More cash for 9/11 fams in bill
that I testify about the phony Impeachment Witch Hunt,” Trump posted, referring to the CBS News show. “She also said I could do it in writing. Even though I did nothing wrong, and don’t like giving credibility to this No Due Process Hoax, I like the idea & will, in order to get Congress focused again, strongly consider it!”
Trump critics said the president should not be allowed to give written answers in the inquiry, which is looking into his attempts to pressure Ukraine into investigating Joe Biden’s family and other Democrats before the 2020 election.
“‘Testifying in writing’ is worthless,” former Justice Department Inspector General Michael Bromwich tweeted. “This is the con he pulled with Mueller. Not worth the committee’s time to prepare the questions. He should sit at the witness table and answer questions like everyone else.”
Trump’s written answers to Mueller came under renewed scrutiny last week when it was revealed during Stone’s criminal trial that he spoke with the president over the phone after WikiLeaks’ July 2016 release of Democratic National Committee emails stolen by Russian hackers.
Stone, who was found guilty on all counts, told Trump on the call that he should expect “more information” to come out, former deputy Trump campaign chairman Rick Gates testified in court.
Nonetheless, Trump said in his written answers to Mueller that he couldn’t recall ever speaking with Stone about WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign.
A Democratic source told the Daily News the revelations from Stone’s trial made it “easier” for Letter to “say things more directly” and use the word “lie” in court Monday.
Jay Sekulow, one of Trump’s personal attorneys, declined to address Letter’s allegations and said in a text message that the president’s written answers to Mueller “speak for themselves.”
Sekulow and other members of Trump’s legal team on numerous occasions signaled he would sit down with Mueller’s investigators as part of the special counsel’s probe into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and possible coordination with the president’s campaign.
In a Monday letter to colleagues previewing this week’s back-to-back public impeachment hearings, Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the allegation at the heart of the inquiry — that Trump tried to solicit Ukrainian interference in the 2020 election — has already been substantiated.
“The facts are uncontested,” Pelosi wrote. “The president abused his power for his own personal, political benefit, at the expense of our national security interests.”
Even so, impeachment leaders announced late Monday they’re adding another witness to this week’s already crammed testimony schedule.
David Holmes — a staffer at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine who overheard a key July 26 phone call between Trump and Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland — will appear for public testimony Thursday alongside Fiona Hill, the president’s former National Security Council adviser on Russia, according to an updated schedule.
Lawmakers reached a bipartisan deal Monday night to include more funding for 9/11 widows and children in a mustpass government budget bill, Sen. Chuck Schumer announced.
The announcement came ahead of Tuesday’s expected House vote on a temporary governmentwide funding bill as a midnight Thursday deadline looms.
The provisions of the budget bill — hashed out by House and Senate leaders Monday — include “improvements” to the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund that would put more money into the pockets of Sept. 11 families, Schumer said.
“For widows and kids, just compensation will never replace the loved one they lost, but it will make a difference in living a life to the fullest, paying for college, raising a family, all the things these courageous Americans would have done alongside their beloved family member,” Schumer said.
The fund comes entirely from penalties on states like Iran that sponsor terrorism, Schumer said.
The bill clarifies that Sept. 11 widows and children can access the fund, as can a new group of Tehran hostages. The fund will also be split in half, between Sept. 11 victims and non-Sept. 11 victims of terror, to prevent any tension among victim groups.
The bill would also increase the overall family cap for 9/11 victims, reopen the application period for new claims, and extend the fund until 2030.
The stopgap bill, sponsored by House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-Westchester), pushes back the fight over funding for President Trump’s border wall, which led to a 35-day partial government shutdown last winter.
Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the Senate would pass the bill by Thursday, and Trump has indicated he will sign it.