POLITICUSUSA
Trump-Putin phone calls in U.S. Democrats’ sights: Schiff
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee said on Sunday Congress is determined to get access to President Donald Trump’s calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other world leaders, citing concerns he may have jeopardized national security.
"The core facts of this are known," said Ross Garber, who teaches impeachment law at Tulane Law School. "The piece we don't know yet, which is critical, is the why."
Trump's Ambassador to Ukraine Kurt Volker handed his resignation in to Sec. of State Mike Pompeo on Friday night.
House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) revealed that he either doesn't know anything about anything that's going on with the whistleblower complaint or he is blatantly lying in a desperate bid to spin the facts.
More than 300 former officials from U.S. security and foreign policy agencies, including a former director of the National Counterterrorism Center and a one-time deputy secretary of state, on Friday endorsed the congressional impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday accused U.S. Attorney General William Barr of going "rogue" in the Justice Department's handling of a whistleblower report that President Donald Trump solicited a political favor from Ukraine's president that could help him get re-elected.
Here is a timeline of events in the controversy based on the whistleblower's complaint and public reports.
The report said Trump acted to advance his personal political interests, risking national security, and that White House officials intervened to shift evidence to a separate electronic system.
"This is a cover-up," Pelosi said. "The president has been engaged in a cover-up all along."
Longtime Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said on Thursday that "in a land of ironies this reigns king."
CNN's faithful truth seeker Jim Acosta reported minutes ago that a person who spoke with President Trump in the last 24 hours says he sounded more distracted, but not appreciating the legal peril his administration faces.
House Intel Chair Adam Schiff said that Trump's release of the Ukraine phone call had provided Democrats with confirmation of the whistleblower complaint.
Acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Joseph Maguire testified Thursday that he was unsure if it was illegal to solicit or accept anything of value from a foreign national in connection with an election.
A whistleblower report released on Thursday said President Donald Trump not only abused his office in attempting to solicit Ukraine's interference in the 2020 U.S. election for his own political benefit, but that the White House also tried to "lock down" evidence about that conduct.
Zelenskiy, a former comedian and political novice who was only elected in April, was blindsided on Wednesday when the White House released a memo summarizing his July 25 call with Trump during which the U.S. leader asked him to investigate Joe Biden and his son.