- Mar 4, 2007
- 3,671
- 3,562
- Faith
- Christian
- Marital Status
- Single
- Politics
- US-Others
I watched the second part tonight and am still trying to gather my thoughts. I thought his stating that he was giving public interviews to get the truth out because he doesn't trust the US Justice Dept. under AG Barr interesting, though I'm really not sure what to think about it. A part of me wonders if his view of "Justice" is colored by his growing up under Soviet "justice," or if they really are attempting to make him a scapegoat to protect those more "valuable" to the President.
To be fair, I am taking things Mr. Parnas states with a grain of salt -- though I do tend to trust what he states when he has the documents to back him up. To give one example, that ties into the above, I found it questionable that AG Barr is heavily involved in the Ukraine situation, as Mr. Parnas alleged last night. While I do think AG Barr works frequently as Pres. Trump's "lawyer" (such as whitewashing the "summary" of the Mueller Report), beyond being the AG, at the same time I think he does attempt to curb Trump's worse impulses and stop things Trump might want to do that are illegal/immoral. So I'm skeptical of Barr's being involved with Giuliani's activities in Ukraine.
His talking about Pres. Trump trying to fire Ms. Yovanovitch as ambassador to Ukraine is another one I have issues with. From what I've seen, if Pres. Trump really wanted her fired, he would have Tweeted that she was fired and that would have done it. At the same time, I can't completely discount that he did want her fired, told Sec. Pompeo to fire her, and Pompeo explained that he couldn't do it for whatever reason -- it feels like there may be more story there.
In the end, I think there is plenty there that is quite damning and makes the case that the President abused his power in trying to get Ukraine to announce an investigation into the Bidens. It does leave a lot of questions though, ones that will require Bolton, Pompeo, Giuliani, Perry, and others to testify about if we are going to get to the bottom of things (Perry especially, give the allegations against him when he resigned and Mr. Parnas' allegations tonight).
I did find it interesting that Mr. Parnas stated he believes VP Biden is completely innocent of wrongdoing in Ukraine. I tend to believe him here, both because he seems to have more reason to claim Biden is guilty than innocent as well as how he seems to have evidence, that fits what we know, that both former Prosecutors (AGs) Shokin and Lutsenko were corrupt and were willing to change their stories about the Biden's guilt for the right "price."
I am hoping the Senate will hold a legitimate trial, particularly since they have the Parnas documents, and will attempt to get to the truth of Mr. Parnas' allegations.
My gripe, voiced yesterday, was that the interview was interrupted. I hope they release an unedited version. He seemed a bit tired in part two. Yesterday I couldn't hear his accent, but tonight and when listening audio only, it is very slight. I wonder if it becomes more pronounced if he gets either tired, or comfortable in a situation. I'd like to see the full transition, body language etc. It's hard to get a sense of that when there are constant interruptions. His demeanor was not at all what I was expecting. I expected some who was bumbling, but he seems intelligent and poised. I do believe he is afraid of Barr/the DOJ.
Regarding Barr, the in the transcript (call summary) Trump keeps telling everyone to read, he told the Ukraine president he'd like to have both the AG and Rudy call him.
I don't know why that in and of itself isn't a problem, Rudy was supposed to be representing his personal interests, and Barr the interests of the United States, yet Trump was asking the Ukraine pres to speak with Rudy on what was supposed to be an official call. IMO that shows that Trump was definitely, if not using the govt for personal benefit, mixing both personal and national interests. If we assume what Trump says is true that he was withholding funds to fight corruption (I don't believe that but still) why was Rudy involved? If he didn't know what Rudy was going over there, as he has claimed, why is he instructing the Ukraine to speak with him?
I didn't like how Parnas fidgeted twhen talking about Biden. I don't think Biden did anything wrong, but with certain things he lost eye contact when discussing, which makes me think there is more to the story.
The fact that Lev didn't over reach and say Perry knew about the aid being withheld, that he would only state he knew Perry was to get agreement on announcing an investigation, seemed credible.
Perry also did his own dealing over there on behalf of some of his donors.
Perry backers secured lucrative Ukraine gas deal after his meeting with new president: report
Upvote
0