Daily Archives: October 3, 2019

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Opinion

By RICH LOWRY

October 02, 2019

Rich Lowry is editor of National Review and a contributing editor with Politico Magazine.

After three years, were still on the Russia story.

To be sure, the locus has shifted 500 miles west from Moscow to Kiev, and now we are consumed with the Ukraine controversy rather than the Russia investigation, although its essentially the same thinga battle over President Donald Trumps legitimacy fought out with allegations of foreign interference.

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The effort to widen the Ukraine controversy, from the core itTrumps mention of the Bidens on his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyto his urging Ukraine, Australia and others to cooperate with William Barrs investigation of the origins of the Russia probe illustrates the point nicely.

Theres nothing wrong or unusual about a U.S. president asking foreign leaders to provide information useful to his attorney general in a duly constituted investigation. Why would there be? Except the presidents detractors dont consider Barrs investigation above-board, in fact consider it another form of Trumps perfidy.

In its report on Trumps call with the Australian prime minister, the New York Times saysin a news report, mind youthat the call shows the president using high-level diplomacy to advance his personal political interests. Trump is pleased with Barrs investigation, and would be even more pleased if it unearthed anything untoward. That doesnt make it merely a pet political project, or mean that there isnt a genuine public interest in knowing in greater detail how and why the Russia story got started.

The Times of London reported of Trumps call to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson that he wanted to gather evidence to undermine the investigation into his campaigns links to Russia. Theres not really anything to undermine, though, since the investigation has been over for months.

Trump is basically being accused of the entirely new offense of obstruction after the fact. There were many novel theories of obstruction advanced during the Mueller probe, but this is the most creative.

The Russia investigation figures into the Ukraine story in another way. Its not clear that even Democrats would consider his Ukraine call impeachable if it werent for their belief that Trump has gotten away with so much previously, as cataloged in the Mueller report. There was already significant backing in the House for impeachment prior to the news of the Ukraine whistleblower complaint, and Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler already said he was conducting an impeachment inquiry.

Even the framework of the Ukraine matter reflects the Russia story. Trumps critics say he was asking for Ukrainian interference in our elections, when what was really going on was that he and Rudy Giuliani were interfering in Ukrainian politics. They were pushing the Ukrainians to undertake investigations, including, of course, into Joe Bidens actions in the country.

If you accept the premise that any information developed in a foreign country and used in American politics is election interference, then Trumps opponents themselves were masters at leveraging Ukrainian interference during the 2016 election. As POLITICO reported in 2017, Ukrainian government officials helped Clintons allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers.

Giulianis Ukraine adventure was motivated, in large part, by the desire to get to the bottom of this activity in 2016, and turn the tables on Trumps critics. (Instead, he appears to have turned the tables on himself.)

There will be lots of comparisons with the 1990s as the House moves toward impeachment. Yet, the 1790s might be the more apt comparison. Back then, at the outset of the republic, each nascent political party was consumed with the idea that the other was a tool of a foreign power (either France or Britain), and believed that the other was a fundamental threat to American democracy. It made for particularly vitriolic politics.

Today, the Democrats still have not gotten beyond the idea that Trump is somehow a a tool of Russia, while Republicans point to Democratic coordination with shadowy foreign forces to get the Russia investigation rolling. Books fly off the shelves about Trump being an alleged fascist, and Republicans are gripped by a Flight 93 mentality that fears if they lose a presidential election, they will never win another one again.

The Russian story contributed to and fed off this feverish atmosphere. For the longest time, it offered Democrats the hope of deliverance from a president whose election they never truly accepted. When Mueller didnt have the goods, House Democrats were at sea for a while, until Trumps call and the whistleblower complaint brought impeachment deliciously back into play.

Ukraine is more an epilogue of the Russian investigation than the beginning of a new book.

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Trump Is Still Getting Impeached Over Russia - POLITICO

Add the word investigate to the list of victims of the war on language. It joins the likes of witch hunt, fake news, and tremendous in the gallery of terms that had a widely understood meaning before the Trump Presidency but have since devolved to mean the opposite of what they used to mean, or nothing at all.

The American dictionaries define investigation as a close study or a systematic inquiry; the British add that it is a quest for truth. Somethingsay, a found objectmay not be immediately understandable and may need to be investigated. Though another thingsuch as a crime or an accidentmay be known to occur, its circumstances may need to be investigated. Something else may be merely a hypothesisthat a condition is contagious, or a remedy is effectiveand also may need to be investigated. The general meaning and purpose of an investigation is to learn more than is already known, and then, it is implied, to act on the results.

Since the story of Donald Trumps telephone conversation with the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, hit the front pages last week, the meaning of the word investigate has seemed to shift. President Trump repeatedly urged the Ukrainian president to investigate Joe Biden, the lead of a Washington Post story last Thursday read. The call turned into a bid by Mr. Trump to press a Ukrainian leader in need of additional American aid to do us a favor and investigate Democrats, a Times story from the same day read. Trump did not appear to be asking for a systematic study or to learn something he didnt know: he was looking to use the investigation as a cudgel. Indeed, a cudgel is what Trump seems to think an investigation is: his countless tweets and rants about Robert Muellers investigation of Russian interference in the Presidential election told us as much.

This week has brought a new crop of investigation headlines. Trump Pressed Australian Leader to Help Barr Investigate Mueller Inquirys Origins was the title of a Times story. President Donald Trump recently asked the Australian prime minister and other foreign leaders to help Attorney General William Barr with an investigation into the origins of the Russia probe that shadowed his administration for more than two years, the Justice Department said Monday, was the lead of a Post article from Tuesday. An Australian diplomat was an initial source of information about contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives (or, to be more accurate, between two blowhards, one of whom appears to have exaggerated his connection to Russia while the other, George Papadopoulos, oversold his role in the Trump campaign). Because Trump views all investigations as instrumental, he believes that something largeror someone who is after himhad to be behind that early tip. This is why Investigate the investigators has become a slogan of Trumps relection campaign. In countries run by the men Trump most admiresthe Putins, Erdoans, and Dutertes of the worldall investigations have a predetermined outcome. Trump seems to share this world view, which explains his obsession with the people he imagines to be behind an investigation.

As is often the case with Trump, his word usage both amplifies ideas ambient in the culture and takes advantage of gaps in the language. Long before Trump started alleging that any investigation into his actions was the result of a conspiracy aimed at removing him from office, Hillary Clinton said the same thing, in so many words, about investigations into her husbands actions: the great story here, for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it, is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for President, she said, on the Today show, in 1998. Half a decade later, she wrote that she stands by her assessment of the investigation that led to her husbands impeachment. Informed, it seems, in large part by the experience of serving in Congress during the Clinton-impeachment hearings, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has deployed the threat of an investigation as a strategic weaponfollowing the conclusion of the special counsel Robert Muellers investigation, she allowed congressional investigations to proceed, but she resisted calls for an official impeachment inquiry until the Ukraine story broke. The Mueller report enumerated several clear-cut instances of obstruction of justice by Trump; one could argue that an additional investigation, in the sense of a quest for truth, was entirely unnecessary, and this too has served to fog up the meaning of the word investigation. The Times story on Pelosis announcement of the impeachment inquiry uses a form of the word investigate nine times, to mean vastly different things: the Mueller probe, the impeachment proceedings, the process that Trump tried to get Ukraine to carry out, and the ongoing post-Mueller congressional inquiry.

Language, of course, is always evolving. But a word made so flexible that anyone can use it to mean anything is a political problem. It doesnt aid communication across differences; in fact, it hinders it. The word investigation, which is certain to appear ever more frequently in political conversations in the next month, now means resistance at one extreme and digging up dirt at the other. Such a disparity doesnt bode well for words that are or ought to be related to investigation, such as trial, testimony, or truth.

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The Changing Definition of Investigating Donald Trump - The New Yorker

The White House said President Trump's outreach on William Barr's behalf was a legitimate effort to assist the inquiry into the Mueller investigation. USA TODAY

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump has asked multiple countries, including Australia, to helpAttorney General William Barr's ongoing inquiry into the origins of special counsel Robert Mueller's examination of Russian interference in the 2016 election investigation, White House and Justice Department officials said Monday.

Trump has sought the assistance most recentlywithAustralianPrime Minister Scott Morrison on behalf of his attorney general who is leading a politically charged internal inquiry to determine whether U.S. officials abused their authority in the now-concludedRussia investigation.

As the Department of Justice has previously announced, a team led by U.S. Attorney John Durham is investigating the origins of the U.S. counterintelligence probe of the Trump 2016 presidential campaign," Justice spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said. "Mr. Durham is gathering information from numerous sources, including a number of foreign countries. At Attorney General Barrs request, the president has contacted other countries to ask them to introduce the attorney general and Mr. Durham to appropriate officials.

It was not immediately clear how many countries Trump has contacted on Barr's behalf.

The disclosure, first reported by The New York Times, comes as Congress is examining a July 25 telephone call in which Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate his political rival Joe Biden.

Whistleblowers have been at time essential and detrimental to a country's democracy, but what makes them different than a leaker? We explain. Just the FAQs, USA TODAY

Barr's role in Ukraine?: Trump inserts AGBarr into political firestorm in call with Ukraine president

During that call, which has prompted a House impeachment inquiry, the president invoked Barr's name, repeatedly indicating that Barr would be calling to assist in reviving a then-dormant inquiry into a Ukrainian energy company, where Biden's son, Hunter Biden, served as a board member.

Neither the former vice president nor his son have been accused of wrongdoing by the Ukrainian government.

Justice officials said Barr had no prior knowledge that Trump had suggested the Ukrainian president work with the attorney general.

Australia, however, played a pivotal role in the FBI's decision to launch the initial investigation into Russia interference in 2016. At the time, Australia's top diplomat in the United Kingdompassed information to U.S. authorities after a meeting with George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign foreign policy adviser. The diplomat saidPapadopoulosconfided that Russians were offering up damaging information on then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Papadopoulos later served served two weeks in prison for lying to FBI agents about his interactions with a Russian national while working for the Trump campaign. Trump has dismissed Papadopoulos as a low-level campaign aide.

Hewas the first former Trump aide to be sentenced in Mueller'sinvestigation of Moscow's interference operation.

President Donald Trump, right, and Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison toast as they speak in the Rose Garden outside the White House for a state dinner in Washington on Sept. 20, 2019.(Photo: ERIK S. LESSER, EPA-EFE)

Papadopoulosadmitted that he lied to the FBIabout interactions in which people he thought were linked to the Russian government described Moscow having thousands of emails containingdamaging information about Hillary Clinton.

An Australian government spokesman Monday acknowledged Trump's recent entreaties.

"The Australian government has always been ready to assist and cooperate with efforts that help shed further light on the matters under investigation," the government said in a written statement. "The (prime minister) confirmed this readiness once again in conversation with the president."

'A nothing call' or abuse of power?: Trump's Ukraine call becomes instant political fodder for Democrats, GOP

'Horrific and chilling': Whistleblower advocates complain as Trump tries to identify source of Ukraine complaint

Earlier this year, Trump appeared to offer a preview of the attorney general's expected efforts to pursue contacts with other governments in the Mueller examination.

"He can look, and I hope he looks at the UK, and I hope he looks at Australia, and I hope he looks at Ukraine," Trump said in a May 24 exchange with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House.

"I hope he looks at everything, because there was a hoax that was perpetrated on our country. It's the greatest hoax in the history of our country, and somebody has to get to the bottom of it."

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley characterized Trump's outreach on Barr's behalf a legitimate effort to assist the inquiry into the Mueller investigation.

Im old enough to remember when Democrats actually wanted to find out what happened in the 2016 election," Gidley said. "The Democrats clearly don't want the truth to come out anymore as it might hurt them politically, but this call relates to a DOJ inquiry publicly announced months ago to uncover exactly what happened. The DOJ simply requested that the resident provide introductions to facilitate that ongoing inquiry, and he did so, that's all."

But Mary McCord, former acting assistant attorney general for Justice's National Security Division, said there are other existing means of seeking introductions to foreign counterparts, including through law enforcement, intelligence and diplomatic channels.

"As the attorney general of the United States, he almost certainly would have his calls returned even without an introduction," McCord said. "I am not surprised that the attorney general is involved in the Durham investigation, as he is the one who directed Durham to conduct the investigation and Durham reports to him.It is more concerning if the president is involved, given his attacks on the FBI and others involved in the Russia investigation, and the potential for him to benefit politically from the investigation."

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President Trump asked Australia, other countries to help AG Barr investigate origins of Mueller inquiry - USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO The Trump administration ratcheted up its feud with California on Wednesday as the Environmental Protection Agency issued a notice accusing San Francisco of violating the federal Clean Water Act.

Last month, President Donald Trump warned of a potential violation notice, saying the city was allowing needles and human waste to go through storm drains to the Pacific Ocean an allegation fervently denied by city officials.

The violation notice came in the form of a letter to Harlan Kelly, Jr., general manager of the citys Public Utilities Commission.

It said the EPA had identified violations in the city and county wastewater treatment and sewer system, including lack of proper operation and maintenance that has allowed raw and partially-treated sewage to flow onto beaches into the ocean and sometimes into streets and homes.

The letter alleged that some discharges contained heavy metals and bacteria and said the city hasnt kept up proper cleaning, inspection and repair schedules for the system nor properly reported or issued public warnings for sewage diversions.

Its the latest salvo in a feud between the administration and Democrat-controlled California, which has filed more than 50 lawsuits opposing Trump initiatives on the environment, immigration and health care.

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler sent a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom last week alleging waste left by the homeless in big cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles was being improperly handled.

Mayor London Breed said the violation notice contains mischaracterizations, inaccuracies and falsehoods and the citys sewer system is one of the most effective in the country.

"No debris flow out into the (San Francisco) Bay or the ocean," Breed said in a statement, adding that San Francisco has a multibillion-dollar program to upgrade its sewage treatment system.

"The same Trump EPA that is dismantling environmental protections around the country is now making fraudulent claims about San Franciscos combined sewer system, state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said in a statement. He called the notice a fraudulent political attack on San Francisco by a collapsing administration desperate to rile up its base.

The EPA notice contained a veiled warning that it retains the option of seeking fines and penalties through administrative, civil or criminal actions over the violations.

Wheeler's letter to the governor last week didnt lay out any specifics on possible disciplinary actions, although they could include withholding funds or revoking California's authority to administer federal laws such as the Clean Water Act. The latter would seem highly unlikely, however, because EPA would have to assume the expense of running the programs itself.

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EPA follows up on Trump threat, issues violation notice to San Francisco - NBCNews.com

Impeaching a U.S. president might not be the be-all-end-allfor their career. We explain why this is the case. Just the FAQs, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON As the White House sought to convey a semblance of normalcy in the face of a growing crisis Thursday, President Donald Trump again attacked a new impeachment inquiry as a"disgrace" and a "terrible thing for our country."

It shouldnt be allowed there should be a way of stopping it,maybe legally through the courts,"Trump said as he returned to Washington after a week of activities with the United Nations in New York.

The whistleblower's complaint that sparked an impeachment inquiry into President Trump has been released. USA TODAY

Trump and his aides moved into communication overdrive in response to the threat of impeachment. They seekto counter the newly released complaint from an unidentified whistleblower andclaims that Trump improperly pressured Ukraine's president to investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden.

After a high-profile House Intelligence Committee hearing on the whistleblower's allegations, Trump attacked the committee chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and his colleagues.

"Here we go again," Trump said. "It's Adam Schiff and his crew making up stories and sitting there like pious, whatever you want to call them."

Schiff mocked the complaints:Im always flattered when Im attacked by someone of the presidents character."

As some White House aides tried to move the conversation back to other issues, Trump operating as his own communicationdirector hammered Democrats, the whistleblower and the media.

Some of his aides, privately,expressed anxiety about the furor.While televisions throughout the West Wing were tuned to the House Intelligence Committee hearing, they said they tryto stay focused on doing their jobs, part of which involves defending the president.

In statements and emails throughout the day, atthe White House and within Trump's reelection campaign, aides argued that the complaint doesn't go much beyond what wasn't already known.Butthe whistleblower'sreport alleged Ukraine officials were aware that Trump wanted to discuss the issue before the July 25 call at the center of the controversy and said aides tried to "lock down" notes from Trump's call to Ukraine.

President Donald Trump accuses the news media of blowing up a "nothing" call.(Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

Nothing has changed with the release of this complaint, which is nothing more than a collection of third-hand accounts of events and cobbled-together press clippings all of which show nothing improper,"White House spokeswomanStephanie Grisham said in a statement less than a half-hour after the whistleblower document was released.

Some White House aides expressed frustration that reporters were focused on Ukraine and impeachment rather than the economy and immigration.

"I know theres a big hullabaloo, White House economic adviserLarry Kudlow said as he faced a litany of questions about theimpeachment inquiry. I dont see anything.

Trump declined to take questions throughout the day. White House reporters were summoned to the South Lawn for an unscheduled event Thursday evening that turned out to be a photo-op with the president and law enforcement officials.The officers broke out into applause and chants of "U-S-A" asTrump waved to reporters, who shouted unanswered questions about the whistleblower.

Later,administration officials announced the U.S. will dramatically reduce the number of refugees allowed to resettle in the country next year permitting no more than 18,000peoplefleeing war, violence and persecution.

And Trump's campaign announced a rally in Minneapolis next month.

Refugees: Trump sets lowest cap ever on refugees

'I thought it was dead': Trump says he thought threat ended with Mueller report

Grisham and other aidesstressed that the whistlebloweracknowledged he did not witness most of the events described, relying on statements from unidentified White House officials.

Aides noted that Trump released a summary of thephone call between him and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The whistleblower complaint provides moredetails of Trump's interactions with the Ukrainianleaderand suggests that Trump and aides tried to cover up his pushfora foreign country to investigate a rival before the 2020 election by storing the notes of the call in a separate computer system reserved for highly sensitive material.

The whistleblower said some administration officials expressed concern that Trump "used the power of his office" to benefit himselfand his reelection campaign.

Some officials were "deeply disturbed" by Trump's actions and discussed how to treat details of the call because they feared "they had witnessed the president abuse his office for personal gain," the whistleblower said.

President Donald Trump says there was nothing improper in his discussions with Ukraine's president.(Photo: SAUL LOEB, AFP/Getty Images)

Team Trump pushed back on these contentions in a variety of ways, including bombarding reporters and voters with emails, commentsand social media postings.

"The president released the full transcript of his phone call yesterday. It showed nothing inappropriate, despite false media reports to the contrary," tweeted Matt Wolking, deputy director of communicationfor rapid response with Trump's reelection campaign.

In addition to his brief remarks to reporters,Trump used his standard method of communication: Twitter.

Though not directly addressing the whistleblower's claims, Trump sent out a string of tweets and retweets defending himself and denouncing the impeachment drive.

He wrote,"THE DEMOCRATS ARE TRYING TO DESTROY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND ALL THAT IT STANDS FOR. STICK TOGETHER, PLAY THEIR GAME, AND FIGHT HARD REPUBLICANS. OUR COUNTRY IS AT STAKE!"

At Joint Base Andrews after returning from New York, Trump said the phone call to Ukraine "was perfect," and "the president yesterday of Ukraine said there was no pressure put on him whatsoever, none whatsoever."

Skeptics said Trump and his communicationteam have their work cut out for them.

"They are just going after the process and the messenger," said Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor in New York. "Because if the message in the complaint is accurate and everything suggests it is, including the White House call summaryits devastating."

Trump and other administration officials sought to project the idea of business as usual, from presidential fundraisers in New York to an immigration briefing at the White House though Trump said Democrats are getting in the way.

"They're going to tie up our country," he said. "We can't talk about gun regulation. We can't talk about anything, because frankly they're so tied up."

As Washington was glued to the testimony of acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, the White House trotted out nearly a dozen federal and local law enforcement and immigration officials to discuss a favorite topic: immigration and so-called sanctuary city policies.

Flanked by county sheriffs, acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Matthew Albence blasted cities and counties that ignore federal requests to hold in jail immigrants in the country illegally.

Trump and other Republicans pointed to crimes committed by immigrants released by cities. The federal requests are the subject of litigation, and leaders of sanctuary jurisdictions noted their power to hold a person in jail for a civil immigration violation is murky.

Its time to publicly call out those who would put politics over public safety, Albence told a sparsely populated briefing room in the White House.

Albence dismissed questions about the timing of the news conference, given the other news story consuming Washington.

We started planning this several weeks ago, he said.

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Donald Trump's wary White House deals with the threat of impeachment - USA TODAY