The Family Tartan

Impeach, Impeach:  This morning at 9 ET, the Democrats are expected to hold a news conference to announce that they plan to charge Trump with two articles of impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, arguing that Trump put US elections and national security at risk by asking Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden while withholding military aid for Ukraine, an ally trying to counter their hostile neighbor, Russia.  Their point is that given Trump’s track record, left unchecked he will do it again.  Notably, Democrats appear to be planning to leave all that obstruction of justice from the Mueller report days on the cutting room floor, not because they don’t believe that it occurred but because the objective is to stick with the simpler, more easily understood Ukraine fiasco.  While the Ukraine mess might be easier for Democrats, especially those from vulnerable purple districts to get their constituents to understand, the Republicans remain criminally clueless or at least that’s how they appeared during yesterday’s Judiciary Committee hearing.  The Democrats had one of their counsels, Barry Berke, walk through why Trump’s crimes were impeachable while the other, Daniel Goldman, described the Ukraine fiasco from the reputation smearing of former US Ambassador to Ukraine Maria Yovanovitch through to the not so “perfect” Trump – Zelensky phone call to the present.  Goldman methodically detailed all the key events summarizing key witness testimony while  giving special mention to the roles of Chief of Staff Mulvaney, all of the Three Amigos, VP Pence, everyone’s favorite miscreant, Rudy Giuliani, and of course Trump.  The Republicans relied chiefly on minority counsel Steve Castor who impressed the crowd by showing up carrying his files, not in a legal case, but in a reusable Fresh Market grocery bag.  The bag of course went viral and is now being offered free as an environment friendly briefcase by the market.  The bag thing was Castor’s last impressive act unless you count fact twisting and misrepresentation as admirable traits.  During his testimony Castor actually denied that Trump had ever called for the investigation of the Bidens on his “perfect” call, saying that there were other ways that his comment could be construed and besides no one had proved what Trump had on his mind when he said and did all the things that everyone including the Republicans know that he did.  As to the rest of the Republican crowd, they stuck to that old law school adage, If neither the facts nor the law are on your side, pound the table and so they screamed and spoke rapidly and incomprehensibly as they attacked procedure and engaged in disruptive, time consuming tactics, even asking for a roll call when Chairman Nadler called a 15 minute bathroom break. To be fair, they did score a few points when they attacked Hunter Biden’s Burisma Board position. No way Hunter should have been on that board, but then again there’s no way that Jared Kushner should be in charge of Middle East peace, government technology, wall building, China and Saudi Arabian relations and let’s not even get started on what it is that Ivanka, the holder of an increasing number of Chinese trademarks, does.   

Next Up:  Anyway, assuming things go forward on Speaker Pelosi’s schedule, and they probably will because Nancy is a strict taskmaster, the Judiciary Committee will vote on the impeachment charges by the end of the week with a floor vote on impeachment taking place next week.  A few Democrats will stray from the majority, probably no Republicans other than former “R” Justin Amash will join them and then all will pass to the Senate.  At least that’s the plan, Rudy Giuliani has a different one.  Yesterday he announced that he is polishing up his report, the one that he says will detail all those faux incriminating things he uncovered from those former Ukraine prosecutors, the guys who were fired for being corrupt rather than fighting corruption, during his Ukraine and Budapest trip, the trip where he most appropriately flew on discount Wizz Air.  He plans to present his report to all the Republicans who will listen this week, and sadly, many will.  As to Trump he plans to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov today because who doesn’t want to meet with a senior Russian when under investigation for acting in Putin’s best interests. And then there is Ukraine President Zelensky, yesterday he had his first meeting with Putin to discuss things like Russia’s annexation of Crimea and their war in the Donbass.  Might have been nice if Trump had bolstered Zelensky position by meeting with him in the Oval Office first, but no, getting dirt on Biden was far more important than helping out an ally.

The Horowitz Report:  As expected Michael Horowitz, the Inspector General for all things FBI, released his long awaited report yesterday.  Debunking Trump’s assertion that the FBI had criminally ginned up reasons to investigate him and his campaign, Horowitz concluded that the FBI investigation into the Trump campaign’s interactions with various and sundry Russians was justified.  Also, as expected, Horowitz found problems with the way the FISA warrant process is administered, cited sloppy work and in one case what may have been a criminally lazy cut and paste offense by a junior lawyer. It turns out that quirky Carter Page has some things right, his FISA warrant was a bit compromised. Horowitz also said that the FBI needs to have more established rules for how to investigate presidential candidates, not a criticism of what they did, but an admission that they were operating in a “WTF” zone without sufficient guidance. Sexting lawyer Lisa Page, who despite all the call outs she got at Trump rallies, was barely cited in the report.  She immediately tweeted that it was time for Trump to formally apologize to her for saying that she had committed treason.  No one expects that to happen.  Former FBI Director Comey tweeted “So it was all lies, No spying on the campaign, no tapping Trump’s wires.  It was all good people trying to protect America.”  He also made a few TV appearances to smugly celebrate but not on Fox because they cancelled his scheduled appearance, likely because what’s the fun in interviewing Comey in the absence of proof of any of those Trump treason claims.  Chris Wray, the current FBI Director noted that there were actions in the report that were unacceptable and unrepresentative of who we are as an institution but said it was "important that the inspector general found that, in this particular instance, the investigation was opened with appropriate predication and authorization.” Also, when asked he said that he’d seen no evidence that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election, once again debunking that claim, one that many of the Republicans and their counsel Castor, continue to press.

Barr, Barr, Barr: As everyone expected, Attorney General Barr made it clear that, though he respected Horowitz, he disputed his chief finding largely because he’s Trump’s man and was hired to do so.  Barr released a statement saying “The FBI launched an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken.”  Barr’s remarks were disturbing but sadly not surprising.  However, it was somewhat shocking when John Durham, the federal attorney who Barr assigned to do a deep dive into the Russia investigation because he knew that the independent Horowitz would prove impervious to Trumpian pressure, issued a companion statement saying “Last month, we advised the inspector general that we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI. case was opened.” Durham noted that he had access to more information, possibly a reference to his and Barr’s road trips to meet with and twist arms of foreign intelligence officials overseas and to his examination of any role the CIA may have played or possibly just a statement to placate Trump and Barr.  Whatever it was, Durham’s remarks were highly unusual and a violation of normal practice, because prosecutors do not talk about ongoing investigations unless of course they are Team Trump.  We will now have to wait for Durham’s report which doesn’t appear to be near completion to find out just how complicit he is.  Something about proximity to Trump is so damaging to the reputations of people who were previously viewed as upstanding.

Trump Dump:  As to Team Trump, its leader celebrated the outcome of the Horowitz Report saying it proved a “major SPY scandal” had been uncovered and that it showed that the FBI had been out to get him, even though the report debunked all that.  Trump also noted that more of those treasonous activities would be detailed in the Durham Report. He relied on his newest aide, Pam Bondi, the former Florida Attorney General who was once accused of accepting a donation from Trump to ignore all those Trump University crimes back in her AG days, to help him misrepresent the report. Trump and Bondi’s misleading assertions aside there were a number of interesting nuggets in the Horowitz Report.  It turns out that Peter Strzok and Lisa Page weren’t the only FBI employees with political views, there were also a few who were decidedly pro-Trump, one who expressed his happiness at Trump’s victory because he wouldn’t have been all too pleased if that “criminal” Hillary Clinton had become president. Horowitz concluded that no one’s personal views impacted their work product.  Also, though Trump has spent three years attacking former British Agent Christopher Steele, the man responsible for the eponymous Steele Report,  it turns out that Steele has long been known to at least one member of the Trump family.  He and Ivanka were friends, she had considered hiring him for help with some of her family’s overseas investments and at one point he even gifted her with the “family tartan,” whatever that is.  Steele told FBI investigators that going into his assignment, he actually had good feelings for the Trump family due to his friendship with Ivanka.  Funny how nothing about Ivanka or the pro-Trump FBI texters was ever leaked out by the Trump syndicate?

2020:  Remember Ronny Jackson, the VA doctor who attested to Trump’s marvelous svelte physique and incredible health before having his reputation shredded after details concerning his past came out when Trump nominated him to serve as VA Secretary? Yesterday he announced that he is running for Congress in Texas.  He joins “coffee boy” George Papadopoulos who is running in California.  The beginning of a nightmare scenario?