Donald Trump tries to get key player in his Ukraine scandal coverup out of the country
After Donald Trump’s highly compromised Secretary of State Mike Pompeo publicly ordered his own people not to cooperate with the House impeachment inquiry, House Democrats sent a letter to Pompeo’s Deputy John Sullivan in the hope of convincing him to cooperate. That meant Sullivan was going to have to decide whether he was willing to eventually go to prison for obstruction just to protect Trump.
Now, in what is obviously not a coincidence, Donald Trump is trying to kick John Sullivan upstairs – and in fact get him out of the country. Trump is nominating Sullivan to be his new U.S. Ambassador to Russia, according to NBC News. The move would get Sullivan out of the State Department, meaning he would no longer be in position to cooperate with the House impeachment inquiry. In fact he’d be on the other side of the world.
The thing is, Trump may not have thought this move through. Because he’s nominating Sullivan to be the Ambassador, and not simply naming him the Acting Ambassador, it means Sullivan will have to go through the Senate confirmation process. Senate Republicans will ultimately confirm him, but not before Senate Democrats get a chance to grill him in public hearings on the State Department’s role in the Ukraine scandal coverup.
We find it difficult to imagine that the John Sullivan nomination will make it as far as the confirmation hearing. This feels like yet another poorly thought out panic move on Donald Trump’s part. At this point, panic moves seem to be all he has left up his sleeve.
