“Failing to indict a criminal sitting president sends the message that those in power are above the law.”  – DaShanne Stokes

By Glen Reaux

On September 24^th, speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced the advent of the formal impeachment inquiry into so-called President Donald J. Trump.  Speaker Pelosi had been fighting her party’s call for impeachment for more than a year.  But due to the breaking news of a new presidential scandal which centered around Trump’s attempt to extort the Ukrainian president into creating dirt on his top political rival former Vice President Joe Biden, Speaker Pelosi could no longer defend her anti-impeachment position.  The emergence of a whistleblower complaint, the refusal of the Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire to turn over the complaint to Congress and warnings from the Intelligence Community Inspector General smelled of a conspiracy that was so repulsive and dangerous that it threatened the very existence of our democracy. That same day, during comments to reporters at the United Nations, Trump confessed to the crime.  This article “Witnesses Slam Dunk Trump’s Impeachment Inquiry: Read Colonel Vindman’s Statement” covers the open confession by Trump and witness testimonies which forced Speaker Pelosi to open a formal impeachment inquiry.  Unlike the Mueller Report, this time Trump cannot escape impeachment. The case is simple, direct, to the point and will be won by the open confessions from Trump and Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.  In announcing the beginning of impeachment proceedings, Speaker Pelosi stated:

“The actions of the Trump presidency have revealed the dishonorable fact of the president’s betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections…No one is above the law.”

The following day, Trump released a memo of the transcript of the conversation between him and President Zelenskyy of Ukraine.  The memo described in graphic detail extortion and bribery on the part of Trump and named his personal attorney Rudi Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr as active participants in the crimes of extortion, bribery and undermining our elections.

In the weeks that followed, a very complex conspiracy involving more than a dozen Trump administration officials including Vice President Pence, Secretary of State Pompeo, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, Attorney General William Barr, European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland and a host of others was revealed prompting Congress to issue a multitude of subpoenas while Trump refused to allow any administration official to appear before congress.  However, on October 3^rd, Ambassador Kurt Volker defied the administration and testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Committee on Oversight and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.  Volker’s courage and testimony were devastating to the President’s claim of “no quid pro quo” and opened the door to the flood of witnesses that would follow his lead, defy the Trump administration and testify before Congress.  Trump’s self-acknowledged “Very Big Brain” had become the gift to Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats “that just keeps on giving.”  This gift would be verified by the testimony of long-standing, veteran, foreign policy officials as they testified before Congress. The list of current witnesses that have testified before Congress is as follows:

1. Kurt Volker – Ambassador, Former U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations
2. Marie Yovanovitch – former U.S. Ambassador the Ukraine
3. Fiona Hill – former White House Aide on Russia
4. Gordon D. Sondland – U.S. Ambassador to European Union, Trump appointee
5. William Taylor – chargé d’affaires of the U.S. embassy in Kiev
6. Laura Cooper – Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense covering Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia and the Western Balkans
7. Lieutenant Colonel Alexander S. Vindman – Adviser on Russia and Ukraine

October 3, 2019 – Kurt Volker testimony

On September 28^th, prior to testifying before Congressional committees, Kurt Volker resigned from office.  The resignation by Volker made it possible for him to be more candid in his testimony and harder for the administration to prevent his testimony since he is no longer a federal employee working for the State Department.  At the beginning of his testimony, Volker read an 11-page prepared statement.  Volker stated, “at no time was I aware of or took part in an effort to urge Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Biden.”  He went on to explain that “I cautioned the Ukrainians to distinguish between highlighting their own efforts to fight corruption domestically, including investigating Ukrainian individuals (something we support as a matter of U.S. policy), and doing anything that could be seen as impacting U.S. elections (which is in neither the United States’ nor Ukraine’s own interests).” 

Volker explained to the best of his knowledge the role played by the President’s personal attorney Rudi Giuliani and when it began.  At one breakfast meeting in Washington D.C., Volker and Giuliani met with Lev Parnas. Giuliani mentioned to Parnas “both the accusations about Vice President Biden and about Interference in the 2016 election, and stressed that all he wanted to see was for Ukraine to investigate what happened in the past and apply its own laws.”

On October 9^th Giuliani associates connected to Trump’s Ukrainian scandal, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were arrested at Dulles airport near Washington D.C. while attempting to leave the country on one-way tickets.  The following day, the two were charged with campaign finance law violations for allegedly funneling $325K to a pro-Trump PAC, America First Action, through a front, company set up to disguise that the funds came from a person identified in the indictment as Foreign National-1. They funneled between $1-2 million into Republican politicians.  “As alleged in the indictment, the defendants broke the law to gain political influence while avoiding disclosure of who was actually making the donations and where the money was coming from,”  “They sought political influence not only to advance their own financial interests, but to advance the political interests of at least one foreign official, a Ukrainian government official who sought the dismissal of the US ambassador to Ukraine.”

Throughout the course of his testimony, Volker referred to text messages that he provided as a supplement to his testimony.  The text messages covered a period from August 9^th to September 9^th and were from Volker, Ambassador Sondland, Ambassador Taylor, Giuliani and Andriy Yermak a top adviser to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.  The text messages partially explained the conspiracy by Trump to withhold military aid to Ukraine in exchange for fabricated dirt on Biden and his son. The text messages also detailed that a meeting between Trump and Ukraine would not happen without an agreement from Zelenskyy.  The text messages and a detailed timeline are provided below.  The document which was distributed to all members of Congress is accompanied by a letter from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, House Committee on Oversight and Reform and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

October 11, 2019 – Marie Yovanovitch testimony

Marie Yovanovitch is a former Trump State Department official.  For the last 33 years, she has served the American people as a Foreign Service Officer, over six Administrations—four Republican, and two Democratic.  According to Yovanovitch, “I have served in seven different countries, five of them hardship posts, and was appointed to serve as an ambassador three times—twice by a Republican President, and once by a Democrat.”  From August 2016 until May 2019 she served as Ambassador to Ukraine.  In March of 2019, she was fired because it was believed by the Trump administration that she would not participate in or agree with Donald Trump’s scheme to extort the president of Ukraine and bribe him to manufacture dirt on Joe Biden and his son Hunter.  The following is an excerpt from her written statement to Congress:

“after being asked by the Department in early March to extend my tour until 2020, I was then abruptly told in late April to come back to Washington from Ukraine “on the next plane.” You will understandably want to ask why my posting ended so suddenly. I wanted to learn that too, and I tried to find out. I met with the Deputy Secretary of State, who informed me of the curtailment of my term. He said that the President had lost confidence in me and no longer wished me to serve as his ambassador. He added that there had been a concerted campaign against me, and that the Department had been under pressure from the President to remove me since the Summer of 2018.  He also said that I had done nothing wrong and that this was not like other situations where he had recalled ambassadors for cause. I departed Ukraine for good this past May.”

“Although I understand that I served at the pleasure of the President, I was nevertheless incredulous that the U.S. government chose to remove an Ambassador based, as best as I can tell, on unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives. To make matters worse, all of this occurred during an especially challenging time in bilateral relations with a newly elected Ukrainian president.

This was precisely the time when continuity in the Embassy in Ukraine was most needed.”

Ambassador Yovanovitch’s complete statement is provided below.

October 14, 2019 – Fiona Hill testimony

Despite the fact that Monday, October 14^th was a national holiday, Congress heard testimony from Fiona Hill, Donald Trump’s top Russia adviser.  According to a CNN report, “she raised concerns about Rudy Giuliani’s role in US foreign policy toward Ukraine… she saw “wrongdoing” in the American foreign policy and tried to report it to officials including the National Security Council’s attorney.” Hill testified that former national security adviser John Bolton referred to Giuliani — Trump’s personal attorney — as a “hand grenade” who was “going to blow everybody up.”

Hill described what she considered to be a rogue operation carried out by US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and that National Security Advisor Bolton characterized the activity as being like a “drug deal.”  Hill also stated that a direct link between Sondland and Trump existed. Sondland and Trump “were in direct contact.”  According to sources, Hill said the contacts between Trump and Sondland went beyond the discussion about texts exchanged between Sondland and other American diplomats in Ukraine. These text messages were made available to members of Congress on October 3^rd.  Hill also testified that she was concerned that Giuliani was circumventing the State Department to run a “shadow foreign policy” by seeking the removal of US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.  She also stated that Giuliani was pushing for Ukraine to open an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

October 17, 2019 – Gordon Sondland testimony

Ambassador Sondland’s testimony stated that President Trump instructed Sondland and Volker to get Giuliani involved in negotiations with the Ukrainian government and to serve as an intermediary to establish a meeting with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.  Sondland testified:

“I did not understand, until much later, that Mr. Giuliani’s agenda might have also included an effort to prompt the Ukrainians to investigate Vice President Biden or his son or to involve Ukrainians, directly or indirectly, in the President’s 2020 reelection campaign.” 

Ambassador Sondland confirmed the fact that Trump was demanding a quid pro quo from President Zelenskyy which involved a public statement that the Ukrainian government would be investigating Biden and his son:

“As I stated earlier, I understood from President Trump, at the May 23, 2019 White House debriefing, that he wanted the Inaugural Delegation to talk with Mr. Giuliani concerning our efforts to arrange a White House meeting for President Zelensky.  Taking direction from the President, as I must, I spoke with Mr. Giuliani for that limited purpose.  In these short conversations, Mr. Giuliani emphasized that the President wanted a public statement from President Zelensky committing Ukraine to look into anticorruption issues.  Mr. Giuliani specifically mentioned the 2016 election (including the DNC server) and Burisma as two anti-corruption investigatory topics of importance for the President.”

Testimonies from Volker supported by the text messages have proven that Ambassador Sondland lied to Congress when he stated that he did not know that Trump was demanding a quid pro quo from Zelenskyy.  Testimony from Ambassador William Taylor also contradicts much of Sondland’s testimony which has led to speculation that House democrats may pursue a perjury indictment against Sondland.  Sondland’s opening statement is provided below.

October 22, 2019 – William Taylor, chargé d’affaires of the U.S. embassy in Kiev testimony

William Taylor started his testimony with the following statement:

“I have dedicated my life to serving U.S. interests at home and abroad in both military and civilian roles. My background and experience are nonpartisan and I have been honored to serve under every administration, Republican and Democratic, since 1985.”

“For 50 years, I have served the country, starting as a cadet at West Point, then as an infantry officer for six years, including with the 101 st Airborne Division in Vietnam; then at the Department of Energy; then as a member of a Senate staff; then at NATO; then with the State Department here and abroad — in Afghanistan, Iraq, Jerusalem, and Ukraine; and more recently, as Executive Vice President of the nonpartisan United States Institute of Peace.”

Taylor then went on to describe a concerted effort to use U.S. leverage to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to commit to opening new investigations into phony allegations of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, as well Burisma the Ukrainian energy company that in 2014 hired former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter.  Taylor stated that these efforts originated via an “irregular, informal channel of U.S. policy-making” started by Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Kurt Volker, Rick Perry and Gordon Sondland.

Taylor testified that Sondland “said that President Trump wanted President Zelenskyy ‘in a public box’ by making a public statement about ordering such investigations.” Taylor stated described as “extremely troubling” that the delay in U.S. military aid to Ukraine was explicitly tied to the Ukrainians’ willingness to state publicly that it would launch investigations into 2016 and the Bidens. Taylor further testified that Tim Morrison, the official in charge of the Eurasia desk at the National Security Council (NSC), told him the president “doesn’t want to provide any assistance at all.”  Taylor’s opening statement is provided below.

October 23, 2019 – Laura Cooper – Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense covering Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia and the Western Balkans, testimony

Ms. Cooper’s testimony was delayed due to a takeover of the secure chambers used for depositions.  The takeover was led by Rep Matt Gaetz, Republican from Florida.  Gaetz and nearly two dozen other Republicans burst into the secure facility protesting that the impeachment process was unfair.  In doing so, they violated security protocols by carrying cell phones into the facility and videotaping the event. Ms. Cooper was not allowed to testify until 3:30 pm after the Republican Representatives left the room.  Ms. Cooper’s testimony has not been made available yet.

October 29, 2019 – Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman testimony

On October 28, 2019, Colonel Vindman announced that he would be testifying before the impeachment inquiry committees on the following day.  Colonel Vindman was listening in on the July phone call between Trump and President Zelensky.  The following excerpts are from his opening statement.

“I have dedicated my entire professional life to the United States of America. For more than two decades, it has been my honor to serve as an officer in the United States Army.  As an infantry officer, I served multiple overseas tours, including South Korea and Germany, and a deployment to Iraq for combat operations. In Iraq, I was wounded in an IED attack and awarded a Purple Heart.”

“Since 2008, I have been a Foreign Area Officer specializing in Eurasia. In this role, I have served in the United States’ embassies in Kiev, Ukraine and Moscow, Russia. In Washington, D.C., I was a politico-military affairs officer for Russia for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs where I authored the principle strategy for managing competition with Russia. In July 2018, I was asked to serve at the National Security Council.”

“When I joined the NSC in July 2018, I began implementing the administration’s policy on Ukraine. In the Spring of 2019, I became aware of outside influencers promoting a false narrative of Ukraine inconsistent with the consensus views of the interagency. This narrative was harmful to U.S. government policy. While my interagency colleagues and I were becoming increasingly optimistic on Ukraine’s prospects, this alternative narrative undermined U.S. government efforts to expand cooperation with Ukraine.”

“On July 10, 2019, Oleksandr Danylyuk, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council for Ukraine, visited Washington, D.C. for a meeting with National Security Advisor Bolton. Ambassadors Volker and Sondland also attended, along with Energy Secretary Rick Perry. The meeting proceeded well until the Ukrainians broached the subject of a meeting between the two presidents. The Ukrainians saw this meeting as critically important in order to solidify the support of their most important international partner.  Amb. Sondland started to speak about Ukraine delivering specific investigations in order to secure the meeting with the President, at which time Ambassador Bolton cut the meeting short.”

“On July 21, 2019, President Zelenskyy’s party won Parliamentary elections in a landslide victory. The NSC proposed that President Trump call President Zelenskyy to congratulate him. On July 25, 2019, the call occurred. I listened in on the call in the Situation Room with colleagues from the NSC and the office of the Vice President. As the transcript is in the public record, we are all aware of what was said. I was concerned by the call. I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine.”

Colonel Vidman’s entire opening statement is provided below.

The evidence provided in the statements from the witnesses that have come forth so far is damning at the very least.  It offers irrefutable proof that so-called President Trump’s extortion of President Zelenskyy did demand a quid pro quo.  It is also proof that the conversation between Trump and President Zelenskyy was only one element of a nearly yearlong conspiracy to demand that a foreign power interfere in the upcoming 2020 presidential election on behalf of Donald Trump.  The evidence also proves that many cabinet members of the Executive Branch and the State Department are corrupt and in violation of their oaths of office.  In support of this so-called President, many Republican lawmakers in both the House of Representatives and the Senate are also in violation of their oaths of office as evidenced by the attempt to disrupt the testimony of Laura Cooper – Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense covering Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia and the Western Balkans.  While the Democrats in Congress are doing their constitutional duty of oversight and based upon the evidence must impeach Trump.  It remains to be seen it their Republican counterparts will do the same and convict Trump when the impeachment trial is held in the Senate.  If not, rest assured that our democracy is doomed and the 2020 election will once again be stolen giving rise to a fascist government under the rule of Donald J, Trump, the first American Fuehrer.

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