Updated Day 979

Author: mkiser

_posts/2019-09-25-day-979.markdown

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ description: '"Do us a favor."'
 image: "/uploads/979.jpg"
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-1/ **Trump urged President Volodymyr Zelensky to "do us a favor" and "look into" potential corruption by Joe Biden's son**, according to the White House readout of the July 25th call. Trump told Zelensky he'd have Attorney General William Barr and Rudy Guiliani contact him so Ukraine could to "figure it out" and "get to the bottom of it." Trump, before asking Ukraine to investigate Biden's son, reminded Zelensky that the U.S. sends security aid to Ukraine. Trump also asked Zelensky to investigate Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election as it related to Ukraine, as well as to investigate whether he could locate a hacked Democratic National Committee computer server that contained some of Hillary Clinton's emails. After the whistlerblower complaint raising concerns about Trump's call with Zelensky, the director of national intelligence and the inspector general for the intelligence community each referred the complaint for a possible criminal investigation into Trump's actions. While there was no explicit reference to the $391 million in foreign aid that Trump directed Mick Mulvaney to block days before the call took place, the intelligence community's inspector general told the Director of National Intelligence that Trump's comments could be viewed as soliciting a foreign campaign contribution in violation of federal campaign finance laws. The Justice Department, however, concluded that it "could not make out a criminal campaign finance violation" based on the summary of the call. Officials, however, didn't take into consideration that Trump was withholding aid to Ukraine at the time. The document, which the White House and Trump refer to as a transcript, isn't verbatim – it's a "memorandum of telephone conversation" based off the "notes and recollections" of Situation Room and National Security Council officials. ([New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/us/politics/ukraine-transcript-trump.html) / [Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/transcript-of-trumps-call-with-ukrainian-president-shows-him-offering-us-assistance-for-biden-investigation/2019/09/25/16aa36ca-df0f-11e9-8dc8-498eabc129a0_story.html) / [Wall Street Journal](https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-to-release-transcript-of-trumps-ukraine-call-as-impeachment-efforts-begin-11569403803) / [Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-25/trump-asked-ukraine-to-work-with-giuliani-barr-on-biden-probe) / [NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/trump-asked-ukraine-leader-phone-call-look-why-investigation-biden-n1058551) / [Politico](https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/25/white-house-releases-transcript-of-trumps-call-with-ukraines-president-1510767) / [NPR](https://www.npr.org/2019/09/25/764164340/trump-asked-ukrainian-president-for-a-favor-on-biden-doj-says-no-charges) / [CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/25/politics/donald-trump-ukraine-transcript/index.html) / [ABC News](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/transcript-trump-call-ukraine-includes-talk-giuliani-barr/story?id=65848768) / [CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/25/trump-asked-ukraine-president-if-you-can-look-into-biden-and-his-son-in-phone-call.html))
+1/ **Trump urged President Volodymyr Zelensky to "do us a favor" and "look into" potential corruption by Joe Biden's son**, according to the White House readout of the July 25th call. Trump told Zelensky he'd have Attorney General William Barr and Rudy Guiliani contact him so Ukraine could to "figure it out" and "get to the bottom of it." Trump, before asking Ukraine to investigate Biden's son, reminded Zelensky that the U.S. sends security aid to Ukraine. Trump also asked Zelensky to investigate Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election as it related to Ukraine, as well as to investigate whether he could locate a hacked Democratic National Committee computer server that contained some of Hillary Clinton's emails. After the whistleblower complaint raising concerns about Trump's call with Zelensky, the director of national intelligence and the inspector general for the intelligence community each referred the complaint for a possible criminal investigation into Trump's actions. While there was no explicit reference to the $391 million in foreign aid that Trump directed Mick Mulvaney to block days before the call took place, the intelligence community's inspector general told the Director of National Intelligence that Trump's comments could be viewed as soliciting a foreign campaign contribution in violation of federal campaign finance laws. The Justice Department, however, concluded that it "could not make out a criminal campaign finance violation" based on the summary of the call. Officials, however, didn't take into consideration that Trump was withholding aid to Ukraine at the time. The document, which the White House and Trump refer to as a transcript, isn't verbatim – it's a "memorandum of telephone conversation" based off the "notes and recollections" of Situation Room and National Security Council officials. ([New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/us/politics/ukraine-transcript-trump.html) / [Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/transcript-of-trumps-call-with-ukrainian-president-shows-him-offering-us-assistance-for-biden-investigation/2019/09/25/16aa36ca-df0f-11e9-8dc8-498eabc129a0_story.html) / [Wall Street Journal](https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-to-release-transcript-of-trumps-ukraine-call-as-impeachment-efforts-begin-11569403803) / [Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-25/trump-asked-ukraine-to-work-with-giuliani-barr-on-biden-probe) / [NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/trump-asked-ukraine-leader-phone-call-look-why-investigation-biden-n1058551) / [Politico](https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/25/white-house-releases-transcript-of-trumps-call-with-ukraines-president-1510767) / [NPR](https://www.npr.org/2019/09/25/764164340/trump-asked-ukrainian-president-for-a-favor-on-biden-doj-says-no-charges) / [CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/25/politics/donald-trump-ukraine-transcript/index.html) / [ABC News](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/transcript-trump-call-ukraine-includes-talk-giuliani-barr/story?id=65848768) / [CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/25/trump-asked-ukraine-president-if-you-can-look-into-biden-and-his-son-in-phone-call.html))
 
 * **Read the "transcript" of Trump's call with Zelenskiy**. ([PDF](https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/Unclassifiedukrainetranscript09.2019.pdf))
 
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ image: "/uploads/979.jpg"
 
 2/ **The White House released the whistleblower complaint against Trump to the House and the Senate intelligence committees**, according to Richard Burr and Devin Nunes. The acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, until now had blocked Congress from seeing the complaint. Separately, White House officials are working with intelligence officials on a deal to allow the whistleblower to speak with congressional investigators. ([Business Insider](https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-whistleblower-complaint-released-congress-2019-9) / [New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/24/us/politics/trump-whistleblower-congress.html) / [CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-whistleblower-complaint-dni-to-provide-congress-with-whistleblower-complaint-today-live-updates-2019-09-25/) / [Politico](https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/24/white-house-whistleblower-complaint-release-1510341) / [NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/trump-acknowledges-withholding-funds-ukraine-n1058126))
 
-3/ **The acting Director of National Intelligence threatened to resign over if he was not allowed to testify freely before Congress** on Thursday about the whistleblower complaint regarding Trump's conductm according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with the matter. Joseph Maguire warned the White House that he was not willing to withhold information from Congress, forcing the White House to make a legal decision on whether it was going to assert executive privilege over the whistleblower complaint. McGuire later denied reports that he threatened to resign, saying that "at no time have I considered resigning my position since assuming this role on Aug. 16, 2019." The White House also disputed the account. ([Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/acting-director-of-national-intelligence-threatened-to-resign-if-he-couldnt-speak-freely-before-congress/2019/09/25/b1deb71e-dfbf-11e9-be96-6adb81821e90_story.html) / [CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/25/acting-dni-joseph-maguire-denies-report-he-threatened-to-resign.html))
+3/ **The acting Director of National Intelligence threatened to resign over if he was not allowed to testify freely before Congress** on Thursday about the whistleblower complaint regarding Trump's conduct according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with the matter. Joseph Maguire warned the White House that he was not willing to withhold information from Congress, forcing the White House to make a legal decision on whether it was going to assert executive privilege over the whistleblower complaint. McGuire later denied reports that he threatened to resign, saying that "at no time have I considered resigning my position since assuming this role on Aug. 16, 2019." The White House also disputed the account. ([Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/acting-director-of-national-intelligence-threatened-to-resign-if-he-couldnt-speak-freely-before-congress/2019/09/25/b1deb71e-dfbf-11e9-be96-6adb81821e90_story.html) / [CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/25/acting-dni-joseph-maguire-denies-report-he-threatened-to-resign.html))
 
 4/ **The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee called on Attorney General William Barr to recuse himself from overseeing any Justice Department's involvement from any Ukraine-related investigations**. "The President dragged the Attorney General into this mess," Jerry Nadler tweeted. "At a minimum, AG Barr must recuse himself until we get to the bottom of this matter." ([The Hill](https://thehill.com/homenews/house/462985-nadler-calls-on-ag-barr-to-recuse-himself-from-ukraine-matter) / [Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-whistleblower-barr/house-judiciary-chief-call-on-barr-to-recuse-himself-from-ukraine-probes-idUSKBN1WA24K) / [The Week](https://theweek.com/speedreads/867595/house-judiciary-chair-nadler-demands-attorney-general-barr-recuse-himself-after-ukraine-transcript-release))