Thanks. I’ll refrain from commenting on what I’m not seeing. 
If Schiff asks questions regarding Maguire’s handling of the memo, Macquire is going to attempt a CYA. There’s no strategic point in litigating the legality of his initial witholding now that it’s been released. Given his press release yesterday and his opening statement today , it appeared Maguire was ready to throw Trump under the bus if Macquire wasn’t included in the cover-up. Instead Schiff goes the route of blaming him for holding it back rather than moving on and saying “We understand why you felt you had to hold it back given the pressure sure you received. Having said that, do you think the allegations so are serious, blah, blah,blah.” He should be turned as a witness, not prosecuted as a perpetrator.
Well, it’s completely established with this report that this is not just about one phone call and one whistleblower. The IG had been tracking concerning developments as far back as this spring, and he attributes this to talking to more than a dozen people.
Just a thought, but wouldn’t it be really fucked up if Russia’s recent aggressions in Ukraine were intended from the start to give Trump leverage over Ukraine? I mean, its not implausible. Wanting to help Ukraine fight Russia doesn’t fit with the image of a President who acts like he and Putin are besties.
We need to consider whether this is mafia-style extortion in its truest, most vilest form. If so, woah nelly.
I’m sorry, I should have been more clear about my comment re executive privilege.
Schiff was questioning Maguire about what caused him to disregard the very clear “shall” language of the law that compels him to bring the whistleblower’s complaint to the Intelligence Committee. Maguire responded that he saw issues of “executive privilege” that he wasn’t authorized to waive, and so kicked it over to the White House OLC for a determination – basically permitting the wrongdoers to police themselves.
Of course what is not being said is that executive privilege asserted for a corrupt purpose is not a valid use of the privilege. Mr. Maguire surely knew that before rabbiting over to the White House OLC.
From what I’ve been reading (in the few moments I could spare from work this morning), it seems as if it took a bit of work just to get Maguire to say that he’d checked with the White House. Is that off base?
That’s gonna be a “no” from me.
There’s a very important strategic point if Schiff demonstrates that there was a concerted effort by the WH and DOJ to suppress this. He wasn’t attacking Maguire for the actions he took, he was attacking Trump and Barr for possible obstruction.
This is patently absurd. Treason requires enemies. Which “enemies” do you think President Trump may have adhered to / given aid and comfort to?
I agree that is an important point, but the questioning was clearly targeting Maguire’s handling of the matter. If you let Macquire off the hook, you can allow him to shift blame to Barr and the WH. It’s the same concept of letting the little guy off the hook to get him to roll on the higher-ups. Macguire seems like a decent guy who was under intense pressure from his entire branch. I’m not convinced he wouldn’t have found a way to get this info public eventually. If you force him to defend his actions rather than Barr’s and Trump’s, he will, and Trump will have someone else defending him.
So Russia’s plan in 2014 was too create leverage for a guy that nobody would realistically have expected to become president in 2017?
I would call that a prime example of implausible.
I think this investigation has to include talking to Barr to find out if he contacted anyone in Ukraine on Trump’s behalf about this.
Also, Guiliani needs to be brought in to testify. Who did he talk to in Ukraine, and what did they talk about? What promises or threats did he make on Trump’s behalf?
Followup needs to be made on anyone else in the Trump administration who had contact with officials in Ukraine on behalf of Trump.
Also, a lot of attention should be paid to the disposition of the note of the phone call Trump made. Who made the decision to hide it by moving it to different (more classified/restrictive) computer servers? Who authorized the move? Who knew about it? Everyone involved in burying this phone call needs to be brought in front of the committtee.
Finally, enough with this hiding behind “executive privilege” Executive privilege does not come into effect when you are covering up a crime. This is now an impeachment investigation for criminal activities. The person under investigation does not get to tell witnesses they’re not allowed to testify about their criminal actions.
Trump 2020; It’s not technically Treason!
“Over a lousy blowjob…now if it had been a good blowjob…”
Yeah, you’re proposing President Trump might nuke San Francisco. That’s insane! And there’s no need to “sure focking hope” because you ARE wrong.
And his enemies list, too. Well, who doesn’t have one of those? Individual-1 certainly does.
What is far *more *plausible is that Putin did it because he knew he could get away with it, having the US President (and therefore NATO) under his control. He, and his many genuine supporters, have chafed under the geographic restrictions of modern Russia following the end of the USSR, and he has the same imperial impulses as so many other ethnically-motivated dictators in history to get all of “his” people under his control. He wants all Russians to be in Russia the same way an earlier dictator wanted all Germans to be in Germany, and for pretty much the same reasons.
They were. The liberal wing of the Republican party pretty much was destroyed, it was struggling before that, but remember when the regained power in 1980, it was the conservative Reagan wing.
Russia started significantly escalating since November last year, though.
Best. President. Evah. Amarite?
Sarcasm aside: Did you ever imagine yourself having to defend a U.S. president so uniquely incompetent, ignorant, corrupt and dishonest?