2nd tape shows Trump meeting with congressman and Giuliani associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman
MIKE LEVINE, JOHN SANTUCCI and SOO RIN KIM
January 30, 2020, 2:25 PM CST


2nd tape shows Trump meeting with congressman and Giuliani associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman


2nd tape shows Trump meeting with congressman and Giuliani associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

A former congressman allegedly linked to Rudy Giuliani’s shadow campaign to oust America’s then-ambassador to Ukraine appears on video, obtained by ABC News, meeting with President Donald Trump.

Trump, who is in the midst of his impeachment trial, has insisted he does not know the two businessmen, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who also helped Giuliani dig into since-discredited allegations that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden corruptly sought to protect his son from a Ukrainian investigation he was in office.

But the tape, provided to ABC News by a lawyer for Parnas, is the second video to surface in the past week showing both Parnas and Fruman meeting with Trump in early 2018. The latest tape was apparently recorded on April 20, 2018 – at a Republican-sponsored meet-and-greet ten days before the meeting captured on video made public last week.

MORE: 'Take her out': Recording appears to capture Trump at private dinner saying he wants Ukraine ambassador fired

Only a few minutes into the latest recording, then-congressman Pete Sessions, R-Texas, can be seen walking into a dining room at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

"You guys, let me introduce myself to everybody. I'm Pete Sessions," the prominent Texan can be heard telling those gathered to meet with Trump, including Parnas, Fruman and two pro-Trump women who emigrated from Syria but were not identified.


PHOTO: File photo - Rep. Pete Sessions speaks to members of the media as he arrives for a Republican conference meeting June 7, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (File/Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Late last year, Parnas and Furman were indicted in New York federal court for allegedly scheming to circumvent campaign finance laws and raise $20,000 for a then-sitting congressman, since identified as Sessions. Both Parnas and Fruman have pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors also allege that Parnas and Fruman enlisted help from a former congressman to have veteran diplomat Marie Yovanovitch recalled as ambassador – a move that has figured prominently into the narrative of Trump’s impeachment.

Sessions recently told ABC News he is cooperating with the federal probe.

MORE: Former Rep. Pete Sessions subpoenaed in SDNY case of 2 Giuliani associates

In May 2018, Sessions sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging him to remove Yovanovitch, insisting – with no evidence – that Yovanovitch had been working against Trump.

Parnas told Trump the same thing a couple of weeks earlier, during a small gathering on April 30, 2018.

“Get rid of her,” Trump appears to respond, according to a recording of the encounter reviewed by ABC News last week. "Get her out tomorrow. I don't care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. OK? Do it.”

That recording is in the custody of federal prosecutors in New York.

MORE: As impeachment inquiry goes public, federal prosecutors quietly investigate Giuliani

Trump has distanced himself from Parnas, and the president’s supporters have questioned his credibility and motives.

"I don't know him," the president recently said when asked about Parnas. "I don't know Parnas other than I guess I had pictures taken, which I do with thousands of people, including people today that I didn't meet. But I just met him. I don't know him at all. Don't know what he's about, don't know where he comes from, know nothing about him. I can only tell you this thing is a big hoax."

The latest recording shows Trump meeting with Parnas and Fruman, and according to sources, the meeting would be the first of two held in a two-week-period in early 2018.

For more than 30 minutes, during the meeting that sources tell ABC News was held on April 20, 2018, Trump entertained questions from the group of supporters, discussing matters ranging from Trump’s handling of Syria to Republican representation in Congress.

“We're losing a lot of people,” Trump said of a recent wave of Republican retirements. “Pete, maybe you can talk a little about this.”

“We win when we are together,” Sessions responded. “We win when we gather ourselves together around a common theme, and that is the president of the Unite States that wants to make America great again.”

There was no discussion of Yovanovitch in the meeting apparently held on April 20, 2018.


PHOTO: File photo of Ukrainian-American businessman Lev Parnas after a bail hearing at the Manhattan Federal Court in New York, Dec. 17, 2019. (File/Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters)
MORE: Giuliani associate Parnas texted with Trump campaign donors, including about Ukraine efforts

It was not until a year later that Yovanovitch was recalled from her position -- in April 2019. Yovanovitch has said the decision was based on "unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives" that she was disloyal to Trump. In public testimony, many of her colleagues have agreed.

House investigators have been attempting to document – in part with text messages supplied by Parnas -- an almost year-long effort on the part of Parnas and Giuliani to get Yovanovitch removed from her post.

Trump’s supporters, meanwhile, have maintained that no evidence has been put forward directly linking Trump to any of the alleged impeachable actions. And Trump and the White House have maintained that removing Yovanovitch was within his right.

"Every president in our history has had the right to place people who support his agenda and his policies within his Administration," White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said last week.

A spokesman for Sessions declined to comment for this article.

 

Unbelievable...everything else means nothing!

 

Regardless of the outcome, its a tragic story. Watergate has been reunned on TV over here.......

But I can never forget Bill Clintons famous words: I never had sexual relations with that woman!!!
I think I'll dip a cigartip i the nearest pu....

 

Thanks. I was just headed over here to put this one up. And I like ol'Lev. Now if he doesn't get Epsteined he will probably still get about 10 years. But I have to admire his bravado and he brings the receipts. And is damned entertaining.

PS And sooner or later we will hear Lev speak under oath.

 

And nobody will care then either

 

Non-sensical.....if the Trump team argue that he can do anything to get reelected as he deems it in the public interest!

He can assinate political opponents, extend to three or four terms even out law free and fair elections!

Read Nostromo to see what happens then!

Thinskin

 

He can withhold disaster relief aid until the governor agrees to investigate his political opponent. He can declare a state of emergency in precincts not friendly to him over an illness. The possibilities are endless.

 

But despicables won't let that happen.

They'll drum up some "witness" to accuse Trump of ............ something and then they'd start an investigation that would go months or even years, with endless demands for witnesses and documents and golf score cards.

Trump is still gonna win reelection, the only question is who despicables will blame.

 

If a certain election result is in the public interest then why have the election at all?

Kleptocracy!

Thinskin

 

Yep...at his own trial.

 

McConnell has support needed to kill impeachment witness vote

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he is confident he will have the votes needed to stop Democrats from calling more impeachment witnesses. This came after McConnell said he was unsure if he would have the support needed to kill the vote earlier this week.

Democrats would need four Republicans to vote with them in order to call more witnesses for the trial.

“I hope that we have just four Republicans, all we need is four, who rise to the occasion and say we need to find out the truth,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland Michael Steele said McConnell spoke with senators, like Lisa Murkowski, who were considered potential swing votes in hopes of persuading them to vote in line with the party.

“There will be no more witnesses and there will be no new evidence that will be introduced because you’re not going to get the fourth senator,” said Steele. “That fourth senator is not going to land because Mitch McConnell has such a tight grip on this process.”

If the Senate kills the vote as expected, the upper chamber could move forward with a vote to formally acquit the president as early as Friday.




House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., second from right, distributed pens after she signed the resolution to transmit the two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate for trial on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020.

 

Sen. Lindsey Graham Was 'In The Loop' On Ukraine Scheme, Says Lev Parnas
Mary Papenfuss
January 30, 2020, 6:55 PM CST


Rudy Giuliani’s indicted business associate Lev Parnas accused Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) of being “in the loop” on the scheme to pressure Ukraine to launch an investigation into unfounded accusations against former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading Democratic presidential candidate.

Parnas, a Florida businessman who had donated to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, said he was “1 million percent” certain that Graham was aware of the Ukraine operation.

“Rudy told me not once but on several occasions that he spoke to Lindsey Graham about the situation, that Lindsey was always aware,” he told Anderson Cooper in a CNN interview Wednesday night. Graham was “aware of what was going on going back to at least 2018, maybe even earlier,” Parnas said. (Check out the video above beginning at 1:30.)

Parnas said it was “surreal” to watch Graham “talking about all the stuff, that this is a sham, this should go away” — when “at the end of the day he was in the loop just like everybody else.”

Graham could not immediately be reached for comment on Parnas’s allegations.

Parnas, who has been indicted for alleged campaign finance violations, has said that he worked to pressure Ukraine into announcing a probe against Biden and his son Hunter Biden to try to smear Trump’s political rival. He has alleged he was following the president’s wishes as he worked with Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney.

Trump’s own pressure on Ukraine to launch a probe into the Bidens, along with other political conspiracy theories, while he was withholding U.S. military funds became a catalyst for the president’s impeachment iinquiry n the House.

The Trump administration initially insisted the president was merely seeking an investigation into corruption. But in a bombshell claim at Wednesday’s session of the Senate impeachment trial, Trump defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz argued that a president can essentially do anything to get reelected — apparently including seeking foreign influence in a U.S. election — if that president believes it’s in the public interest.

When a president “does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment,” Dershowitz said.

White House deputy counsel Patrick Philbin also argued in the Senate trial that Trump could take such action if the information he was pursuing was “credible.” The Republicans have yet to substantiate any wrongdoing by Biden or his son.

 

Swing-vote GOP Sen. Alexander comes out against witnesses, paving way for imminent Trump acquittal

By Gregg Re | Fox News

Video


Trump legal team member Alan Dershowitz reacts to attacks from media following impeachment defense.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., announced late Thursday night that he would not support additional witnesses in President Trump's "shallow, hurried and wholly partisan" Senate impeachment trial, seemingly ending Democrats' hopes of hearing testimony from former national security adviser John Bolton and paving the way for the president's imminent acquittal as soon as Friday night.

"If this shallow, hurried and wholly partisan impeachment were to succeed, it would rip the country apart, pouring gasoline on the fire of cultural divisions that already exist," Alexander said. "It would create the weapon of perpetual impeachment to be used against future presidents whenever the House of Representatives is of a different political party."

He added: “The framers believed that there should never, ever be a partisan impeachment. That is why the Constitution requires a 2/3 vote of the Senate for conviction. Yet not one House Republican voted for these articles."

On Tuesday, Trump is set to address Congress for the annual State of the Union address, which is increasingly likely to resemble a cathartic victory lap following months of quixotic Democratic calls for the president's removal from office.

Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the chamber, and can afford up to three defections when the Senate considers whether to call additional witnesses Friday -- a question that is considered by a simple majority vote. In the event of a 50-50 tie, by rule, the vote on witnesses would fail in the Senate. Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts is likely to abstain rather than assert his debatable power to cast a tie-breaking vote.

 

Watching Pelosi's interview...she seems very very bitter.

Me thinks she's in order for a good asshole tongue fucking from the neighborhood poodle.

 

They didnt accept the election, they dont accept the impeachment, ...with democrats, its my way or the highway, taking my ball and going home, delusional in they're self righteousness, no realization of the damage their vendetta has done,
they have divided the country for their own political gain, their own interests, ...democrats have always lowered the political bar of civility, shouting, screaming, in petulant accusations and lies, personal destruction of opponents are the weapon of choice.

Make no mistake, this had nothing to do with Russia collusion, Ukraine, past taxes, immigration reform or anything else Trump has done since his birth,
this was began before Trump won election, this was always and only about Trump beating hillary, nothing more than the reaction of sore losers.

_________________________________________________________________________________
FX
Tweets omitted due to privacy concerns

Pelosi argues Trump 'cannot be acquitted,' suggests defense team should be disbarred​

In scathing comments Thursday as her party appeared on the verge of defeat in the Senate impeachment trial, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi argued that President Trump "cannot be acquitted" if the trial lacks the witness testimony and documentation that Democrats have been seeking.

The San Francisco Democrat also fired on Trump's impeachment defense team, saying they've "disgraced themselves" during this week's trial and suggesting they deserve disbarment over their trial remarks.
The comments came hours before Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said he would not back efforts by Democrats to have witnesses testify at the Senate trial – all but sealing an acquittal for Trump.

But Pelosi challenged whether that acquittal would be valid, in remarks that seemed a bid to undermine any Trump claim of victory.

"He will not be acquitted," Pelosi insisted during her weekly news conference, according to Politico. “You cannot be acquitted if you don’t have a trial. You don’t have a trial if you don’t have witnesses and documentation and all of that. Does the president know right from wrong? I don't think so.”

Democrats have been seeking to have former national security adviser John Bolton, and possibly others, testify at the trial. Bolton, who was fired in September, is reportedly willing to provide testimony that could bolster the Democrats’ arguments that Trump abused his power by seeking a quid-pro-quo deal with Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Pelosi’s comments about Trump’s legal team were equally combative.
"I don't know how they can retain their lawyer status, in the comments that they're making," Pelosi told reporters, according to The Hill. "I don't think they made the case. I think they disgraced themselves terribly in terms of their violation of what our Constitution is about and what a president's behavior should be."

Pelosi also accused other Trump allies of attempting “to dismantle the Constitution” in order to shield the president from conviction and removal from office over two articles of impeachment that the Democrat-controlled House approved in December.

“Some of them are even lawyers,” Pelosi said. “Imagine that you would say — ever, of any president, no matter who he or she is or whatever party -- if the president thinks that his or her presidency ... is good for the country, then any action is justified — including encouraging a foreign government to have an impact on our elections."
“[That] is exactly what our Founders were opposed to — and they feared,” she added, according to The Hill. “I don't think they made the case. I think they disgraced themselves terribly in terms of their violation of what our Constitution is about and what a president's behavior should be.”
Pelosi’s comments about the legal team were largely a reaction to Wednesday’s assertion by Trump attorney Alan Dershowitz, that, “If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.”

Much of the media was quick to attack Dershowitz’s argument, comparing it to former President Richard Nixon’s 1977 comment to British interviewer David Frost that all presidential actions, particularly on national security, were legally justified.
"Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal,” Nixon said.
Dershowitz pushed back on the criticism Thursday.
“I did not say or imply that a candidate could do anything to reassure his reelection,” Dershowitz wrote on Twitter, “only that seeking help in an election is not necessarily corrupt, citing the Lincoln and Obama examples. Critics have an obligation to respond to what I said, not to create straw men to attack.”
Dershowitz elaborated further during an appearance on Fox News’ “Hannity.”
"The point I was making was about the senators," Dershowitz said on "Hannity." "What I said [was] if you have mixed motives if you are in the public interest and you're trying to help the public, but you're also trying to get re-elected, according to [Rep. Adam] Schiff and [Rep. Jerry] Nadler, that's a crime.

Pelosi has faced her own share of criticism for stalling the impeachment process for about a month – by withholding the approved articles of impeachment from the Senate, seeking leverage in setting the parameters of the Senate trial -- after initially calling for “urgency” while House panels were holding their impeachment inquiries.

President Trump and other Republicans argued that Pelosi slowed down the process at least in part because she viewed the Democrats’ chances of winning a conviction of Trump in the Senate to be weak.
“We know their case is not strong and now they want to change the rules,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said during an appearance on “Fox & Friends” in early January, referring to Senate Democrats’ call for witnesses at the trial.
Late Thursday, the Democrats’ hopes of seeing Trump convicted took a severe blow when Alexander – one of a small group of Republicans thought to be sympathetic to approving witness testimony at the Senate trial – announced he opposed the effort.
Alexander’s decision made it unlikely that Democrats would attract enough Republican votes to win the argument for witnesses at the trial, making Trump’s acquittal all but certain.

 

Personally, I would like to see witnesses. This in spite of the fact that it is not the Senate's duty to try and make the case that the House could not. Biden's corruption is already right out there in the American people's faces, so he is severely weakened. Witnesses would keep Warren and Sanders out of Iowa, and it's time to get Joe, Hunter and Adam under oath. I don't believe there's any danger to Trump if Bolton or Lev testify - they've both got severe credibility and motive issues.

 

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats have lost nothing. They and we knew going in that Moscow Mitch and the Republicans were just going to conduct a massive coverup for Trump and acquit him with as little damaging evidence as possible coming out. Now, Adam Schiff and the other House Managers did just such as excellent and overwhelming job of not only proving Trump's guilt beyond reasonable doubt but also proving why Trump must be removed from office because if he isn't then the Republicans make him a true dictator above all laws and the Constitution did give us a slight measure of hope that four Republicans might put country over party. But it appears the Republicans will vote for Trump being a dictator because they also have a shared psychosis with Trump and as cult followers their Chosen One can do no wrong. To them and his Trump supporters its God's will we surrender our democracy and the rule of law to a mad king dictator. But I honestly believe that the majority of Americans do love our country and cherish the rule of law and the Constitution and will revolt against this. I believe the majority of Americans see the danger of "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."--Benjamin Franklin.

Especially since the safety of being a Trump Cult follower is most definitely temporary. Moscow Mitch and the Republicans in the Senate can make sure Trump's trial is over in time for the Super Bowl and his State of the Union by not calling any witnesses. But the witnesses are still going to testify one way or the other and the Republican coverup will look like an ant under a magnifying glass.

John Bolton destroys GOP argument against impeachment witnesses as ‘the exact reverse of the truth’

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/01/jo...-witnesses-as-the-exact-reverse-of-the-truth/

 

GAME OVER: Mitch McConnell Has the Votes to End Impeachment Today
Posted at 8:00 am on January 31, 2020 by T.LaDuke




When you are on a roll, sometimes you just feel that nothing can go wrong and right now Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is on one of those rolls. Enjoy it, Senator, because you know how it goes in Washington D.C. — and in life.

Mitch has once again outmaneuvered his “counterpart” in the Article I branch, Nancy Pelosi, with how this impeachment trial has gone. Instead of witnesses for as long as the eye can see, we will get a vote of acquittal and the Senate returning to regular business.


Chief Justice John Roberts will be thrilled.

Axios…

President Trump is poised to win his long-expected acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial as soon as tonight, after Sen. Lamar Alexander’s dramatic 11th-hour announcement that he’ll vote against calling new witnesses.

The big question is no longer whether the Senate will sink this afternoon’s witness vote, but rather how long it will take to deliver a final verdict on Trump after the vote fails.

Without Alexander, it’s nearly certain that there won’t be enough votes for the motion to call witnesses — short of either a surprise Republican vote in favor of it or Chief Justice John Roberts breaking a 50-50 tie. Neither is likely.

He said it was “inappropriate for the president to ask a foreign leader to investigate his political opponent and to withhold United States aid to encourage that investigation” — but added that the election is the appropriate way for Americans to decide what to do about it.

Hot diggity dawg.


Now the only game that is going to be interesting to watch is to see how many Democrats do a flip over to not want witnesses. Sen. Manchin and Sen Sinema have been rumored to have been thinking about ending this charade early also.

As I wrote here yesterday, former GOP head cheese Michael Steele had tipped that McConnell had this thing done and all that was still needed was the crying by the Democrats. Ex GOP Chair Just Spilled the Beans, McConnell Has Already Beaten the Democrats at Impeachment.

 

Very premature for Moscow Mitch to claim victory. I would not be surprised if Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats don't drop more articles of impeachment on Moscow Mitch's desk by next week. Or at the very least their multiple investigations are going to continue with lots of public hearings proving Moscow Mitch and the Republicans covered up for the most corrupt and criminal president in US history.

And in the meantime we can see where the Democrats and public are headed on this. Alexander is retiring. But he just put his seat in the Senate in play for the Democrats. And this is how he will go down in history.

Lamar Alexander Called Out For Refusing Witnesses While Admitting House Dems Proved Trump’s Quid Pro Quo: ‘HISTORIC Coward’

*Alexander is retiring but the attack ads for every other Republican in the Senate that does have to run for re-election are just writing themselves Especially after Bolton and Parnas testify.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/lamar...s-proved-trumps-quid-pro-quo-historic-coward/