As more and more information comes out this week about how U.S. officials worked with Ukraine to help them acquiesce to Trump’s conditions, support for impeachment inquiries continues to grow. This week, we got a glimpse of the text messages being sent among our diplomats in Ukraine, plus a second whistleblower is in the wings. And Democratic Representatives have been at home talking to their constituents about impeachment concerns.

So here’s what happened on the impeachment front for the week ending October 5…

General Happenings:

1. Intelligence Inspector General Michael Atkinson testifies privately before Congress about his reasoning for finding the whistleblower complaint credible and urgent. Atkinson did his own investigation upon receiving the complaint.
2. When it comes out that the whistleblower contacted House Intelligence Committee staff members to find out how to proceed, Trump accuses Chair Adam Schiff of orchestrating the complaint, even of helping the whistleblower to write the complaint.

• • The whistleblower came to the committee after he filed his complaint with the CIA general counsel because he was concerned it wasn’t being handled.
  • The CIA lawyer’s intent was to make a criminal referral to the DOJ, indicating she thought a potential crime was reported. The DOJ says they weren’t sure whether it was a criminal referral.

3. Trump continues to lash out at the whistleblower and Democratic leadership throughout the week. He thinks he should be able to meet with the whistleblower. He thinks Schiff should be tried for treason for running impeachment inquiries (or maybe it’s because Schiff paraphrased Trump’s conversation with Ukraine President Zelensky in a hearing).

• • Just a reminder that the whistleblower is now under federal protection over fears for his safety.

4. Trump repeats a conspiracy theory that the intelligence community recently eliminated a requirement that whistleblower information be firsthand. The office of the intelligence community inspector general denies there ever was such a requirement.

• • But that doesn’t matter anymore, because a second whistleblower with firsthand knowledge of the call is in negotiations to come forward.

5. Mitch McConnell reiterates that if the House passes articles of impeachment, the Senate has no choice but to hold the trial.
6. Even GOP lawmakers criticize Trump for retweeting a pastor who says that if Trump is removed from office, it will “cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation…”
7. The GOP pushes all the conspiracy theories to defend Trump’s actions with Ukraine. So now Hillary’s missing emails are all mixed up with a missing DNC server (that’s not missing) and CrowdStrike being a Ukraine organization (that’s actually a U.S. company) and the Biden’s apparent conflict of interest in Ukraine.

• • These are sticking with the base, and the corruption and maneuvering by Ukraine officials, past and present, are only muddying the waters.

8. Three House committees subpoena Rudy Giuliani for documents around his Ukraine dealings. They also request information from three of Giuliani’s business associates.
9. We learn that Giuliani consulted with an imprisoned Paul Manafort on Ukraine through Manafort’s lawyer.

• • How does Manafort fit into all of this? Manafort lobbied for the pro-Russian former government in Ukraine. His name and payments made to him were included in a “black ledger” that was exposed as part of an anti-corruption campaign. Giuliani’s theory is that the DNC worked with Ukraine officials to release the book to force out Manafort and help Hillary.
  • Because of Giuliani’s conspiracy theory, at least two Senate committees renew their inquiries into whether the DNC and Ukraine coordinated efforts. These efforts are led by Senators Chuck Grassley (Senate Finance Chair) and Ron Johnson (Homeland Security Chair).
  • Manafort is in jail for this, so it’s not like he wasn’t doing anything wrong.
  • Giuliani says the ledger was a pretext to reopen investigations into Manafort, but the FBI had a case open against him before the 2016 campaign.

10. Trump calls the impeachment inquiries “BULLSHIT,” and then gets into an argument with a reporter during a press conference with the president of Finland. He calls Schiff dishonest, shifty, treasonous. He again calls the press the enemy of the people.
11. Nancy Pelosi holds a press conference, opening with what the House is doing to lower drug prices, to move the renegotiated NAFTA forward, and to restart infrastructure talks, showing that impeachment inquiries really aren’t taking up all their time.

• • She says it’s a sad time when we have to be impeaching the president.

12. Jared Kushner will lead the White House’s impeachment strategy.
13. In 2016, three Republican Senators signed on to a letter backing Joe Biden’s efforts in Ukraine, undercutting Trump’s claims of wrongdoing by Biden. Both Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) have come out publicly against Trump’s desire to investigate the Bidens over Ukraine, saying Shokin needed to be ousted. Trump calls Shokin a “good guy.” Johnson later backtracks.
14. It’s possible Trump broke election laws with his call with Ukraine, but the FEC has so many empty positions that they don’t have a quorum to enforce the law. Normally, the backup would be the DOJ, but Barr won’t prosecute.
15. Former and current officials say that Trump’s calls with foreign leaders have always been fraught with anxiety over what he’d say and horror with what he actually did say. These calls typically take weeks of preparation, and experts guide presidents as to what the other leader might say and how to best respond. But Trump improvs everything, including these calls, leading to embarrassments, scrapping weeks of work on an issue, and conflicts with U.S. foreign policy.
16. The whistleblower’s attorney, Mark Zaid, says he’s representing multiple whistleblowers at this time. At least one more whistleblower has come forward that we know of, and this one has firsthand knowledge of the call.
17. A district judge orders the White House to retain all records of Trump’s phone calls with foreign leaders and to maintain records of efforts to hide that information. This stems from a lawsuit filed in May by activist groups and agencies focused on ethics and maintaining national records.
18. State Department staff say the Ukraine scandal has opened a rift between apolitical career diplomats and political appointees who want to investigate the conspiracy theories.
19. In the middle of all of this, Trump still publicly calls for Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, and for China to do the same. He even asked China on a phone call, defeating the GOP’s efforts to dismiss that as a joke.

• • The China request originated from a multi-million-dollar deal that happened on a trip Hunter and Joe Biden took together—Hunter for business and Joe for government work. Trump says it was a $1.5 trillion deal and hasn’t provided any evidence of wrongdoing.

Who Else Is Involved:

1. House committees subpoena acting Chief of Staff/OMB Director Mick Mulvaney for documents relating to Ukraine.
2. It turns out that Attorney General William Barr is in this up to his nuts.

• • Not only did Trump tell Zelensky to talk to Barr about investigating the Bidens and CrowdStrike, but Barr asked Trump to call Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to help out with the DOJ’s review of FBI and CIA actions in 2016.
  • Trump made the call to Morrison and restricted access to the transcript of that call, just like with the Ukraine call transcript.
  • Morrison says Australia is always happy to shed light on investigations, but defends the Australian ambassador who alerted U.S. intelligence to George Papadopoulos’s drunken confession that he was working with Russia to get dirt on Hillary.
  • Barr has also traveled to Italy to meet with Italian and British officials to discuss the review and secure cooperation.
  • And yet Barr didn’t recuse himself from the decision not to follow up on the whistleblower complaint.

3. Just a reminder that the DOJ already has two legitimate efforts going on to review the investigations into the 2016 elections:

• • DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz is analyzing FBI and DOJ activity around Russian election interference and the FISA warrant approving the surveillance of Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. That report is expected within weeks.
  • John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, is looking more broadly at intelligence activities around the election both abroad and here at home. This could take years to complete.

4. After denying it for a week, Mike Pompeo says he took part in the Trump’s phone call with Zelensky. He only admits it after Giuliani outs him on national TV.

• • Pompeo had also argued against the White House releasing the excerpt of the call with Ukraine.
  • House committees subpoena him for records of the call.
  • Pompeo says he won’t let his subpoenaed employees talk to Congress. He says he’s protecting them from being bullied by Congress. What a whiner. Two of them say they’ll testify anyway, and committee heads accuse Pompeo of illegal obstruction.
  • Of note, both Barr’s and Pompeo’s predecessors’ relationships with Trump soured after they refused to carry out illegal requests by Trump.
  • Ironically, Pompeo was one of the loudest complainers that the Obama administration was “deeply obstructive.”

5. Steve Mnuchin was also aware of Trump’s conversation with Zelensky and urged the White House not to release the excerpt of the call.
6. Senator Lindsey Graham sent letters to the Prime Ministers of Australia, Great Britain, and Italy urging them to cooperate with Barr’s investigation. Here’s why those countries specifically:

• • Italy: Professor Joseph Mifsud, who offered George Papadopoulos dirt from the Russians on Hillary, is Italian. Everyone’s looking for him.
  • Australia: Papadopoulos spilled the tea about Mifsud to an Australian diplomat who then alerted U.S. intelligence, getting this whole ball rolling.
  • Great Britain: Christopher Steele, author of the Steele Dossier, was a British agent.

7. State Department Inspector General Steve Linick requests an urgent meeting with House committees.

• • He turns over an envelope of documents sent from Giuliani to the State Department, full of mostly debunked conspiracy theories generated by the far-right and spread by far-right media outlets about the Bidens and the former ambassador to Ukraine.
  • Pompeo told Giuliani he’d investigate them.

8. Trump throws Energy Secretary Rick Perry under the bus. He says that he didn’t even want to call Zelensky but that Perry urged him to do it. Perry wasn’t discussed in the call that we know of.
9. The ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee sends letters to Perry and to Vice President Pence demanding answers by the end of the week about what they knew and what their roles were regarding Ukraine.

• • Perry announces his resignation. Up until now, he’s kept a pretty low profile, but it turns out he’s traveled to Ukraine recently working on energy issues, including making changes to the state-run oil and gas company, Naftogaz. This puts him in the middle of the impeachment inquiry.
  • Pence was involved in Trump’s pressure campaign against Ukraine. Initially, Trump told Pence not to attend Zelensky’s inauguration (Perry went instead). Pence later told Zelensky he had to take more aggressive action against corruption and that U.S. aid was still being withheld. Also, one of Pence’s top advisors was on the Ukraine call, so Pence should’ve had access to the transcript within hours of the call. It’s not clear whether Pence was aware of the conditions Trump was placing on Ukraine, but if he wasn’t, then he wasn’t doing his job.

10. A little more on Ukraine’s state-run oil and gas company. A group of American businessmen and Republican donors used their ties to Trump and Giuliani to try to install their handpicked management to run Naftogaz so they could steer lucrative contracts their way. The election of a new president, Zelensky, threw a wrench into their plans. But then Rick Perry takes up the mantel and tries to install his own donors in the company. All of this would require multiple global agencies to authorize.

And What About Ukraine?

1. Super randomly, Ukraine signs an agreement with pro-Russia separatists allowing them to hold local elections in eastern Ukraine.

• • The separatists want special status for self-governance.
  • Ukraine says there won’t be any elections until troops from both sides are withdrawn, and only with international observers allowed in.
  • Russia has refused to participate in peace talks unless the separatists are allowed their own elections. Score one for the aggressors.
  • Hundreds march in Kyiv in protest.

2. Serhiy Leshchenko, a former member of the Ukrainian Parliament and current advisor to Zelensky says it was well-known that Trump wanted compromising information on the Bidens and that officials knew U.S. aid was contingent on cooperating with that request.
3. Zelensky says his country can’t be pressured to open investigations. They’re an independent country. He’s being squeezed between the U.S. and Russia and his promises to rout out corruption.
4. Ukraine’s new chief prosecutor, Russian Ryaboshapka, says he’ll review all previous investigations into Burisma among other. He reiterates that he hasn’t seen any wrongdoing by either Biden.
5. Also, it’s super hard to get a straight answer about what Burisma’s owner was being investigated for and how the cases were resolved. Here’s hoping the new guy will shed some light here; the previous prosecutors have put out conflicting stories, even contradicting their own stories.

Volker, Text Messages, and the State Department:

1. Kurt Volker, the former U.S. envoy to Ukraine, testifies privately before Congress and provides text messages showing that senior State Department officials didn’t think Trump would meet with Zelensky unless Zelensky promised to publicly launch investigations. According to the texts:

• • Our officials coordinated with Zelensky’s top aide (Andrey Yermak) and Giuliani to try to leverage that promise to make a summit happen between the two presidents.
  • Ukraine was afraid of looking like a U.S. puppet to the rest of the world.
  • A text from Volker to Yermak includes this: “… assuming President Z convinces Trump he will investigate / ‘get to the bottom of what happened’ in 2016, we can nail down date for visit…” This was just before the infamous phone call, and it’s a pretty explicit quid pro quo.
  • Two weeks after the phone call, there was still no date for a summit and State Department officials let the Ukrainians know that Trump needed a public pledge. So Ukraine agreed to announce that they’ll open the investigations requested by Trump along with a date for the summit.
  • Here’s the text from Yermak: “Once we have a date, will call for a press briefing, announcing upcoming visit and outlining vision for the reboot of US-UKRAINE relationship, including among other things Burisma and election meddling in investigations.”
  • Volker coached Yermak on what the message to use in order to convince Trump. He coached him to include the conspiracy theory about Ukraine involvement in our elections: “Special attention should be paid to the problem of interference in the political processes of the United States especially with the alleged involvement of some Ukrainian politicians. I want to declare that this is unacceptable. We intend to initiate and complete a transparent and unbiased investigation of all available facts and episodes, including those involving Burisma and the 2016 U.S. elections, which in turn will prevent the recurrence of this problem in the future.”
  • Trump really, really wanted the public promise of investigations in order to meet with Zelensky.
  • After Trump skipped a trip to Poland where he was slated to meet with Zelensky, Bill Taylor, the U.S. Charges D’affaires to Ukraine, texted this to Sondland: “Are we now saying that security assistance and WH meeting are conditioned on investigations?”
  • After the call, Taylor texted, “The nightmare is they give the interview and don’t get the security assistance. The Russians love it. (And I quit.)”
  • Taylor told Sondland he’s counting on him to be right, and Sondland replied: “Bill, I never said I was “right”. I said we are where we are and believe we have identified the best pathway forward. Lets hope it works.” To which Taylor replied: “As I said on the phone, I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”
  • “The president has been crystal clear no quid pro quo’s of any kind,” Sondland replied.
  • It seems Sondland’s concern is getting aid to Ukraine no matter what he has to do to get it. Taylor is more concerned about ethics.
  • Here’s the kicker. A U.S. official says they didn’t use official State Department email for these conversations; they used WhatsApp.

2. To me, the most important takeaway from the texts is that our ambassadors helped Yermak write a statement that would’ve publicly committed Ukraine to pursuing investigations into far-right conspiracy theories. This was unsuccessful, though, because the statement was never released. Ukraine wanted to make the statement less specific, simply saying they promised to go after corruption.
3. The texts from Bill Taylor indicate a known quid pro quo. All participants in the text conversations seem to know that a meeting between Zelensky and Trump was contingent on the investigations.
4. Volker says he warned Giuliani that the sources he was using for information about the Bidens in Ukraine were unreliable. Giuliani’s response? “Yes, I know that.”