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Trump says he wants Ukraine, China to investigate Bidens as ex-U.S. envoy testifies
A longtime U.S. diplomat who served as Donald Trump's special envoy for Ukraine was set to tell his story to congressional committee staff on Thursday, as the Republican president suggested more explicitly than he has to date that Ukraine and China should investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Kurt Volker resigned as special representative for Ukraine negotiations on Sept. 27, the day after the public release of a whistleblower complaint that described him as trying to "contain the damage" from efforts by Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to press Ukraine to investigate Democrats.
On Thursday, staff from the House's foreign affairs, intelligence and oversight committees will conduct a transcribed interview with Volker. The 54-year-old, also a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, is appearing voluntarily.
The briefing will take place behind closed doors, the first of a series of events in the probe, none of them public, scheduled within the 10 days. More are expected.
I would say President Zelensky, if it was me, I would recommend that they start an investigation into the Bidens.- Donald Trump
Democratic lawmakers have said they are prepared to subpoena White House records about Trump's July 25 telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Charges that Trump pressured Zelensky to investigate the former vice-president Biden, a leading rival in Trump's bid for re-election in 2020, helped prompt House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to announce a formal impeachment investigation last week.
Trump on Tuesday again accused the whistleblower of fabricating the contents of the phone call but then appeared to confirm its most damaging allegation.
"I would say President Zelensky, if it was me, I would recommend that they start an investigation into the Bidens," Trump said, adding that China should also look into business dealings involving Biden's son, Hunter Biden.
Congressman Tim Ryan
✔@RepTimRyan
https://twitter.com/RepTimRyan/status/1179770427213848577
Trump just doesn't learn his lesson. It's illegal to pressure a foreign government to investigate a political rival. https://twitter.com/PeterAlexander/status/1179763309509300224 …
Peter Alexander
✔@PeterAlexander
Asked what he wanted President Zelensky to do about the Bidens, “If they were honest about it, they would start a major investigation into the Bidens.”
301
10:49 AM - Oct 3, 2019
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177 people are talking about this
Congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio was among the Democrats to quickly react to Trump's plea, calling it "illegal."
Hunter Biden had business interests in Ukraine and China while his father served as vice-president.
Trump said he hadn't directly asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to investigate Biden and his son but said it's "certainly something we could start thinking about."
Trump supporters have accused Joe Biden of leading a U.S. effort to remove a Ukraine prosecutor, Viktor Shokin in a bid to end investigations at Burisma, an energy company in which his son held a board seat,
But Ukraine officials have gone on record stating that any inquiries into potential corruption at Burisma were focused on the 2011-2012 period, two years before the younger Biden joined the board. Shokin was removed by then-president Petro Poroshenko in early 2016 after just over a year in the role.
Without referring to him by name, Trump referred to Shokin on Thursday as a "very tough prosecutor," but British authorities, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund officials accused Shokin at the time of not doing enough investigative work in a country plagued by corruption — the non-governmental organization Transparency International has perennially ranked Ukraine in the bottom 60 of its rankings of countries with respect to corruption.
Trump froze $400 million in U.S. aid to Ukraine shortly before he asked its president for the favour, prompting
accusations from Democrats that he had misused U.S. foreign policy for personal gain.
He again described the phone call as "perfect" and even went a step further, saying that Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell put out a statement describing it as the "most innocent phone call he's read."
It wasn't immediately clear what Trump was referring to. McConnell released a statement on Sept. 24 accusing the Democrats of rushing to judgment on the whistleblower complaint, but the characterization the president describes does not appear in the statement.
State Dept. official's documents called 'propaganda'
In addition to Volker, Intelligence Community Insp. General Michael Atkinson will testify at an intelligence committee hearing on Friday. Marie (Masha) Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador in Kyiv until Trump recalled her in May before her normal term was up, will meet with committee staff on Oct. 11.
When asked about Yoyanovitch on Thursday, Trump said, "I heard very bad things about her for a long period of time," without elaborating.
Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin holds up a document to reporters that was submitted to the House on Wednesday. Raskin and others in the party were left perplexed by some of the information they received as part of a closed-door briefing with the State Department's inspector general. (Susan Walsh/The Associated Press)
Some of Trump's Republican allies have joined Trump in seeking to discredit California Democrat Adam Schiff, chair of the House's intelligence panel, after a New York Times report on Wednesday said that the whistleblower had contacted the committee for advice on how to proceed.
Both Republicans and Democrats familiar with the process said, however, that Schiff's panel had acted properly in advising the person to contact an inspector general and seek legal counsel.
Late on Wednesday, Texas Congressman Mike McCaul, the top Republican on the House foreign affairs committee, criticized the session with Volker, saying foreign affairs committee Republicans were not being given equal representation or the chance to question Volker.
He also expressed concern that Eliot Engel, the Democratic House foreign affairs chairman, had ceded oversight of U.S. foreign policy to the intelligence committee because that panel, he said, would lead the questioning of Volker.
Staff from eight Senate and House congressional committees, including Republicans and Democrats, also reacted with surprise on Wednesday after a briefing by the State Department's inspector general, Steve Linick.
At the briefing, Linick handed out packets of documents that the only lawmaker who attended, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, described as "propaganda and disinformation."
A photograph of one document, whose source was not disclosed, described a discredited theory promoted by Trump allies that Yovanovitch was installed in her post by billionaire George Soros, a Democratic donor frequently attacked by far-right activists.
Biden defiant
For his part, Biden hit back at Trump at a rally in Nevada on Wednesday.
"Let me make something clear to Trump and his hatchet men and the special interests funding his attacks against me — I'm not going anywhere," said Biden.
"You're not going to destroy me, and you're not going to destroy my family," he added.
The impeachment probe could lead to approval of articles of impeachment — or formal charges — against Trump in the House. A trial on whether to remove Trump from office would then be held in the Republican-controlled Senate. Republicans, however, have shown little appetite for ousting him.
A longtime U.S. diplomat who served as Donald Trump's special envoy for Ukraine was set to tell his story to congressional committee staff on Thursday, as the Republican president suggested more explicitly than he has to date that Ukraine and China should investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Kurt Volker resigned as special representative for Ukraine negotiations on Sept. 27, the day after the public release of a whistleblower complaint that described him as trying to "contain the damage" from efforts by Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to press Ukraine to investigate Democrats.
On Thursday, staff from the House's foreign affairs, intelligence and oversight committees will conduct a transcribed interview with Volker. The 54-year-old, also a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, is appearing voluntarily.
The briefing will take place behind closed doors, the first of a series of events in the probe, none of them public, scheduled within the 10 days. More are expected.
I would say President Zelensky, if it was me, I would recommend that they start an investigation into the Bidens.- Donald Trump
Democratic lawmakers have said they are prepared to subpoena White House records about Trump's July 25 telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Charges that Trump pressured Zelensky to investigate the former vice-president Biden, a leading rival in Trump's bid for re-election in 2020, helped prompt House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to announce a formal impeachment investigation last week.
Trump on Tuesday again accused the whistleblower of fabricating the contents of the phone call but then appeared to confirm its most damaging allegation.
"I would say President Zelensky, if it was me, I would recommend that they start an investigation into the Bidens," Trump said, adding that China should also look into business dealings involving Biden's son, Hunter Biden.
Congressman Tim Ryan
✔@RepTimRyan
https://twitter.com/RepTimRyan/status/1179770427213848577
Trump just doesn't learn his lesson. It's illegal to pressure a foreign government to investigate a political rival. https://twitter.com/PeterAlexander/status/1179763309509300224 …
Peter Alexander
✔@PeterAlexander
Asked what he wanted President Zelensky to do about the Bidens, “If they were honest about it, they would start a major investigation into the Bidens.”
301
10:49 AM - Oct 3, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy
177 people are talking about this
Congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio was among the Democrats to quickly react to Trump's plea, calling it "illegal."
Hunter Biden had business interests in Ukraine and China while his father served as vice-president.
Trump said he hadn't directly asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to investigate Biden and his son but said it's "certainly something we could start thinking about."
Trump supporters have accused Joe Biden of leading a U.S. effort to remove a Ukraine prosecutor, Viktor Shokin in a bid to end investigations at Burisma, an energy company in which his son held a board seat,
But Ukraine officials have gone on record stating that any inquiries into potential corruption at Burisma were focused on the 2011-2012 period, two years before the younger Biden joined the board. Shokin was removed by then-president Petro Poroshenko in early 2016 after just over a year in the role.
Without referring to him by name, Trump referred to Shokin on Thursday as a "very tough prosecutor," but British authorities, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund officials accused Shokin at the time of not doing enough investigative work in a country plagued by corruption — the non-governmental organization Transparency International has perennially ranked Ukraine in the bottom 60 of its rankings of countries with respect to corruption.
Trump froze $400 million in U.S. aid to Ukraine shortly before he asked its president for the favour, prompting
accusations from Democrats that he had misused U.S. foreign policy for personal gain.
He again described the phone call as "perfect" and even went a step further, saying that Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell put out a statement describing it as the "most innocent phone call he's read."
It wasn't immediately clear what Trump was referring to. McConnell released a statement on Sept. 24 accusing the Democrats of rushing to judgment on the whistleblower complaint, but the characterization the president describes does not appear in the statement.
State Dept. official's documents called 'propaganda'
In addition to Volker, Intelligence Community Insp. General Michael Atkinson will testify at an intelligence committee hearing on Friday. Marie (Masha) Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador in Kyiv until Trump recalled her in May before her normal term was up, will meet with committee staff on Oct. 11.
When asked about Yoyanovitch on Thursday, Trump said, "I heard very bad things about her for a long period of time," without elaborating.
Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin holds up a document to reporters that was submitted to the House on Wednesday. Raskin and others in the party were left perplexed by some of the information they received as part of a closed-door briefing with the State Department's inspector general. (Susan Walsh/The Associated Press)
Some of Trump's Republican allies have joined Trump in seeking to discredit California Democrat Adam Schiff, chair of the House's intelligence panel, after a New York Times report on Wednesday said that the whistleblower had contacted the committee for advice on how to proceed.
Both Republicans and Democrats familiar with the process said, however, that Schiff's panel had acted properly in advising the person to contact an inspector general and seek legal counsel.
Late on Wednesday, Texas Congressman Mike McCaul, the top Republican on the House foreign affairs committee, criticized the session with Volker, saying foreign affairs committee Republicans were not being given equal representation or the chance to question Volker.
He also expressed concern that Eliot Engel, the Democratic House foreign affairs chairman, had ceded oversight of U.S. foreign policy to the intelligence committee because that panel, he said, would lead the questioning of Volker.
Staff from eight Senate and House congressional committees, including Republicans and Democrats, also reacted with surprise on Wednesday after a briefing by the State Department's inspector general, Steve Linick.
At the briefing, Linick handed out packets of documents that the only lawmaker who attended, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, described as "propaganda and disinformation."
A photograph of one document, whose source was not disclosed, described a discredited theory promoted by Trump allies that Yovanovitch was installed in her post by billionaire George Soros, a Democratic donor frequently attacked by far-right activists.
Biden defiant
For his part, Biden hit back at Trump at a rally in Nevada on Wednesday.
"Let me make something clear to Trump and his hatchet men and the special interests funding his attacks against me — I'm not going anywhere," said Biden.
"You're not going to destroy me, and you're not going to destroy my family," he added.
The impeachment probe could lead to approval of articles of impeachment — or formal charges — against Trump in the House. A trial on whether to remove Trump from office would then be held in the Republican-controlled Senate. Republicans, however, have shown little appetite for ousting him.
