It came out while you were typing your comment. No explicit quid pro quo. But to interpret this memo as exonerating Trump requires the furthest stretch of the imagination. The DOJ has apparently claimed (in more or less exact disagreement with me, see the paragraph beginning with "Edit:") that help from a foreign government is NOT a thing of value. To argue that opposition research intel isn't valuable is what you might do if you were a feckless piece of shit hellbent on expanding the executive's power unilaterally because you like the guy currently defiling the position.
The whistleblower complaint also documented several calls, and an explicit "promise" that was made by Trump to a foreign leader. We've only seen one document so far... And in related news, imagine what it must be like to live in AG Barr's home? His wife. Family. What must it be like, knowing this guy has Trump's dick so far down his throat he can't even speak...?
Actually, I completely retract my prior opinion, my apologies. I'm very much looking forward to Barr's hearing, and his explanation of how it made him feel (or whatever) to quash a report that showed Trump promising Zelensky Barr's help in what is unarguably an illegal political endeavor. I'm worried he'll wriggle out as per usual. You know Trump's dumbass talked to Barr, at the very least. If the Dems can prove that he knew Trump's full intent, that's gonna be saweet, but I don't have my hopes up. Barr's probably too smart to get directly involved in this, and probably strung Trump along, but never performed an official action. Which would include deputizing anyone from the DOJ to help. I agree with anyone saying that it's all gonna happen really fast in the next few weeks. And it needs to.
Edit: The following is no longer my opinion. So far, it sounds to me like Barr is only involved insomuch as Trump namedropping him alongside Rudy in an attempt to give Rudy legitimacy and authority. Neither of which should ever be ascribed to Rudy, of course. And from me, personally, Barr is only granted the latter. It sounds like the whistleblower complaint revolves almost entirely around the July 25th phone call, but also mentions a systematic abuse of the classification system to mask politically sensitive information. I think a lot of people are gonna get some prison time, unless they're pardoned by Pence (or McConnell, at this point). But probably not Barr :(.
Yeah, it's that systematic abuse of the classified system that says, "Hey, we White House staffers all knew this shit was so bad that we couldn't let it get out publicly... but that it is going to save our asses one day, to be able to turn over these documents to an investigator, instead of just deleting them and pretending they never existed." How quickly do you think the CIA sent over their IT guy to do a backup on that system? And then took that backup offsite to a very secure location unknown to anyone in the White House....
Maybe not so secure? But yeah, maybe just about all of the beans are gonna spill, eventually. Some beans may be redacted, but I think we're in for an absolutely wild ride. I'm very much looking forward to understanding the general attitudes of any rank-and-file White House workers that were even tangentially involved in handling these records. Or at least trying to understand. Deleting the transcripts is probably just as illegal as storing them in the wrong spot, and at least someone had to figure that they were possibly cataloging an eventual impeachment case on one of the most secure servers in the building.And then took that backup offsite to a very secure location unknown to anyone in the White House....