There is no such thing as "qualified immunity." It is outrageous the FICTION lawyers create when they play with language.

Six years later, the Flint residents are beginning to believe they will receive justice.

January 30, 2020
By Steve Carmody

The United States Supreme Court (click here) has dealt a victory to some Flint Michigan residents seeking damages for the city’s contaminated drinking water.

The court’s action last week clears a barrier residents faced trying to sue government officials.

But some Flint residents fear they’re still a long way from getting compensation.

Standing next to the Flint River, you can watch as the dingy brown water rolls over a former dam downtown, creating a frothy foam that floats downstream.

In 2014, state officials decided to use this murky water as Flint’s drinking water source. But the water was improperly treated, releasing lead and other contaminants into the Flint’s tap water.

Flint resident Margaret Wesley blames the drinking water switch for the death of her adult daughter Mary.

“They knew,” Margaret Wesley says, her voice cracking with emotion. “I’ll go to my grave believing they knew what was in that water…the bacteria.”

Wesley is one of more than 30,000 Flint residents who’ve filed lawsuits against the city and state regulators. They’re seeking compensation for medical expenses, property damage and in some cases deaths, tied to the Flint water crisis.

LeeAnne Walters (click here) shows water samples from her home from 21 January and 15 January after city and state officials spoke during a forum discussing growing health concerns being raised by residents about the water.

Lawyers for the government officials being sued had claimed they’re protected by something called “qualified immunity,” which is a legal doctrine shielding government officials.

But last week, the U.S. Supreme Court let a lower court ruling stand that government officials can not claim immunity in this case....

What is the problem now?!?

January 3, 2020
By Christina Tuser

Flint is having issues finding enough homes (click here) that have lead service lines or lead indoor plumbing to complete federally required water testing, according to Booth Michigan.

The city needs 60 samples from confirmed tier 1 sites, but had just 43 confirmed as of Dec. 27, according to a letter from Robert Bincsik, director of the city’s Department of Public Works and Utilities.

“At this time we don’t know how many tier 1 addresses remain in the water system, the city will need to continue to work together with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes & Energy to develop a sampling plan that takes into consideration some points of concern we believe are valid and will require some conversations between the city of Flint and EGLE," said Bincsik.

Water samples were due to the state by Dec. 31. City workers were still collecting water on this date in an effort to comply with regulations, reported Booth Michigan. Most but not all lead service lines in Flint have been replaced during the last three years....

January 31, 2020

On Wednesday, January 29th, (click here) the U.S. House Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing. The Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE), which would ban horse slaughter in the U.S. and end the export of American horses for slaughter in other countries, was on the agenda. The SAFE Act was introduced in 2019 by representatives Jan Schakowsky and Vern Buchanan, and it has 225 House cosponsors.

When horses are shipped for slaughter, they spend 24 hours at a time without food, water, or rest in crowded trucks. Then they’re forced to suffer through repeated blows and are sometimes left conscious during dismemberment, according to the Humane Society of the United States....

January 31, 2020
By Gavin Thomas

Just off Highway 101 in San Benito County, (click here) behind the large gate with the Freedom Reigns name, is where you will find a lottery winner.
Well, more like 500 of them. And the woman who gave them their prize.
"I have 493 right now," Alicia Goetz said. "Another 10 are coming."...

The era of corrupt government. The Unthinkable is now fashionable.Can't imagine what is causing this exploitative and alarming trend. Hm?

January 29, 2020

By Elliot Davis

Jefferson County, Mo. -  Citizens in Jefferson County (click here) are fighting their county officials over a move to end the practice of riding horses at Pleasant Valley Park.

They've been doing it for 30 years without a problem. But now a councilman has decided the horses must go. Brian Haskins says the trail is not big enough for people, pets, and horses, so the horses have to go.

Citizens called You Paid For It investigator Elliott Davis for help.

Nearly 40 citizens were at the council meeting to show their displeasure over Haskins' bill, which would end the practice of people riding horses in the park.

A number of disabled people ride horses as well.

But there is a twist to this deal. Councilman Haskins said if voters support a new tax to raise $9 million for the county, he could see his way to allow riders to use the park after all....

I'll be darn a quid pro quo.

January 31, 2020
By Berkeley Lovelace, Jr.

U.S. and international health officials (click here) are speeding work to create a vaccine for the deadly coronavirus spreading throughout Asia, which has already outpaced the 2003 SARS epidemic and killed at least 213 people in China.

Researchers will need to work fast. Since the first patient was identified in Wuhan on Dec. 31, the number of coronavirus cases has mushroomed to nearly 10,000 in mainland China alone as of Friday morning, up from roughly 800 the week before. While the new virus appears to be less deadly than the 2003 SARS outbreak that sickened 8,098 people and killed almost 800, it is spreading significantly faster.

Hopes to get a vaccine to market are high, but doctors want to set expectations for how quickly that can happen low. Developing, testing and reviewing any potential vaccine is a long, complex and expensive endeavor that could take months or even years, global health experts say....

SARS occurred in 2004. (click here) That was 16 years ago. The vaccine was considered unimportant because the virus was contained and the losses were acceptably within reason which could be viewed as a harsh judgement.

Now, 2020 in an atmosphere of economic disaster due to the tariffs that have caused food in China to become unaffordable, (How is Susan Collins still in the US Senate?) there is still no vaccine or treatment.

From the South China Morning Post:

5 September 2019
By Finbarr Bermingham

...With frozen Maine lobsters (click here) now attracting a tariff of 45 per cent, after an increase of 10 per cent, Canadian fishermen can look forward to more and bigger paydays ahead, leaving Maine’s political leaders to continue pondering “the blow of Chinese tariffs on a hallmark American industry that has done nothing to deserve the punishment that it is presently forced to bear”.

Soybeans, wheat and pork were also on the new tariff list, and the US’ loss will be other nations’ gain. With 1.4 billion mouths to feed, Chinese buyers are sourcing their food from nations with lower-tariff access to Chinese ports, a trend that will deepen as tariffs on the US rise.

According to Darin Friedrichs, a soybean analyst working for INTL FCStone in Shanghai, “yellow soybeans are the only ones that matter”, when it comes to US sales to China. The tariff on yellow beans has risen to 33 per cent, compared to just 3 per cent from Brazil and Argentina, China’s other major suppliers.

Unsurprisingly, US soybean farmers have fairly negative views on the trade war, which has allowed Brazilian rivals to grow their market share in China to 77 per cent over the first nine months of the 2018/19 market year, while their share has fallen to just 10 per cent, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

A survey of 400 US farmers released on Tuesday found that 71 per cent are not expecting a trade war resolution soon. The survey, conducted by Purdue University in Indiana, also found that 71 per cent of farmers think that government subsidies have helped offset the effects of tariffs, while 58 per cent expect more help in 2020....

Why is it that 16 years later, the pandemic is worse and the research is still not forthcoming? 

The US Senate states the US House has successfully proved their case, but, oops it isn't good for Republican politics.

I could not agree more. Leaving Donald John Trump is a danger to the country. The US Senate is under a delusion. People like Lindsay Graham thinks they can control Trump. Pence thought the same thing as President of the US Senate. He was unable to carry out his delusion as well.

January 30, 2020
By Noah Feldman

As Republicans scramble to argue (click here) that they don’t need to call witnesses in President Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial, one argument seems to be gaining traction: that witnesses are irrelevant, because even if Trump did everything he’s accused of doing, abuse of power is not an impeachable offense.

This argument isn’t merely wrong. It is the single most dangerous argument that any of Trump’s defenders have made during the entire impeachment process. If abuse of power isn’t impeachable, what is?...

Lamar Alexander:

...There is no need for more evidence (click here) to prove that the president asked Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter; he said this on television on October 3, 2019, and during his July 25, 2019, telephone call with the president of Ukraine. There is no need for more evidence to conclude that the president withheld United States aid, at least in part, to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens; the House managers have proved this with what they call a ‘mountain of overwhelming evidence.’ There is no need to consider further the frivolous second article of impeachment that would remove the president for asserting his constitutional prerogative to protect confidential conversations with his close advisers.

The question then is not whether the president did it, but whether the United States Senate or the American people should decide what to do about what he did. I believe that the Constitution provides that the people should make that decision in the presidential election that begins in Iowa on Monday....

What is sincerely troubling is the fact that Senators like Lamar Alexander admit the facts are clear and Trump clearly used the power of his office and the withholding of military aid to Ukraine to lean on the President of that country. YET. He continues to dismiss this violation of laws including the power of the legislation.

The question then is not whether the president did it, but whether the United States Senate or the American people should decide what to do about what he did. 

The American people EXPECT the US Senate to protect them from abuse of power. There is nothing stopping Donald John Trump from continuing his bizarre ideas and abuses of power. As a matter of fact, Alexander completely believes in the abuse of power, but, thinks it is no big deal. 

The American people do not expect to be exposed to abuse of power, but, yet Alexander believes it is okay to allow that to happen without knowing to what extent that will occur for the next year and clearly into at least the third week of January 2021. It is an outrage to believe that abuse of power continuing one more day should ever be allowed in this country!

The US Senate also threw away their own power in ignoring rather than enforcing the power they have in protecting funding provided in their power of the purse.

No rational human being would allow this to occur and dismiss it even though the legislature in the US House found the abuse an assault on the power of the Legislature.

The US Senate is a joke!

The president does not have absolute immunity (click here) UNLESS the US Senate is too cowardly and allows it as they have if Trump remains in office! Donald John Trump is making fools of the US Senate!

Moscow is laughing today.

A nationally urgent matter was held up in the US House because of the corrupt pubic statements by Moscow Mitch. Obviously, Moscow Mitch sees no danger to the USA through this entire time.

JANUARY 30, 2020
Senate Impeachment Trial, Day 10

Trump's lawyers are misleading the US Senate.

December 12, 2019
By Manu Raju and Phil Mattingly

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (click here) and President Donald Trump's top lawyer sketched out a plan Thursday to coordinate closely for an impeachment trial but haven't reached agreement on a final strategy to defend Trump against charges of high crimes and misdemeanors, according to two sources familiar with the conversation.

The closed-door meeting Thursday between the Kentucky Republican and White House counsel Pat Cipollone occurred as Senate Republicans and the White House have diverged on what they would like to see take place in the looming trial in the chamber. Trump has made clear he wants witnesses to testify, in person, while senators -- including McConnell in private -- have warned that going down that path could lead to a politically precarious slippery slope in the GOP effort to acquit the President.

"We are having a lot of good conversations with Senate Republicans," Eric Ueland, the White House director of legislative affairs, told reporters as he departed the meeting with Cipollone. "We will continue to do that here over the next few days and weeks as we work through all these issues and priorities the President has outlined when it comes to where we should go on these articles."...

Trump already agreed to witnesses. The US Constitution does not demand citizens not give up their rights. Americans can assert their rights under the Fifth Amendment.

The Fifth Amendment (click here) to the U.S. Constitution guarantees that an individual cannot be compelled by the government to provide incriminating information about herself – the so-called “right to remain silent.”  When an individual “takes the Fifth,” she invokes that right and refuses to answer questions or provide information that might incriminate her.

H.Res.660 (click here) - Directing certain committees to continue their ongoing investigations as part of the existing House of Representatives inquiry into whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to exercise its Constitutional power to impeach Donald John Trump, President of the United States of America, and for other purposes.

House Rules of 116th Congress (click here)

----------------------------------

It is strange to see my journalism (click here) twisted, perverted, and turned into lies and poisonous propaganda by Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and their enablers. But that’s what has happened to a news story I wrote four years ago.

In 2015, I wrote a story for the New York Times about Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and Ukraine. Many observers now seem to think this suddenly hot story came out of nowhere this year, but that is not true.

The truth behind that story has been lost in a swamp of right-wing opposition research, White House lies, and bizarre follow-up stories. Now it appears that the Biden-Ukraine story will play a role in a new impeachment inquiry against Trump, amid evidence that he sought to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by withholding U.S. aid unless Zelensky agreed to investigate the Bidens....

...In December 2015 I was an investigative reporter in the Washington bureau of the Times. That month, I published a story reporting that Vice President Joe Biden had just traveled to Ukraine, in part to send a message to the Ukrainian government that it needed to crack down on corruption.

But I also wrote that his anti-corruption message might be undermined by the association of his son Hunter with one of Ukraine’s largest natural gas companies, Burisma Holdings, and with its owner, Mykola Zlochevsky. Zlochevsky had been Ukraine’s ecology minister under former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a pro-Russian leader who had been forced into exile in Russia.

Hunter Biden had joined the board of Burisma in April 2014, the same month that British officials froze Zlochevsky’s London bank accounts containing $23 million. Britain’s Serious Fraud Office, an independent government agency, was conducting a money-laundering investigation and refused to allow Zlochevsky or Burisma Holdings, the company’s chief legal officer, and another company owned by Zlochevsky access to the accounts....

Turley was the only one of the four witnesses to state the US House should wait for more records before filing. He never objected to the filing and even stated there would be more chance it would be successful if the US House would wait.

During the House Judiciary Committee's (click here) first impeachment hearing into President Trump, Professor Jonathan Turley of George Washington University Law School stated he feels that the evidence presented is "wafer-thin" compared to other impeachment proceedings in the past.

December 4, 2019

Jonathan Turley, (click here) a George Washington University law professor, is expected to caution House lawmakers against impeaching President Donald Trump based on the evidence they currently have at their disposal.
“Will a slipshod impeachment make us less mad or will it only give an invitation for the madness to follow in every future administration?” Turley will say, according to his prepared opening statement obtained by the PBS NewsHour.
“This is not how an American president should be impeached,” he will add....

Turley's Opening Statement (click here)

§30121. Contributions and donations by foreign nationals (click here)

(a) Prohibition

It shall be unlawful for-

(1) a foreign national, directly or indirectly, to make-

(A) a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with a Federal, State, or local election;

(B) a contribution or donation to a committee of a political party; or

(C) an expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement for an electioneering communication (within the meaning of section 30104(f)(3) of this title); or

(2) a person to solicit, accept, or receive a contribution or donation described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (1) from a foreign national.

Philbin is speaking in half-truths. Trump released A PORTION of the aid after the whistleblower's report became evident.

The Northern Triad is also a highly contentious issue SINCE THE MIGRATIONS STARTED AFTER TRUMP HELD AID TO THE THREE COUNTRIES. However, Guatemala was hit the heaviest and that is where the majority of the migrants have come from. 

So, Philbin is misrepresenting the ISSUES with Trump holding up monies to the Northern Triad. It could be said the refusal of aid to the Northern Triad CAUSED the border wall so called emergency and shifting monies out from the military housing fund.

December 13, 2019
By Phillip Bump

...Over the past three months, (click here) though, we’ve learned a lot more about how fraught those visits can be. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky repeatedly made clear his desire for a meeting at the White House, a visit that would solidify his position as Ukraine’s new leader and demonstrate the United States’ ongoing support for Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. And yet it was continually out of reach, held hostage, according to witnesses who testified in the impeachment inquiry targeting President Trump, until Ukraine agreed to launch investigations that would politically benefit Trump himself.

While Zelensky and his aides wrestled with Trump’s team to try to get a visit confirmed, leader after leader walked through the White House for a grip-and-grin. Strong allies of the United States, such as Canada and Australia. More dubious leaders such as Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. And, the salt in the wound, Russia’s foreign minister, even as the House finalized articles of impeachment....

Speaker Pelosi was very cautious about impeaching Donald John Trump, even after the Whistleblower's complaint. Speaker Pelosi decided to move forward with the impeachment inquiry that lead to the Articles of Impeachment because the evidence was so overwhelming.

October 15, 2019
By John Bresnahan, Heather Caygle and Sarah Ferris

...Trump, White House officials and Republicans on Capitol Hill (click here) have seized on the absence of such a vote as an unacceptable break with House precedent and have vowed to resist what they describe as an illegitimate probe.

But Democrats defended their current impeachment process, which has multiple House committees interviewing witnesses in private and gathering evidence related to allegations that Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, pressured Ukrainian officials to begin an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son — potentially at the risk of losing U.S. military aid.

"There's no requirement that we have a vote, and at this time, we will not have a vote," Pelosi told reporters Tuesday evening.

"We're not here to call bluffs. We're here to find the truth, to uphold the Constitution of the United States," Pelosi added. "This is not a game for us, this is deadly serious."

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters, “The processes that are being pursued are consistent with the Constitution and the law, and by the way, Republican rules.”

Yet Pelosi and other top Democrats couldn't come to an agreement among themselves during internal discussions on Tuesday over whether to move forward with the vote, which would mark an escalation of their impeachment battle with Trump. Vulnerable House Democrats from swing districts were also largely opposed, with some lawmakers fearing that the American public would confuse a vote authorizing an impeachment inquiry as actually impeaching Trump....

I find it interesting that the Trump lawyers arguments align with Shokin. The Trump lawyers have absolutely no sense of what threatens the USA national security. They should not be providing talking points to Putin and Shokin. Trump's lawyers observations about conversations by Ukrainian to the New York Times or otherwise is irrelevant. THE UKRINAIANS ARE COMPROMISED AND WILL NOT SAY ANYTHING TO RUFFLE TRUMP'S FEATHERS.

Standing USA policies are not the issue at hand. That is an excuse for aid to Ukraine being held SO IT WOULD EXPIRE (click here) and not be available for military funding. Every person that testified about the aid stated they were feeling pressed to have the Trump remove the hold. This is not a minor issue and a matter of a few days here or there. Witness after witness stated the release was important and they were pressing for that release.

New findings:

January 30, 2020
By Josh Dawsey and Rosalind S. Helderman

Ten days before Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman (click here) dined with President Trump at his Washington hotel, they were part of a small group of Republican Party donors who met with the president at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, a new recording shows.

The two men — who later assisted Rudolph W. Giuliani’s efforts in Ukraine — were part of a gathering held in an ornate room of the property and also attended by Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, according to the video and people in attendance.

While it was known that Fruman and Parnas had attended an event at Mar-a-Lago, the focus of the event, the timing and who else was in attendance had not been made public.

The April 2018 meeting came days before the two men took part in a donor dinner with the president at his Washington hotel, an encounter captured on a video released last week by Parnas’s attorney....

Voters should decide the elections, however, Former Special Counsel proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Russia interfered in the 2016 election even at the invitation by Trump. The question is about whether or not the people will be able to make a decision in 2020 at all and why risk the chance Trump will receive another manipulated election win. That doesn't even begin to address Trump's lawlessness to remove him from office. The longer the lawlessness goes on, the worst it gets.

The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (ICA) (click here) reasserted Congress’ power of the purse. Specifically, Title X of the Act – “Impoundment Control” – established procedures to prevent the President and other government officials from unilaterally substituting their own funding decisions for those of the Congress. The Act also created the House and Senate Budget Committees and the Congressional Budget Office.

The then majority Republican House members with a Trump Executive Branch wrote to the GAO about withholding monies beyond their expiration date. 

December 10, 2018

Subject: Impoundment Control Act—Withholding of Funds through Their Date ofExpiration (click here)

...As discussed below, we conclude that the ICA does not permit the withholding of funds through their date of expiration. The statutory text and legislative history of the ICA, Supreme Court case law, and the overarching constitutional framework of the legislative and executive powers provide no basis to interpret the ICA as a mechanism by which the President may unilaterally abridge the enacted period of availability of a fixed-period appropriation. The Constitution vests in Congress the power of the purse, and Congress did not cede this important power through the ICA. Instead, the terms of the ICA are strictly limited. The ICA permits only the temporary withholding of budget authority and provides that unless Congress rescinds the amounts at issue, they must be made available for obligation. The President cannot rely on the authority in the ICA to withhold amounts from obligation, while simultaneously disregarding the ICA’s limitations....

GAO Page (click here)

The most any president can withhold funding authorized by Congress is 45 days WITH NOTICE PROVIDED TO BOTH THE US HOUSE AND SENATE FOR THE propose OF rescission of specific funds.

Where is the notification of Congress regarding the rescission of the Ukraine funding? 

REGARDLESS

The timeline states that Trump secretly held the Ukraine funding for at least 10 weeks far exceeding 45 days. Trump wanted to end funding as far back as December 10, 2018 with the assistance of two members of Congress. The president is mentioned in the answer by the GAO. The original letter by the Congressmen are not at this cite.

Timeline (click here)

A look at key dates involving the nearly $400 million in military assistance that had been approved for release in the early months of 2019:

July 3

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a national security official working at the White House, becomes aware that the military aid has been held up. He testified that he received a notice from the State Department. “That’s when I was concretely made aware of the fact there was a hold placed,” he said in testimony to lawmakers....

...September 11

The funds are suddenly released. Senate Republicans said that happened in part because Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, threatened to block $5 billion in Pentagon spending for 2020 if the aid wasn’t given to Ukraine. They said the aid was held up while Trump looked into whether Zelenskiy was serious about fighting corruption. Taylor and other diplomats involved in Ukraine were not given a reason for the aid being released.

Donald J. Trump broke the law and in an obvious and troubling way. Just because the DOJ won't indict doesn't mean it didn't happen.

The US Senate cannot deny the US House facts are correct and must be acted on to remove a criminal president. Trump is completely untrustworthy. THERE IS LEGAL ADVICE GIVEN BEFORE THE SECRET WITHHOLDING OF FUNDING FROM UKRAINE. 

THERE EXISTED A LEGAL FINDING BY THE GAO BEFORE TRUMP WITHHELD THE FUNDING SECRETLY.

TRUMP KNEW THE LEGAL IMPACT OF THE IMPOUNDMENT ACT BEFORE HE SECRETLY WITHHELD THE FUNDING FOR UKRAINE IN CONFLICT WITH RUSSIA.

I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING ELSE TO DISCUSS. THIS IMPEACHMENT IS ABOUT HIS ACTIONS AGAINST UKRAINE AND HE NEEDS TO BE REMOVED FROM OFFICE!

Shokin is still doing Putin's bidding and is now a threat to the USA's national security in cooperating with Russia's agenda for Ukraine.

Trump is Skokin's best game ball, too.

Shokin should be facing charges himself for intimidating Sakvarelidze.

This is the "Kyiv Post." It is read by Ukrainians (in Ukrainian) and it is a propaganda piece about the Former Vice President and how Shokin lost his job. Shokin is now attempting to bring doubt on the current freely elected government in firing him at all since the Biden family is now under scrutiny in the USA. The entire circumstances regarding the security of the USA is being challenged by Putin's puppet.

WHAT US SENATORS ARE GOING TO STOP THIS DISASTER FROM CONTINUING, BOTH FOR UKRAINE AND THE USA? WHILE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE BEING GASLIGHTED BY TRUMP AND HIS COHORTS, UKRAINE'S GOVERNMENT IS BEING ATTACKED BY RUSSIA THROUGH THIS PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN. THE WORLD DIDN'T STOP SPINNING BECAUSE TRUMP IS IMPEACHED!

January 29, 2020

Ukrainian ex-Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin (click here) has demanded that the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) open criminal proceedings against former U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden for “illegal influence on him as the prosecutor general of Ukraine.”

“I ask you to register a criminal offense against me in the Unified Register of Pretrial Investigations by a U.S. citizen, Joseph Biden, which happened on the territory of Ukraine and abroad, namely, interference with the activities of a law enforcement officer, the responsibility for which is provided for in Part 2 of Article 343 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code. Immediately start a pretrial investigation and give written instructions to SBI investigators,” Shokin said in a statement to the acting SBI director delivered by Shokin’s lawyers.

Shokin said he agreed to resign as prosecutor general of Ukraine due to Biden pressure.

“During the last months of 2015 and the first of 2016, Joseph Biden, using his official position, personally paid official visits to Ukraine several times with the aim of holding negotiations with the state leaders on my removal from my post. As a result, he curtailed an objective investigation criminal proceedings on the facts of unlawful activities of persons associated with the company Burisma Holdings Limited (Cyprus), including the son of the specified high-ranking official,” Shokin said....

October 3, 2019
By James Politi and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington, Michael Peel in Brussels, and Roman Olearchyk in Kiev

...EU diplomats (click here) working on Ukraine at the time have, however, told the FT that they were looking for ways to persuade Kiev to remove Mr Shokin well before Mr Biden entered the picture. The push for Mr Shokin’s removal was part of an international effort to bolster Ukraine’s institutions following Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the armed conflict in the eastern part of the country. 

“All of us were really pushing [former Ukrainian president Petro] Poroshenko that he needs to do something, because the prosecutor was not following any of the corruption issues. He was really bad news,” said an EU diplomat involved in the discussions. “It was Biden who finally came in [and triggered it]. Biden was the most vocal, as the US usually is. But we were all literally complaining about the prosecutor.”

Mr Shokin had been appointed prosecutor-general of Ukraine in February 2015, but the discussions in Washington and EU capitals about pushing for his removal started as early as April after he failed to follow through on a burst of expected early anti-corruption moves, one former US Treasury official said. Mr Biden entered the fray in December 2015, placing Mr Shokin’s removal at the top of his agenda on a visit to Kiev. “I know how the idea to have Shokin fired came up, and it wasn't Biden. His direct involvement came late in the game,” the former US Treasury official said....

The new government in Keyv was being blackmailed by their general prosecutor. Basically, Shokin was doing Putin's work to make the new power structure disappear by false accusations.

When a country's government paradigm changes from Russia to Europe, the Old Guard prepares to leave. Shokin was hanging on because he was successful in discrediting the current government with false allegations. When Vice President Biden made his statement about monies for Ukraine, Shokin no longer had the power to end the new government in favor of Russian control.

...The witness, (click here) a sand producer in the Kiev region, complained of men extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars. It took a while to persuade the man to give evidence. But when he did, and the investigation began, the trail led to two of the country’s highest-placed prosecutors.

A search of the men’s apartments revealed a scene that looked like a comic heist: bags full of cash, diamonds and other precious stones. (FLUID GET AWAY ASSETS) But that was not the only incriminating evidence. Documents seized at the time indicated the men appeared to have a connection to the top prosecutor in the land, Viktor Shokin.

Police found copies of Shokin’s passports, property registration certificates and even his licence to carry firearms. (Shokin's ability to leave the country of Ukraine, probably headed for Russia) One of the two men, it transpired, was Shokin’s former driver who had subsequently climbed the ranks behind his boss.

For Sakvarelidze, there were clear suspicions the two men may have been carrying out the business of the chief. But his attempts to investigate were frustrated. Soon, he faced a corruption investigation himself. At loggerheads with Shokin, he was pushed out of his job within the year.... 

HOW MANY TIMES does anyone have to prove that DONALD JOHN TRUMP IS A HABITUAL LIAR USING THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT FOR HIS OWN PURPOSES?

Everyone other than Trump and his sworn supporters are the Deep State.

Why is Trump coining the "Deep State" for a political win? They have been investigating "Trump Management Company" from 1972 (click here)

Files (click here) The copy of the lease stating "No Dogs Allowed" is number 08 of 08.

Trump hates the FBI and the US Justice Department because they always win their investigations and he loses.

Amanda Carpenter is a CNN contributor, former communications director for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and speechwriter for Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC).

January 30, 2020
By Amanda Carter

...The memo in question (click here) is one written by the staff of Republican Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes—the same Nunes who recused himself from the Russia investigation last year among allegations that “he made unauthorized disclosures of classified information.” Now, Nunes is at it again. This time with a four-page classified memo that, if you believe what those who have read it say, shows an Obama-era FBI rife with corruption and engaging in eye-popping abuses of power. The details of what the memo says have been kept private, because they are classified. But that hasn’t stopped Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill and beyond from crowing about the allegedly shocking memo since mid-January, demanding it be released to the public and spawning a viral hashtag, now used by everyone from Donald Trump Jr. to Sean Hannity and Julian Assange. After the House voted on Monday to do so, House Speaker Paul Ryan made a statement in favor of the decision. Now, the matter is in the president’s hands....

From hotels to casinos to his university and non-profits all he has is legal problems because HE LIES AND BREAKS THE RULES. 

November 8, 2019
By Michael Collins, Dennis Wagner and Kevin McCoy

Washington -  A New York judge’s ruling that (click here) President Donald Trump must pay $2 million to charity appears to be the final chapter in the saga of Trump’s troubled charitable foundation.

State Supreme Court Justice Saliann Scarpulla of Manhattan ruled on Thursday that Trump pay $2 million in damages to various nonprofit groups to settle allegations that he and his family used the Trump Foundation to further his political and business interests.

Though Trump admitted the misconduct in court documents, he issued a defiant statement in which he accused New York’s attorney general of mischaracterizing the settlement process for political purposes. Trump claimed he had been attacked by “political hacks in New York State.”

Here’s a closer look at the ruling and the foundation’s legal troubles:...

Trump understands "quid pro quo' all too well.

November 13, 2019
By Robert W. Wood

There is plenty of talk these days (click here) about whether there was a quid pro quo concerning the President’s interactions with Ukraine. As the hearings and testimony unfold, could the IRS care about this too? The IRS’s concern isn’t about politics, of course, but surprisingly, the concept of a quid pro quo comes up regularly in the tax law. In fact, the same basic concept is there. What’s more, the practical way in which the IRS looks at this issue is pretty interesting. Consider charitable contributions. The tax law is clear that you cannot write off a charitable contribution if it wasn’t really a charitable contribution.

Charitable contributions by real estate developers are one classic context in which this quid pro quo issue can arise. When faced with a big tax write-off for a “donation,” the IRS might sniff out suspect motives for a donation. In many cases, so-called "gifts" to charity were actually more like business deals in which one item is exchanged for some other item of value....

...The quid pro quo problem can arise with a charitable contribution for something in return now, or a promised benefit in the future. Conservation easements are another area ripe for the quid pro quo issue to come up. Conveying an asset to a charitable organization as part of a deal or arrangement to get something back from the organization taints the contribution. It is, in short, merely a business deal, not a charitable contribution. Donations to charity are supposed to be out of generosity, not a business deal in which you get something back. So one way a donation might not qualify for a tax deduction is if you were paying for services, expecting something back in return....