure from the White House and/or Attorney General Barr.  Late last night a spokesperson from Horowitz’s office backtracked a bit and said that written feedback would be accepted though it’s still not clear if any of it will be incorporated.  Fox, a number of Republican Senators and the right leaning Washington Examiner insist that the report will be explosive, others are less sure but are wary that it is being unduly influenced by Barr.  In any case there is pressure to release it soon, possibly to divert attention away from the impeachment hearings.  The Horowitz report should not be confused with the US Attorney John Durham report, which is the one commissioned by Barr to look into the whole origins of the Russia investigation.  For that report Barr has been flying around the world, looking for the non-existent DNC server and visiting with foreign officials, encouraging them to dish up dirt on people like Christopher Steele and any US intelligence agents associated with the Russia investigation.    

And sadly there was another school shooting yesterday. In response, Barr and Senator Lindsey Graham blamed the inauguration inquiry for distracting them from proceeding with any gun control legislation. Former President Bill Clinton pointed out that’s no excuse, he got plenty of legislation passed while he was being impeached.  His message to Trump, is that you got hired to do a job, do it.