Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Trump Administration Taking on Water
The Trump administration might have thought it was out of the woods when the Mueller Report failed to ignite a flame for impeachment. Such thinking was wrong. The whistleblower complaint and the White House memorandum of conversation with Ukraine's president that hit the press just over a week ago have changed things radically for the administration. The House of Representatives has initiated a formal impeachment inquiry, and the public opinion polls now show a majority of Americans want the president impeached. Moreover, top officials appear to have been heavily involved in improper use of power.
The first person, after the president, most likely to be in grave legal trouble is his own lawyer Rudolph Giuliani. He has traveled extensively to ramp up pressure on Ukraine to get Kyiv to investigate Hunter Biden, the son of presidential candidate Joe Biden. He claims he had the blessing of the State Department to do this. Yet, that makes no sense. Why would the president send his personal lawyer (the former Mayor of New York has no official position in the government) rather than an ambassador, or Secretary of State? And why would the Secretary of State not object to an outsider working his turf? The House Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed his records.
Of course, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is implicated as well. He has maintained he had limited knowledge of the July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymy Zelensky. He said he had not read the whistleblower's complaint and so couldn't comment on the matter. It turns out that he was on the call. Why lie about knowing?
In addition, Attorney General William Barr, who has abused his position to spin the Mueller Report and to prevent prosecution of contempt of Congress charges against administration officials, has also been traveling. He has visited Italy, Britain and Australia (and quite possibly other countries) in an attempt to open up investigations into the origins of the dossier that started the Mueller investigation. The origins are clear, however. Another Republican candidate for president in 2016 paid for opposition research. When that candidate lost, the investigation was funded by the Democrats. It was put together by a former MI6 officer, and British intelligence is pretty good at getting these things right. Yet Mr. Barr has been trying to get false accusations raised to the benefit of the president.
Finally, Vice President Mike Pence does not appear to have clean hands here either. He was supposed to attend the inauguration of President Zelensky, That was canceled under presidential orders, and it would be a rare person who would not ask why. What did he know and when did he know it?
A major event that got little attention was the resignation last week by the special envoy to Ukraine. Kurt Volker. He was the man on the ground in Kyiv charged with coordinating the aid the Ukrainians were to receive. He will be testifying before the Intelligence Committee on Thursday.
This is a pitiful situation. The government of the US is run by an incompetent man who has criminal tendencies. He has surrounded himself with either corrupt or corruptible individuals. The election to replace him is more than a year away. The Republic may not have that kind of time.
© Copyright 2019 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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