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Take the president’s advice, read the transcript

November 26, 2019

I took President Trump’s advice. I read the transcript of his call with President Zelensky of Ukraine.

Here’s what it shows: Trump pressured Ukraine’s president to find dirt on the Bidens and pursue a debunked theory that Ukraine - not Russia - meddled in the 2016 election.

At Wednesday’s congressional hearings, Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, provided more evidence.
The scheme, he testified, was “at the express direction of the president of the United States.” He said it was a “quid pro quo” and that “everyone was in the loop,” including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.

Sondland even added an odd, under-reported detail. While Trump sought a publicly announced investigation into the Bidens, Sondland didn’t think he was concerned about follow-through.

The president cared about press coverage, not corruption. He wanted a way to attack the Bidens.

And while it’s likely the House will vote to impeach the president, few expect the Senate to convict him.

So it’s worth considering the case of Roger Stone, a longtime Trump crony who was convicted Nov. 15. If anything, there is more evidence against Trump, and his crimes are more serious by orders of magnitude.

(Five previous Trump associates, of course, have already accepted the advice of their attorneys and pleaded guilty.)

A jury of 12 Americans, removed from the spotlight of political bloodletting, weighed the evidence against Stone and returned guilty verdicts on each of seven counts, ranging from lying before Congress to witness tampering.

They deliberated for eight hours, with four of those hours spent on a single count. 

Seth Cousins, who described himself as a 51-year-old white man from New England, characterized his fellow jurors as “diverse in age, gender, race, ethnicity, income, education and occupation” (Washington Post, Nov. 22). He and other jurors, he said, came away with a greater love for America and renewed respect for our legal system. “To denigrate that process is undemocratic and dangerous,” he said. “What matters is the truth.” Fiona Hill, a former official at the U.S. National Security Council, agrees.

Tough, intelligent and relentlessly nonpartisan, Hill spoke directly to Republican members of Congress at last week’s hearings:
“Some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country - and that perhaps, somehow, for some reason, Ukraine did. This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves.

“The unfortunate truth is that Russia was the foreign power that systematically attacked our democratic institutions in 2016. This is the public conclusion of our intelligence agencies, confirmed in bipartisan congressional reports. It is beyond dispute.”

It’s bad enough that Republicans debase themselves to please Trump. It’s unforgivable to parrot the talking points and advance the interests of America’s enemy.

Republicans are taking the word of an ex-KGB officer, Vladimir Putin, over that of American intelligence agencies. Hill’s comments apply not just to inside-the-beltway politicians, but also to Republicans across the country. Trump maintains his grip on party leadership because of his grip on the Republican base. For the good of our country, for the good of their own party, Republicans must ask themselves if they’re on America’s side, or Russia’s.

Don Flood
Lewes

 

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