Thursday, February 6, 2020

Does History Repeat Itself: Hopefully November 3, 2020 Will Say Yes

#1 Target for 2020 GOP Dirty Tricks
(Enough to last a lifetime)

Fair trial at the ballot box, Mr. Trump

Startling Headlines Shades of Nixon’s abuse of government agencies before, during, and after the break-in at DNC HQ in the Watergate complex and all that unfolded after that which led to Nixon resigning.
“Treasury Department sent information on Hunter Biden to expanding GOP Senate inquiry”
Intro to this post: I have picked out and highlighted details below from the main article – they are both troubling and a bit scary, too. Why? 
The Trump administration refused any and all help to the DEMS in their impeachment inquiry by stalling, blocking, and refusing any witnesses or release or possibly pertinent official documents from several government agencies.
But, now as this news has discovered with a lot of details still coming out and also that shows their under the table stunt, those same agencies are moving at lightning speed to cooperate with them since it deals with Hunter Biden and of course, Joe Biden a major DEM 2020 candidate (recall the Ukraine mess same subject? This may be bigger yet).
So, nothing to worry about just as people say. Politics as usual, so what? But, what about blatant election interference at the highest levels with the a ton “dirty tricks” which is the GOP's brand name dating back to the days of the late Lee Atwater days right through Karl Rove and more recently Roger Stone and who knows who else around Trump is involved. 
However, regarding this story, the Treasury Department belongs to Trump and is run by staunch Trump surrogate Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and of course the IRS falls under him. Time will tell to see what comes to light but even at this point with this previously unknown story, you can bet it won’t be pretty, yet it does underscore the nasty GOP hypocrisy to win anyway possible. 
Note this related story (November 23, 2019) from The Hill and Reuters that briefly touched on and more or less first published about. this when two GOP Senate chairmen starting asking the Treasury Department to hand over any documents related to Hunter Biden and a Ukrainian energy company (Burisma) amid an ongoing impeachment inquiry against President Trump.
In a letter dated November 15, 2019, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI) asked for “Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR).” 

What they requested was info involving Hunter Biden, according to Reuters.

Noteworthy: The documents do not include findings about any illegal activity itself but were filed by financial institutions when money laundering or fraud is suspected

However, it is unknown if any such reports exist involving Hunter Biden, and the GOP letter did not include any evidence that Hunter Biden engaged in any activity that would be covered in such reports. So, why request it in the first place? 

Simple: Campaign strategy for Trump to use as “dirt” against Joe Biden for his own benefit. Abuse of power plain and simple, just like Nixon.

The story for today (link here) – highlights and more details follow: The Treasury Department has complied with Republican senators’ requests for highly sensitive and closely held financial records about Hunter Biden and his associates and has turned over “‘evidence’ of questionable origin” to them, according to a leading Democrat on one of the committees conducting the investigation. 

For months, while the impeachment controversy raged, powerful committee chairmen in the Republican-controlled Senate have been quietly but openly pursuing an inquiry into Hunter Biden’s business affairs and Ukrainian officials’ alleged interventions in the 2016 election, the same matters that President Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani unsuccessfully tried to coerce Ukraine’s government to investigate. 

Key Point: Unlike Trump and Giuliani, however, Grassley, Johnson, and Graham have focused their efforts in Washington, seeking to extract politically useful information from agencies of the U.S. government.

They’ve issued letters requesting records from Cabinet departments and agencies, including the State Department, the Treasury, the Justice Department, the FBI, the National Archives, and the Secret Service

Grassley and Johnson have sought to obtain some of the most sensitive and closely held documents in all of federal law enforcement — highly confidential suspicious activity reports (SARs) filed by financial institutions with FinCEN, an agency of the Treasury that helps to police money laundering. 

The senators’ requests to the Treasury have borne fruit, according to the ranking Democratic senator on the Finance Committee, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who contrasted the cooperation given to the Republican senators with the pervasive White House-directed stonewall that House Democrats encountered when they subpoenaed documents and witnesses in the impeachment inquiry.

Wyden spokesperson Ashley Schapitl said in a statement:Applying a blatant double standard, Trump administration agencies like the Treasury Department are rapidly complying with Senate Republican requests — no subpoenas necessary — and producing evidence’ of questionable origin. The administration told House Democrats to go pound sand when their oversight authority was mandatory while now voluntarily cooperating with this Senate Republicans sideshow at lightning speed.”

Schapitl later said:Republicans are turning the Senate into an arm of the president’s political campaign, pursuing an investigation designed to further the Trump conspiracy theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election and smear Vice President Biden.”

My 2 cents: This story continues at the link above with a lot more details. I say again - this is a very serious development.

Based on my read, I ask Mr. Trump: You really want a witch hunt? Well, sir this is it and it belongs to you, 100%. 

Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by.


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