They knew. If Republican members of Congress didn’t know, they weren’t paying attention. The deafening silence from the GOP is disappointing, but given the alternative, it is the lesser of two evils.
After House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced impeachment proceedings, GOP leaders accidentally emailed the following “talking points” to Democrats. It is a list of suggested answers to media questions about the impeachment, meant to be provided to Republicans; you may have heard them by now.
Despite the script, a majority of Republicans have remained silent, which doesn’t bode well for DT. They’re waiting to ride the wave of public opinion rather than attempt to re-direct a tsunami in an unlikely direction.
Underscoring the cowardice among the GOP— Senator Chris Coons, (DE/D), said some Republicans privately told him they’re concerned about the latest development, but he doesn’t expect them to break with Trump “yet.”
Their official excuse is that they’ve been too busy to read the whistleblower report.
Here is a new pretext not to stand up to corruption— Senator Todd Young, (IN/R) said that because he might be a juror in Trump’s impeachment trial, he shouldn’t comment.
Based on his history, no one should take the word of Jeff Flake on any subject as valid, but he is the second insider to voice the sentiment that if an impeachment vote we’re held in the senate today, 35 Republicans would vote to impeach— but only if it was a secret vote.
A similar statement—
“One Republican senator told me if it was a secret vote, 30 Republican senators would vote to impeach Trump” ~Mike Murphy, former senior adviser to Mitt Romney and John McCain
You will recognize DT’s co-conspirators because they are the loud ones, feigning outrage, vocally, standing with Trump— Kevin McCarthy, Devin Nunes, Matt Gaetz, Lindsey Graham, John Kennedy, Moscow Mitch McConnell, Mike Pence, etc.
“The American people can see that this was an appropriate call talking about appropriate issues between the President of the United States and the President of Ukraine. There was no threat; there was no quid pro quo in this call.” ~ Mike Pence, gaslighting
While they fight for their supreme leader, he and his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, have no qualms throwing blame at anyone they can. Giuliani has implicated U.S. diplomats by reading private text messages on-air as if they exonerate him. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been subpoenaed.
And this is one example of DT throwing Pence under the bus:
“… Mick Mulvaney … I told it to Mike. I told it to two Mikes. I told it to Steve … I told it to Wilbur Ross … and also Mike Pence [had] conversations, 1 or 2 of those.”
Madame President Pelosi’s future is imminent.
White House officials, like AG Bill Barr, still argue there was nothing improper in DT’s phone call.
How do they explain moving transcripts of the phone call and related documents to a top-secret server if it was business as usual?
Regardless of what Barr says, that act is what alarmed the whistleblower enough to file the report.
Friday, Special Envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker resigned. Speculators say his motivation was a desire to testify— self-preservation perhaps.
Whether or not there are heroes in the party remains to be seen. No one wants to be first.
Future cellmates: Pompeo, McMaster, Mattis, Coats, Pence, McCann, and Barr should be worried.
5 Code of Federal Regulations § 2635.101 (b) (11) provides that “Employees shall disclose waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption to appropriate authorities.”
Nancy Pelosi is lauded for her timing, despite pressure to start impeachment immediately after the release of the Mueller report, as she should be. But Chairman of the House Intel Committee, Adam Schiff, was the catalyst, who exposed the coverup of the whistleblower’s report. His decision to go public, with news of the “urgent” warning, put pressure on the White House to turn over the complaint, one they shouldn’t have had possession of.
AG Barr is implicated in the report, but maintains that he was “not legally obligated to release it to Congress, because there is no crime.”
Schiff called out the executive branch for ignoring subpoenas, violating disclosure laws, attempting to nullify Congress as a coequal branch of government and to rewrite the rule of law as it applies to them.
Specifically, Schiff drew public attention to the Director of National Intelligence, the nation’s top intelligence official, who refused to comply with a House Intelligence Committee subpoena to provide the contents of the whistleblower’s complaint, which a government watchdog group deemed “urgent and credible.”
The positive outcome of Schiff’s handling of the whistleblower report is highlighted with the knowledge that this was not the first such complaint filed against this administration. A previous complaint by a federal employee was sent to the House Ways and Means Committee last month, with evidence of “improper influence” in the IRS audit of faux45’s tax returns. This report was set aside to be used at some later date to corroborate other evidence.
“The committee’s position is clear — the acting DNI can either provide the complaint as required under the law, or he will be required to come before the committee to tell the public why he is not following the clear letter of the law, including whether the White House or the attorney general are directing him to do so,” ~Adam Schiff
But DNI general counsel Jason Klitenic insisted in a letter to Schiff on Tuesday that Maguire had followed the letter of the law in blocking the transmission of the complaint to Congress.
Despite actions taken by the DOJ, Barr, to exempt new DNI Chief, Joseph Maguire, from testifying before congress, he appeared in a public hearing on Thursday. The primary question asked was —
Why would you turn over a whistleblower report to the two people implicated in the report, rather than House committee leaders?
His answer— “executive privilege.”
DT’s answer for everything is executive privelidge. It’s his all encompassing stay out of jail card, rendering him unaccountable for any criminal behavior. He regularly claims to be protected under Article 2 of the Constitution.
- A president is not exonerated of wrong doing under Article 2.
- This one has never read the Constitution.
A Department of Justice official said the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel advised the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Joseph Maguire, not to disclose the whistleblower’s complaint. When asked if AG Barr personally advised the DNI, the official declined to comment.
Barr now claims the whistleblower statute governing his agency, “only applies when the complaint involves a member of the intelligence community, and because this one was aimed at a person outside the intelligence community, the whistleblower statute does not apply.” By failing to recognize the informant as a whistleblower, Barr is threatening to expose the individual. DT has already issued veiled threats toward the person.
The DOJ also argues that the complaint did not qualify as “urgent,” and as such, they were not required to turn it over to Congress.
A statement released this week was signed by more than 300 former national security professionals; they express alarm at DT’s behavior and endorse the impeachment inquiry.
The phone call DT made to the Ukraine is the ”smocking gun” we’ve been waiting for; abuse of power is one crime on a long list that DT will have to answer for.
SECOND whistleblower ‘claims foul play in Trump’s tax return audit.’
William Barr’s Department of Justice put the muzzle on the whistleblower complaint
Intel chief escalates standoff over secret whistle-blower report
Pompeo Grapples for Ways to Outlast Hurricane Rudy
Jeff Flake says ‘at least 35’ Republican senators would privately vote to impeach Trump | Fox News
A lot from Lydia 
Republicans dgaf. They got their tax cuts and their conservative judges. They want more of the same.
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The greedy 1% finally got what they’ve wanted, and the GOP will pay for the bribes they took to give it to them.
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