House Dems take on Giuliani
Trump’s lawyer subpoenaed; whistleblower’s lawyers worry for client’s safety as ID sought
WASHINGTON >> President Donald Trump said Monday that the White House was “trying to find out” the identity of the whistleblower whose claims led Democrats to begin an impeachment inquiry last week, even as the whistleblower’s lawyers have outlined “serious” safety concerns for their client as Trump has repeatedly targeted him and compared him to a spy.
Trump’s latest comment, made to reporters in the Oval Office during the swearingin of his new labor secretary, Eugene Scalia, followed up on a series of Twitter posts over the weekend in which Trump claimed that he deserved “to meet my accuser.”
In another development Monday, House Democrats investigating whether to impeach the president issued a subpoena Monday demanding that Rudolph Giuliani, his private lawyer, produce communications and other records related to his attempts to pressure Ukraine to investigate the president’s Democratic rivals.
The new demands of Giuliani and three of his associates said to be involved in the Ukraine matter suggest that Democrats are moving quickly to stand up their investigation, even as Trump on Monday questioned whether the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee leading their impeachment inquiry, Rep. Adam Schiff, should be arrested for treason.
“Our inquiry includes an investigation of credible allegations that you acted as an agent of the president in a scheme to advance his personal political interests by
“The law and policy supports protection of the identity of the whistleblower from disclosure and from retaliation. No exceptions exist for any individual.”
— Mark Zaid, the lawyer for the whistleblower
abusing the power of the office of the president,” Schiff and two fellow Democratic chairmen, Rep. Elijah Cummings of the Oversight and Reform Committee and Rep. Eliot Engel of the Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote in a letter to Giuliani.
It was not immediately clear what steps the White House was taking to identify the whistleblower, but the White House has known for weeks that a CIA officer lodged concerns about Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. Still, Trump’s fixation on discovering and discussing the identity of the whistleblower, whose anonymity is protected by law, was seen as a brazen move for
a president under scrutiny for abuse of power.
“As the acting DNI testified last week, the law and policy supports protection of the identity of the whistleblower from disclosure and from retaliation,” Mark Zaid, the lawyer for the whistleblower, said Monday, referring to the acting director of national intelligence, in response to Trump’s most recent comments. “No exceptions exist for any individual.”
Meanwhile, CNN reported Monday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. A rough transcript of the conversation released by the White House shows Trump repeatedly pushed Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe
Biden and his son Hunter.
During that call, Trump asks Zelensky to speak with Giuliani and suggests that the Ukrainian president “look into” Biden and his son.
Trump on Monday also questioned whether Schiff should be arrested for treason for his description of a phone call Trump had with the president of Ukraine during a recent congressional hearing.
A day earlier, Trump called for Schiff, D-Calif., who is the de facto head of an impeachment inquiry into the call, to be “questioned at the highest level for Fraud & Treason.”
Trump has accused Schiff of lying to Congress when Schiff summarized a portion of what Trump said to Zelensky during a July 25 phone call. Trump asked Zelensky to “do us a favor” and investigate
Democrats — a request Democrats say is an abuse of power for personal gain.
Trump has defended his part of the conversation as “perfect,” and focused on Schiff’s public retelling of the call, which the president suggested was mischaracterized.
Trump pointed to Schiff’s summary of portions of the exchange between the president and Zelensky and how they veer from the reconstructed transcript of the call released by the White House.
During a House Intelligence Committee hearing Thursday, Schiff addressed a portion of the reconstructed transcript and introduced his summary of it saying, “Shorn of its rambling character and in not so many words, this is the essence of what the president communicates.”
Then, Schiff summarized Trump’s comments and said: “We’ve been very good to your country, very good. No other country has done as much as we have, but you know what, I don’t see much reciprocity here. I hear what you want. I have a favor I want from you, though.”
The summary appears to be drawn from several portions of the call, including statements from Trump to Zelensky.
“The United States has been very very good to Ukraine,” Trump told Zelensky. “I wouldn’t say that it’s reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not good but the United States has been very very good to Ukraine.”
And later, the president said, “I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it.”
A former prosecutor with experience impeaching federal judges, Schiff has taken the lead in the impeachment inquiry regarding the president’s phone call with Ukraine. On Sunday he said the anonymous whistleblower would testify before the House Intelligence Committee “very soon.”
As for Trump’s accusations of lying to Congress, Schiff said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” “Let’s not pretend that this is really what the president is upset with me about.”
Schiff said Trump was “furious with me” because as soon as Schiff learned a whistleblower complaint had been filed, he publicly called for its release to Congress.