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As someone who knows a lot about another presidential scandal, Iran-contra, I think Trump-Ukraine shares some characteristics but is worse. A lot worse. 1/
Like the Iran-contra affair, the Trump-Ukraine scandal involved privatizing foreign/national security policy and working outside of the normal apparatuses. 2/
Like the Iran-contra affair, the Trump-Ukraine scandal involves funds under the purview of Congress. With the former, monies were given to the contras despite a congressional ban on support. With the latter, Trump held back appropriated funds. 3/
Both Iran-contra and Trump-Ukraine were complex operations, involving multiple government officials and other documentation. The initial information will generate multiple paths for investigation. 4/
With Trump-Ukraine has already been some testing of the claim that the president has nearly unrestricted power in foreign policy/national security matters, as occurred with GOP defenders of Reagan's actions in Iran-contra. The unitary executive returns! #mepolitics 5/
There's also at least one personnel connection in the involvement of Bill Barr. As George H.W. Bush's AG, he backed Iran-contra pardons. Now Trump's AG, the DoJ held back the whistleblower complaint (via the OLC). 6/
But, as I said at the start of this thread, the Trump-Ukraine scandal is worse. While both bypassed congressional authorizations and the power of the purse, and thus raise separation of powers issues, Reagan sincerely believed in backing the contras. In contrast, 7/
Trump acted to benefit himself as a candidate. He mounted a smear operation of Biden and Biden's son to help himself, using his full presidential powers. Given his history and that of his family, there's no reason to believe he cared about corruption in Ukraine. 8/
Moreover, Reagan acknowledged there were mistakes in Iran-contra. The WH Counsel when the Tower Commission Report was issued told me that Reagan's cooperation and admissions kept him from being impeached. Trump will never say what happened, what he did, was wrong. 9/
Reagan also said he didn't know about certain parts of Iran-contra. But it's clear that Trump was directly involved in the Ukraine shakedown. So the Trump-Ukraine scandal was clearly worse, much worse than the Iran-contra affair. 10/END.
