Impeachment Pt. 1: WTF Is Actually Happening?

Previously on IMGUR: https://imgur.com/gallery/5QKcHeU

So as these proceedings .... proceed... I'm going to take a swing here at keeping everyone I can up to date in as succinct a manner as I can muster.

The first question is pretty obvious.
What in the ever loving F*ck is actually happening? How did we get to this? Why are we at this stage NOW and not, say, 6 months ago or 2 years ago?

While many argue it's a long and windy road, it's one that can certainly be shortened.

The 3 major players here are (not in order of image but rather of importance)

-President Donald Trump
-Ukranian Comedian Turned President Volodymyr Zelensky
-Vice President Joe Biden

"Mr Trump's critics accuse him of using the powers of the presidency to bully Ukraine into digging up damaging information on a political rival, Democrat Joe Biden.

Mr Trump and his supporters allege the former vice-president abused his power to pressure Ukraine to back away from a criminal investigation that could implicate his son, Hunter.

Mr Biden is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination to take on Mr Trump next year.

In other words, it is nothing less than the White House at stake."

- Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49800181

Remember, in July and even earlier, Biden was always projected as a front-runner (despite lagging behind Elizabeth Warren and even Bernie Sanders in several major states currently).

So why this mess, now, of all times?

"Mr Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a phone conversation on 25 July this year.

A rough transcript of the call* shows that the US president pressed his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate former Vice-President Biden and his son, who was a board member for a company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch.

The call came after the Trump administration had delayed releasing US military funds to Ukraine until mid-September.

Mr Trump also referenced the 2016 hacking of the Democratic email server in the call to Mr Zelensky, and seemed to imply that the server still exists somewhere in Ukraine.

The US president says he has done nothing wrong, calling the impeachment proceedings a "joke".

He has accused Democrats of themselves threatening Mr Zelensky by withholding their votes on US laws affecting Ukraine, and says the controversy was created in order to distract from Mr Trump's meetings at the United Nations."

-Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49800181

* the complaint is fully released at this time:
https://intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/20190812_-_whistleblower_complaint_unclass.pdf

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and even V.P. Joe Biden himself, had publicly been staunchly critical of any mention of impeachment inquiries. They saw this as a distraction to the 2020 election and an impossible hurdle that made Dems look petty to viewers.

However... since this whistleblower incident the tables have vastly turned.

"A majority of the House now backs impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, a significant milestone as Democrats move rapidly on an impeachment inquiry.

As of Wednesday night, 218 lawmakers have indicated support for impeachment proceedings — 217 Democrats and independent Rep. Justin Amash.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered full-throated support for impeachment proceedings amid outrage over Trump pressuring Ukraine to investigate the Biden family, leading to a surge of support among Democrats this week.

Since the start of the year, a steady stream of Democrats has backed impeachment proceedings or even outright impeachment — either through public statements or votes. Until this week, the bulk of impeachment inquiry backers cited the results of former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Trump campaign links to Russia, and whether Trump attempted to obstruct the probe."

source: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/25/majority-of-house-supports-impeachment-inquiry-1512897

Wait, so who's this Whistleblower guy and what's going on with that? How come he blew the whistle?

Well, that answer is straightforward but what happened is rather complicated. He saw the phonecall with Zelenskyy as a threat to national security and an abuse of power.

"The whistleblower complaint that focused on President Donald Trump’s request to Ukraine’s government to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden also alleges White House officials moved the records of some of Trump’s communications with foreign officials onto a separate computer network.

First reported by the Washington Post and now evident as the whistleblower complaint was publicly released, the complaint alleged the Trump transcript with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was placed on a computer system directly managed by the National Security Council Directorate for Intelligence Programs.

The whistleblower cited officials he or she spoke with that this not the first time a presidential transcript was placed into the system “solely for the purpose of protecting politically sensitive — rather than national security sensitive — information.”

The complaint more broadly alleges Trump is using the power of his office to solicit foreign interference in the U.S. election.

The White House has not responded to MarketWatch about this particular element of the whistleblower complaint.

Trump defended his July phone call with Ukraine’s president, saying there was “no pressure” on him as a summary showed Trump urging his counterpart to open a probe related to Biden.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday announced the opening of an impeachment inquiry."

- source: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/whistleblower-alleges-trump-white-house-moved-records-onto-separate-network-report-2019-09-26

So what's happening now?

There's intelligence hearings. Current breaking news is the exchange between *ACTING* Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire and Rep. Adam Schiff (D).

"House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) described the whistleblower complaint against President Trump as the "most graphic evidence yet" that Trump has abused his oath of office.

Trump “sacrificed our national security and the Constitution for his personal political benefit” during a July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Schiff said in his opening statement at a hearing on the complaint, which was made public minutes before he spoke.

An edited transcript of the call released by the White House Wednesday confirmed that Trump pressed Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

Trump has said he did nothing improper, while excorciating Democrats for a "witch hunt.".

Schiff evoked the founder's vision of the Constitution, calling it the president’s obligation “to defend the institutions of our democracy, to defend our system of checks and balances that the Constitution enshrines, to defend the rule of law.”

The California lawmaker raised details about the whistleblower complaint released earlier Thursday, saying that Zelensky sought to "ingratiate himself" while making clear that he would like resources to help combat Russian aggression.

The chairman described Trump as acting like a mob boss who hears what someone wants and then makes clear their demands before bestowing such asks, an argument he'd also made Wednesday."

-source: https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/463165-schiff-describes-whistleblower-complaint-as-most-graphic-evidence

Particularly interesting is this statement by Rep. Devin Nunes (R)
"Rep. Devin Nunes, the Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, left everyone confused and baffled when he claimed at a Thursday hearing that Democrats wanted "nude pictures" of President Donald Trump.

At the hearing, Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire appeared to discuss a whistleblower complaint from an intelligence community official.

The complaint, released to the public on Thursday morning, alleges that in a July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump undermined US national security by withholding $400 million in military aid to Ukraine to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate the son of former Vice President Joe Biden."

-source: https://www.businessinsider.com/devin-nunes-claims-democrats-want-nude-pictures-of-trump-2019-9

This was disturbing to many in the journalistic and political circle.

This is important because of Giuliani's, vocal, and public role in this whole mess.
Rudy Giuliani is a personal attorney for Mr. Trump. In no way should he have the sort of clearance to speak about national security issues, let alone be involved in them. Yet, repeatedly in the call, according to the released White House transcript, "Trump repeatedly pressured Zelensky to work with Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter."

"President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Guiliani told Fox & Friends Wednesday morning that he had access to the transcript of the controversial phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky before the White House released it, and some experts argue there could be legal ramifications.

....
Giuliani, a private citizen, told Fox & Friends that he was previously aware of the transcript's classified contents.

"When you read the transcript, there is no mention of $250 million," Giuliani pointed out, referencing military aid for Ukraine that Trump decided to withhold days before the call.

The comment prompted Fox host Brian Kilmeade to ask whether Giuliani had read the transcript. He interjected multiple times without acknowledgment from Giuliani, who continued his defense of the president.

"Mr. Mayor, can I ask, did you read the transcript?" Kilmeade finally asked. Giuliani responded, "Let's say it was read to me."

"The whole thing?" Kilmeade asked. "I hope," Giuliani responded.

Yet Giuliani was evasive when Kilmeade asked if Trump brought up Biden during the call. "Maybe he didn't bring it up. Could be possible that the president of Ukraine brought it up," Giuliani said.

According to the transcript, there was no explicit mention of the foreign aid that Trump had withheld. However, Trump did speak openly of the Bidens."

-source: https://www.newsweek.com/trump-lawyer-rudy-giuliani-reveals-he-accessed-ukraine-transcript-prior-release-1461316

Needless to say, this is far from over.

We're going to get more updates, even by the end of the day, so stick around.

If you have more questions and inquiries, leave them in the comments and I'll respond to you with sourced links that both reputable and safe to click.

Best,
TyDugganWrites

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#thelastofuspart2 due out Feb. 2020