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dsnottselliott
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Monday September 23, 2019 · 7:41 PM EDT
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All of the focus is on Ukraine and Trump’s attempted extortion of a foreign leader (who’s supposed to be an ally) for personal political gain.   I get it.   It’s pretty straightforward, and even something that doesn’t delve into intelligence matters that can’t be discussed publicly.    The problem is that there is more to the complaint that the now infamous July 25 conversation with the new leader of Ukraine.   I recall when the story was breaking last week and details were relatively scarce Rachel Maddow laid out what was if not an actual timeline then a series of events or “dots” — which a guest (later in the show) pointed out didn’t really need to have a line drawn connecting them.   

There was however one particular event Maddow left off her list — a July 31 phone call between Trump and Putin.   I for one find that interesting, if not downright terrifying.

In any case, last week Maddow also had Adam Schiff on live during her show to discuss the closed door hearing with the IG.    While there was much Schiff could not say including specific contents of the actual complaint (because the IG didn’t provide either the complaint or specific details) Schiff said something astounding that has been given little attention since.

Schiff stated quite clearly that there was more than one aspect to the complaint.

Schiff is wicked smart, judicious and media savvy.   He wouldn’t have said something like that on camera if the IG hadn’t made it clear there was more to the complaint than the apparent (at the time) breaking news that Ukraine could be involved.   IOW, there’s more to this than Trump trying to again browbeat Ukraine into meeting his own political needs.   I said again because as is being noted today (finally) this recent matter isn’t the first time Trump has held weapons assistance from the U.S. over Ukraine’s head to help himself.    He got the former President to shut down a line of cooperation with Mueller’s team in order to let an earlier batch of military assistance get through to Ukraine.    No doubt he got permission from Vlad first, just as he likely had to get permission from his puppet master this time too to release the assistance to Ukraine.

The thing is, something far larger and more significant went down during all this and AFTER the call with Putin.   The U.S. withdrew over 750 million in support for NATO projects.    I don’t think it’s CT to wonder whether one aspect of the complaint is that evidence of some type of agreement between Trump and Putin to weaken NATO in this manner was part of what the whistleblower laid out.   Maybe I’m wrong.    What I AM fairly certain of however is that the IG believes that complaint needs to be in Congress’ hands.   And should have been quite a while ago.    No one from the GOP has to my knowledge gone on camera and contradicted the reporting that the IG insisted in private testimony to the House Select Committee on Intelligence that the complaint was both credible and urgent.   I also haven’t seen any of them contradicting Chairman Schiff’s statement that the complaint involved more than Ukraine.

Again I note that there is probably, even quite likely that there is stuff in the complaint that can never be made public.  In that sense I get that the media is chasing (albeit badly with way too much both-siderism) the Ukraine angle.    But we have to look at the whole forest instead of a single tree.    What I fear is that Barr (and WH Counsel Pat Cippilone) have been orchestrating is a strategy of putting so much attention on the Ukraine part which they can (and have been) spinning to the media as “what’s the big deal?” precisely because some of what’s in the complaint can’t be publicly revealed.    That’s why it’s important for us to try and make up lost ground before it’s too late, and make the point that while Trump’s attempts to blackmail Ukraine are PART of the complaint they aren’t the only part — that there are (according to what the IG told Schiff’s committee) MULTPLE aspects to the complaint.

It’s not so much a matter of keeping our eye on the ball, but pointing out and focusing on the fact that there are multiple balls bouncing around, each of which is important.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/9/23/1887328/-Ukraine-Is-Only-PART-Of-The-Whistleblower-Complaint