American Oversight just received a group of State Department emails implicating Pompeo. Neither Nunes nor Pompeo being involved is a surprise. Maybe they can share a lawyer.
These regard Rudes efforts to get Yovanovitch fired.
I think the working theory up to now is that Dmitry Firtash demanded that Yovanovitch be fired and in exchange would fabricate dirt on Hunter Biden. This was a different, but related quid pro quo that Rudes was the center of. This is where Parnas would have a lot to offer.
11.
Barbara
Even after 3 years of this I am having trouble wrapping my brain around the idea of anyone in Congress having allegience to Russia. I am decompressing by watching women’s volleyball and contemplating making rye bread (pain au cidre) for the first time.
And you get a “tick tock, motherfucker”! And You get a “tick tock, motherfucker”! And YOU get a “tick tock,motherfucker”! “Tick tock, motherfucker”s for EVERYONE!
I object to your failure to reference Chalupa in your headline.
19.
Martin
At what point does members of congress promoting foreign propaganda despite US intelligence agency corrections turn into a violation of oath of office and a counterintelligence problem?
Because holy fuck, y’all.
20.
LAO
?NEW?
Direct links between Giuliani and Pompeo and the Oval Office.
Also note the names of Parnas and Fruman that appear several times in these documents! https://t.co/ISounztqmp
The American Oversight representative just told Ari that they have dozens of other FOIA requests. If I was Adam Schiff, I would take my time about going to the Senate.
@HumboldtBlue: Thank you so much for that. Big-ass belly-laugh! Esp. Kilmeade’s hands ….. *lovely*!
37.
Martin
@debbie: Christ, OSU is fucked. I know Drake well. He’s a good administrator who fell into having to clean up a mountain of shit. I think hazing among OSU band was the first month he got there, and it’s been nonstop mopping up sex scandals since. And now the two names being offered up are Kasich and Jim Tressel?
I know a lot of former OSU academics and they believe there are more bodies yet to be uncovered.
38.
Gin & Tonic
@Martin: Yovanovitch wasn’t in Firtash’s way. He wants the warrant/extradition order lifted so he can leave Vienna. That’s his #1 priority.
Statement from American Oversight Executive Director Austin Evers
We can see why Mike Pompeo has refused to release this information to Congress. It reveals a clear paper trail from Rudy Giuliani to the Oval Office to Secretary Pompeo to facilitate Giuliani’s smear campaign against a U.S. ambassador.
“This is just the first round of disclosures. The evidence is only going to get worse for the administration as its stonewall strategy collapses in the face of court orders.
That American Oversight could obtain these documents establishes that there is no legal basis for the administration to withhold them from Congress. That conclusively shows that the administration is engaged in obstruction of justice. The president and his allies should ask themselves if impeachment for obstruction is worth it if the strategy isn’t even going to be effective.
No rest for the wicked or anyone else this weekend. Quite the doc dump.
Most sleaze-ass presidency in America’s history: it’s not just the balls-out corruption, it’s the abject tackiness too.— William Gibson (@GreatDismal) 23 November 2019
@jk: Never did I foresee that the lowly FOIA office employees would be the savior of the Republic. It would be like the traffic division of the PD solving the mystery of the Zodiac killer.
45.
tobie
Looks like House Dems are moving fast on the Nunes front.
BREAKING: The Democratic Coalition is filing a House Ethics complaint tonight on GOP Rep Devin Nunes, following reports he met with a Ukrainian businessman to get dirt on fmr VP Biden.
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) November 23, 2019
46.
Kattails
Have faith, kiddies. I just looked up “what causes an avalanche to occur?” The first thing I see is “…four factors: a steep slope, snow cover, a weak layer in the snow cover, and a trigger.” . (do i need double periods here? Pedants welcome… )
I’d say all conditions are pretty much code 5, or red, or whatever.
Even after 3 years of this I am having trouble wrapping my brain around the idea of anyone in Congress having allegience to Russia.
I’m completely the other way with this. It’s been obvious to me since late 2016 that Republicans were compromised and owned by Russia. Clear as day. I’ve been very angry about it and news dumps like this come as a huge relief. Finally it’s getting out in the open. I knew it would eventually come out. We’re about a year later than I’d expected, but now things are moving. Tick tock, motherfuckers.
49.
hueyplong
[Because no one else has yet said it}
Thoughts and prayers, Devin.
50.
Gin & Tonic
@tobie: “Businessman” buries the lede there. It’s Viktor Shokin, the corrupt former Prosecutor General whom the US (and everyone else) pushed to have fired.
51.
mrmoshpotato
@Barbara: The Russkis hacked the RNC too, but only released the DNC risotto questions, etc through their WikiLeaks front so reporters could scream about emails.
Bend, you crazy arc! Keep on bendin’ towards Justice!
53.
Yarrow
@Gin & Tonic: Firtash is at the center of a lot of this. He’s certainly why Parnas and Fruman were heading to Vienna. Rudy was supposedly heading there the next day.
54.
mrmoshpotato
@hueyplong: How nice of you. Devin can get fucked by a cow.
55.
chris
American Oversight is posting notes on the doc dump on twitter. Link
During this meeting, Parnas and Fruman gave the impression that they were working with Firtash, according to Dale Perry, an American gas executive who does business in Ukraine. Perry tells Mother Jones that Parnas and Fruman informed Favorov that they wanted Naftogaz to pay Firtash $200 million he claims the company owes him. Perry, who did not attend the meeting but spoke to Favorov shortly after it occurred, says he memorialized Favorov’s account in a document he sent to State Department officials.
According to Perry, Parnas also told Favorov that Yovanovitch, the US ambassador to Ukraine, would be fired within months. Yovanovitch was a vocal supporter of Kobolyev due to his reputation for opposing corruption; her removal could have cleared a significant road block in the campaign to oust Kobolyev. Yovanovitch had also backed Kobolyev in a dispute pitting Naftogaz against Firtash, in which Kobolyev claimed Firtash’s firms had illegally pocketed up to $2 billion since 2017 by stiffing the state-owned company on payments.
Rudes and Co wanted Firtash back in Ukraine so the Naftogaz corruption could resume. Firtash was willing to provide dirt in support of this plan. Firtash gets back to Ukraine, Trump would get help with reelection, and they’d all profit on the back side of the resumed corruption, Everyone wins.
58.
Yarrow
@mrmoshpotato: Reminder that Lindsay Graham admitted his emails were hacked.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday his campaign email account was hacked by Russians — adding that the US needs to work together to stop this from happening.
“I do believe the Russians hacked into the (Democratic National Committee). I do believe they hacked into (John) Podesta’s email account. They hacked into my campaign account,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room.”
@Kattails: No, if you have terminating punctuation within the quote (period, exclamation, question, etc.), that serves to terminate the sentence. You would drop the outer period.
60.
Chetan Murthy
@Martin: How TF this piece of *filth* Firtash can remain under house arrest in Austria *since 2014* when he’s wanted on charges in the US, escapes me. Truly escapes me.
61.
mrmoshpotato
I don’t even know what’ll be screamed here. Is it “No collusion!”, “No puppet!”, “Not a traitorous shitpile!”, “People went to Ukraine for dirt on themselves!”?
I’m so confused. Or should we all just yell, “Charge and try all this trash! Lock them up if found guilty!”
ETA – this should make for a juicy episode of Ghouliani’s podcast!
62.
Gin & Tonic
@Martin: Kobolyev has pretty much publicly written off any hope of getting that money back from Firtash. And that article vastly overstates, IMO, the influence Yovanovitch or any US Ambassador could have had on the affairs of Naftogaz.
63.
Martin
@Gin & Tonic: I took it as Firtash wanted her out because of his perception, not because of any real authority she had.
64.
Gin & Tonic
@Chetan Murthy: How? Simple. $$$. Or, probably €€€. He’s appealing his extradition and can afford to spend a lot on very good lawyers.
@Yarrow: Forgot about that. It’s been a long half century. (And yet I’m nowhere close to 50.)
70.
CarolPW
@Barbara: Many senior State Department career personnel Tillerson thought didn’t fit into his ideas for “reforming” the Department were sent to the FOIA office in the basement. They have probably been down there since then, and I suspect they have not been best pleased with their assignments or the damage to their chances in advancement in their professions.
Madeleine Westerhout is the assistant Trump fired because she told reporters he didn’t like being in photos with Tiffany because he thought she was fat.
72.
mrmoshpotato
@smike: Sadly, he’s suing an imaginary online cow, not an imaginary online bull.
Which one gets to sort the skid marked undies in the prison laundry?
78.
MisterForkbeard
@mrmoshpotato: We all know what will be screamed here. “Nunes was just investigating corruption! Don’t you know that Hillary asked Ukraine for dirt on Manafort!”
But no, the fact that Nunes didn’t disclose this while presiding over the house hearings on it should get him removed from Congress immediately. And hopefully he gets the book thrown at him.
79.
MisterForkbeard
@Yarrow: One of the few justified “firings” Trump has ever made, basically. Executive Assistants do not rat on their boss to the press. :/
80.
tobie
@Gin & Tonic: Thanks. It looks like Shokin’s been identified now in the filed ethics complaint against Nunes.
BREAKING: The Democratic Coalition just filed a House Ethics complaint against Rep. Devin Nunes for abuse of office which violates House Rule XXIII (1), following reports he met a Ukrainian prosecutor to get dirt on VP Biden during an official overseas trip. #DevinNunesGotCaught
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) November 23, 2019
@Martin: Thanks, the extra dot was against my better judgement. Excessive punctuation is nearly as bad as excessive capitalization & we know where that leads. !!!!!??!!!11!!
I still like my avalanche idea though. I believe the weight is there. I’ve had someone at work ask why we’re spending the money on impeachment; another say that nothing will matter, Trump will skate from everything. I can’t be that cynical. Their whole web has too many insecure links between unstable characters.
I was thinking, “Hillary made us do it! She threatened to turn us into children for her non-existent sex ring in the non-existent basement because she’s a witch!”
Unfortunately, Newt Gingrich has not gotten better.
Ceterum censeo factionem Republicanam esse delendam.
93.
Dmbeaster
@Chetan Murthy: Austria has been dicking around with the extradition proceeding. It looked like it was almost over when they basically started over. Weird. Who knew Austria would seem to be that corrupt.
94.
Miss Bianca
@Barbara: Oh, myyyy, that sounds delicious! Recipe? : )
Jeffro
ETTD.
Hey Nunes…you have bigger concerns than suing a cow.
IC leaking like a mofo about the CI.
MomSense
Moo hoo.
rikyrah
BWA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHA ???
LAO
It’s like Christmas came early
Yarrow
Friday night news dumps are fun!
Wapiti
Can a member of Congress ignore a Congressional subpoena? Asking for a friend.
trollhattan
Mooo.
That’s all I’ve got.
Thank you, people of greater suburban Fresno.
Yarrow
chris posted this below:
patrick II
American Oversight just received a group of State Department emails implicating Pompeo. Neither Nunes nor Pompeo being involved is a surprise. Maybe they can share a lawyer.
Martin
Also, the American Oversight documents were released by the State Dept.
These regard Rudes efforts to get Yovanovitch fired.
I think the working theory up to now is that Dmitry Firtash demanded that Yovanovitch be fired and in exchange would fabricate dirt on Hunter Biden. This was a different, but related quid pro quo that Rudes was the center of. This is where Parnas would have a lot to offer.
Barbara
Even after 3 years of this I am having trouble wrapping my brain around the idea of anyone in Congress having allegience to Russia. I am decompressing by watching women’s volleyball and contemplating making rye bread (pain au cidre) for the first time.
trollhattan
@Jeffro:
Quarter-billion bucks, Nunes’ Twitter suit. He must think he’s hot
shitpatty.sukabi
@patrick II: maybe they’ll share a cell.
trollhattan
@Barbara:
Ooh, you just reminded me, women’s NCAA soccer tourney. Gotta go, y’all play nice.
TaMara (HFG)
Oh my gosh…here we go:
SFAW
@Yarrow:
As a wise man once said:
And you get a “tick tock, motherfucker”! And You get a “tick tock, motherfucker”! And YOU get a “tick tock,motherfucker”! “Tick tock, motherfucker”s for EVERYONE!
SFAW
@sukabi:
Or a yardarm/gibbet?
hells littlest angel
I object to your failure to reference Chalupa in your headline.
Martin
At what point does members of congress promoting foreign propaganda despite US intelligence agency corrections turn into a violation of oath of office and a counterintelligence problem?
Because holy fuck, y’all.
LAO
geg6
Jesus. The IC is over these mother fuckers, is all I can say. About fucking time.
Barbara
@trollhattan: Minnesota v. Nebraska. Terrific match.
sukabi
@SFAW: or that. ?
patrick II
The American Oversight representative just told Ari that they have dozens of other FOIA requests. If I was Adam Schiff, I would take my time about going to the Senate.
debbie
@MomSense:
Good one!
I guess all a-holes are in the news tonight. They’re talking about making John Kasich the president at Ohio State!
scav
Tickety-tockety, this has gone rockety!
SFAW
Were it not so late, I would consider making a vary large batch of popcorn.
rikyrah
@TaMara (HFG):
Yes yes yes ?
SFAW
Obligatory
ETA: “Embedding a link” fail
Try again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmlnltVzksg
Duane
@trollhattan: ” Where’s the beef?”
scav
@SFAW: Ah, go on, grab the popper: it’s not a school night!
SFAW
@scav:
True, but I’m an old fart, and my body will wake me at 0600 anyway.
HumboldtBlue
At least the GOP still has FOX
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
“Don’t have a cow, man”
~ Bart Simpson
mrmoshpotato
@MomSense: LOL
Chetan Murthy
@HumboldtBlue: Thank you so much for that. Big-ass belly-laugh! Esp. Kilmeade’s hands ….. *lovely*!
Martin
@debbie: Christ, OSU is fucked. I know Drake well. He’s a good administrator who fell into having to clean up a mountain of shit. I think hazing among OSU band was the first month he got there, and it’s been nonstop mopping up sex scandals since. And now the two names being offered up are Kasich and Jim Tressel?
I know a lot of former OSU academics and they believe there are more bodies yet to be uncovered.
Gin & Tonic
@Martin: Yovanovitch wasn’t in Firtash’s way. He wants the warrant/extradition order lifted so he can leave Vienna. That’s his #1 priority.
jk
@patrick II:
Statement from American Oversight Executive Director Austin Evers
h/t https://www.americanoversight.org/state-department-releases-ukraine-documents-to-american-oversight
West of the Rockies
@debbie:
That’s THE Ohio State to you, little missy!//
HumboldtBlue
@Chetan Murthy:
I had a good laugh as well and the credit goes to the Daily Show editor.
You know he’s in trouble when he starts talking like a Muppet is pretty funny as well.
chris
No rest for the wicked or anyone else this weekend. Quite the doc dump.
mrmoshpotato
@West of the Rockies: Fuck THE Ohio State. Go Blue.
Barbara
@jk: Never did I foresee that the lowly FOIA office employees would be the savior of the Republic. It would be like the traffic division of the PD solving the mystery of the Zodiac killer.
tobie
Looks like House Dems are moving fast on the Nunes front.
Kattails
Have faith, kiddies. I just looked up “what causes an avalanche to occur?” The first thing I see is “…four factors: a steep slope, snow cover, a weak layer in the snow cover, and a trigger.” . (do i need double periods here? Pedants welcome… )
I’d say all conditions are pretty much code 5, or red, or whatever.
Brendan in NC
@West of the Rockies: O-H-uh-oh
Yarrow
@Barbara:
I’m completely the other way with this. It’s been obvious to me since late 2016 that Republicans were compromised and owned by Russia. Clear as day. I’ve been very angry about it and news dumps like this come as a huge relief. Finally it’s getting out in the open. I knew it would eventually come out. We’re about a year later than I’d expected, but now things are moving. Tick tock, motherfuckers.
hueyplong
[Because no one else has yet said it}
Thoughts and prayers, Devin.
Gin & Tonic
@tobie: “Businessman” buries the lede there. It’s Viktor Shokin, the corrupt former Prosecutor General whom the US (and everyone else) pushed to have fired.
mrmoshpotato
@Barbara: The Russkis hacked the RNC too, but only released the DNC risotto questions, etc through their WikiLeaks front so reporters could scream about emails.
John Revolta
Bend, you crazy arc! Keep on bendin’ towards Justice!
Yarrow
@Gin & Tonic: Firtash is at the center of a lot of this. He’s certainly why Parnas and Fruman were heading to Vienna. Rudy was supposedly heading there the next day.
mrmoshpotato
@hueyplong: How nice of you. Devin can get fucked by a cow.
chris
American Oversight is posting notes on the doc dump on twitter. Link
mrmoshpotato
@John Revolta:
And grow punching fists.
Martin
@Gin & Tonic: Sure she was.
Rudes and Co wanted Firtash back in Ukraine so the Naftogaz corruption could resume. Firtash was willing to provide dirt in support of this plan. Firtash gets back to Ukraine, Trump would get help with reelection, and they’d all profit on the back side of the resumed corruption, Everyone wins.
Yarrow
@mrmoshpotato: Reminder that Lindsay Graham admitted his emails were hacked.
Link.
Martin
@Kattails: No, if you have terminating punctuation within the quote (period, exclamation, question, etc.), that serves to terminate the sentence. You would drop the outer period.
Chetan Murthy
@Martin: How TF this piece of *filth* Firtash can remain under house arrest in Austria *since 2014* when he’s wanted on charges in the US, escapes me. Truly escapes me.
mrmoshpotato
I don’t even know what’ll be screamed here. Is it “No collusion!”, “No puppet!”, “Not a traitorous shitpile!”, “People went to Ukraine for dirt on themselves!”?
I’m so confused. Or should we all just yell, “Charge and try all this trash! Lock them up if found guilty!”
ETA – this should make for a juicy episode of Ghouliani’s podcast!
Gin & Tonic
@Martin: Kobolyev has pretty much publicly written off any hope of getting that money back from Firtash. And that article vastly overstates, IMO, the influence Yovanovitch or any US Ambassador could have had on the affairs of Naftogaz.
Martin
@Gin & Tonic: I took it as Firtash wanted her out because of his perception, not because of any real authority she had.
Gin & Tonic
@Chetan Murthy: How? Simple. $$$. Or, probably €€€. He’s appealing his extradition and can afford to spend a lot on very good lawyers.
p.a.
What are the Azores/US extradition conditions. Are the islands still Portugal? Asking for a friend ??
smike
@mrmoshpotato: Or a bull, even. But, you know, he might enjoy that too much.
debbie
@Martin:
Many, many piles, but none bigger than Dr. Strauss.
debbie
@tobie:
“How’s that for Bizarro World, Devin???”
mrmoshpotato
@Yarrow: Forgot about that. It’s been a long half century. (And yet I’m nowhere close to 50.)
CarolPW
@Barbara: Many senior State Department career personnel Tillerson thought didn’t fit into his ideas for “reforming” the Department were sent to the FOIA office in the basement. They have probably been down there since then, and I suspect they have not been best pleased with their assignments or the damage to their chances in advancement in their professions.
Yarrow
Madeleine Westerhout is the assistant Trump fired because she told reporters he didn’t like being in photos with Tiffany because he thought she was fat.
mrmoshpotato
@smike: Sadly, he’s suing an imaginary online cow, not an imaginary online bull.
patrick II
@Gin & Tonic:
In addition, countries are treading lightly, more afraid of the consequences of upsetting Putin’s Russia than Trump’s U.S.
Sandia Blanca
The corruption is coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE!
BigJimSlade
I read the post and said to myself, oh please, oh please, oh please – then thought of this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comments/ae70ec/1985_the_far_side_gary_larson_cat_fud_ohplease/
Aleta
Ha.
Devin Nunes
How Republicans Won Phase One Of Impeachment
(opinion placed this evening at the Fed er al ist)
Jager
@SFAW:
Which one gets to sort the skid marked undies in the prison laundry?
MisterForkbeard
@mrmoshpotato: We all know what will be screamed here. “Nunes was just investigating corruption! Don’t you know that Hillary asked Ukraine for dirt on Manafort!”
But no, the fact that Nunes didn’t disclose this while presiding over the house hearings on it should get him removed from Congress immediately. And hopefully he gets the book thrown at him.
MisterForkbeard
@Yarrow: One of the few justified “firings” Trump has ever made, basically. Executive Assistants do not rat on their boss to the press. :/
tobie
@Gin & Tonic: Thanks. It looks like Shokin’s been identified now in the filed ethics complaint against Nunes.
Origuy
@Kattails: The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.
Aleta
@Aleta: to clarify, he didn’t write that, he just tweeted it a few hours ago.
lgerard
@CarolPW:
Good point
Blowback is a bitch
Kattails
@Martin: Thanks, the extra dot was against my better judgement. Excessive punctuation is nearly as bad as excessive capitalization & we know where that leads. !!!!!??!!!11!!
I still like my avalanche idea though. I believe the weight is there. I’ve had someone at work ask why we’re spending the money on impeachment; another say that nothing will matter, Trump will skate from everything. I can’t be that cynical. Their whole web has too many insecure links between unstable characters.
mrmoshpotato
@MisterForkbeard: Sorry, not crazy enough.
I was thinking, “Hillary made us do it! She threatened to turn us into children for her non-existent sex ring in the non-existent basement because she’s a witch!”
BigJimSlade
@mrmoshpotato:
So that would mean the cow’s on top, right? I hope the cow’s got weak knees and crushes him.
Now, if a bull is involved….
BigJimSlade
@Yarrow:
Sheey!t. He probably donated them.
Chetan Murthy
@BigJimSlade: You people, always with the animal cruelty …. if ever there were an argument for (animal-tronic) sex-bots, Devin is the one.
mrmoshpotato
@BigJimSlade: Yes.
Kattails
@Origuy: well yeah, uh, like he (?) said.
Amir Khalid
@mrmoshpotato:
The cow will need a custom-fit strapon.
(((CassandraLeo)))
@mrmoshpotato: “Well, she turned me into a newt!”
Unfortunately, Newt Gingrich has not gotten better.
Ceterum censeo factionem Republicanam esse delendam.
Dmbeaster
@Chetan Murthy: Austria has been dicking around with the extradition proceeding. It looked like it was almost over when they basically started over. Weird. Who knew Austria would seem to be that corrupt.
Miss Bianca
@Barbara: Oh, myyyy, that sounds delicious! Recipe? : )
Miss Bianca
@Yarrow:
Have I mentioned lately how glad I am to see you back here? : )