And Now, Your Monday Trump Impeachment Dump
The dam has well and truly burst today, with a damning deluge of reports on Trump’s attempts to leverage American power to help himself steal another election, and cover up Russia’s involvement in the last one. And not just Trump; it’s now become clear that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney General William Barr are neck-deep in the criminal conspiracy as well.
First, we should note that as part of his normal weekend routine, Trump not only called for the arrest of Rep. Adam Schiff for “treason,” he threatened civil war if the impeachment continues.
Then today, the real stories started to come out.
Rudy Giuliani was subpoenaed to provide documents to House Democrats.
BREAKING: Giuliani subpoenaed pic.twitter.com/ult4WCMVHo
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) September 30, 2019
We learned that Mike Pompeo was on Trump’s now-infamous extortion call to the Ukrainian president.
NEW: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on the July 25 call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a senior State Department official said Monday, a disclosure that ties the State Department more closely to an ongoing congressional inquiry.
— Dustin Volz (@dnvolz) September 30, 2019
Then, in a one-two punch, we first learned that William Barr had pressured the prime minister of Australia to help him discredit the Mueller investigation…
Breaking via NYT: Trump pushed the Australian prime minister during a recent call to help Attorney General Barr gather information for a Justice Dept. inquiry that Trump hopes will discredit the Mueller investigation, according to two American officials.https://t.co/j6fmTYDFKw
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 30, 2019
… and then that story blew even wider open, as we learned that Barr has been approaching numerous foreign entities to help him discredit US intelligence services and hide Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
NEWS: AG Barr has held private meetings overseas with foreign intel officials seeking their help in a Justice Department inquiry that President Trump hopes will discredit U.S. intelligence agencies’ examination of Russian interference in the 2016 election. https://t.co/JEWUIWXjNf
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) September 30, 2019
This news day qualifies as head-spinning. Trump’s whole house of cards is collapsing around him.
Oh, and by the way, he’s still going on television and confessing to crimes.
Trump just once again reiterated that he did in fact urge the Ukrainian government to undertake investigations pertaining to “corruption on the other side” and “corruption having to do with the 2016 election against us.” pic.twitter.com/NvoqfLth9H
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 30, 2019
And here’s video of Mike Pompeo lying about the Ukrainian phone call.
On This Week, Mike Pompeo initially seems flustered by a question about the IC whistleblower complaint, but then says, “I do think if VP Biden behaved inappropriately…we need to get to the bottom of that”
Martha Raddatz interrupts to point out there’s no evidence of wrongdoing pic.twitter.com/INtmtptH34— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 22, 2019