US Democratic lawmakers on Friday demanded that the White House turn over documents related to allegations that US President Donald Trump pressured Ukraine for political favors, as the explosive impeachment investigation against the US leader intensified.
The congressional committees leading the probe cranked up the heat on the White House as evidence mounted that Trump illicitly used his office to enlist Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s help to damage next year’s Democratic rival, former US vice president Joe Biden, in exchange for military aid.
“The White House has refused to engage with — or even respond to — multiple requests for documents,” the Democratic chairmen of the US House of Representatives Oversight Committee, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committee said. “His actions have left us with no choice, but to issue this subpoena.”
In their letter to Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, the committees demanded that he turn over the requested files by Oct. 18.
The subpoena followed a demand earlier on Friday for documents from US Vice President Mike Pence.
The investigators pointed to Pence’s knowledge of Trump’s calls to Zelenskiy and his own meeting on Sept. 1 with the Ukrainian leader, as well as discussions that he might have had with Trump and US diplomats about Ukraine and obtaining political dirt on Biden.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo failed to meet a subpoena deadline on Friday to turn in Ukraine-related documents, CNN reported, citing a US House Foreign Affairs Committee aide.
New insight into Trump’s Ukraine involvement might be forthcoming from a potential second whistle-blower with more direct information than the US intelligence community member who broke open the scandal two weeks ago, the New York Times reported late on Friday.
US Inspector General of the Intelligence Community Michael Atkinson has interviewed the second official as part of his work corroborating the original whistle-blower’s story, it said, citing two sources who said that the individual was still weighing whether to file a complaint.
A series of text messages between US diplomats dealing with Ukraine, made public by the congressional investigators, supported Democratic accusations that Trump had illegally sought foreign help for his re-election effort.
The Wall Street Journal reported that, in an interview, US Senator Ron Johnson said that he had learned that a quid pro quo had been proposed to Zelenskiy’s government by Trump’s emissaries, tying military aid to a Ukraine corruption investigation into Biden.
Trump pushed back hard, saying that there was no quid pro quo and, in an effort to recast the entire saga, insisted that it was his responsibility to investigate “corruption.”
“I don’t care about Biden’s campaign, but I care about corruption,” he told reporters.
The former US vice president responded by calling Trump “the most corrupt president we’ve had in modern history.”
“I am not going to stand for it,” Biden said at a campaign event in Los Angeles, deeming Trump “unhinged.”
“He has indicted himself by his own statements,” Biden added, one day after Trump openly called for both Beijing and Kiev to investigate the Democrat for corruption.
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