2016 Presidential Election
Yeah, Pennsylvania's Great. But Have You Tried ARIZONA?
Mark Kelly is a goddamn astronaut!
January 08, 2020 02:20 PM
Go West, young man! Don't spend all your time and energy in the Rust Belt, because we have just as good a shot at taking Arizona's 11 electoral votes as we do Wisconsin's 10. And we have a better than even chance of picking up a Senate seat in the Grand Canyon state if we can somehow induce our voters to show up like they did in 2018, when they rejected Martha McSally the first time. Which is why the senator just hit the panic button and begged for a bailout from out-of-state donors.
This morning, Public Policy Polling (PPP), a Democratic pollster, published new numbers on Arizona and Iowa. Trump has never been popular in Arizona, and 52 percent of respondents to a phone/text poll conducted in the past two weeks disapprove of the president. Even against a historically unpopular candidate in 2016 (we're not going to fight about this now!), Trump was only able to win by 3.6 percent, as compared to Romney's 9 point margin in 2012. And while he polls basically even with Joe Biden, and only slightly ahead of Sanders, Warren, and Buttigieg, about 8 percent of respondents remain undecided.
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjQ5NTE3NC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODg3NTY3MH0.wiwXyOgy7EvTKfjyMfLy3b1GXLP6nP0xfgsXW_81Lb8/img.png?width=980" id="43c6d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7859f5aceced7d9190ddd8b95b6e26ba" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">via <a href="https://www.publicpolicypolling.com/polls/democratic-unity-will-determine-trumps-fate/" target="_blank">PPP</a></small></p><p>And that's where it gets interesting. Because 80 percent of the undecideds <a href="https://www.publicpolicypolling.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ArizonaJanuary2020.pdf" target="_blank">said</a> they disapproved of Trump, and a majority of those same respondents broke for Clinton four years ago. Here's how PPP broke it down:</p><blockquote>In Arizona more than 80% of the undecideds in every match up between Trump and the individual Democratic candidates disapproves of Trump. And the undecideds also voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 by anywhere from 45-50 points. If you allocate the undecideds based on whether they approve of Trump or not, all of the Democrats move into leads ranging from 4-6 points. If you allocate the undecideds based on whether they voted for Clinton or Trump in 2016, all the Democrats move into leads ranging from 2-4 points.</blockquote><p>They also showed a similar trend in <a href="https://www.publicpolicypolling.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IowaJanuary2020.pdf" target="_blank">Iowa</a>. But it's 55 degrees in Phoenix and 21 in Des Moines. So let's not muddy it up right now by traipsing across the country. Instead we'll check in with Senator Martha McSally, who got beat by Kyrsten Sinema in 2018, and was then appointed to sit out John McCain's term by Republican Governor Doug Ducey. McSally's now facing Mark Kelly, an IRL astronaut married to the wildly popular former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, and McSally's getting <a href="https://www.azmirror.com/2020/01/03/under-siege-mcsally-pleads-for-outside-help-on-the-airwaves/" target="_blank">absolutely hammered</a> for her vote to get rid of the mandate for health insurers to cover pre-existing conditions.</p><blockquote>We don't have the resources to fight. If I went up on TV right now, my campaign coffers would be empty. If we're going to fight back with a TV ad, it's going to cost us millions of dollars. [...]<br><br>We need close air support to show up. There's outside groups. We can't talk to them. We can't invite them, but we pray for them every day. We need conservative outside groups, you know, to wake up, and get involved, and start muddying up the landscape a little bit, so I'm not just sitting here taking incoming and not having any A-10s show up, you know overhead, to help me out.</blockquote><p><em>Whiiiiiiiiiiiine.</em> Why can't Martha McSally's campaign coordinate with outside PACs directly? Unfair! Why won't they come in and run attack ads to smear Mark Kelly, since McSally is such a crap candidate that she got outraised the last three fundraising quarters and can't afford to do it herself. Boohoo!</p><p>Oh, hey, check out this hilariously mean ad that the Democratic PAC "Middle Class Fighting to Restore Arizona's Unity and Decency," AKA "McFraud," just <a href="https://www.rollcall.com/news/campaigns/new-super-pac-takes-aim-at-arizona-gop-sen-martha-mcsally" target="_blank">put on the air</a>.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b9a2379c1d0b229b16b5fa69f2336d97"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9e0ilOvUu4U?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">McFraud PAC: McSallys Restaurant</small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e0ilOvUu4U" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
</small>
</p><p>In August, an OH Predictive Insights Poll captioned <a href="https://ohpredictive.com/press-releases/poll-kelly-flies-by-mcsally-in-q3/" target="_blank">"Kelly Flies by McSally in Q3"</a> (badum-tssssssss) had Kelly up 46-41, with 13 percent undecided. PPP's <a href="https://www.publicpolicypolling.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/ArizonaJanuary2020.pdf" target="_blank">polling</a> yesterday was basically the same, and it showed McSally's approval rating is 10 points underwater. Which may or may not be the result of clinging to Donald Trump like a barnacle.</p><p>The bottom line is, <em>we can win here</em>. And unlike in Georgia or North Carolina, we've had a strong Democratic Senate candidate from the get-go, sparing us the expense and infighting of a protracted primary. So don't sleep on the Grand Canyon State, kids! And stay away from McSally's "Disingenuous" Fries -- they'll only give you gas.</p><p>[<a href="https://www.publicpolicypolling.com/polls/democratic-unity-will-determine-trumps-fate/" target="_blank">PPP</a>]</p><p>Follow<a href="https://twitter.com/5DollarFeminist" target="_blank"> Liz Dye</a> (FKA Your FDF) on Twitter!</p><p><strong>Please click here to keep your Wonkette snarky and ad-free!</strong></p><p></p><form name="donation" method="post" class="donation-form"><p class="subheadline">How often would you like to donate?</p><div class="form-row row--plan"><label class="plan-type__label"><input type="radio" name="plan_type" value="once" class="plan-type" required="" checked> Just once
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Ukraine
Rudy's Fixers Keep Breaking Sh*t
CLOWN. SHOW.
November 04, 2019 01:26 PM
In the fall of 2018, Chucklefucker Lev Parnas was so broke that he had to borrow money to pay for the herring and schnapps at his son's bris. The following summer, he was swimming in cash, enjoying charter flights, luxury cars, and personal bodyguards. What changed? According to CNN, Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash waved the magic money wand and started raining cash down on his American fixer.
"I'm the best-paid interpreter in the world," Parnas joked, according to CNN's sources. Firtash's disheveled hairball lawyers Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova back this up, minus the wink-wink, nudge-nudge, insisting that it was they who hired the jet-setting former stockbroker and aspiring natural gas magnate as a "translator" for their dealings with Firtash.
"That's a crock," Toensing snapped, when NBC suggested that Firtash was paying Parnas directly. Later her firm issued a more sober statement, saying "Mr. Firtash met Mr. Parnas for the first time in June 2019. Mr. Firtash had no business relationship with Mr. Parnas or Mr. Fruman. Mr. Parnas was retained as a translator by the law firm of diGenova & Toensing. No money has been paid to Mr. Parnas by Mr. Firtash beyond his work as a translator for the law firm."
We have questions!
<p>First of all, CNN reports that Parnas is the one who connected the hairballs with the oligarch. So if you buy that Parnas was a "translator," you have to swallow the additional story that, upon meeting Parnas for the first time, the billionaire immediately turned around, fired his famous American attorney Lanny Davis, and, on his new friend's suggestion, hired replacement lawyers who just happen to be connected to the president's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. Oh, and then those new lawyers hired Firtash's friend to be their translator. And no one's jaw is big enough to eat that bullshit sandwich.</p><p>Second, Parnas, who <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/mo-money-mo-problems-for-rudy-n-the-chucklef-cks" target="_blank">couldn't afford</a> to toast his boychik's perfect shmeckel in October, was paying off the $100,000 bris loan in August. After several trips to Vienna over the summer, he settled up his $30,000 debt to a charter flight company and ramped up his private flying. You know who's been holed up in Vienna for five years trying to get the US government not to extradite him on bribery charges? DMITRY FIRTASH, that's who. And, lest we forget, Parnas and his crony Igor Fruman were arrested at the airport with one-way tickets to Vienna in October.</p><p>Third of all, Parnas and his crony Igor Fruman just got<a href="https://www.wonkette.com/giulianis-ukrainian-fixers-get-lock-her-upped-on-campaign-finance-charges-spill-it-fellas" target="_blank"> indicted </a>for funneling $325,000 through their company Global Energy Producers to the pro-Trump America First Action PAC. And the reason the government knew that this was a fraudulent campaign contribution that didn't come from GEP's business was that <em>the company didn't make any money.</em> So if GEP was paying to charter airplanes, it wasn't with business income.</p><p>According to CNN, "Parnas told some associates that Firtash was funding the flights." In fact, Firtash was paying for all of it.</p><blockquote>In private conversations with would-be business associates before his arrest this month, Parnas boasted that his newfound luxurious lifestyle was bankrolled by Firtash, two sources told CNN. Beginning in mid-August, this included around-the-clock bodyguards, two luxury SUVs for his entourage, and at least six private charter flights in the past several months, according to the sources as well as documents exclusively obtained by CNN.</blockquote><p>And we're not going to take you down the rabbithole of Parnas, Fruman, and their co-indictee David Correia trying to scare up a deal to export Qatari natural gas by claiming they had Dmitry Firtash's backing -- because this story is too complicated already and these guys are so clearly full of shit. But it really doesn't sound like they were just lowly "translators" for Firtash. Like, not at all.</p><p>Kinda looks like <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/help-please-explain-all-rudy-the-chucklefux-weird-ukraine-ties-they-are-too-confuuuuse" target="_blank">we were right</a> last week when we said that Parnas is right in the middle of all this shit, huh?</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjA1Nzc4NS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNjY3MTk4MH0.6zmJWne6cEPVOP-TbvkuVsB4dfpnEuXG80P1TyRIWes/img.png?width=980" id="62d9d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="07f960801259724b5815e96880c1aac5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
</p><p><br></p><p>Right now, the FBI is so far up the Chucklefucks' asses, they're getting high off the reek of aftershave, hair gel, and half-digested pumpernickel. The government has info from dozens of phones and bank accounts and is already running it through a taint team. So if Johnny Law hasn't worked it out already, he'll know pretty soon where they got the $500,000 to pay Rudy Giuliani for his ... services. He'll know whether GEP paid for its own charter flights, or if someone else fronted the money. And he's going to find out how much of that $1 million fee that Hairball and Hairball, Attorneys at Law collected from Dmitry Firtash wound up getting passed on to their AHEM translators.</p><p>Good luck, Vicky!</p><p>[<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/01/politics/parnas-firtash-giuliani-ties/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>]</p><p>Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/5DollarFeminist" target="_blank">Liz</a> (AKA your FDF) on Twitter!</p><p><strong>Please click here to fund your Wonkette, who keeps an eye on these grifters so you don't have to!</strong></p><p></p><form name="donation" method="post" class="donation-form"><p class="subheadline">How often would you like to donate?</p><div class="form-row row--plan"><label class="plan-type__label"><input type="radio" name="plan_type" value="once" class="plan-type" required="" checked> Just once
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2020 democratic primary
Justice Kennedy Was Not Good, Mayor Pete. He Was Not Good.
We do not need another one.
October 26, 2019 02:07 PM
Say it ain't so, Pete.
In an interview with Cosmo this week, Mayor Pete Buttigieg decided to talk about his plans for the Supreme Court by ... praising former Supreme Court Justice and lifelong Republican Anthony Kennedy, who stepped down so Donald Trump could put Brett Kavanaugh on the Court.
So I've floated several ideas and deliberately kept some level of open-mindedness about which ones are going to work best. One of them would be to have 15 members, but 5 of them can only be seated if the other 10 unanimously agree. The idea here is you get more justices who think for themselves. Justices like Justice Kennedy or Justice Souter, and there are many legal scholars who think this could be done without a constitutional amendment under current law.
Sigh.
Where to start?
<p>Anthony Kennedy is a lifelong Republican. He was appointed to the Ninth Circuit by Gerald Ford and to the Supreme Court by Ronald Reagan. Reagan nominated Kennedy after famously getting Borked when he tried to put Nixon Solicitor General Robert Bork and then Douglas Ginsburg on the bench. While he occasionally broke with his buddies over on the right wing of the Court, he was generally a reliable conservative vote. As Jessica Mason Pieklo put it <a href="https://rewire.news/article/2019/10/25/mayor-pete-justice-kennedy-and-the-myth-of-a-nonpartisan-supreme-court/" target="_blank">over at Rewire</a>, "there are few myths as persistent as the myth of Justice Anthony Kennedy as an independently minded justice and the Supreme Court as a nonpolitical institution[.]"<br></p><p>In one of his last acts on the Supreme Court, Justice Kennedy was the deciding vote <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/17-965_h315.pdf" target="_blank">upholding Trump's Muslim ban</a>. He wrote a concurrence that began, "I join the Court's opinion in full." Kennedy literally wrote <em><a href="https://casetext.com/case/citizens-united-v-federal-election-comn?ref=Sb!ILRPD3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Citizens United</a></em>. He voted to strike down handgun bans in Washington, DC and Chicago. He routinely gave the green light to corporations to pollute our water, air, and land. He okayed Christian prayers at town council meetings. He helped make George W. Bush President in <em>Bush v. Gore</em>. Kennedy voted that the federal government could criminalize medical marijuana even in states where it was legal -- in fact, he rarely saw a drug law he didn't approve of. He helped gut labor unions. He wrote the opinion upholding a federal ban on certain late-term abortions. Justice Kennedy voted to destroy the Voting Rights Act and uphold voter suppression.</p><p>That is not my idea of someone who Democrats should be putting on the highest court in the land.</p><p>Yes, Justice Kennedy was good on LGBTQ rights. The <em>Obergefell </em>opinion is beautifully written. I have friends who have had excerpts of it read at their weddings. As a bisexual woman (and civil rights lawyer), it was an incredibly important case for me. I will never forget the day marriage equality became the law of the land.</p><p>But if Justice Kennedy <em>really </em>cared about LGBTQ people or women, he wouldn't have cut a deal with Donald Trump to retire and put Kegs Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court. Kennedy waited through the 8 years of the Obama presidency to allow a Republican to appoint his replacement -- and not just any Republican, Donald fucking Trump. As it was put by <a href="https://rewire.news/article/2019/10/25/mayor-pete-justice-kennedy-and-the-myth-of-a-nonpartisan-supreme-court/" target="_blank">Rewire</a>,</p><blockquote>[N]othing left LGBTQ people and Kennedy's own legacy more at risk than his decision last summer to retire. Unless Kennedy was living under a rock, he knew the Trump administration had the rights of LGBTQ people teed up for rollback and that anyone named to replace him would be a reliably anti-LGBTQ vote. Despite campaign promises to the contrary, President Trump has shown his administration is not at all interested in affirming the "dignity" of LGBTQ people that Kennedy's Obergefell decision praised. So when it came to choosing between the lives of LGBTQ people and the peace of mind of knowing a Republican would name his replacement, Kennedy chose the latter.</blockquote><p>The <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/scotus-preview" target="_blank">2020 Supreme Court term</a> will see decisions about whether LGBTQ people are protected by federal civil rights laws and whether Louisiana can put absolutely bullshit restrictions on abortion access.</p><p>Pete's plan also fails to account for the damage that has already been done to the federal judiciary by Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell. Over 150 Trump appointees have already been put on the federal bench -- that's nearly a quarter of all federal judges. In addition to being unqualified and evil, a lot of them are very young. They will do damage to the country for decades to come. Unless drastic action is taken, I don't see this being fixed within my lifetime.</p><p>With all of this in mind, I do want to point out that Pete <a href="https://rewire.news/article/2019/10/25/mayor-pete-justice-kennedy-and-the-myth-of-a-nonpartisan-supreme-court/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">changed his tune</a> after getting a LOT of backlash from Democratic court watchers.</p><blockquote>To Buttigieg's credit, his campaign quickly reached out to Rewire.News to clarify the comments in Cosmopolitan. A spokesperson directed me to comments Buttigieg made at a campaign stop yesterday in New Hampshire where he identified Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the kind of justice he'd nominate should he be elected president. He also released a policy plan this week designed to build power for women, and it includes using support for reproductive rights as a litmus test for future judicial nominees.</blockquote><p>So that's good. But we also need to stop the fetishization of Justice Kennedy as "independent" or the idea of someone a Democrat should ever be nominating. </p><p>There are three incredible women on the Court who Democratic candidates like Pete can look to for inspiration. Give me another RBG, Elena Kagan, or Sonia Sotomayor any day.</p><p>Hopefully now, Mayor Pete will remember that he's running in the DEMOCRATIC primary?</p><p>[ <a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a29550621/pete-buttigieg-cosmopolitan-interview-medicare-scotus/" target="_blank">Cosmo</a> / <a href="https://rewire.news/article/2019/10/25/mayor-pete-justice-kennedy-and-the-myth-of-a-nonpartisan-supreme-court/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Rewire</a> ]</p><p><strong>Wonkette is independent and fully funded by readers like you. Click below to tip us!</strong></p><p></p><form name="donation" method="post" class="donation-form"><p class="subheadline">How often would you like to donate?</p><div class="form-row row--plan"><label class="plan-type__label"><input type="radio" name="plan_type" value="once" class="plan-type" required="" checked> Just once
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Ukraine
Rudy Giuliani Says He Never Met Ukrainian Oligarch Dmitry Firtash, And You Can Take That To The Bank!
And Bill Barr saw NOTHING! You bet!
October 21, 2019 01:03 PM
When Mama Nancy says "all roads lead to Putin," she ain't kidding. She might have added, "and they all run straight through Ukraine on their way to Russia." Turns out Trump's big plan to take out Joe Biden was cooked up by a Ukrainian oligarch as a gift to the Trump administration, which he hoped would suddenly decide not to extradite him to face bribery charges in the US. Because the best way to beat a bribery charge is ... with another bribe which is also an illegal campaign finance contribution laundered through the Justice Department. Watergate Schmatergate!
Our story begins this summer when Dmitry Firtash, described by the Justice Department as an "upper-echelon [associate] of Russian organized crime," decided to fire Lanny Davis and replace him with disheveled Fox shills Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova. Lanny Davis, a one-time lawyer for the Clintons, was a useful conduit to Trumpland when he represented Michael Cohen. But with Cohen flipping on Trump and taking that sabbatical in Otisville, Firtash went looking for someone who could bypass all those annoying Justice Department lawyers to get his case in front of the Big Orange Cheese himself.
<p>Firtash made billions bringing Russian natural gas into Ukraine as an ally of the pro-Russian Party of Regions. You may remember those characters as Paul Manafort's patrons, who paid him millions of dollars which he forgot to tell the IRS about. Indeed, Manafort once tried to partner with Firtash to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/donald-trump-aide-paul-manafort-scrutinized-russian-business-ties-n631241" target="_blank">buy a hotel</a> in New York. And if this Biden smear seems a bit familiar, it's because it's the <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/hey-paul-manafort-remember-all-that-shit-you-pulled-to-sell-the-world-on-the-ukrainian-dictator-robert-mueller-remembers" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">same scam</a> the Party of Regions paid Manafort to run on Ukrainian politician Yuliya Tymoshenko, paying American law firm Skadden Arps to write a report saying that the Yanukovytch government prosecution of her was totally legit. Although we're sure that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/giuliani-consulted-on-ukraine-with-imprisoned-paul-manafort-via-a-lawyer/2019/10/02/7a6dc542-e486-11e9-b7da-053c79b03db8_story.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reports</a> Giuliani has been in touch with Paul Manafort are <em>entirely coincidental.</em></p><p>Firtash is currently <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/10/how-an-indicted-oligarch-became-a-key-player-in-trumps-ukraine-scandal/" target="_blank">charged</a> in a federal court in Illinois with trying to bribe an American company in India. He would very much like that case to go away so he can go back to making millions importing natural gas to Ukraine, but this time from the US. Which is how he wound up in bed with Toensing and diGenova, AKA The Crackpots, and Giuliani's pals Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, AKA <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/lets-meet-rudy-giulianis-team-of-dipsh-ts-most-of-whom-are-indicted-imprisoned-or-under-house-arrest-in-vienna-right-now" target="_blank">The Chucklefucks</a>, who were recently indicted for campaign finance fraud. (We will save you from a 5,000-word tome by writing you a separate splainer on Firtash and The Chucklefucks this afternoon.)</p><p>On Friday, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-18/to-win-giuliani-s-help-oligarch-s-allies-pursued-biden-dirt" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a> reported that Firtash paid The Crackpots $1 million to dig up dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden "in an effort to get Rudy Giuliani's help in the oligarch's legal case." Because if Rudy could get Trump to trade clemency from the Justice Department for lies about Joe Biden, then Firtash could go back to doing what he loves, which is parasitizing the Ukrainian natural gas market. Biden would limp through the campaign with this bullshit cloud over his head. And they could all live happily ever after!</p><p>"This will be very tough against the previous Administration," one of Firtash's lawyers told <a href="https://time.com/5699201/exclusive-how-a-ukrainian-oligarch-wanted-by-u-s-authorities-helped-giuliani-attack-biden/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Time Magazine</a> in June. "With the current Administration, I think they will like it." Now, we're not saying that lawyer is Victoria Toensing, who seems to have moments of, ummm, disinhibition when reporters call her out of the blue -- remember that time she <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/get-a-load-of-these-cranks-who-think-theyre-too-good-for-trey-gowdy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">called</a> Trey Gowdy "a joke among us"? -- but we're not NOT saying it either. Perhaps it was in one of those disinhibited moments that Toensing admitted she was paying Parnas as a "translator" for her work with Firtash, but told <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/ukrainian-oligarch-firtash-linked-giuliani-pals-gas-deals-biden-dirt-n1067516" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NBC</a> that it was "a crock" to suggest that The Chucklefucks were getting paid directly by the Ukrainian oligarch. </p><p>At Firtash's request, Ukraine's former chief prosecutor, the <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/03/what-really-happened-when-biden-forced-out-ukraines-top-prosecutor/3785620002/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">legendarily corrupt</a> Viktor Shokin, swore out an affidavit saying DMITRY DID NOTHING WRONG and also BIDEN GOT ME FIRED TO PROTECT HIS SON. Both of which are highly specious. But Bloomberg reports that Shokin thought he was posing for Firtash's private collection, as it were, and "had been promised his statement wouldn't be made public." Because the first rule of Corruption Club is <em>you don't talk about Corruption Club!</em> </p><p>Only Rudy and The Crackpots prefer to air all their legal work in public, preferably on Fox News. So instead of quietly taking their bullshit "research" to the Justice Department so that Firtash could wriggle out of extradition and Bill Barr could pretend to have spontaneously discovered evidence of shocking misbehavior by the president's electoral opponent, Rudy started waving that affidavit all over television. </p><p>HELLO, LOOK AT THIS INFLUENCE CAMPAIGN I AM WAGING USING EVIDENCE COOKED UP BY A RUSSIAN MOBSTER he (all but) shouted, as he dumped his <a href="https://www.wonkette.com/rudy-giuliani-previews-his-inevitable-insanity-defense" target="_blank">dossier of Firtash docs</a> on the State Department and demanded that Shokin be granted a visa to come to the US and help him smear Joe Biden. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/18/politics/giuliani-shokin-state-visa-george-kent/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">testified</a> to the House impeachment investigators last week that, having failed to get a visa for Shokin from State, Giuliani tried to get the White House to overrule. But no dice, so Rudy was forced to interview the Ukrainian prosecutor over Skype instead.</p><p>For their part, The Crackpots were only slightly more subtle, laundering their bullshit through <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/how-a-conservative-columnist-helped-push-a-flawed-ukraine-narrative/2019/09/26/1654026e-dee7-11e9-8dc8-498eabc129a0_story.html" target="_blank">The Hill's John Solomon</a>. Only they let Rudy get wind of it, and he included Toensing and diGenova's correspondence with Solomon <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/biden-ukraine-dirt-file-has-private-email-between-john-solomon-and-rudy-allies" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">in his dossier</a>, which freaked out the State Department Inspector General so much that he raced up to Congress to tell them about Rudy and The Crackpots' pressure campaign. At which point, Firtash's chances of trading the Biden dirt for leniency from the DOJ went up in smoke.</p><p>"As a result of the publicity Giuliani generated with Shokin's statement, two of the people said they believe the odds of the Justice Department dropping the case against Firtash have plummeted, because it would look like a quid pro quo," Bloomberg reported. You hate to see it!</p><p>But wait, there's more! Because Friday, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/18/us/politics/giuliani-business.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">New York Times</a> reported that, "A few weeks ago, Mr. Giuliani secured a meeting, along with some other defense lawyers, with the head of the Justice Department's criminal division and attorneys in the fraud section. They were there to discuss a foreign bribery case for a client that Mr. Giuliani described as 'very, very sensitive.'" Just like the Firtash case, this meeting involved a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.</p><p>Heckuva coincidence, huh? Could Rudy have been lobbying the Justice Department to go easy on poor, old Dmitry, who's been <em>so very helpful</em> churning up fake dirt on Joe Biden? Dunno, since all Rudy will say is it was "a perfectly appropriate meeting," and the identity of his client is "None of your business!" But we do know that it looks hinky AF for the Justice Department to be meeting with Rudy Giuliani at the same time the Southern District of New York has him under the microscope in a counterintelligence probe.</p><p>In a follow up piece Sunday, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/20/us/politics/rudy-giuliani-justice-department.html" target="_blank">Times</a> let the Justice Department air its very narrow defense. They acknowledge that SDNY told Bill Barr <em>in February</em> about the investigation of Parnas and Fruman under a "rule that requires prosecutors to notify the attorney general of any cases that could generate national news media or congressional attention." But according to DOJ spokesman Pete Carr, "When Mr. Benczkowski and fraud section lawyers met with Mr. Giuliani, they were not aware of any investigation of Mr. Giuliani's associates in the Southern District of New York and would not have met with him had they known." </p><p>UH HUH. </p><p>So Bill Barr has known for nine months that Rudy and The Chucklefucks were in the DOJ's crosshairs. And he watched Rudy flogging this conspiracy shit all over the White House and State Department, while Parnas and Fruman were flying all over Europe trying to gin up dirt on Biden -- remember that Rudy was in Madrid to meet with Andrey Yermak, assistant to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
<iframe width="100%" height="150" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode twitter-embed-1186228579966898177" id="twitter-embed-1186228579966898177" type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="/res/community/twitter_embed/?iframe_id=twitter-embed-1186228579966898177&created_ts=1571653907.0&screen_name=shelbyholliday&text=%40emmatscott+%40LaurizzleK+%40WSJVideo+The+last+posts+on+Parnas%E2%80%99s+Instagram+feed+are+from+July+29%2C+2019.+After+a+post+th%E2%80%A6+https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FVso6fU1fbz&id=1186228579966898177&name=Shelby+Holliday" frameborder="0" data-rm-shortcode-id="SUXEVP1571681126"></iframe>
</p><p>But Barr never thought there was a problem, and Brian Benczkowski, the head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, was blissfully unaware of Rudy's insane yammering on Fox night after night, so he saw no problem with the president's personal lawyer lobbying the DOJ for other clients. You bet!</p><p>It's a CORRUPTION SUPERNOVA!</p><p>[<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-18/to-win-giuliani-s-help-oligarch-s-allies-pursued-biden-dirt" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a> / <a href="https://time.com/5699201/exclusive-how-a-ukrainian-oligarch-wanted-by-u-s-authorities-helped-giuliani-attack-biden/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Time</a> / <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/ukrainian-oligarch-firtash-linked-giuliani-pals-gas-deals-biden-dirt-n1067516" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NBC</a> / <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/18/politics/giuliani-shokin-state-visa-george-kent/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNN</a> / <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/18/us/politics/giuliani-business.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NYT</a> / <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/20/us/politics/rudy-giuliani-justice-department.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NYT</a>, again]</p><p><em>Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/5DollarFeminist" target="_blank">Liz</a> (AKA your FDF) on Twitter!</em></p><p><strong>Please click here so your Wonkette can keep on keepin' on.</strong></p><p></p><form name="donation" method="post" class="donation-form"><p class="subheadline">How often would you like to donate?</p><div class="form-row row--plan"><label class="plan-type__label"><input type="radio" name="plan_type" value="once" class="plan-type" required="" checked> Just once
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