Ukraine had a statement about Fighting Corruption and mr. Yermak would say burr mace in 2016. Mr. Yermak provided me a draft statement, and i wanted to be assured that this statement would actually correct the perception that mr. Giuliani had of ukraine and what they stand for now so that that would also be conveyed to President Trump and solve this problem that id observed with our may 23rd meeting with the president. The problem that hes getting a bad set of information, Statement Like this could potentially correct that. So was mr. Giuliani satisfied with this statement . No, he was not. Why not . He believed that it needed to say burisma and 2016 specifically or else it would not be credible, it would not mean anything new. So, in fact, mr. Jewel yagiu wanted it to State Burisma and
one specifically for President Trump. Mr. Ambassador, heres the text you sent to the ukrainian official on august 13th, lets put that up on the screen. You said hi, andre. Good talking. Following is the
Power of the office to obtain an improper personal benefit while ignoring and injuring the national interest. Or acts in ways that are grossly inconsistent with and undermine the separation of powers that is the foundation of our democratic system. Now, these this question of whether president engaged in abuse of power came up before when this congress considered the impeachment of president nixon. And after action was taken, president nixon famously said if the president does it, it is not illegal. And this body rejected that because thats not so. That goes directly contrary to what the founders said. But President Trump has said the same thing in responding to the prior investigation by Department Of Justice and defending his conduct. Here is what he said then i have an article, too, where i have to write to do whatever i want as president. That he has the right to do
whatever he wants as president. That is as wrong as when president nixon said a similar thing. That is not what the c
And i thought the threat to our nation was well articulated earlier today by Professor Feldman when you said, if we cannot impeach a president who abuses his office for personal advantage, we no longer live in a democracy, we live in a monarchy or we live under a districtatorship. My view is if people cannot depend on the fairness of our elections, then what people are calling divisive today will be absolutely nothing compared to the shredding of our democracy. After the events of ukraine unfolded, the president claimed that the reason he requested an investigation into his political opponents and withheld desperately needed military aid for ukraine was supposedly because he was worried about corruption. However, contrary to president s statements, various witnesses, including Vice President pences special adviser jennifer williams, testified that the president s request was political. Take a listen. I found the july 25th phone call unusual because in contrast to other president ial ca
With the findings in the horowitz report. Horrow its seems to be giving the fbi that part of the investigation saying its a clean bill. They had enough reason to do this investigation. Everybody who was interviewed cements to indicate they did not open an investigation. Evan perez, thank you so much. Joining our panel now, we have with us jim bakker. You are not singled out the report makes clear the fbi failed when it came to the administering the fisa warrants, too much was left out or not presented to the court. Do you accept what the Inspector General is saying . I am there are two big groups of conclusions, one is, it was not a politically motivated
investigation and it was properly predicated with us goingforward with that investigation. It was malpractice for us not to open this investigation. All of the statements that it was a hoax are wrong. The investigation was not a coup or a coup attempt. Having said that, he does point out many mistakes that were made with respect to err
Mean, thats the appropriate way to raise an issue with the ukrainian president , correct . Its appropriate for the Justice Department and the Prosecutor General to cooperate and to exchange information, yes. To the extent the president has concerns and to the extent the Attorney General is having u. S. Attorney durham look into it, isnt it entirely appropriate for the president to flag this for president zelensky and say youn touch with our official channels . Mr. Castor, i dont know the precise appropriateness of these kinds of relations. Now, were either of you involved with the preparation for the 7 25 call . I was not. I was not. How do you account for that . I mean, you were two of the key officials with responsibility for ukrainian policy. If the president of the United States is going to have a call with the leader of ukraine, why
wouldnt you ordinarily be involved with the preparation . Sir, we work for the Department Of State in an embassy overseas. Preparation for a president