Trump Just Fired Another Ukraine Crime Spree Witness, No Big

Nothing to see here, just Trump out for more revenge.

Oh look, Trump's revenge rampage continues, after the Senate "acquitted" him of the Ukraine crimes we know with 100 percent certainty that he committed:

The Pentagon's top policy official John Rood resigned on Wednesday at the request of President Donald Trump, according to a copy of his resignation letter obtained by CNN.

And why? Because the administration had "lost confidence" in him, uh huh, you bet, sure.

Or maybe it was because Rood was one of the officials who raised alarms about Donald Trump's very illegal and very uncool hold on Ukraine's congressionally appropriated aid.

Hours after Trump's July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a conversation that was at the center of impeachment proceedings, Rood emailed Secretary of Defense Mark Esper -- who had been in the job two days -- informing him about an upcoming deputies meeting, "to discuss the President's concern about endemic corruption in Ukraine and his reported view that US should cease providing security assistance," according to emails reviewed by CNN.

Rood notes in his email to the secretary that"placing a hold on security assistance at this time would jeopardize this unique window of opportunity and undermine our defense priorities with a key partner in the strategic competition with Russia."

Yeah, it's that.

It does seem that Rood had a habit of being smarter than the average Trump official, which is always a problem in an administration that is as dumbfuck as it is autocratic. According to CNN's sources, he thought Trump's desired peace talks with the Taliban were bad, he thought it was real stupid to back away from military exercises with our ally South Korea while Trump was sucking up to North Korea, and he "push[ed] for a more aggressive approach to Russia by supporting Ukraine."

As Bloomberg notes, Rood was the guy who told Congress in May of last year that everything was good to go with the aid they had appropriated for Ukraine. ( Here's that letter. ) As in, he was saying the Defense Department had determined Ukraine had met the standards it needed to meet to receive the aid, which included taking the appropriate steps to fight corruption. Remember how we were supposed to believe during the impeachment that Trump held up the aid later that summer because he was just losing sleep over corruption in Ukraine, and not because he was demanding Ukraine announce investigations into his political rival Joe Biden and his pet Kremlin conspiracy theories about Ukraine being the real killer in the 2016 elections?  

Yeah.

Rood's resignation letter makes clear, in the first sentence, that he's only doing this because Trump demanded it:

It's my understanding from Secretary Esper that you requested my resignation from serving as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. Senior administration officials appointed by the President serve at the pleasure of the President, and therefore, as you have requested, I am providing my resignation effective February 28, 2020.

Did Rood mention that he's only doing this because it was demanded of him? He should probably mention that eight or nine more times.

Everybody is being so nice-nice about this one. CNN has a statement from Secretary of Defense Esper, thanking Rood for his service. Trump even took time away from his busy shit-tweeting schedule to bid Rood farewell:

I would like to thank John Rood for his service to our Country, and wish him well in his future endeavors! https: //t.co/kPA1rYCKvp

— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump) 1582127495.0 

Well, it's not like John Rood obeyed a congressional subpoena for testimony or anything terrible like that! No reason to be super-mean. He's just YOU'RE FIRED!

(Rood's name surely did show up in a document subpoena to the Defense Department from the House.)

No grand conclusion here, Trump is just still on his rampage, doing his damnedest to rid his administration of all the decent human beings who witnessed his crimes and were willing to speak up about them.

He ain't done yet.

[ CNN ]

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