Whistleblowers

coats?

bolton?

sue gordon?

check out Rudy tonite.

pence is involved too.

they tried to blackmail Ukraine into making shit up about Biden?

Swift boat in the making

pence involved is glorious

But all the shithead has to say is, 'Fake News' and it all goes away. He has well trained lemmings 

He explains it here

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1174993282197262336.html

Wife had the news on this morning. I walk into the room as they're replaying a months old interview ---  juliani, responding to a Chris Cuomo question, answers, ' no we had nothing to do with Ukraine investigating Joe Biden', and not 2 minutes later after a bit of pressing by Cuomo juliani says, ' yes of course we asked Ukraine to look into Biden'.  Classic lying repub shcanery (10,000 and counting), yet not an issue with pub voters.

I had to ask wifey,  WTF is the mental malfunction of the total shit fer brain scum buckets that make up chumps fanbase ?  As the wife is not a neurosurgeon she had no answer.

Giuliani 

Ha!

Dirty dumb disingenuous Donald 

https://apple.news/APh0FoZbVR6aUpiIHzGk4ow

(followers too)

Trump Repeatedly Pressed Ukraine President to Investigate Biden’s Son

Interactions under focus amid whistleblower complaint on U.S. president’s dealings with a world leader

President Trump in a July phone call repeatedly pressured the president of Ukraine to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son, urging Volodymyr Zelensky about eight times to work with Rudy Giuliani, his personal lawyer, on a probe, according to people familiar with the matter.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-defends-conversation-with-ukraine-lea...

s

https://twitter.com/JRubinBlogger

>>>>And Pelosi is STILL holding the barn door closed on impeachment

She'll never open that door. Politics is a lucrative business. 

I am seeing terms like "bribery" and "extortion" being thrown around, but folks pursuing impeachment should be ready to articulate what specific criminal statutes are actually at play.  While the latest revelations involve a gross abuse of power, "extortion" and "bribery" don't fit for a number of reasons, so its time for everyone's favorite game of Name that Crime.

First up, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, 15 USC  § 78dd-3, which states in relevant part:

"(a) It shall be unlawful for any person . . . while in the territory of the United States, corruptly to make use of the mails or any means or instrumentality of interstate commerce or to do any other act in furtherance of an offer, payment, promise to pay, or authorization of the payment of any money, or offer, gift, promise to give, or authorization of the giving of anything of value to—

(1) any foreign official for purposes of—

(A)(i)  influencing any act or decision of such foreign official in his official capacity, (ii) inducing such foreign official to do or omit to do any act in violation of the lawful duty of such official, or (iii) securing any improper advantage; or

(B) inducing such foreign official to use his influence with a foreign government or instrumentality thereof to affect or influence any act or decision of such government or instrumentality, in order to assist such person in obtaining or retaining business for or with, or directing business to, any person;"

At first glance, this seems to fit the bill, but for a violation to occur, the payment must be made to a "foreign official" (or to a foreign "political party" under subsection (a)(2)).   In this case, the payment at issue was made to the country of Ukraine itself, not to President Zelensky personally or to his party.   The argument would be that the statute is intended to prevent American entities like Wal-Mart from greasing the hands of individual officials in exchange for allowing them to build a new store in their country and is inapplicable to conditions on aid packages made directly to foreign governments, no matter how political and sleazy those conditions are.

There are also the campaign finance laws which prohibit soliciting donations and "things of value" from foreign entities, but the question remains as to whether investigations of a political rival (i.e. "opposition research") is a "thing of value" as that term is used in the applicable statute.  See 52 USC § 30121(a)(2).  

But depending on how this plays out, I wouldn't be surprised if there was some attempt by Trump and Co. to interfere with the investigation, which would give rise to more obstruction of justice.   Of all the sleazy stuff Trump has done, the obstruction of justice type things are the allegations that have the most legs for pursuing impeachment IMHO.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/872

18 U.S. Code § 872. Extortion by officers or employees of the United States

Whoever, being an officer, or employee of the United States or any department or agency thereof, or representing himself to be or assuming to act as such, under color or pretense of office or employment commits or attempts an act of extortion, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; but if the amount so extorted or demanded does not exceed $1,000, he shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 740; Oct. 31, 1951, ch. 655, § 24(b), 65 Stat. 720; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(G), (K), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147; Pub. L. 104–294, title VI, § 606(a), Oct. 11, 1996, 110 Stat. 3511.)

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/878

18 U.S. Code § 878. Threats and extortion against foreign officials, official guests, or internationally protected persons

(a)

Whoever knowingly and willfully threatens to violate section 112, 1116, or 1201 shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both, except that imprisonment for a threatened assault shall not exceed three years.

(b)

Whoever in connection with any violation of subsection (a) or actual violation of section 112, 1116, or 1201 makes any extortionate demand shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

(c)

For the purpose of this section “foreign official”, “internationally protected person”, “national of the United States”, and “official guest” shall have the same meanings as those provided in section 1116(a) of this title.

(d)

If the victim of an offense under subsection (a) is an internationally protected person outside the United States, the United States may exercise jurisdiction over the offense if (1) the victim is a representative, officer, employee, or agent of the United States, (2) an offender is a national of the United States, or (3) an offender is afterwards found in the United States. As used in this subsection, the United States includes all areas under the jurisdiction of the United States including any of the places within the provisions of sections 5 and 7 of this title and section 46501(2) of title 49.

(Added Pub. L. 94–467, § 8, Oct. 8, 1976, 90 Stat. 2000; amended Pub. L. 95–163, § 17(b)(1), Nov. 9, 1977, 91 Stat. 1286; Pub. L. 95–504, § 2(b), Oct. 24, 1978, 92 Stat. 1705; Pub. L. 103–272, § 5(e)(2), July 5, 1994, 108 Stat. 1373; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(K), (N), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147, 2148; Pub. L. 104–132, title VII, §§ 705(a)(4), 721(e), Apr. 24, 1996, 110 Stat. 1295, 1299.)

>>> While the latest revelations involve a gross abuse of power, "extortion" and "bribery" don't fit for a number of reasons, so its time for everyone's favorite game of Name that Crime. <<<

So if there’s no there there why not release the “lovely conversation”?

or better yet, let’s get the Republicans other than Cornyn to open an investigation so they can Lewinsky this bitch and run on what they 

find out about the Biden kid.

Clearing Trump and Biden gets pummeled.

Plausible?

Steve:

"Extortion" is expressly defined as: "an offense that has as its elements the extraction of anything of value from another person by threatening or placing that person in fear of injury to any person or kidnapping of any person."   18 USC § 3559(c)(2) (setting forth classifications of various criminal offenses).

Because there was no threat of personal harm, the conduct at issue does not fall under the statutory definition of extortion.  

>>>>Clearing Trump and Biden gets pummeled.

That's exactly the spin coming from the right wingers.   

TOOT TOOT YEAH - BEEP BEEP 

I defer to a lawyer when it comes to the law, Ken.

that said?

breaking your finger = extortion.  OK.

Threatening a foreign country's leader with not getting $250 million of US taxpayer money allocated by the US Congress = not extortion (not stealing?)?

hmmmm.

Looks like it will be up to Congress to decide.

p.s., where did the apparent $140 million extra come from?  Tariffs?

^^^

by the way, where did $28 billion come from? 
I thought Congress had the power of the purse.

Guess not.

https://twitter.com/business/status/1175927784499306496

Auto rescue?  Upper Midwest.

Farm rescue? Upper midwest.

hmmmmm.

Seems to me that the upper midwest failed to appreciate that Obama saved their ass.

They voted for Trump.

So he showers money on them.

And they hate socialism.

Welcome to Dumbfuckistan.

Whoa whoa whoa. Iowa cornfields are NOT the upper Midwest. More like south Midwest. 

That’s all I got 

Isn't Iowa north of Missouri and Kansas & Oklahoma?

>>> Welcome to Dumbfuckistan <<<

Think Axl could pull this off?

Apparently and simply nobody likes to be snitched on 

     As the world continues to pretend we don't know the "whistleblower" is a CIA operative planted in the White House by Brennan and a long time associate of Biden, remember this...the deep state is the military industrial complex is the deep state is the military industrial complex is the deep state is the military industrial complex and politics makes strange bedfellows.

Who cares about the whistleblower anymore?

Trump's limited account of his Ukraine phone call and Mulvaney's public statements are more helpful to the deep state's nefarious coup at this point.

Ass-Glitter Troll's working a month-old talking point.

What a sad little bitch.

Sad little bitch

And completely delusional 

Despite his endless rantings

I can't imagine he even likes himself 

ego would require a tiny bit of brains, or heaven forbid, even a scosch  of ethics or morality 

Whistle blow this

republicans repugnant

sad

silly

stupid

just lacking

 Replace the b

with a c

cryen 

 Replace the b

with a c

cryen 

“There’s a reason we let murderers and robbers and rapists (and Trump fits right in with these categories) go free when their due process rights have been violated,” Thornberry said.

hahaha it’s cryen bryen