By Dan Peak
The Commoner Call (11/11/19)
Dear Fellow Readers,
Wednesday November 13 we will see the first House hearings to Impeach Trump.
I offer two news articles that confirm the entirety of Trump-Russia-Ukraine 2016-2019. We’ll see former Trump senior advisor Steve Bannon testifying at long-time Trump advisor Roger Stone’s trial that Stone was the Trump campaign ‘access point’ to WikiLeaks to not only know of Julian Assange’s plans to leak Dem communications to influence the election in favor of Trump, but also coordinate the timing of releases.
Russia hacked the Dems, used Assange and WikiLeaks to handle the release of the contents and Roger Stone was the Trump campaign person acting as the coordinator. Note ‘coordination’ as in, Trump campaign coordinating with Russians over the 2016 election.
Second, there is now a vast amount of information about Trump’s abuses of US national interests subordinating foreign policy to his personal reelection efforts by extorting the president of Ukraine to do ‘favors’ before receiving US support. We’ve heard much about ‘favors’ focused on publicly announcing investigations meant to embarrass former vie president Joe Biden as a political opponent, but we’ve also learned that Trump sought to rewrite 2016 Trump-Russia as 2016 Clinton-Ukraine by ginning up and announcing conspiracy theories so Trump could, once again, announce his self-exoneration from investigations meant to ‘undo’ the 2016 election. (The Washington Post highlights the transcript of deputy assistant secretary of state George Kent’s testimony confirming the Trump effort to pressure Ukraine for a 2016 Clinton-Ukraine story:)
The first of the two articles – Trump-Russia-Ukraine, Chapter 1: The Whistleblower Complaint Has Largely Been Corroborated. Here’s How.
It was the Whistleblower who broke the Trump-Ukraine story wide open:
“The whistleblower accused Trump of abusing his office for political gain and laid out a road map that House Democrats have followed in their investigation.”
The Whistleblower cited concerns for US national security as the rationale for reaching out by letter to Trump personal attorney and attorney general William Barr. Trump extorting Ukraine subordinated the best interests of the US to Trump’s personal political ambitions.
The NPR report takes a detailed approach to walking through the Whistleblower letter, the rough transcript of Trump’s July 25 “I’d like you to do us a favor though” call with Ukraine president Zelensky, the call where Trump makes it clear that his clown-lawyer Rudy Giuliani, would be his contact instead of the formal mechanisms of US government and the State Department; a personal favor coordinated with Trump’s personal lawyer.
Then there’s the White House cover-up of the call. And of course the events chronicled by many witnesses of the events leading up the call. Some witnesses have offered detailed opening statements made public in advance and most recently we’re seeing the transcripts of the witness depositions being released daily ahead of the public hearings.
Trump-Russia-Ukraine Chapter 2: Steve Bannon Says Trump Team Saw Roger Stone as “Access Point” to Assange
Again, the point made by Steve Bannon as a witness for the prosecution is that Stone wasn’t just informing the campaign of Assange’s plans, he was helping to orchestrate the release of the stolen emails. In other words: Coordination.
Bannon testified that Stone was in the “release of those emails” — the WikiLeaks release of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta’s emails. The message from the Trump campaign to Stone, “well done”.
“Bannon’s testimony is bad news for Stone, who faces charges that he lied about several topics in 2017 testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. One of those alleged lies was Stone’s claim that he did not communicate with the Trump campaign regarding information Stone claimed to have about WikiLeaks. Bannon’s testimony could bolster the government’s case that Stone committed perjury.
“But the testimony is also terrible news for Trump. Previously, prosecutors revealed that Stone and Trump spoke frequently during the 2016 campaign. Those include calls on June 14, 2016, the same day the Washington Post reported that the DNC had been hacked by Russia. On July 31, 2016—not long after WikiLeaks released thousands of DNC emails and documents stolen by the Russians, Stone spoke for about 10 minutes with Trump. Prosecutors don’t know what the men discussed in either call, but they implied that they believe the topic was the hacked emails.
“In written answers to special counsel Robert Mueller, Trump stated, “I do not recall discussing WikiLeaks with [Stone], nor do I recall being aware of Mr. Stone having discussed WikiLeaks with individuals associated with my campaign.” Trump may have avoid perjury by claiming a memory lapse, but the Stone case is making it hard to avoid concluding that Trump probably told a whopper to Mueller.”
New details of both Trump-Russia and Trump-Ukraine – coordination with Russia, extortion through US policy for personal gain…
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow does a great job with both as well, you can link here to her opening segment for Friday: “Witness paints Trump scheme, Russian threat in vivid detail”.
Maddow carries forward and these segments are worth watching as well. Maddow’s third segment is: “Trump options limited in defense of Ukraine shakedown”, her fourth segment is: “Bannon names Stone as Trump camp’s ‘access point’ to WikiLeaks”. Her fifth and final segment is: “Stone trial offers view on Trump camp engagement with WikiLeaks”.
All make for great viewing. As likely will the hearings planned for this week.
Impeach Trump.