Trump impeachment probe sees ‘dramatic progress’
THE leader of the impeachment investigation of US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that witnesses had provided substantial support for allegations that Trump illegally tried to force Ukraine to investigate his political rival Joe Biden.
While the White House and Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani refused to turn over subpoenaed documents on t he Ukraine affair to Congress, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said five witnesses had backed up allegations of misuse of power that could underpin formal impeachment charges.
Witnesses have supplied information showing that Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump appeared to tie military aid to getting dirt on Biden from Kiev, was planned in advance and then followed up, Schiff said.
“We’v e made dra mati c progress in answering some of the questions surrounding that July phone call . . . in which the president of the United States sought to coerce a vulnerable ally into conducting what can best be described as sham investigations involving his opponent.
“We have learned that call was not in isolation. There was a great deal of preparatory work that was done before the call. There was a lot of followup work done after the call,” Schiff told reporters.
Schiff spoke a day after former White House Russia expert Fiona Hill reportedly told Congressional investigators in closeddoor testimony that several high-level aides reported the Trump-Zelinsky phone call to a White House lawyer as possible wrongdoing by the president.
Hill said her boss, then-national security adviser John Bolton, characterised Trump’s pressure on Zelensky together with Giuliani and White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney as akin to a narcotics transaction.
“I am not part of whatever drug deal Rudy and Mulvaney are cooking up,” Bolton said, according to Hill’s testimony as reported by the New York Times.
Hill said Bolton also warned that Giuliani, who is reportedly under federal investigation over his Ukraine dealings, is “a hand grenade who’s going to blow everyone up”.
US House Democrats on Tuesday interviewed a top State Department off i ci al re s ponsi bl e f or Ukrai ne, George Kent, about his role between the White House, Giuliani and Kiev, and prepared to question three more diplomats this week.
Kent told lawmakers that Mulvaney arranged for him to be cut out of decision making on Ukraine in favour of three officials close to Trump, the Washington Post reported, particularly his energy secretary, ambassador to the EU and special envoy to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, on Twit t e r, Trump lashed out at lawmakers, saying “Democrats are allowing no transparency at the Witch Hunt hearings”.
Democrats are seeking to prove Trump sought foreign aid to boost his re-election next year, violating US election laws.
Trump has admitted asking Zelensky for help to investigate Biden, but said it was for legitimate suspicions of corruption and not political reasons.
Meanwhile, the White House on Tuesday questioned the investigation’s legitimacy by refusing to turn over budget office, Pentagon and vicepresidential documents related to Ukraine.
Giuliani risked being declared in contempt of Congress as he brushed off a subpoena, branding the inquiry “illegitimate” and “unconstitutional”.
Schiff accused the White House of stonewalling the investigation and said that could be added to impeachment charges.
“The case for obstruction of Congress continues to build,” he said.
Schiff said the committees involved in the inquiry would continue to collect evidence in private depositions, but was prepared to release the testimony once it was all complete.
Democrats involved in the process suggested that articles of impeachment could come by the end of the year.
Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell told CNN that Hill’s deposition had bolstered the argument for removing Trump and said his party would be swift and “surgical” in building the case.
“Every arrow continues to point in the same direction,” he said.
“We already have a motive, we have a crime, we have a confession and we have evidence,” Democrat Mark Pocan told Wisconsin Public Radio.