If you’re wondering whether your Members of Congress are really informed about what’s going on, you should know that many of them haven’t read the Mueller report yet. They haven’t even read the summaries. They also, obviously haven’t even bothered to read Trump’s 5-page excerpt from his conversation with the Ukraine president (as evidenced by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s interview on 60 Minutes where he didn’t even know that Trump said, “I would like you to do us a favor though.” It’s not even that far down in the conversation. Don’t let your elected officials be that lazy. Make them take this seriously whether you want Trump exonerated or impeached. Call them and write to them and ask them to be informed and do their jobs.

Here’s what happened in politics for the week ending September 29…

Shootings This Week:

I’m putting this section on hold this week. There’s too much else to sort out with the whistleblower complaint.

Legal Fallout:

1. Research by the Senate Finance Committee’s Democratic staff finds that the NRA facilitated political access for Russians Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin to a greater extent than previously thought. New York and DC attorneys general are also investigating this.
2. Trump meets with NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre to talk about how the NRA can support Trump financially. LaPierre is working to steer Trump away from universal background check legislation.
3. A federal judge reverses Bijan Kian’s guilty verdict. Kian was Michael Flynn’s lobbying associate working on Turkish issues and was convicted of acting as a foreign agent and conspiring to hide it.
4. The Southern District of New York drops their case against Tony Podesta and Vin Weber in connection with lobbying for Ukraine without registering as foreign agents.
5. A judge says Trump must testify in a case from 2015 over a fight between his security guards and protestors. Protestors say Trump’s security guards assaulted them during a protest in the Bronx where they were protesting Trump’s derogatory comments about immigrants.
6. And just a reminder, Trump now has two whistleblower complaints against him. The Ukraine one I’ll go into below, but there’s also a complaint that Trump tried to influence the IRS audit of his personal tax returns.
7. The Manhattan District Attorney agrees to wait to enforce his subpoena to obtain eight years of Trump’s tax returns until after a judge rules on whether to dismiss Trump’s request to block the subpoena.
8. Trump says he brought up the issue of Hunter Biden to his intermediary on the trade talks with China. He alleges that Hunter got China to put $1.5 billion into an investment fund. The dollar amount is vastly exaggerated—it was in the millions.
9. The Trump administration intensifies their investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails, snaring about 130 officials who shared emails with her. The administration is reviewing each email, and in some cases retroactively marking them as classified. The 130 officials received letters saying there are potential security violations from them sharing those emails several years ago. Some of these officials have already retired or moved on to other jobs.

Impeachment/Ukraine:

1. The background of this story is pretty complex, so I won’t get into it all here. Here are some resources:

• • A thorough timeline of events, from the ouster of President Yanukovych in 2014 to DNI Maguire’s testimony.
  • My summary of how the whistleblower complaint came about and was handled.
  • What really happened with the Bidens in Ukraine.
  • An interesting (and in-depth) piece about the genesis of the Ukraine conspiracy theories.

2. In mid-August, the whistleblower made his complaint to Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson. When Atkinson realized that whistleblower protocol wasn’t being followed, he alerted the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.
3. That same day, three House committees opened investigations into whether Trump and Rudy Giuliani acted improperly in pushing Ukraine to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden and CrowdStrike.
4. The Chairs of the House Intelligence, Oversight, and Foreign Affairs committees send a letter to the White House counsel demanding the White House give them documents about Trump’s conversations with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky.
5. The Senate unanimously passes a non-binding resolution demanding that Trump release the whistleblower complaint about pressuring Ukraine. No GOP Senators object to the resolution.
6. After months of slow-walking an official impeachment inquiry, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces the start of official impeachment inquiries, provoked by the whistleblower complaint. It’s what I like to call an impeachment buffet.

• • She directs the heads of six House committees to proceed with their own inquiries, each focused on a different issue.
  • Democrats debate whether the scope of the impeachment inquiry should focus on the whistleblower complaint about Trump’s dealing with Ukraine or if they should include other potential crimes, like those brought up in the Mueller report, financial transactions, FEC violations, emoluments clause violations, and so on.

7. Trump and Pelosi have a phone conversation where Trump asks if they can “work something out” about the whistleblower complaint.
8. Senate Republicans say they’ll quash any articles of impeachment passed by the House, but McConnell has said the Senate will have to hold a trial. As a refresher:

• • The House holds hearings and votes on articles of impeachment.
  • If they pass articles of impeachment, the Senate then holds a trial.
  • If found guilty, Trump would be removed from office (this has never happened, and I can’t imagine it happening here).
  • Otherwise, Trump goes on record has having been impeached by the House but can stay in office.

9. At least a week before the call, Trump told his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to hold back almost $400 million in military aid for Ukraine. The Office of Management and Budget (which is run by the same Mick Mulvaney) then relayed that info to the State Department and the Pentagon.

• • Legislators realized by mid-August that the OMB had taken over the decision-making process for the funds from the Defense and State Departments.
  • Administration officials were told to give Congress no explanation other than that the funding was delayed because of interagency processes.

10. Trump released the money only after the whistleblower complaint became known, but administration officials say there’s no link. Congress also pressured the administration to release the funds.
11. In early September, Ukrainian officials voiced concern about whether aid was cut off because the Ukraine government wasn’t investigating the Bidens.
12. First Trump says he withheld the money over corruption concerns, but the next day he says it’s because NATO countries aren’t contributing enough money.

• • A letter from the Pentagon disputes the first point.
  • As for the second point, the EU has provided more aid to Ukraine than the U.S.
  • Trump’s defenders say he had to evaluate whether the newly elected Zelensky is pro-Russia or pro-United States and whether he is corrupt.

13. Trump says that the money was eventually released, so that’s evidence he didn’t do anything wrong.
14. Trump releases a partial transcript of his call with Ukraine President Zelensky. It corroborates much of the whistleblower complaint. It shows he did ask Zelensky to investigate the Bidens and to investigate CrowdStrike, the company that handled the review of the hacked DNC server. Here’s some background on CrowdStrike and the whole Ukraine conspiracy theory.
15. Trump thinks the excerpt exonerates him; you can decide for yourself. Here’s the complete excerpt. Below are the highlights I pulled out:

• • Zelensky is either on the Trump train or he knows how to fluff Trump up (I think the latter).
  • They talk about Ukraine obtaining military weapons and then Trump says, “I would like you to do us a favor though…”
  • That favor is for the Ukraine government to investigate CrowdStrike and the DNC server (which, by the way, isn’t missing and isn’t sitting in some basement in Ukraine).
  • Several times, Trump mentions having Zelensky get in touch with Attorney General Barr (five times) and Rudy Giuliani (four times) to work on this.
  • Trump criticizes Mueller’s investigation (this is the day after Mueller testified to Congress).
  • Zelensky says that one of his aides spoke with Giuliani recently. He guarantees open and candid investigations. At this point, it seems he’s only referring to the server.
  • Trump appears to call Ukraine General Prosecutor Shokin a very good prosecutor who got shut down.
    Background: Shokin was voted out of office by the Ukraine Parliament for failing to prosecute corruption cases, which is what Biden was working on. Shokin‘s failure to act included the Burisma investigation, where Hunter Biden worked.
  • Then Trump makes the ask for Zelensky to open an investigation into the Bidens. He says Biden bragged about stopping the prosecution in that case. Just to set the record straight, Biden didn’t stop any prosecution of the Burisma case nor did he say he did. The Bidens were never being prosecuted. (This whole bit is super convoluted. I refer you back to the timeline.)
  • Zelensky assures Trump that the next prosecutor will be 100% Zelensky’s person. The former prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko, stepped down in the middle of all this. Now there’s a new prosecutor.
  • Zelensky agrees to investigate Burisma and Biden, and brings up how bad the U.S. Ambassador is.

16. On the same day Trump releases the rough notes of his conversation with Zelensky, certain members of Congress get access to the whistleblower complaint in a SCIF, which means it contains classified information.
17. They later release an unclassified version of the complaint to the public without the underlying classified evidence. Here are a few points, but you can read it yourself (it’s concise and well-written).

• • The complaint discusses the phone call, attempts to hide the content of the call, and additional ongoing concerns, like the meetings between Ukraine officials and Giuliani, and between Ukraine officials and our ambassadors.
  • On August 9, Trump told reporters that he thinks Zelensky will make a deal with Putin. (UPDATE: It was just announced publicly that this is happening.)
  • The White House used a super-secure computer system (a codeword-level system) to store details about Trump’s conversation with Ukraine President Zelensky. This is a very unusual use for this computer system, designed for highly classified national security information and not for politically sensitive information. This was at the direction of National Security Council attorneys, so it was serious.
  • Most interesting is the section on all the events leading up to the call, I recommend you all read it.

18. This isn’t the only time the White House used the codeword-level system to hide conversations with foreign leaders. The White House also took extraordinary efforts to conceal conversations Trump had with Putin and Saudi’s Mohammad bin Salman.

• • The Russian government warns Trump not to release transcripts of any of his calls with Putin.
  • In 2018, the White House asked DoD officials to return transcripts of calls over worries their contents would be disclosed.
  • The White House also cut the number of aides allowed to listen in on secure lines and the number of officials who could review memos about the contents of calls.

19. The White House accidentally sends out their talking points defending Trump to a number of House Democrats. And then they asked the Democrats to send them back. Here’s a summary of the talking points, along with my take on them.
20. Republicans defend Trump by pointing out that three Democratic lawmakers sent Ukraine a letter threatening Ukraine if they don’t keep up their investigations into Manafort (those investigations were in conjunction with the current U.S. cases against Manafort). IMO, the letter is more of an inquiry, and not threatening at all. You can read it here.
21. Trump says Congress should ask about Vice-President Mike Pence’s conversations with Zelensky.

• • Pence advises Trump not to release any of the contents of Trump’s call with Zelensky.

22. DNI Joseph Maguire testifies before Congress. Some key takeaways:

• • This is unprecedented. All of it.
  • He was concerned about executive privilege in handling the complaint. Once Trump released the transcript, though, executive privilege was gone. Of note, executive privilege doesn’t cover criminal acts.
  • He thinks the whistleblower did the right thing and is acting in good faith, and that he should be able to testify before Congress.
  • He questions whether it is the purview of Congress to investigate this.
  • He doesn’t think he’s the best guy for this job.

23. The whistleblower tentatively agrees to meet with Members of Congress as long as the whistleblower’s lawyer has the required security clearances.

• • If you’re curious about his credibility, the whistleblower identified several people who can corroborate his report, and the inspector general did his own followup investigation before finding the claim credible and urgent.

24. A former advisor to Zelensky says that discussing the Biden case was a prerequisite to having a conversation between the two presidents.
25. It turns out that while former Ukraine prosecutor Shokin wasn’t aggressively investigating Burisma, he was using the threat of investigation to extort the company’s owner and his friends.
26. Ukrainian officials say that Lutsenko, who at the time was the Ukraine general prosecutor, was trying to give Giuliani the information he wanted earlier this year as a way to get into Trump’s good graces and possibly extricate himself from Ukraine. Lutsenko has since contradicted himself and said the Bidens didn’t violate any Ukrainian laws.
27. Lutsenko says that the violations being investigated at Burisma occurred two years before Hunter Biden came on board.
28. Lutsenko closed the investigation into Burisma in 2017, but begin looking at the company again early this year after he started meeting with Giuliani. His office disputes that he ever re-opened an investigation into the company, though.
29. Lutsenko says he told Giuliani to open his own investigation with the FBI or CIA, but not to drag Ukraine into our politics. He also told him to bring his own court case if he had any evidence.
30. Lutsenko told Giuliani that former U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch gave him a list of people not to prosecute.

• • Never one to let the chance at a good conspiracy slip by, Giuliani says the list was part of a liberal anti-trump conspiracy (is there any other kind?) that was bankrolled by George Soros (who else?).
  • The US State Department dismisses the list as an “outright fabrication.”
  • Nonetheless, the administration removed Yovanovitch from Ukraine in May.

31. The number of Democrats in the House who support impeachment has grown to 224, from about 135 before the whistleblower complaint was made public.
32. Over 300 former national security and foreign policy officials sign on to a statement voicing concern over the phone call with Ukraine and calling for impeachment inquiries to get to the facts. They say Trump’s actions constitute a profound national security risk.
33. Three House committees issue subpoenas for documents from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and also instruct him to make these department employees available for deposition: former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, former Ambassador Kurt Volker, George Kent, T. Ulrich Brechbuhl, and Ambassador Gordon Sondland.

• • Volker is said to have arranged for Giuliani to meet with Ukrainian officials.
  • Volker resigns the day after the contents of the whistleblower complaint is published (which is also the day after Giuliani goes on the talkshow circuit showing everyone the texts he exchanged with Volker).
  • The whistleblower complaint alleges that the day after Trump’s phone call with Zelensky, Volker and Sondland met with Ukrainian officials to help them navigate Trump’s demands. Whatever that means. Volker will testify next week.

34. In light of the impeachment announcement, the House Intelligence Committee will work through the two-week recess at the beginning of October.
35. Trump defenders claim that the Intelligence Community changed the rules requiring whistleblower’s to have firsthand information just so this whistleblower could make a claim. Those rules were never in the code to begin with and the form hasn’t changed.
36. Fox News reports that DC husband and wife lawyers Joe DiGenova and Victoria Toensing worked with Giuliani to get dirt on Biden from Ukrainian officials. They all three worked “off the books” and only Trump knew what they were doing. All three lawyers deny this.
37. Trump and the GOP really push the narrative that Biden intervened in Ukraine to get the prosecutor to stop investigating his son. That’s really not what happened, but there was definitely the appearance of a conflict of interest. Here’s the straight scoop, with links to their sources.
38. The whistleblower is now under federal protection out of fear for his safety.
39. In 2018, Trump told the world he takes Putin at his word when he says Russia didn’t meddle in our 2016 elections. This week, we learn that in 2017, Trump did acknowledge that Russia meddled in our elections and that he told Russian officials that he didn’t care.
40. Trump’s efforts with Ukraine seem to have three parts: 1) discredit his political opponent Biden, and 2) clear Russia of meddling in the 2016 election so we can drop sanctions, and 3) push Ukraine toward a peace agreement with Russia, again so we can drop sanctions.

Courts/Justice:

1. A Michigan judge strikes down a law that would’ve made it harder for voters to get initiatives on the ballot. This was one of the laws passed by last year’s lame-duck legislature to restrict the new Democratic governor’s ability to enact his agenda.
2. The day before Nancy Pelosi announces impeachment inquiries into Trump, Rep. Ayanna Pressley files articles of impeachment against Brett Kavanaugh.

Healthcare:

1. As an example of how we have a “do nothing” Congress who just wants to impeach him, Trump says that Democrats haven’t taken any action to lower drug prices. But just last week he praised the bill they passed and sent to the Senate that would… yes, lower drug prices.
2. At the UN, Trump’s administration says abortion isn’t an international right, and they push to eliminate terms like sexual and reproductive health from UN documents. Only 19 nations agree, including those bastions of women’s rights, Saudi Arabia and Russia.
3. Employer health insurance plans have become more expensive over the past decade and they provide less coverage.
4. The suicide rate in the military hit its highest level in five years.
5. The FDA delayed regulating vaping products for years, and only started to regulate them in 2016; still, they pushed back critical deadlines until 2022.

International:

1. In the middle of all the whistleblower kerfuffle, Trump meets with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky at the UN and they hold a joint press conference.

• • Trump talks about having the best employment we’ve ever had and the best economy we’ve ever had.
  • He also resurrects his accusations that NATO countries don’t spend enough money to help Ukraine.
  • Zelensky says there was no pressure during the whistleblower phone call, and also says he doesn’t want to get in the middle of U.S. elections.
  • Trump closes with, “Unfortunately she [Nancy Pelosi] is no longer Speaker of the House.

2. Trump complains that the press isn’t covering all the great things he did at the UN summit because they’re too busy covering the whistleblower complaint. Here are just a few things they covered:

• • In Trump’s UN speech, he promotes nationalism and criticizes globalists, socialists, and several countries.
  • On the plus side, he says his administration is working to end the criminalization of homosexuality abroad and to empower women.
  • Trump holds a session on ending religious persecution and protecting religious sites and relics.
  • Trump planned to skip the UN Climate Summit, but he makes a brief appearance.

3. Without a clear winner in Israel’s second elections this year, President Reuven Rivlin gives Netanyahu first dibs at trying to form a government. If Netanyahu can’t form a government, the mandate goes back to the president. Or there could be yet more elections.
4. Netanyahu and opponent Benny Gantz plan to meet next week to see if they can agree on a unity government. Those talks will be the same day that Netanyahu’s pre-indictment hearing begins.
5. Parliament resumes in the UK after the Supreme Court rules that Boris Johnson’s suspension of the Parliament was unlawful. Johnson was trying to prevent them from blocking a no-deal Brexit.
6. Johnson’s opposition in Parliament wants to hold a vote of no confidence in order to replace Johnson with an interim administrator.
7. Oh, and Johnson is now embroiled in a romantic scandal. He had an affair with an American businesswomen who received money from an agency that Johnson controlled as Mayor of London.
8. Hong Kong is in its 17th straight week of pro-democracy protests. In an unauthorized march, thousands of protestors clash with police, and the entryways to subway stations are closed. Protestors set one entryway on fire, police arrest more than 100 people, and more than 25 protestors are injured. This was a violent weekend, with police firing water canons, tear gas, and rubber bullets, and with protestors throwing gas bombs, starting fires, and breaking windows. China’s 70th anniversary of Communist Party rule (which the protestors are fighting against) is coming up,
9. Protestors block streets in Lebanon over the country’s economic crisis. They accuse the ruling class of stealing from the people.

Legislation/Congress:

1. If you don’t think the House should impeach because you want them passing laws and working for the American people instead, take a look at this. It’s what the House has been doing outside of investigating Trump. Impeachment isn’t taking up all their time.

Border Wall/Shutdown/National Emergency:

1. For the second time, the Senate approves a resolution to block Trump’s emergency declaration to fund his border wall. The House follows suit, but Trump can still veto it and is likely to do so.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

1. Trump cuts the U.S. refugee program by nearly half. He had already dropped it from 110,000 per year under Obama to 30,000 per year in 2019. In 2020, we’ll only allow 18,000 refugees in.

• • The U.S. takes in less than 1 refugee for everyone 1,000 residents each year. France, Canada, and Israel take in 4 to 5 times what we do per capita. Even Ecuador and Venezuela take in more per capita than we do (around 7 times more). Iran takes in 12 times as many refugees per capita.

2. A district court judge says she’ll block Trump’s changes to the rules for how long we can detain immigrant children.
3. Insomniac Events (a music festival company) changes their tents into shelters for around 5,000 Bahamans displaced by Hurricane Dorian.
4. It’s been four years since Germany took in 1 million + immigrants, mostly from Syria. After initial opposition, these immigrants are integrating and helping to revitalize rural areas.
5. In 1968, Olympic sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos were expelled for raising their fists on the winners podium in protest of racial injustice. Now they’re being inducted into the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee’s Hall of Fame. Just another example of how prevailing attitudes change and aren’t always on the right side of history. Hmmm…
6. Trump calls six non-white Members of Congress “savages.” Two are Jewish, one is Puerto Rican, two are African American, and one is Palestinian.

Climate:

1. Three Norwegian legislators nominate 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg for the Nobel Peace Prize. While at the same time, Trump makes fun of her in a tweet.

• • Actually, since her speech, Greta has taken a shit-ton of online abuse from adults for her climate activism. What inspires people to be such assholes?

2. Even Russia formally joins the Paris climate agreement.
3. Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro says the Amazon rainforest isn’t on fire; it’s brimming with riches that he wants to develop.
4. A new report based on 7,000 studies says that climate change has heated the oceans and changed the ecosystem so dramatically that seafood supplies are threatened. The warmer ocean waters also fuel cyclones and flooding along coastal areas.
5. At a meeting of fossil fuel executives, an industry lawyer says it’s time for energy companies to accept their role in fueling climate change. For decades, major oil companies have downplayed the effects of climate change, despite documents showing that their own studies supported the science as far back as the mid-80s.

• • Ironically, Trump’s deregulation efforts are part of what brought the industry to their “Come to Jesus” moment, because while larger companies will keep in place safety and environmental protections, smaller companies might take shortcuts. And that could be bad for the industry as a whole.

6. Summer’s only been gone a week, but winter’s chomping at the bit. Parts of the West get hit with up to three feet of snow, with record low temps and strong winds. Montana Governor Steve Bullock declares a winter storm emergency.

Budget/Economy:

1. The oldest travel company in the world, Thomas Cook, collapses, leaving hundreds of thousands of travelers stranded on their vacations. The British government refused to intervene to save the company, but they do say they’ll assist travelers. The collapse puts 21,000 jobs at risk.
2. Just when the market looks optimistic, Trump addresses the UN and accuses China of not keeping its promises to us and engaging in predatory business practices. Stocks have their worst day of the month.
3. And then, stocks fall further as more Democrats express support for impeaching Trump. But it ends the week pretty even. There’s no real precedent for how markets react to impeachment proceedings.
4. The housing market slows a bit, with mortgage applications falling 10.1% and prices remaining steady.
5. Income inequality is now at its highest level in over 50 years. Inequality is still highest in wealthy coastal states, but states in the middle saw the greatest growth in inequality in 2018 (the latest year for which we have numbers).
6. The IMF names Kristalina Georgieva to be their managing director. Why is this news? Because, of all things, she’s an economist. Right now, Fed Chair Jerome Power, incoming ECB President Christine Lagarde, and World Bank President David Malpass are all lawyers with no solid backgrounds in economics. Having a lawyer in these positions makes them more agile, but also means they lack the understanding behind economic moves.
7. The New York Fed continues to provide cash infusions to the repo market, but things continue to worsen. The problem is the decreasing level of liquidity, meaning banks don’t have fast access to cash.
8. It’s been a while since we’ve heard about a teachers’ strike, but Chicago teachers vote to strike, possibly sometime in October.
9. The UK economy shrank for the first time in seven years, with the GDP falling by 0.2%. The problem is largely uncertainty over Brexit.

Miscellaneous:

1. At least 22 people are dead and 700 are injured after a 5.6-magnitude earthquake hits northern Pakistan.
2. The former Chair of the North Carolina GOP, Robin Hayes, plans to plead guilty to lying to the FBI in a bribery case involving a major political donor. Hayes is also a former Member of Congress.
3. New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger reveals that in 2017, a U.S. official sent The New York Times an urgent warning that Egypt wanted to arrest the paper’s Cairo reporter, Declan Walsh. The official also said that the Trump administration had tried to keep the warning secret and let the arrest occur.

Polls:

1. Support for impeaching Trump jumped 13 percentage points among Democrats and 12 points among voters since the whistleblower claim came out.
2. A majority of Americans approve of moving ahead with impeachment inquiries.
3. In a Monmouth University Poll, 6 of 10 Republicans don’t think Trump mentioned Biden to Ukraine president Zelensky. Here’s a quote directly from the 5-page excerpt Trump released:
   “There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it… It sounds horrible to me.”
   Moral of the story? READ THE DAMN SOURCE MATERIAL.