WTF Just Happened Today

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

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1/ Trump considered firing the intelligence community's inspector general for reporting the whistleblower's complaint to Congress after concluding it was credible. Trump reportedly doesn't understand why Michael Atkinson shared the complaint, which outlined how Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate Trump's political rivals as he was withholding military aid from the country. Trump believes Atkinson, whom he appointed in 2017, has been disloyal. Trump publicly criticized James Comey, the former FBI director, and Jeff Sessions, the former attorney general, before he dismissed them for perceived disloyalty. (New York Times)

2/ House Republicans plan to argue that "the President's state of mind" made it impossible for Trump to have committed an impeachable offense during his July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to an 18-page staff memo outlining their strategic approach to the House impeachment inquiry. The memo highlights "four key pieces of evidence" to defend against impeachment: the lack of conditionality on the July 25 call; that Zelensky said there was no pressure from Trump; Ukraine didn't know about the freeze on U.S. military aid; and that the aid was released without investigation into the Bidens. (Axios)

3/ Mick Mulvaney withdrew his request to join a federal lawsuit seeking a decision on whether top Trump officials can be compelled to testify in the House impeachment inquiry. Mulvaney's legal team first notified the court that he planned to file his own lawsuit seeking court guidance on how to respond to a subpoena for his testimony. Mulvaney's lawyers later said in a court filing that "after further consideration," the acting White House chief of staff will instead obey the White House instruction to refuse to cooperate with the House of Representatives. (Reuters / Wall Street Journal / Washington Post)

???? Impeachment Watch FYI.

1. The first public presidential impeachment hearing will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday before the House Intelligence Committee.

2. Bill Taylor, the Trump administration's top diplomat in Ukraine, and George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs will testify.

3. Former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch is scheduled to testify before the same committee on Friday.

4. Watch on C-SPAN.

4/ Roger Stone first told one of Trump's top aides as early as spring 2016 that WikiLeaks would release materials that could damage Hillary Clinton – and that the campaign viewed the materials as "a gift." Rick Gates, who served as Trump's deputy campaign manager, also testified that he was with Trump in July 2016 when he received a phone call from Stone. After Trump hung up, he told Gates that more information would be coming – in reference to additional email releases that would hurt Democrats. Gates also said his boss, Paul Manafort, told him to stay in touch with Stone about WikiLeaks and that Trump would need to be updated on WikiLeaks' plans to release Democratic campaign...

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