The inquiry is over.
Now they’ll put forth articles of impeachment and begin debate over whether to vote for them. There may possibly be new interviews during this phase, or they may rely on the depositions already in evidence.
If impeachment articles are voted for, there may also be additional hearings in the Senate.
I think we’ll still be hearing from some people who haven’t yet been interviewed.
I think about this a lot. Not in regards to Ukraine specifically, but his crap in general all along. He’s gotten away with EVERYTHING his entire life. How has he not faced any criminal charges or lost business licenses? He lies, he threatens, he pays his way out of things. To be held accountable after 7+ decades must actually, from his shriveled little brain’s perspective, be stunning and hard to comprehend. It probably DOES feel like a witch hunt or he’s being persecuted. Why should he get in trouble now for what he’s done all along? Why aren’t the things he normally does allowed now of all times?
He’s not smart enough to realize that this time he has 300 million bosses and that he is more visible. Keeping his head down and just being a FOX news guest wouldn’t have invited this level of scrutiny. And the options of crimes? They’ve expanded so he’s doing more of them.
It’s a perfect storm of being sheltered and unaccountable his whole life plus being a terrible human being who isn’t very smart or introspective.
The hearings are over with respect to this impeachment inquiry. However, I expect investigations will continue and further public hearings will occur. Just as the Mueller investigation constituted one investigation, and the Ukraine matter constituted another investigation, it’s almost beyond comprehension that more wrongdoing by Trump won’t come to light and require further investigation and oversight.
What if a review of his tax returns reveal long-term, widespread money laundering for the Russians?
What if, as has already been hinted at, Russian oligarchs are the co-signers on his big loans with Deutsche Bank, and we learn they basically own him?
What if we discover he has also done a quid pro quo with the House of Saud, say, troop support in exchange for 2020 election subversion?
Dems won’t stop, and they shouldn’t. But getting this impeachment process in the works is extremely important, given the urgent concerns over the upcoming election.
I wonder that like I sometimes wonder whether the sun rises in the east. You are absolutely positively 100% correct, of course. This was true for the 2016 interference as well. Trump sees absolutely no light between “what is good for him” and “what is good for the country”. To him, what is good for the country is for Trump to be president for the next 5 years, at least. And the end justifies the means, no matter what they are. And unfortunately, his supporters feel the same way. That’s why the entire Republican Party is engaging in such highly outrageous gaslighting.
And, it’s different from other similar scandals in one major way — Trump’s absolute and total lack of contrition, or even an awareness that his actions were wrong. And I’ll pose this to any conservatives that may be reading…it’s killing you deep inside, isn’t it? It would be so easy to make this go away. One press conference, turn on the charm and talk about how business is different from government and you got carried away, one apology to the American people and Zelensky, and poof…goodbye. But no, instead he’s making you say stupid stuff like “No, I don’t think Trumps focus on Hunter and Joe Biden is related in any way to Biden’s candidacy” with a straight face.
Oh yeah, one more news tidbit. Zelensky IS cleaning up corruption, and he started by firing a prosecutor that has been working with Giuliani. Not Shokin and Lutsenko, that’s old news, but the 3rd Musketeer of corrupt Ukrainian prosecutors, Kulyk.
Wonder how that will go over with the White House / Russia alliance. Will they try to withhold more aid? Stay tuned for the next episode.
All things being equal I truly, genuinely wish Barron well. If the kid has an ounce of situational awareness he probably does not want to grow up to be anything like his father. And no matter what happens over the next few years, his life is going to be fucked up in all manner of ways.
How about this for poetic justice? Barron Trump, entirely despite his father’s influence, grows up to be a decent human being and eventually decides to run for office… as a Democrat. He tells detailed stories about watching his father burn the country down and how he knew from a young age that it was his duty to clean up the old man’s mess.
Well, one can hope.
Also, regarding Nunes and his supposed butt-dials… isn’t that a secure phone? Like not the kind of thing you are going to hand to strangers who are going to make a bunch of calls to Ukrainian gangsters? If Nunes wants to claim those calls happened on accident he’s welcome to try but it doesn’t make him look any better.
“No, wait. Didn’t I create a Space Force? I did? Get them!”
Ron Reagan Jr. kinda sorta took that path.
That would be as likely as Sergei Khrushchev, son of Nikita, moving to America and becoming an capitalist American citizen.
A review of the Constitutional legalities of the Executive branch refusing to comply with subpoenas, by Lawfare:
The first argument in favor of the White House, as I understand it, basically says that the White House is immune from statute so obstruction laws don’t apply. But, more specifically, the immunity arises from the separation of powers and the special status of the Executive as being self-governing as the default, and only affected by law if the law specifically states that it applies to the President and/or the Executive branch’s activities.
I feel like it should be pointed out that this is the same logic by which things like the Hatch Act are Constitutional, rather than usurping the First Amendment rights of the members of the Executive Branch. The Bill of Rights pertains to the rights of “the people”. The government is not “the people”.
So if we must accept that the Executive is immune to statute on the basis of his special status then, likewise, due process does not apply. The President has no implicit 5th Amendment rights, nor do any of the people who are refusing their subpoenas.
Fundamentally, if you want to take the hard core view that the Executive is a distinct entity, separate from citizens and legal obligations, then you cannot pick and choose on that. You not only lose the normal legal obligations, you also lose your legal rights.
The OLC opinion of immunity is not actually an opinion of immunity, it’s an opinion of minimalism. If the Constitution and law clearly state that something applies to the Executive, then it applies to the Executive. If it does not, though, then there is no right nor obligation for the Executive. It’s all Old West, all the time, hangings on the gallows on the White House lawn.
The Democrats might consider leaning into rather than push against the Barr/Cippolone view of the matter.
Continued:
Trump can refuse to comply and stonewall, using the legal system. But, likewise, Congress can throw his people in jail with little to no cause and those individuals will have to fight their way out through the long slow process of the legal system. And they may not win as there are no protections against Congress under impeachment and you are not citizens with the rights of an every day American.
Trump knows that the things he does are wrong, because those are always the things that he accuses others of doing. It’s like clockwork: reflexive, childish projection, to distract the public. Whatever accusation Trump makes is exactly what he himself is doing.
However, his socio-pathology doesn’t have a clear-cut, objective sense of right and wrong. When he is the one doing something, it can’t be wrong, no matter what it is. It’s only wrong if others do it.
This question has been asked of a number of trump defenders, and I believe every time they have refused to answer the question. “I won’t answer a question about a hypothetical that the president didn’t do”.
Because even they realize that if they were to agree that that behaviour is impeachable, that would come back to haunt them when inevitably the defence shifts over to acknowledging he did it but arguing that it is not impeachable (I think we’re more or less there now, it’s just that trump keeps denying it, so his supporters are trying to find a position in between a rock and an all the evidence).
Of course, how things would proceed in an ideal world, is that anyone watching such a response on TV, would realize what a cop-out answer it is, and what it implies about the president’s guilt and the interviewee’s tacit acceptance of it.
Unfortunately we live in the bizarre alternate reality where much of the american public has had a very localized stroke and are incapable of such epiphanies.
Obviously trump himself is not smart enough to dodge this particular bullet, but so what? He’s dumb enough to incriminate himself without anyone even asking him any questions.
I will be (and odds are looking like it will happen) furious if the House only goes forward with impeachment based on the Ukraine bribery/request to tamper with elections, and ignores the myriad of other impeachable offenses Trump has committed.
I completely understand the desire to keep impeachment simple and easy to understand, but I also think the more hearings you hold, the more evidence you present about this administrations’ blatant corruption, the better chance you have to convince some Republican Senators to actually uphold their constitutional duties.
I want evidence of the obstruction of justice of the Mueller probe. I want witnesses to testify about tampering. I want each and every situtation where this conman made money off the Presidency (Saudi’s, China’s trademarks, $100 million taxpayer money he spends on himself, his fueling near his Scotland property). I want election officials describing his requests to interfere in our elections. I want campaign finance violations for paying off porn stars. I want evidence of the abuse and denial of due process in his immigration crackdown.
There should be a way to present all that evidence to the House without taking up months of hearings.
I get the desire to avoid allegations of “throwing everything against the wall”, but the more evidence they present in public hearings about how corrupt this administration is, the better. If not only to convince the “party before country” crowd of Senators, but to make a record of the multiple crimes and other constitutional violations this administration has done.
I also want a pony.
This, as I’ve said before, is why I don’t want him dead. I want him in a prison cell for a long, long time contemplating* how he could have continued his life-long career as a (relatively) small-time grifter, squeezing a couple hundred grand out here, maybe a million there but then decided to run for President as a vanity project.
Even then he could have ridden that horse until shortly before the Republican convention, then withdrawn with a statement that it would have interfered with his business interests too much and the Deep State would have put his beloved family in danger. Then he could have gone the Trump Butt Hurt tour telling all his followers that they couldn’t have the President they wanted because “they” interfered in the democratic process.
But no, he went all the way and now suddenly this fetid, gilded pile of his life is being scrutinized and every time another pitchfork is jammed in more vermin scurry away and the unbelievable stench makes everyone gag – except those who breathe deep and say, “Smells like money!”
*Yes, I know Donny Two-scoops contemplating anything is a reach but it’s my fantasy, dammit!
I’ve said this before, but once he got settled in, Trump would absolutely LOVE prison. I’ve read a lot about what prison was like Jordan Belfort ( The Wolf of Wall Street ) and Bernie Madoff, and I imagine Trump’s experience would be something like that on steroids.
Trump would literally be treated like a king. He’s the Ultimate Criminal of Criminals, the King Pin of the World, crimewise. And he never showed a lick of remorse. The other inmates at federal prison would worship at his feet. They would wait on him hand and foot. If the prison tried to make him do some actual work, there would be a line of people begging for the honor of doing it for him. The inmates would fight over who got to do his laundry.
No shit, Trump would LOVE prison.
Well, let’s make his dream come true! Now!
It’s generally known that Obama HATES prison. 
I can believe if Trump really feared going to prison he would head to Russia or some other place where they won’t send him back .
I think it would be hilarious if he tried that and every other country said, “Nope, we don’t want you.” Putin could say, “We’re done with you. Enjoy the Crowbar Hotel”.
I know, I know, Russia would probably take him just to piss off the US. But I can dream, can’t I?
There’s a wrinkle here worth exploring. A reason why it might be best to let the case simmer rather than boil.
The best of the Ukraine approach is that it is so provable. The downside is that it is not as dramatic, the ordinary citizen is not impressed. We pretty much know about Citizen Trump’s financial chicanery, how a property is valued just below the Taj Mahal when applying for a loan, and is worth a pack of gum for tax purposes. These lines of inquiry are slow, there’s a lot of shit still working its way through the courts.
So…what if the impeachment inquiry is kept open and then the extent of his fiscal corruption becomes clear? So clear the Trump becomes toxic, the Senate shield dissipates. A situation arises wherein Il Douche would be convicted. Now, for questions of tax fraud, etc., a lot of courtly meandering could be expected, so that an impeachment attempt would be forestalled well into next year.
The only thing that is going to shake and frighten the Pubbie Senators is the prospect of a cessation of incumbency, the bums get thrown out. If such investigations render him so unpopular that defending him is a threat to their sacred asses…they might bail, they might be willing, however reluctantly, to convict on the “lesser” charge. To git while the gitting is still good.
The tactic then would be to allow the Republicans to slow the process to a crawl and allow this factor to ripen and bloom. The best tactic might be to move ahead with all deliberate speed, as in slow and steady. Keep all options open. Just let the Republican Senators know that the parachutes are ready and waiting.
You are getting at something here: The Rs have a problem with truth, and their ethical behaviors. It looks like a monumental vulnerability to me. The point going forward is not to wish for better outcomes and lament they won’t cooperate, but to damage them as much as you can using as many tools as are available.
We have to ask ourselves what would they do with our vulnerability if they got ahold of it?