December 6, 2019

MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH

After a sulking, pouty Donald Trump fled a NATO summit in London — after world leaders were caught mocking him on a hot mic — Thursday morning, at 7:01 AM — just prior to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announcing that House Democrats will pursue articles of impeachment — Trump urged her to proceed quickly to an impeachment vote.

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However, Trump clearly hadn’t coordinated with his press secretary who never holds press conferences and largely confines her interviews to Fox News. That’s because Stephanie Grisham’s “1600 Daily” White House Press Office email took fault with Pelosi, writing “Speaker Pelosi and her caucus are now rushing full-speed ahead toward the fastest impeachment in American history.”

Not only was Grisham directly contradicting her boss, she was in egregious historical error, following the same inaccurate accusation made by Republican anti-impeachment witness Jonathan Turley. As The American Independent noted, “Law professor Jonathan Turley said Democrats are setting a 'record' for a fast impeachment. That's demonstrably false.”:

The two other times presidents were impeached [and tried in the Senate] — Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 — the impeachment process happened faster than the current process against Trump….

According to a timeline of events, Johnson removed Stanton as secretary on Feb. 21, 1868. By Feb. 24, 1868 — just three days later — the House passed a resolution impeaching Johnson. And by March 4, 1868, the House delivered articles of impeachment to the Senate. That's less than two weeks.

As for Clinton, the House voted on Oct. 5, 1998 to launch an impeachment inquiry. By Dec. 19, 1998, the House impeached Clinton. That's 75 days.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the formal impeachment inquiry into Trump on Sept. 24. So far, it's been 71 days since that announcement, and the House has yet to draft or pass articles of impeachment. News reports say that lawmakers have been told not to make plans on Dec. 21 or Dec. 22, as those could possibly be the date for the impeachment vote. That would make the impeachment process 89 days.

Trump and the Republicans, of course, have also blocked the impeachment process from further hearings from witnesses by stonewalling subpoenas for both documents and appearances before Congressional committees. Even as Grisham erred in her historical claims, she diverted attention from the unprecedented obstruction of justice in a Congressional investigation of the Executive Branch.

It is worthy of note that Grisham in her December 5 afternoon “1600 Daily” email, claimed, yet again, that the rough summary of the infamous July 25 call with Zelensky was complete, writing, “Right after Speaker Pelosi launched the probe, President Trump released the full transcript of his call with Ukrainian President Zelensky.”

BuzzFlash has written numerous commentaries on how the “readout” released to Congress was an edited summary, which was confirmed by corrections that Lt. Colonel Vindman said that he tried to make, but were rejected. In fact, no one in Congress or the media has asked the White House if a fuller actual transcript exists.

There is a strong likelihood that one does exist, given that the White House, according to a lawsuit filed against it by government accountability organizations, regularly does not archive many of Trump’s conversations or meetings with foreign leaders, as required by the Presidential Records Act. (The lawsuit is still being litigated, but the White House has basically conceded that it is not in compliance and several phone calls and meetings, including many with Putin, have not been accounted for.) The July 25th phone call is likely only the tip of the iceberg in terms of Trump’s violation of federally required regulations in regards to meetings and conversations with foreign leaders, particularly Putin.

In the White House Press Office email, Grisham sarcastically asks, “Did she [Nancy Pelosi] bother to read the Ukraine transcript, either?”

The answer, Stephanie, is yes, Pelosi read the edited summary, which was not a verbatim transcript as Trump has claimed, and even though it is only 1/3 the length that it should be based on the length of the phone call, it is damning.

Further proving Grisham’s negligence, the released July 25th “readout” has a disclaimer prominently included in the edited White House text:

CAUTION: A Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation.· (TELCON) is not a verbatim transcript of a discussion. The text in this document records the notes and recollections of Situation Room Duty "Officers and-NSC policy staff assigned to listen.and memorialize the conversation in written form as the conversation takes place. A number of factors can affect the accuracy of the record, including poor telecommunications connections and variations in accent and/or interpretation. The word "inaudible" is used to indicate portions of a conversation that the note taker was unable to hear.

So, is the impeachment moving too fast? It depends on who you ask in the Trump administration and on what day. There are no facts in this White House, and among the Trump cult in Congress, only self-serving lies, deceptions and diversion.

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