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.