The #Ukraine call is enough to impeach Trump. His refusal to respond to House subpoenas makes #impeachment even more likely. Despite Democrats’ strategy to keep the impeachment inquiry simple, the House should subpoena the transcript of Trump’s call w/ #Erdogan.
3/ There are critical reasons for looking more closely at the #Erdogan call. On its face, Trump acted unilaterally against a US ally in support of a dictator hostile to that ally — an abuse of presidential power. Digging deeper, the call has an appearance of #QuidProQuo
4/ ...since Trump has twin #TrumpTowers in #Istanbul; at minimum a conflict of interest. W/in hours of Trump’s decision to abandon the #Kurds to #Turkey, Trump announces that #Erdogan will visit the WH in November — evidence of further quid pro quo.
5/ Then there is the question of what #Erdogan knew about the murder of WAPO journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, in #SaudiArabia and whether he may have used that knowledge to influence Trump’s decision to support a Turkish breach of the NE border into Kurdish territory.
7/ It’s no secret that Trump has habitually shown preferential treatment to Saudi Arabia. nbcnews.com/politics/natio…
8/ Despite his denials, Trump has serious financial interests in Saudi Arabia that leave him vulnerable to influence by a foreign power. businessinsider.com.au/trump-saudi-ar…
9/ These vulnerabilities may well have been exploited by both #SaudiArabia and #Turkey. Khasoggi was banned from Saudi media, not for criticizing the Saudi gov’t, but for his criticisms of Trump. US Intelligence had credible evidence of a plot to kidnap #Khasoggi,
10/ but Trump & “de facto ambassador” Kushner who is “chummy w/ MbS” made the decision not to warn the journalist, despite protections owed him as a US resident. Why? medium.com/s/story/in-dea…
11/ In October 2018 #Kushner made an “unannounced” trip to Riyadh where he allegedly gave classified information to MbS — an “enemies list” which MbS used “to purge relatives from government & take their money” (see article above).
12/ Also: dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5… In the same month, Kushner received a $57 million loan from a Saudi investment group.
13/ That sort of quid pro quo is called espionage. businessinsider.com/jared-kushner-…
15/ Or was the substance of that call a more benign, but no less horrifying abuse of presidential power: the betrayal of an ally in exchange for investment in Trump properties & other financial interests in the Middle East? For a coveted invitation to the WH?
16/ We need the transcript of that midnight call w/ #Erdogan. Perhaps a #whistleblower will step up or a good journalist will mine the leaks. That call is critical to the chaos currently unfolding in Syria, the explanation for why Trump decided — w/out consultation from...
17/ military, Pentagon, or State Dept. advisers — to make a radical shift in foreign policy that undermines America’s standing in the world, & more importantly, causes devastating harm to the #Kurds who have “fought like fire” for the US in its battle against ISIS.
19/ We must seek to understand ways in which the President of the United States is a soft target for influence by foreign nations pursuing favors & we must examine favors that POTUS may be attempting to extract fr allies to serve his own self-interests politically or financially.
20/ We need to see those #TaxReturns. And we need to acknowledge the troubling, seemingly subordinate, relationship that Trump maintains w/ #Putin at the expense of the American people — & now the #Kurds.
21/ Ultimately, we should #impeach this president for #AbuseOfPower, #obstruction & #collusion w/ multiple foreign nations to violate the sovereignty of our #elections.
Correction: Khashoggi was murdered at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
.@threadreaderapp unroll, please
