Key facts and latest news
- Democrats are weighing steps they can take to conceal the whistleblower’s identity in a potential interview.
- The House committees leading the impeachment probe issued subpoenas to the Pentagon and White House budget office, demanding documents about freezing military aid to Ukraine.
- On a July call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr. TrumpurgedUkraine to investigate Joe Biden. Before the call, the president instructed acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney tohold off on releasing military aid to Ukrainethat had been appropriated by Congress.
- Soon after the July call, White House officialsmoveda record of the call to a highly classified computer system, severely restricting who could access it.
Washington– The House Intelligence Committee is considering “extraordinary moves” to protect the whistleblower’s identity in a still-unscheduled upcoming interview, according to one lawmaker.
“We have to take all precautions, because we cannot burn his or her identity,” Democratic Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi told CBS News.
The potential measures – including obscuring the whistleblower’s appearance and voice – were (first reportedby The Washington Post on Monday.
The measures the committee is considering are extremely rare. A Senate Intelligence Committee aide said they could not think of a time when their committee has taken such steps to protect an interviewee’s identity. The person said the closest parallel they could think of was when the chair and vice chair offered to fly to London to interview Christopher Steele, the author of a dossier detailing ties between the Trump campaign and Russia who had legal concerns about traveling to the US
The measures the House committee is considering, this aide said, “speak to concerns about the ranking member and his intentions. ” In other words, Democrats are worried that Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the committee, will share the whistleblower’s identity with the White House.
On the Senate side, “I can’t think of a time when we needed to conceal someone’s identity from the other party,” the aide said.
Nunes relinquished his leadership of the House committee’s Russia probe after he was accused of coordinating with the White House to disclose classified information aimed at embarrassing the previous administration.
The three House committees leading Democrats’ impeachment probe issued new subpoenas to thesecretary of defenseandacting White House budget director, requesting documents about the decision tofreeze military aidto Ukraine over the summer. –Nancy Cordes
US Ambassador Gordon Sondland set to testify
7: 37 amU.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland will be deposed on Capitol Hill Tuesday behind closed doors as part of the ongoing impeachment inquiry. Sondland was mentioned in the original ICIG whistleblower complaint.
Texts released last week between Sondland and other U.S. diplomats discussed efforts to get the Ukrainians to draft a statement agreeing on investigations into Burisma, the energy company that hired Joe Biden’s son Hunter, and Ukraine’s alleged involvement in the 2016 US election. A White House meeting was dangled in front of the Ukrainians.
In one text , Bill Taylor, the top US diplomat in Ukraine, wrote, “I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”
Sondland replied that Taylor was “incorrect about President Trump’s intentions,” saying the president had been “crystal clear: no quid pro quo’s of any kind.”
Former Senior White House Aides: Trump not getting good advice on Ukraine, Syria
6: 57 amCBS spoke to several former senior administration aides over the last few days including former senior White House advisers who have been mostly critical of how the White House has handled recent situations including the Ukraine call, the release of the call summary, the impeachment inquiry, and now Syria.
The former senior advisers believe that there is a dearth of advisers in the current White House who have the ability or willingness to dissuade the president from bad political decisions.
“There is no one really left who can say, ‘that’s a bad idea,'” one former senior Trump aide said.
CBS also spoke to current senior administration officials who expressed frustration over the release of the Ukraine call summary / transcript.
– Fin Gomez, Sara Cook and Weijia Jiang
Trump calls impeachment inquiry a “scam”
Monday, 4: 54 PM: (After) signing a pair of trade dealswith Japan at the White House, the president took questions from reporters and called the impeachment probe a “scam.”
“The impeachment inquiry The conversation that I had with the Ukrainian president, Zelensky, was a very good, it was a very cordial conversation, “Mr. Trump said.
He again criticized House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff for paraphrasing his remarks on the call during a congressional hearing last week, calling him a “fraud.” –Stefan Becket
GOP senator says Trump “should not have raised the Biden issue” on Ukraine call
Monday, 4: 21 pm:Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio said the president raising the prospect of investigating the Bidens on the July 25 call with the president of Ukraine was “not appropriate” but said he doesn’t think it rises to the level of an impeachable offense.
“The president should not have raised the Biden issue on that call, period. It’s not appropriate for a president to engage a foreign government in an investigation of a political opponent,” Portman said in aninterview with The Columbus Dispatchpublished Monday. “I don’t view it as an impeachable offense. I think the House frankly rushed to impeachment assuming certain things.”
The presidentcalled Portman“honorable” last week after Portman said he was given a “consistent reason” for the delay in releasing Ukraine aid. –Stefan Becket
Pentagon and Office of Management and Budget subpoenaed
Monday, 12: 39 pm:The Pentagon and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) have beensubpoenaed for documentsin House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings and Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel wrote to Defense Secretary Mark Esper and OMB Acting Director Russell Vought on Monday informing them of the subpoenas.
“Pursuant to the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry, we are hereby transmitting a subpoena that compels you to produce the documents set forth in the accompanying schedule by October 15, 2019, “the chairmen wrote in their letter.
The White House was alsosubpoenaedfor documents late Friday.
At least one week before Mr. Trump spoke by phone with the Ukrainian president in late July, he instructed his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to hold off on releasing nearly $ 400 million in military aid for Ukraine that had already been appropriated by Congress. A senior administration official with direct knowledge of the Trump administration’s actions regarding the fundspreviously confirmedto CBS News the delay in military aid.
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