Netanyahu Is Chosen to Form Israel’s Next Government | Mr. Netanyahu faces a stiff challenge: He has 28 days to assemble a majority of at least 61 seats in Parliament and has no clear path to that number. The parties that have endorsed his bid for another term won 55 seats. (Me: This was expected, and was actually what the Israeli opposition preferred. Neither side has the numbers to form a coalition, and the opposition is hoping Netanyahu will fail first, so that lawmakers will then feel compelled to go with them to avoid a third election.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/world/middleeast/israel-election-results-netanyahu.html
Ukraine's president tells Trump to his face that he doesn't want to be involved in US elections
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-bashes-obama-on-crimea-first-meeting-with-ukraine-zelensky-2019-9
‘Donald Trump is the smoking gun’: Washington state’s Rep. Pramila Jayapal says no inquiry needed to impeach him
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/crimes-have-been-committed-in-clear-daylight-washington-states-rep-pramila-jayapal-says-no-inquiry-needed-to-impeach-trump/
Switzerland Just Banned the Egg Industry From Grinding Live Chicks
https://www.livekindly.co/switzerland-egg-industry-grinding-live-chicks/
The Ukraine Scandal Is Not One Phone Call. It’s a Massive Plot.
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/09/ukraine-scandal-trump-phone-call-giuiliani-pence-barr-mulvaney-impeachment.html
Acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire threatened to resign if he couldn’t speak freely before Congress | The acting Director of National Intelligence threatened to resign over concerns that the White House might attempt to force him to stonewall Congress when he testifies Thursday about an explosive whistleblower complaint about the president, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/acting-director-of-national-intelligence-threatened-to-resign-if-he-couldnt-speak-freely-before-congress/2019/09/25/b1deb71e-dfbf-11e9-be96-6adb81821e90_story.html
'The For-Profit Presidency on Full Display': Zelensky Revealed Stay at Trump Hotel, Raising New Alarm Over Emoluments Violations
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/09/25/profit-presidency-full-display-zelensky-revealed-stay-trump-hotel-raising-new-alarm
‘Not only 100 percent, but actually 1,000 percent’: Trump-Zelensky call shows lengths to which foreign leaders go to flatter Trump
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/not-only-100-percent-but-actually-1000-percent-trump-zelensky-call-shows-lengths-to-which-foreign-leaders-go-to-flatter-trump/2019/09/25/ba6f8924-dfa3-11e9-b199-f638bf2c340f_story.html
Giuliani is not Trump’s private lawyer (Trump pays him nothing) rather Rudy is a lawyer who has become Trump’s coconspirator. They’re using the attorney-client privilege to hide criminal behavior but it can’t be used for that purpose! Sad day that lawyers back at core of scandal!
https://twitter.com/JohnWDean/status/1176900453591703553
The Republican-Controlled Senate once again approved a resolution to end Trump’s national emergency at the southern border, with Republicans joining Democrats in a bid to prevent the president from redirecting military funds toward a border wall, though Trump was expected to veto it again. The resolution passed the GOP-controlled chamber Wednesday and was likely to sail through the Democratic-controlled House, but it fell short of a veto-proof majority.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/senate-votes-to-end-border-emergency-under-which-trump-redirected-military-funds-to-wall-construction-2019-09-25
House Dems are coalescing around a plan to narrow the focus of their impeachment inquiry to Trump’s interactions with Zelensky. Sources say the strategy, discussed by Dem leaders today, could result in expedited consideration of impeachment articles
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/25/trump-ukraine-memo-1510895
White House inadvertently sends talking points to Democrats
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/463013-white-house-inadvertently-sends-ukraine-talking-points-to-democrats
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-mistakenly-sends-trump-ukraine-talking-points-to-democrats/2019/09/25/5170aa52-dfb2-11e9-b199-f638bf2c340f_story.html
The secretary of veterans affairs has told several members of Congress that he's evicting them from offices they've been using in VA hospitals. The House members use the offices to meet with vets and discuss everything from their eligibility for benefits to the quality of the care they receive. The VA says it wants the spaces back for clinical uses, but one of the lawmakers, Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., thinks it's personal. Mast's district extends from Palm Beach North to Port St. Lucie, and like many of his constituents, he is a veteran. He lost both his legs working as a bomb disposal expert in Afghanistan. | Last month, they received a letter from the VA telling them that their time was up and they would have to move out by the end of the year. Mast urged the VA to reconsider. On his Facebook page, he posted a video of a contentious hearing in April where he questioned VA Secretary Robert Wilkie over security issues and suicides at the West Palm Beach hospital. At the hearing, Mast pressed Wilkie on when he would visit. "I will say as soon as possible," Wilkie says in the video, but Mast interrupts. "I was a bomb technician," the congressman says. "We used to always use vague terms like that so people would never know exactly when we would get on the ground. I would like a more specific answer." Mast has linked the decision to evict him to that hearing.
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/25/763996045/veterans-affairs-secretary-boots-members-of-congress-from-offices-in-va-hospital
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6428567-Dr-Stone-Letter-to-Rep-Mast.html
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6428569-09-17-19-Mast-Letter-to-Secretary-Wilkie.html
https://www.facebook.com/RepBrianMast/videos/274470940166991/
When Ukrainians voted to elect comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy as their next president in the spring of 2019, the fledgling administration was eager to coordinate a phone call with Kyiv’s most important benefactor -- the United States, according to an adviser to Zelenskiy. But after weeks of discussions with American officials, Ukrainian officials came to recognize a precondition to any executive correspondence, the adviser said. "It was clear that [President Donald] Trump will only have communications if they will discuss the Biden case," said Serhiy Leshchenko, an anti-corruption advocate and former member of Ukraine's Parliament, who now acts as an adviser to Zelenskiy. "This issue was raised many times. I know that Ukrainian officials understood."
https://twitter.com/ABCPolitics/status/1176988094098300928
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/ukrainians-understood-biden-probe-condition-trump-zelensky-phone/story?id=65863043
Nadler calls on Barr to recuse himself from Ukraine matter
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/462985-nadler-calls-on-ag-barr-to-recuse-himself-from-ukraine-matter
Global warming causing ocean 'emergency': Scientists to report on ocean 'emergency' caused by warming. It will be the clearest declaration yet on how an overheating world is hammering our oceans and frozen regions. Scientists have been meeting in Monaco to finalise the report.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49756260
A threat by Donald Trump to pull the United States out of the global postal system could lead to a “nightmare scenario” of mail going undelivered, packages piling up and American stamps no longer being recognized abroad, the U.N. postal agency said.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-un-postal/un-postal-agency-seeks-to-persuade-us-not-to-quit-over-trump-fee-hike-demand-idUSKBN1W91JX
Since it’s in the news again, @BuzzFeedNews reported back in July the details of how Giuliani’s associates were involved in the firing of the US ambassador to Ukraine | In a whirlwind of private meetings, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman — who pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into Republican campaigns and dined with the president — gathered repeatedly with top officials in Ukraine and set up meetings for Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani as they turned up information that could be weaponized in the 2020 presidential race. The two men urged prosecutors to investigate allegations against Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden. And they pushed for a probe into accusations that Ukrainian officials plotted to rig the 2016 election in Hillary Clinton’s favor by leaking evidence against Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chair, in what became a cornerstone of the special counsel’s inquiry. They also waged an aggressive campaign in the United States, staying at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, and meeting with key members of Congress as they joined in a successful push that led to the removal of the ambassador to Ukraine after she angered their allies in Kiev. Meanwhile, the two men — both of whom have troubled financial histories — rose to prominence in Republican circles, meeting with party leaders while injecting hundreds of thousands of dollars into top Republican committees and dozens of candidates’ campaigns. As they carried out their campaign, they used their proximity to the White House to tout a new business they set up to sell natural gas in Ukraine, with photos posted on Facebook showing Parnas posing with Trump in the White House and top House members on Capitol Hill.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/mikesallah/rudy-giuliani-ukraine-trump-parnas-fruman
Twitter announced this weekend that it took down about 4,525 accounts linked to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt — and 4,248 of these were operating uniquely from the UAE. Twitter accused all of the accounts of promoting “political spam” — effectively a euphemism for propaganda. Saudi Arabia and the UAE, in particular, have long been accused of weaponizing social media platforms to promote their increasingly aggressive foreign policy agenda. In 2017, hundreds of thousands of bots were used to launch attacks on Qatar as part of a blockade. Even verified Twitter accounts have been hacked to spread pro-Saudi propaganda. The suspensions were the latest blow to the disinformation operations in the Middle East. In August, Facebook suspended 350 accounts and pages for promoting Saudi state propaganda and attacking Saudi Arabia’s regional rivals. In October 2018, Twitter suspended thousands of bot accounts spreading favorable messages about Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during the height of the furor over the killing of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Twitter’s other suspensions in the region have tended to focus on accounts linked to the Iranian government. Though overdue, these suspensions are unlikely to affect the deluge of social media propaganda in the region. The accounts suspended are actually fairly small in relation to the amount of suspected accounts spreading disinformation in Arabic. Indeed, the number of fake accounts may be in the millions. And as the Khashoggi murder showed, it is also important to remember that disinformation is often produced and disseminated by state-approved institutions. | One of the six Saudi accounts banned was a news site called “the Globus” and even had a verified Twitter account. This account had even been previously linked to a pro-Trump information operation trying to denounce the special counsel report as a “Russiagate hoax.” | Although 4,500 accounts may seem like a lot, the number is a drop in the ocean compared with the number of accounts suspended without publicity. Studies show there are probably millions of fake accounts promoting political propaganda and hate speech in the region.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/09/25/saudi-uae-twitter-takedowns-wont-curb-rampant-disinformation-arab-twitter/
https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2019/info-ops-disclosure-data-september-2019.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/06/05/fighting-the-weaponization-of-social-media-in-the-middle-east/
https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/8994/2604
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/hacked-twitter-accounts-promote-saudi-leadership-190210084406788.html
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-saudi/facebook-says-it-dismantles-covert-influence-campaign-tied-to-saudi-government-idUSKCN1UR50J
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/19/twitter-bans-bots-spreading-pro-saudi-messages.html
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jun/13/twitter-iran-accounts-deleted-iranian-government-election-interference
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/06/05/fighting-the-weaponization-of-social-media-in-the-middle-east/
https://web.archive.org/web/20190422003911/https:/twitter.com/TheGlobus
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/04/twitter-shuts-down-network-of-5000-possibly-saudi-pro-trump-bots/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/politics/read-the-mueller-report/?tid=a_inl_auto
https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/8994/2604
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/06/05/fighting-the-weaponization-of-social-media-in-the-middle-east/
Millions of dollars are missing. The sheriff is dead. A small Virginia town wants answers. | The deal was brokered by Jennifer McDonald, a longtime Front Royal resident who directed the Warren County economic development authority. Washington-area developer Truc “Curt” Tran pledged to finance it with $40 million from wealthy immigrant investors and a $140 million federal contract his technology company had secured. As an added bonus, Tran would fund a police training academy overseen by longtime Sheriff Daniel T. McEathron. But those were lies, documents in Warren County Circuit Court allege. Tran never had the money to build the data center project on the 30 acres his company bought from McDonald’s agency for $1, a civil lawsuit alleges. And the training academy was one of several hoaxes that, prosecutors and civil lawsuits claim, allowed Tran, McDonald, McEathron and others to siphon away millions in public funds, which they allegedly used to buy properties, pay bills and gambling debts, and enrich relatives and friends. Now McEathron is dead, Tran is being sued by the economic development authority and there are state and federal investigations underway. McDonald faces 28 state counts of embezzlement, money laundering and obtaining money through false pretenses. She has denied the allegations and did not return interview requests, while Tran declined to comment through his attorney. The claims against them, industry groups say, reflect the perils of weak oversight in economic development agencies — quasi-public entities that oversee large, complicated transactions, and whose boards often lack the financial savvy and investor scrutiny that protect their corporate counterparts. In Montgomery County, Md., an economic development official pleaded guilty this year to embezzling $6.7 million. The head of economic development in St. Louis pleaded guilty to steering lucrative contracts to the county executive’s political donors. In New Jersey, a grand jury is investigating how $500 million in tax incentives went to firms that, in part, allegedly lied on their applications. “The lessons here are that there’s a need for better financial accountability,” said Jeff Finkle, head of the nonprofit International Economic Development Council. “People beyond one person who is managing a project where the temptation may be too great.” On Tuesday, the Virginia State Police announced that 14 current and former local officials — including all five county supervisors — were charged with misdemeanor misfeasance and nonfeasance “based on the individuals’ knowledge of and inaction [regarding] the EDA’s mismanagement of funds.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-news/millions-of-dollars-are-missing-the-sheriff-is-dead-a-small-virginia-town-wants-answers/2019/09/24/1a0be2fe-c061-11e9-b873-63ace636af08_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/montgomery-official-embezzled-67-million-from-county-federal-prosecutors-say/2018/11/16/5378861c-e85a-11e8-bbdb-72fdbf9d4fed_story.html
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/st-louis-economic-development-chief-pleads-guilty-in-pay-to/article_1373eb4e-83bd-5af7-b52b-c4fe3eeb9f48.html
https://www.politico.com/states/new-jersey/story/2019/06/02/eda-hit-with-grand-jury-subpoenas-over-tax-credit-program-1036710
China's 'horrific' treatment of Uyghurs condemned by US and more than 30 countries at UN
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-25/us-leads-condemnation-of-chinese-uyghur-treatment-at-un/11546154
The Justice Department decided, at some point in the past two months, not to investigate President Donald Trump for committing a potential campaign finance violation when he asked Ukraine’s president to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/doj-trump-ukraine_n_5d8b748fe4b01c02ca61ef78
A federal judge has rejected Roger Stone's request to suppress all evidence gathered through 18 search warrants at his November trial, finding that DOJ properly obtained court approvals before charging Stone with lying to Congress and witness tampering.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/judge-rejects-roger-stone-request-to-suppress-search-warrant-evidence-ahead-of-november-trial/2019/09/24/cc0eb3dc-ded9-11e9-b199-f638bf2c340f_story.html
California sues Trump administration over rollback of Endangered Species Act
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-09-25/california-sues-trump-over-endangered-species-act
The acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, and the intelligence community inspector general, Michael Atkinson, referred a whistleblower complaint involving Trump to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation, The New York Times reported Wednesday. | The Justice Department's criminal division reviewed the whistleblower's complaint and determined that there were no grounds for an investigation of Trump's behavior, The Times reported. Officials are said to have decided that the memo of Trump's phone call with Zelensky didn't show him violating campaign finance laws by asking for a financial contribution or an "item of tangible value."
https://www.businessinsider.com/dni-intelligence-watchdog-doj-criminal-referral-trump-whistleblower-complaint-2019-9
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/us/politics/ukraine-transcript-trump.html
1. Some background on Viktor Shokin, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General dismissed in 2016. According to @nytimes, Shokin was "widely criticized for turning a blind eye to corrupt practices and for defending the interests of a venal and entrenched elite."
https://twitter.com/mikercarpenter/status/1176686996758126595
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/30/world/europe/political-stability-in-the-balance-as-ukraine-ousts-top-prosecutor.html
2. Let's unpack this. Prior to his sacking, a scandal had gripped Ukraine concerning the so-called "diamond prosecutors" -- two close associates of Shokin's whose homes were raided, leading to the discovery of a stash of 65 diamonds, $400,000 in cash, and other valuables.
https://twitter.com/mikercarpenter/status/1176686998326841344
3. As a result of the scandal, in October 2015 a group of Ukrainians protested in front of President Poroshenko's home, demanding that Shokin be fired.
https://twitter.com/mikercarpenter/status/1176686999438315521
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/why-poroshenko-s-support-for-shokin-is-dangerous/
4. Two reform-oriented prosecutors, Vitaly Kasko and David Sakvarelidze, tried to investigate the "diamond prosecutors." Sakvarelidze went public, saying the diamond prosecutors were "business associates" of Shokin's.
https://twitter.com/mikercarpenter/status/1176687000600174592
https://www.unian.info/society/1299458-sakvarelidze-says-prosecutor-general-has-business-ties-with-diamond-prosecutors.html
5. Shokin then fired Sakvarelidze from the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO).
https://twitter.com/mikercarpenter/status/1176687001724211200
http://euromaidanpress.com/2016/05/14/how-ukraines-old-guard-killed-the-prosecution-reform/
6. Kasko later resigned, saying “Today, the General Prosecutor’s office is a brake on the reform of criminal justice, a hotbed of corruption, an instrument of political pressure, one of the key obstacles to the arrival of foreign investment in Ukraine.”
https://twitter.com/mikercarpenter/status/1176687003011833856
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-politics/ukrainian-prosecutor-quits-over-corruption-as-government-teeters-idUSKCN0VO1II
7. Both Assistant Secretary Nuland & Ambassador Pyatt harshly criticized Shokin's leadership of the PGO. Nuland told the SFRC on Oct 8 2015, "the PGO has to be reinvented as an institution that serves the citizens of Ukraine, rather than ripping them off.”
http://www.ukrweekly.com/uwwp/u-s-officials-criticize-ukraines-prosecutors-for-failure-of-reforms/
8. By early 2016, Shokin's reputation was in tatters. He was formally dismissed by the Ukrainian parliament (Rada) upon the referral of President Poroshenko. 289 MPs voted for Shokin's removal.
https://twitter.com/mikercarpenter/status/1176687005251624961
https://www.unian.info/politics/1303098-prosecutor-general-shokin-sacked-by-rada.html
9. Now fast forward to this year. On March 5, 2019, Serhiy Kiselyov was shot dead in his car in Kyiv. Kiselyov's jewelry store had been raided by law enforcement in 2010 and his diamonds had "disappeared." He was considered a crucial witness in this case.
https://twitter.com/mikercarpenter/status/1176687006400831488
https://www.unian.info/kiev/10469457-man-shot-dead-in-kyiv-identified-as-key-witness-in-diamond-prosecutors-case.html
10. And now finally some good news. This month, President Zelensky appointed Vitaly Kasko as the First Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
https://twitter.com/mikercarpenter/status/1176687007579475968
https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-polytics/2774774-kasko-appointed-ukraines-first-deputy-prosecutor-general.html
Trump ends press conference with bizarre claim Pelosi is 'no longer Speaker of the House'
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/trump-press-conference-pelosi-twitter-jokes-14467585.php
Trump speaks to reporters at a news conference at the end of the 74th U.N. General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York City. He is expected to address recent reports regarding asking Ukraine to investigate Biden, including the release of a transcript with the president of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, and the recent announcement by the House of Representatives to begin a formal impeachment inquiry.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?464713-1/president-trump-holds-news-conference-un-general-assembly
Former Head of Danske Bank in Estonia Is Found Dead in Suicide | Aivar Rehe was once one of Estonia’s most prominent bankers, the chief executive of Danske Bank’s unit in Tallinn and an integral part of the former Soviet state’s transition to a free-market economy. But when investigators revealed last year that customers from Russia and Eastern Europe had used the Danske subsidiary to launder billions of dollars in dirty money, Mr. Rehe inevitably shared the blame. The money laundering, from 2007 to 2015, took place on his watch. On Wednesday, Mr. Rehe was found dead, an apparent suicide, in his backyard in Tallinn, the Estonian police said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/business/danske-executive-suicide.html
Donald Trump’s Turnberry resort is the only hotel named by Glasgow Prestwick Airport in promotional material distributed at private meetings with US military aircrews in an attempt to win their custom, The Scotsman can reveal.
https://www.scotsman.com/news/world/trump-turnberry-resort-singled-out-in-airport-s-pitch-to-us-military-1-5011598
At a gathering of world leaders in New York this week, Trump decamped to one of his own properties, complained that the Nobel Peace Prize is rigged against him, feuded with a 16-year-old Swedish climate activist — and, on Wednesday, defended himself against the disclosure that he had asked a foreign leader to investigate a political rival. For a president who has promoted an “America first” agenda, Trump’s foreign policy mantra at the U.N. General Assembly might be more accurately described as “me first.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/on-the-world-stage-at-the-united-nations-trumps-america-first-foreign-policy-gives-way-to-a-me-first-mantra/2019/09/25/77a1be7e-dfa7-11e9-be96-6adb81821e90_story.html
We’ve Been Fighting The Vaping Crisis Since 1937 | Before there were vapes, there was sulfanilamide. One of the first great medicines of the antibiotic era, sulfanilamide was a miracle drug at a time when curing pneumonia with a quick trip to the pharmacy seemed akin to walking on water. When a sweet, raspberry-flavored liquid version appeared in stores in early September of 1937, it was a no-brainer prescription for doctors whose sick young patients were still picky enough they might reject even Jesus himself if he returned in the form of a bitter-tasting pill. By the end of October, more than 100 of those patients had died and regulators were scrambling to figure out why. All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again. Today, medical experts and federal regulators are struggling to understand a mysterious lung disease linked to the use of electronic cigarettes. As of Sept. 17, 530 people have been diagnosed across the country, seven of whom have died. Neither the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nor the Food and Drug Administration can definitively say what is causing the illness or why a device that was supposed to help people stop smoking cancer-causing cigarettes has, itself, turned deadly. Regardless of why e-cigs have turned toxic, historians and consumer law advocates see lessons in the sulfanilamide disaster of 1937 — ones that go beyond the obvious surface similarities of poisonous, fruit-flavored liquids. Both cases highlight the way consumer protections in this country are reactive, cropping up in response to disease and death, rather than preventing it.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/weve-been-fighting-the-vaping-crisis-since-1937/
https://www.fda.gov/media/110479/download
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/basic_information/e-cigarettes/severe-lung-disease.html#latest-outbreak-information
Joe Biden did not brag that he stopped any prosecution. Rather, he bragged that he had successfully pressured the Ukrainian government to fire a prosecutor who was widely criticized for failing to bring corruption prosecutions. |
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/25/politics/fact-check-trump-made-false-claim-to-ukrainian-president-to-justify-his-biden-request/index.html
_____________________________________
CrowdStrike explanation from "transcript:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/25/politics/fact-check-trump-made-false-claim-to-ukrainian-president-to-justify-his-biden-request/index.html
According to the document released by the White House, Trump also said to Zelensky: "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." (The ellipses are in the White House document.)
It's not entirely clear what Trump meant, but some inferences can be made based on his previous remarks.
CrowdStrike isn't Ukrainian, but Trump has said it is.
CrowdStrike is a respected and publicly traded US cybersecurity firm that has been hired by Democrats and Republicans.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/crowdstrike-stock-jumps-as-software-ipo-frenzy-continues-2019-06-12
https://www.reuters.com/article/legal-us-usa-cyber-republicans/u-s-republican-campaign-emails-hacked-months-before-election-idUSKBN1O4071
One of the company's senior executives previously had a lengthy career at the FBI. And one of its co-founders, Dmitri Alperovitch, is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a prominent think tank in Washington. Alperovitch was born in the Soviet Union, in what is now Russia, then emigrated with his family to the US.
https://www.crowdstrike.com/about-crowdstrike/executive-team/shawn-henry/
It isn't clear who Trump was referring to when he mentioned "one of your wealthy people," but in a 2017 interview with the Associated Press, he said he has heard CrowdStrike "is Ukrainian-based." It was not then and it is not now.
https://oklahoman.com/article/feed/1208753/transcript-of-ap-interview-with-trump
"I heard it's owned by a very rich Ukrainian, that's what I heard," Trump added in that 2017 interview, though, again, it is not and was not.
It is possible Trump was alluding to a very vague conspiracy theory involving wealthy Ukrainian businessman Viktor Pinchuk, a financial supporter of the Atlantic Council, where, again, Alperovitch is a senior fellow.
https://pinchukfund.org/en/projects/18442/
There is no evidence of any wrongdoing by Pinchuk.
CrowdStrike and the DNC
Trump did not specify to Zelensky what he meant by "the server," but he has repeatedly complained about how the Democratic National Committee and the FBI handled a hack into DNC servers in 2016.The DNC hired CrowdStrike in 2016 to investigate the hack.
After conducting an investigation, CrowdStrike publicly blamed the Russian government for the hack -- a finding later confirmed by special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
Trump and his Republican allies have fomented conspiracy theories about the hack since 2016. Trump has publicly rejected overwhelming evidence that Russia was the country responsible. And he has repeatedly questioned why the DNC hired CrowdStrike to investigate the breach instead of handing its servers over to the FBI for direct examination.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/18/politics/trump-versus-us-intelligence-on-russian-election-interference/index.html
https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1074313153679450113
There is no evidence to support the conspiracies about the DNC servers. But by withholding the servers from the FBI, Democrats created a talking point for Republicans, who have claimed that the DNC was hiding something.
Former FBI director James Comey, who led the early phases of the Russia investigation, testified in 2017 that it would have been better if the DNC gave the servers to the FBI, but that the FBI was able to get the forensic information it needed from CrowdStrike. Mueller later brought detailed criminal charges against Russian hackers for their involvement in the hacks.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/08/full-text-james-comey-trump-russia-testimony-239295
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/13/politics/russia-investigation-indictments/index.html
CrowdStrike said in a statement on Wednesday: "With regards to our investigation of the DNC hack in 2016, we provided all forensic evidence and analysis to the FBI. As we've stated before, we stand by our findings and conclusions that have been fully supported by the US Intelligence community."
Just this week, a federal judge rejected efforts by Trump ally Roger Stone to force the Justice Department to share unredacted versions of the reports CrowdStrike gave to the FBI. Stone is facing charges of lying and obstruction and has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers previously put forward some of the same theories that Trump has been pushing. The judge was not swayed.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/25/politics/takeaways-from-the-roger-stone-indictment/index.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/judge-rejects-roger-stone-request-to-suppress-search-warrant-evidence-ahead-of-november-trial/2019/09/24/cc0eb3dc-ded9-11e9-b199-f638bf2c340f_story.html
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There are now 218 House votes for impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump.
https://twitter.com/keithboykin/status/1176960868359266304
17 States File Suit to Stop Trump Administration's Crippling of Endangered Species Act - "The only thing we want to see extinct are the Trump Administration's beastly environmental policies."
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/09/25/17-states-file-suit-stop-trump-administrations-crippling-endangered-species-act
Republican Senators want Special Counsel To Investigate Biden
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/463032-gop-senators-float-biden-probe-as-ukraine-controversy-escalates
Here's a joint statement from the three Democratic senators who wrote the 2018 letter Trump falsely said threatened Ukraine with the loss of assistance. They correctly point out, "The Senators’ letter in no way calls for the conditioning of U.S. security assistance to Ukraine."
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EFWA0nyXkAAZHrm.jpg
Facebook and Youtube have spent literally billions of dollars trying to clean their platforms of misinformation, hired thousands of people, and are now carving out exemptions for the people who have the most to gain by spreading misinformation......: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said today that content by politicians would stay up on the video-sharing website even if it violates the company's standards, echoing a position staked out by Facebook this week.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/25/youtube-ceo-politicians-break-content-rules-1510919
We are the United States and Oceans of America. Clean water and healthy beaches are vital to our communities. But plastic, offshore oil drilling, pollution and sea level rise are threatening this precious resource. You can help -> https://www.surfrider.org/usoa #USOA @Surfrider
If our oceans die we die. #OceanClimateAction
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/climate/climate-change-oceans-united-nations.html
One of the safest cities in America "looked like a war zone" because a civilian owned a weapon of war. We need to buy back every single AR-15 and AK-47—and we can't let fear of the NRA stop us from saying so.
https://twitter.com/BetoORourke/status/1176956174845042688
YEP: I really want to see @realDonaldTrump gone but I hope we don’t lose the focus on climate change, plastic pollution, gun law reforms, family separation at the border, lgbtq rights, and all of the things the Trump Administration has been attacking.
https://twitter.com/ERICBALFOUR/status/1176860022879318016
“The ocean today is higher, warmer, more acidic, less productive and holds less oxygen. The conclusion is inescapable: The impacts of climate change on the ocean are well underway. Unless we take very serious action very soon these impacts will get worse.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/09/25/new-un-climate-report-massive-change-already-here-worlds-oceans-frozen-regions/
YEP: There is no word for word transcript of White House phone calls. #Trump is already trying to sell you a lie.
https://twitter.com/ERICBALFOUR/status/1176683882080436225
YEP: PLEASE UNDERSTAND that Trump and Giuliani have been shaking down Ukraine illegally and (for Trump) impeachably for years: first to get Ukraine to drop its Manafort investigation; then to get it to give new dirt on Clinton; then to get it to give dirt on Biden. It's a CRIME SPREE.
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1176137642263699456
Using standing to dismiss means it will be refiled with different complainants real soon: DC Alcoholic Beverage Control Board rejected challenge to Trump Hotel liquor license.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/dc-alcoholic-beverage-control-board-rejects-challenge-trump/story?id=65864511
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EFWFG9yXsAEIKLc.jpg
The announcement of new travel restrictions banning senior Iranian officials from entering the U.S. was extraordinary, given its timing: Iran's president and more than 80 of his top aides were in New York attending #unga. w/ @farnazfassihi @ewong
https://twitter.com/jakesNYT/status/1177002862385270784
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/world/middleeast/us-iran-rouhani-trump.html
Pentagon letter certified Ukraine had taken action to decrease corruption before White House blocked aid
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/463096-pentagon-letter-certified-ukraine-had-taken-action-to-decrease
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/25/764453663/pentagon-letter-undercuts-trump-assertion-on-delaying-aid-to-ukraine-over-corrup
The accrediting body that oversees Liberty University has asked the college for more information about recent news reports that have questioned President Jerry Falwell Jr.'s leadership style and personal business interests, a spokeswoman told The Associated Press.
https://news.yahoo.com/apnewsbreak-accreditor-asks-falwell-reports-201211522.html
"Every time we go to court," against the Trump administration, "for the most part, we win." — Xavier Becerra on Monday, August 26th, 2019 in a news conference | We rate his claim Mostly True.
https://www.politifact.com/california/statements/2019/sep/25/xavier-becerra/california-really-winning-court-against-trump-admi/
Saagar Enjeti: "The underlying problem here was of course Hunter Biden receiving $50K a month from a Ukrainian energy company. Do you think that that is evidence of corrupt behavior?" Rep. Ted Lieu: "No. People sit on boards and they get monetary payments"
https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1177009724996194304
Note: The Inspector General who forwarded this “urgent and credible” complaint the the DNI was appointed by Donald Trump. Senior.
https://twitter.com/davidaxelrod/status/1177015352129183755
"Mr. Atkinson eventually concluded that there was reason to believe that the president may have illegally solicited a foreign campaign contribution — and that his potential misconduct created a national security risk, according to a newly disclosed Justice Department memo."
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1177021237220052994
The intelligence officer who filed a whistle-blower complaint about President Trump’s interactions with the leader of Ukraine raised alarms not only about what the two men said in a phone call, but also about how the White House handled records of the conversation, according to two people briefed on the complaint. The whistle-blower, moreover, identified multiple White House officials as witnesses to potential presidential misconduct who could corroborate the complaint, the people said — adding that the inspector general for the intelligence community, Michael Atkinson, interviewed witnesses. Mr. Atkinson eventually concluded that there was reason to believe that the president may have illegally solicited a foreign campaign contribution — and that his potential misconduct created a national security risk, according to a newly disclosed Justice Department memo.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/us/politics/trump-ukraine-whistleblower.html
Bannon, the former Trump campaign CEO and chief White House strategist, over his role in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal that recently resulted in a $5 billion fine for Facebook. The commission is examining whether Bannon, a founder and former board member of the political consulting firm, engaged in “deceptive or unfair" use of data gleaned from Facebook, according to an investigative document reviewed by POLITICO. In a scene witnessed by a POLITICO reporter, a process server hired by the FTC knocked on the door of the so-called Breitbart Embassy, a Capitol Hill townhouse where Bannon was due to host a $1,000-a-ticket fundraiser Wednesday for the Senate campaign of former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. But the server, who was wearing a Washington Nationals baseball cap and holding a package to make it look like an ordinary delivery, said he was turned away.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/12/facebook-ftc-fine-5-billion-718953
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-score/2019/09/24/the-dam-begins-to-break-on-impeachment-755174
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