My impression is…
Wasn’t Nunes trying to make the case that there was some democratic operatives cooperating with some Ukrainian government officials to reduce Trump’s chance of winning the election in 2016? I think he pointed to some mid level Ukrainian diplomat or similar saying bad things about Trump as this coordination, then tried to make it a “both sides” argument. I think the context of the question helps a lot to see what particular bunch of bullshit Nunes was trying to push.
To some degree Hill did agree that some government officials said some unkind things about Trump publicly, and that they had “bet” on Clinton winning. But, that wasn’t restricted to one country - Hill claimed officials from many countries had made similar comments (perhaps far less publicly) about what a colossal fuckup Donnie was. It’s unusual that Trump focused so hard on some conspiracy that Ukraine was “out to get him” when by that standard many countries were.
I assume as part of throwing Rudy under the bus, they’ll say that he somehow mislead the president into these wrongheaded views and it’s Rudy’s fault Trump did these things. How Trump decided not to listen to all these other magically pristine advisors giving good advice the whole time is beyond me, but it’ll probably sell to Trump’s base.
It’s always about projection with these guys. Whatever they accuse someone of is what they themselves are guilty of.
Thrag
4392
He was pushing the Steel Dossier line, claiming that it was the democrats who used foreign sources to dig up dirt on Trump.
The thing is, using campaign funds to pay for oppo research and reporting the expense as a campaign expense is…legal. Even if you’re paying foreigners.
IIRC, the Times and Politico wrote about this when it was happening.
Kiev is both poor and hugely corrupt. It has all of Russia’s problems, but more so.
So when Hillary was a shoe in, Kiev worked hard to curry favor with her.
And when Trump was elected, they reversed course to support him.
They’ll swallow their dignity if it means securing more aid. The money is worth it.
This is an interesting comment from one of Josh Marshall’s readers:
Tl;dr version:
The House is punting on issuing subpoenas to Mulvaney, Pompeo etc because fighting them in the courts will drag out for months, with nothing happening for all that time, and of course there is the possibility that SCOTUS won’t ultimately uphold them.
If they go to a Senate trial now, they can issue those subpoenas as part of that trial, and what is different then is that the question of enforcing them gets decided by John Roberts alone, immediately. Roberts could be overruled by a full vote of the Senate, but there is some question as to whether there are 50 Republican Senators ready to overrule the Chief Justice on a point of law. And if the Senate doesn’t overrule him, his decision is non-justiciable in the courts.
So at the very least, they don’t lose any momentum fighting through the courts for months. And if they actually believe it is possible John Roberts would join the 4 non-GOP justices in upholding the subpoenas in the end, they can get that result now rather than waiting months to get it.
There is some indication that Pelosi is thinking this way, since she apparently yesterday mentioned that the testimony of Mulvaney and Pompeo ‘might’ be available in the Senate.
If this is what they are thinking, then their strategy of not pursuing the unwilling witnesses now suddenly makes a lot of sense.
Can they issue subpoenas as a minority?
Thrag
4397
The house appoints an impeachment manager that acts as the prosecutor in the trial. They can issue subpoenas.
Edit: I should add, it’s a pretty safe bet that the lead manager is going to be Schiff.
Yes, the Democratic House acts as the prosecution in the Senate trial. The Senators are the jury, and the Chief Justice is the presiding judge.
It would be a shock if he were not the lead manager.
Menzo
4399
Who runs the defense? Please say Rudy.
They make Nunes wear one of those little barrister wigs
Pretty sure Nunez doesn’t have the pizzaz to pull off shouting “ORDER!”
Clay
4403
That’s legit funny and got a LOL out of me.
OMG HE’S DOING THE RICO! Alert Popehat!
Menzo
4408
Would love to hear the conversation Nunes has with “law enforcement.”
Officer: so you’re telling me that a journalist contacted Parnas’ lawyer after he hearing about these accusations?
Nunes: yes, can you believe it?!
Officer: this is called journalism.
Nunes: Shut. It. Down.
