Volker

Kurt Volker Makes the Case that Ukraine Tampered in 2016 Election — for Trump

Kurt Volker has spent the last two hours trying to back himself out of the corner he previously put himself in by pretending that Trump didn’t demand improper investigations before he’d meet with Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House or release security assistance.

Effectively, he said that his concern was that Ukrainians would spend money to try to influence US politics.

In fact, we know that occurred.

On August 2, 2016, Trump’s campaign manager had a clandestine meeting with Konstantin Kilimnik where they discussed how Trump planned to win Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, they discussed how Manafort might help Russia carve up Ukraine to his liking, and how he might get back in the employ of two of his former Ukrainian clients — Serhiy Lyovochkin and Rinat Akhmetov — a well as Oleg Deripaska.

Eight days after that meeting, he told his bookkeeper that he expected a $2.4 million payment, from those Ukrainians, after November.

This is precisely the kind of thing Volker said might justifiably be investigated. Only, it happened on the Trump campaign, not the Hillary campaign.

Effectively, Kurt Volker just made the case that the Mueller investigation was legitimate and justified.

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20 replies
      • Geoff says:

        It will be interesting to see whether Sonland implodes tomorrow and whether the rebounding shrapnel takes out Volker. I’d like to see both of them end up with perjury charges. It’s already annoying enough they let Volker pull a Katy McFarland on his previous testimony, and STILL, he’s being a wriggly little worm.

        • timbo says:

          What game lets you have four strikes before you’re indicted? It’s gotta be a question Sondland is asking himself tonight…

  1. earlofhuntingdon says:

    Note to Gym Jordan. Even if Trump were pissed that the former Ukrainian government favored Hillary, it would not excuse his personalizing American foreign policy to aid his election campaign. The first is a matter of public diplomacy, Gym. The second is a crime. BTW, I hear Mens’s Warehouse has a winter sale on sportscoats.

    Oh, and people are leaving federal government service because they cannot do their jobs and work for Donald Trump. Trump is also forcing a lot of them out by cutting their budgets, making them report to know-nothing political commissars, who spike their work for political reasons, and by forcing them to move from Metro DC – where their work is centered – to western Colorado and Kansas.

  2. klynn says:

    Marcy,
    I hope you send all your questions and insights to Schiff tonight.

    I think Volker has some questions to answer in writing.

  3. PeeJ says:

    Has everyone forgotten Trump and Manafort lessening support for Ukraine in the 2016 Republican platform? This is still the same movie. That was Jacket-off Jordan’s reference to Ukraine trying to influence the 2016 election against Trump. The Ukrainian op ed was written against Trump because he was going to give Ukraine to Russia back then. Put that op ed in the record. At least it was public.

  4. Mitch Neher says:

    Believe it or not, but Giuliani has mentally merged all of the many conspiracy theories and, therefore, both the Biden and the 2016 election interference investigation requests of the Ukrainians. No wonder P. G. FUBarr doesn’t know Rudy, anymore.

    https://www.justsecurity.org/66658/the-missing-link-getting-dirt-on-biden-was-key-part-of-investigation-into-2016-election-too/

    Oct 21, 2019 … Giuiliani’s targeting Biden through Ukraine’s 2016 investigation would be … Giuliani’s (unfounded) conspiracy theory is that Biden removed Ukraine …. POMPEO: If there was election interference that took place by the vice …

  5. sherry says:

    Republicans have named 3 Ukrainians who bashed Trump. Coincidentally, most of the criticism was when Trump was openly discussing eliminating Russian sanctions for occupying Crimea. Not to mention that Hillary didn’t meet with them 100’s of times, lying about each meeting, nor did she give Ukraine campaign polling data on US swing states, or lie about having business interests in Ukraine and on and on.

    sigh

  6. Manqueman says:

    An outlier opinion: I’m not sure that the core of the impeachment can’t be traced to Manafort’s acts during the 2016 campaign and that, if he knew or suspected such, Trump might be unwilling to pardon him. I can see Donnie blaming Manafort for this mess. Sucking up to Putin, from Donnie’s POV, is understandable; the Ukraine mess maybe not.

  7. pseudonymous in nc says:

    House GOP: “Ukraine disgracefully targeted the president’s campaign by pointing out that his campaign manager received millions in dirty money looted from the Ukrainian treasury while doing things his daughters were ashamed of. We won’t of course name this person currently serving a federal prison sentence for tax fraud related to that dirty money.”

    The amount of chutzpah there would fill the national chutzpah reserve for the next hundred years.

    • Manqueman says:

      Not chutzpah when they’re giving the base what they want: Fantasies, lies, etc. — everything but facts.
      Trumpism is all about giving the base what they want even if it’s sick, and the party now lies like Donnie.

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