No, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m only saying Trump wanted/wants to damage Biden because he perceives Biden as his biggest threat. He was hedging his bets, operating under the assumption that Biden will win the nomination and he’ll be able to bury him during the debates.

This is crazy. The acting DNI (Joseph Maguire)—in violation of ICWPA policy—took the whistleblower’s complaint to the White House counsel’s office for permission to relay the complaint, the same office which had directed White House officials hiding records of the president’s calls which prompted the complaint in the…

I’m reading that approximately 12 people (possibly more) listened in on the call.

“The kicker is that at the present pace Uncle Joe might get overtaken by Elizabeth Warren and then the whole thing will have been for nothing.”

Voice recognition software was used in preparing the Zelensky memo, allowing for “long, direct quotations.” This article posits that there could possibly be “tapes” (a la Nixon) of the July 25 call, and potentially others.

I don’t know, man. I’m reading so many things now, hard to keep it all straight. I wouldn’t put it past Trump et al. to try, but executive privilege (in theory, in a sane world) really doesn’t apply to stuff like this.

Also, there needn’t even be a “pro quo”; the “quid” is a crime in-and-of itself.

It’s not the whistleblower, but acting DNI Joseph Maguire. This could be big. Sounds like DOJ (read: Barr) wanted him to stonewall Congress.

Agreed. I hope Schiff is able to work something out with the whistleblower’s lawyer. We (well, Congress) needs to hear this without the White House/DOJ filter.

Right? For my money, the two most dangerous/biggest enablers of this whole regime are Barr and McConnell. They’re simply the smartest two people in the entire administration and they’re utterly ruthless and amoral—and both in positions of great power.

No worries. If you really want to work yourself into a lather (re: Bill Barr/corruption), think about this:

I believe Barr’s testimony was 10 days after the first [in a series] of Trump/Zelensky phone calls. I.e., not THE July 25 phone call in question.

It’s hard to believe, but they fuckin’ exist. I had the misfortune of meeting one recently (a self-described “centrist republican”), and convinced him to vote Democrat in the election.

Yeh, this is a pretty easy-to-digest type of crime spree by Trump & Co. The Russia/Mueller thing was so complex that the average Joe wasn’t going to even bother diving into all the tentacles and specifics. This is fairly straightforward. If nothing else, hopefully it sways middle-of-the-road/undecided voters in 2020.

Yep. And after that, the White House releases a redacted version of the whistleblower complaint, which aligns somewhat with the single phone call transcript (which is in itself likely edited/altered, and is only one in a series of calls).

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode05a/usc_sec_05a_01000008—-H000-.html

Trump definitely didn’t like the play this Ukraine stuff was getting, hence him calling Pelosi to try to chill things out. Guy like Trump never bothers to work with anyone unless he’s truly in an untenable position and can’t bully his way out.

“...if by some miracle the Senate did vote to convict and Trump was out of office by mid-May or something... Anything stopping him from still being the nominee in 2020?”

How’s that?

Thanks, man. Appreciate it. Fingers crossed.