memeorandum: Read: the whistleblower complaint about Trump and Ukraine (Andrew Prokop/Vox)

11:35 AM ET, September 26, 2019

Top Items:

Whistle-Blower Is Said to Allege Concerns About White House Handling of Ukraine Call — New details have emerged about the intelligence officer who raised alarms about the president's pressure on Ukraine to open inquiries that could benefit him politically.

Discussion: CNN, New York Times, Talking Points Memo, Slate, Washington Post, Daily Kos, Foreign Policy, The Week, Raw Story, Vox, Mother Jones, Hullabaloo and HuffPost

U.S. House of Representatives Permanent …:

House Intelligence Committee Releases Whistleblower Complaint — f t # e — Washington, DC - Today, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released the declassified whistleblower complaint. The complaint can be viewed here, and the Intelligence Community Inspector General letter regarding …

Discussion: Raw Story, The Independent, Power Line, Breitbart, Balloon Juice, New York Post and Splinter

New York Times:

Phone Call Showed Only a Slice of Trump's Obsession With Ukraine — Since the 2016 campaign, the president has had an intense fixation on the country, which he believes is tied up in the origins of the special counsel's investigation. — WASHINGTON — It was not a country that would naturally …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, HuffPost, Washington Post, The Nation, Issues & Insights, CNN, Raw Story, CANNONFIRE, Mediaite, Washington Examiner and The Mahablog

Patrick Reevell / ABC News:

Ukrainians understood Biden probe was condition for Trump-Zelenskiy phone call: Ukrainian official — When Ukrainians voted to elect comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy as their next president in the spring of 2019, the fledgling administration was eager to coordinate a phone call with Kyiv's …

Discussion: Townhall, NB Blog, The Federalist, twitchy.com, The Nation, Washington Post, Lawfare, Palmer Report, Raw Story, Fox News, American Greatness, emptywheel, PJ Media Home, Daily Kos and Mediaite

NBC News:

Kurt Volker, Trump's part-time Ukraine envoy, played role in Giuliani outreach — The special envoy served as the facilitator for Giuliani's talks with Ukrainian officials. — WASHINGTON — After President Donald Trump asked Ukraine's president to work with his personal attorney …

Andrew Prokop / Vox:

Read: the whistleblower complaint about Trump and Ukraine — Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images — The complaint at the center of Democrats' impeachment inquiry has been released. — The whistleblower complaint at the center of Trump's Ukraine scandal …

Discussion: The Federalist, emptywheel and Daily Kos

Kyle Cheney / Politico:

Whistleblower says White House officials tried to ‘lock down’ details of Trump's Ukraine call — An intelligence community whistleblower claimed White House officials expressed alarm that they had witnessed President Donald Trump “abuse his office for personal gain” during a phone call …

Discussion: Axios and Politico

Sam Brodey / The Daily Beast:

Dems Worry Rudy Would Send Impeachment Hearing Off the Rails — Giuliani isn't really known for his staid public appearances these days, and that's exactly what gives some Democrats pause. — If Congress is to get to the bottom of President Trump's efforts to get the Ukrainian government …

Discussion: Politico and Washington Post

New York Times:

The Whistle-Blower Complaint: Read the Document — Here is the complaint filed by an intelligence officer about President Trump's interactions with the leader of Ukraine. It was released with a letter from the inspector general for the intelligence community.

Murray Waas / The New York Review of Books:

Trump, Giuliani, and Manafort: The Ukraine Scheme — The effort by President Trump to pressure the government of Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son had its origins in an earlier endeavor to obtain information that might provide a pretext and political cover …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Reason, New Republic, Politico, American Thinker, The Intercept, HuffPost, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, The Bulwark, The Week, Vanity Fair and Commentary

Washington Post:

Seven days: Inside Trump's frenetic response to the whistleblower complaint and the battle over impeachment — After news broke that a phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was at the center of an explosive whistleblower complaint, Trump was largely undaunted.

Discussion: Politico, Hullabaloo, The Week, Wall Street Journal, CNN and Raw Story

Washington Post:

Trump's other Ukraine problem: New concern about his business — Zelensky recounted his stay at the president's N.Y. hotel in call with Trump. — Buried in the controversy over President Trump's phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was an effort by the Ukrainian leader …

Discussion: Just Security, National Review and The Week

NBC News:
Trump allies voice concerns about Rudy Giuliani's involvement in Ukraine

Discussion: Palmer Report and POLITICUSUSA

Darren Samuelsohn / Politico:
All the president's loyalists: Impeachment net snares Trump's top advisers

Discussion: Shareblue Media, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez …, Washington Post and Raw Story

Sean Davis / The Federalist: Complaint From So-Called ‘Whistleblower’ Is Riddled With Gossip, Blatant Falsehoods

Washington Post:
Acting director of national intelligence threatened to resign if he couldn't speak freely before Congress

Anna Palmer / Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: The Democrats' impeachment gurus

Discussion: Fox News and CNN

CNN:
Trump without strategy in fast-moving impeachment inquiry

Discussion: Political Wire, KTLA, The Atlantic and KFOR-TV

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
If This Is Trump's Best Case, The Ukraine Scandal Is Looking Really Bad For Him

Discussion: New York Times, Slate, Vox and USA Today

Dana Milbank / Washington Post: The House doesn't need an impeachment inquiry to confirm Trump's wrongdoing. Just look at his hotel.

Wall Street Journal: Whistleblower Complaint Alleges ‘Lock Down’ on Trump-Zelensky Call Records

New York Times:
Trump's Not-So-Excellent Day — WASHINGTON — President Trump's …

Discussion: The Week, Raw Story and New York Times

Katie Benner / New York Times:
Justice Dept.'s Dismissal of Ukraine Call Raises New Questions About Barr

Discussion: Salon, Bookworm Room, Raw Story and The Week

Rich Lowry / Politico:
Rudy Giuliani's Amateur Diplomacy

Discussion: Axios, Washington Post and Fox News

Akbar Shahid Ahmed / HuffPost:
Trump Threatened An American Serving Her Country As He Pressured Ukraine

Discussion: Washington Post and Vanity Fair

CNN:
Whistleblower tentatively agrees to testify, attorneys say, as long as they get appropriate clearances to attend hearing

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, KFOR-TV, The Week and KTLA

Washington Post:
Justice Dept. rejected investigation of Trump phone call just weeks after it began examining the matter

Discussion: Hullabaloo and The Daily Caller

Neal K. Katyal / New York Times:
Trump Doesn't Need to Commit a Crime to Be Kicked Out of Office

Discussion: NBC News

Burgess Everett / Politico:
‘Ice in his veins’: McConnell steers GOP through Trump's Ukraine scandal

Discussion: Just Security, Washington Post, Raw Story, Daily Kos, Mediaite, Slate and Rolling Stone

The Boston Globe:

The limits of Trump's ‘so what if I did?’ strategy — WASHINGTON — As news that he asked a foreign leader to investigate his political rivals rocked Washington, President Trump turned to a tried-and-true strategy: Embrace it.Trump took the unusual step of releasing a rough transcript Wednesday …

Discussion: Political Wire

Pavel Polityuk / Reuters:
Ukraine president thought only U.S. side of Trump call would be published

Discussion: Washington Post, CBS News and The Week

Colby Hall / Mediaite:

Pre-Transcript Release, Chris Christie Argued Trump Was Only in Trouble If He Said Something Like ‘Do Me a Favor...’ — Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie proved prescient Wednesday morning on the set of Good Morning America. Just hours before the transcript of a phone call between …

Reed Richardson / Mediaite:
Fox News Civil War: Tucker Carlson Repeatedly Mocks ‘Daytime Host’ Shepard Smith in Jawdropping Segment

Discussion: The Daily Beast and Raw Story

Washington Examiner:
Trump put presidential powers to work for partisan politics

Discussion: Raw Story

New York Sun:
‘Well, Son of a Bitch’ : Ukraine Scandal Is About Biden

Discussion: LewRockwell, The Federalist, HuffPost and Instapundit

Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:

“Do Us a Favor”: The Forty-eight Hours That Sealed Trump's Impeachment — President Trump began Wednesday in a dark place. “There has been no President in the history of our Country who has been treated so badly as I have,” he lamented on Twitter, before 8 a.m. The night before …

Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Why Pelosi and her party finally embraced impeachment

Discussion: Tampa Bay Times, Washington Post, New York Times and Daily Kos

Ronn Blitzer / Fox News:
Sparks fly at assault-weapons ban hearing on Capitol Hill, ex-cop vows she would ‘not comply’

Discussion: Breitbart

Ashley Feinberg / Slate:

The Pee Tape Is Real, but It's Fake — There's a video going around that no one's really talking about. What makes it most unreal is how believable it is. — There exists a video online that, considering the subject matter, astoundingly few people have seen.

Ryan Teague Beckwith / Bloomberg:

Republicans Say Impeachment Will Backfire. History Says It Won't — Nixon's resignation boosted Democrats in the next election — Clinton impeachment helped Republicans win back White House — Citing their experience in the 1990s, Republicans warned Democrats this week …

Discussion: The Hill

Daniel Lippman / Politico: Trump's political defense: Play the victim card

Charles M. Blow / New York Times: It Has Begun — An impeachment inquiry is nothing to celebrate.

Mike Schneider / Associated Press:

Census: Inequality grew, including in heartland states — ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The gap between the haves and have-nots in the United States grew last year to its highest level in more than 50 years of tracking income inequality, according to Census Bureau figures.

Washington Post:

EPA tells California it is ‘failing to meet its obligations’ to protect the environment — Trump officials will notify California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Thursday that the state is “failing to meet its obligations” to protect the environment, just days after the president mocked its biggest cities for their “tremendous pollution.”

Discussion: Breitbart, The Daily Caller and The Root