Category: VOX

CONGRESS – HYPOCRISY: Senate Democrats Sent Letter to Ukraine Demanding They Investigate Trump Just Last Year

Their hypocrisy knows no bounds!

By Shane Trejo

As Democrats launch an impeachment inquiry over President Trump’s remarks to Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky about investigating former Vice President Joe Biden’s corrupt actions, it has been revealed that Senate Democrats made a similar request to Ukraine last year regarding President Trump.

Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) wrote a letter to General Prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko from the Office of the Prosecutor General in Ukraine on May 4, 2018 demanding compliance with the Mueller probe.

“We are writing to express great concern about reports that your office has taken steps to impede cooperation with the investigation of United States Special Counsel Robert Mueller,” they wrote, referring to the investigation that ultimately found no evidence of Trump colluding with the Russians to impact the resulf of the 2016 presidential election.

They referenced a report from the New York Times indicating that Ukraine was not properly cooperating with the Mueller witch hunt, and implied that their refusal to comply could jeopardize diplomatic relations with the United States.

“This reported refusal to cooperate with the Mueller probe also sends a worrying signal—to the Ukranian people as well as the international community—about your government’s commitment more broadly to support justice and rule of the law,” they added.

The Democratic Senators ended their letter with a request that the following three questions be answered:

1. Has your office taken any steps to restrict cooperation with the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller? If so, why?
2. Did any individual from the Trump Administration, or anyone acting on its behalf, encourage Ukrainian government or law enforcement officials not to cooperate with the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller?
3. Was the Mueller probe raised in any way during discussions between your government and U.S. officials, including around the meeting of Presidents Trump and Poroshenko in New York in 2017?

Fake news conspiracy theorists were floating the baseless notion at the time that Trump had bribed Ukranian leaders to prevent them from cooperating with the Mueller probe:

In December, the administration allowed the sale of anti-tank missiles to Ukraine. Supporters of the administration held up the sale as evidence that Trump could not have colluded with Russia — here he was, arming Russia’s enemy. “The year that began with the narrative of Trump-Russia collusion is ending with an unexpected plot twist — the Trump administration is confronting and cracking down on Russia,” reported Fox News. The Wall Street Journal editorial page mocked “people who say President Trump colluded with Mr. Putin to win the election and wants to appease him now.” Skeptics merely saw the sale as evidence that the foreign policy bureaucracy operated at some distance from Trump’s whims.

Today’s New York Times suggests a darker interpretation altogether. In response to the missile sale, Ukrainian officials have frozen out the Mueller investigation. Ukraine’s government had previously cooperated eagerly to expose the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia — providing, among other importance evidence, ledgers detailing payments to Paul Manafort by the Russian-backed Ukrainian party he had advised.

Now Ukraine is withholding cooperation from Mueller, and Ukrainian officials are not even hiding the fact that they’re doing so because of the missile sale. “In every possible way, we will avoid irritating the top American officials,” one Ukrainian lawmaker says. “We shouldn’t spoil relations with the administration.”

It is of course possible that Ukraine reached this decision on its own, completely independent of any suggestion from Washington. It is far more likely that somebody in the administration proposed a quid pro quo, and Ukraine quite rationally decided it would rather have weapons to defend itself against the next Russian aggression than participate in an investigation that the president of the United States regards as a mortal threat.

It does not appear that the Ukrainian government ever responded to the letter, and the fake news bribery speculation quickly dissipated due to lack of evidence.

By the new standards of the Democrats, these three lawmakers committed criminal actions by demanding the investigation of their political adversary. Perhaps an impeachment inquiry of Menendez, Durbin, and Leahy should be in order!

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NYT publisher declares Trump a threat to journalism; forgets to mention Obama’s war on whistleblowers and Julian Assange

CAP

By Danielle Ryan

The Trump administration is admonished as a threat to journalism worldwide in a new oped penned by New York Times publisher AG Sulzberger. It’s just a pity that in the 3,200-word screed, he found no time to mention Julian Assange.

Perhaps a worse sin than his purposeful omission of Assange’s pertinent case, though, is Sulzberger’s utterly disingenuous claim that before Donald Trump came along, the US government was “the world’s greatest champion of the free press.”

Readers who make it to the end of the piece would be none the wiser as to the fact that Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, waged a war on whistleblowers, prosecuting more of them than all previous US administrations combined and paving the way for Trump’s further attacks.

Assange’s name may be appearing less frequently in the news these days, but Sulzberger will be well aware that the Australian whistleblower and WikiLeaks co-founder is still a prisoner at London’s top security Belmarsh Prison, despite the fact that his sentence for skipping bail is up.

Though he was due for release on September 22, a court ruled that Assange must stay in prison until his extradition hearing next year, citing his “history of absconding.” In other words, the whistleblower who exposed US war crimes managed to evade persecution by US authorities once before — and the British government is determined not to let that happen again.

Sulzberger knows all this but consciously chose to ignore it in favor of anecdotes about the heroism of the Times’ own reporters around the world and the Trump administration’s reluctance to stand up for journalists, American and otherwise. Some of the stories he tells are indeed worrying and deserve to be told — but let’s be clear: No defense of the free press is sincere and complete without a strong and unambiguous defense of Julian Assange.

Nonetheless, the piece was praised by mainstream journalists on Twitter. “A call to arms,” said NYT columnist Jim Rutenberg. “The best analysis” of the damage Trump has done to the free press, said Brazilian journalist Rosental Alves. “A powerful defense,” of journalism, declared Gannett CNY editor Jeffrey Platsky.

But Sulzberger’s things-were-great-and-then-Trump-happened tone is typical of the overly simplified manner in which US media elites have been framing the Trump presidency from the outset. From targeting whistleblowers, to deporting migrants, to turning a blind eye to Saudi atrocities in Yemen — if Obama did it, it was fine, admirable and initiated without malice. If Trump does it, it’s unacceptable, reprehensible and rooted in evil — even if there is little meaningful difference in outcomes.

Without a hint of Assange-related irony, Sulzberger warns that governments around the world are targeting journalists who have been “exposing uncomfortable truths and holding power to account.” The current administration has “retreated from our country’s historical role as a defender of the free press,” he continues, throwing in a quote from the late Senator John McCain — chief senate warmonger and friend to Ukrainian neo-Nazis and Syrian terrorists, who the intrepid muckrakers over at the Washington Post once lauded for his ability to “make journalists love him.” 

Truly explosive stuff; someone find these risk-takers a free cell at Belmarsh immediately.

Back at home, Trump’s attacks on the media have served to “undermine” the public’s faith in journalists, Sulzberger argues, noting that the president has tweeted about“fake news” 600 times since taking office. There is no denying that Trump has undermined the public’s already waning faith in the free press by labelling all reporting which displeases him as “fake.”

Yet, what Sulzberger fails to acknowledge is how the media has been so helpful to him in this regard. Times editor Dean Baquet admitted recently that three years of Russiagate coverage which essentially amounted to nothing had left the paper of record “flat-footed.” Trump, of course, took full advantage of the genuinely abysmal coverage of his presidency.

Concluding, Sulzberger assures the reader that he has raised his concerns with Trump personally, to no avail, and warns that threatening to prosecute journalists for doing their jobs gives repressive leaders around the world “implicit license” to do the same. Someone should remind him that if Trump bears responsibility here, he rightfully shares it with Obama.

As for those repressive leaders, they need look no further than Assange — and when they examine his case, they’ll be emboldened further, knowing that even his fellow journalists failed to stand up and loudly advocate for him.

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REPORT: BLACK TEENS FATALLY ATTACKED JOHN MARVIN WEED, 59, AFTER ‘HE DECLINED TO GIVE THEM $1’

Report: Black Teens Fatally Attacked John Marvin Weed, 59, After 'He Declined to Give Them $1'

If the races were reversed in this killing it would be the most popular story in the entire country with wall-to-wall media coverage and politicians demanding “action.”

Chris Menahan | Information Liberation – SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

Two teenage brothers allegedly fatally attacked 59-year-old John Marvin Weed at a fair in Frederick, Maryland and spit on him while he was on the ground because “he declined to give them $1.”

From NBC Washington, “Teenage Brothers Fatally Attacked Man Who Refused to Give Them Money, Maryland Authorities Say”:

Two teenage brothers fatally attacked a man at an agricultural fair in Maryland after he refused to give them money, authorities said.

John Weed, 59, of Mount Airy was at the Great Frederick Fair Friday evening when the 15-year-old and 16-year-old approached him, authorities said. Several minutes after he declined to give them $1, the 15-year-old knocked him unconscious, prosecutors said.

“I think it’s despicable, and it tells me a lot about how these young people view this person by the very fact after they had him on the ground they taunted and they spit on him,” Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins said. “That to me shows hatred and disgust and despise.”

Medics flew him to the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. He died there Saturday, the sheriff’s office said.

The 15-year-old boy was charged with first-degree assault, second-degree assault and reckless endangerment, the sheriff’s office said. His 16-year-old brother was charged with second-degree assault. They are charged as juveniles but the prosecutor may ask that they be tried as adults.

This is allegedly video of the attack:If the races were reversed in this killing it would be the most popular story in the entire country with wall-to-wall media coverage and politicians demanding “action.”
CAP
Instead, most Americans will never even hear John Marvin Weed’s name.
CAP
Frederick is a city in western Maryland where Marylanders fled to to escape the “cultural enrichment” in and around Washington, DC and Baltimore.

Like most of Maryland, it used to be a very nice place to live but just so happens to be going downhill in accordance with a massive population shift.

UPDATE: John Weed’s niece Jessica set up a GoFundMe to help defer “legal cost, medical bills, and funeral costs.”

On Friday September 20th, Jay (John Weed) went to the Great Frederick County Fair to spend an evening of fun and laughter with his sister, his nieces, their loves ones and his great niece and nephew. At 5:30pm he fell victim to an unprovoked, physical assault. He was air lifted to Shock Trauma in Baltimore, where they did everything they could to save his life. The damage to his brain was too severe. He was not coming back. Late Saturday afternoon with his Mother, Father and sister by his side he passed away. Please help my family during this extremely difficult time. We never imagined such a great man would have to die like this. We are seeking justice for him but will have to fight. Anything you can do is appreciated and will be used towards legal cost, medical bills, and funeral costs.

RIP, Jay.

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Rep. John Lewis Calls For Trump’s Impeachment

9/25/2019

What’s new? This guy has been calling for impeachment forever.

Wow this must be for real cuz they never done this before LOL like little kids

Perhaps he needs to READ SECRET EMPIRES About how Biden and his son plus Kerry and his son used the VP office to make $billions.

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Anything But That! 😆

By Mark Dice – 9/25/2019

Trump does nothing wrong CNN….. (he’s guilty and impeachment. ) Creepy joe Biden gets caught. CNN…(.there’s no proof) lmfao

Everything democrats level at Trump is what the dems have in fact done themselves.

 

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Report: Federal Officials Found That Whistle-Blower Had ‘Political Bias’ for ‘Rival Candidate’ of President Trump

The Democrats have made a big mistake!

By Shane Trejo

Earlier today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced that she was beginning an inquiry into the impeachment of President Donald Trump.

It’s looking like her move will go down as one of the great miscalculations in political history after the release of another explosive revelation. A senior Trump administration official claims that the intelligence community inspector general determined that the whistle-blower who alleged Trump’s wrongdoing was motivated by “political bias” due to their support for “a rival candidate” of the President.

A different senior Trump administration official said to Fox News that the Trump administration is now working to release the whistle-blower’s complaint to Congress, as it appears that Trump has baited desperate Democrats into making fools of themselves yet again.

Earlier today, Trump announced his intention to release the full transcript of his conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He claims he has nothing to hide, but Democrats believe that Trump tried to strong-arm Zelensky into investigating his political opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden.

CAP

Biden boasted in 2016 during a meeting at the Council on Foreign Relations that he maneuvered to get a Ukrainian state prosecutor fired who was investigating a firm that employed his son, Hunter Biden. The admission that Biden would probably like to take back was immortalized on video.

The firm, Burisma Holdings, paid Hunter $50,000 per month to sit on its board. President Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has pointed out the ridiculous conflict of interest that went into this shady agreement.

“When Biden got the prosecutor fired, the new prosecutor who Biden approved — you don’t get to approve a prosecutor in a foreign country unless something fishy is going on — the new prosecutor dropped the case,” Giuliani said.

Giuliani also believes that Biden and his son engaged in nefarious cronyism after traveling aboard Air Force Two to visit China in 2013. In the days following their trip, a Chinese businessman made a $1.5 billion donation to BHR Partners. BHR is a private equity firm with Hunter sitting on its board.

“When he comes back … eight days later, the kid gets a billion dollars in his ridiculous private equity fund run by a recovering drug addict,” Giuliani said, referring to Hunter’s well-documented cocaine problem.

Not only are the Democrats attempting to impeach President Trump over yet another a nothing burger, but they are also putting the spotlight on their presidential front-runner’s scandals. The Democrats continue to be their own worst enemies heading into year’s crucial elections.

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Donald Trump Releases Transcript with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky

CAP

By Charlie Spiering

President Donald Trump on Wednesday released the full transcript of his phone call with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The president spoke about former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden during the conversation:

Trump: … I just want to let you know that’s the other thing, There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you ·can look into it … It sounds horrible to me.

President Zelenskyy: I wanted to tell you about the prosecutor. First of all, I understand and I’m knowledgeable about the situation. Since we have won the absolute majority in our Parliament; the next prosecutor general will be 100% my person, my candidate, who will be approved, by the parliament and will start as a new prosecutor in September. He or she will look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue. The issue of the investigation of the case is actually the issue of making sure to restore the honesty so we will take care of.that and will wortk on the investigation of the case.

The president also spoke about Crowdstrike, the cybersecurity company used by the Democrat National Committee in 2016 to examine their hacked servers:

President Donald Trump: I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a
lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike… I guess
you have one of your wealthy people… The server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the·whole situation. I think you’re surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, ·it’s very important that you do it if that’s possible.

President Zelensky: Yes it is. very important for me and everything that you just mentioned earlier. For me as a President, it is very important and we are open for any future cooperation. We are ready to·open a new page on cooperation in relations between the United· States and Ukraine.· For that·purpose, I just recalled our.ambassador from the United States and he will be replaced by a very competent and very experienced ambassador who will work hard on making sure that our two nations are getting closer.

Read the full document here:

Trump-Zelensky trancript by Breitbart News on Scribd

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Justice Department ends investigation of Tony Podesta, Vin Weber without charges

Image: Tony Podesta

By Tom Winter and Adiel Kaplan

Federal prosecutors have ended an investigation into Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta and former Republican Congressman Vin Weber in a case connected to lobbying for Ukraine and Paul Manafort without filing criminal charges, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell NBC News.

The investigation by the Southern District of New York, which focused on whether several prominent Washington lobbyists violated foreign lobbying rules, grew out of special counsel Robert Mueller‘s inquiry into the finances of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who is now serving a 7.5 year sentence in federal prison.

Manafort had organized a public relations campaign for a non-profit called the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, which promoted Ukraine’s image in the West from 2012 to 2014. Podesta’s Democratic-leaning lobbying firm, the Podesta Group, was one of many firms that worked on the campaign, including Weber’s firm, Mercury Public Affairs.

NBC News was the first to report in 2017 that Podesta and his firm had been ensnared in Mueller’s probe because of their work on the campaign.

Podesta is the chairman of the Podesta Group and the brother of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton‘s former presidential campaign chairman. John Podesta has not been affiliated with the Podesta Group since the 1990s and was not a subject of the investigation.

Both firms were being investigated for possibly failing to file Foreign Agents Registration Act reports for their work with the ECMU and on behalf of Ukraine, NBC News has previously reported.

According to an October 2017 indictment, the two lobbying firms were paid $2 million from offshore accounts controlled by Manafort for their work on the campaign.

In a statement to NBC News, Vin Weber’s attorney said they had been notified the investigation was over.

“As we have previously stated, at all times Mr. Weber acted in good faith and in keeping with the legal advice his company received from its outside counsel,” Weber’s attorney Robert Trout said.

“We are obviously pleased by this development,” Trout added.

Podesta did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Southern District of New York declined to comment.

The dropping of the investigation comes on the heels of the not guilty verdict in the trial of former Obama White House Counsel Greg Craig, another case that Mueller’s office had passed to federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.

In that case, the New York attorneys decided not to prosecute, sources said, and the case was ultimately brought by federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., only to result in an acquittal for Craig.

Several people briefed on the Podesta and Weber probe told NBC News they thought that the investigation into the two lobbyists had a better chance of succeeding than the probe into Craig, but in the end the legal hurdles would’ve been too high.

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