A ‘drug deal’ gone bad

U.S. and Ukraine abused, degraded

Then-National Security Adviser John Bolton was right to jump like a scalded cat.

“I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up,” Bolton told Fiona Hill in July, when she was still the White House Russia expert.

I will get to who these cooks are in a minute. The account is from Hill’s testimony in the impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump. Bolton told Hill to bring the “drug deal” to the attention of the National Security Counsel’s attorney. I expect the impeachment inquiry will call in Bolton sooner or later. In the meantime, note the lack of a denial by Bolton.

Tuesday, veteran diplomat William Taylor gave a detailed statement in the impeachment probe. He outlined the “drug deal:” the plan to blackmail Ukraine into smearing the election opponent Trump fears most. Here is a link: https:// wapo.st/2BKC256/.

Gordon Sondland is an errand boy for the president. Sondland got the job of ambassador to the European Union by donating $1 million to Trump’s inauguration. Mick Mulvaney is the president’s acting chief of staff. He is also the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Mulvaney confessed everything during a news conference last week. The scene could have come straight out of an episode of Perry

Mason. Mulvaney later denied saying what he had just said.

For months these two abetted the ongoing, bizarre, camera-hungry, Ukraine-related escapades of Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s inexplicable choice for “drug deal” maker. “Giuliani’s a hand grenade who’s going to blow everybody up,” Bolton told Hill, according to her testimony. It is hard to argue with that.

(There is also a conspiracy theory about Ukrainians hacking Democratic computers in the 2016 election, not Russia. It is dumb and paranoid. The Russians did it. See the report by the Senate Intelligence Committee, of which U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas is a member.)

Ukraine is under military attack by Russian surrogates. Mulvaney held up military aid to Ukraine as Giuliani and Sondland pressed Ukraine’s president to announce an “investigation” of former Vice President Joe Biden. Taylor witnessed events while in the U.S. embassy in Ukraine. He was there filling in for the U.S. ambassador removed for refusing to play Giuliani’s game.

What the president needs most to defend himself against these allegations is a good, clear, above-board reason for holding up Ukraine’s aid for months. There is none.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky held out against the blackmail as long as he could.

However, Zelensky was forced to promise Trump a Biden “investigation.” This shows in the White House’s own summary of the now infamous July 25th phone call between the two presidents. Zelensky narrowly missed having to carry through. Thanks to an outraged Congress, Trump had to release the aid — less than three weeks before the fiscal year ended. That ending would have stopped that aid package.

I wholeheartedly recommend reading Taylor’s well-written 15-page statement. The passages where Taylor describes how the Ukrainians looked up to us not just as benefactors but as an example of the kind of nation they wanted theirs to be — before Trump handed them a goblet of slime to drink — are heartbreaking.

Taylor and Hill’s accounts fit the impeachment opening statement of Marie Yovanovitch, our veteran ambassador to Ukraine who was given one day to leave after she refused to play ball with Giuliani. Turns out removing Yovanovitch, replacing her temporarily with our former Ukraine ambassador Taylor, then expecting Taylor to play ball against U.S. interests, was stupid.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo knew what was going on, Taylor says. Taylor also sent texts to Sondland during this debacle. Those texts were signposts marking the path. Taylor also took lots of notes.

This was no set-up of the president. This was a harebrained scheme cooked up by Giuliani and botched by dunces. Taylor marked their trail.

Give Bolton the benefit of a doubt. Assume his resignation or firing had something to do with patriotism and concern for the rule of law. However, some concern for covering his own backside upon seeing something this stupid and poorly hidden probably crossed his mind, too.

To reiterate: Something is bad when Bolton, a controversial and ruthless man, jumps back from it, wants nothing to do with it, calls it a “drug deal” and insists on calling in the lawyer.