Live updates: Trump complains of a ‘rigged’ impeachment inquiry at the beginning of a busy week of public testimony - The Washington Post

Tom Brenner

Reuters

President Trump delivers remarks at a campaign rally in Bossier City, La., Nov. 14, 2019.

President Trump leveled fresh attacks Monday against Democrats leading the impeachment inquiry at the outset of a week in which eight current and former officials are scheduled to publicly testify about his controversial actions regarding Ukraine.

In morning tweets, Trump claimed the rules of the inquiry had been “rigged” by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has described Trump’s conduct as “bribery,” and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), who has summoned four witnesses to appear before his panel on Tuesday alone.

●Democrats are seeking to prove that Trump leveraged military assistance and an Oval Office meeting in exchange for investigations of former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden and a debunked theory concerning purported Ukrainian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

●Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) says whistleblower’s sources ‘exposed things that didn’t need to be exposed.’

●A former White House national security official told House investigators that Gordon Sondland, ambassador to the European Union, was acting at Trump’s behest.

●How a CIA analyst, alarmed by Trump’s shadow foreign policy, triggered an impeachment inquiry

Who’s involved in the impeachment inquiry | Key documents related to the inquiry | What’s next in the inquiry

8:45 AM: Mueller grand-jury material urgently needed for impeachment inquiry, Congress tells court

A federal appeals court in Washington on Monday is set to consider whether the Justice Department must immediately release to Congress secret grand-jury materials from former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is due to review a lower-court ruling that requires disclosure of evidence the House Judiciary Committee says it needs in its “urgent efforts” to determine whether Trump committed impeachable offenses.

Last month, Judge Beryl A. Howell, chief of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, found that the House was legally engaged in a judicial process that exempts Congress from grand-jury secrecy rules.

The case is one of several separation-of-powers battles teed up for the Supreme Court. Trump’s private lawyers last week asked the high court to block a subpoena for his tax records from New York prosecutors and to stop a separate House subpoena for his personal and business records.

Read more here.

By: Ann E. Marimow

8:30 AM: The quid pro quo evidence so far

Quid pro quo – Latin for “something for something” – is a common concept in foreign relations. U.S. assistance for other countries is typically contingent on an agreement to help achieve an American objective.

The current impeachment inquiry is focused on whether Trump abused his office by seeking a quid pro quo from Ukraine that would benefit him personally rather than promote the country’s interests: namely, investigations of his political opponents.

There have been six episodes in which top Trump administration and Ukrainian officials discussed such a potential quid pro quo, according to congressional testimony, public statements and documents.

Read more here.

By: Washington Post Staff

7:45 AM: McDaniel seizes on profane description of Trump

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel seized Monday on a Nevada congresswoman’s profane description of Trump to argue that Democrats have long sought Trump’s impeachment regardless of the facts.

During remarks at a fundraising dinner for the Nevada Democratic Party on Sunday night that drew presidential contenders, Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) spoke about the prospects for Trump’s impeachment.

“I think the House is going to do it,” she said. “Frankly, I’d like to impeach the bastard right now.”

In a morning tweet, McDaniel shared the quote.

“More House Democrats showing their true colors,” she wrote. “Impeachment is all they’ve ever wanted!”

By: John Wagner

7:30 AM: Trump dismisses impeachment inquiry

Trump returned to Twitter Monday morning to attack the impeachment inquiry as a “great fraud” and take aim at Pelosi and Schiff.

In one tweet, Trump claimed unprecedented unity among Republicans.

“This is a great fraud being played out against the American people by the Fake News Media & their partner, the Do Nothing Democrats,” he tweeted. “The rules are rigged by Pelosi & Schiff, but we are winning, and we will win!”

Earlier, Trump shared a tweet by House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) that also took issue with how Schiff is running the process.

“Schiff controls who testifies,” Scalise wrote. “Schiff controls how Republicans use our question time. Schiff controls what gets released from his secret depositions. Schiff shuts out witnesses who would contradict his one-sided narrative. This is what Pelosi is calling fair? It’s a sham.”

By: John Wagner

7:00 AM: Eight witnesses scheduled to testify publicly this week

Eight witnesses are scheduled to testify publicly this week in the impeachment inquiry, including four on Tuesday alone.

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, European affairs director at the National Security Council, and Jennifer Williams, Vice President Pence’s special adviser on Europe and Russia, are scheduled to appear on Tuesday morning.

Vindman testified in a closed-door deposition last month that he “did not think it was proper” for Trump to seek a Ukrainian investigation of a U.S. citizen. He was among those who listened in on the July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Vindman later reported his concerns to the lead counsel of NSC.

The closed-door testimony of Williams, which was released Saturday, suggests that the Office of Management and Budget had clamped down on Ukraine military aid more than two weeks earlier than has been previously reported.

Trump attacked Williams in a tweet on Sunday.

“Tell Jennifer Williams, whoever that is, to read BOTH transcripts of the presidential calls, & see the just released statement from Ukraine,” Trump said. “Then she should meet with the other Never Trumpers, who I don’t know & mostly never even heard of, & work out a better presidential attack!”

Tim Morrison, the top Russia and Europe adviser on the National Security Council, and Kurt Volker, a former Trump administration envoy to Ukraine, are scheduled to testify Tuesday afternoon.

Morrison told House investigators last month that Gordon Sondland, ambassador to the European Union, was acting at Trump’s behest and spoke to a top Ukrainian official about exchanging military aid for political investigations.

Trump has said he does not know Sondland well and has tried to distance himself from the E.U. ambassador, whom Trump put in charge of Ukraine policy along with two others, even though Ukraine is not part of the European Union.

Volker worked with Trump personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, the White House and Ukrainian officials to arrange the July 25 phone call between Trump and Zelensky, as well as a potential White House visit, while pushing for investigations into Trump’s political enemies.

Sondland is scheduled to testify on Wednesday morning. Laura Cooper, the special assistant secretary of defense for Russia and Ukraine, and David Hale, under secretary of state for political affairs, are scheduled in the afternoon.

On Thursday, Fiona Hill, the former National Security Council Russia adviser, is scheduled to appear.

By: John Wagner

6:45 AM: Democrats targeted in $7 million advertising campaign

The American Action Network, a group that promotes “center-right policies,” has launched a $7 million television and digital advertising campaign in 37 House districts calling the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry a “politically motivated charade.”

The ads target Democrats in 30 districts, urging their constituents to call their representatives and tell them to “let voters decide elections” and “get to work” on other issues. The ads also feature a clip of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) saying in television interview that the impeachment process is “preventing a potentially disastrous outcome from occurring next year.”

Ads in another seven districts thank Republicans for standing against impeachment.

Zach Hunter, the group’s vice president, said it plans to spend $5 million on television ads and $2 million on digital ads.

By: John Wagner

6:30 AM: Majority of young voters favor impeachment and removal

A new poll finds that 58 percent of likely general election voters under age 30 think that Trump should be impeached and removed from office.

The question was included in a survey of the 18- to 29-year-olds conducted for the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School on a wide range of issues. Among the other findings released Monday: 48 percent of likely general election voters under 30 support dismantling the electoral college and electing the president by the national popular vote. Twenty-eight percent opposed the idea, with the remainder unsure.

By: John Wagner

6:00 AM: In late-night tweets, Trump shares a Fox Host mocking Democrats for describing Trump’s actions as ‘bribery’

Trump continued his efforts to undermine the credibility of the impeachment inquiry through a series of late-night tweets on Sunday, including that shared a clip of a Fox News host mocking leading Democrats for characterizing Trump’s actions of “bribery.”

Steve Hilton, host of “The Next Revolution,” said use of the term by Pelosi and others showed “the laughable hypocrisy of the Democrats latest desperate impeachment gambit.”

Hilton contended fundraising conducted by Pelosi and other leading Democrats “in the swamp” amounts to bribery and called the House speaker “the queen of bribery.”

“Raising money is the way she clings to power,” he said in the clip shared by Trump with his nearly 67 million Twitter followers.

In another tweet, Trump claimed that “nothing matters” besides the rough transcripts of his two calls with Zelensky and public statements by Ukrainian officials that they did not feel pressured.

By: John Wagner

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2019-11-18 13:45:00Z
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