Trove of text messages makes it clear: Trump knew his Ukraine extortion was illegal

One of the running bits on HBO's hit series "Succession" is between Tom Wamsgans, an executive at the fictional Waystar Royco corporation at the center of the show, and his lackey Greg Hirsch. Tom compels Greg to join what is clearly a criminal conspiracy. Every time Tom tells Greg to do something illegal, or follows up by asking him how the illegal thing went, he ends the talk with some variation of, "We never had this conversation." To normal viewers, the point of the bit is clear enough: Tom is saying he will deny this conversation if asked about it and expects Greg to do the same. If we're to believe the things Republicans are saying now, they watch this show and respond, "Golly gee, he just made that conversation disappear by saying the magic words! Tom must be a wizard!" After all, that pretty well summarizes the spin Republican politicians, pundits and their parrots are putting out concerning a series of damning text messages released by the House Intelligence Committee. These messages show State Department officials, clearly working under President Trump's direct orders, conducting a lengthy pressure campaign on the Ukrainian government. State Department officials made it quite clear to their counterparts in Ukraine that staying in Trump's good graces - and getting desperately needed military aid - was contingent on Ukraine providing Trump concocted evidence he could use to bolster his crackpot conspiracy theories about the Democrats. The documents are quite clear about both the quid that was expected and the quo that would be withheld if the Ukrainian side failed to give the orange mobster in the Oval Office what he desired. An aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky repeatedly presses for a meeting between his boss and Trump, clearly to discuss the military aid that Trump was withholding from the Kyiv government. He is repeatedly told that won't happen until Zelensky announces an investigation into already-debunked conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton and former Vice President Joe Biden. Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the EU, and Kurt Volker, who was then the special U.S. envoy to Ukraine, also discuss between themselves how to extract a "deliverable" from Zelensky in order to make the meeting happen, with the clear goal of getting the military aid released. https://ift.tt/31Muzhd

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