In a way I hate to even mention a creepy guy like Vindman. You’ve probably heard that he’s filed a lawsuit against Don Trump, Jr., and three Trump associates: Rudy Giuliani, Julia Hahn, and Dan Scavino, Jr. The lawsuit is based on an old Reconstruction Era law, the Ku Klux Klan Act. Vindman claims that the named individuals conspired to intimidate and retaliate against him.
Balanced against the distastefulness of discussing Vindman is Margot Cleveland’s thorough examination of the lawsuit today:
What You Need To Know About Alex Vindman’s Lawsuit Against Trump Officials
While Ukraine hoaxer Alex Vindman may achieve an early victory in this case, he may soon deeply regret his decision to sue.
The subtitle can be quickly unpacked:
Vindman may achieve an “early victory” in the case because his complaint will likely be allowed to go forward; however,
He may soon deeply regret bringing the lawsuit because “going forward”—his “early victory”—means: the lawsuit will advance to discovery.
Woops!
If you’re interested in why Vindman will probably win that “early victory”, follow the link: Cleveland will tell you all about it.
However, for my money the really interesting part comes toward the end of article when Cleveland discusses the certain ramifications of discovery. In short form, everything that Adam Schiff was able to conceal from the public during the faux impeachment theater will be fair game. That will start with exposing Vindman’s dealings—his conspiracy, if you will—with He Whose Name Must Never Be Mentioned: Eric Ciaramella. Vindman will be deposed, as will Ciaramella and—uh oh!—George Kent.
Cleveland explains:
Unlike the House proceedings in which Schiff and other defendants ran cover for Vindman, allowing him to refuse to respond to relevant questions, federal discovery will not be so limited. And there will be much the defendants will want to know, such as with whom Vindman discussed the telephone call.
The defendants will also be entitled to question under oath a variety of other witnesses, including the whistleblower. Questions of Vindman’s bias will be fair game as well. Then there will be evidence the defendants will seek to gather to establish Trump had legitimate concerns about Hunter Biden’s involvement with the corrupt Ukrainian company Burisma.
In short, Vindman might just give Trump the impeachment trial he needed, with the witnesses he needed, to establish Vindman worked with the whistleblower and the whistleblower with Schiff to launch the Ukraine hoax.
I see I bolded just about everything, which should tell you how bad this will likely end up being. But that’s just for starters—it gets worse.
Under the heading “Bad Timing” Cleveland explains why this is coming at such a bad time for Zhou: The lawsuit will likely resurrect interest in Ukraine, Burisma, Hunter’s laptop, and Zhou’s firing of anti-corruption prosecutors in Ukraine who were investigating all of the above. And that will be in the context of Zhou’s cave to Putin.
Now, I’ve maintained and continue to maintain, that Putin’s strategy was well thought out and is based on very real strengths in Russia’s current position. At the same time, the fact that Putin has struck while the DC Establishment has installed a puppet POTUS, having staged their coup against the elected president, is telling. Putin knows an easy mark when he sees one:
Did the Establishment geniuses who staged the coup against Trump really think America could coast for four years, with Zhou dog-paddling in a sea full of sharks like Putin and Xi? Ray McGovern expands a bit on what I noted yesterday: That the reason the US asked Russia to keep secret the written note—written in compliance with Putin’s demand—is that even at this early stage of negotiations the Zhou regime is offering big concessions to Russia. And Russia is likely holding out for more. As McGovern says, this will enrage the very people who wanted Trump gone:
The US "non-paper" revealed yesterday by El Pais, was labeled "confidential", and small wonder. Clearly, the Biden administration did not want its concession on inspection, for example, to leak. It will come as a shock for those predicting (some of them actually hoping for) the worst. Washington’s non-paper expresses willingness to discuss "a transparency mechanism to confirm the absences of Tomahawk cruise missiles at … sites in Romania and Poland." In other words, verification; which has worked well in the past – with the INF Treaty, for example, which saw the entire class of intermediate- and short-range missiles destroyed.
Nor is it surprising that the US asked the Russians (and everyone else) to keep its "non-paper" secret. The Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank (MICIMATT) complex will be up in arms, so to speak. Not to mention Raytheon, which makes and sells the Tomahawks (at $2 million each). See, for example: Top Weapons Companies Boast Ukraine-Russia Tensions Are a Boon for Business.
The announcement yesterday that the US is sending 3,000 US troops to Eastern Europe is meant to underscore that Washington is prepared to face Putin down. The move will be widely seen for the token it is.
And the obvious person to kick around is the pathetic Zhou. Well, there are the regime insiders, the Hillary leftovers running our “national security.” So, yeah, this lawsuit—raising the Ukraine past that the MSM had so successfully buried round about Election 2020—comes at a very bad time.
The worst of that is a George Kent email:
In the email, Kent wrote, “The real issue to my mind was that someone in Washington needed to engage VP Biden quietly and say that his son Hunter’s presence on the Burisma board undercut the anti-corruption message the VP and we were advancing in Ukraine.”
“Kent’s email described an intense pressure campaign by advocates for Burisma — including a former U.S. ambassador — to rehabilitate the Ukrainian company’s corrupt reputation and to get Ukraine prosecutors to drop their criminal investigations of the company,” Solomon explained in his article that broke late Tuesday night.
Further, as Solomon wrote, in the email, Kent “relayed to higher-ups that he had confirmed with Ukrainian prosecutors that Burisma officials had paid a $7 million ‘bribe’ to make one of the cases against the company disappear. The bribe was allegedly paid at a time when Hunter Biden was serving on the Burisma board, a job that landed his firm more than $3 million from the Ukrainian energy company.”
So, this lawsuit comes at a time when the Establishment has been scrambling, looking for a face saving exit strategy from the Zhou regime to … well, almost anything else. Bad timing. A resurrection of Ukraine and Burisma and Hunter’s laptop from hell will provide an exit strategy, but not a face saving one.
So ashamed to have been a commissioned officer in the same Army as this guy. Also weird how the top of my ribbon rack—and those of every infantry officer in the Great War on Terror—is the exact same as him despite my having left the service as a Captain just shy of 6 years of service.
Where to start with Mr. Vindman? And the correct response for Mr. Nunes to his “colonel Vindman please temper tantrum” would have been to order him to stand at attention and remind the audience that he represents the taxpayers who pay the good LTC’s salary.
How about, “you are the whistleblower.” Ciaramella was just peddling your hearsay to a corrupt intelligence community that permits hearsay whistleblower complaints against any official, unlike the uniformed military that neither permits second hand complaints nor complaints against the commander in chief.
Or, the “quid pro quo you touted as impeachment worthy made no sense.” The investigation of Burisma had reopened and been publicly announced months before President Trump’s call with President Zelensky, and Trump apparently planned on not releasing the aid regardless of what the Ukrainians did until Senator Johnson of Wisconsin told him there was a veto proof majority in both houses to force his hand and embarrass him.
This was according to Adam Schiff’s own witnesses!!!
Isn't it remarkable this "bad timing" for Chairman Zhou? Just two days ago, Ron Klain was 'outed' as having been the one leaking the story of Breyer potentially retiring from the SCOTUS. Week before that, ABC's 'poll' basically gutted the Biden regime, belly to sternum. ABC. NY Times subpeona's for Hunter Biden's stuff..... almost like there is momentum inside the deep state to get rid of Zhou. It'll be interesting to see over the next several weeks if more 'leaks' to the media (especially WaPo and NY Times) that subtly put Biden in less-than-favorable light.