This is a good article by the ABA that chronicles the legal questions involving the DOJ. It's for people with an attention span longer than the average goldfish.
http://www.abajournal.com/news/arti...pinion-as-whistleblower-complaint-is-released
** The
transcript of Trump’s call released Wednesday included a note saying that it was based on notes and recollections and was not a verbatim record of the call.
** The DOJ had reviewed the call transcript and determined that it did not violate campaign finance laws that ban the solicitation of campaign contributions from foreign sources. The DOJ reviewers concluded that seeking help with a government investigation was not a “thing of value” under the law, a source
previously told the Washington Post.
** The
legal opinion by the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel had concluded that the whistleblower complaint didn’t have to be turned over to Congress. The opinion said the federal law requiring expedited reporting of intelligence agency misconduct didn’t apply because the complaint didn’t concern the operation of an intelligence agency.
** Lutsenko told a publication in April that he had spoken with Giuliani about arranging contact with Barr, according to the whistleblower complaint. The next month, Barr announced that he was initiating a probe into the origins of the Russia investigation. Guiliani told Fox News that the prosecutor leading the probe, U.S. Attorney John Durham, was spending a lot of time in Europe because he was investigating Ukraine.
** The DOJ’s statement Wednesday acknowledged that Durham “is separately exploring the extent to which a number of countries, including Ukraine, played a role in the counterintelligence investigation directed at the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.”
** The whistleblower also referred to Barr when referencing statements by then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko to the Hill publication.
Lutsenko asserted that there was evidence Ukrainian officials had interfered with the 2016 election in collaboration with the Democratic National Committee.
** Biden did pressure the Ukrainian president to fire Shokin, but he was acting on behalf of the U.S. government. The AP reports that Shokin was accused of closing the probe into a former government minister who indirectly controlled Burisma, and Shokin never actively investigated Hunter Biden’s work.
