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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAnd so Rudy is being paid by the Russians/Vlad through Lev Parnas to help invent dirt on the Bidens
"Trumps domestic interests are one intended beneficiary of his scheme. The other is Vladimir Putin."
And Trump, Pence, and Pompeo (?) all knew about this little scheme too.
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/12/report-parnas-russia-ukraine-trump-impeachment-giuliani-money.html
President Trump is facing impeachment primarily for abusing his power for political gain, extorting a foreign country to discredit his political rivals. The secondary aspect of the plot is that the target of his extortion is hardly random. Ukraine is the victim of Russian aggression, and Russias continuing incursions into Ukrainian territory is the muscle that gave Trumps threats leverage. Trumps domestic interests are one intended beneficiary of his scheme. The other is Vladimir Putin.
snip
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors charged yesterday evening that Lev Parnas, an associate of President Trump who represented him in Ukraine, was wired $1 million from a Russian bank account weeks before his arrest. Which is to say, Trumps Ukraine plot appears to have been financed by Russia.
Parnas met repeatedly with Trump and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. Parnas claims Trump pulled him aside at last years White House Hanukkah party and personally directed his activities in Ukraine. That allegation remains unproven. What is proven, though, is that Parnas met with Trump numerous times (there are photographs), was Giulianis official business partner, and represented himself to Ukrainians as an agent of both Trump and Giuliani.
Rudy has worked as Trumps lawyer for free, but Parnas paid him half a million dollars for his work. If Parnas himself was being paid by Russian sources, this means the Russians were essentially subsidizing Trump, paying for the work themselves so he didnt have to lay out a dime of his own money.
What did Russia get in return? Quite a bit. Trump attempted to hold up military aid that had been passed by Congress by margins Trump couldnt block. He has continued to withhold a desperately sought meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, which the Ukrainian president believed would serve as a signal of American support, and give Ukraine leverage against Russia. Instead, Trump met this week in the White House with Russian foreign minister Sergey V. Lavrov, sending the opposite of the signal Ukraine wanted. Andrew Weiss, a Russia expert at the Carnegie Institute for International Peace, tells the New York Times, The Russians surely arranged the Lavrov visit to capitalize on all of this and to send a message to the Ukrainians that theyre basically on their own now and need to cut the best deal they can since the U.S. backstop is largely inoperative.
blm
(113,005 posts)Russia is let off the hook and US sanctions are lifted.
Trump openly siding with Putin is a lot of pressure on Ukraine to give up and join the lie.
The Biden stuff is peripheral and more of Trumps personal side dealing to squeeze everything he can for his personal gain.
kentuck
(111,051 posts)Trump and Rudy are both working for Vlad.
2naSalit
(86,308 posts)Kid Berwyn
(14,789 posts)And laundry access to oligarch money is the reason for all the favors and deals and treason.
Its not like its the Russian or Ukrainian peoples money. Anymore.
MoonRiver
(36,926 posts)malaise
(268,664 posts)for the rest of his life
wiggs
(7,809 posts)any dem anywhere anytime be saying this first thing as answer to any media question?
"Trump's private attorney is paid by the Russian mob connected to Putin? On a national security scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being most terrifying...THIS IS A 10!!"
Botany
(70,442 posts)Will impeachment hurt the democrats?
Ukraine 2019 is just a continuation of Trump/Russia 2016.