Republicans are conducting the witch hunt

President Trump is chastising Republicans for not sufficiently having his back as he tries to weather an impeachment inquiry from Democrats.

"Republicans have to get tougher and fight," Trump said during a Cabinet meeting on Monday. "We have some that are great fighters, but they have to get tougher and fight because the Democrats are trying to hurt the Republican Party for the election."

[...]

In an interview Sunday on Axios on HBO, [Mitt] Romney said that other senators do have concerns about Trump and his conduct regarding Ukraine, including asking President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Trump's potential 2020 rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. However, they're unwilling to come forward and criticize Trump because they fear the political repercussions.

  NPR

So, what do they do? They play into Trump's worst tendencies. They treat Trump as though Congress is subservient to the executive, and not a check and balance on his authoritarian bid. They stage a security breaching stunt to disrupt impeachment inquiry proceedings. And in those hearings, they press his unhinged agenda.

Republican lawmakers have used the congressional impeachment inquiry to gather information on a CIA employee who filed a whistleblower complaint, press witnesses on their loyalty to President Trump and advance conspiratorial claims that Ukraine was involved in the 2016 election, according to current and former officials involved in the proceedings.

GOP members and staffers have repeatedly raised the name of a person suspected of filing the whistleblower complaint that exposed Trump’s effort to pressure Ukraine to conduct investigations into his political adversaries, officials said.

[...]

[T]he questions have been interpreted as an attempt “to unmask the whistleblower,” whose identity is shielded under federal law, said several officials with direct knowledge of the depositions.

[...]

Trump has attacked the whistleblower at least 40 times on his Twitter account since the Ukraine scandal broke, including on Friday, when he asked, “Where is the whistleblower and why did he or she write such a fictitious and incorrect account of my phone call with the Ukrainian president?”

[...]

The GOP line of questioning provides the most direct insight to date into the strategy of the president’s defenders in closed-door hearings that have produced powerful testimony about the administration’s attempt to coerce Ukraine into conducting investigations that Trump hoped would yield damaging information on Democrats.

[...]

The accounts, based on interviews with 10 people involved in the depositions, also underscore the extent to which senior Republicans are directly involved in the impeachment inquiry even as party leaders claim they are being excluded from it, depicting it as a secretive — and therefore suspect — attack on the president.

[...]

Among those chiefly involved are Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.), the senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio), one of Trump’s most fervent defenders and the ranking Republican on the House Oversight Committee.

[...]

A separate senior GOP aide argued that exploring the political leanings of the whistleblower and others testifying before impeachment investigators is a legitimate line of questioning, as their political preferences could taint testimony and findings.

[...]

The first Republican official also argued that Democrats have been asking leading questions and that GOP members feel it is important to highlight facts they believe will be exculpatory for Trump — particularly regarding suggestions that Trump used U.S. aid to Ukraine as an enticement to obtain a political favor.

[...]

“There’s been zero interest [among the GOP] in actually getting to the conduct of the president,” a Democratic lawmaker said. “It’s not the subject of their questioning at all.”

  WaPo

Their aim is to discredit witnesses. Witnesses who will get a public drubbing by Senate Republicans when the impeachment moves into the trial stage.

Nunes has used the depositions to try to link those appearing as part of the impeachment inquiry to other individuals who figured prominently in GOP efforts to discredit previous investigations of Trump’s ties with Russia in 2016, officials said.

Witnesses including former top White House Russia adviser Fiona Hill have been asked whether they had any interactions with Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence officer who compiled a dossier of allegations about Trump’s Russia ties, work that was initially funded by Republicans but was later underwritten by Democrats.

[...]

Hill denied having such connections, according to officials familiar with her testimony.

[...]

Republicans have also asked witnesses whether they had contact with Bruce Ohr, a former Justice Department official whose wife was affiliated with Fusion GPS, the investigative firm that hired Steele.

[...]

A second possible whistleblower has also come forward to bolster the initial complaint. That person’s name has also been raised in depositions on Capitol Hill, officials said.

[...]

Two officials said the committee probably will have to remove [from eventually released transcripts of testimony] “personally identifiable information” about individuals named by members of Congress and witnesses in those sessions to protect those not appearing before the committee from retaliation or exposure.

[...]

One former official said that Republicans “didn’t press much beyond” preliminary questions about contacts between witnesses and the suspected whistleblowers. A second official said, however, that “it’s more nefarious than that,” and that the Republican inquiries are persistent and seen as a “bid to out” those individuals.

[...]

In her Oct. 14 testimony, Hill was also asked about the activities and loyalties of a longer list of current or former employees of the National Security Council, including former national security adviser H.R. McMaster.

Republicans seemed to be trying to “tie him” to suspected efforts to undermine Trump by former Obama administration officials who remained in their White House assignments during Trump’s early months in office, officials said.

The questions appeared driven at least in part by Derek Harvey, a senior adviser to Nunes who worked on the National Security Council early in the Trump presidency before being removed by McMaster amid allegations that Harvey was compiling lists of suspected disloyal colleagues.

Sounds like the Republicans are taking their cues from the Joe McCarthy hearings of the 50s, which WAS a witch hunt.

Yovanovitch was asked point-blank whether she had ever spoken disparagingly about Trump while serving in Kyiv or had sought to undermine his policies — a veiled charge that she vehemently denied, officials said.

[...]

Republicans have also spent substantial time in depositions seeking to advance Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that Ukraine — and not Russia — interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.

During several depositions, Republicans touted a Politico article from 2017 that indicated that Ukrainian officials worked with the Clinton campaign to expose the activities of Paul Manafort, who served as Trump’s campaign chairman for several months in mid-2016.

[...]

Taylor, the acting ambassador to Ukraine, was asked repeatedly during his testimony on Thursday about material in that Politico article.

[...]

Republicans appear to be trying to link their concerns about the Steele dossier to Ukraine, a country Trump has said, without evidence, interfered in the election. One Democratic official present for witness testimony said Republicans were asking witnesses things like, “Are you aware that part of the evidence in the Steele Dossier originated in Ukraine?”

“The witnesses are like, ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ which makes sense, because it’s totally made up,” an official said.

Republicans have also asked witnesses to affirm that the president has publicly stated there was no quid pro quo, officials said, and that it is appropriate for the U.S. government to withhold aid from foreign governments deemed to be corrupt.

Republicans have also used their time to go after Biden, including citing Trump’s unsubstantiated allegation that Biden used his position as vice president to pressure Ukraine to fire a prosecutor who had been investigating the energy company that had employed Biden’s son.

Republicans must be defeated in 2020, along with Trump.

UPDATE:

The GOP malicious clown show

I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that the temporary closed-door nature of the hearings actually works in favor of Republicans, not against them. It’s the only thing they have left to cast doubt, however absurdly, on the damning information that’s already right there on the record.

And it allows them to convey to the Audience of One — and his followers — that they are fighting the good fight on his behalf, without their self-ascribed effectiveness actually being subject to outside scrutiny.

[...]

As the Ukraine scandal grows exponentially more dangerous for President Trump, his public loyalists are adopting a clever little strategy that has two purposes.

The first is to create a sense of chaos to discredit the whole impeachment process and to misdirect the public away from the damning fact-record that’s being established right now for all to see.

The second and less obvious purpose is to demonstrate to Trump, who is in a rage over Republicans’ failure to adequately defend him, and to his supporters, who will demand that Republicans defend him to the death, that they are actually being fearsomely, mercilessly effective on his behalf.

  WaPo

Trump's bitches.

Republicans have argued, variously, that they are being excluded, that Trump is being denied fair treatment, and that the whole process is being concealed from the American people. But journalists have effectively demonstrated that many Republicans who stormed the hearing actually have the right to enter the proceedings, and that many others have actually availed themselves of the opportunity to participate and question witnesses.

[...]

[A new Wall Street Journal editorial] quotes Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) claiming this about [ambassador Willian] Taylor: “Much of his leaked opening statement collapsed, but Schiff keeps the public in the dark on that!”

The “leaked” opening statement, of course, was the full opening statement, but put that aside. The Journal editorial then notes that “What we don’t know is how Mr. Taylor responded to questions” about what he knew firsthand, adding: “If the evidence against Mr. Trump is so damning, then why not make it all public now so the American people can judge for themselves?”

You see, Zeldin wants you to know that the withering cross-examination skills of Republicans like himself debunked what you think you learned from Taylor in his already-revealed opening statement. The point here isn’t just that the already-known and deeply damning details in Taylor’s testimony should be seen as suspect, simply because House Republicans say so. It’s also that the effectiveness of House Republicans unmasked this, and Democrats are trying to conceal it.

[...]

Yes, of course the transcripts should be released, and of course the American people should have all the facts. But that will happen; that the initial investigative phase is private is eminently defensible.

[...]

Indeed, the very same witnesses Republicans claim they have reduced to a puddle of incoherence will likely undergo open questioning once the inquiry moves into its public phase. The Post reports that Democrats hope to do this by mid-November, and that it will likely include open questioning of Taylor and other key witnesses.

[...]

But for Trump’s most ardent loyalists, this simply won’t matter. If and when publicly revealed testimony does not exonerate Trump, they’ll simply lie to the contrary, and treat the fact of public release as the hook to claim that the Democratic coverup has been exposed, counting on their massive propaganda apparatus to amplify that story line. This is exactly what happened with the Nunes memo — it was a total fiasco, yet Republicans widely pretended it was deeply revelatory.

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

UPDATE:

Opening the White House to cyber attacks

That stunt the GOP pulled invading a secure room with their smartphones comes on the heels of an internal sybersecurity memo made public this week.

The Oct. 17 memo, obtained by Axios, was written by senior White House cybersecurity director Dimitrios Vastakis, who oversaw its computer network defense.

In the memo, Vastakis writes that the decision in July to fold the Office of the Chief Information Security Officer (OCISO) into the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) was “alarming.”

“This is a significant shift in the proprieties of senior leadership where business operations and quality of service take precedence over securing the President’s network,” the memo reads. “As a career cyber security professional, this is alarming.”

The memo also comes after at least a dozen officials have either resigned from or been pushed out of an Obama-era cybersecurity mission, which was established in 2014 after Russia hacked into some White House computers. The mission aimed to shield the White House from similar foreign threats, Axios reported.

“Measuring the success of your security staff by the frequency major compromises are identified versus the duration of time since the last compromise is absurd,” Vastakis wrote. “Allowing for a large portion of institutional knowledge to concurrently walk right out the front door seems contrary to the best interests of the mission and the organization as a whole.”

He added, “They say that history repeats itself. Unfortunately, given all of the changes I’ve seen in the past three months, I foresee the White House is posturing itself to be electronically compromised once again.”

  The Hill

Russia, if you're listening...come on in.

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

The point is to cause a stink

We've already seen it.  Remember the fit over Mueller's testimony?

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

It's worse - Part 2

Jesus.

UPDATE:  Somebody smarter than him (which is a huge field) apparently had a talk with Gaetz.

It's worse

Take names.

Led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican known for his long history of made-for-TV antics, the band of about two dozen lawmakers entered the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), an area where members can review classified information and hold private hearings. It’s a wild escalation after weeks of complaints — from Republicans who aren’t on the committees investigating impeachment — about being cut out of the impeachment process.

Notably, according to a list provided by Gaetz's office of the Republicans who RSVP'd to join the protest, 12 of them are members of the Oversight or Foreign Affairs committees — including Rep. Jim Jordan, the ranking member on the Oversight Committee — meaning they have been allowed to sit in on all depositions held in the SCIF in recent weeks.

  Buzzfeed

Disgraceful.

Rep. Fred Keller, an Oversight member who joined the protest, "was acting in solidarity with those members of Congress who are not allowed in the hearings, to review testimony, or read transcripts of this secret inquiry. ... [He] believes the way this inquiry is being conducted is unfair and it needs to stop," according to a spokesperson.

President Donald Trump knew in advance that Republicans planned to occupy the space and supported their plan, “saying he wanted the transcripts released because they will exonerate him,” Bloomberg reported, citing four sources familiar with the conversation.

Can it be he actually believes that?

Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly, who was inside the SCIF at the time, said he saw 20 Republicans facing down just two security guards. He said that rather than try to eject the members, House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff and the House sergeant-at-arms decided to wait them out so as to not escalate the situation.

[...]

Rep. Alex Mooney, a Republican from West Virginia, made an audio recording while in the SCIF, which he tweeted just before 2 p.m. In it, he says he is calling from a secure line within the SCIF and that about 30 Republicans, including Rep. Steve Scalise, the number two House Republican, were sitting inside with him. All Democrats, Mooney said, had left.

"The moment we walked into the room, Chairman Adam Schiff saw us, took the witness, and walked out of the room because they refuse to have a hearing in a transparent way," he said.

As they should have, you idiot. You took your phones into a secure room, violating the rules and destroying security.

The protest Wednesday is the latest in a line of complaints from GOP lawmakers, who have argued that they are being cut out of the impeachment inquiry and that Democrats are holding hearings in secret. That’s not the case.

While the hearings have not been public, they have not been “secret.” Members of both parties on the committees holding the hearings — Oversight, Intelligence, and Foreign Affairs — have been able to attend the depositions and ask questions.

Rep. David Cicilline, a Democrat, told reporters he believed the move by Republican lawmakers was an effort to stop the interview with Cooper in the SCIF on Wednesday.

I doubt it. I think it was a show for Trump and Trump supporters.

“It’s not a coincidence that [Republicans] met with the president, [who] complained, ‘You’re not doing enough.'”

There you go.

“It’s a bunch of Freedom Caucus members having pizza around a conference table pretending to be brave,” Rep. Tom Malinowski, a Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, told reporters Wednesday. “All they basically did here was to storm a castle that they already occupied.”

[...]

An Intelligence Committee official said in a statement that Republicans bringing in their phones was a “major security breach,” adding, “They engage in this circus-like behavior because they can’t defend the President’s egregious misconduct.”

[...]

Rep. Kathleen Rice, a Democrat and former prosecutor, said in an interview with BuzzFeed News on Tuesday that she wanted the public to know the process is standard. “This rhetoric coming out of the White House about the procedure that's being followed right now being irregular is complete garbage,” she said. “Ken Starr did not hold public hearings when he was doing the investigation into Bill Clinton. Everything was done the way most investigations are done, in private away from the public.”

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

UPDATE:



UPDATE:  And still worse:

Not a good look, GOP

Taylor's testimony yesterday really sent the GOP into a panic.

A group of Republican members of the House of Representatives, chanting “Let us in”, barged into a secure, in-camera hearing room in the bowels of the US capitol where Laura Cooper, a top Pentagon official who oversees Ukraine policy, was due to testify before the committees in charge of the inquiry.

The chaos and confusion temporarily shut down the proceedings as Republicans tweeted live updates of the disruption from their cellphones, which are not typically permitted in classified areas. Their presence in the chamber reportedly erupted into yelling matches with committee members.

“BREAKING: I led over 30 of my colleagues into the SCIF where Adam Schiff is holding secret impeachment depositions. Still inside – more details to come,” tweeted Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican congressman and one of Donald Trump’s closest allies on Capitol Hill, referring to secured areas of the Capitol known as Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities, or SCIFs, and Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee leading the Trump-Ukraine impeachment inquiry.

  Guardian

The Republicans who led the protest do not sit on the three committees involved in the impeachment inquiry and are not permitted to attend. Members of those committees already include Republican members of Congress, as well as Democrats, and both parties attend and ask questions at the hearings, whether public or, as in this case, closed to the public and the press.

[...]

The invading Republicans remained in the hearing room into the early afternoon and even ordered pizza.

“Reporting from Adam Schiff’s secret chamber,” Republican congressman Andy Biggs began, in a series of tweets from inside the room. Biggs has accused Democrats of conducting a “Soviet-style” impeachment inquiry and demanded the testimony be made available to all lawmakers.

“When Republican members were in the SCIF, Chairman Schiff immediately left with the witness,” he tweeted. Biggs later clarified that he had “transmitted” to aides for publication, as the use of electronic devices in the secure area violates security protocols.

Obviously they don't give a shit.

More than five hours after the standoff began, committee members were recalled to the room and Cooper’s deposition began. Democrats were furious. “This is a stunt that corresponded very specifically to the president’s complaint that they weren’t fighting hard enough for him, and in direct response to devastating testimony yesterday from Ambassador Taylor,” Democratic congressman David Cicilline, a member of the House foreign affairs committee, told reporters.

[...]

Meanwhile a report emerged noting that as early as 7 May the newly elected Zelenskiy told senior aides he was already worried about pressure from the Trump to investigate his Democratic rivals.

Zelenskiy’s group of advisers spent most of a three-hour meeting talking about how to navigate the insistence from Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, for such an investigation, and how to avoid becoming entangled in the American elections, according to three people familiar with the details of the meeting.

Microphones and cameras.






1)  We're not supposed to know who whistleblowers are.  They're supposed to be protected.
2)  Why isn't the @GOPoversight Twitter person better educated?  "Being ran."
3)  It's not secret.  It's closed to the public as many hearings are and have been for ages.  It's being attended by Republicans who are involved in the questioning of witnesses.
4)  The American peopole will be enlightened when the investigation is complete, articles of impeachment have been drawn up, and the Senate holds the trial.

The Republicans know all this.  They're desperate.

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

UPDATE:  It's worse.

UPDATE:  And still worse:



UPDATE:

Cooper was also the first Defense Department witness to defy a directive not to testify, a sign that Trump’s blockade of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry has continued to erode. Several senior State Department officials and a former National Security Council official have already taken the same route.

  Politico