Bluster Strike and Beyond; Commentary on the Impeachment Trial of the Decade

Bluster Strike and Beyond

Commentary on the Impeachment Trial of the Decade

Jean-Marc LeBouquin

Copyright © February 27, 2020 Jean-Marc LeBouquin

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Table of Contents

Bluster Strike and Beyond;

Commentary on the Impeachment Trial of the Decade

Chapter 1 – Morning-After Aftermath;

Chapter 2 – Burisma and Pressure

Chapter 3 – of Several Built-in Escape Clause Probabilities;

Chapter 4 – The Fiction of Assistance Withheld

Chapter 5 – Proper Quorum; or Odium

Chapter 6 – Appendix 1 – The Procurement Working Group and its mandate to expedite Iranian acquisitions of INFCIRC/254/Rev.9/Part 2a listed inventories

Chapter 7 – Appendix 2 – Official United Nations six-month releases informing of Procurement Working Group activities, noting the quantities of INFCIRC/254/Rev.9/Part 2a listed inventories acquired by Iran

Chapter 8 – Appendix 3 – Excerpt of the contents of INFCIRC/254/Rev.9/Part 2a inventory list. (Nuclear weapons associated inventories Iran is entitled to acquire under Resolution 2231.)

Chapter 9 – Appendix 4 – Excerpt of inventory listed on Missile Technology Control Regime; Equipment, Software and Technology Annex

Chapter 10 – Appendix 5 – Secrecy arrangement concerning Iranian acquisitions of INFCIRC/254/Rev.9/Part 2a listed inventories

Chapter 11 – Appendix 6 – The Procurement Working Group mandate to prohibit the International Atomic Energy Agency from discovering, investigating, or reporting on Iranian acquisitions of nuclear weapons associated assets listed on INFCIRC/254/Rev.9/Part 2a – this in violation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty, NPT); Article III; first clause

Chapter 12 – Appendix 7 – Part of how the IAEA is prevented by the Security Council's JCPOA from reviewing Activities Which Could Contribute to The Design And Development of a Nuclear Explosive Device

Chapter 13 – Appendix 8 – Sham Dispute Resolution Mechanism

Chapter 14 – Appendix 9 – Presentation and explanation of Charter of the United Nations Article 25

Chapter 15 – Appendix 10 – Documenting the Obama Administration's Intransigent refusal to transmit Security Council Resolution 2231 to the 114th Congress

Chapter 1

– Morning-After Aftermath –

Even if it was getting stale, the political culture and climate of the political movement formerly known as the Democratic Party machine would allow for no deviation from it. A rule most petty which no one willingly would politically let go of; and of which party apparatchiks deigned not transgress with any outward sign of acceptance of the notion that maybe;

Just maybe it wasn't the Russians, and it wasn't due to the dark horse candidate; that Democratic Party presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton failed to capture the hearts and minds and votes of even a third of the eligible voting population in 2016.

Over 71 million out of the 200 million eligible refused to vote for either candidate, so maybe;

Just maybe; candidate Hillary being the known article in the election (as opposed to dark horse Trump's being a mere suggestion) – maybe it could be conceded at some point that; given the daunting numbers against her; from the total population of eligible U.S. voters numbering 200,081,377 by October 2016:

Hillary Clinton's slice of the pie numbered: 65,853,514 – or 32.91%

The non-voting population of electorate resistant to holding their nose in favor of choosing either Hillary Clinton or Trump; those non-voter irregulars beat all at: 71,243,035 – or 35.61%

Dark Horse Trump managed to muster up: 62,984,828 – or 31.48%

Total population overwhelmingly decided against Hillary (Trump + non-voting resistance): 134,227,863 – or 67.09%

The entrenched leadership and general minion office holders of the national level Democratic Party pecking order asserted that the overwhelming popular distaste for the prospect of a Hillary 2016 Presidency must be due to interference from some outside force – which must properly be held accountable for keeping Hillary from the White House role everyone knew she deserved.

The Electoral College was definitely pointed out as a wrongful possible contributing factor to the debacle – and an encumbrance; that glaring mistake in the Constitution laid out over there on those pages in plain sight.

That Electoral College system is the archaic construction which had been devised to keep larger more centralized districts from unduly controlling the denizens' lives lived out in outlaying areas; those clodhoppers and bumpkins sidelined with different issues maybe not so well understood or maybe not sympathized with as much by the Big City gentrified moguls who wouldn't have time for it.

That system of the Electoral College put in place so long ago was clearly the thing that was, or is wrong; because Hillary controlled some pretty concentrated localized population centers – so she should have won with her extra smidgen of votes over Trump's if it wasn't for that stupid Electoral College thing.

It could have been the Electoral College was the reason for the overwhelming popular vote against the Democratic ticket and candidate.

But the other implausible reason that Party proselytizers really went for as explaining Hillary's dumbfounding loss was that it must have been the Russians conspiring with Trump to turn those 134,227,863 disenchanted souls away from Hillary which was the cause of all the disarray; regardless if innuendo pointing to collusion between the Russians and Trump was never shown as having any basis.

It must nevertheless have been the Russians, with the flamboyant Mr. Trump opening the gates from the inside; which had so successfully convinced critically vast numbers of the Democratic Party base to stay home on Election Day 2016 – thus disappointing partisan apparatchiks and depriving the Party of the votes everyone knew Hillary was entitled to.

Whatever it was; it couldn't have been the thing the Democratic machine was responsible for maintaining all through 2016; and pushing for through 2017 up until the spring of 2018, and then promoting even beyond then – the thing which Hillary was (at the time of the 2016 National Election) the preeminent spearheading voice in support of;

It couldn't have been that factor which contributed to a sense of odium regarding Hillary; because the electorate isn't supposed to know about it. So it couldn't have been that 'cause no one cares about it anyway.

* * * * *

Although the aspect hadn't been brought up in the Articles of Impeachment submitted to the Senate – the House Managers; those Lower House Congresspersons assigned to prosecute the impeachment case against Trump; decided to also use the venue of the Senate Trial as an excuse to further delve into the issue of Trump's alleged dirty tricks, his alleged collusion with Russia, designed to successfully derail the Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign in 2016.

The House of Representatives' Articles of Impeachment were voted in favor of strictly along party lines. Democratic Party Congress membership seeing majority control in the House of Representatives – the motion to set fires in the Republican camp controlled Senate was inevitably approved. It was widely anticipated that the Senate would also vote along party lines to douse inflamed synthetic passions and mock posturing; and to acquit the President of wrongdoings so alleged.

As a magical political taunt it couldn't lose. The Senate trial provided a field day venue for top quality anti-Trump rhetoric and when the Senate inevitably decided against impeachment the Democratic Party goers could always say they was robbed and that Trump should have been ousted on his ear but for the injustices of partisan politics and majority vote counts.

It wasn't necessarily the ouster of Trump from office that would count. The Senate trial could become the kick off to an exciting and unique presidential campaign, and would find its lasting full measure of justification by getting a Democratic Party contender hopeful elected as President in November.

And so, with the ripe opportunity fully in hand – the House Managers saw no reason to let the issue of Trump's alleged collusion with Russia be allowed to just disappear over the horizon of loneliest forgotten treasures. They brought it up in the Senate and this is how Counsel for the Defense, Jay Sekulow, responded in his Opening Argument:

Jay Sekulow: (00:00)

…Let’s for a moment, put ourselves in the shoes of the president of the United States right now. Before he was sworn into office, he was subjected to an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation called Crossfire Hurricane. The president within six months of his inauguration, found a special counsel being appointed to investigate a Russia collusion theory. In their opening statement [of the Senate Trial], several members of the house managers tried to once again re-litigate the Mueller case.

Jay Sekulow: (01:06)

…this is part one of the Mueller Report: This part alone is 199 pages. The house managers in the presentation a couple of times referenced this for that. Let me tell you something. This cost $32 million. This investigation took 2,800 subpoenas. This investigation had 500 search warrants. This had 230 orders for communication records. This had 500 witness interviews. All to reach the following conclusion, and I’m going to quote from the Mueller report itself. It can be found on page 173. As it relates to this whole matter of collusion and conspiracy, ultimately, is the words of Bob Mueller in his report, "this investigation did not establish that the campaign coordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election interference activities."

The House Managers' team had earlier actually invented some pretty serious accusations against Trump without presenting any sources or supporting evidence providing a foundation for the baseless innuendo they went spewing about with on the Senate floor. Sekulow was responding to some of that. Here are a couple of snippets from the second day of the Senate Trial (25 January 2020):

Adam Schiff: (10:22)

…Russia too, has sought to support this effort to smear Mr. Biden. Reportedly hacking into the Ukrainian energy company at the center of the president’s disinformation campaign only last week. Russia almost certainly was looking for information related to the former vice president’s son so that the Kremlin could also weaponize it against Mr. Biden just like it did against Hillary Clinton in 2016 when Russia hacked and released emails from her presidential campaign. And President Trump has made it abundantly clear that he would like nothing more than to make use of such dirt against Mr. Biden, just as he made use of Secretary Clinton’s hacked and released emails in his previous presidential campaign.

That above completely unfounded construction, put forth without any reference to any specific source – based on nothing; pretends singular knowledge of the motivation behind an event that isn't clear as having occurred. It's wild stuff – examining further:

Adam Schiff: (18:47)

…[this] was not the first time the president solicited foreign interference in our elections. In 2016 then candidate Trump implored Russia to hack his opponent’s [Hillary Clinton's] email accounts, something that the Russian military agency did only hours later, only hours later. When the president said, Hey, Russia, if you’re listening, they were listening. Only hours later they hacked his opponent’s campaign...

It's amazing the influence Trump used to have over the Russians. Back in the day he apparently could snap fingers and the Russians would hop to with the obsequious scraping and bowing and the dutiful internet information hacking etc. It must be hard now for the President to get up in the morning these days without his much missed animal magnetism of yesteryear.

The special brand of malarkey and meager hysterics which has become so regrettably common in the Demo Party of today; did not immediately play well for the Biden Presidential Campaign in the Iowa Democratic Party presidential primary voted a few weeks after that 25 January 2020 scorching excoriation, memorialized in the records of the Senate trial.

In the Iowa primary; the first Democratic Party presidential primary of the campaign season, erstwhile clear front-running Biden landed in a very disappointing fourth place behind three other candidates who earlier in the campaigning season had notoriously lagged precariously in their seemingly unrealistic bid to become the next Democratic nominee for the presidency.

Unfortunately for the aspirations of previously hot-running presidential contender Joe Biden, there is no putting the Genie House Manager Adam Schiff back in the bottle…

IN THE SENATE TRIAL, House Manager Adam Schiff had not neglected to emphasize the need for Trump's immediate removal from office on account of a collusion which was documented as never having happened (as we shall review presently).

Below, Schiff explained how President Trump's continued presence on the scene would endanger election bids of legitimate candidates like former vice-President Joe Biden:

Adam Schiff: (17:49)

…we are here today to consider a much more grave matter and that is an attempt to use the powers of the presidency to cheat in an election. For precisely this reason, the president’s misconduct cannot be decided at the ballot box, for we cannot be assured that the vote will be fairly won…

The ambitious partisan objective that Schiff refers to in mentioning the above "cannot be decided at the ballot box" was that Trump should not only be impeached, but the Senate should also vote to have Trump permanently barred in future from being elected to a United States Government Office of Trust as it wouldn't be fair since he can never again be trusted to run against a Democrat.

The verdict of the Senate the House Manages requested in the House of Representatives' Articles of Impeachment was:

Wherefore, President Trump, by such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law. President Trump thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.

We registered Democrats must remind ourselves to once again thank our lucky stars we have our own entrenched troglodyte party leadership protecting us from ourselves in their ongoing stand-up struggle defending our right to free and fair elections for all innocent bystanders not affiliated with unaccounted for poor taste in orthodoxy.

* * * * *

The House Managers' feeble excuse for Hillary's spectacular loss of the critical popular vote in the 2016 election; the excuse that the Russians were even capable of, and did turn 134,227,863 citizens, the vast majority of the eligibles, away from their Democratic Party presidential hopeful in 2016 is absurd, naturally;

Otherwise; it has to be the case that the keen observer of the human psyche, Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin, has outdone his nefarious Soviet predecessors.

It was now Putin's more advanced subsoil tendril minions infiltrating and subverting the U.S. population in large order which has successfully overwhelmingly convinced long-timer registered Democrats (like myself – who votes independently but nevertheless is, and has been a registered Democrat longer than the relative newcomer Obama); to finally get fed up with the same old crapola dished out by the high and mighty embedded in and in control of the Party machine;

It was now Putin and his henchmen of the deep who had saturated, captured and compelled the imagination of the electorate – spiting all the Democratic Party hired focus groups, advertisers and analysts, and the other whatnots who couldn't keep up with the overwhelming propaganda spewing foreign talent onslaught.

It turns out to be another red scare just like in the good old days before a lot of people now living wouldn't remember anymore. A red scare with the red washed out; but nonetheless again concerning those people who go marching to the same seductive drumbeat broadcast, courtesy of Radio Kremlin.

And the Lower House proselytizers' dedicated accusation committee forum used this very scary story stuff concoction as a hopeful basis to gull civilian bystanders into mesmerized fascination with a narrative which simply won't allow that; given the irrefutable rebuke of the daunting election numbers against her – maybe the larger portion of the voting population refused to choose Hillary because they simply didn't want her over there in the White House; maybe it was simply because they didn't trust her or care to take her word for whatever; and felt they knew their own good reasons why.

Naturally disregarding any possible relevance of the total popular vote (includes eligible non-voter) numbers – in their December 2019 roman-feuilleton novella presentation: "The Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry Report, published in advance of their later edition Articles of Impeachment" – the accusers persisted way into end of 2019, in reasserting as fact their obsessive fictional spy-thriller styled dramatization of a Trump-Russia collusion as being the root cause for the tragic political downfall of sweet and innocent, clean hands Hillary Clinton. An example of the exercise is found on page 10 of that Lower House treasury-sponges authored, tax-payer funded work-out:

"In making the decision to move forward, we were struck by the fact that the President’s misconduct was not an isolated occurrence, nor was it the product of a naïve president. Instead, the efforts to involve Ukraine in our 2020 presidential election were undertaken by a President who himself was elected in 2016 with the benefit of an unprecedented and sweeping campaign of election interference undertaken by Russia in his favor, and which the President welcomed and utilized."

Leaving the bit about Ukraine aside for the moment; The Lower House removers' squadron – as mentioned – first proposed the startling accusation in "The Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry Report;" that Trump had colluded with some non-specific and unnamed Russian Agency or Agencies to suborn the 2016 election in his favor.

They submitted the false allegation that Russia had conducted a "sweeping campaign of election interference…which the President welcomed and utilized knowing full well that the Report of The Select Committee on Intelligence United States Senate – on Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election;" which was released in the first session of the 116th Congress (2019) does not corroborate at all that characterization of the Russian cyber strike on U.S. election infrastructure.

Presenting excerpts of the Senate Report to give a sense of the overall assessment:

Report of The Select Committee on Intelligence United States Senate – on Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election

Russian Efforts Against Election In frastructure

I. Introduction

From 2017 to 2019, the Committee held hearings, conducted interviews, and reviewed intelligence related to Russian attempts in 2016 to access election infrastructure. The Committee sought to determine the extent of Russian activities, identify the response of the U.S. Government at the state, local, and federal level to the threat, and make recommendations on how to better prepare for such threats in the future. The Committee received testimony from state election officials, Obama administration officials, and those in the Intelligence Community and elsewhere in the U.S. Government responsible for evaluating threats to elections.

II. Findings

1. [censored material blacked out]… The Russian government directed extensive activity, beginning in at least 2014 and carrying into at least 2017, against U.S. election infrastructure' at the state and local level…[censored material blacked out]… The Committee has seen no evidence that any votes were changed or that any voting machines were manipulated.

Overall there is clear evidence of Russian scanning of and personal information associated with voter registration, often by non-State actors. Without going through the whole report I present the Report's summaries for sections The Arc of Russian Activities; "Elements of Russian Activities; Russian Intentions; and No Evidence of Changed Votes or Manipulated Vote Tallies"

III. The Arc of Russian Activities

1. [censored material blacked out]… In its review of the 2016 elections, the Committee found no evidence that vote tallies were altered or that voter registry files were deleted or modified, though the Committee and