Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Trump's "No Quid Pro Quo" Defense Crumbles



Among the many, many lies told by Russian asset and sociopath Donald "Impeachable Me" Trump regarding his Ukraine shakedown scheme was that withholding the vital military aid to Ukraine was all about reported Ukrainian corruption, not about getting political dirt on the Bidens in exchange. Trump's repeatedly threatened the whistleblower who reported the corrupt conversation he had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

There is reporting that Trump was forced by knowledge of the whistleblower's complaint (which Trump's own Inspector General for the intelligence community deemed credible) to abruptly release the aid on September 11. Simply put, the whistleblower disrupted Trump's bribery and extortion plot, which explains his fury at the person. As Greg Sargent points out, this reporting shatters two of Trump's remaining, ludicrous defenses:
"First, it refutes the absurd notion that, because Trump ultimately released the aid, this somehow shows the plot to pressure Ukraine into announcing investigations to help his reelection was never corrupt. We now know Trump knew it had been exposed before the aid was halted. 
In short: They got caught
But this new revelation also undercuts the “I want nothing — no quid pro quo” defense as well. It sheds light on another key subplot: the manner in which Trump appears to have corruptly directed Sondland to convey the extortion demand to Ukraine, while preserving plausible deniability for doing so."  (our emphasis)
Knowing that the whistleblower -- and then Congress -- already had the goods on him, Trump self-consciously and disingenuously said he wanted "nothing", knowing that his man Sondland would recall that under oath. But who, especially Trump, would use "quid pro quo" in a conversation if he hadn't already been tipped that his bribery and extortion scheme was about to be exposed, and discussed the complaint with his White (Supremacist) House lawyers?

2 comments:

donnah said...

When you lie constantly about everything, you're bound to get caught. It happens to Trump all of the time, but now it's an impeachable crime and he's got no cover. If the Republicans still, in light of all of the evidence, refuse to acknowledge his culpability, then they are truly unredeemable. And we will go on record as finding him guilty and impeach him in the House. Then Senate will bear the shame in the history books as the lapdogs who did not serve the Constitution, but acquitted a criminal who lied to everyone.

Hackwhackers said...

donnah -- After a lifetime of lying and deceit, Trump is finally getting the black mark on him that he should have gotten repeatedly throughout his lifetime. History will bear witness to his criminality. Better late than never.