What are we talking about? This is supposed to be a summary of the Impeachment Trial from the previous day?
Folks, after watching the Q & A for two days, the Thursday answers to dozens of questions were fueled directly by corruption — corruption on the part of House Manager and House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA). In fact, for several of the questions from Senators that were directed simply to “House Managers” that Schiff chose to answer, his answers made no reference at all to answering the asked questions, rather he launched into wild allegations and conclusions based on no facts and no evidence at all.
One of the issues I have with the Q & A process is that without cross examination of witness responses, and, in this case, cross examination of answers by BOTH Democrats and Republicans, finding truth in answers is unrealistic. There’s NO way this method has or will ever result in reliable answers. Example: “It is uncontroverted that the President corruptly and illegally withheld critical aid to Ukraine while demanding the Ukrainian government investigate his political opponent, Joe Biden.”
Here’s the rub: that allegation is NOT uncontroverted. In fact, the exact opposite is true. From the beginning, Defense Team members have consistently refuted that and other outlandish and unsubstantiated claims against the President.
But in the example above, (which actually happened when Rep. Jerrold Nadler made that statement numerous times) there was no method in this process to confront Mr. Nadler about that statement. Some will say, “Senators knew that so it really didn’t matter.” Don’t assume that: there are Senators who sit in the Chamber on both sides with pre-conceived ideas based totally on partisanship that may, when confronted with truth that would come from a cross-examination, change their minds.
The Thursday horrors in the Senate Chamber drove me to the edge of political suicide! Schiff once again dominated the process of House Managers answering questions of the Senators. In doing so, he as he is known for in every response, talked down to Senators, argued, very nastily snarled at members of the Defense Team, and, in each and every response, included vitriolic allegations against Mr. Trump that Schiff continually asserted were “uncontroverted facts.”
I learned in high school debate that when a debate opponent, in making a point or attempting to refute a point made by an opponent, argues points that had previously been made and debated did so because they had no relevant response with supporting evidence which they can use.
Adam Schiff and all the other House Managers could have presented their entire case during the second day of this trial from start to finish and have been done with it. They called and questioned eighteen witnesses before their committee. The written testimonies of seventeen of those witnesses were released and are included in the official House impeachment record provided to the Senate. Why wasn’t the eighteenth testimony provided to the world? We don’t know for certain, but it has been leaked that the testimony of the Inspector General that was not included contained information that Adam Schiff had direct contact with the whistleblower which Schiff has under oath denied.
House Managers stated on Day One their case included “complete and undisputed evidence that absolutely proved President Trump’s guilt for Obstruction of Congress and Abuse of Power.” They maintained that was all they needed.
But wait: they’ve spent a week demanding they need for the Senate to call more witnesses!
It’s simple to deduce why they do so: their case does NOT contain “complete and undisputed evidence that absolutely proves President Trump’s guilt.” In fact, ALL allegations of Trump impeachment actions have NOT been proven all.
Today is the day in which the Senate will hear the case for Senators to subpoena new witnesses and other evidence from the Trump Administration. It will take a simple majority of the Senate — 51 — in a vote expected to occur sometime in the afternoon for that process to be initiated.
If it does, this trial will certainly last at least through February and into March, maybe even April.
But that’s not the travesty of this: by longstanding rules of the Senate, the Senate MUST remain in session with one and only one agenda item — Impeachment — until all of the impeachment issues are resolved. And they can conduct NO other business about any other issue during that time other than impeachment.
The Corruption Common Denominator: Ukraine
What is the 900 pound gorilla in the Senate Chamber? It’s the nation of Ukraine. In fact, all the claims made against President Trump when he as President in a phone call with the new Ukraine President mentioned, “Do US a favor.” The favor the President referenced was regarding an closed Ukrainian corruption investigation of a Ukrainian company Burisma which had the son of Joe Biden on its board of directors. Reasonable people — especially Americans — would not assume that an American who had no energy business experience, no business management experience, and no experience of any kind in the nation of Ukraine would be asked to serve on the board of a large natural gas company in Ukraine. And certainly, those Americans would ask questions about that American earning $83,000 a month for doing nothing but serving on a board. Records show that he participated in only two official company events during his board tenure for which he was paid $1 million per year. What could be the reason for Burisma offering that position to Hunter Biden? When he was asked in an interview if he was added to the Burisma board and paid that amount of money because his father was the Vice President of the U.S. he replied, “Probably so.”
That investigation was initiated and conducted by the federal prosecutor of the country of Ukraine. He began a corruption investigation into all things Burisma. SubsequentLy, Vice President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden’s father, visited Ukraine in his official U.S. capacity. During his visit with the now “former” Ukraine president, VP Biden told the Ukraine president that if he did NOT fire the federal prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden, (and do so within six hours) the U.S. on Biden’s order would refuse to pay to Ukraine almost $ Billion in loan guarantees by the U.S. Ukraine took actions and fired that prosecutor.
When Ukraine’s new president took office, Mr. Trump had the above mentioned phone call — the call that initiated this entire impeachment debacle. Adam Schiff and other Democrats claim President Trump attempted to blackmail Ukraine to hold foreign aid if they did not reopen that investigation terminated by the former Ukrainian president.
Here’s the rub: there are two reasons why President Trump would have been in error if he did NOT pursue that matter in Ukraine. One is the Congressional bill that authorized the Ukrainian aid mandated that the President make certain that those funds would NOT be used for corrupt purposes by Ukraine before it was released to Ukraine. Secondly, President Bill Clinton signed a U.S.-Ukraine mutual corruption “treaty” that it was ratified by Congress. The treaty states that both countries will work together to find, reveal, and eliminate any corruption found in either country related to the other country. If President Trump had simply released that money without comfort the funds would be used for the expressed purpose of the release Adam Schiff would be the first member of Congress who wanted President Trump impeached for allowing Ukraine corruption to continue using American dollars. It wouldn’t surprise me in that case if Schiff did not claim President Trump had cut a deal to get some of that money personally!
This is how ridiculous this is.
How many of you knew anything about Ukraine before this all started? Most don’t even know where Ukraine is on a map. But now Americans hear the word “Ukraine” dozens of time a day because of these nonstop allegations of Trump corruption with Ukraine. Have you ever wondered what the attraction to Ukraine for American politicians seems to be? In fact, most of the “current” conversations about D.C. corruption contain the name “Ukraine.” Why do you think that is?
Corruption’s World Headquarters: Ukraine
In the U.S., very little has been known about Ukraine until this most recent news activity about the country that has accompanied an uncountable number of stories covering President Trump, Joe and Hunter Biden, Rudy Giuliana, Paul Manaforte, and the President’s impeachment trial.
Ukraine is and has been one of the World’s most corrupt countries for quite a while. In the highly reliable Corruption Perception Index created and released annually by Transparency International, Ukraine ranked 148th. That’s only slightly above Russia, Belarus, The Congo, Nigeria, and Haiti. That’s not too good a position to hold.
Remember Paul Manaforte? He was paid a reported $65 million by Ukraine oligarchs over a decade to assist “dirty” politicians in the cleanup of their reputations sufficient to be elected to office or some to be re-elected, including the former President. In keeping with his clients’ reputation and underhanded methods of taking care of their money, Manaforte then laundered that money through a series of companies in various countries. He pled guilty for doing so during the Mueller Investigation.
Manaforte’s actions were just a drop in the bucket of Ukrainian corruption. And that may explain the concentration by so many of today’s Washington power brokers, including members of some of the most famous and well known American families.
Here’s a report from One America News about Paul Pelosi Jr.’s deep relationships within the nation of Ukraine:
Ukraine and Joe and Hunter Biden; Ukraine and Nancy and Paul Pelosi; Ukraine and former Secretary of State John Kerry and stepson Christoper Heinz: does any of this ring a bell for you?
In the South, there’s an old saying: “If it quacks and waddles it’s always a duck.” By that saying, Ukraine’s quacking along with Pelosi, Biden, and Heinz. Who else is wrapped up in Ukraine? Chances are with the flood of easy money flowing from Ukraine amid the lust for political connections at the highest levels in the U.S., there are more corrupt D.C. heavyweights in the midst of Ukraine corruption.
Summary
As today’s part of our Obama era corruption we promised a report from a Eurasia news source provided to us. We have it, we want you to have it, and we’ll give it to you. However, the Thursday chaos on Capitol Hill on impeachment along with the continued crescendo surrounding Impeachment and Ukraine, we wanted to bring you this Paul Pelosi story today.
What happens today in the Impeachment Trial? As of late Thursday evening, it is apparent that Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) has decided to vote against extending the impeachment trial by calling for additional witnesses. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) indicated he would like to hear testimony from former National Security Adviser John Bolton. It’s assumed he will vote for additional witnesses. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) indicated she will vote for additional witnesses. Those three along with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) are the moderate Republicans who would be the easiest for Democrats to sway.
There are 53 GOP Senators and 47 Democrats. A vote to call additional witnesses requires a simple majority, or 51. With Collins and Romney indicating a vote FOR witnesses and Alexander to NOT call witnesses, the count stands at 51-49. If Murkowski votes with Democrats, it would be a 50-50 tie. It is likely that Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts would NOT vote to break such a tie, so the count would end in a tie. That would mean the motion to call new witnesses would NOT pass.
It is very possible several other right-leaning Democrats will vote against calling witnesses. That would only strengthen the vote count for Republicans. In either case, today’s Senate trial matters will be highly controversial, extremely animated, and historically important.
We have our eyes and ears on Washington. Stay close: Saturday we will have all the Friday impeachment news for you, plus we’ll look ahead.
And don’t forget, we’ll have that lengthy Ukrainian interview we were secretly sent that exposes the Bidens.
