Un-Presidential

This is going to get really ugly. Which is exactly what he wants.

Interesting. Might I suggest Thorazine?

Trump Repeatedly Pressed Ukraine President to Investigate Biden's Son

Alan Cullison, Rebecca Ballhaus, Dustin Volz 1 hr ago

President Trump in a July phone call repeatedly pressured the president of Ukraine to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son, urging Volodymyr Zelensky about eight times to work with Rudy Giuliani, his personal lawyer, on a probe, according to people familiar with the matter.

“He told him that he should work with [Mr. Giuliani] on Biden, and that people in Washington wanted to know” whether allegations were true or not, one of the people said. Mr. Trump didn’t mention a provision of foreign aid to Ukraine on the call, said this person, who didn’t believe Mr. Trump offered the Ukrainian president any quid-pro-quo for his cooperation on any investigation.

Mr. Giuliani in June and August met with top Ukrainian officials about the prospect of an investigation, he said in an interview. The Trump lawyer has suggested Mr. Biden as vice president worked to shield from investigation a Ukrainian gas company with ties to his son, Hunter Biden. A Ukrainian official earlier this year said he had no evidence of wrongdoing by Mr. Biden or his son.

After the July call between the two presidents, the Ukrainian government said Mr. Trump had congratulated the new president on his election and expressed hope that his government would push ahead with investigations and corruption probes that had stymied relations between the two countries.

The White House declined to comment. The Biden campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment. Last week, a Biden campaign spokesman said of Mr. Giuliani’s efforts to pressure Ukraine: “This is beneath us as Americans.”

Mr. Trump on Friday defended his July call with Mr. Zelensky as “totally appropriate” but declined to say whether he had asked the Ukrainian leader to investigate Mr. Biden, a former U.S. vice president. “It doesn’t matter what I discussed,” he said.

At the same time, he reiterated his call for an investigation into Mr. Biden’s effort as vice president to oust Ukraine’s prosecutor general. “Somebody ought to look into that," he told reporters.

In recent months, Mr. Giuliani has mounted an extensive effort to pressure Ukraine to do so. He told The Wall Street Journal he met with an official from the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office in June in Paris, and met with Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Mr. Zelensky in Madrid in August. Mr. Giuliani told the Journal earlier this month that Mr. Yermak assured him the Ukrainian government would “get to the bottom” of the Biden matter.

The August meeting came weeks before the Trump administration began reviewing the status of $250 million in foreign aid to Ukraine, which the administration released earlier this month. Mr. Giuliani said he wasn’t aware of the issue with the funds to Ukraine at the time of the meeting.

He said his meeting with Mr. Yermak was set up by the State Department, and said he briefed the department on their conversation later. The State Department had no immediate comment.

The interactions between the president, Mr. Giuliani and Ukraine have come under scrutiny in recent days in the wake of a whistleblower complaint that a person familiar with the matter said involves the president’s communications with a foreign leader. The complaint, which the Washington Post reported centers on Ukraine, has prompted a new standoff between Congress and the executive branch.

Separately, lawmakers have been investigating whether the president or his lawyer sought to pressure the Ukrainian government to pursue probes in an effort to benefit Mr. Trump’s re-election bid.

Mr. Trump is to meet with Mr. Zelensky in person for the first time next week, during the annual United Nations General Assembly gathering in New York.

Michael Atkinson, the Trump-appointed inspector general of the intelligence community, met Thursday morning with the House Intelligence Committee in a closed session to discuss the whistleblower complaint. Mr. Atkinson declined to tell lawmakers the substance of the complaint or whether it involves the president, but he did say it involves more than one episode and is based on a series of events, according to several people who attended or were briefed on the meeting.

Joseph Maguire, a retired Navy vice admiral serving as the acting director of national intelligence, is to appear before both the Senate and House intelligence committees next week about the complaint, though it remains unclear if he will be willing to divulge details about its underlying substance.

Stymied Democrats in Congress continued to mull potential avenues to obtain the complaint. Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said he was considering a lawsuit to obtain the complaint or withholding funding from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Mr. Schiff has accused Mr. Maguire of violating the law by not sending the complaint to Congress, as required under the federal whistleblower statute.

“It’s been very hard for the director of national intelligence to explain why he is the first ever in that position to withhold an urgent whistleblower complaint from Congress,” Mr. Schiff told reporters.

Mr. Maguire’s office consulted the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which determined that the allegation didn’t meet the statutory definition of an “urgent concern” requiring reporting to the intelligence committees, the Justice Department said.

That guidance is binding on the executive branch, legal experts said, and it remains unclear how or whether Mr. Maguire could transmit the complaint to lawmakers now.

Even before the debate over the whistleblower complaint, Democratic lawmakers had begun investigating interactions with Ukraine by the president and his lawyer. Earlier this month, the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight committees sent letters to the White House and State Department seeking records of interactions involving the president and Mr. Giuliani and the Ukrainian government.

Lawmakers are investigating whether there was any connection between the review of foreign aid to Ukraine and the efforts to pressure Kiev to look into Mr. Biden.

In the interview this month, Mr. Giuliani said he had sought in the spring to meet with Mr. Zelensky—at the time Ukraine’s president-elect—and planned a trip to Kiev to pressure the Ukrainian government to pursue two investigations: one into whether Ukraine, under its previous leader, had sought in 2016 to hurt the Trump campaign and bolster his opponent; and another into diplomatic efforts in the country by Mr. Biden, who is currently leading the Democratic presidential field.

Mr. Giuliani ultimately canceled that trip after his plan was made public. Mr. Trump was aware of the planned meeting, he said.

Mr. Giuliani’s criticism of Mr. Biden centers on the then-vice president’s efforts to seek the ouster of former Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin, who had investigated a private Ukrainian gas company, Burisma Group, of which Hunter Biden was a board member.

Mr. Giuliani has accused Mr. Biden of acting to protect his son, a lawyer who has been involved in several investment and consulting firms, even though Mr. Shokin had already completed his investigation of Burisma Group before he left office.

Mr. Biden has said he sought Mr. Shokin’s ouster because he wasn’t doing enough to investigate corruption. Other countries had also criticized Ukraine for not appropriately addressing the country’s corruption problems.

Yuriy Lutsenko, Ukraine’s prosecutor general at the time, told Bloomberg News in May he had no evidence of wrongdoing by Mr. Biden or his son.

In an interview Thursday evening, Mr. Giuliani said he wasn’t aware whether the whistleblower complaint related to Ukraine. But in a Twitter post later that evening, he defended the possibility that Mr. Trump had urged Mr. Zelensky to investigate his potential campaign opponent.

“A President telling a Pres-elect of a well known corrupt country he better investigate corruption that affects US is doing his job,” Mr. Giuliani wrote.

Mr. Giuliani said earlier this month that Mr. Trump likely would raise the Biden matter with Mr. Zelensky when they meet, saying the matter was “on his mind.” A senior administration official said Friday that the two would discuss how to expand energy cooperation and trade ties.

He's found someone more in line with his age bracket to fence with. Not that he's as smart as her.

There's this 16 year old Swedish high school student who has become a voice for environmentalists everywhere. She spoke before the United Nations. Trump has rolled back America's commitment to a cleaner planet. The looks she gave him when he appeared would burn through steel. He made some snarky comment about what a happy young lady she seems to be. She changed her tagline on her twitter account to mirror his sarcasm.

Huzzah that the President of the United States has found a target he may be able to emotionally manipulate. The mayor of London missed his mentality by about five years. Trump is overqualified for 11 year olds. He can tackle 16 year olds.

No way they impeach Trump & I really wish they would stop that talk. He's a paranoid son of a bitch, but every time the Democrats suggest impeachment, & fail to deliver, it lends credence to his paranoid ramblings. 'Fake news.' 'This is just another witch hunt.' 

His trying to put pressure on Ukraine to sully Biden really did point out how he would gladly use foreign governments (Eastern European especially) to influence American elections though. He stepped right in that one. Freaking idiot. But he'll get away with it - again. 

I think I read somewhere his legion of mindless followers were having a field day with the 16 year old girl. Pretty much like they swamped that preacher's twitter account after Trump accidentally named him as a target. 

'Duh, Donald says this here guy is an enemy of the people. We done gots to show these here communists that real Amuricans don't take kindly to that chicanery. Bubba, get a rope.' 

1 - She had just finished telling the U.N. that their empty promises were shitting all over her future. Trump was baiting a 16 year old girl. Congrats, Mr. Prez. You finally found your match. Emotionally anyway. 

2 - You remember when Zeph was running circles around Chuck on both the MLB & CHUCK's board? Zeph was 16. I think he goes to MIT now. 

3 - If it weren't for scientists, we would be writing letters to ourselves about climate change instead of using the internet. Trump have a PHD in...ANYTHING? No. He has a Bachelor's Degree in economics. This girl will be brilliant. She's already well on her way. There's talk of a Nobel Prize. There's talk of Trump being semi-retarded. Definitely not in control of what he thinks & says. There's no stop sign between that empty & cavernous cranium & his mouth.

4 - There was talk of Obama & Clinton using Russia to gain an advantage in elections? Was it as diplomats or co-conspirators?

5 - Hillary isn't running this time.

6 - How far along is that wall, & it's very significant we're paying for it. Let's not try to gloss that over. How are we paying for this Mr. Trump.? Ummm...I'll get Mexico to pay for it. (Smirks all around.). 

7 - It's not important he's a known liar & incapable of holding a conversation without insulting someone?

8 - Biden is electable & that's why the pressure on Ukraine to come up with something on his son. Why else would Donald be doing it?