Category: Articles of impeachment
Trump 2019 impeachment exposed: Gabbard provides damning insights into deep-state stitch-up
The House of Representatives passed articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump in December 2019 over a phone call he had months earlier with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, alleging abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
While the U.S. Senate ultimately acquitted Trump by a vote of 57-43 in early 2020, the stitch-up had by that stage sufficiently muddied the waters and buoyed Democrats’ false narrative in an especially heated election year.
‘It is always worse than we thought.’
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released documents on Monday revealing that hearsay and erroneous claims from a few politicized bad actors who lacked any firsthand knowledge of the phone call were used as the basis to impeach Trump and that elements of the intelligence community were not only aware but happy to advance the false narrative.
The documents — investigative materials used by former Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who got the ball rolling on impeachment, and transcripts of his testimony released as the result of a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence vote last month — show that Atkinson skirted standard IG procedures and, embracing a kind of strategic myopia, leaned entirely on what the ODNI described as “politicized, manufactured narratives” without ever once bothering to access the transcript of Trump’s call.
A self-declared “Democrat” whistleblower who worked for the CIA filed a complaint in August 2019 alleging Trump was “using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. elections. This interference includes, among other things, pressuring a foreign country — Ukraine — to investigate one of the President’s main domestic political rivals, former Vice President Biden.”
On the call, Trump reportedly made reference to how Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in aid to Ukraine unless the prosecutor investigating the corrupt and now-defunct Ukrainian company Burisma, where Hunter Biden was appointed director in 2014, was fired.
The ODNI noted on the basis of the newly released documents that Atkinson — who spun the complaint as “credible” and rushed it to the congressional intelligence committees — had bothered to interview only four individuals whose credibility and political motives were clearly suspect.
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House Judiciary Committee hearing on Dec. 12, 2019. Alex Edelman/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Besides the whistleblower — credibly identified as Eric Ciaramella, the Obama holdover and CIA analyst who reportedly partook in Obama White House discussions regarding Hunter Biden and Burisma — Atkinson interviewed the whistleblower’s friend, “who was a co-author of the January 2017 Russia Hoax Intelligence Community Assessment and close colleague of former FBI Agent Peter Strzok,” and two character references.
Not only did Atkinson rely upon the testimonies of politicized actors, he determined that the complaint must be reported to Congress despite the Justice Department determining there was “no urgent concern” and the whistleblower confirming he had no “direct knowledge of private comments or communications by the President.”
It appears the hearsay-dependent allegations were buttressed by wild speculation.
One of the “witnesses” had admitted after reading a transcript of the call that they “would not have been able to get from ‘point A to Z’ the way the Whistleblower did” and that they had to “read between the lines” in order to conclude Trump was discussing quid pro quo.
The ODNI noted that the newly released “witness” interviews demonstrate that Atkinson’s public assertion that “other information obtained during [his] preliminary review … supports the complainant’s allegation” was false and obfuscated the fact that there was no firsthand evidence of what was being alleged.
The newly declassified documents confirm not only that the whistleblower lied to Atkinson about leaking to congressional Democrats prior to submitting his allegations to the inspector general but that he was, contrary to Atkinson’s characterization, politically biased.
Atkinson testified to Congress that he “never considered the whistleblower to be politically biased.”
He drew this conclusion despite the whistleblower stating in his interviews that he is a “registered Democrat”; had “worked closely with Vice President Biden” and had traveled with Biden to Ukraine; and was the “target of right-wing bloggers … and conspiracy theorists.”
“Deep state actors within the Intelligence Community concocted a false narrative that was used by Congress to usurp the will of the American people and impeach the duly-elected President of the United States,” stated Gabbard.
“Inspector General Atkinson failed to uphold his responsibility to the American people, putting political motivations over the truth. And this, along with the politicization of the whistleblower process by a former CIA employee who was working hand in glove with Democrats in Congress, are egregious examples of the deep state playbook on how to weaponize the Intelligence Community,” continued Gabbard.
In 2019, Gabbard was a Democratic congresswoman representing Hawaii and cast the only “present” vote on both articles of impeachment.
“It was a sham from the start,” tweeted Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). “The only thing we got wrong is that it is always worse than we thought.”
Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz, who worked to defend Trump at his impeachment trial, told Just the News that Trump could have grounds to expunge his impeachment in the House in light of the new revelations.
“It’s never been done. I don’t see any reason why it couldn’t be done,” said Dershowitz.
“These government officials will probably have to pay a political price, if not a legal price, for violating the Constitution, because that’s what they’ve done. They violated the Constitution,” said Dershowitz, adding that the Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to confront witnesses.
In terms of seeking remedy, Dershowitz suggested Trump could always bring a civil lawsuit.
Trump evidently liked Dershowitz’s suggestions and said on Truth Social, “Alan, one of the greats, should do it!”
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