Senate Democrats Open Inquiry Into Trump’s $1 Billion Request of Oil Industry
www.nytimes.com
Two committees are seeking information from oil executives about a dinner where, the lawmakers say, the former president proposed a quid pro quo.
  • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
    51·
    1 month ago

    CHARGES

    It’s fine if you want to open an inquiry, but there is not the slightest shortage of things that it’s been demonstrated that Trump did wrong

    Have the sergeant at arms go and fetch some people who contempt of congress’d and lock them up under the Capitol until they agree that they were wrong and they’ll answer questions now

    Make a habit of finding a new crime every day that no one’s done something about, from Trump or one of his allies, and recommend charges to the DOJ for it, whatever the terminology is. Give Matt Gaetz a subpoena because the house wants to investigate him paying underage girls for sex. Tell Boebert that giving handies in a theater is an ethics violation, and give her a fine, and have someone who’s armed physically block her path trying to come into congress until she pays it.

    IDK, I still fully agree with the reasons why political people shouldn’t be telling the DOJ who to prosecute, I’m not saying do that. But surely a fact-finding mission to find out whether or not Trump and his friends are crooks is no longer necessary at this point.

    • silence7OP
      21·
      1 month ago

      The Senate can’t do charges — that takes the House impeaching him or the Justice Department filing criminal charges. A senate committee can however, gather evidence, and then pass it to the Justice Department with a recommendation that they prosecute. That’s what’s going on here.

      Probably can’t do one new set of crimes per day (the Senate doesn’t move that fast) but it’s definitely happening.

      • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
        13·
        1 month ago

        Yeah, I get it. You’re not wrong. I wasn’t even really thinking in terms of the details of how it does need to happen. I’m just saying it’s crazy that we’re still investigating. Y’all (meaning congress) are going to investigate your way along right up until the Oathkeepers come into congress armed and tell you who goes and who stays, it sounds like.

        • silence7OP
          9·
          1 month ago

          To be fair, this is an investigation of a solicitation for a bribe which happened 15 days ago, and was reported by the Washington Post the morning after it happened.

          Trump just can’t stop criming.

    • FlowVoid@lemmy.worldEnglish
      121·
      1 month ago

      Give Matt Gaetz a subpoena because the house wants to investigate him paying underage girls for sex

      Kevin McCarthy already opened an investigation, that’s why Gaetz got rid of him.

      Tell Boebert that giving handies in a theater is an ethics violation

      It probably isn’t.

  • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
    16·
    1 month ago

    Glad to hear it. Re-posting something that I posted 9 days ago when this first came out.

    This was clearly a request for a quid pro quo arrangement. Pay me this and I’ll do that for you. Very illegal. In case there’s any doubt about that…

    In 1976, announcing the Supreme Court’s landmark Buckley v. Valeo decision, Chief Justice Warren Burger set this standard for corruption: “the reality & appearance of improper influence stemming from the dependence of candidates on large campaign contributions.”

    The current chief justice, John Roberts, had led an effort to tighten that broad language. Roberts, delivering the McCutcheon v. FEC ruling last year, defined corruption as “a contribution to a particular candidate in exchange for his agreeing to do a particular act within his official duties.”

    He was describing a quid pro quo – the donor’s money in explicit exchange for the politician’s official favor. It’s a felony.

    Just to be clear, John Roberts, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the USA defined corruption as “a contribution to a particular candidate in exchange for his agreeing to do a particular act within his official duties.”

  • BigMacHole@lemm.ee
    11·
    1 month ago

    Quid Pro Quo is BAD BAD BAD!*

    *When Hunter Biden apparently does. It’s totally totally cool if Donald Trump does it with Foreign Enemies, Domestic Enemies, International Corporations and others!

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    7·
    1 month ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Over a chopped steak dinner, Mr. Trump told about 20 oil and gas executives that they would save far more than $1 billion in avoided taxes and legal fees after he repealed environmental regulations, according to several people who were present and who requested anonymity to discuss a private event.

    On Wednesday Mr. Trump headlined a fund-raiser for MAGA Inc., a super PAC, that was hosted by three oil executives at a five-star hotel in Houston.

    One host was Kelcy Warren, a billionaire who owns a pipeline empire with an ambitious international expansion plan that depends on new export terminals.

    Andrea Woods, a spokeswoman for the American Petroleum Institute said in a statement “This is yet another election-year stunt to distract from America’s need for more energy, including more oil and natural gas, to power our economy and combat persistent inflation.”

    At the Mar-a-Lago dinner, Mr. Trump promised to immediately end the Biden administration’s pause on permits for new facilities that export liquefied natural gas, according to people who attended the meeting.

    Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, is seeking similar information from the companies.

    The original article contains 751 words, the summary contains 192 words. Saved 74%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!