Mickey Friedman
December 8, 2019
Anyone who’s ever seen a mob movie, or been bullied knows how it works. Everyone except Republicans who clench their eyes so shut they won’t ever see what’s in front of them.
Shakedown For Dummies: Start with a power imbalance. The powerful vs. the less powerful. Wanting money. Sex. Information. Anything of value. If the powerless won’t give up or give in, there’s the threat of, or actual, violence. Blackmail. Or the withholding of much needed aid or assistance.
Try the US and President Trump vs. President Zelensky and Ukraine.
For those who point to the fact Zelensky hasn’t blown the whistle, well, all bets are off if Zelensky goes public. Because as long Ukraine needs US aid the threat lives on. And the lesser threats: Ambassador Voyanovich was going to go through things. And lost her job. Lt. Colonel Vindman, an Iraq War purple heart recipient, was attacked by the President as a Never Trumper, attacked by Trump Jr. as a low-level partisan bureaucrat. A punk smearing a hero.
Meanwhile, Ukraine is occupied and under attack by Russia. After the election of Zelensky, the Ukrainians wanted a White House meeting to show the Russians we’re on their side. Desperately needed the $500 million Congress – after the Defense Department certified they were fighting corruption – voted overwhelmingly to give Ukraine. The Javelin Missiles.
The shakers. EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland, testified: “Secretary Perry, Ambassador Volker and I worked with Mr. Rudy Giuliani on Ukraine matters at the express direction of the president of the United States … Simply put, we were playing the hand we were dealt … we followed the president’s orders.”
The shakee, Ukraine. The shakedown: dirt for a meeting; dirt for guns. I’d take Mick Mulvaney’s advice and get over it if it wasn’t so important. Because who will be hurt if Ukraine loses this war? All of Ukraine. Maybe Europe. Maybe us. Our national security demands a strong independent Ukraine.
The dirt: Trump wants to convince us it wasn’t Vladimir Putin helping him in 2016 but the Ukrainians helping Hillary. Mueller, the CIA, the entire intelligence community part of The Russian Hoax.
The 2020 dirt. At every rally, in every tweet, Trump wants to say corrupt Joe Biden stopped the investigation into Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company. Because Biden’s son Hunter served on Burisma’s board. And Trump wanted the Ukrainians to announce a new investigation on international TV.
As Gordon Sondland testified “Mr. Giuliani’s requests were a quid pro quo for arranging a White House visit for President Zelensky. Mr. Giuliani demanded that Ukraine make a public statement announcing investigations of the 2016 election/DNC server and Burisma. Mr. Giuliani was expressing the desires of the President of the United States, and we knew that these investigations were important to the President.”
None of this was a part of official US foreign policy. And Fiona Hill, former official at the National Security Council specializing in Russian, and European affairs, testified that Sondland “wasn’t coordinating with us because we weren’t doing the same thing that he was doing,” Hill said. “He was being involved in a domestic political errand. And we were being involved in national security foreign policy.”
The phone calls: Lt. Colonel Vindman was so disturbed by the “read the transcript” phone call between President Trump and President Zelensky that he reported the call to John Eisenberg, the top lawyer at the National Security Council: “I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a US citizen … I realized that if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the Bidens and Burisma, it would likely be interpreted as a partisan play, which would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained.”
Bragging about the shakedown, David Holmes, of the US Embassy in Ukraine “heard Ambassador Sondland greet the President and explain that he was calling from Kyiv. I heard President Trump then clarify that Ambassador Sondland was in Ukraine. Ambassador Sondland replied, yes, he was in Ukraine, and went on to state that President Zelenskyy “loves your ass.” I then heard President Trump ask, “So, he’s gonna do the investigation?” Ambassador Sondland replied that “he’s gonna do it,” adding that President Zelenskyy will do ‘anything you ask him to’ …
“After the call ended … I asked Ambassador Sondland if it was true that the President did not ‘give a s–t about Ukraine.’ Ambassador Sondland agreed that the President did not ‘give a s–t about Ukraine.’ I asked why not, and Ambassador Sondland stated that the President only cares about ‘big stuff.’ I noted that there was ‘big stuff’ going on in Ukraine, like a war with Russia, and Ambassador Sondland replied that he meant ‘big stuff’ that benefits the President, like the ‘Biden investigation’ that Mr. Giuliani was pushing.
Small stuff: Russians killing Ukrainians. Big stuff: Trump beating Biden.
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The Big Stuff was originally published in the November 27, 2019 issue of the Berkshire Record.
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