Ukraine Mess Triad: Trump, Giuliani, and Sondland Plus Mulvaney and Bolton

Trump 100% leader of this scheme — others yet unnamed

(Drip, drip, drip of info)

Major Update: The main article is here (Washington Post) – highlights follow:

David Holmes, an embassy staffer in Kiev, testified in a closed session (Nov 15) that he overheard a July 26 phone call in which Trump pressed U.S. EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland whether Ukrainian President Zelensky “would do the investigation.” 

This according to three people who have read Holmes’ opening statement and who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe its contents.

Holmes and the others said: “Ambassador Sondland replied that he’s (Zelensky) gonna do it. He will do ‘anything you ask him to. ”

Impact:  This directly implicates Trump in the alleged scheme at the heart of the impeachment probe by Democrats trying to prove that Trump directly leveraged military assistance and an Oval Office meeting in exchange for investigations into Biden and son, and the longtime debunked theory concerning Ukrainian interference in the 2016 presidential election (to clear Russia and Putin).

The Second Witness to Sondland-Trump Phone Call: Mark Sandy, the deputy associate director for national security programs at OMB, testified that he was instructed to sign the first of several apportionment letters in which budget officials formally instituted the freeze on funds, according to two people familiar with his testimony.

He was never given a specific reason as to why the letter was being sent out, the people added. Other witnesses have testified that the letter Sandy signed was dated July 25 — the same day that Trump spoke by phone with Ukrainian President Zelensky, and one week after OMB verbally informed interagency officials that they were withholding the funds on orders from the White House. The signature of Sandy’s boss, political appointee Michael Duffey, appears on subsequent letters. 

Sandy testified that the change came about when Duffey told him he wanted to learn more about the budget apportionment process. Sandy thought this was odd, the people familiar with his testimony said — and he told investigators that he suggested to Duffey that if he wanted to learn more about the process, there were other ways to do it. But Duffey insisted.

Sandy testified that he had never in his career seen a senior political OMB official assume control of a portfolio in such a fashion, according to the people familiar with his testimony, who added that he did not raise a fuss because he wanted to keep his job.

My 2 cents: I also note in Trump’s own words and Mick Mulvaney’s public assertion on live TV “that foreign aid is frozen in a routine manner that happens all the time – get over it.”

True, Mr. Mulvaney and others, but NOT for personal or political gain, period — that is illegal and unlawful and quite frankly un-American.

Suffice it to say – the constant evidence tells the story despite what Trump and GOPer in congress say otherwise in their spinning of facts to suit their agenda: Protect Trump and GOP trademark at all costs. 

The ways this all looks right now it is costing the integrity of the country worldwide on many levels and is apt to for decades as we all try (hopefully all of us) try to repair this Trump scandal.

Thanks for stopping by.