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Rep. Waters: Trump’s Allies are Singing Like Canaries

October 18, 2019

Rep. Waters: Trump's Allies are Singing Like Canaries

WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-43) issued a statement on White House Acting Chief of Staff and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney's admission "that President Donald Trump froze nearly $400 million in US security aid to Ukraine in part to pressure that country into investigating Democrats" and new revelations from the impeachment inquiry of Donald Trump:

"If Donald Trump's admission that he abused the power of the presidency wasn't enough, his Acting Chief of Staff and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney's admission that Trump did, in fact, withhold military aid from the Ukraine in exchange for investigations of his opponents just put another nail in the coffin of his presidency.

"Unlike Donald Trump – a man who will go to the ends of the earth to obstruct any investigation of his wrongdoing – past and current Trump administration officials are singing like canaries. Mick Mulvaney spoke from the podium of the White House Press Briefing Room and confirmed that there was a quid pro quo in the Ukrainian scandal. This follows the testimony of Trump's ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, who told Congressional investigators that the goal of Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Guiliani, was to ‘to involve Ukrainians, directly or indirectly, in the president's 2020 reelection campaign.' Trump's former national security advisor, John Bolton, reportedly referred to the Guiliani-led effort as a ‘drug deal,' and told his aide, Fiona Hill, to notify the top lawyer at the National Security Council about the Ukrainian scheme. Michael McKinley, another Trump State Department foreign service officer and key aide to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, testified that he resigned in part due to ‘what appears to be the utilization of our ambassadors overseas to advance domestic political objectives.' Trump's former ambassador to the Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, testified that she had been improperly removed from her post due to ‘pressure from the president' and was the subject of false allegations of disloyalty by Rudy Guiliani. Trump's Energy Secretary Rick Perry admitted that Trump directed him to discuss Ukrainian policy with Rudy Guiliani, and later announced his own resignation.

"It is without question that Donald Trump has spun a web of corruption so wide that it has now implicated the White House, Department of Justice, Department of State, Department of Energy, and Office of Management and Budget. The founders of this country never envisioned such corruption, lawlessness, and criminality in one unworthy man and one failed administration. Our only remedy is a swift and meticulous impeachment investigation, trial, and removal from office. As House Democrats continue to lead this effort and outline the facts for the American people, it is my hope that my Republican colleagues will muster up a shred of courage and join us in the fight for the future and well-being of our democracy."

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