Trump Knew of Whistle-Blower Complaint When He Released Aid to Ukraine
Source: New York Times
By Michael S. Schmidt, Julian E. Barnes and Maggie Haberman
Nov. 26, 2019, 6:40 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON President Trump had already been briefed on a whistle-blowers complaint about his dealings with Ukraine when he unfroze military aid for the country in September, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Lawyers from the White House counsels office told Mr. Trump in late August about the complaint, explaining that they were trying to determine whether they were legally required to give it to Congress, the people said.
The revelation could shed light on Mr. Trumps thinking at two critical points under scrutiny by impeachment investigators: his decision in early September to release $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine and his denial to a key ambassador around the same time that there was a quid pro quo with Kyiv. Mr. Trump used the phrase before it had entered the public lexicon in the Ukraine affair.
Mr. Trump faced bipartisan pressure from Congress when he released the aid. But the new timing detail shows that he was also aware at the time that the whistle-blower had accused him of wrongdoing in withholding the aid and in his broader campaign to pressure Ukraines new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to conduct investigations that could benefit Mr. Trumps re-election chances.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/26/us/politics/trump-whistle-blower-complaint-ukraine.html
demsocialist
(202 posts)Busted!
SKKY
(11,810 posts)uncle ray
(3,156 posts)LisaM
(27,813 posts)The problem is framing it in a cause-and-effect way that the public will actually care about.
ancianita
(36,060 posts)ffr
(22,670 posts)America will survive. DU is proof.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,627 posts)duforsure
(11,885 posts)trump was suspected of working with a foreign leader (putin) that was proven to have helped trump win the 2016 election illegally, and then trump openly said he would consider taking help from a foreign country. Now we see he was caught in the act this time , has lied over and over about it, had his minions try to extort and bribe a country's president with our money letting putin know so they could put the squeeze on his agreeing to promote Biden's as corrupt and guilty , or aid would be refused by trump. Then they got caught trying to cover it up. Then promote , from a president, russian services propaganda for putin , accusing Ukraine of election tampering falsely for putin. even republican members of Congress are repeating putiin's propaganda even after being briefed it was the russians, and they're actively trying to do it again while Moscow Mitch is preventing election protection bills, that are tabled, and prevented from passing. Everything trump has done has been to benefit putin, and tells his followers the opposite , lie after lie he the strongest president against russia when the truth is he's the weakest. trump's pissed he got caught , and now obstructing at record levels to prevent the truth from exposing him. trump is done, over , and caught, and now just a matter of time before his crimes and others will all be exposed , then justice will prevail , or we become like what putin has done in russia where only the most corrupt , the criminals , prosper.