Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is grilled by the Nashville NBC affiliate about whether he met with Rudy Giuliani when they were both in Warsaw in February. Pompeo wilts, but refuses to answer:
Josh Marshall
One of the things we’ve learned, or perhaps have had confirmed, over the last 36 hours is just how dependent Rudy Giuliani is on Bill Barr’s rules at the Justice Department in order to evade investigative scrutiny and possible indictment.
Before we get to the news this morning I want to thank everyone who made our TPM event in New York last night possible. First I want to thank our special guests Aditi Juneja, Waleed Shahid, Leah Greenberg and Lara Putnam. My only regret is that we didn’t videotape Aditi’s presentation and our panel on the Next Democratic Party so we could share it with members around the country who couldn’t attend in person. I felt more like an attendee than a moderator and host since I was so interested in what each had to say.
Kate Riga
Happy Friday, October 11. Former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch may or may not be testifying on Capitol Hill today. Here’s more on that and the other stories we’re watching.
Tierney SneedWhen I hopped in a cab this morning to make the half-hour trek to the federal courthouse in Alexandria for the court appearance of Lev Parnas and Igor Furman, I figured I was in for a reunion of sorts.
TPM’s Josh Kovensky was on the story of the money that lead to today’s indictments a month ago. A month ago. See his write up here. This is the kind of dogged, looking-around-the-corner reporting your memberships make possible. Our membership drive is critical. If you’ve been thinking about joining, please make today the day. You membership makes all the difference. Just click here.
Late Update: Our team won’t cut it out with the great pieces. Be sure to see Tierney’s report from the court house, a first look at former Rep. Pete Sessions’s (R-TX) role in the scandal, how today’s news shifts the picture of the larger Ukraine extortion story, while we’re at it who are Rudy’s business partners, and what was the pot racket they had going on the side.
We’re expecting Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman to make their first appearance in court early this afternoon.
Tierney Sneed is at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia — the same courthouse in which Paul Manafort’s trial took place. She’s not allowed a phone inside but will have updates as soon as possible.
Josh Marshall
Did we mentioned that Parnas and Fruman are also part of the legal representation of Donald Trump? Well, yeah … they are.
It’s important part of the Parnas/Fruman indictment story. The two men are now represented by former Trump lawyer John Dowd. Only days ago Dowd told congressional investigators that his clients would not cooperate in their impeachment inquiry. But beyond that blanket resistance, he said that there were specific issues that would make any discussion of cooperation take a long time untangle. The key one was attorney/client privilege. With the client being the President of the United States.
New episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is ready for your listening pleasure.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) gave a rare rebuke on Sunday of President Donald Trump over his call for China to investigate 2020 rival Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
Just what kind of world were Rudy Giuliani and Rick Perry getting involved in when they reportedly began wielding their influence in Ukraine’s natural gas sector? One rife with what corporate America would refer to as “compliance risks.”
As we know, Trump’s July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump pressured Zelensky to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden among other things, has led to an impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives.
But did you know that it’s Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s fault?
If you’d like a curious impeachment palette cleanser, here’s something that may be of interest to our readers in Nevada in light of the recent unsuccessful “storming” of Area 51, the secret test site that’s part of a larger chunk of Air Force land north of Las Vegas.
Updated Oct. 9, 2019.
The past few weeks have been a firestorm of new details concerning the intelligence community whistleblower and the subject of his complaint: An attempt by President Donald Trump to pressure the government of Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden, son of Trump’s leading Democratic rival Joe Biden.
To truly understand the story, we need to go back a few years. Here’s how we got to where we are today.
Just four days ago, Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing were on Sean Hannity’s primetime show, speaking in ominous tones about how the Trumpian bogeyman, George Soros, had funded the drive to impeach the President.
Ep. 87: A Scandal A Day