THREAD: Trump’s legal team begins their arguments today. If their last round is any guide, it’ll be a torrent of lies and conspiracy theories. With that in mind, here are some of the real facts:
Yes, Trump did extort Ukraine. He withheld almost $400 million in military aid and a White House meeting while demanding they announce investigations into his political opponents. themoscowproject.org/dispatch/debun…
Yes, Ukraine did know they were being extorted. Zelensky repeatedly asked after the White House meeting, and evidence shows Ukraine started asking about the frozen aid on July 25, the day of Trump’s phone call. cnn.com/2019/11/20/pol…
Meanwhile, Trump’s point person in Ukraine, Gordon Sondland, explicitly laid out the quid pro quo to his Ukrainian counterparts, and later explicitly called it a quid pro quo. washingtonpost.com/politics/sondl…
The July 25 call not only wasn’t perfect, it was the culmination of a months-long extortion scheme—and both sides perfectly understood the quid pro quo. themoscowproject.org/dispatch/debun…
No, Trump wasn’t withholding aid over concerns about corruption. He obviously doesn’t care about corruption. washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2019…
No, Trump wasn’t concerned about how much other European countries were contributing. If he did, he probably would have told somebody, or waited until those contributions increased to release the aid. nytimes.com/2019/09/24/us/…
Yes, Trump only released the aid because he got caught. He knew about the whistleblower complaint, and Congress had just started investigating when he unfroze the aid. nytimes.com/2019/09/09/us/…
And Trump *still* hasn't had a White House meeting with Zelensky—which is why Zelensky has been so careful not to call out Trump's corruption.
Trump’s conspiracy theories are completely debunked. Here’s George Kent debunking the allegations against Joe Biden …
... and here’s Kurt Volker doing the same, including explicitly calling it a conspiracy theory.
The “Ukrainian interference” conspiracy theory especially has been debunked over and over, including by the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee. themoscowproject.org/dispatch/debun…
Not only that, it’s a Russian conspiracy theory that came into Trump’s orbit directly through suspected Russian intel operative Konstantin Kilimnik. themoscowproject.org/dispatch/trump…
And *everybody* knows it. Republican Senators who go along with it are part of the #PartyofPutin, knowingly promoting Kremlin propaganda to defend their president. themoscowproject.org/dispatch/mosco…
And of course, all the process complaints are blatant lies. We debunked all of those when Cipollone started going in on them on Tuesday.
Finally, some legal scholars who believe abuse of power is an impeachable offense. Here’s Alan Dershowitz, who’s now defending Trump by saying it isn’t:
Here’s Attorney General Bill Barr, from the same memo in which he laid out the *exact* logic he eventually used to say Trump didn’t obstruct justice in the Russia investigation: nytimes.com/2020/01/21/us/…
And there’s also Jonathan Turley, the expert Republicans brought in late last year to argue *against* impeachment. nymag.com/intelligencer/…
Trump’s defense is a torrent of debunked lies. All his lawyers can actually prove is that they have no defense against the facts.
