memeorandum: Ex-Russian Olympics official who drew wrath of Putin arrested by ICE in South Florida (David Ovalle/Miami Herald)

5:40 AM ET, October 23, 2019

Top Items:

Opening statement of Ambassador William B. Taylor — William B. Taylor, the senior U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, testified before impeachment investigators Tuesday. Read the story here. — Don't see the document? Click here to download the pdf.

Discussion: Crooked Media, CBS News, Bloomberg, New York Times, Talking Points Memo, The Atlantic, Slate, twitchy.com, Occupy Democrats, Politico, Florida Politics, The Week, The Guardian and Mediaite

Washington Post:

Here's the quid pro quo proof, Lindsey Graham — SEN. LINDSEY O. Graham, one of President Trump's most ardent defenders in the Ukraine affair, has said he sees no evidence of wrongdoing in the president's July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Mr. Trump pressed …

Discussion: Raw Story

Peter Baker / New York Times:

An Envoy's Damning Account of Trump's Ukraine Pressure and Its Consequences — William B. Taylor Jr. laid out in visceral terms the potentially life-or-death stakes of what he saw as an illegitimate scheme to pressure Kiev for political help by suspending American security aid.

John Podhoretz / Commentary:

Trump Will Be Impeached — Remember when I said last week that October 17 was the worst day of the Trump presidency? Well, October 22 and has now come along to break the record. This is the day that, I think, has ensured Donald Trump's impeachment. Not his removal. But impeachment will be bad enough.

Michael Warren / CNN:

5 explosive lines from Bill Taylor's statement — Cooper: This could be most consequential day for Trump — Washington (CNN)The top US diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor, testified behind closed doors Tuesday as part of the ongoing impeachment inquiry led by House Democrats.

Discussion: Shareblue Media and Power Line

New York Times:
Ukraine Envoy Testifies Trump Linked Military Aid to Investigations

Discussion: Washington Post, Vox, The American Conservative, Breitbart, The Mahablog, The Week, Mother Jones and Mediaite

Washington Post:
Trump made Ukraine aid contingent on public pledge to investigate Bidens and 2016 election, U.S. envoy says he was told

Washington Post: ‘Alarming circumstances’: A distressed diplomat tells a tale of venal intrigue

Sharon LaFraniere / New York Times: 6 Key Revelations of Taylor's Opening Statement to Impeachment Investigators

Associated Press:
Key takeaways from ambassador's testimony on Ukraine

Discussion: KTLA and Associated Press

Mike Lillis / The Hill: Democrat: Top diplomat's testimony on Ukraine is ‘sea change’ in impeachment probe

VICE:
Bill Taylor's Testimony Paints a ‘Damning’ Picture of Trump's Ukraine Quid Pro Quo

Discussion: Washington Post, POLITICUSUSA and Law & Crime

Nancy Cordes / CBS News:
McConnell denies telling Trump his Ukraine call was “innocent”

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Vanity Fair, The Week, News & Guts Media and McConnell contradicts …

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
As key witness steps forward, Trump's embrace of autocrats draws more scrutiny

Discussion: Foreign Policy, New York Post, Occupy Democrats and Progress Pond

BuzzFeed News:

Federal Investigators Are Probing Suspicious Financial Transactions By Two Giuliani Associates Who Ran A Back-Channel Campaign — A federal grand jury investigating activities surrounding Rudy Giuliani's back-channel campaign in Ukraine has demanded legal documents that include records …

Discussion: Raw Story and Talking Points Memo

Emily Jane Fox / Vanity Fair:

“MICHAEL COHEN IS NOW EVEN MORE VALUABLE THAN BEFORE”: THE PRESIDENT'S FORMER ATTORNEY OFFERS DIRT ON GIULIANI ASSOCIATE LEV PARNAS — Cohen's SDNY cooperation could continue with new details about the Ukraine case. Could it lighten his sentence? — History certainly felt like it was repeating itself.

Washington Post:

Prosecutors flagged possible ties between Ukrainian gas tycoon and Giuliani associates — When two business associates of Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer, were arrested this month on charges that they funneled foreign money into U.S. elections, federal prosecutors working on a different case in Chicago took note.

Discussion: The Week, The Daily Beast and Raw Story

Josh Gerstein / Politico: Indicted Giuliani associate Igor Fruman taps Manafort attorney

The Harvard Crimson:

A Note To Readers — To our readers: — Last month, The Crimson covered a rally organized by campus group Act on a Dream that called for the abolition of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement. During the course of our reporting, Crimson reporters requested comment from ICE …

Discussion: Washington Times

Ruoqi Zhang / The Harvard Crimson:
Harvard Student Groups Condemn The Crimson's Coverage of Abolish ICE Rally

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Reason

The Daily Beast:

Trump Whines That Senate Republicans Are Failing Him on Impeachment and Not Owning Nearly Enough Libs — The president and his advisers want Republicans in the Senate to stage their own hearings to counteract what's happening in the House. — President Trump, his advisers …

Discussion: Mediaite and Contemptor

Maggie Miller / The Hill:

Senate Republicans block two election security bills — Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked legislation that would provide funding for states to shore up election security and create more transparency around online advertisements. — Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) …

Discussion: Politico

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:

Anonymous author of Trump ‘resistance’ op-ed to publish a tell-all book — The author of an anonymous column in the New York Times in 2018, who was identified as a senior Trump administration official acting as part of the “resistance” inside the government, has written a tell-all book to be published next month.

Discussion: Arizona Republic, PJ Media Home, NB Blog, Fox News, KTLA, The Gateway Pundit, The Week, Raw Story, The Daily Caller, Politico, Contemptor, Taylor Marsh, NBC News, ABC News, Breitbart and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Jake Tapper / CNN:
Anonymous Trump official who wrote New York Times op-ed has a book coming out

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Breitbart, HuffPost, NB Blog, Hot Air, NPR, Daily Kos, Raw Story, CNBC, NBC News, New York Times, The Guardian, Townhall, New York Post and Axios

Michael Calderone / Politico:
White House to cancel Times, Post subscriptions after Trump's ‘Hannity’ comments

Discussion: HuffPost, Axios, The Wrap, Breitbart, LifeZette, The Hill, Disrn, Mediaite, No More Mister Nice Blog, New York Post, Deadline and Talking Points Memo

CNN:

Joe Biden said in 1998 that Clinton impeachment could be seen as ‘partisan lynching’ — McCarthy breaks with Trump over ‘lynching’ comment — (CNN)Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday denounced President Donald Trump's comparison of the ongoing impeachment inquiry to a …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Politico, HuffPost, The Hill, Associated Press, Mediaite, Washington Post, Breitbart, twitchy.com, Townhall, Axios, Roll Call, KTLA, Talking Points Memo and CNBC

Bonchie / RedState:
Apparently Every Democrat In Existence Used the Term “Lynching” To Defend The Clintons

Discussion: New York Times, The Daily Caller, Washington Post and Instapundit

Charlie Spiering / Breitbart: Hillary Clinton: Donald Trump Going to Be ‘Very, Very Hard’ to Beat if He's Not Impeached

JM Rieger / Washington Post:
At least 5 House Democrats called Bill Clinton's impeachment a ‘lynching’ in 1998

Discussion: Breitbart, USA Today, The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit, The Federalist Papers and HuffPost

Tim Skubick / WLNS-TV:

Poll shows U.S. Senate race a toss-up — 6 News is releasing some exclusive statewide polling data tonight confirming that the race for one of the state's U.S. Senate seats is a dead heat. — That's bad news for the Democrats and good news for the Republicans.

Eric Levitz / New York Magazine:

How Centrist Democrats Botched the 2020 Primary — A specter is haunting “pro-business Democrats” — the specter of change they can't believe in. — With just over three months until Iowa gets caucusing, Elizabeth Warren is their party's front-runner. She's running neck and neck …

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Fox News, Washington Post, CNN, The Hill and The Week

Tommy Christopher / Mediaite:
Leaked Video Shows Elizabeth Warren Backing Away From Bernie's Medicare for All Plan

Discussion: The Federalist and National Review

Joshua Partlow / Washington Post:

Trump's D.C. hotel abruptly cancels Christian aid group's Kurdish solidarity event — A Christian aid group that planned a gathering to honor and pray for the Kurdish people at President Trump's hotel in Washington were told by hotel staff this week that the event was canceled, according to two members of the aid group.

Discussion: The Hill and Raw Story

Chris Kahn / Reuters:

Support for impeaching Trump soars among independents - Reuters/Ipsos poll — NEW YORK (Reuters) - Support for impeaching U.S. President Donald Trump surged among political independents and rose by three percentage points overall since last week, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday.

Discussion: The Hill

U.S. Department of Justice:

Campaign Fundraiser Agrees to Plead Guilty to Falsifying Records to Conceal Work as Foreign Agent, Evading Taxes on Income Obtained by Lobbying on Behalf of Foreign Entities, and Illegal Campaign Contributions — LOS ANGELES - Federal prosecutors today filed a criminal case charging Imaad Shah Zuberi …

Discussion: HuffPost, Mother Jones and electionlawblog.org

NBC News:
Feds charge California investor who donated $900K to Trump inaugural committee

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Politico, The Week, ABC News and Occupy Democrats

Matt Donnelly / Variety:

Katie Couric Steamrolls Sheryl Sandberg in Roving Vanity Fair Summit Interview — Sending a jolt through a luxurious and excessively polite afternoon in Beverly Hills, veteran journalist Katie Couric delivered a relentless series of hardball questions to Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg on Tuesday.

Marnie Cathcart / Justice Centre …:

BC Human Rights Tribunal rules in favour of female estheticians who refused to wax male genitalia — VANCOUVER: The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF.ca) is pleased to announce that the BC Human Rights Tribunal has ruled in favour of home estheticians' right to refuse to handle male genitalia against their will.

Discussion: Louder With Crowder, PJ Media Home, National Review, RedState and The Daily Caller

Anna Slatz / The Post Millennial:
BREAKING: Jessica Yaniv loses cases against women who wouldn't “wax her balls”

Discussion: NB Blog and The Gateway Pundit

Bryan Bender / Politico:

‘The White House is not to be trusted right now’ — Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, “iced out” and blindsided by presidential decisions he disagreed with, grew increasingly wary of President Donald Trump's leadership, even losing his cool in private meetings and plotting to quit nearly half …

Discussion: Defense One

Washington Post:

Anxiety rises among Democrats worried about party's prospects in 2020 — When the 2020 Democratic presidential contest kicked off earlier this year, the massive field was hailed as the most diverse in history, with candidates who spanned the ideological spectrum and offered enough in a broad buffet of options to excite any voter.

Discussion: New York Post

Pema Levy / Mother Jones:

New Evidence Hints at Another Justice Department Coverup — Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) released evidence on Tuesday that the Justice Department buried the whistleblower complaint about President Donald Trump's call with the Ukrainian president by failing to refer the matter to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC).

Discussion: emptywheel