Considering all these republicans grew up sucking on the teet of Reagan, it's crazy how cozy they are with former Soviet henchman. Fucking traitors, all of them.
Never got a reason why those GOP senators and congressmen went to Moscow on July 4th.
In addition to Shelby, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee and has limited foreign policy responsibilities, the official congressional delegation featured Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas).
Good that these guys are caught, but I do fear that :
1) They are given a light sentence even if they refuse to cooperate - The "Otherwise a Blameless Life" treatment that Manafort got despite being proven guilty on multiple counts, what do they have to fear?
2) Information they have is not later passed over to the House for the Impeachment investigation. It is locked away as deep as possible to prevent anyone else getting caught up for as long as possible.
Those are the only question marks I have at this point, and hopefully this moves things forward and that they cooperate.
He probably did tell them through an intermediary. There was a reason they were trying to flee at this point. Also Barr right now is forcing SDNY to defend Trump in his tax fight to keep Manhattan from getting them.I take it since it was SDNY that Barr couldn't do anything about it? The fact that he knew if something though.
WASHINGTON—The White House gave a politically appointed official the authority to keep aid to Ukraine on hold after career budget staff members questioned the legality of delaying the funds, according to people familiar with the matter, a shift that House Democrats are probing in their impeachment inquiry.
President Trump's order to freeze nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine in mid-July is at the center of House Democratic efforts to investigate allegations that Mr. Trump used U.S. foreign-policy powers to benefit himself politically. The hold came days before Mr. Trump's request, on a July 25 call, that the Ukrainian president work with Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr to conduct investigations into presidential hopeful Joe Biden.
... without being provided explanation or justification about why the administration was delaying the aid, some career officials at the Office of Management and Budget became worried they didn't have the legal authority to hold up the funds, according to the people familiar.
While career civil servants put an initial hold on the aid, Michael Duffey, associate director of national security programs in OMB, was given the authority for continuing to keep the aid on hold after the career staff began raising their concerns to political officials at OMB, according to the people familiar with the matter. Mr. Duffey also began overseeing the process for approving and releasing funds, called apportionment, for other foreign aid and defense accounts, according to a public document indicating the change.
Some people familiar with the change said Mr. Duffey, previously a high-ranking Pentagon official and the executive director of the Wisconsin Republican Party, took on the role because he was new to the job and wanted more insight into the apportionment process. Acting Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought has the authority to delegate responsibility for approving funds to different staff members as he sees fit.
The involvement of a political official like Mr. Duffey in the apportionment process is unusual, according to several former OMB officials. Career staff below the political level at OMB with years, and sometimes decades, of technical knowledge of the funding process have historically overseen the routine process, according to the former officials. Career staff remain involved in preparing the apportionments, while Mr. Duffey now reviews and signs off on them, according to some of the people.
Some career staff at OMB were worried that the delay to Ukraine didn't meet the legal standards necessary for holding up congressionally approved money. "Those decisions were made pretty high up, with some concern by people who are career employees who were not super comfortable," said one individual familiar with the matter.
SDNY is under Barr -- it's a US Attorney officeI take it since it was SDNY that Barr couldn't do anything about it? The fact that he knew if something though.
Feels like Mueller 2.0 where they arrest a few henchmen while the big boys are untouchable.
Miami Herald has been doing work these past few years.Might've been covered in the other articles, but the Miami Herald highlighted their potential mob ties.
So they were arrested while they were about to flee the country by plane? Totally legal, very cool.
Well, I guess the gist is that Parnas and Fruman wanted to replace the CEO of Naftogaz, an Ukrainian energy company, in order to steer lucrative business deals to their companies.
In May, Rick Perry traveled to Kyiv to serve as the senior U.S. government representative at the inauguration of the county's new president.
In a private meeting with Zelenskiy, Perry pressed the Ukrainian president to fire members of the Naftogaz advisory board. Attendees left the meeting with the impression that Perry wanted to replace the American representative, Amos Hochstein, a former diplomat and energy representative who served in the Obama administration, with someone "reputable in Republican circles," according to someone who was in the room.
Perry's push for Ukraine's state-owned natural gas company Naftogaz to change its supervisory board was first reported by Politico.
A second meeting during the trip, at a Kyiv hotel, included Ukrainian officials and energy sector people. There, Perry made clear that the Trump administration wanted to see the entire Naftogaz supervisory board replaced, according to a person who attended both meetings. Perry again referenced the list of advisers that he had given Zelenskiy, and it was widely interpreted that he wanted Michael Bleyzer, a Ukrainian-American businessman from Texas, to join the newly formed board, the person said. Also on the list was Robert Bensh, another Texan who frequently works in Ukraine, the Energy Department confirmed.
Gordon D. Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, and Kurt D. Volker, then the State Department's special envoy to Ukraine, were also in the room, according to photographs reviewed by AP. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation, said he was floored by the American requests because the person had always viewed the U.S. government "as having a higher ethical standard."
The Naftogaz supervisory board is supposed to be selected by the Ukrainian president's Cabinet in consultation with international institutions, including the International Monetary Fund, the United States and the European Union. It must be approved by the Ukrainian Cabinet. Ukrainian officials perceived Perry's push to swap out the board as circumventing that established process, according to the person in the room.
FOLLOWUP/ Fruman—just arrested trying to flee the country—met *personally* with Trump *twice* in the days before Ukraine froze all Manafort investigations in April 2018. Think there was a connection?