Thread by @SimonWDC

1/Short thread on some important things we can't forget as the Senate trial opens tomorrow.....I cover much of this in my new essay on why acquittal will be far harder than is understood now (perhaps why McConnell is gaming the trial already?) medium.com/@Simon_Rosenbe…

2/On Aug 12th the whistleblower complaint was filed, and on Sept 9th the "urgent concern" letter from Michael Atkinson, the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community was sent to Congress. It was this act which triggered the House inquiry. nytimes.com/2019/09/19/opi…

3/But what has gotten far less attention is that on Aug 14th, 2 days after receiving the whistleblower complaint, the CIA's general counsel, Courtney Elwood, was so alarmed that she made a criminal referral of the President to the Department of Justice. nbcnews.com/politics/trump…

4/So the formal alarm bell abt Trump/Ukraine was sounded on Aug 14th.

Imagine that just a week later POTUS turned the G7 meeting, a gathering of democracies, into a multi-day homage to Putin, and signaled his acquiescence to Russia's seizure of Crimea. reuters.com/article/us-g7-…

5/IMHO the importance of Trump's extraordinary shakedown of Ukraine at the Aug G7 meeting has not gotten nearly enough attention. There was almost nothing he could have done to threaten Zelensky more. And imagine how concerned nat sec officials read it - confirmed worst fears.

6/So the alarm is sounded by two Trump appointees, Elwood and Atkinson.

The President then shakes down Zelensky in front of entire world at G7.

Then, 3 more Trump aides - Sondland, Mulvaney, Parnas - confirm his crimes on camera. washingtonpost.com/politics/sondl…

7/The House cites two reasons for having had to move quickly:

1) that abusing the power of the Presidency to affect the outcome of an upcoming election among most grave offenses a President could commit for it leads to tyranny

2) unchecked, POTUS would keep acting lawlessly

8/To me, point 1 renders all the Trumpian whining about the House interfering w/democratic processes mute. The President's crime against our system itself warranted dramatic action.

Point 2 was confirmed by the President's illegal killing of Solemaini. medium.com/@Simon_Rosenbe…

9/In sum, the Ukraine investigation was originated by Trump appointees, and everyone who has testified worked for the President. His own staff raised concerns about his illegal actions, and the crime he was committing, cheating in an election, is the greatest "high crime" of all.

10/If you want to hear your own government discuss the gravity and serious of election law crimes - cheating - follow Trump appointee Geoffrey Berman and the FBI explain in their indictment of Parnas and Fruman. justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/l…

11/The House's case is persuasive and compelling at every level. There are no rebuttal witnesses, no alternative understanding of what happened. Trump's process arguments are absurd, even as talking points.

Acquitting this man is going to be very hard. medium.com/@Simon_Rosenbe…