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southpaw
@nycsouthpaw
, 9 tweets, 4 min read Read on Twitter
TAYLOR: I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.

SONDLAND: [that charge is] incorrect [... POTUS has been] crystal clear no quid pro quo of any kind

SONDLAND: I suggest we stop the back and forth by text. abcnews.go.com/Politics/top-d…
(I wish ABC would publish the content of the full exchange they obtained, btw. Can't see a reason why you wouldn't.)
Background on Sondland: He "donated $1 million to the inauguration of President Donald Trump, records show, but didn't use his own name. The donations to Trump's inauguration were made through four Oregon and Washington companies connected to Sondland." oregonlive.com/politics/2017/…
New NYT scoop adds a crucial detail to this text exchange—Sondland reportedly talked to Trump before he wrote back to the group. nytimes.com/2019/10/03/us/…
The text message exchange among Taylor, Sondland, and Volker occurred on September 9, 2019, per ABC.

That same day, the ICIG sent his first letter to Burr and Schiff notifying them that the whistleblower’s complaint was being withheld from Congress. abcnews.go.com/Politics/top-d…
Some folks noticed that an updated version of the NYT story on the texts that I linked above no longer mentions that Sondland called Trump before sending his careful and legalistic response to Taylor.
That fact, by all accounts still true, moved to a different NYT story nytimes.com/2019/10/03/us/…
WSJ it appears has also confirmed that Sondland called Trump before sending his infamous text back to Bill Taylor, which Trump is quoting from this morning. wsj.com/articles/state…
It baffles me why this fact isn’t treated as more significant and you have to go spelunking in news stories for it. To me, it shows consciousness of guilt regarding withholding the military assistance and the president’s personal involvement in concocting a cover story.
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More from @nycsouthpaw see all

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southpaw
@nycsouthpaw
John Dowd CANNOT QUIT Comic Sans.
This is such a low effort letter. It’s more calculated to amuse Trump by being obnoxious than protect Dowd’s clients’ interests. It contains potentially significant admissions. And it fails to acknowledge Congress’s long held positions on a-c privilege and the right to counsel.
One of the more useful law review notes ever written, imho: “The Rights of a Witness Before a Congressional Committee” ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewconten…
Read 3 tweets
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southpaw
@nycsouthpaw
Turkey will be invading Syria shortly and US forces will be getting out of the way, apparently abandoning the US’s Kurdish allies in Syria, per WH statement.
WH: Turkey “will now be responsible” for ISIS captives, who are *checks notes* currently held by Syrian Kurdish forces.
I’m not doing a good job conveying how fucked up this is.
Read 3 tweets
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southpaw
@nycsouthpaw
I don’t recognize how ‘offensive’ it is to support the increasingly lonely struggle to defend the human rights of the people of Hong Kong.
Presidential leadership matters in all sorts of ways.
The more things change...
Read 4 tweets

Related threads

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Teri Kanefield
@Teri_Kanefield
(Thread) The Russian Way of Doing Politics

Here are my Cliff notes on this packet released by Schiff, Engel, and Cumming: foreignaffairs.house.gov/_cache/files/a…

You can also see Trump, Giuliani, and pals doing politics the Russian way.
1/ The text messages make clear Trump tied the release of military aid (and a WH meeting that Zelensky wanted) to Trump’s push for investigations that would benefit his 2020 campaign.

First, for context, some info from the Whistleblower complaint:
intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/…
2/ Beginning late 2018, Guiliani met with Lutsenko, former Ukrainian prosecutor.

In March 2019: Lutsenko made public allegations that Ukrainian officials interfered in the U.S. 2016 elections in coordination with the DNC and Biden and family engaged in corruption in Ukraine.
Read 20 tweets
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Jake Tapper
@jaketapper
1/ TEXT MESSAGES show a WH and administration determined to push Ukraine to investigate the 2016 election and undermine the Mueller report, and to investigate the Bidens. It becomes a key point of negotiation as Ukrainian President Zelensky seeks a WH meeting and military aid:
2/July 25, 2019, 8:36 am US Special Rep Kurt Volker for Ukraine to Zelensky aide Andrey Yermak:

"Heard from White House -- assuming President Z convinces trump he will investigate/'get to the bottom of what happened' in 2016, we will nail down date for visit to Washington."
3/ Then comes much coordination between Volker, Yermak, US Ambassador to EU Gordon Sundland, and Rudy Giuliani about a statement the Trump Team wants Zelensky to make.
Read 16 tweets
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Laura Walker 🍸🇺🇸 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
@LauraWalkerKC
Three deeply problematic aspects of newly released text messages centered on the Ukraine scandal washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/…
It’s generally not a good sign when a government official sends a written message questioning the propriety of an action and another official replies by suggesting they talk on the phone.
The implication is that the second official is worried about leaving behind evidence of their conversation. A phone call doesn’t leave a paper trail.
Read 30 tweets
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Susan Glasser
@sbg1
Reading these texts, and there is a lot to digest:
1. It's clear Bill Taylor, senior US diplomat in Kyiv, was very disturbed by linkage between US aid/political investigation
2. Striking how Rudy Giuliani is being lobbied by two US diplomats to influence Trump, a shadow fopo
3. Volker was aware from White House that plan for July 25th call was to link WH visit 'assuming President Z convinces Trump he will investigate'
4. Trump was personally driving this. 'i think potus realy wants the deliverable,' Sondlond texted.
5.The mystery of Gordon Sondland's role needs to be cleared up. When Bill Taylor texts that 'it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign,' Sondland objects, tells him to call SecState Pompeo or his exec secy Lisa Kenna directly
Read 3 tweets
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Michael Weiss
@michaeldweiss
No quid pro quo? Bill Taylor, the top US diplomat to Ukraine, certainly thought there was. "I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign," he texted to fellow diplomats -- texts Kurt Volker just gave to Congress. abcnews.go.com/Politics/top-d…
Gordon Sondland, the US ambo to the EU, denied it was the case in a text back to the group. Trump, he said, made it “crystal clear no quid pro quo of any kind”. Sondland then told them to take the convo offline. LOL.
Note that these texts were encrypted, so we'd never have seen or heard about them without Volker's forking them over.
Read 6 tweets
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Polly Sigh
@dcpoll
NEW: Encrypted text messages show Volker and US Officials Gordon Sondland and Bill Taylor arguing last month over whether Trump was engaged in a quid pro quo as he pressed Ukraine to investigate the Bidens while withholding US aid.
HT @riotwomennn fxn.ws/32Xs63O #FoxNews
@riotwomennn "As I said on the phone, I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign," Bill Taylor [US Embassy in Ukraine] said in a text to US Ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland [who donated $1M to Trump's inaugural].
#Maddow
@riotwomennn .@ChrisMurphyCT: "Bill Taylor is a West Point grad, Vietnam vet, career public servant, and our chief diplomat in Ukraine and an expert on the country.

If Taylor believes the aid [to Ukraine] was withheld to get the interference, that’s big news."
#Maddow
Read 4 tweets

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