You Will Anyway: State to turn over Ukraine documents

Thursday, October 31, 2019

State to turn over Ukraine documents

The State Department has agreed to release documents related to President Trump’s handling of aid to Ukraine, potentially providing ammunition to the impeachment probe now being conducted by Democrats in the House of Representatives.

The decision comes in response to a lawsuit filed by American Oversight, a watchdog group affiliated with progressive causes. That lawsuit was initially filed in the spring, after Trump dismissed U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie L. Yovanovitch.

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Last week, a U.S. District Court judge in Washington, D.C., told the State Department it had to turn over Ukraine-related documents, citing “public interest” that he said tilted “heavily in favor of disclosure.”

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Among the documents to be included in the trove are communications between departmental officials and Trump’s private lawyers and associates, in particular Rudolph Giuliani, Victoria Toensing or Joseph diGenova.

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The order also covers records created by or pertaining to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has been criticized for putting Trump’s political prospects, and possibly his own business interests, over the nation’s foreign policy goals. Two close associates of Pompeo, Ulrich Brechbuhl and Brian Bulatao, are also named in the request, along with several others.

The agreement will also require the State Department to turn over calendar entries pertaining to Yovanovitch’s dismissal, as well as any meetings with Giuliani, and meetings pertaining to a potential Biden investigation in Ukraine.

The two sides could not agree on whether the State Department needed to turn over readouts of the July 25 phone call in which Trump is alleged to have engaged in a quid pro quo with Zelensky. State Department lawyers maintain those records “have a high likelihood of being classified and/or privileged.”

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The agreement between the State Department and American Oversight stipulates that the documents be turned over by Nov. 22, by which time the impeachment inquiry could well be in its public stage.

Yahoo

It definitely will be. Do you trust them to turn over all the documents requested? I don't.

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Life, as Explained in "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead"

GUILDENSTERN: What a fine persecution---to be kept intrigued without ever quite being enlightened.

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ROSENCRANTZ : The only thing that makes it bearable is the irrational belief that somebody interesting will come on in a minute.

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GUILDENSTERN: But for God's sake what are we supposed to do?!

PLAYER: Relax. Respond. That's what people do. You can't go through life questioning your situation at every turn.

GUILDENSTERN: But we don't know what's going on, or what to do with ourselves. We don't know how to act.

PLAYER: Act natural. You know why you're here at least.

GUILDENSTERN: We only know what we're told, and that's little enough. And for all we know it isn't even true.

PLAYER: For all anyone knows, nothing is. Everything has to be taken on trust; truth is only that which is taken to be true. It's the currency of living. There may be nothing behind it, but it doesn't make any difference so long as it is honoured. One acts on assumptions.

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GUILDENSTERN : We act on scraps of information... sifting half-remembered directions that we can hardly separate from instinct.

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PLAYER: Life is a gamble, at terrible odds-if it was a bet you wouldn't take it.