You might have heard that Thursday's House GOP impeachment inquiry hearing was a bit of a disaster for Republicans. I'm sorry to say that I watched the entire thing because launching something like that is - indeed - a serious matter. But in the end, it was a colossal waste of time because Republicans have NOTHING.
As an example of that, take a look at Rep. Jim Jordan's closing statement.
Nuland sent a letter to Shokin in June 2015 on behalf of then-Secretary of State John Kerry congratulating Shokin and suggesting they were “impressed” about the job he was doing on corruption reforms.
The date of that letter is important, so let's look at a timeline for the events in question.
February 2015 - Shokin became prosecutor general just one year after the Euromaiden protests in Ukraine, which ousted Putin's puppet, President Yanukovych. Here's what Nuland said about the State Department's first priorities with Shokin:
The initial expectation, when we began talking about the third loan guarantee, which I believe was in the summer of 2015, was that Prosecutor General Shokin make more progress than we had seen to clean up corruption inside the Prosecutor General's Office itself...and that he make more progress in mounting big corruption cases, including against Yanukovych cronies, that he make more progress in investigating the hundred dead on the Maidan by snipers during 2013-2014.
June 2015 - Nuland sent a letter to Shokin, which is more aspirational than congratulatory (emphasis mine).
We have been impressed with the ambitious reform and anti-corruption agenda of your government. The challenges you face are difficult, but not insurmountable. You have an historic opportunity to address the injustices of the past by vigorously investigating and prosecuting corruption cases and recovering assets stolen from the Ukrainian people.
July 2015 - Key prosecutors under Shokin, including his former driver, were caught with stashes of diamonds and incriminating documents in their homes, causing an uproar in Ukraine. Documents seized at the time indicated the men appeared to have a connection to Shokin. Police found copies of his passports, property registration certificates and even his license to carry firearms. Shokin's response was to sack the deputies who sought to investigate the subordinates who came to be known as the “diamond prosecutors.”
September 2015 - U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt gave a speech in Odessa calling out the corruption in Shokin's office and specifically mentioned Burisma Holdings owner Mykola Zlochevsky.
We have learned that there have been times that the PGO [Prosecutor General's Office] not only did not support investigations into corruption, but rather undermined prosecutors working on legitimate corruption cases.
For example, in the case of former Ecology Minister Mykola Zlochevsky, the U.K. authorities had seized 23 million dollars in illicit assets that belonged to the Ukrainian people. Officials at the PGO’s office were asked by the U.K to send documents supporting the seizure.
Instead they sent letters to Zlochevsky’s attorneys attesting that there was no case against him. As a result the money was freed by the U.K. court and shortly thereafter the money was moved to Cyprus.
The misconduct by the PGO officials who wrote those letters should be investigated, and those responsible for subverting the case by authorizing those letters should – at a minimum – be summarily terminated.
October 2015 - Ukrainians wanted Shokin fired.
Huge 100+ column of activists headed to Poroshenko's residence to campaign for dismissal of dodgy Prosecutor Shokhin pic.twitter.com/ZOK9Eqz1rs
— Oliver Carroll (@olliecarroll) October 31, 2015
Activists demand resignation of gen prosecutor Shokhin, suggest open competition for his replacement pic.twitter.com/NzTOQeUQrE
— Oliver Carroll (@olliecarroll) October 31, 2015
November 2015 - Then-Vice President Biden had a phone call with Ukrainian President Poroshenko - for the first time linking the loan guarantee to investigating and prosecuting corruption.
[T]he Vice President reiterated the U.S. willingness to provide a third $1 billion loan guarantee to Ukraine contingent on continued Ukrainian progress to investigate and prosecute corruption.
December 2015 - Biden traveled to Ukraine.
A key goal for the trip was to urge the government to crack down on corruption, starting with the removal of the powerful prosecutor general, viewed by U.S. and European officials as an impediment to reform...
On the plane, according to a person who participated in the conversation, Biden “called an audible” — he changed the plan. It was time for a bigger punch: The loan guarantee was the main point of leverage with Ukraine, the vice president declared, so he instead should tell Poroshenko the loan would not be forthcoming until Shokin was gone...by the time Biden landed in Kyiv, four people with direct knowledge told The Fact Checker, the Obama White House was firmly on board with the plan.
Notice that by this time, the goal of the trip was to seek the removal of Shokin. To the extent that Biden "called an audible," it was to tie the ouster to the loan guarantee.
If you've managed to wade through all of that, you'll have some idea of the myriad of lies Jordan told in that clip up above. But what's even more damning is that most of the information in my timeline came from a fact-check article in the Washington Post that Jordan quoted from! So he had as much access to the truth as I did. IOW - he's lying and KNOWS he's lying...repeating the same nonsense that has been debunked over and over again.
During the Trump presidency, the fact-checkers at the Washington Post attempted to document every lie he told. At one point, they noticed that there were a bunch of these lies that the former guy told over and over again - despite the fact that he knew they were lies. So they came up with a name for that phenomenon - "Bottomless Pinocchios."
For his own mendacity yesterday - I award Jim Jordan with a Bottomless Pinocchio.
The reason I've taken the time to do that is to make the point that when it comes to MAGA Republicans, it doesn't matter how often their leaders are fact-checked. The lies will be repeated and believed ad nauseam.
But at least for me, fact-checking is still important. When I feel my sanity holding on by a thread due to the shenanigans from people like Jim Jordan, the facts are what keep me sane.
Good to have you back, Nancy.
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