Meanwhile, in Turkey

 

We've still got a long way to go

Right up Trump alley

Are they getting advice from Bill Barr?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Despots' deals

[Southern District of New York leader Geoffrey Berman] has repeatedly pushed for actions on certain politically sensitive cases in opposition to Justice Department leadership, most notably the indictment in October of the state-owned Turkish bank, Halkbank.

According to a person familiar with the discussions, Barr personally spearheaded an effort last year to negotiate a settlement with the bank that would have allowed it to sidestep an indictment after Turkey's President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, pressed Trump in a bid to avoid charges. Berman, however, insisted on criminal prosecution, according to the people familiar with the matter.

[...]

Those types of actions have pacified Berman's staff in New York, who recall a message that Berman, a Trump appointee, delivered soon after taking his oath of office in 2018: "I want to be clear: Politics is not going to have a role in what we do. We're going to keep doing business as we always have." 

  CNN

Berman may be finding himself fired by tweet if he's not careful.

There's more in this article on Barr's position as Trump's political pusher:

In the past two weeks, the Justice Department has twice ordered US attorney's offices around the country to participate in what some of them perceive as politically charged actions, according to people familiar with the matter.

First, the department ordered prosecutors to hold news conferences, make statements and use social media to promote Barr's initiative to crack down on "sanctuary cities," according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The Justice Department later retracted the demand, the person said. Still, at least two US attorneys wrote op-eds.

The department also instructed federal prosecutors to write op-eds to push for passage of pending legislation on fentanyl. More than a dozen US attorneys complied with publishing op-eds or written statements. The person said that historically prosecutors have been instructed to avoid commenting on pending legislation. 

Elsewhere, in Connecticut, Pittsburgh and St. Louis, the US attorney's offices have picked up investigations that are in line with what the President has wanted, looking into the origins of the investigation into the 2016 election, examining the Ukraine dealings of the son of Trump's political rival Joe Biden and reviewing the Michael Flynn prosecution.

[...]

The fears over potential political interference are particularly acute in New York, where prosecutors with the US attorney's office in Manhattan handle high-profile cases with a broad range of geopolitical implications, including terrorism prosecutions as well as investigations involving foreign governments and financial institutions, all of which can intersect with White House interests.

Manhattan prosecutors have also generated cases that are of concern to Trump personally, including the prosecution of Cohen and an investigation of the Trump Organization that ended without charges.

And for the past few months, prosecutors there have been investigating Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal attorney, as well as Trump's inaugural committee.

Still, despite the alarm sounded in recent days, Southern District of New York prosecutors believe that their leader, Geoffrey Berman, has defended the office's relative autonomy, particularly since Barr's arrival, according to people familiar with the matter.

Barr, these people said, has attempted to micromanage certain cases, asking more questions and for more frequent updates than his predecessors on matters from Berman. 

[...]

New York federal prosecutors' independence -- so staunch, they joke, that their version of notifying Justice Department leadership about a consequential decision is to leave an after-hours voicemail on someone's desk phone the evening before they're about to take a significant action -- has been tested under the Trump administration.

And it will only get worse.

UPDATE:

Respected again

Turkish media are seizing on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s comments that President Trump had “no reaction” to his returning the American leader’s notorious letter to him, saying it shows a clear victory over Trump.

[...]

One headline in Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily quoted the Turkish leader talking about Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.): “I told him what he needed, he learned his lesson.”

[...]

Aykan Erdemir, a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former member of the Turkish parliament, said Erdoğan’s remarks are meant to send a message in Turkey.

“Erdoğan really is a very cunning politician, so he is speaking in a way, when translated into English, let’s say harmless comments,” he said. “But when his loyalists listen in Turkish, in Turkey, they can be interpreted as Erdoğan dominating Trump, or even insulting Trump.”

  The Hill

Not sure it's actually harmless everywhere else.

Erdoğan also told Turkish media that Trump was “very impressed” with a video he showed in the Oval Office. It was described by Republican senators as “propaganda” that sought to tie Kurdish forces in Syria with terrorist actions by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

[...]

“It was very much a propaganda video," Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) told The Hill on Thursday.

The five GOP senators who took part in the Oval Office meeting all have expressed strong criticism over Turkey’s recent actions. Erdoğan told reporters that Trump was giving him the opportunity to “convince” the senators of Turkey’s position and for Erdoğan to “make them comfortable.”

Erdoğan also accused U.S. lawmakers in the House and Senate as a unified force working to harm relations between him and Trump, in part by passing a resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide and a bill calling for sanctions on Turkey over its Syria offensive.

A resolution which Lindsey Graham blocked in the Senate, so apparently he did "learn his lesson."

Erdoğan used his platform during Wednesday’s press conference to promote his goal of moving 1 million Syrian refugees into Raqqa and Deir ez-Zur, areas that extend well beyond the 20-mile safe zone Turkey established with its Syria incursion.

It was the second time Erdoğan publicly shared his policy goal after he first raised the issue at the United Nations in September. It is raising alarm bells among Turkey analysts that this is a pretext to expanding Turkey’s invasion into Syria.

[...]

Mohamed Fahmy, CEO of The Investigative Journal, said the perception presented by Turkish media of a successful visit by Erdoğan over Trump fuels anti-American feelings in Turkey and reinforces conspiracy theories that the U.S. supports terrorism.

Well, that's not a conspiracy theory.

The point is that Trump brought the Turkish president to the White House and allowed him to show dominance, reinforcing the world's view of the US as an unreliable partner and a fading power.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Trump's press conference with Recep Erdoğan

Trump says he’s confident Turkey will uphold what it’s supposed to uphold. He doesn’t specify what he thinks it’s supposed to uphold.

 “I’m a big fan of the president,” Trump says of Erdogan.

“You’re doing a fantastic job for the people of Turkey,” Trump tells Erdogan’s team.

Erdogan is advocating his Syria offensive, saying he is “fighting terrorism in a very resolute fashion.” He denounces the activities of the Kurdish YPG, with which the US has been allied.

Trump gives the first question to OANN, the network that makes Fox look like Jacobin.

Trump repeats his usual false claim about how the (highly accurate) whistleblower was highly inaccurate. He’s said this 40+ times now. Trump says his usual things about how the impeachment push is a sham and hoax. He laments that it is wasting “gentleman” Erdogan’s time.

“Turkey captured everybody that escaped, plus an additional group,” Trump claims of ISIS prisoners.  Trump says Erdogan is taking care of not only a lot of refugees but a lot of Kurds.

Trump invites Erdogan to select a reporter to ask a question. He adds, “A friendly person from Turkey, please. Only friendly reporters.” Trump keeps pronouncing it Erdogone.

The rest of the world, with the exception perhaps of Trumpalos, says Erdowan.

Trump calls Erdogan a “great president.”

Trump gives his second question to John Roberts of Fox. Roberts asks an important question about the phone call between Trump and Sondland that Taylor described today. Trump said, “I know nothing about that.” He adds, “I’ve never heard it.” “Not even a little bit.” 

And let that be a lesson to you why OANN gets the first question now and not Fox.

Trump says many Kurds live in Turkey and “they’re happy and they’re taken care of. Including health care.” He says it’s “really a misnomer.”

What do you want to bet Fethullah Gülen gets turned over to Turkey before Trump leaves office?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Great relationships

Also...

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Erdoğan is coming to meet Trump tomorrow

Why not?  We tolerated it last time he was here.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Erdoğan backing over Trump

He drove over Trump forward, now he's backing over him to make sure he stays down.

The Turkish president has threatened to press ahead with an operation against Kurdish-led forces in Syria “even more strongly” if promises made by the US regarding the withdrawal of Kurdish fighters have not been met by the time a five-day ceasefire expires.

[...]

Ankara has stuck to its original proposal of a 270-mile long (440km), 20-mile deep buffer zone, but the SDF has only acknowledged the 75-mile area between Ras al-Ayn and Tel Abyad.

[...]

Up to 1,300 fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are yet to vacate Ankara’s proposed border “safe zone”, as per the terms of a ceasefire announced by the US vice-president, Mike Pence, in Ankara last week, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told reporters before flying to Russia.

Erdoğan is meeting Vladimir Putin in Sochi on Tuesday for talks expected to focus on the size and scope of the planned buffer zone before the pause in fighting ends at 10pm local time (1900 GMT).

[...]

As a result of the Turkish offensive, Syria’s Kurdish officials struck a deal with Assad, their former enemy, for military reinforcements in the border area.

[...]

Despite the ceasefire, intermittent fighting between the SDF and Ankara’s Syrian rebel proxies has continued.

  The Guardian

So, not a ceasefire.

Kino Gabriel, the SDF spokesman, confirmed over the weekend that all its fighters had evacuated the town of Ras al-Ayn, one of the two border towns bearing the brunt of the Turkish attack, as part of the US-brokered pause.

Redur Khalil, a senior SDF official, also said that following the evacuation of the remaining civilians and fighters from Ras al-Ayn, his fighters would pull back from the strip of land between the town and Tel Abyad, which is also under Turkish attack.

[...]

The US-brokered agreement struck last Thursday did not specify the zone’s size. Previous agreements between Washington and Ankara over a “safe zone” along the Syria-Turkish border have floundered over diverging definitions of the area.

So, not really a deal.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Hillary trolling Trump

In case you missed it: background.

Whoever wrote that "perfect" JFK letter deserves an award of some kind.

(I haven't heard whether, like his phone call to Zelensky, Trump thinks his letter to Erdoğan was "perfect".)

This camera angle

Makes Pence appear to be a KKK Grand Wizard.  (And he may be)
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Well, that went well

UPDATE:

He also reportedly threw the letter in the trash.

I wonder if Trump thought it was a "perfect" letter like the "perfect" phone call to Zelensky.

Also, Hillary trolled him on Twitter with this hilarious letter:

The Hill didn't get the memo

According to Erdoğan, who is obviously the man in charge, there was no cease-fire deal.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Respected again

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Jesus Christ

Bad in so many ways, but didn't he send Erdoğan a letter telling him not to be a tough guy?  Rhetorical.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Giuliani, Flynn and Turkey

Rudolph W. Giuliani privately urged President Trump in 2017 to extradite a Turkish cleric living in exile in the United States, a top priority of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to multiple former administration officials familiar with the discussions.

Giuliani, a Trump ally who later became the president’s personal attorney, repeatedly argued to Trump that the U.S. government should eject Fethullah Gulen from the country, according to the former officials, who spoke on the condition on anonymity to describe private conversations.

Turkey has demanded that the United States turn over Gulen, a permanent U.S. resident who lives in Pennsylvania, to stand trial on charges of plotting a 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan. Gulen has denied involvement in the plot.

[...]

The former New York mayor brought up Gulen so frequently with Trump during visits to the White House that one former official described the subject as Giuliani’s “hobby horse.” He was so focused on the issue — “it was all Gulen,” recalled a second former official — that White House aides worried that Giuliani was making the case on behalf of the Turkish government, former officials said.

[...]

Trump appeared receptive to the idea, pressing his advisers about Gulen’s status, the people said.

One former senior administration official recalled that Trump asked frequently about why Gulen couldn’t be turned over to Turkey, referring to Erdogan as “my friend.”

Administration officials were overwhelmingly opposed to the idea and told the president that the move could violate the legal process and damage him politically.

  WaPo

I'm guessing those officials aren't around any more.

In 2017, Giuliani unsuccessfully pressed then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to help on another matter important to Erdogan: helping stop the U.S. prosecution of a Turkish Iranian trader, The Washington Post reported last week.

[...]

In a text exchange Tuesday afternoon, he declined to discuss whether he advocated for Gulen’s extradition, writing: “can’t comment on it that would be complete attorney client privilege but sounds wacky.”

"Surely I wouldn't have done anything wacky," he might not have added.

He did not return phone messages or respond to follow-up questions, except to add in a text that he “will not participate in an illegitimate, unconstitutional, and baseless ‘impeachment inquiry.’ ”

We'll see about that.

Flynn admitted in December 2017 to lying about his contacts with the Russian ambassador and making false statements about work his consulting business did for Turkey. He has since argued in court that he is the victim of a government effort to smear him, although he has not withdrawn his guilty plea.

[...]

Reid Weingarten, an attorney for Gulen, said that he would find it disturbing if Giuliani was pressing for the cleric’s return to Turkey on the heels of Flynn’s efforts.

“We have argued aggressively and I thought persuasively to both the Obama and Trump Justice Departments that the allegations against Gulen are false and that any effort to extradite him would fail legally and factually and would be an embarrassment to the United States,” he said in a statement. “After Gen. Flynn’s efforts on behalf of Turkey on this subject were exposed it is hard to believe Giuliani would follow suit.”

Have you met Rudy Giuliani???

In interviews in recent months, Giuliani has acknowledged working with clients in Romania, Brazil, Bahrain, Colombia and Ukraine. He has represented an Iranian dissident group, once so controversial it was placed on the State Department list of terrorist organizations.

Giuliani has said that he does not need to register with the Justice Department for his overseas clients because he does not lobby U.S. officials on their behalf.

Is Trump not a US official?

In December, Trump told Erdogan his administration would take a look at Turkey’s extradition request, the White House said at the time. In January, a U.S. delegation met with Turkish officials to discuss the request, according to Turkish state media.

Giuliani’s conversations with Trump about Gulen came on the heels of a similar effort by Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, and his then-associates to promote negative views of Gulen during the 2016 campaign and the presidential transition.

[...]

[S]enior administration officials were so concerned that Giuliani might have been paid to push Turkey’s interests that, at one point in 2017, they confronted him and asked him not to bring up Turkish issues when he met with the president, according to a person familiar with the conversation.

When asked via text if he recalled the conversation, Giuliani responded by liking the question with a thumbs-up emoji.

Sounds wacky.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

A little conflict

Was that the deal?  Erdoğan wouldn't shut down Trump Towers if Trump got out of his way in Syria?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE: I'm reading that he only rents his name (like most Trump buildings).  So all Erdoğan needed to deal was a threat to remove his name.

Graham got punked

By the same comedians who pranked Adam Schiff.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham has in the last year become something of a congressional point man for President Donald Trump’s negotiations with Turkey, leading discussions on everything from Ankara’s purchase of a Russian missile system over the summer to their more recent incursion into northern Syria.

So when he received a call from a man he thought was Turkey’s minister of defense earlier in August, it didn’t strike him as unusual. “Thank you so much for calling me, Mr. Minister,” Graham said. “I want to make this a win-win, if we can.”

But it wasn’t the Turkish defense minister at all. Instead, it was Alexey Stolyarov and Vladimir Kuznetsov, Russian pranksters with suspected ties to the country’s intelligence services who go by “Lexus and Vovan.”

[...]

The substance of Graham’s conversation with Stolyarov, who was posing as Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, is newly relevant in light of the South Carolina senator’s push for sanctions on Turkey as punishment for their offensive against the Kurds in northern Syria. Graham labeled the Kurds a “threat” to Turkey in the call, seemingly contradicting what he has said publicly in recent days.

  Politico

So what's his game squealing about Trump withdrawing Kurdish support?

Graham also mentions Trump’s personal interest in a “Turkish bank case” in the call that appears to refer to a U.S. case involving Reza Zarrab, an Iranian-Turkish gold trader and client of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Trump had asked then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in 2017 to help persuade the Justice Department to drop the Zarrab case.

[...]

According to U.S. prosecutors, Zarrab and others used the Turkish bank Halkbank to “launder billions of dollars-worth of Iranian oil proceeds, ultimately creating a slush fund for Iran to use however it wished — the very harm that U.S. sanctions were put in place to avoid.” A senior banker at Halkbank was found guilty of working to evade sanctions on Iran, and Halbank itself could still face fines by the Treasury Department.

Zarrab also had ties to the Turkish government, according to a memo written in 2016 by former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, and was “engaged in a massive bribery scheme... paying cabinet-level [Turkish] governmental officials and high-level bank officers tens of millions of Euro and U.S. dollars” to facilitate his transactions.

So perhaps he decried Trump's move because he knew this report was coming out. Politico's reporters would have contacted his office before publishing. But who is he playing to by slamming Trump's move to withdraw support for the Kurds?

"He has been clear he wants a stronger relationship and often talked about the importance of maintaining peace in northern Syria to prevent the reemergence of ISIS," Bishop added.

"With Turkey’s invasion into northern Syria the drive for better relations between our two countries has suffered a body blow. Turkey should immediately withdraw their military forces and America should reinstitute the safe zone concept to keep the peace in the region. Until this is done, Senator Graham will continue to push for severe, biting sanctions against Turkey."

Yeah, I'm not getting it, I think. Unless he's just talking out of both sides of his mouth, depending upon who's listening. It may be just that simple.

The pranksters’ conversation with Graham, a Trump ally who has the president’s ear on national security issues, also raises obvious questions about potential security breaches. While the pranks appear on their face to have been relatively harmless, the incident suggests it’s getting easier for bad actors to elicit sensitive information from policymakers. Stolyarov provided POLITICO with a recording of their call.

In the call, Graham was primarily concerned with getting Turkey back into the F-35 program and urging the “defense minister” to refrain from using Russia’s S-400 anti-aircraft weapon system, which was fully delivered to Turkey last month in defiance of requests from the U.S. and NATO.

But Graham also expressed sympathy for Turkey’s “Kurdish problem” and described the Kurds as a “threat.” Those private comments appear to contradict his public statements this week, in which he criticized Trump’s decision to pull U.S. troops out of northern Syria because it’s “wrong to abandon the Kurds, who have been strong allies against” the Islamic State.

[...]

“I told President Trump that Obama made a huge mistake in relying on the YPG Kurds,” Graham continued. “Everything I worried about has come true, and now we have to make sure Turkey is protected from this threat in Syria. I’m sympathetic to the YPG problem, and so is the president, quite frankly.”

[...]

The pranksters managed to get Graham on the phone again a few days after the first call. In the second call, Graham says he met with Trump to discuss what the “defense minister” had told him. “We want a better relationship with Turkey. That’s exactly what he wants,” Graham said, referring to Trump and again urging Turkey to rethink the S-400 purchase.

[...]

“And this case involving the Turkish bank, he’s very sensitive to that,” Graham said of Trump. “The president wants to be helpful, within the limits of his power.”

Uh, Lindsey....he has no limits. He has Article II, which says he can do anything he wants. Did he forget to tell you that?

“I like President Erdogan,” Graham told the pranksters. “I think President Trump likes President Erdogan. I think he’s a strong man and we need to deal with strong people."

[...]

After Trump issued a surprise statement on Sunday night announcing the removal of U.S. forces from northern Syria, Graham warned Turkey that the country would be sanctioned if it attacked the Kurds—which the Turkish military did just hours after American troops were removed from the area.

Any sanctions yet?

But on Wednesday, a senior adviser to Erdogan told CNN that Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had “reached an understanding over precisely what this operation is” prior to Trump’s announcement.

Of course they did, and Erdoğan got an invitation to the White House.

Capitol Hill managed a rare show of unity on Wednesday, as lawmakers from both parties recoiled in horror at a lightning-fast Turkish invasion of Kurdish territory in Syria and coalesced around the idea of responding through tough new sanctions on Turkey. And nearly every single one—regardless of party—blamed President Donald Trump for starting it all, when he abruptly announced on Sunday the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Kurdish lands in northern Syria.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who spent the week engaging in a lengthy Twitter tirade against the president’s decision, ratcheted up his rhetoric on Wednesday morning against Turkey and the administration.

“Pray for our Kurdish allies who have been shamelessly abandoned by the Trump Administration. This move ensures the reemergence of ISIS,” Graham tweeted on Wednesday. “Will lead effort in Congress to make Erdoğan pay a heavy price.”

By Wednesday afternoon, Graham announced legislation with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) that would impose aggressive new sanctions on Turkey.

The bill would sanction the U.S. assets of top Turkish leaders, including President Recep Tayyep Erdoğan; it also would punish any foreign individual or entity who sells weapons or provides military aid to Turkey, or supports the country’s domestic energy industry.

[...]

Trump himself initially promised to impose crippling sanctions on Turkey if they moved forward with military action against the Kurdish ethnic minority.

[...]

But by Wednesday afternoon, Trump appeared less committed to the fire and fury in the wake of the invasion, but indicated he had no problem with Graham’s sanctions and still promised to “wipe out” Turkey’s economy if Erdoğan attempted to “wipe out” the Kurds.

“We’re speaking to both sides. We’ve told President Erodgan how we feel, but we are speaking to both sides and we’re seeing what can be made out of a situation, but we have no soldiers in the area,” Trump told reporters when asked about the decision to abandon the Kurds.

[...]

The president then, appearing to cite an article on TownHall.com, added the Kurds, “didn’t help us in the Second World War, they didn’t help us with Normandy as an example” … “but they’re there to help us with their land, and that’s a different thing.”

Say what???



Ha!  No doubt he would.

“With all of that being said, we like the Kurds," he said.

Dear god.

“While the Administration refuses to act against Turkey, I expect strong bipartisan support,” Graham said of his legislation.

Indeed, criticism was widespread in the GOP ranks for Trump’s move. While Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the top House Republican, slammed the move by calling on Turkey to stop it instead of mentioning Trump, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), the number three House Republican, named names.

The president’s decision to withdraw is “having sickening and predictable consequences,” said Cheney. “The U.S. is abandoning our ally the Kurds, who fought ISIS on the ground and helped protect the U.S. homeland… This action imperils American security and that of our allies. Congress must and will act to limit the catastrophic impact of this decision.”

[...]

“We have maybe one senator happy about this decision,” a GOP staffer told The Daily Beast.

[...]

Indeed, one of the few GOP lawmakers to cheer the decision was Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), the libertarian-minded Trump confidant who’s urged on the president’s more isolationist instincts over the objections of most of the rest of the party.

[...]

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who controls the floor, criticized the Syria withdrawal as a mistake in a statement on Monday, but stopped short of fully blaming Trump.

[...]

Trump is poised to face widespread backlash from his own party in Congress on Syria if McConnell, or Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), moves to put new sanctions to a vote.

[...]

Regardless of how Turkey sanctions develop, many from both parties worry that an enormous amount of harm has already been done through Trump’s decision—to the Kurds themselves, to the region’s stability, and to the international reputation of the U.S.

“The damage has been done,” said a GOP staffer. “What does it say about us and our future partnerships?"

  Daily Beast

Nothing good.

“By the time sanctions are imposed on Turkey many of our key allies in the fight against ISIS will have been killed,” Sen. Brian Schatz, a senior Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a tweet. “Republicans in the Senate have to do more than disagree. They must use all their power as Senators to push back. Everything else is for show and for cover.”

  Defense News

Frankly, Brian, that's all you folks seem to know how to do any more.



...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Everybody's always shocked; nobody ever does anything*

President Donald Trump pressed then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to help persuade the Justice Department to drop a criminal case against an Iranian-Turkish gold trader who was a client of Rudy Giuliani, according to three people familiar with the 2017 meeting in the Oval Office.

Tillerson refused, arguing it would constitute interference in an ongoing investigation of the trader, Reza Zarrab, according to the people. They said other participants in the Oval Office were shocked by the request.

Tillerson immediately repeated his objections to then-Chief of Staff John Kelly in a hallway conversation just outside the Oval Office, emphasizing that the request would be illegal.

[...]

The White House declined to comment. Kelly and Tillerson declined to comment via representatives. Another person familiar with the matter said the Justice Department never considered dropping the criminal case.

  Bloomberg

It was still impeachable, if not criminal, for Trump to ask for the favor.

Zarrab was being prosecuted in federal court in New York at the time on charges of evading U.S. sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program. He had hired former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Giuliani, who has said he reached out repeatedly to U.S. officials to seek a diplomatic solution for his client outside the courts.

The president’s request to Tillerson -- which included asking him to speak with Giuliani -- bears the hallmarks of Trump’s governing style, defined by his willingness to sweep aside the customary procedures and constraints of government to pursue matters outside normal channels.

[...]

The episode is also likely to fuel long-standing concerns from some of Trump’s critics about his policies toward Turkey and his relationship with its authoritarian president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Zarrab’s release was a high priority for Erdogan until the gold trader agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in New York.

[...]

In a phone interview this month, Giuliani initially denied that he ever raised Zarrab’s case with Trump but later said he might have done so.

[...]

“Suppose I did talk to Trump about it -- so what? I was a private lawyer at the time,” Giuliani said. “Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe at some point I dropped his name in a conversation. Or maybe one of his people talked to him about it because I was trying to do a prisoner swap.”

Giuliani said he discussed the Zarrab case with State Department officials and disclosed that two years ago, although he declined to say if he ever spoke directly to Tillerson about the case, saying “you have no right to know that.”

Typical Giuliani. If they press him, he'll be saying, "Damn right I did!"

Tillerson has said publicly that the president frequently asked him to do things that were illegal. “So often, the president would say ‘Here’s what I want to do and here’s how I want to do it,’ and I would have to say to him, ‘Mr. President I understand what you want to do but you can’t do it that way,”’ Tillerson said in an on-stage interview with Bob Schieffer in Texas last year. “It violates the law, it violates treaty you know and he just, he got really frustrated when we’d have those conversations.”

And then he fired Tillerson.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

*Until the Ukraine-call whistleblower.

Because you can't trust US

The White House has given the green light to a Turkish offensive into northern Syria, moving US forces out of the area in an abrupt foreign policy change that will in effect abandon Washington’s longtime military partners, the Kurds.

  Guardian

What did the Kurds do to deserve this?

Kurdish forces have spearheaded the campaign against Islamic State in the region, but the policy swerve, after a phone conversation between Donald Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sunday, means Turkey would take custody of captured Isis fighters, the White House said.

And what did Trump get in return? Or is that phone call buried in the code-word server?

Footage aired on Kurdish news agency Hawar purportedly showed US armoured vehicles evacuating key positions near the towns of Ras al-Ayn and Tal Abyad in the border region. Erdogan himself also confirmed the development in remarks to reporters on Monday morning in Ankara.

[...]

A statement from the Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said that Ankara had “supported the territorial integrity of Syria since the beginning of the crisis and will continue to do so … [We are] determined to ensure survivability and security of Turkey by clearing the region from terrorists. We will contribute to bringing safety, peace and stability to Syria.”

Something tells me that will be done by increasing military activity. You have to destroy the village to save it.

The decision represents the latest in a series of erratic moves by Trump, who is fighting impeachment at home, apparently taken without consultation with, or knowledge of, US diplomats dealing with Syria, or the UK and France, the US’s main international partners in the country.

There's a surprise. He's going to take the world down with him.

Brett McGurk, a former US special envoy for the fight against Isis, said: “The White House statement tonight on Syria after Trump spoke with Erdoğan demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of anything happening on the ground.

McGurk pointed out that the US is not holding any Isis detainees. They are being held by the SDF “which Trump just served up to Turkey”.

“Turkey has neither the intent, desire, nor capacity to manage 60,000 detainees, which State and [Pentagon inspectors general] warn is the nucleus for a resurgent Isis. Believing otherwise is a reckless gamble with our national security,” McGurk warned on Twitter.

[...]

“Today, President Donald J Trump spoke with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey by telephone,” [the White House statement] said. “Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into northern Syria. The United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the operation, and United States forces, having defeated the Isis territorial ‘caliphate’, will no longer be in the immediate area.”

The statement suggested that in return for US acquiescence in a Turkish offensive, Erdoğan had assured Trump that Turkey would take over the detention of Isis militants captured by the SDF, on the battlefield.

Are we meant to believe that was the only thing Trump got?

The custody of Europeans and other foreign fighters has long been one of Trump’s preoccupations, and he has lambasted European governments for not taking responsibility for their own nationals in Isis’ ranks.

[...]

Syria experts have warned that the US abandonment of the SDF would lead to another, new front in the eight-year Syrian conflict, and could push the Kurds into seeking an arrangement with the Assad regime in Damascus. The Kurdish leadership has long been in talks with Damascus to ensure a level of Kurdish autonomy in north eastern Syria in the event of a US pullout.

Two weeks ago, at the UN general assembly, the US special envoy for the global coalition to defeat Isis, James Jeffrey, stressed that the US had an agreement with Turkey on a safe zone, in recognition of Ankara’s security concerns, that obviated the need for an Turkish incursion.

Which Trump just ripped up with one phone call.

Another outcome of the Trump-Erdoğan call is that the Turkish leader is expected to visit the White House next month.

Trump would like to get to know Turkey's strongman better. He needs dictator friends at this difficult time for him.  I wonder if Erdoğan will bring those body guards with him to beat up protesters again.

UPDATE:




The monster they created is loose, and he's busting up the lab.



UPDATE: