Trump whistleblower complaint

[_Res Ipsa]

RI is this at all plausible?

Supposin' Trump takes his____ impeachment list with a line down the middle indicating both D and R sides, writes his resignation on the back, gets one of his grandkids to fold it into a paper airplane (because he can't follow instructions), shoots it out the balcony of the White House and scurries down to catch to transport to Mar a Lago and then on to parts unknown and puts himself in exile.

Could he pull that off? Could he get out of Dodge without facing extradition back to the US?

Keeping in mind he has the bucks to fund it and he currently has no criminal charges against him.

Think like a criminal. ;-)

In my profession, thinking like a criminal comes naturally.... ;-)

He can always resign if he chooses to. And he could probably flee anywhere. He has the following list of countries to choose from:

July 31, 2015 at 4:00 PM CDT - Updated July 3 at 8:31 AM
These countries currently have no extradition treaty with the United States:

Afghanistan, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Armenia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, the Central
African Republic, Chad, Mainland China, Comoros, Congo (Kinshasa), Congo (Brazzaville), Djibouti, Equatorial
Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Kazakhstan,
Kosovo, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Libya, Macedonia, Madagascar, Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands,
Mauritania, Micronesia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal,

Niger, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Rwanda, Samoa, São Tomé & Príncipe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia,
Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu,
Vatican, Vietnam and Yemen.

https://www.wsfa.com/story/22665099/cou ... y-with-us/

Uzbekistan is nice. He might want to avoid Yemen. Also, Assange's old digs in the Ecuadorian embassy are available.

The main problem would be that he and his companies own lots of U.S. real estate, which could be attached in civil litigation. But if he's got enough stuffed in a mattress and wants to be a fugitive, sure.

Hell, he might be able to negotiate a blanket pardon for him and his family in exchange for a pardon from pence and a non-prosecution agreement from N.Y. Terra Incognita.

[_Jersey Girl]

He owns properties in some of those locations. I've got it up on my computer. I can try listing them while I'm cooking.

Example: Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Arab Emirates.

And that's what I'm talking about here.

Modified the list for the third time. Imma cookin' and gettin' confused by what I'm reading. Not sure about Kuwait now.

[_Res Ipsa]

He owns properties in some of those locations. I've got it up on my computer. I can try listing them while I'm cooking.

Example: Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Arab Emirates.

And that's what I'm talking about here.

Yep, possible, Maybe he could get that Moscow project built.

[_Jersey Girl]

He owns properties in some of those locations. I've got it up on my computer. I can try listing them while I'm cooking.

Example: Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Arab Emirates.

And that's what I'm talking about here.

Yep, possible, Maybe he could get that Moscow project built.

I don't know if you noticed I modified the list multiple times already. But...Saudi and AE for sure.

Yes, to the Moscow project as well. Consider it done. If he's done.

[_canpakes]

President (something something) crimes ...

Hey, subs - they found your corruption:

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — As Rudy Giuliani was pushing Ukrainian officials last spring to investigate one of Donald Trump’s main political rivals, a group of individuals with ties to the president and his personal lawyer were also active in the former Soviet republic.

Their aims were profit, not politics. This circle of businessmen and Republican donors touted connections to Giuliani and Trump while trying to install new management at the top of Ukraine’s massive state gas company. Their plan was to then steer lucrative contracts to companies controlled by Trump allies, according to two people with knowledge of their plans.

Their plan hit a snag after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko lost his reelection bid to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whose conversation with Trump about former Vice President Joe Biden is now at the center of the House impeachment inquiry of Trump.

But the effort to install a friendlier management team at the helm of the gas company, Naftogaz, would soon be taken up with Ukraine’s new president by U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, whose slate of candidates included a fellow Texan who is one of Perry’s past political donors.

It’s unclear if Perry’s attempts to replace board members at Naftogaz were coordinated with the Giuliani allies pushing for a similar outcome, and no one has alleged that there is criminal activity in any of these efforts. And it’s unclear what role, if any, Giuliani had in helping his clients push to get gas sales agreements with the state-owned company.

But the affair shows how those with ties to Trump and his administration were pursuing business deals in Ukraine that went far beyond advancing the president’s personal political interests. It also raises questions about whether Trump allies were mixing business and politics just as Republicans were calling for a probe of Biden and his son Hunter, who served five years on the board of another Ukrainian energy company, Burisma.

On Friday, Trump told a group of Republican lawmakers that it had been Perry who had prompted the phone call in which Trump asked Zelenskiy for a “favor” regarding Biden, according to a person familiar with Trump’s remarks.

The person, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to describe a closed conversation among GOP officials, recounted that Trump said it was Perry who asked him to make the July call to discuss “something about an LNG (liquefied natural gas) plant.” Trump’s remarks were first reported Saturday by the news site Axios.

While it’s unclear whether Trump’s remark Friday referred specifically to the behind-the-scenes maneuvers this spring involving the multibillion-dollar state gas company, The Associated Press has interviewed four people with direct knowledge of the attempts to influence Naftogaz, and their accounts show Perry playing a key role in the effort. Three of the four spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. The fourth is an American businessman with close ties to the Ukrainian energy sector.

[_honorentheos]

Republican office holders are out in full force criticizing Trump over Syria today. Fear of mean-tweets didn’t stop them. I think the difference here is best explained by understanding a lot of them aren’t afraid to ever criticize Trump so much as that they agree Trump’s corruption is tolerable if it helps Republicans and he can get away with it.

I agree, in a sense anyway. With the decision to pull out of Syria there are obvious implications for foreign affairs. Societies operate on trust, and our military is obligated to foster relationships with other parties on the asymmetric battlefields of the 21st c. This move has implications that so obviously transcend politics it makes sense even the most entrenched partisans such as McConnell must recognize the implications for Trump doing what he's done.

What that suggests, then, is the majority of Republican politicians who have failed to come out as at least lukewarm to the investigation fail to see the damage being done to the office of the President and the Constitution from the same vantage point. For whatever reason at a minimum they must view the fallout of what Trump has been doing as limited, possibly purely political rather than as fundamentally damaging as abandoning an ally is to our long term reputation and ability to project power through surrogates.

[_honorentheos]

Point being, I'm inclined to overlook motives for coming around to the possibility Trump is not the guy Republicans should be supporting because it has to start somewhere to get past the partisan team loyalty and actually look at the fundamentals of what is going on.

That makes sense to me, Honor. Removing Trump from office will require R votes in the Senate. Tactically, we should give them the space to do that. Criticizing folks for doing the right thing is counterproductive.

Well said. I'd upvote if it were possible.

[_EAllusion]

The Trump admin and its allies are starting to rack up quite a list of refusals to submit to lawful subpoenas. On the one hand, it seems to be working in other instances, so why not? On the other, Congress probably should start holding people in contempt and jailing them. Or let the President and his goons be above the law. Either is fine.

[_EAllusion]

What that suggests, then, is the majority of Republican politicians who have failed to come out as at least lukewarm to the investigation fail to see the damage being done to the office of the President and the Constitution from the same vantage point. For whatever reason at a minimum they must view the fallout of what Trump has been doing as limited, possibly purely political rather than as fundamentally damaging as abandoning an ally is to our long term reputation and ability to project power through surrogates.

Authoritarians like that which increases their power and dislike that which does not...

I'm not sure your civic understanding of the Constitution and the office of the Presidency is appropriate for the point you are discussing. Trump attempting to pressure foreign nations into letting him sock-puppet propaganda is fine because it means Republicans are more likely to win elections. The office of the Presidency is only good insofar as it gives Republicans power to do things they want to do.

[_honorentheos]

Executive power has been a contentious issue for Republicans, especially during the Obama years. Yet they've always seemed to turn a blind eye to executive overreach when it was Bush and now Trump doing the overreaching. Who's to say how much of their current silence regarding emoluments and nepotism weren't lesser versions of the same rationale for being silent when Trump asks explicitly on live TV for China to investigate Biden to be rewarded in the trade negotiations?

I think the idea the executive is always on the verge of crossing the Rubicon existed under Obama for more than just Republicans. In a way, constantly crying the sky was falling because Obama used executive orders to bypass Congress has its own introspection due given Chicken Little isn't just venting this time because it seems even more clear the sky is really, honestly falling now.