Quid Pro Joe
Posted on 09/28/2019 3:19:04 PM PDT by NoLibZone
Senator Chris Murphy (D., Conn.), who traveled to Ukraine in early September, told reporters this week that he had heard "directly" from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky that Zelensky felt pressured by Trump to investigate Hunter Biden's involvement with Ukrainian gas giant Burisma. But according to a tape of a briefing Murphy gave two weeks ago about his meeting with Zelensky, Murphy made no mention at all of such an allegation.
It was only 13 days after his initial briefing that Murphy emerged to say Zelensky had expressed concerns to him that the Trump administration was withholding U.S. aid to compel an investigation.
Murphy, who traveled to Ukraine and other European nations in early September with Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.), has given inconsistent characterizations of his Sept. 5 meeting with Zelensky over the past two weeks, as Trump's conversations with Zelensky have drawn national and international attention. If, as Murphy says, Zelensky expressed grave concern over the administration’s actions, the Connecticut senator appears to have kept mum about it for over two weeks.
Murphy initially told news reporters in a Sept. 11 briefing that the Ukrainian president was "flummoxed" by the administration’s suspension of aid and wanted to reach a resolution to keep it flowing. Neither Zelensky nor any other official he spoke with brought up political requests from the Trump administration, he said, adding that they "didn't talk in depth" about the issue.
When news reports made public the whistleblower complaint public, Murphy called a press conference and offered a much more detailed recollection of his conversation with Zelensky.
The senator said Monday that the "entire new Ukrainian administration" including Zelensky told him they believed the United States withheld aid due to his "unwillingness to investigate the Bidens."
"Once I got on the ground there, I heard about how confused the entire new Ukrainian administration was about the nature of these demands they were getting from the Trump administration to conduct this political investigation, and that they worry that the aid that was being cut off to Ukraine by the president was a consequence for their unwillingness, at the time, to investigate the Bidens," Murphy said, adding that the concern was relayed to him "from the president directly."
Murphy did not, however, relay any of this information to reporters in the Sept. 11 briefing, where he stressed the limited nature of his conversation with Zelensky on the issue.
Contrary to his claim Monday that Zelensky felt the administration was withholding U.S. aid because of his unwillingness to investigate Hunter Biden, Murphy said Sept. 11 that Zelensky said he "didn't have a clear sense of why aid was being withheld."
Murphy said then that he had personally asked Zelensky about Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s attempts to investigate Hunter Biden and emphasized that Zelensky should rebuff any requests made outside of U.S. diplomatic channels.
"He was ready for that question, he wasn't surprised that I brought it up and his response was pretty simple: that they have no intention of getting involved in an American election," Murphy said, "but we didn’t talk in depth about the nature of the contacts and no one brought it up to us, I raised it with President Zelensky."
Johnson, who was with Murphy and Zelensky, told reporters that he told the Ukrainian president that the "primary rationale" for Trump's decision to withhold aid was lack of investment from other European countries.
"The first question President Zelensky asked was, ‘What's the deal with funding?' and because I had spoken with the president I answered that question, and I gave him as honest an answer as I could," Johnson said.
"The primary rationale [President Trump] gave me was that same idea that Europe was not stepping up to the plate to spend the money they should spend in their own backyard," Johnson explained. "He just thinks we're being played for suckers, and it irritates him."
The rough transcript of Trump's call with Zelensky released by the White House Wednesday morning substantiates Johnson's characterization of Trump's frustration.
"I will say that we do a lot for Ukraine, we spend a lot of effort and a lot of time," Trump said in the July 25 call. "Much more than the European countries are doing and they should be helping you more than they are." He went on to encourage Zelensky to raise the issue with German chancellor Angela Merkel, among others.
The transcript also shows Trump pressing Zelensky to take calls from Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr as part of an effort to investigate Biden’s son.
Zelensky's remarks at the United Nations on Wednesday resemble Murphy's initial characterization, in which he said he had no intention of getting involved in U.S. elections.
Sitting alongside Trump after a bilateral meeting, he said, "I don't want to be involved in democratic open elections in the United States."
Murphy's office did not respond to a request for comment on his meeting with Zelensky.
…The senator said Monday that the “entire new Ukrainian administration” including Zelensky told him they believed the United States withheld aid due to his “unwillingness to investigate the Bidens.”
“Once I got on the ground there, I heard about how confused the entire new Ukrainian administration was about the nature of these demands they were getting from the Trump administration to conduct this political investigation, and that they worry that the aid that was being cut off to Ukraine by the president was a consequence for their unwillingness, at the time, to investigate the Bidens,” Murphy said, adding that the concern was relayed to him “from the president directly.”
Liar on tape. Doesn’t work out well for the false narrative.
Its funny how Congress can contact Ukraine any time they want but not the President.
Makes you wonder what Congress is hiding in Ukraine.
Cloudstrike?
Hillary’s e-mails. Not joking.
Lying Rats!
Attention whistle blowers!
If you think you were forced/involved in any unlawful activity as a result of a directive from Mr. Obama, Biden, any Clinton, Brennan, Clapper, Rice, Comey, Mueller or someone doing their bidding, now is the time to report it.
800-572-2249
Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is an independent federal agency that interprets, investigates, and prosecutes cases of prohibited personnel practices brought by government employees. The OSC operates a confidential Whistle blower Disclosure Hotline (800-572-2249) and also accepts disclosures by mail.
Federal Employee Whistle blowers — Whistleblower Protection ...
https://www.workplacefairness.org › federal-employee-whistleblower
Attention whistle blowers!
If you think you were forced/involved in any unlawful activity as a result of a directive from Mr. Obama, Biden, any Clinton, Brennan, Clapper, Rice, Comey, Mueller or someone doing their bidding, now is the time to report it.
800-572-2249
Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is an independent federal agency that interprets, investigates, and prosecutes cases of prohibited personnel practices brought by government employees. The OSC operates a confidential Whistle blower Disclosure Hotline (800-572-2249) and also accepts disclosures by mail.
Federal Employee Whistle blowers — Whistleblower Protection ...
https://www.workplacefairness.org › federal-employee-whistleblower
bttt
Johnson doesn’t say if Murphy met with Zelinsky alone or if he was with him. Wouldn’t make sense that two congressmen went there together and one was left out of a conversation. It sounds like perhaps Johnson went to the bathroom, was absent for that short conversation Murphy had with Zelinsky and he knew he could fabricate it without contradiction from Johnson. Bunch of lying hypocrites - there are many other names for them but I’ve never used them - just think them!
It would be interesting to see Zelinsky’s notes on the conversation with Murphy & Johnson. I’m sure he wrote a memo soon after the meeting ended.
> “The transcript also shows Trump pressing Zelensky to take calls from Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr as part of an effort to investigate Biden’s son.”
False. Freebeacon should retract and apologize.
The transcript read POTUS encouraged President Zelensky to take calls from Barr and Giuliani in regards to the oligarch having the crowdstrike server. Nothing connected with Bidens.
Murphy lies every time he opens his mouth.
I would love to say he is the worst senator from CT, but Blumenthal is even a bigger liar!
There are some great folks here in CT, but these two are not among them.
Quid Pro Joe
Quid Pro Joe
following the currency....from the Ukraine to Delaware
Sen Murphy, who flew to the Ukraine with Dick Durban, is one of the individuals that, from what Trump has told us, tried to pressure Zelenskyy.
According to Trump, their little team threatened to withhold Democrat support for Zelensky’s admin if he didn’t play their ballgame. Perhaps Murphy can explain why his team brought up the name, Biden during this meeting, if the purpose of the meeting was merely a diplomatic look-see of a new admin?
starting about 3-1/2 min in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhUc09a_KfA
According to recent articles, Zelensky has expressed he was unaware that any funds were being held up by Trump until after the fact on pressure from the Dems. Specifically Adam Schiff, who’s special ‘patron’ is a Ukrainian arms dealer one supposes is likely to profit immensely from any such funding. That is, Z didn’t know until the press broke the story.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3781942/posts
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3781917/posts
It would appear that all records related to this trip from associated congresscritters - memos, emails, phone records, contacts, and notes of any meetings, are now pertinent knowledge the public needs to know.
we won’t tho. Can’t remember which article, but a Ukrainian official of some sort was not happy that the dems insisted on the transcript of the call being public, as it embarrassed Z for his comment re: Merkle. Which drew an equally public rebuttal from Germany that they -had- given Ukraine funding (in the past). He said that Ukrainian law prevented any notes of any conversations being released. So they’re not happy with the Dems at the moment. Especially if what I linked above is correct - that prior to Trump/Z call, Durbin and Co flew over to pressure Z themselves, usurping presidential authority to conduct foreign diplomacy.
The author is falsely reporting that Trump was “pressing” Zelensky to take calls from Rudy and Barr. More fake news. When someone distorts the transcript like that, how can you believe anything he writes?
With handjobs like Murphy, Schiff, the Bidens and god knows who else, the Ukranians must think we are a nation of idiots. And they are at least half right.
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