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Kurt Eichenwald
@kurteichenwald
, 10 tweets, 7 min read Read on Twitter
This must be made clear. @RudyGiuliani and @POTUS have said repeatedly that they just wanted Biden investigated.

The USA does *not* outsource investigations to foreign nations. Rudy knows this. If an American commits "money laundering" or a politician commits "extortion"...
@RudyGiuliani @POTUS 2...the proper approach is to go to the FBI, *not* to a foreign nation and particularly not one that only recently has begun to have its corrupt judicial and prosecutorial system cleaned up at the demand of the IMF, EU, etc through the removal of Viktor Shokin, the guy Trump...
@RudyGiuliani @POTUS 3...loves for some reason.

The way this is handled is that FBI agents in the United States are handed the case. They, in turn, reach out to legats - which are FBI legal attaches stationed all over the world for just this purpose. The legat - short for legal attache - then...
@RudyGiuliani @POTUS 4...works with case agents assigned to the investigation in coordination with security agencies in host countries. Why? Because if they discover a crime, it cannot be prosecuted in the United States if the FBI is not involved, because there is no established chain of evidence...
@RudyGiuliani @POTUS 5...in other words, Trump has gone completely outside procedure by ignoring the FBI, tried to outsource a criminal investigation (based on a conspiracy theory) which could never have been tried in the United States (and would never have been tried in Ukraine because....
@RudyGiuliani @POTUS 6...it would be easily demonstrated that the prosecutorial system there has been corrupt for years and only now emerging from that, so extradition would be impossible.

The legat in Ukraine is based in Kyiv. It is easy to contact, @RudyGiuliani.....
@RudyGiuliani @POTUS 7...even if, for reasons unknown, you didn't want to go through the domestic offices of the FBI - as is procedure - you could have contacted the legat in Ukraine. Took me a minute to find the phone number. It ends with 5023.

Given the decision to go completely outside....
@RudyGiuliani @POTUS 9...procedure, and going directly to the president of Ukraine to urge an investigation *by them* - Trump and @RudyGiuliani are urging a foreign nation dependent on US support to go after a private American citizen. If they believed there was something here, they would have....
@RudyGiuliani @POTUS 10...gone to the FBI. This was all about Fox News, once again showing how that network lies helped do in this president, because he was never in on the ruse - he doesnt know Fox is propaganda.

There was no desire for an *investigation.* Just help with a political campaign...
@RudyGiuliani @POTUS 11...which is why this is a campaign finance violation. There is *no reason* to go outside protocol for a criminal investigation. But they weren't interested in a prosecution, which never could have happened given what they did. They just wanted a new conspiracy theory.
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More from @kurteichenwald see all

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Kurt Eichenwald
@kurteichenwald
This is jaw droppingly transparent and unbelievable but...

In August, after whistleblower filed his report, @StateDept launched an investigation...of Hilary Clinton’s emails. Dating back a decade. Have now contacted 180 ppl. Investigators say theyre facing outside pressure.
...and no, this is not a joke or sarcasm. They are really doing it.

This could end up an article of impeachment for abuse of power.

@SecPompeo: don’t you get it? The reason you and trump are IN this situation is for using levers of government to go after political opponents.
The issue is they have retroactively - like a decade later - upclassified some, meaning that they now are classified. They are saying that people who had no access to SCIFs should have been sending emails by SCIF. This concept is stupid and would grind diplomacy to a halt.
Read 3 tweets
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Kurt Eichenwald
@kurteichenwald
1. Here is the cover Legal Quarterly of Ukraine, published by Kyiv Post. This article was published before Joe Biden said anything about Victor Shokin, currently the hero of the GOP. This is the corrupt man Trump says was "very good" done in by "bad people." ...
2...here are some of the quotes about Shokin. Now, remember, this is a magazine for Ukrainian lawyers, written pre-Biden comments on anything. And this corrupt man is now the hero of @POTUS, @GOP @seanhannity @foxandfriends et. al...
@POTUS @GOP @seanhannity @foxandfriends 3...SHokin inspired corruption cartoons in the Ukraine. This is the current hero of @POTUS and the @GOP....
Read 5 tweets
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Kurt Eichenwald
@kurteichenwald
1. The horrors of this need to be followed through with a hypothetical.

Trump and @RudyGiuliani had a some sort of desired outcome here for pressing Ukraine to criminally investigate Biden and his son.

What if indicted? Did they - with Barr - expect to...
@RudyGiuliani 2...extradite the former Vice President and/or his son for prosecution in Ukraine, in a case they had pressed for Ukraine to conduct while holding its appropriations hostage?

And if they didn't intend to extradite, were they simply trying to manipulate the criminal system...
@RudyGiuliani 3...of a foreign nation so that they had talking points on Fox?

What was the end game here? Explain it @RudyGiuliani: What were you after? And if you thought a crime happened, why did you not go to the FBI and use the legat system?...
Read 5 tweets

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Julie Laumann🆘
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As @RitaKonaev notes, "Mattis had no problem disagreeing w/Obama about transgender people in the military or women in combat but won’t criticize Trump for asking foreign powers for dirt about political opponents.

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@SPMiles42
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