The OP from before the hearings posted:

Since there's going to be literally months more of this poo poo coming up, here's a thread for the impeachment investigation, the future impeachment trial, and the associated public hearings.

During hearings, TVIVing is allowed itt



THE OVERVIEW AS OF MID-NOVEMBER:

• Rudy and the Gang conspire to get the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, removed from her position, because she doesn't support their corrupt goals
  
• The same conspirators spend months pressuring Ukraine to start investigating Hunter Biden for his position on the board of Burisma in order to help Trump in 2020
  
• They tell the Ukrainians that any meeting with Trump won't happen until they announce an investigation into Biden, and, when that doesn't happen, they cut off the aid package that Congress approved (meant to send them Javelin systems to use in their ongoing war against Russia) and won't release it until they announce investigations
  
• Trump has the call with Zelensky where he demands investigation of Burisma
  
• The whistleblower learns of this call, reports it, and Congress finds out
  
• Only when Congress announces it knows about this and is investigating is the aid to Ukraine finally released

THE CONSPIRATORS:


Rudy Giuliani at the James J. Fox cigar bar in London, with Lev Parnas, left, Igor Fruman, speaking on the phone, and a third associate.

Rudy Giuliani, Lev Parnas, and Igor Furman: conducted a shadow campaign to oust U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, then to force Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden, in return for meetings with Trump and release of military aid. Parnas and Furman also, coincidentally, happen to work for



Dmytro Firtash: a prominent Russian-backed Ukrainian oligarch in exile, Firtash very successfully looted the country in the Yuschenko and Yanukovych administrations. You might remember his name because of his other employee, Paul Manafort. He’s currently stuck in Austria, because he’s fighting extradition to the United States for completely unrelated corruption charges (for taking tens of millions in bribes for a titanium deal) in Chicago.

There’s too much related to him to unpack here but, suffice to say, he has a huge grudge against the US-backed interests that have really screwed over his looting. The initial campaign against Yovanovitch appears to have been bankrolled by him, since she represented the kind of anti-corruption agenda that is directly harmful to his interests, and much of the anti-Biden campaign also appears to come from him as well (since Biden also hosed him over).

Firtash is represented by these people:

https://twitter.com/JasonSCampbell/status/1194774142790381573

Victoria Toensing and Joe DiGenova are a married couple of Florida attorneys who, at one point, Trump was adding to his Mueller legal team. Since then, they spend their time on Fox News, and have been a key intermediary for disinformation to pass between Firtash and the far-right media sphere, most prominently, their other “client”

https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/1194572039564222464

John Solomon, a disgraced reporter for The Hill (who once was somewhat legit, and put out so much bullshit that The Hill reclassified him as “opinion”), Solomon has been the main way that their media campaign has filtered into the American far-right. His almost universally-untrue stories have directly driven the campaign to oust Yovanovitch and investigate Hunter Biden, and his name has already come up many times in depositions.

OTHER CONSPIRACIES:

Rudy Giuliani, Rick Perry, and Gordon Sondland: appear to have been working to get Texas businessmen that fund Rick Perry installed on the board of Ukraine’s state-owned gas company, Naftogaz. It's unclear whether this will end up Actually Mattering, but the Southern District of New York looks to be investigating Rudy for it


THE WITNESSES:

11/13: William Taylor and George Kent
already testified publicly, with the biggest reveal being that on July 26, Trump called Gordon Sondland and asked about “the investigations” in front of one of Taylor’s aides, undermining many stupid lies Sondland has already told under oath. Here’s a summary of their testimony.

11/15: Marie Yovanovitch
the target of the conspiracy lead by Giuliani, who was ousted from her post (but still technically works for State). Her testimony is here

11/19 (AM): Jennifer Williams, Alexander Vindman
Williams: a State department official assigned to Pence’s national security advisor, Keith Kellogg, who was on the call between Trump and Zelensky.
Vindman: Director for European Affairs on the National Security Council, Army officer, star witness. Heard the call between Trump and Zelensky and immediately reported it to NSC lawyers.

11/19 (PM): Kurt Volker, Tim Morrison
Volker: Special Envoy to Ukraine.
Morrison: top advisor for Russian/EU affairs on the NSC until he stepped down the day before he was deposed; was Fiona Hill’s replacement when she left; Bolton aide. Was on the call and asked NSC lawyers to investigate as well.

11/20 (AM): Gordon Sondland
Ambassador to the EU. Center of the conspiracy. Already had to amend his testimony once because he lied to minimize his involvement, will likely have to amend it many more times to avoid future perjury charges.

11/20 (PM): Laura Cooper, David Hale
Cooper: Deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia/Ukraine/Eurasian affairs
Hale: Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs. A political appointee of Trump’s involved in the firing of Yovanovitch.

11/21: Fiona Hill, David Holmes
Hill: Former NSC senior staffer that worked for Bolton.
Holmes: career diplomat in the Ukraine embassy; overheard conversation between Trump and Sondland that confirmed his goal was to investigate Biden

Otteration posted:

Thanks for the thread! Hoping to the random orbs of the Universe that both the orange fecal smear and the rest of us live long enough to see it get hit by one of those tiny orbs only after a conviction in the Senate.

Also hoping thread-god eke also posts news links both here and in USPOL, at least when hearings aren't in session.

Discendo Vox posted:

Ehud posted:

What is the deal with the "Schiff knows the identity of the whisteblower" sign that the Republicans keep trotting out?

Does he actually know or not?

refleks posted:

I know gently caress all about military code, but is he required to show up in uniform for these things? All the photos I have seen of him has been in full uniform.

Wylie posted:

Williams is basically providing cover for Pence today, then? Ok.

eviltastic posted:

I think it would be worth adding a blurb to the very good first post about the Bidens / Burisma explaining the underlying conspiracy theory and why it is bonkers.

zonohedron posted:

Interesting; I didn't expect Williams's lawyer to prevent her from answering "did anything happen on the call that is relevant to our inquiry", but her expression when she said "I would be very happy to testify in a classified session" suggests there's definitely something in her mind.

zonohedron posted:

This is Goldman, the Dems' counsel, and he's trying to illustrate that nobody in the government would have suggested that Trump ask Zelenskyy about, or ask him for, anything that Trump did ask about/for.

Strange Poon posted:

is it just me or is this stuff out of vindman way more damning than the already very damning stuff we've heard

BigBallChunkyTime posted:

Vindman seems like not the typical military shithead.

bobjr posted:

I don’t know if he has family but considering Dr. Ford and what she had to do with the threats, it’s probably horrifying what threats are coming at him and what to worry about after this is all over still.

refleks posted:

Who is the lawyer for Williams? Someone from WH or State or someone she hired herself?

smug n stuff posted:

Vindman's lawyer looks exactly like Dennis Prager

evilweasel posted:

nunes also knows who the alleged whistleblower is, so if he could get a witness to say their name he would suddenly start asking a whole hell of a lot of questions about them

PlasticAutomaton posted:

What the gently caress is this question line about Canada.

BigBallChunkyTime posted:

Is there a second hearing for later today?

zonohedron posted:

So when high school kids get taught how to cross-examine opposing debaters, they're instructed not to ask questions where they don't know the answer; they're not asking because they're curious, they're asking so that the judge (or panel of judges, in finals rounds) hears the answer.

Castor apparently really thought that Pence's staff would think going to Canada was more important and would totally have dropped everything, and he keeps flailing around with followup questions because he's not getting the answers he expected.

Obviously this means that the Republicans need to hire some high schoolers to do this. Probably not a freshman, but a sophomore could probably do it okay.

tek79 posted:

Random thought/question regarding the whistleblower. Does Schiff know who the person is? And is it possible that they've already testified, are currently testifying, or are scheduled to testify, but just their anonymity as being the actual whistleblower has been/will be kept? That is to say, is it possible we've already heard from them or will hear from them but the public isn't aware?

SalTheBard posted:

Does anyone have a link to the "call me Lt Col" soundbite?

oxsnard posted:

https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1196822017120579585

Angry_Ed posted:

Pretty sure Sean Davis didn't watch it