Thursday, October 17, 2019

Inside his star chamber, Schiff pressured the witness to lie about Trump

U.S. special representative to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, testified before the Democrat Inquisition. He told them there was no quid pro quo between President Trump and President Zelensky of Ukraine. That was not the answer Schiff wanted, so he began badgering the witness in an attempt to get him to change his testimony, but he refused to be bullied by Schiff, a man who is a legend in his own mind. Volker kept insisting that there was no quid pro quo, but there was no Russian collusion either. That didn’t stop Democrats from authorizing over $30 million for the Mueller report. Buying Charmin would have been cheaper, and of better quality, too.

Democrat House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff reportedly pressed U.S. special representative to Ukraine Kurt Volker in a secret meeting on October 3 to say that President Donald Trump pressured Ukrainian officials to investigate former Vice President and current Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

“Volker denied that was the case, noting that Ukrainian leaders did not even know the aid was being withheld, and that they believed their relationship with the United States was moving along satisfactorily, without them having done anything Trump mentioned in his notorious July 25 phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky,” The Washington Examiner reported. “When Volker repeatedly declined to agree to Schiff’s characterization of events, Schiff said, ‘Ambassador, you’re making this much more complicated than it has to be.’”

The central allegation that Democrats are claiming that Trump is guilty of is engaging in a quid pro quo with Ukraine, instructing them to investigate Biden in exchange for U.S. military support.

[Schiff] asked Volker whether he would agree that “no President of the United States should ever ask a foreign leader to help intervene in a U.S. election.”

“I agree with that,” said Volker.

“And that would be particularly egregious if it was done in the context of withholding foreign assistance?” Schiff continued.

Volker balked. “We’re getting now into, you know, a conflation of these things that I didn’t think was actually there.”

Schiff wanted Volker to agree that “if it’s inappropriate for a president to seek foreign help in a U.S. election, it would be doubly so if a president was doing that at a time when the United States was withholding military support from the country.”

Again, Volker did not agree. “I can’t really speak to that,” he said. “My understanding of the security assistance issue is — ”

Schiff interrupted. “Why can’t you speak to that, ambassador? You’re a career diplomat. You can understand the enormous leverage that a president would have while withholding military support from an ally at war with Russia. You can understand just how significant that would be, correct?”

Volker tried to go along without actually agreeing. “I can understand that that would be significant,” he said.

Schiff persisted. “And when that suspension of aid became known to that country, to Ukraine, it would be all the more weighty to consider what the president had asked of them, wouldn’t it?”

“So again, congressman, I don’t believe — ” Volker began.

“It’s a pretty straightforward question,” Schiff said.

“But I don’t believe the Ukrainians were aware that the assistance was being held up — ”

“They became aware of it,” Schiff said.

“They became aware later, but I don’t believe they were aware at the time, so there was no leverage implied,” Volker said.