Trump Denies Whistleblower Claims, and Deflects; Business as Usual

In August, an anonymous whistleblower filed a complaint with Michael Atkinson, Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG), alerting him to multiple “troubling” conversations between Trump and a “mystery counterpart.” The counterpart was a (then) unidentified foreign leader. During at least one of the conversations, Trump allegedly made a promise to the leader, according to the whistleblower.

Though the U.S. Intelligence community determined that the whistleblower’s report was “urgent and credible” and forwarded it to acting director of national intelligence (DNI) Joseph Maguire, Maguire did not give the report to Congress, apparently on advisement from the White House and the Justice Department. 

According to the DNI, the report involved “confidential and potentially privileged matters relating to the interests of other stakeholders within the executive branch.”

Later, it was revealed that the “mystery counterpart” was from the Ukraine, and was in fact Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelensky. 

In addition to suspecting a coverup and an abuse of power on the part of Trump, Democrats now suspect that Trump may have tried to use the promise of U.S. military aid to the Ukraine to initiate a probe into Ukraine business dealings by Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son.

Trump allegedly told Zelensky “roughly eight times” to work with his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to investigate Hunter Biden. Trump alleges that Joe Biden demanded that the Ukrainian government fire a prosecutor who was investigating his son. 

Joe Biden denies this.

As if on cue, Rudy Giuliani, in an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, first denied that he had asked Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden, then later in the same interview, when asked again, said, “Of course I did!” Giuliani later said he had misspoken. 

Also as if on cue, Trump deflected attention away from the scandal and toward Biden: “It doesn’t matter what I discussed with world leaders,” he told reporters. “I’ll tell you this: Somebody ought to look into Joe Biden‘s statement.”

And though Trump claimed not to know the identity of the whistleblower, he slammed him or her as a partisan, calling the situation a “political hack job” and ridiculing the news media for covering it.

“The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, want to stay as far away as possible from the Joe Biden demand that the Ukrainian Government fire a prosecutor who was investigating his son, or they won’t get a very large amount of U.S. money, so they fabricate a story about me and a perfectly fine and routine conversation I had with the new President of the Ukraine,” Trump tweeted.

Biden responded by saying “Not one single, credible outlet has given any credibility to his assertion.”

“…I have no comment except the president should start to be president,” Biden added.

Meanwhile, Democrats are calling for impeachment while Trump supporters are citing this scandal as more “proof” that Democrats and the media are involved in nothing but a “witch hunt” aimed at bringing Trump down. 

Since its inception, this administration has regularly been the subject of scandals that would have ruined other politicians. For Trump, however. each instance seems to strengthen the support of his base. Though some say this whistleblower’s complaint, if proven, could be especially damaging to Trump, recent history has shown that it will most likely be all but forgotten when the next potentially ruinous Trump controversy du jour overshadows it.

President Donald Trump Blasts Growing Whistleblower Firestorm As ‘Ridiculous’ | NBC Nightly News [2019-09-20]

The Trump WHISTLEBLOWER Story Is A SHAM! | FOTM | ATS | Huckabee
[2019-09-21]

Democrats Seek Kavanaugh’s Impeachment Following New Reporting

Democrats are now seeking impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was confirmed in 2018 despite multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. On Sunday, Democrats called for a new investigation following a recent New York Times piece by journalists Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, who have been examining last year’s accusations against Kavanaugh while doing research for their forthcoming book, The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation. 

In addition to Christine Blasey Ford, who testified that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her during high school, Deborah Ramirez, a Yale classmate of Kavanaugh’s, also accused Kavanaugh in 2018 of sexual assault. Ramirez alleged that while both were students at Yale, Kavanaugh exposed himself to her, and forced her to touch his penis as she tried to avoid him.

Ramirez did not testify in 2018, and even though she and her attorneys presented the FBI with 25 witnesses, the Justice Department did not follow up with any of them.

In 2018, Kavanaugh denied Ramirez’ allegation, saying that if it had taken place, it would have been the talk of the campus. Evidently, though, it was. 

Though Kavanaugh’s supporters claimed Ramirez’ accusation was uncorroborated, the New York Times reported: 

“At least seven people, including Ms. Ramirez’s mother, heard about the Yale incident long before Mr. Kavanaugh was a federal judge. Two of those people were classmates who learned of it just days after the party occurred, suggesting that it was discussed among students at the time.”

During their investigation, the two Times journalists detailed additional corroborations of Ramirez’ allegations, as well as turning up a witness with an additional allegation that is nearly identical to that of Ramirez.

According to the Times journalists, “A classmate (of Kavanaugh, Ramirez, and the newly revealed additional victim), Max Stier, saw Mr. Kavanaugh with his pants down at a different drunken dorm party, where friends pushed his penis into the hand of a female student. Mr. Stier, who runs a nonprofit organization in Washington, notified senators and the F.B.I. about this account, but the F.B.I. did not investigate and Mr. Stier has declined to discuss it publicly.” 

It should be noted that friends of this alleged victim say she does not remember the incident. Stier and others concede that that is often the case with events that take place when one is drunk. 

The Times journalists continue, “(We corroborated the story with two officials who have communicated with Mr. Stier.)”

Donald Trump continues to support Kavanaugh while blasting those calling for a new investigation: “Now the Radical Left Democrats and their Partner, the LameStream Media, are after Brett Kavanaugh again, talking loudly of their favorite word, impeachment,” Trump tweeted. “He is an innocent man who has been treated HORRIBLY. Such lies about him. They want to scare him into turning Liberal!”

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) tweeted, “Last year the Kavanaugh nomination was rammed through the Senate without a thorough examination of the allegations against him. Confirmation is not exoneration, and these newest revelations are disturbing. Like the man who appointed him, Kavanaugh should be impeached.”

Beto O’Rourke tweeted, “Yesterday, we learned of another accusation against Brett Kavanaugh—one we didn’t find out about before he was confirmed because the Senate forced the F.B.I. to rush its investigation to save his nomination. We know he lied under oath. He should be impeached.”

Multiple other Democrats have tweeted their support of impeachment for Kavanaugh. Though they must surely realize that the chances of impeaching Kavanaugh are slim to none, perhaps going on record in support of impeachment is enough of a message.

NYT reveals new Kavanaugh assault allegation | Newsy [09-15-2019]

Trump rips new claim against Kavanaugh | Fox News [2019-09-15]