Whistle-Blower’s Complaint Is Said to Involve Multiple Acts by Trump

[BmorePat87]

(09-25-2019, 04:54 PM)Dill Wrote: What do you make of the references to the "very good" prosecutor who was "shut down." That would have to be the notoriously corrupt Shokin, wouldn't it?

Also, there seems to be some confusion about ambassadors. Trump refers to an ambassador FROM the US to the Ukraine, Yovanovitch, who pushed an anti-corruption agenda and was recalled after a Fox News campaign to fire her; Zelensky seems to refer to an ambassador from the Ukraine TO the US, Ivanovich. Maybe the transcribers muddled notes here?

A side issue--I'm wondering what other countries make of this. How can they be certain a deepening scandal won't out further private conversations between Trump other heads of state? How will that affect future conversations with Trump?  Trump has already done much to evade the previously normal and expected monitoring of intercourse with other heads of state. This will surely press him to deform the process even more.

So the prosecutor in question is probably Yuri Lutsenko, Shokin's successor, who, fearing that he would lose his job when Zelensky was elected, reached out to Guilianni and suggested he could investigate Biden, hoping that Trump's backing of him might sway Zelensky to not fire him. He also teamed up with Guilianni to repeatedly attack a Zelensky ally, Serhiy Leshchenko, who had helped expose Manafort's dealings with the Ukraine. He successfully prosecuted Leshchenko for "harming" the country with his actions, but Leshchenko won his appeal and was awarded a monetary settlement. 

At the time of the call, Zelensky had repeatedly asked parliament to dismiss Lutsenko.