Senate GOPers Expand Effort To Probe Sketchy Ukraine Claims Pushed By Trump

[riversedge]

Source: TPM





December 6, 2019 3:18 p.m.


With the likelihood of a Senate impeachment trial looming, President Trump’s allies in the Senate are expanding their efforts to investigate the Ukraine-related conspiracy theories that are at the heart of Trump’s pressure campaign on the country.

Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI) announced Friday their requests to interview two individuals who the Republicans believe could shed light on the supposed Ukraine-Democratic plot against Trump in 2016.

Specifically, they want to interview Alexandra Chalupa, a then-consultant for the DNC who did research on ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in 2016, as well as Andrii Telizhenko, a former official in Ukraine’s embassy in Washington.
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The GOP senators’ Biden requests were based on claims made by John Solomon, an opinion columnist for the Hill who published several stories smearing the Bidens and other targets of Trump’s Ukraine gambit. The Hill, which no longer employs Solomon, is now reviewing those columns. The House impeachment investigation revealed that Solomon was in frequent contact with Rudy Giuliani as those articles were published, and also spoke with Giuliani’s indicted associates and a conservative lawyer with ties to Trump.

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Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), the ranking member of the Finance Committee who also sits on Senate Intel, blasted the move in a statement that said the “rogue” GOP chairman were “laundering Russian propaganda to deflect from Donald Trump’s attempt to extort Ukraine into manufacturing dirt on a political rival and exonerate Russia for its criminal interference in the 2016 election.”

Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/graham-grassley-johnson-trump-ukraine-claims-2016-meddling

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The upcoming Senate trial is going to be real ugly!!




Press Release

https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/senators-seek-interviews-reported-coordination-between-ukrainian-officials-dnc

Senators Seek Interviews on Reported Coordination between Ukrainian Officials, DNC Consultant to Aid Clinton in 2016 Elections
Dec 06, 2019


Alleged foreign interference, collusion demand due scrutiny


WASHINGTON – Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) are seeking records from and transcribed staff interviews with two individuals reportedly involved in an effort by Ukrainian embassy officials to undermine the Trump campaign in the 2016 election. The interview and records requests are a continuation of an inquiry that Grassley launched in 2017 following news reports that a Democratic National Committee consultant solicited derogatory information on the Trump campaign from Ukrainian embassy officials prior to the 2016 election. According to those reports, elements of the Ukrainian government were actively working to undermine candidate Trump’s electoral prospects in favor of Hillary Clinton.

“Contrary to the popular narrative in the ‘main stream media’ that Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 election has been debunked, or ‘no evidence exists,’ there are many unanswered questions that have festered for years. One of the reasons our nation remains so divided is the disconnect between those who are curious about any and all possible foreign interference and those who are not. Those who are curious, have a legitimate and understandable desire to know if wrongdoing occurred. The American public also has a right to know if no wrongdoing occurred. The sooner we get answers to the many unanswered questions, the sooner we can turn our attention to the many challenges our nation faces,” Johnson said.

“Election interference by any foreign entity is a serious matter. Since the last presidential election, our nation rightly expended significant resources to examine allegations of collusion and foreign interference by Russia to influence the outcome. While there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, we know that Russia meddled in our democratic processes. However, certain reports of collusion and interference involving Ukrainian officials have not been sufficiently examined, and the few answers that have been given are inadequate. With another election right around the corner, choosing to ignore these matters or conflating them with separate, uncorroborated allegations is no way to adequately safeguard the sanctity of our elections,” Grassley said.

“To believe that the mainstream media will investigate all things Russia or Ukraine is to hope against hope. The hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s emails was done by the Russians and no one else. Whether there’s a connection between Democratic operatives and Ukrainian officials during the 2016 election has yet to be determined. It will only be found by looking. We intend to look,” Graham said.

In additional to the production of relevant records, Johnson, Grassley and Graham are requesting staff-led transcribed interviews with then-DNC consultant Alexandra Chalupa, who reportedly solicited damaging information on Trump campaign associates and lobbied Congress to launch a congressional investigation months before the election. They are also seeking a similar interview with Andrii Telizhenko, a political officer within the Ukrainian embassy at the time. According to reports, Telizhenko was ordered to assist in an off-the-books investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia he said was being coordinated between Ukrainian officials and “the Hillary team.” That investigation included then-Trump campaign advisor Paul Manafort’s prior business dealings in the region. A CBS News analysis of the reported arrangement noted that “it's deeply unusual for an American campaign to be working with foreign assets like this, regardless of whether it's Ukraine or Russia.”

Grassley and Johnson recently requested information from the National Archives regarding White House meetings in 2016 that included representatives from the Obama administration, Ukrainian government and the DNC. They also requested Justice Department records related to the FBI’s interactions with Chalupa. The senators’ inquiries are unrelated to an uncorroborated theory that Ukraine was also behind the hack of DNC servers. U.S. intelligence officials and Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation found that Russia was responsible for the DNC hack.

Grassley, Johnson, and Graham also have outstanding requests (see here, here, here, and here) related to potential conflicts of interest and political influence by Ukrainian elements, including the natural gas firm Burisma, which employed as a board member Hunter Biden while his father was the U.S. vice president and public face of the Obama administration’s handling of Ukraine. Additional records and interviews related to these matters may also be necessary.

[Iliyah]

1. Johnson, Graham should recuse themselvs . .

Grassley and the two mentioned above ain't got nothing, but are doing the bidding of Russia. Apparently Criminal Barr's investigation into the IC's investigation which prompted Mueller's investigation is a bust. Carter Page must face the music.

And the Republicans approve of Rudy G going to Ukraine . . .

But, I think they will find things that may become public.

Backfire city will come with a price.

[riversedge]

7. Johnson moved into the Senate with lots of money from the Tea Party--beating out

Russ Feingold. The money rolled in in the final months.

[JoeOtterbein]

2. Ohhhhh nooooooooossss....it's worse than I thought!

(crawling back into his den with a profound sense of fear)

[Mystery sage]

3. Republicans wasting more of America's money on useless investigations for trump

[TeamPooka]

4. Bring it on you corrupt Russian Republicans.

[cstanleytech]

5. Trying to Benghazi Biden? Go for it as anything they uncover can just as easily be used against them

down the road especially if they uncover something incriminating against Trump and try to hide it.
Hell if its bad enough on their part we might even see a 60+ majority in the Senate again within 12 years at which point we could and should pass some major changes especially if we have the majority in the House as well as the White House.
First there is SCOTUS which we should change to 13 and appoint liberal progressive judges to the new slots as well as any other ones that open up while we have the White House.
Then major ethics changes for elected federal officials involving mandatory transparency in all their interests including their immediate families in business including any bogus organizations like the Trump one.
From there we move onto major budget changes for the military and redirect at least 70% of its budget with some of it going to infrastructure.
Another portion is combined with the Medicare which we use to explain basic medical coverage for everyone.
Then there is the issue of generic drugs which we change by having government start making atleast 90% of the most common generic drugs including things like insulin.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. They want to impeach Hillary. After all, she won the Vote. . . . nt

[Mc Mike]

8. I guess they didn't read the first couple hundred pages of the Mueller report.

They also forgot all about every US intel agency saying Russia did it.