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Trump demands full House vote on impeachment inquiry
House Democrats have subpoenaed the White House demanding documents that could shed light on Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine, in the latest escalation of their impeachment investigation into the president and his administration.
The move comes as the senior Democrats also formally requested documents relating to Ukraine dealings from Mike Pence, the vice-president.
Newly released texts show diplomats made clear that better Kyiv-Washington relations were linked to cooperation
US diplomats told Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, that a prestigious White House visit to meet Donald Trump was dependent on him making a public statement vowing to investigate Hunter Biden’s company, and a Ukrainian role in the 2016 elections, according to texts released on Thursday night.
The texts, released by three congressional committees holding impeachment hearings, show that the diplomats made clear that any improvement in Kyiv’s relations with Washington would be dependent on Zelenskiy’s cooperation in Trump’s quest to find damaging material about son of his leading political opponent, and on the Democrats in general.
Before abruptly resigning Kurt Volker gambled that acting as a go-between for Rudy Giuliani could secure military aid for Kyiv
When Kurt Volker agreed to work for the Trump administration in 2017, he told colleagues he hoped to navigate the president’s mercurial nature and his evident attachment to Vladimir Putin, and still pursue a traditional US policy of upholding Ukrainian independence and pushing back against Moscow.
Many were sceptical and predicted a clash between the two approaches, but even they did not expect the spectacular collision of the past few weeks.
More from Adam Schiff, who has continued to criticize Trump’s earlier exhortation for China to investigate Biden:
“Once again, having the president of the United States suggesting, urging, a foreign country to interfere in our presidential elections is an illustration that if this president has learned anything from the two years of the Mueller investigation is that he feels he can do anything with impunity.”
Trump suggests the “pharmaceutical” industry, and other industries, could be behind what he describes as a “hoax”.
I’m not sure which of the things Trump believes to be a hoax he is discussing, but it’s likely the Mueller investigation or the Ukraine scandal.
Donald Trump says Ukraine and China should investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter. 'Nobody has any doubt that they weren't crooked,' the president says in a press conference in front of the White House
'Are you talking to me?' Donald Trump asked during an extraordinary exchange with Reuters’ White House correspondent Jeff Mason. Trump became angry after Mason asked Trump a question about Ukraine, to which Trump replied: ‘We have the president of Finland. Ask him a question'. Mason responded: 'I have one for him. I just wanted to follow up on the one that I asked you.' Trump's outrage did not subside: ‘Did you hear me? … Ask this gentleman a question. Don't be rude’
Lets return to some of the president’s inflammatory tweeting last night, in which he described the House impeachment inquiry as a “COUP”.
We won’t embed the tweets here or reprint the contents due to their inflammatory and misleading nature, but they’re available to view here if you want to take a look.
Mr. Dorsey:
I write to call your attention to activity that President Trump has been engaged in on his Twitter account, which appears to violate the terms of the user agreement that your company requires all users on the platform adhere to.
No user, regardless of their job, wealth, or stature should be exempt from abiding by Twitter’s user agreement, not even the President of the United States.
Look let's be honest, @realDonaldTrump's Twitter account should be suspended.
Some more context on Secretary Pompeo’s admission that he took part in the July phone call between Donald Trump and Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky.
Pompeo’s involvement in the call (he listened in to the conversation and does not appear to have actively participated) was first reported by the Wall Street Journal last week. Pompeo’s admission, made earlier today on an official trip to the Vatican, confirms this reporting.
ABC: And I want to turn to this whistleblower complaint, Mr. Secretary. The complaint involving the President and a phone call with a foreign leader to the director of national intelligence inspector general. That’s where the complaint was launched by the whistle-blower. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that President Trump pressed the president of Ukraine eight times to work with Rudy Giuliani to investigate Joe Biden’s son. What do you know about those conversations?
Democratic pair say impeachment inquiry will not be slowed
Trump condemned for ‘blatant effort to intimidate witnesses’
Donald Trump has been accused of “incitement to violence” and threatened with obstruction charges in the fast-escalating battle over impeachment, as the president maintained his aggressive counter-attack against Democratic leaders and the whistleblower who precipitated the inquiry.
The state department’s inspector general has requested an urgent briefing related to documents on Ukraine with congressional staff members, according to multiple reports.
The inspector general’s unusual request followed secretary of state Mike Pompeo’s assertions that House democrats were trying to “bully” officials into testifying and that the democrats’ schedule for depositions related to the Trump-Ukraine impeachment inquiry was “not feasible”.
Secretary of state signals he will not comply with demands to hear depositions but witness are still set to give evidence, House says
Donald Trump’s administration has sought to defy congressional demands to hear depositions from senior officials, in the first major battle of a rapidly growing impeachment inquiry.
On Tuesday, the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, dismissed summonses from Democratic committee chairmen in the House of Representatives for five current and former state department officials to testify on the president’s attempts to push Ukraine to dig up dirt on his leading political rival.
In non-impeachment news, representative Chris Collins, a Republican of New York, has reportedly sent a letter of resignation to Nancy Pelosi a day before he was expected to plead guilty to insider trading charges.
Collins, 69, allegedly tipped off his son to confidential information about an Australian biotechnology company, Innate Immunotherapeutics, that he learned as a member of its board. Collins and several others used the information to avoid more than $700,000 in losses, according to prosecutors.
He is scheduled to change his plea Tuesday afternoon in a Manhattan federal court. ...
In addition to calling Trump a “corrupt human tornado,” Hillary Clinton also reacted to reports that the State Department is still investigating the email practices of her employees while she was secretary of state.
As many as 130 officials have been contacted in recent weeks by State Department investigators — a list that includes senior officials who reported directly to Clinton as well as others in lower-level jobs whose emails were at some point relayed to her inbox, said current and former State Department officials. Those targeted were notified that emails they sent years ago have been retroactively classified and now constitute potential security violations, according to letters reviewed by The Washington Post.
In virtually all of the cases, potentially sensitive information, now recategorized as ‘classified,’ was sent to Clinton’s unsecure inbox.
Donald Trump, already facing impeachment, has provoked fresh outrage by suggesting one of his main political adversaries should be arrested for “treason”.
Whistleblower’s attorney says president’s demands to identify their client has prompted safety concerns
Lawyers acting for the whistleblower at the centre of the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump’s attempts to solicit foreign help for his re-election campaign have warned that their client’s personal safety is in danger partly as a result of the president’s remarks.
Andrew Bakaj, the lead attorney for the unnamed intelligence official who sounded the alarm on Trump’s activities relating to Ukraine, expressed fears on Sunday that the whistleblower could be put “in harm’s way” were his or her identity made public. In a letter to the acting Director of National Intelligence, Joseph Maguire, Bakaj points directly at Trump’s aggressive statements that he said prompted “concerns for our client’s safety”.
Kurt Volker departs as further reports emerge of White House efforts to cut access to Trump calls to Russia and Saudi Arabia
Kurt Volker, the US special envoy for Ukraine, has resigned, according to a US official, becoming the first casualty in the rapidly growing impeachment crisis surrounding Donald Trump.
Volker is due to appear before Congress next week and was mentioned in the whistleblower complaint as helping Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy “navigate” Trump’s demands.
Democrats in the House of Representatives are moving forward with an impeachment inquiry to explore whether the US president should effectively be put on trial by the US Congress and, if convicted, removed from office.
News of US pressure on Volodymyr Zelenskiy has sparked fears among reformers, but on the streets it is seen as an American affair
The revelations that Donald Trump attempted to pressure Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden’s family have reverberated through civil society and political circles in Kyiv, prompting some to ask if the United States can be viewed as a trustworthy ally in the country’s attempts to reform and stave off pressure from Russia.
Members of Ukraine’s civil society and veterans communities on Thursday complained about the threat of withholding military funding and US political support to score points in domestic US politics.
It’s a blockbuster that arrived too late for summer, but with the president obsessing, Congress investigating and main street America processing, the buzz around a whistleblower complaint about Donald Trump released early on Thursday appears likely only to grow.
The acting director of national intelligence said he believed both the whistleblower who filed the complaint against Donald Trump and the inspector general who handled it ‘acted in good faith’. Joseph Maguire told members of the House intelligence committee: ‘I have every reason to believe that they have done everything by the book.’ Maguire, who was appointed last month to succeed outgoing director Dan Coats, also said he believed he handled the whistleblower’s complaint ‘in full compliance with the law at all times’ adding that he was committed to doing so
Donald Trump pressed the Ukrainian president to work with the US attorney general to investigate his political rival Joe Biden, a damning White House memo revealed on Wednesday, raising the stakes in an acrimonious and polarising impeachment inquiry.
Democrats said the US president’s conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskiy detailed in the five-page rough “transcript” was a devastating betrayal of his country that merited their investigation, while Republicans claimed it showed no quid pro quo and offered complete vindication.