digby: Quid pro quos all over the place
https://digbysblog.net/2020/01/quid-pro-quos-all-over-the-place/?fbclid=IwAR3RKbNjzUSDCKPKVN0LGnpgd4R1DwHVXNURoo6JFEEJuz2FLEPaZTZoF5M
Quid pro quos all over the place
Published by digby on January 17, 2020
snip//
Parnas revealed a lot of juicy details in his interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. Its hard to know right now what was most important. Theres a ton of color about the Trump hotel in Washington being essentially like a mobsters social club where hangers-on gather in the lobby and the bar, while insiders get invited into the inner sanctums where the real deals are made.
Its a GOP power center that just happens to put money directly into the presidents personal bank account. Imagine that.
snip//
The other quid pro quo is more sinister. Giuliani got word that Dmitry Firtash, a Ukrainian gas oligarch with ties to the Kremlin, had dirt on Burisma, the firm that had Joe Bidens son Hunter on its board. Naturally, Giuliani was excited. Firtash was being represented by Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing, two long-time GOP legal operatives who had been involved in the Ukraine plot, along with a right-wing reporter John Solomon. Firtash wanted to avoid extradition from Austria to the U.S., where he is wanted on bribery and racketeering charges. According to Parnas, Firtash agreed to share his information in exchange for having his extradition order lifted. Giuliani, Toensing and diGenova all worked together to try to make that happen.
Elements of this story were already known, but Parnas suggested in his interview with Maddow that Attorney General Bill Barr was also on the team. He didnt offer any direct evidence of this and the Department of Justice denies knowing anything about it. But it once more raises the question of why Trump told Zelensky during the perfect call to cooperate with both Giuliani and Barr.
Parnas said he came forward because hes afraid of Barrs Justice Department, which is astonishing considering the lowlife elements hes been palling around with. Since Parnas is under federal indictment that seems like a reckless thing to say. But he says everyone is running scared since Trump managed to consolidate power after naming Barr, so his only real hope lies in going public.
This is a crazy story but we already knew that most of it is true. As tantalizing as these new details are, they dont entirely fill in the picture of Rudy Giulianis scheme and how Trumps Washington works.
What was true a month ago remains true today: The president of the United States and his personal lawyer plotted to extort the leaders of a foreign country into interfering in the presidential election by smearing his political rival. New information comes out every day and none of it will ever change that fact.