Category Archive

White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney was subpoenaed last night by the House Impeachment Inquiry Committee for appearance this morning at 9 a.m. To nobody’s surprise, he was a no-show. I do wonder why the quick turn-around time, but I suppose we will find out in time. Last month, Mulvaney told reporters in the White House briefing room that … Read More

NY Times headline reads “Ukraine’s Zelensky Bowed to Trump’s Demands, Until Luck Spared Him”: Aides to Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, decided that military aid and support for peace talks outweighed the risks of appearing to take sides in American politics. It was early September, and Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, faced an agonizing choice: whether to capitulate to President Trump’s … Read More

As per my practice, the full testimony is too large to place here, so you get the key excerpts: The full testimony is here. As you may recall, Taylor’s testimony, along with Vindman, really cracked the whole thing wide open. We’re just like a couple pages in and already Taylor is contradicting the picture Sondland laid out. Says Sondland said … Read More

In the past two days, there has been a lot of threats to reveal the name of the whistleblower who got the ball rolling in the Trump Impeachment Inquiry. There is, of course, no reason to out him. The whistleblower complaint has been superseded by firsthand testimony, and the phone call transcript summary, which corroborate, if not go futher than, … Read More

Trump pledged “unwavering” support to Ukraine in a May 29 letter congratulating its new president on his election victory and invited Zelensky to the White House, as evidence of the United States’ “commitment” to the young democracy, it was reported yesterday. “Trump’s letter … points to a sharp contrast between Trump’s official, warm communications with Zelensky and the moves he actually … Read More

And he knows because he is the one who laid it out. As I posted earlier, Sondland, through his attorney, filed an addendum with the House Impeachment Committee yesterday, which is below. His testimony now, as he calls it, is “Oh. Yeah. There was a quid pro quo. I know because I told the Ukrainian officials about it.” Sondland’s full … Read More

Key excerpts from Ambassador Sondland’s testimony: The full testimony is here. Notably, the full testimony contains an addendum that Sondland filed after his testimony in which he recounted how he told Ukrainian officials military aid was tied to their commitment to investigations President Trump wanted. QUID PRO QUO. I will likely take this up in a subsequent post. Key excerpts … Read More

It is too much to claim the Giuliani associate Lev Parnas has “flipped” against the Trump Team, but the current news can’t be good for that team. People following this inquiry are aware of the John Dowd letter mapping out what amounted to a Joint Defense Agreement between the President, Rudy Giuliani, Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman, and Dmitry Firtash (with … Read More

Key Points of Testimony of Marie “Masha” Yovanovitch, Former United States Ambassador to Ukraine, conducted on October 11, 2019. Full testimony is here. Key excerpts from the testimony of former Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State Ambassador P. Michael McKinley from October 16, 2019: Full testimony is here. Democrats will release transcripts from Kurt Volker and Gordon Sondland tomorrow

All four White House officials scheduled to give closed-door testimony today in the House impeachment inquiry will not appear, multiple news outlets report. They include National Security Council lawyers John Eisenberg and Michael Ellis as well Brian McCormack of the office of management and budget, and Robert Blair, a top aide to chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. Eisenberg and McCormack … Read More