Mid week Trump

[anodyne]

Rex must be talking.

Bloomberg News scoop:

Trump pressed Rex Tillerson to help persuade the DOJ to drop a criminal case against a client of Rudy Giuliani’s, according to three people familiar with the 2017 meeting in the Oval Office.

Trump wanted Tillerson to help persuade DOJ to drop a certain criminal case.

In Oval, Tillerson refused, arguing it‘d be interference in an investigation.

Tillerson repeated objections to John Kelly in hallway outside Oval, emphasizing request would be illegal.

www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2019-10-09/trump-urged-top-aide-to-help-giuliani-client-facing-doj-charges?__twitter_impression=true

[winecat]

I wish evil was a carcinogen so that all these fuckers would die.

[mbcdefg]

The House committees investigating Trump and Ukraine have requested that his former Russia advisor Fiona Hill appear for a deposition on Oct. 14, as well as turn over several documents dating back to January of 2017.

www.axios.com/house-democrats-fiona-hill-testimony-russia-trump-d4b641b8-7a22-4b5c-bbdb-4a1750b0de5a.html

[mbcdefg]

[mbcdefg]

Two business associates of Trump's personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani have been arrested and are in custody

www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2019/10/10/two-business-associates-of-trumps-personal-lawyer-rudolph-w-giuliani-have-been-arrested-and-are-in-custody/

www.wsj.com/articles/two-foreign-born-men-who-helped-giuliani-on-ukraine-arrested-on-campaign-finance-charges-11570714188

[ESF]

Oct 10, 2019 8:58:58 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

Two business associates of Trump's personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani have been arrested and are in custody

www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2019/10/10/two-business-associates-of-trumps-personal-lawyer-rudolph-w-giuliani-have-been-arrested-and-are-in-custody/

www.wsj.com/articles/two-foreign-born-men-who-helped-giuliani-on-ukraine-arrested-on-campaign-finance-charges-11570714188

These people were set to testify before the house, one today and one tomorrow.

So as people on Twitter are pointing out, this arrest was likely done to prevent them from testifying.

[carmenere]

Oct 9, 2019 18:23:18 GMT -5 anodyne said:

Rex must be talking.

Bloomberg News scoop:

Trump pressed Rex Tillerson to help persuade the DOJ to drop a criminal case against a client of Rudy Giuliani’s, according to three people familiar with the 2017 meeting in the Oval Office.

Trump wanted Tillerson to help persuade DOJ to drop a certain criminal case.

In Oval, Tillerson refused, arguing it‘d be interference in an investigation.

Tillerson repeated objections to John Kelly in hallway outside Oval, emphasizing request would be illegal.

www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2019-10-09/trump-urged-top-aide-to-help-giuliani-client-facing-doj-charges?__twitter_impression=true

You know how we always say Trump accuses people of doing exactly what he’s doing? I had a feeling it was only a matter of time before something like this came out. I hope Rex sings like a little bird.

[msmerymac]

www.salon.com/2019/10/09/most-americans-now-support-impeachment-with-democracy-collapsing-does-it-matter/

Most Americans now support impeachment — with democracy collapsing, does it matter?
Public opinion has swung in favor of impeachment. What good is that when the president rejects democracy itself?

"...So, to summarize: The Trump administration has argued that Trump is above the court system because it's not impeachment, and also that he is above impeachment because it's outside the court system. In other words, there is no avenue of legal accountability that Trump recognizes as legitimate."

[silva]

Oct 10, 2019 9:28:45 GMT -5 ESF said:

Oct 10, 2019 8:58:58 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

Two business associates of Trump's personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani have been arrested and are in custody

www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2019/10/10/two-business-associates-of-trumps-personal-lawyer-rudolph-w-giuliani-have-been-arrested-and-are-in-custody/

www.wsj.com/articles/two-foreign-born-men-who-helped-giuliani-on-ukraine-arrested-on-campaign-finance-charges-11570714188

These people were set to testify before the house, one today and one tomorrow.

So as people on Twitter are pointing out, this arrest was likely done to prevent them from testifying.

Npr tweeted they were arrested at Dulles International airport. Why leave the country when they were scheduled to testify this week?!! 🤔

[heat40]

wow. All of these different plot twists would have brought down any other president. I’m scared that we are entering Mueller/Russia territory where there is overwhelming evidence, but too much for the general public to follow/understand.

Ukraine was simple, which is why people were warming up to the impeachment idea.

[aliciabella]

Oct 10, 2019 9:28:45 GMT -5 ESF said:

Oct 10, 2019 8:58:58 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

Two business associates of Trump's personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani have been arrested and are in custody

www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2019/10/10/two-business-associates-of-trumps-personal-lawyer-rudolph-w-giuliani-have-been-arrested-and-are-in-custody/

www.wsj.com/articles/two-foreign-born-men-who-helped-giuliani-on-ukraine-arrested-on-campaign-finance-charges-11570714188

These people were set to testify before the house, one today and one tomorrow.

So as people on Twitter are pointing out, this arrest was likely done to prevent them from testifying.

No, this arrest will basically guarantee they show up If they are in custody and subpoenaed to testify the jails have to transport them as they are court-ordered which they can't just ignore. So it is a good thing since they clearly we're about to flee the country anyways. The corruption knows no boundaries with these fuckers.

[dutchgirl678]

The plot thickens. Parnas and Fruman apparently had one-way plane tickets. They had lunch with Giuliani yesterday. They are in photos both with Trump Jr and Trump. They have given lots to the inauguration fund and to Kevin McCarthy, And it sounds like they were involved in 2018 in calling a halt to a Ukranian investigation of Paul Manafort at Trump's direction.

[eponinepontmercy]

Oct 10, 2019 13:15:10 GMT -5 dutchgirl678 said:

The plot thickens. Parnas and Fruman apparently had one-way plane tickets. They had lunch with Giuliani yesterday. They are in photos both with Trump Jr and Trump. They have given lots to the inauguration fund and to Kevin McCarthy, And it sounds like they were involved in 2018 in calling a halt to a Ukranian investigation of Paul Manafort at Trump's direction.

I just cannot get over how there are just so many shady individuals involved in this whole thing.  I'm surprised it took this long for one of them to slip.

[bowies]

Oct 10, 2019 13:15:10 GMT -5 dutchgirl678 said:

The plot thickens. Parnas and Fruman apparently had one-way plane tickets. They had lunch with Giuliani yesterday. They are in photos both with Trump Jr and Trump. They have given lots to the inauguration fund and to Kevin McCarthy, And it sounds like they were involved in 2018 in calling a halt to a Ukranian investigation of Paul Manafort at Trump's direction.

So Trump leaned on Ukraine to back off of Manafort? Huh, it’s almost like he’s accusing Biden of doing the exact thing he did, only Trump was President at the time.

[suburbanzookeeper]

Oct 10, 2019 13:20:40 GMT -5 eponinepontmercy said:

Oct 10, 2019 13:15:10 GMT -5 dutchgirl678 said:

The plot thickens. Parnas and Fruman apparently had one-way plane tickets. They had lunch with Giuliani yesterday. They are in photos both with Trump Jr and Trump. They have given lots to the inauguration fund and to Kevin McCarthy, And it sounds like they were involved in 2018 in calling a halt to a Ukranian investigation of Paul Manafort at Trump's direction.

I just cannot get over how there are just so many shady individuals involved in this whole thing.  I'm surprised it took this long for one of them to slip.

This is where I'm at - I'm glad it's happening but I'm surprised with as many people who were involved in all of this that it took this long to get to this point. 

[anodyne]

Maddow has been talking about how Russia in 2016, the Manafort case, Trump trying to clear him, and the Biden/Ukraine farce are all interconnected. That they aren't separate issues but one ongoing. They have been at this for 3+ years. We have only "known" about if for a month.

[pixy0stix]

One testimony is going forward: www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/ousted-ukraine-envoy-expected-to-testify-in-impeachment-probe-despite-white-house-vow-not-to-cooperate-congressional-aides-say/2019/10/09/c46aebe8-eabc-11e9-85c0-85a098e47b37_story.html

Congressional investigators expect that Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine, will appear as planned for a Friday deposition in the House’s ongoing impeachment inquiry, despite the White House’s emphatic pledge not to cooperate with Democrats’ efforts to investigate President Trump, according to congressional officials involved with the process.

[mbcdefg]

Lindsey Graham dishes on Trump in hoax calls with Russians

www.politico.com/news/2019/10/10/lindsey-graham-trump-hoax-call-043991

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham has in the last year become something of a congressional point man for President Donald Trump’s negotiations with Turkey, leading discussions on everything from Ankara’s purchase of a Russian missile system over the summer to their more recent incursion into northern Syria.

So when he received a call from a man he thought was Turkey’s minister of defense earlier in August, it didn’t strike him as unusual. “Thank you so much for calling me, Mr. Minister,” Graham said. “I want to make this a win-win, if we can.”

But it wasn’t the Turkish defense minister at all. Instead, it was Alexey Stolyarov and Vladimir Kuznetsov, Russian pranksters with suspected ties to the country’s intelligence services who go by “Lexus and Vovan.” The duo have become notorious in recent years for their cold calls to unwitting, high-profile Western politicians, including Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, leading some to suspect that they’ve had help from the Kremlin, according to The Guardian. (A Schiff spokesman said at the time that the House Intelligence Committee “informed appropriate law enforcement and security personnel of the conversation.”)

Kevin Bishop, a spokesman for Graham, confirmed the call’s authenticity to POLITICO. “We have been successful in stopping many efforts to prank Senator Graham and the office, but this one slipped through the cracks,” he said. “They got him.”

The substance of Graham’s conversation with Stolyarov, who was posing as Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, is newly relevant in light of the South Carolina senator’s push for sanctions on Turkey as punishment for their offensive against the Kurds in northern Syria. Graham labeled the Kurds a “threat” to Turkey in the call, seemingly contradicting what he has said publicly in recent days.

Graham also mentions Trump’s personal interest in a “Turkish bank case” in the call that appears to refer to a U.S. case involving Reza Zarrab, an Iranian-Turkish gold trader and client of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Trump had asked then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in 2017 to help persuade the Justice Department to drop the Zarrab case.

[mbcdefg]

Attorney General Barr met privately last night with Rupert Murdoch, NYT reports.

The meeting was held at Murdoch's home in New York, according to someone familiar with it.


www.nytimes.com/2019/10/10/us/politics/barr-murdoch-trump.html

[ESF]

If anyone needs a good Like I’m Five bit on Parnas and Furman, Pro Publica breaks it down in this Twitter thread or in the article linked below. It’s craaaaaazy.

www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-rudy-giuliani-friends-in-ukraine

[pitta12]

Oct 10, 2019 16:31:07 GMT -5 ESF said:

If anyone needs a good Like I’m Five bit on Parnas and Furman, Pro Publica breaks it down in this Twitter thread or in the article linked below. It’s craaaaaazy.


www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-rudy-giuliani-friends-in-ukraine

OMG, Fruman has a club in Ukraine called Mafia Rave.  This whole crew is so ridiculous.

[pixy0stix]

CFG - still an asshole. coloradosun.com/2019/10/10/cory-gardner-impeachment-comments-colorado/?fbclid=IwAR3VW7THvh8MOarb4lJf7Fb0UpBUCqXHFt5y3QFTj0vsdg8is-IUKXuDrXQ

S. Sen. Cory Gardner on Thursday repeatedly refused to say whether he thinks it’s appropriate for the president to ask a foreign government to investigate a political rival.

[AAM2012]

Bulldozing protected cactus for border wall:


kvoa.com/news/2019/10/05/border-wall-construction-crew-bulldoze-cactus-at-national-monument/

[dutchgirl678]

Why was Giulani planning to fly to Vienna within 24 hours of Fruman and Parnas (apparently that is where their one-way tickets were flying them to)? Would he be arrested too if he tried to leave?

www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/10/rudy-giuliani-vienna/599833/

[mbcdefg]

The former US ambassador to Ukraine has told associates she was removed from her post after insisting that Giuliani’s requests to Ukrainian officials for investigations be relayed through official channels

apnews.com/01c10d68553b4d3c8a26525630c80be3

[bowies]

Lot of news breaking tonight. Fiona Hill (former NSC Ukraine expert) is testifying to Congress on Monday.

[AAM2012]

Oct 10, 2019 19:04:40 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

The former US ambassador to Ukraine has told associates she was removed from her post after insisting that Giuliani’s requests to Ukrainian officials for investigations be relayed through official channels

apnews.com/01c10d68553b4d3c8a26525630c80be3

You mean she’s asking for people to follow protocol?!

[bowies]

Also I need these dingbats to stop getting arrested in pairs. It’s messing up my avatar game.

[StrawberryBlondie]

I got stuck on the freeway for a presidential (or maybe vice presidential) motorcade.

I feel it's important to note I was going south, and the motorcade was going north, but we were still stopped by police till it passed.

I do not live near the airport and about a solid 15-20 miles outside downtown and was not on a freeway that leads to Minneapolis.

So whichever bozo it was decided 5 pm was a great time to clear the both directions of a major freeway.

[mbcdefg]

Michael McKinley, a senior adviser to Pompeo, has resigned.


www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/senior-adviser-to-pompeo-resigns/2019/10/10/0d771aa2-ebb5-11e9-85c0-85a098e47b37_story.html