Whistle-Blower, Part II

Now that the whistle-blower's complaint has been made public, as well as notes from the actual conversation, provided by The White House, we know slightly more than we knew before. We know that the whistle-blower learned of the contents of the call Trump made to Zelensky, the Ukrainian President, not first hand, by listening to the conversation, but second-hand, from other government officials. We know that the complaint alleges that the notes from the call were archived, not in the ordinary fashion whereby records of calls like this are made, but in a secure, possibly classified location, and that other calls were hidden away in this manner in the past. We know that early in the call Trump made a point of reminding Zelensky that the United States provides Ukraine with large amounts of aid, and that Ukraine does not reciprocate. He followed this up immediately by asking for a favor. Literally. He used the word "favor", asking Zelensky to "look into" the "missing server", mentioning Crowdstrike (the firm that forensically examined the DNC server back in 2016). He then asked Zelensky to "look into" the "very bad" things that Joe Biden did when he was Vice-President and his son was on the board of Bursima, a Ukrainian company. Trump insists that it was a "nice" call and that he did not pressure Zelensky in any way. Zelensky, sitting next to Trump at the U.N. also said he did not feel pressured.

It's worth noting that Trump often uses this elliptical way of speaking when asking people to do things. Former White House Counsel McGahn testified, as did others, that he was asked to communicate to Attorney General Sessions that he wanted Special Counsel Mueller "gone". Trump later tried to deny this by insisting that he "never said fire", incredibly claiming that absence of that one word indicated that he didn't want to fire Mueller. Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen verified that Trump implies, speaks in code, communicating his meaning without actually saying the words. Some have compared this to organized crime shakedown language: "Nice country you have there, it'd be a shame if anything happened to it". Trump is not denying saying any of the things that are in the notes from the conversation, what he is denying is an explicit quid pro quo (i.e. I'll do this for you, if you do that for me). In my view, only a moron, or someone who is willing to defend Trump's actions at any cost, can look at the proximity of the statements that he makes and see anything other than Trump attempting to use the power of the presidency of the United States in order to open a criminal corruption investigation into a political rival. Trump denies that what he said was "pressure", but who knows how this man, who mangles the English language on a daily basis, defines the word?

Much is being made by Trump apologists of a supposed bias on the part of the whistle-blower. Everyone has biases, explicit or implicit, but that doesn't necessarily determine our actions in all situations. Keep in mind that Trump has labelled anyone who has had any connection to the Obama administration, even non-political career officials who happened to be working at a government agency during the Obama years, as "working for Obama. Even Republicans or members of his team who dare stand up to him, or even mildly criticize him, are attacked and ridiculed. All of this with only a select few even knowing who the whistle-blower is. Supposedly the whistle-blower's attorney has worked for Democrats; hardly surprising given that a lawyer connected to Republicans might be afraid of retribution from Trump.

Don't forget that the suggestions that Ukraine "look into" Joe Biden weren't just in the phone call, but Rudy Giuliani, who is not a government official, but is Trump's personal lawyer, has made several trips to meet with Ukrainian officials to convince them to investigate Biden. And admitted it in public.

Take the time to read the text of the whistle-blower's complaint and the notes from Trump's phone call, and tell me with a straight face that Trump isn't using his position for personal gain or that he actually cares about corruption in Ukraine or anywhere else. Even Pinocchio would have a hard time with that.