Trump’s probe fury

President rebukes Democrats over impeachment inquiry bid

US President Donald Trump attacked the Democratic politicians spearheading the impeachment inquiry as congressional committees subpoenaed his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, for documents related to his dealings with Ukraine.

As Mr Trump lashed out at Democratic congressman Adam Schiff, suggesting he should be arrested for “treason”, Australia confirmed that the president asked for help with an inquiry into special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Mr Trump also attacked the whistleblower whose complaint about his phone call with the leader of Ukraine led to the opening of the impeachment probe in the Democraticled House of Representatives.

“We are trying to find out about a whistleblower, when you have a whistleblower that reports things that were incorrect,” the President said.

The whistleblower, reportedly a CIA officer, raised concerns about the July phone call during which Mr Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Mr Trump’s potential 2020 White House opponent Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.

Mr Giuliani was at the centre of the effort to get Ukraine to conduct a probe of the Bidens, who have not been officially accused of any wrongdoing. Mr Schiff, chairman of the Intelligence Committee, and the chairmen of two other Democratic-led House committees issued a subpoena to Mr Giuliani asking him to turn over Ukrainerelated documents.

“The committees are investigating the extent to which President Trump jeopardised national security by pressing Ukraine to interfere with our 2020 election,” the chairmen said in a letter to Mr Giuliani.

The letter also said Mr Trump abused the power of the Office of the President.