The Impeachment Thread

[zeppelin128]

Michael Moore brands Biden as 'this year's Hillary,' says he seems 'afraid' to talk about Ukraine allegations

So Michael Moore is credible now because he is speaking out against the current front-runner Biden?

 

[C-south]

You left out Kenyan Muslim. You are slipping, C.

You don’t have to throw out their entire terrible resumes every time.

 

[Grand Vol]

So Michael Moore is credible now because he is speaking out against the current front-runner Biden?

If you forget, he did tell us Trump was going to win.

 

[BowlBrother85]

@RockyTop85 @lawgator1

Let's just assume based on my previous post that Pelosi didn't know a thing and launched a formal impeachment inquiry based on rumors and speculation from "sources." Does that fall into the Maxine Waters line of thinking "we have to impeach to determine the crime"? Because you both, as lawyers, know you cannot take something to court (and an impeachment is a court proceeding) without hard evidence of a crime. What's probable cause again?

A reasonable belief a crime was committed, a specific person committed the crime and the instruments used in the crime are in a particular place.

You cannot used supposition nor a "hunch" for probable cause. Especially not when you're drawing up impeachment for the President of the United States. You can argue it's not a formal "trial" but you damn well know it's the highest trial we ever hold in our nation.

Pelosi did NOT show she had sufficient probable cause to initiate such an inquiry unless she knew in advance she had something. If she knew something weeks in advance and did nothing, how's that going to look? If she was using rumors and speculation to launch an impeachment inquiry, how's that going to look?

For Pete's sake, why aren't you two up in arms over this blatant abuse of the Constitution and legal system?

Why aren't you up in arms over a blatant abuse of Presidential power? Trump solicited a foreign leader for assistance with investigating a political opponent and leveraged military aid to that foreign leader's country against their willingness to abide by what he wanted done.

 

[Grand Vol]

Why aren't you up in arms over a blatant abuse of Presidential power? Trump solicited a foreign leader for assistance with investigating a political opponent and leveraged military aid to that foreign leader's country against their willingness to abide by what he wanted done.

The bolded happened?

 

[W.TN.Orange Blood]

Watching video of Pompeo fumbling around with these questions then mumbling a confession. He is a joke.

Good God man........they all do that.......each and everyone does that......doesn't matter what party their in.
They all beat around the bush.....they all go off topic......they get interrupted by the host........sh!t happens.

 

[BowlBrother85]

Michael Moore brands Biden as 'this year's Hillary,' says he seems 'afraid' to talk about Ukraine allegations

The Fox News spin cycle is in overdrive. They wouldn't be doing this if they weren't concerned. Why doesn't Fox News quote some things Moore has said about Trump? Because they only like it when he says something negative about a Democrat.

 

[Orangeburst]

Why aren't you up in arms over a blatant abuse of Presidential power? Trump solicited a foreign leader for assistance with investigating a political opponent and leveraged military aid to that foreign leader's country against their willingness to abide by what he wanted done.

Maybe Gassy Joe should not of had his hand in the cookie jar. If no cookies, no problem. No quid pro quo proved atp.

 

[BowlBrother85]

The bolded happened?

Yes, it did. Trump withheld hundreds of millions in military aid to the Ukraine just days prior to July 25th. There was no reason for that. Trump has since tried to spin it, that it was because he wanted to force other countries to help the Ukraine... but that is ridiculous. It was not known by any other country at the time that those funds had been withheld. Congress had already approved those funds. That was leverage.

 

[BowlBrother85]

Maybe Gassy Joe should not of had his hand in the cookie jar. If no cookies, no problem. No quid pro quo proved atp.

There is nothing to support that. The quid-pro-quo was Trump's using Congressional approved military aid to the Ukraine as leverage to get Zelensky to assist Giuliani in digging up dirt on Joe Biden.

 

[Obsessed]

Yes, it did. Trump withheld hundreds of millions in military aid to the Ukraine just days prior to July 25th. There was no reason for that. Trump has since tried to spin it, that it was because he wanted to force other countries to help the Ukraine... but that is ridiculous. It was not known by any other country at the time that those funds had been withheld. Congress had already approved those funds. That was leverage.

Do you not see your own hypocrisy?

 

[Obsessed]

There is nothing to support that. The quid-pro-quo was Trump's using Congressional approved military aid to the Ukraine as leverage to get Zelensky to assist Giuliani in digging up dirt on Joe Biden.

Again, more hypocrisy

 

[Orangeburst]

There is nothing to support that. The quid-pro-quo was Trump's using Congressional approved military aid to the Ukraine as leverage to get Zelensky to assist Giuliani in digging up dirt on Joe Biden.

Then what is the problem. No dirt no problem. You think it is alright for Shifty to subpoena Trumps international bank records and speak with Deutsche Bank about Trump?

 

[BowlBrother85]

Again, more hypocrisy

I'm sorry but the allegations against Joe Biden have not been proven. There just isn't anything there.

 

[Franklin Pierce]

Ex-Ukraine prosecutor said he was told to back off probe of Biden-linked firm, files show

The fired prosecutor at the center of the Ukraine controversy said during a private interview with President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani earlier this year that he was told to back off an investigation involving a natural gas firm that was linked to Joe Biden’s son, according to details of that interview that were handed over to Congress by the State Department’s inspector general Wednesday.

Fox News obtained a copy of Giuliani’s notes from his January 2019 interview with fired Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin in which he claimed that his “investigations stopped out of fear of the United States.”

Fox News obtained a copy of Giuliani’s notes from his January 2019 interview with fired Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin in which he claimed that his “investigations stopped out of fear of the United States.”

“Mr. Shokin attempted to continue the investigations but on or around June or July of 2015, the U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey R. Pyatt told him that the investigation has to be handled with white gloves, which according to Mr. Shokin, that implied do nothing,” the notes from the interview stated.

Shokin was fired in April 2016, and his case was “closed by the current Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko,” according to the notes. Despite his claims, Shokin, on both sides of the Atlantic, had been widely accused of corruption.

Biden, who has been seeking to unseat President Trump in 2020, once famously boasted on camera that when he was vice president and spearheading the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy, he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire Shokin, who was the top prosecutor at the time, investigating Burisma Holdings, where Hunter had a lucrative role on the board.

Allies of the Democrat, though, maintained that his intervention in the firing of Shokin had nothing to do with his son, but rather was tied to the corruption concerns. The Biden campaign has also slammed Giuliani, who interviewed Shokin according to the file, and blasted media outlets for giving him air time. The campaign wrote to NBC News, CBS News, Fox News and CNN to voice “grave concern that you continue to book Rudy Giuliani on your air to spread false, debunked conspiracy theories on behalf of Donald Trump.”

“The substance of President Trump and Rudy Giuliani’s claims has been roundly discredited,” Biden Deputy Campaign Manager Kate Bedingfield said last week. “This is not a claim from the campaign or Joe Biden. This is an irrefutable fact.”

However, Shokin, at the time, according to the interview, was investigating Mykola Zlochevsky, the former minister of ecology and natural resources of Ukraine — also the founder of Burisma. Hunter Biden was appointed to the board of the firm, which Shokin claimed was an appointment made by Zlochevsky “in order to protect himself.”

The interview allegedly conducted by Giuliani took place on Jan. 23, 2019 at an office on Park Avenue in New York City. Shokin was interviewed over the phone, and interpreters were used — one in Ukraine and one in New York, according to the notes obtained by Fox News.

The new documents were shared with Fox News by sources familiar with the “urgent” briefing held by State Department Inspector General Steve Linick on Wednesday.

Linick gave a closed-door briefing on Ukraine to aides from the Senate committees on Intelligence, Foreign Relations, Appropriations and Homeland Security, as well as aides from the House committees on Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, Appropriations and Oversight. The briefing lasted over an hour and took place in a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) on Capitol Hill Wednesday afternoon.

Linick shared a file with those who attended the briefing, containing multiple folders with the Trump Hotel logo on them. Inside the folders were notes from an interview conducted by Giuliani in January 2019 with Shokin, as well as Lutsenko. Another folder contained news clips, as well as several timelines about investigations related to Burisma.

A State Department spokesman on Wednesday confirmed to Fox News that the “relevant” materials Linick shared with Congress “were provided by the Department to the Inspector General on May 3, 2019 for his review and for such action as the Inspector General deemed appropriate.”

Linick told aides in the meeting that he received the package of information in the spring but did not know the sender. Linick sent it to the FBI because it included allegations of improper activities in Ukraine that were outside of his jurisdiction, according to sources familiar with the meeting. Last week, though, Linick was given permission by the FBI to share the files with Congress and said they were relevant to the congressional interviews being conducted, according to sources.

The documents came amid the chaos surrounding Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which he sought an investigation into Biden’s Ukraine dealings, as well as his son’s. That phone call sparked a formal impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives and had the Trump administration facing a new round of subpoenas.

Amid the rapidly moving impeachment inquiry being led by House Democrats, the details included in the folder turned over by the State Department inspector general could be used by the Trump administration to fuel its claim that the real scandal surrounded the Bidens. However, Democrats already have cast the files as “debunked conspiracy theories” and “propaganda.”

Ex-Ukraine prosecutor said he was told to back off probe of Biden-linked firm, files show

 

[Stew Cook]

Yes, it did. Trump withheld hundreds of millions in military aid to the Ukraine just days prior to July 25th. There was no reason for that. Trump has since tried to spin it, that it was because he wanted to force other countries to help the Ukraine... but that is ridiculous. It was not known by any other country at the time that those funds had been withheld. Congress had already approved those funds. That was leverage.

He wanted to be sure that Ukraine was honest.. err that Europe was gonna help.. Well, Trump had two answers, while others in his orbit had none.

 

[Obsessed]

I'm sorry but the allegations against Joe Biden have not been proven. There just isn't anything there.

**** the allegations. The simple fact of the illegal investigations should be enough to cause you pause...

 

[hUTch2002]

So Michael Moore is credible now because he is speaking out against the current front-runner Biden?

Just as credible as Avenatti. It’s an example of how even the looney ones see that the Dems have no chance at unseating Trump until 2024.

 

[zeppelin128]

If you forget, he did tell us Trump was going to win.

Michael Moore isn't someone I follow closely. But like BB said, this is pretty blatant what Fox News is doing regarding Moore.

 

[Orangeburst]

I'm sorry but the allegations against Joe Biden have not been proven. There just isn't anything there.

Use of foreign sources to support an investigation.
Deutsche Bank Is Subpoenaed for Trump Records by House Democrats

 

[lawgator1]

@RockyTop85 @lawgator1

Let's just assume based on my previous post that Pelosi didn't know a thing and launched a formal impeachment inquiry based on rumors and speculation from "sources." Does that fall into the Maxine Waters line of thinking "we have to impeach to determine the crime"? Because you both, as lawyers, know you cannot take something to court (and an impeachment is a court proceeding) without hard evidence of a crime. What's probable cause again?

A reasonable belief a crime was committed, a specific person committed the crime and the instruments used in the crime are in a particular place.

You cannot used supposition nor a "hunch" for probable cause. Especially not when you're drawing up impeachment for the President of the United States. You can argue it's not a formal "trial" but you damn well know it's the highest trial we ever hold in our nation.

Pelosi did NOT show she had sufficient probable cause to initiate such an inquiry unless she knew in advance she had something. If she knew something weeks in advance and did nothing, how's that going to look? If she was using rumors and speculation to launch an impeachment inquiry, how's that going to look?

For Pete's sake, why aren't you two up in arms over this blatant abuse of the Constitution and legal system?

An impeachment is not an arrest supported by probable cause. It is a political proces. Now, if upon investigation it turned out there was no factual basis for it, I'd agree it should be discontinued. But the evidence is very, very strong here and getting stronger every day it seems, that Trump sought foreign influence in a domestic political campaign.

It is also strongly suggested by the evidence, and may be established conclusively soon, that aid was going to be withheld unless there was such help. But even if that cannot be proven, Trump's confession plus the transcript is plenty good enough.

 

[Obsessed]

Michael Moore isn't someone I follow closely. But like BB said, this is pretty blatant what Fox News is doing regarding Moore.

No. It the opposite.

They are broadcasting the blatant disdain your own party has in its ranks.
We are all watching the Democrat party crumble before our very own eyes. We are watching history being made.

 

[hUTch2002]

He should be impeached for sharing a Tweet with a Nickelback song in it. That is a high crime.

I did always hate the start of that song and it was impossible to turn the station before you heard that line.

 

[Franklin Pierce]

Ex-Ukraine prosecutor said he was told to back off probe of Biden-linked firm, files show

The fired prosecutor at the center of the Ukraine controversy said during a private interview with President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani earlier this year that he was told to back off an investigation involving a natural gas firm that was linked to Joe Biden’s son, according to details of that interview that were handed over to Congress by the State Department’s inspector general Wednesday.

Fox News obtained a copy of Giuliani’s notes from his January 2019 interview with fired Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin in which he claimed that his “investigations stopped out of fear of the United States.”

Fox News obtained a copy of Giuliani’s notes from his January 2019 interview with fired Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin in which he claimed that his “investigations stopped out of fear of the United States.”

“Mr. Shokin attempted to continue the investigations but on or around June or July of 2015, the U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey R. Pyatt told him that the investigation has to be handled with white gloves, which according to Mr. Shokin, that implied do nothing,” the notes from the interview stated.

Shokin was fired in April 2016, and his case was “closed by the current Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko,” according to the notes. Despite his claims, Shokin, on both sides of the Atlantic, had been widely accused of corruption.

Biden, who has been seeking to unseat President Trump in 2020, once famously boasted on camera that when he was vice president and spearheading the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy, he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire Shokin, who was the top prosecutor at the time, investigating Burisma Holdings, where Hunter had a lucrative role on the board.

Allies of the Democrat, though, maintained that his intervention in the firing of Shokin had nothing to do with his son, but rather was tied to the corruption concerns. The Biden campaign has also slammed Giuliani, who interviewed Shokin according to the file, and blasted media outlets for giving him air time. The campaign wrote to NBC News, CBS News, Fox News and CNN to voice “grave concern that you continue to book Rudy Giuliani on your air to spread false, debunked conspiracy theories on behalf of Donald Trump.”

“The substance of President Trump and Rudy Giuliani’s claims has been roundly discredited,” Biden Deputy Campaign Manager Kate Bedingfield said last week. “This is not a claim from the campaign or Joe Biden. This is an irrefutable fact.”

However, Shokin, at the time, according to the interview, was investigating Mykola Zlochevsky, the former minister of ecology and natural resources of Ukraine — also the founder of Burisma. Hunter Biden was appointed to the board of the firm, which Shokin claimed was an appointment made by Zlochevsky “in order to protect himself.”

The interview allegedly conducted by Giuliani took place on Jan. 23, 2019 at an office on Park Avenue in New York City. Shokin was interviewed over the phone, and interpreters were used — one in Ukraine and one in New York, according to the notes obtained by Fox News.

The new documents were shared with Fox News by sources familiar with the “urgent” briefing held by State Department Inspector General Steve Linick on Wednesday.

Linick gave a closed-door briefing on Ukraine to aides from the Senate committees on Intelligence, Foreign Relations, Appropriations and Homeland Security, as well as aides from the House committees on Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, Appropriations and Oversight. The briefing lasted over an hour and took place in a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) on Capitol Hill Wednesday afternoon.

Linick shared a file with those who attended the briefing, containing multiple folders with the Trump Hotel logo on them. Inside the folders were notes from an interview conducted by Giuliani in January 2019 with Shokin, as well as Lutsenko. Another folder contained news clips, as well as several timelines about investigations related to Burisma.

A State Department spokesman on Wednesday confirmed to Fox News that the “relevant” materials Linick shared with Congress “were provided by the Department to the Inspector General on May 3, 2019 for his review and for such action as the Inspector General deemed appropriate.”

Linick told aides in the meeting that he received the package of information in the spring but did not know the sender. Linick sent it to the FBI because it included allegations of improper activities in Ukraine that were outside of his jurisdiction, according to sources familiar with the meeting. Last week, though, Linick was given permission by the FBI to share the files with Congress and said they were relevant to the congressional interviews being conducted, according to sources.

The documents came amid the chaos surrounding Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which he sought an investigation into Biden’s Ukraine dealings, as well as his son’s. That phone call sparked a formal impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives and had the Trump administration facing a new round of subpoenas.

Amid the rapidly moving impeachment inquiry being led by House Democrats, the details included in the folder turned over by the State Department inspector general could be used by the Trump administration to fuel its claim that the real scandal surrounded the Bidens. However, Democrats already have cast the files as “debunked conspiracy theories” and “propaganda.”

Ex-Ukraine prosecutor said he was told to back off probe of Biden-linked firm, files show

 

[Orangeburst]

An impeachment is not an arrest supported by probable cause. It is a political proces. Now, if upon investigation it turned out there was no factual basis for it, I'd agree it should be discontinued. But the evidence is very, very strong here and getting stronger every day it seems, that Trump sought foreign influence in a domestic political campaign.

It is also strongly suggested by the evidence, and may be established conclusively soon, that aid was going to be withheld unless there was such help. But even if that cannot be proven, Trump's confession plus the transcript is plenty good enough.

When Biden drops out, will it be acceptable for Trump to offer a quid pro quo with Ukraine?