Trump’s impeachment inquiry reveals trove of Giuliani letters

EVIDENCE pointing the finger at Donald Trump’s personal lawyer was released yesterday as the US president’s impeachment trial took a step closer.

The two charges Mr Trump will face were formally presented to the US Senate, who will now put the president on trial as early as next week. Hours earlier the committee investigating Mr Trump released dozens of pages of letters and messages that raised fresh questions about his actions.

They included a letter from his lawyer Rudy Giuliani trying to set up a private meeting with the Ukrainian president, saying he was acting with Mr Trump’s ‘knowledge and consent’. It is the first time such a claim has been seen in official correspondence.

Mr Giuliani was trying to get Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy to set up a backdoor investigation into Mr Trump’s political rival, Joe Biden, it is alleged.

The US House of Representatives voted yesterday to send two articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate, and approve House prosecutors, for only the third impeachment trial in American history.

The nearly party-line vote moved Mr Trump’s impeachment from Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Democratic-run House to the Republican-majority Senate, where Mr Trump expects acquittal, even as new evidence is raising fresh questions about his Ukraine dealings.

The vote was 228-193, coming at the start of a presidential election year and one month after the House impeached Mr Trump.

Mr Trump was also charged with obstructing Congress’ ensuing probe.

‘We are here today to cross a very important threshold in American history,’ Ms Pelosi said, addressing the House before the vote.

Prsident Trump, during an event at the White House, rejected the charges as a ‘hoax’.