The designated fall guy?Yesterday, the House Dems guiding the impeachment investigation released the transcripts of the closed door depositions with the National Security Council's top Ukraine expert Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman and former White House aide Fiona Hill, just as the White House and House Republicans demanded. CNN noted that "Hill testified behind closed doors last month that she took her concerns about the role President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani was playing in Ukraine to National Security Council attorneys. Hill also testified that then-national security adviser John Bolton described Giuliani's efforts with U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland in Ukraine as a 'drug deal.' Vindman was the first official interviewed by lawmakers in the impeachment inquiry who listened into the July call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Vindman said he was concerned about the call and reported it to National Security Council attorneys. The House Intelligence Committee has now released eight transcripts of the 15 witnesses who have testified behind closed doors in the impeachment inquiry." And next week they move-- again, after non-stop demands from the Republicans that they do so-- into the public hearings. Happy Republicans?Of course not. They re flipping out. Yesterday Trump changed strategy and started carrying on there should be no public hearings at all. "They shouldn’t be having public hearings. This is a hoax," he groused to reporters as he headed off to try to save David Perdue's seat in Georgia. Trump claimed he doesn't know any of the witnesses and that none of them had any first-hand knowledge of anything. "I’m not concerned about anything. The testimony has all been fine. I mean for the most part, I’ve never even heard of these people. There are some very fine people. You have some Never Trumpers. It seems that nobody has any first-hand knowledge."Read The Transcript, indeedNPR's Philip Ewing reported yesterday that Vindman, who very much had first hand knowledge, was on the call with Zelensky and had access to the transcripts of the call Trump was trying to hide on a secret server. Vindman "said that departure in policy followed a conversation he had with a top lawyer on the National Security Council raising concerns about Trump's request that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy launch investigations that might help Trump's campaign in the 2020 election."
Another important detail from Vindman was his recollection that, in the phone call, Zelenskiy responded to Trump's inquiry by saying that a prosecutor in the Ukrainian government "will look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned."What Vindman wrote in his notes was that Zelenskiy specified by name the gas company Burisma-- the firm that paid Hunter Biden for a time when he had a position on its board.That detail would confirm the accounts of others in the Ukraine affair, including the account by the intelligence community whistleblower whose complaint set the drama into motion, that Zelenskiy had been primed by other U.S. officials about the need to "play ball" with Trump when the two men spoke.In the official account of the phone call released by the White House, Zelenskiy is described as using the phrase, "the company you mentioned" to Trump.In Hill's case, her deposition not only reflects her own reservations about Trump's Ukraine pressure policy, but her descriptions of the views and actions taken by then-national security adviser John Bolton.Hill, a well-known specialist in Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, told investigators that she too objected to the Ukraine strategy and why: It imperiled U.S. assistance to an ally in Ukraine was helpful to the adversary, in Russia.Hill also is another witness who has characterized Bolton's concerns about the Ukraine affair, which she said he called a "drug deal" and of which she said he wanted no part.Bolton also warned others inside the national security council that Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was a "hand grenade," according to Hill's account.
Meanwhile-- and tangentially-- John Wagner and Colby Itkowitz, writing for the Washington Post reported that the GOP's new top star to disrupt the impeachment investigation, Gym Jordan is in trouble again. "A college wrestling referee says he reported sexual misconduct involving a former doctor who’s been accused sexually abusing nearly 300 men over a 17-year period to... Jordan (R-OH), a former assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University. The congressman was dismissive, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court, and the doctor, Richard Strauss, continued to treat and abuse students at the school. Ohio State says it’s aware of 1,429 instances of fondling and 47 instances of rape involving Strauss, who committed suicide in 2005. Thursday’s filing marks the 13th lawsuit against the school. Jordan has found himself at the periphery of the controversy because some former wrestlers have said he was aware-- or should have been aware-- of Strauss’s misconduct. Jordan has denied any knowledge of the abuse, and did so again on Friday. 'Congressman Jordan never saw or heard of any kind of sexual abuse, and if he had he would’ve dealt with it,' Jordan spokesman Ian Fury. 'Multiple investigations have confirmed this simple fact.'" Except that isn't true, not even a little. Jordan would like to rewrite history, but he is totally complicit in the rapes and sexual assaults of dozens of boys over a period of several years and has done nothing but tried to cover it up and prevent a real investigation.by Chip ProserPoor Gym Jordan! His disgrace will never end. Why should it? Do you think he deserves to be forgiven?
