{"id":38027,"date":"2019-10-23T10:02:38","date_gmt":"2019-10-23T17:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=38027"},"modified":"2019-10-23T10:02:38","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T17:02:38","slug":"quid-pro-quo-is-a-smoking-gun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2019\/10\/23\/quid-pro-quo-is-a-smoking-gun\/","title":{"rendered":"Quid Pro Quo is a Smoking Gun"},"content":{"rendered":"

We had no doubt that Resident Donald Trump, aka Putin’s Puppet, is a quid pro quo<\/em> kind of felon.  After everything else Trump has done for Putin, we watched him and Erdogan carve up the spoils of Syrian Kurdistan yesterday.  How much quo<\/em> does Putin get, anyway?  But Trump wanted to be on the receiving end of the equation too, so he threatened Ukraine, making that nation’s survival contingent on manufacturing dirt on a Trump political rival.  Yesterday, Bill Taylor offered so much proof that quid pro quo<\/em> is a smoking gun.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"1023Taylor\" <\/p>\n

The top US diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor<\/a>, testified Tuesday that he had been told President Donald Trump would withhold military aid to the country<\/a> until it publicly declared investigations would be launched that could help his reelection chances \u2014 including into former Vice President Joe Biden, according to a copy of Taylor’s opening statement <\/a>obtained by CNN. <\/p>\n

Taylor said he was told that “everything” Ukraine wanted \u2014 from a one-on-one meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to hundreds of millions in security aid \u2014 was dependent on publicly announcing an investigation that included Burisma<\/a>, the company that hired Biden’s son Hunter, and Ukraine’s alleged involvement in the 2016 election. <\/p>\n

Taylor’s explosive testimony is likely to add fuel to Democrats’ impeachment inquiry<\/a> into Trump and Ukraine, with Democratic lawmakers leaving the closed door session before three House committees declaring Taylor’s testimony was damning for the President<\/strong>. The testimony also undercuts White House assertions that there was no “quid pro quo” tying security assistance with the opening of an investigation, as Taylor says he was told repeatedly that the two were linked<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

The opening statement from Taylor \u2014 15 pages long \u2014 adds a detailed and meticulous accounting of the meetings Taylor had with senior US officials in which he says he learned how Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani were pushing Ukraine to open an investigation into the Bidens and the 2016 election…<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <CNN<\/a>><\/font><\/p>\n

Please click through for much mort info.<\/font><\/p>\n

Of course, nobody can flesh out a story as well as Rachel Maddow does.<\/font><\/p>\n

Diplomat Worried Trump Would Stiff Ukraine After Leveraging Favor<\/a> <\/p>\n