New evidence against Trump emerging for the Senate Impeachment Trial
From The New York Times;In response to:
Published Jan. 14, 2020
Updated Jan. 15, 2020, 7:22 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON — New details emerged on Tuesday of President Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine, intensifying demands on Senate Republicans on the eve of a historic impeachment trial to include witness testimony and additional documents in the proceeding.
The dozens of pages of notes, text messages and other records lay out work conducted by Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, and his associate Lev Parnas on behalf of the president. They include handwritten notes scrawled on a sheet of hotel paper at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Vienna that mention getting President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to announce an investigation of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son.
House Democrats released the records even as Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a Wednesday vote to name House prosecutors and send the articles of impeachment against Mr. Trump to the Senate to begin the trial. The material undergirds the accusations against Mr. Trump, and highlights how much is still to be learned about the scope of a scheme that the impeachment charges call a blatant effort to solicit foreign help in the 2020 election.
The documents, provided by Mr. Parnas, contain a series of exchanges between him and a Ukrainian prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko, who was helping Mr. Giuliani unearth damaging information about the Bidens.
In one of the exchanges, from March 2019, Mr. Lutsenko messaged Mr. Parnas on the WhatsApp messaging service to complain that the Trump administration had not yet ousted the United States ambassador to Ukraine, Marie L. Yovanovitch. Mr. Lutsenko, who had clashed with Ms. Yovanovitch and wanted her gone, appeared to link her removal to his assistance in attacking the Bidens.
“It’s just that if you don’t make a decision about Madam — you are bringing into question all my allegations. Including about B,” he wrote to Mr. Parnas, in apparent references to Ms. Yovanovitch and Mr. Biden.
Mr. Lutsenko added: “And here you can’t even get rid of one fool,” an apparent reference to Ms. Yovanovitch. He also inserted a frowning emoji.
“She’s not a simple fool trust me,” Mr. Parnas responded. “But she’s not getting away.” The president, with Mr. Giuliani’s encouragement, recalled Ms. Yovanovitch from her post in late April.
The Parnas documents also include a May 2019 letter from Mr. Giuliani requesting a meeting with Mr. Zelensky in which he said Mr. Trump had “knowledge and consent” of his actions. It is the first document to be made public to say as much.
Mr. Parnas, who is under federal indictment, has only recently been cleared to hand over the material to Congress, and an official involved in the inquiry indicated more was likely to be made public soon.
Senior Democrats who led the House impeachment inquiry said the new records underscored the need for senators to demand additional evidence at trial. The new documents, they said in a statement, “demonstrate that there is more evidence relevant to the president’s scheme, but they have been concealed by the president himself.”
“There cannot be a full and fair trial in the Senate without the documents that President Trump is refusing to provide to Congress,” they said.
Ms. Pelosi said she would announce the names of her impeachment managers at 10 a.m. Wednesday, and a vote to formally name them and send the articles was scheduled for early afternoon. “The American people deserve the truth, and the Constitution demands a trial,” she said.
In the Senate, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, indicated that senators would be ready to receive the charges on Wednesday and take sworn oaths to render “impartial justice” in the trial shortly thereafter, if not the following day.
Published Jan. 14, 2020
Updated Jan. 15, 2020, 7:22 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON — New details emerged on Tuesday of President Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine, intensifying demands on Senate Republicans on the eve of a historic impeachment trial to include witness testimony and additional documents in the proceeding.
The dozens of pages of notes, text messages and other records lay out work conducted by Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, and his associate Lev Parnas on behalf of the president. They include handwritten notes scrawled on a sheet of hotel paper at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Vienna that mention getting President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to announce an investigation of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son.
House Democrats released the records even as Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a Wednesday vote to name House prosecutors and send the articles of impeachment against Mr. Trump to the Senate to begin the trial. The material undergirds the accusations against Mr. Trump, and highlights how much is still to be learned about the scope of a scheme that the impeachment charges call a blatant effort to solicit foreign help in the 2020 election.
The documents, provided by Mr. Parnas, contain a series of exchanges between him and a Ukrainian prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko, who was helping Mr. Giuliani unearth damaging information about the Bidens.
In one of the exchanges, from March 2019, Mr. Lutsenko messaged Mr. Parnas on the WhatsApp messaging service to complain that the Trump administration had not yet ousted the United States ambassador to Ukraine, Marie L. Yovanovitch. Mr. Lutsenko, who had clashed with Ms. Yovanovitch and wanted her gone, appeared to link her removal to his assistance in attacking the Bidens.
“It’s just that if you don’t make a decision about Madam — you are bringing into question all my allegations. Including about B,” he wrote to Mr. Parnas, in apparent references to Ms. Yovanovitch and Mr. Biden.
Mr. Lutsenko added: “And here you can’t even get rid of one fool,” an apparent reference to Ms. Yovanovitch. He also inserted a frowning emoji.
“She’s not a simple fool trust me,” Mr. Parnas responded. “But she’s not getting away.” The president, with Mr. Giuliani’s encouragement, recalled Ms. Yovanovitch from her post in late April.
The Parnas documents also include a May 2019 letter from Mr. Giuliani requesting a meeting with Mr. Zelensky in which he said Mr. Trump had “knowledge and consent” of his actions. It is the first document to be made public to say as much.
Mr. Parnas, who is under federal indictment, has only recently been cleared to hand over the material to Congress, and an official involved in the inquiry indicated more was likely to be made public soon.
Senior Democrats who led the House impeachment inquiry said the new records underscored the need for senators to demand additional evidence at trial. The new documents, they said in a statement, “demonstrate that there is more evidence relevant to the president’s scheme, but they have been concealed by the president himself.”
“There cannot be a full and fair trial in the Senate without the documents that President Trump is refusing to provide to Congress,” they said.
Ms. Pelosi said she would announce the names of her impeachment managers at 10 a.m. Wednesday, and a vote to formally name them and send the articles was scheduled for early afternoon. “The American people deserve the truth, and the Constitution demands a trial,” she said.
In the Senate, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, indicated that senators would be ready to receive the charges on Wednesday and take sworn oaths to render “impartial justice” in the trial shortly thereafter, if not the following day.
(continued in my first comment below)
Comments (117)
Behind the scenes, Mr. Trump’s team was bracing for a potentially damaging period, inviting conservative activists to the White House to plan strategy for the coming trial.
Lawmakers were anxious, too, as they moved toward an unpredictable process that will test an already strained Senate, consuming lawmakers for weeks or longer. Debates raged in public and private over difficult questions that may darken the proceeding, including whether to call witnesses and compel new evidence or to consider a motion, endorsed by Mr. Trump but opposed by Republican leaders, to quickly dismiss the charges against him with no arguments or deliberations.
Mr. McConnell used an extended Republican luncheon to brief lawmakers on protocols and procedures. He played down Mr. Trump’s apparent enthusiasm for a motion to dismiss, insisting that such a move was not viable.
Although he has resisted seeking new testimony, the majority leader also signaled to lawmakers during the luncheon and an earlier private meeting that he was receptive to a “reciprocity” proposal by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Senate officials familiar with the matter said. The proposal, first reported by Politico, calls for Republicans to support calling witnesses the president has pushed for, like Mr. Biden’s son Hunter Biden, if Democrats secured the votes for one of their witnesses.
“When you get to that issue, I cannot imagine that only the witnesses that our Democratic colleagues would want to call would be called,” Mr. McConnell told reporters after the lunch ended.
Mr. McConnell, working to hold his conference together against Democratic complaints, predicted that he still had the Republican votes to set rules for the trial next week. His proposal would put off a debate over calling witnesses until after opening arguments and senatorial questioning is complete.
“All 53 of us have reached an understanding very, very similar to the one that was achieved at the beginning of the Clinton impeachment trial,” Mr. McConnell said, referring to the 1999 trial of President Bill Clinton.
Democrats argue that a trial without witnesses and new evidence would be a sham, and want a guarantee up front that they will be included. Mr. Trump blocked the House from gaining access to both during its impeachment inquiry.
In her statement earlier in the day, Ms. Pelosi accused Mr. McConnell and Mr. Trump of working together to cover up the facts the House had unearthed.
“The American people will fully understand the Senate’s move to begin the trial without witnesses and documents as a pure political cover-up,” she said. “Leader McConnell and the president are afraid of more facts coming to light.”
Ms. Pelosi plans to convene her newly appointed managers at 5 p.m. Wednesday to complete necessary paperwork to transmit the articles. Immediately after, the House managers will ceremonially walk the articles of impeachment from the House, through the Rotunda, to the Senate. When they do, they will formally present the articles.
The team of managers is likely to be led by Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee who spearheaded the House’s Ukraine inquiry, and Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the Judiciary Committee chairman.
We don't know for sure, if Trump is going to remain in office. There clearly is enough evidence to indicate his guilt. It depends upon how honest & appropriate the senators will vote. As I said, we don't know for sure. Lets see what happens.
You have chastised me for lots of things, that have already come true.
Whether or not Trump remains president, he will have lots of legal issue to answer to in court after his presidency is over.
He doesn't wants to lose his seat,
he knows what happens when a Rep goes against Trump
many Republicans lost their seat by fighting against their boss
Why U.S. Postal retiree sound like he just hop border?
He doesn't wants to lose his seat
Thanks.
Must admit what you say makes a lot of sense. Goes to show, dont be prejudice no matter how right you THINK you are.
Crazy meme creator doesn't know the difference between a Trumpet & a Megaphone.
The Dummy.
To get back on track, the recent confessions by Giuliani & Trump associate Lev Parnas should doom Trump's presidency.
And he will be the first impeached president in history to be reelected thanks in large part to the Democrats and their rank and file psychotic trained seals on sites like this. I kind of like the sound of that!
With the new evidence (what this blog is about), Trump should not even survive
the current term. He should be removed from office. The new evidence should be the final nails in that coffin.
Only a person infected with TDS would beli
eve this blog.
If so, when will you finally catch it ?
So, you don't believe all the evidence against Trump.
I've seen that disorder back when Nixon was president.
However, Trump is far worse than Nixon.
So many crimes, so little presidency.
Does ANYBODY still believe ANYTHING they have to say?
TRUMP'S STEALING THE SHEEP
So many crimes, so little presidency.
WHAT crimes?!
It's the 1st time a Prez has been impeached in the ABSENCE of crimes.
They've not PROVED so much as a Parking Ticket!
(BTW - Repeating it ad nauseum on 1,000 single site blogs is NOT "Proof")
Even 'CRATS acknowledge as much!
By contrast - The Articles against B.J.
The interview with Parnas comes after House Democrats released new records and evidence from him, including a photograph of a previously-undisclosed letter from Giuliani to Ukrane President Volodymyr Zelensky on May 10.
“In my capacity as personal counsel to President Trump and with his knowledge and consent, I request a meeting with you on this upcoming Monday, May 13th, or Tuesday, May 14th,” Giuliani wrote.
Parnas continued in the interview, "I mean they have no reason to speak to me. Why would President Zelenskiy’s inner circle, or Minister Avakov, or all these people, or President Poroshenko meet with me? Who am I? They were told to meet with me. And that's the secret that they're trying to keep."
"I was on the ground doing their work,” he declared, later saying Giuliani told officials in Ukraine that Parnas was a representative of Trump and acting on his behalf.
Parnas said that he would put Giuliani on speakerphone so the president's personal lawyer would confirm Parnas was representing Trump.
Parnas also claimed former national security adviser John Bolton, who has said he will testify if subpoenaed by the Senate, Attorney General William Barr and Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., were involved or aware of what was happening.
“Everybody was in the loop,” Parnas stated.
Phone records show that Nunes, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee and one of Trump's most outspoken supporters in Congress, spoke with Parnas in April.
Parnas told CNN that Pence and acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney were also aware of the "quid pro quo."
When asked how he knew that Pence was aware of the alleged plan to pressure Zelensky, Parnas cited his close relationship with Giuliani.
Parnas and Maddow also discussed screenshots of WhatsApp messages with Republican candidate for Congress Robert Hyde that were released by House Democrats.
The two appear to discuss surveillance of former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who was ousted by the Trump administration, while she was in Ukraine.
Parnas claimed that "there was no other motivation" to remove Yovanovitch except to get her out of the way of the pressure campaign.
He also stated he met Hyde at a Trump Hotel where Hyde was often "at the bar" intoxicated.
And some of his best most loyal players are in jail. He fired lots of others and a few have left to avoid the conflict. Those players were replaced with rookies, who have no idea what they are doing. He just used his last time out and the announcers are saying his performance is the worst in US history.
There was a penalty, that was just called against him; Illegal use of funds.
He's also out of shape, has no relative experience, no training, and a terrible attitude.
After the game is over, he's got lots of court cases to defend.
The officials will be re-playing the last play to determine the penalty soon.
Some are predicting he is done and will be yanked and replaced with his understudy.
He might even quit. That's what a former teammate stated.
extremely foolish to be dedicated to either political party, as the both have
agendas, that I do not necessarily back.
I am on the side of whoever is making the effort to help the common citizens and those who are right at the time, when they are right.
wat a joke
Mueller did an incomplete job due to time constraints.
Nonetheless, he did find many cases of obstruction of justice and much collusion with Russia. He also put a few of Trump's associates behind bars. His report will likely help convict Trump down the road, after he leaves office. In addition together with the Roger Stone trial, it will lead to more charges.
The mueller circus found nothing. Just like the demonrats grasping at straws now, they were grasping even harder then.
Too many delusional people following the party of destruction and damages. that party certainly doesn't have any thing good to it's long term credit.
I was unaware that Parnas used to work for Trump in his real estate business.
No one considers Parnas to be a hero. He's just another of Trump's criminals,
who is flipping to tell the Truth about Trump. Yes, the motivation is to save himself.
Everyone is aware of that.
Eventually a similar situation will likely occur for Trump.
He likely wrote it down, as he was hearing it.
While it would be odd to take a note into a bank that said remember to rob the bank,
writing something down on a calendar ahead of time to remind oneself would not be that unusual. When I have a lot to accomplish, in the morning I write a list of everything I want to get done that day in chronological order. Regardless, different people behave differently.
Trump is most likely going to make history with another huge(well deserved) blemish on the demonrats.
The first U.S. president impeached on full hatred, partisan, lack of evidence, and hear say grounds then re-elected for a second term. Yes, history will read what they lied about and did as a corrupt body in power when they shouldn't have been. Right down to where they did nothing for their constituents or nation.
We do have the corrupt, double, and triple standards being upheld and enforced by the demonrats from one misadministration to an actual, current,
administration.
Even the Constitutional violations of one person's rights and still nothing Constitutional or evidence to convict on.
Where is the Pentagon's Missing Trillions?