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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maanvi Singh in San Francisco (now) and Joan E Greve in Washington (earlier)

Donald Trump impeachment inquiry: whistleblower complaint shows 'serious wrongdoing' – as it happened

Summary

Here’s the latest:

  • This morning, the White House released a memo on a July conversation between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskiy during which he pressed the Ukranian leader to consider investigating Joe Biden.
  • Lawmakers also reviewed a whistleblower complaint from an unidentified member of the intelligence community regarding Trump’s communications with Ukraine. Democratic legislators who read the document called it “deeply disturbing” and “very credible.” Both Republicans and Democrats have called for the complaint to be made public.
  • In a rambling press conference, Trump insisted that the memo cast him in a good light, and disparaged Democrats looking to impeach him.
  • The US president sat with the Ukrainian leader in an awkward televised press conference.

We’ll be back tomorrow with live coverage, as congress grills director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire and more details about the US-Ukraine scandal come to light.

NYT: Whistleblower complaint includes concerns over how White House handled records

The whistleblower who filed a complaint about Donald Trump’s communications with Ukraine also raised concerns over how the White House handled records of the conversation, the Times reports, drawing from sources familiar with the complaint and a Justice Department memo explaining the rationale for withholding complaint:

The intelligence officer who filed a whistle-blower complaint about President Trump’s interactions with the leader of Ukraine raised alarms not only about what the two men said in a phone call, but also about how the White House handled records of the conversation, according to two people briefed on the complaint.

The whistle-blower, moreover, identified multiple White House officials as witnesses to potential presidential misconduct who could corroborate the complaint, the people said — adding that the inspector general for the intelligence community, Michael Atkinson, interviewed witnesses.

Mr. Atkinson eventually concluded that there was reason to believe that the president may have illegally solicited a foreign campaign contributions — and that his potential misconduct created a national security risk, according to a newly disclosed Justice Department memo.

Elizabeth Warren tops national poll, gains Johnathan Van Ness endorsement

Senator Warren of Massachusetts secured a key endorsement — from Jonathan Van Ness of Netflix’s Queer Eye.

“Senator Warren, go save America,” he exclaimed in a call with the 2020 candidate.

And as The Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt reported today:

Elizabeth Warren’s surge to the very top of the Democratic primary field is continuing, after the Massachusetts senator topped a national poll for the first time on Wednesday.

A survey by Quinnipiac found Warren polling at 27% among Democrats and Democratic leaning voters, with Joe Biden on 25%. Bernie Sanders, previously seen as part of a top three of Democratic presidential candidates, had 16%.

With margin of error factored in Warren is essentially tied with Biden, but the poll represents a major boost, coming after a slew of recent surveys in recent days found her leading or tied in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.

The Quinnipiac poll contained bad news for the California senator Kamala Harris, who was at just 3%, and the New Jersey senator Cory Booker, who was the choice of 0% of Democratic leaning voters. South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg was at 7%.

Updated

And there’s a 219th impeachment supporter...

Another Democratic representative, Sharice Davids of Kansas, has joined in supporting impeachment for Trump, bringing the total number to 218 — the exact number needed to pass articles of impeachment if all members of the House voted.

Davids, the first openly LGBT, Native American woman elected to congress, beat a republican incumbent in 2018.

Updated

Explainer: What is CrowdStrike and what does it have to do with Trump?

From Thr Guardian’s Kari Paul, in San Francisco:

Of the many questions surrounding Donald Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president, there’s one that has people especially puzzled. What is CrowdStrike, and why did Trump bring it up?

On Wednesday, the White House released a partial transcript of the call between Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, in which he asked the Ukrainian president to look into potential 2020 political opponent Joe Biden and his ties to a company in Ukraine. But earlier in the call, Trump begins to ramble about CrowdStrike, a US cybersecurity company.

“I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it,” Trump said, according to the partial transcript. “I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say CrowdStrike...I guess you have one of your wealthy people… The server, they say Ukraine has it.”

CrowdStrike is mentioned several times in the Mueller Report, as the company was responsible for examining the hack of the Democratic National Committee’s email servers. The forensic work carried out by CrowdStrike ultimately identified Russia as the culprit for this hack and led to indictments of 12 Russian nationals.

Though it is not immediately clear what Trump is talking about in the transcript, he appears to be referencing a persistent right-wing conspiracy theory that the CrowdStrike investigation of the 2016 DNC hack was part of a “deep state” plot to blame Russia for election manipulation.

Conservatives have sought to portray CrowdStrike, which is based in Silicon Valley, as unreliable and part of a conspiracy against Trump. CrowdStrike was founded in 2011 and went public in June 2019 after raising $280m in venture capital.

At the root of this theory is the claim the DNC did not give the FBI “the server” that was hacked, and somehow that server ended up in Ukraine. In reality, there was not one server but more than 140 servers decommissioned by the DNC following the Russia hack. The subsequent investigation concluded it had sufficient information to determine Russian interference.

Still, Trump has tweeted a number of times about the alleged “missing server” since taking office, often mentioning it alongside Hillary Clinton’s “missing emails.”

People who subscribe to this conspiracy believe CrowdStrike is owned by a Ukrainian national. In 2017, Trump told the Associated Press CrowdStrike is owned by a “very rich Ukrainian”. Officials at CrowdStrike are reportedly very confused about Trump’s references to the company.

“With regards to our investigation of the DNC hack in 2016, we provided all forensic evidence and analysis to the FBI,” Crowdstrike said in a statement on Wednesday. “As we’ve stated before, we stand by our findings and conclusions that have been fully supported by the US intelligence committee.”

Chuck Schumer calls for whistleblower complaint to be declassified

The democratic senate minority leader joins a republican member of the House intelligence committee in calling for the complaint to be made public.

Updated

Ukrainian officials understood that Trump's aid was conditional on Biden probe

ABC reports that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s administration “came to recognize a precondition to any executive correspondence” between Ukraine and the US:

“It was clear that [President Donald] Trump will only have communications if they will discuss the Biden case,” said Serhiy Leshchenko, an anti-corruption advocate and former member of Ukraine’s Parliament, who now acts as an adviser to Zelenskiy. “This issue was raised many times. I know that Ukrainian officials understood.”

The Trump administration’s alleged insistence that the two leaders discuss a prospective investigation into Biden, one of the president’s political opponents, casts his July 25 conversation with Zelenskiy in a new light.

During the call, a rough summary of which was released by the White House Wednesday, Trump repeatedly encouraged Zelenskiy to work with Attorney General William Barr and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to probe Biden’s role in the dismissal of the country’s prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin, in 2016.

Elise Stefanik, a republican member of the House intelligence committee who reviewed the whistleblower complaint said it “should be immediately declassified and made public for the American people to read.”

But the respresentative from New York also noted that she does not support impeachment.

Updated

Democratic and republican lawmakers are expressing concern after reviewing whistleblower complaint

It appears that members of the Senate intelligence committee have reviewed the Trump-Ukraine whistleblower complaint.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said, “I’m even more worried about what happened than I was when I read the memorandum of the conversation.”

Ben Sasse, a republican senator from Nebraska, also noted that there were “really troubling things” in the memo, but added that “everybody in this process should slow down” while lawmakers deliberate the findings.

Updated

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy has introduced a resolution to get congress to officially avow that it “disapproves” speaker Nancy Pelosi’s impeachment inquiry announcement yesterday.

The move drew the ire of McCarthy’s democratic colleagues in Congress, including majority leader Steny Hoyer.

Zelenskiy thought only Trump’s side of the call would be released

The Ukrainian president said that he believed only Donald Trump’s side of their July call would be released to the public, he told Ukrainian media.

According to Reuters, the White House memo on the phone call is “ a far-reaching diplomatic disaster”:

Zelenskiy’s comments to the Republican Trump, disclosed in the summary, will likely irk U.S. Democrats, risking the bipartisan U.S. support Kiev requires while irritating France and Germany whom Zelenskiy criticized in the same exchange.

Locked in a geopolitical standoff with neighboring Russia after Moscow annexed the Crimea region and backed pro-Russian separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine in 2014, Ukraine needs all the international friends it can get.

It relies heavily on Washington for aid and diplomatic help, and European countries like France and Germany are trying to help bring about talks aimed at breathing life into a stalled peace process over eastern Ukraine.

House Intelligence chair Adam Schiff said whistleblower complaint "exposed serious wrongdoing"

After reviewing the complaint, Schiff told reporters it provided ample information for the Intelligence Committee to follow up though he didn’t provide any details on its contents. “I found the allegations deeply disturbing. I also found them very credible,” he said.

He added: “I want to thank the whistleblower and let the whistleblower know that we are going to do everything we can to protect you.”

Reportedly, House chair Nancy Pelosi is also reviewing the complaint.

Updated

Maanvi Singh, here, taking over from The Guardian’s West Coast office, where we will continue to watch the fallout of Donald Trump’s Ukraine controversy and developments in the democrats’ impeachment inquiry.

Here’s a quick recap of today:

  • Donald Trump just wrapped up a press conference, which was broadcast on most major news networks. In the end, he didn’t address most questions on Ukraine. Instead, the president rambled about his electoral college victory, derided the media, touted his border wall and falsely accused Joe Biden and the democratic party of wrongdoing.
  • Acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, denied the Washington Post’s report that he threatened to resign if the White House tried to prevent him from freely testifying before Congress on the whistleblower complaint tomorrow.
  • A memorandum released by the White House confirms that Trump discussed Joe Biden, Rudy Giuliani and special counsel Robert Mueller in his conversation with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
  • Trump allies in the government and at Fox News echoed his claims that the memo reflected well on him.
  • However, democratic lawmakers and a few republicans — including senator Mitt Romney — said they were shocked and troubled by the memo.
  • Hillary Clinton expressed support for impeaching Trump.
  • The Intelligence committees received the whistleblower complaint and are reviewing it.

Updated

Trump spoke at a news conference at the InterContinental Barclay New York hotel during the United Nations General Assembly.
Trump spoke at a news conference at the InterContinental Barclay New York hotel during the United Nations General Assembly. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

“I thought we won,” Trump said, adding that he believed the threat of investigation was “dead” after the Mueller report.

He also continued to accuse the media of being “fake” and “corrupt”

“I used to be the king of getting good press,” he said, lamenting, “all of the trauma that all of these fakers have caused”.

He ended the press conference after taking one last question from a Venezuelan media outlet.

Updated

The next question goes to Fox Business, and the outlet’s reporter asked about ... trade with China.

Trump insisted that Chinese officials “want to make a deal” because “their supply chains are going to hell.”

US and Chinese negotiators are expected to sit down again next month to restart trade talks, but Trump has shown no sign of backing down on his tariffs.

Two of Trump’s cabinet members, secretary of state Mike Pompeo and treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, have now taken the podium.

The president said that he would take more questions from reporters once Pompeo and Mnuchin finish speaking.

Trump: 'There was no quid pro quo'

Trump has responded to the first question on the Ukraine controversy by echoing the Republican messaging that the White House memo on his phone call with the country’s president showed no quid pro quo.

The president also claimed, with no evidence, that Barack Obama had sought dirt on him from foreign leaders.

Trump starts to take questions

After rambling for about 20 minutes on his supposed achievements, Trump has started taking questions from reporters. Stay tuned.

Trump’s rambling comments have now veered into the effectiveness of a potential wall along the southern border.

The wide-ranging nature of his appearance so far is less surprising to those who covered Trump’s 2016 campaign, however.

Trump suggests lawmakers should see his prior conversations with Ukraine

Trump appeared baffled that Democrats felt the White House memo on his phone call with the Ukrainian president had substantiated their announcement of a formal impeachment inquiry.

“Impeachment for that?” Trump asked.

The president also suggested that lawmakers should see all of the “perfect” conversations he and the vice president have had with Ukraine in recent months. Democrats would almost certainly take him up on that offer...

Updated

Here’s a fact-check from a CNN reporter on Trump’s accusation that congressional Democrats similarly tried to pressure Ukraine to launch investigations:

Trump, echoing his press secretary, denied the Washington Post’s report that the acting director of national intelligence threatened to resign if the White House tried to stop him from testifying freely before Congress tomorrow about the whistleblower complaint.

The president also cast doubt on the legitimacy of the whistleblower’s information as the initial complaint was simultaneously being reviewed by the congressional intelligence committees.

Trump is reiterating his claim that he did not pressure the Ukrainian president to investigate Joe Biden. “No push, no pressure, no nothing,” Trump said.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy made the same claim earlier today during his meeting with Trump in New York.

But the White House memo on Trump’s call with Zelenskiy showed that the president asked for “a favor” from Ukraine after the country’s leader mentioned military aid. Trump went on to suggest that Ukraine investigate Biden.

Trump is at the podium and regurgitating this two-part tweet demanding “transparency” on the baseless corruption accusations against Joe Biden.

Trump is recounting the meetings he has had this week as part of his UN visit and touting his administration’s foreign-policy achievements.

According to a PBS NewsHour reporter, the press conference could go on for a while.

Trump starts his press conference

Trump has appeared at the podium in New York, where he will certainly receive a number of questions on the Ukraine controversy. Stay tuned.

Intelligence committees receive whistleblower complaint

The leaders of the intelligence committees in the House and the Senate have received the whistleblower complaint that kicked off the Ukraine controversy and are now reviewing it.

Updated

As we await Trump’s appearance at his New York press conference, he just tweeted this enigmatic message demanding “transparency” on the baseless accusations against Joe Biden.

As far as transparency on the whistleblower, does Trump mean that the White House will not try to limit testimony from the whistleblower or the acting director of national intelligence? It’s unclear.

A Wall Street Journal reporter noted, in reaction to Zelenskiy’s apparent surprise at the inclusion of his comments in the memo on his phone call with Trump, that the White House repeatedly said it was seeking Ukraine’s permission before releasing the document.

Trump is expected to soon appear at a news conference in New York, where he will undoubtedly face numerous questions on the Ukraine call.

The whistleblower complaint is also reportedly now being transmitted to the congressional intelligence committees, so details on it will likely leak soon.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, reportedly thought the White House would only release Trump’s side of the conversation in its memo on the pair’s July call.

According to the White House memo, Zelenskiy repeatedly flattered Trump, informing the president he even stayed at Trump Tower the last time he visited the United States.

After Trump criticized the attorney for the Ukraine call whistleblower for donating to Joe Biden, a CNN anchor pointed out that the president himself previously donated to the former senator.

Extinction Rebellion activists blocked off a main stretch in San Francisco’s Financial District during Wednesday’s morning rush hour, calling for banks to divest from fossil fuels.

Demonstrators dressed as trees and painted elaborate street murals as others with anti-Trump and anti-Pence signs milled about, listening to speakers and a live band with an accordian. They held up signs reading “Earth Above Profit” as they blockaded the entrances to Wells Fargo and Citibank, their arms linked together in tubes.

The action had the feel of a block party as the activists literally blocked traffic -- members of the Sunrise Movement made a roadblock with a fake pipeline and oil rig to keep the city’s iconic cable car from its destination. Organizers set up an empathy tent and a listening tent for passersby to talk about climate anxiety.

Extinction Rebellion actions have been taking place around the world as part of the climate strike. In Los Angeles, activists shut down Sunset Boulevard on Monday. An International Rebellion is planned for 7 October.

Acting DNI denies report he threatened to resign

The acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, denied the Washington Post’s report that he threatened to resign if the White House tried to prevent him from freely testifying before Congress tomorrow on the whistleblower complaint.

Trump’s campaign manager said that the president’s reelection bid and the Republican National Committee have raised $5 million since Nancy Pelosi’s impeachment announcement yesterday.

The Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue attracted $4.6 million in donations yesterday, for comparison.

Representative Stephanie Murphy – a co-chair of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate Democrats – said she supported the formal impeachment inquiry announced by Nancy Pelosi yesterday.

Hours before Pelosi’s announcement, Murphy, who represents a swing district in Florida, said she supported the creation of a separate select committee to investigate impeachment.

But that idea was opposed by some of her Democratic colleagues, including representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who argued that forming a select committee would take up too much time and cause friction with the panels already investigating Trump.

Murphy has now apparently come around to the idea of launching an impeachment inquiry with the committees already probing the president’s actions.

White House denies report that acting DNI threatened to resign

The White House press secretary pushed back against a Washington Post report that the acting director of national intelligence threatened to resign if he was not allowed to testify freely before Congress tomorrow on the whistleblower complaint.

The transmission of the whistleblower complaint to Congress will conflict with Trump’s press conference in New York, and there’s sure to be a lot of news from both.

Updated

Whistleblower complaint being transmitted to House intelligence committee today, Republican says

Representative Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House intelligence committee, said the whistleblower complaint that kicked off the Ukraine controversy will be transmitted to the panel in the next hour.

Acting DNI reportedly threatened to resign if White House tried to block testimony

The acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, reportedly threatened to resign if the White House attempted to stonewall his planned testimony about the whistleblower complaint before Congress tomorrow.

The Washington Post reports:

The officials said that Joseph Maguire, who was thrust into the top intelligence post last month, warned the White House that he was not willing to withhold information from Congress, where he is scheduled to testify in open and closed hearings on Thursday.

The move was in part designed to force the White House to make an explicit legal decision on whether it was going to assert executive privilege over the whistleblower complaint, which centers on a call that Trump made with the leader of Ukraine in late July.

In essence, Maguire was serving notice that he intended to cooperate with lawmakers unless the White House moved forward with a legal case to prevent him from doing so, the officials said.

The meeting between Trump and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, seemed ... tense, at best.

A Washington Post reporter noted the body language of the two leaders:

And a CNN global affairs analyst said the meeting was a “mess” for Zelenskiy:

Biden calls on Congress to 'take prompt action to hold Donald Trump accountable'

Joe Biden has released a statement on the White House’s memo saying that Trump’s Ukraine call represents “an affront to every single American and the founding values of our country.”

The Democratic presidential candidate calls on Congress to continue investigating the president’s actions, but the statement involves not a single mention of impeachment.

Biden said: “Congress must pursue the facts and quickly take prompt action to hold Donald Trump accountable.

“In the meantime, I will continue to focus my campaign not on how Donald Trump abused his power to come after my family, but on how he has turned his back on America’s families.”

Biden said in a on-camera statement yesterday that he supported House Democrats moving forward with impeachment if the White House continued to obstruct their investigation of the Ukraine call. These latest comments don’t seem to be expanding much upon that initial statement.

Trump: Pelosi has 'lost her way'

Trump asserted that Nancy Pelosi has “lost her way” in the wake of her impeachment announcement.

The president said he thought that the House speaker had been “taken over” by the “radical left.”

“Nancy Pelosi, as far as I’m concerned, unfortunately, she’s no longer the speaker of the House,” Trump said.

Trump is making the bizarre argument that Hillary Clinton’s emails may be located in Ukraine. In his call with the Ukrainian president, according to the White House memo, Trump referenced a missing “server” that he would like to see investigated.

Ukrainian president: 'Nobody pushed me'

Volodymyr Zelenskiy told reporters that he did not feel pressured by Trump to investigate Joe Biden.

“I think you read everything,” the Ukrainian president said, referencing the White House memo on his phone call with Trump.

With the assistance of a translator, Zelenskiy added, “I don’t want to be involved [in the] democratic, open elections of USA.”

He said his July conversation with Trump was “normal” and they discussed “many things.” “Nobody pushed me,” the Ukrainian leader said.

Updated

Trump is deflecting attention away from his own actions while meeting with the Ukrainian president by referencing Russia’s annexation of Crimea, which occurred during Barack Obama’s presidency.

Zelenskiy emphasized that Ukraine needs “support” from allies like the United States and European countries. The Ukrainian president thanked those allies for their financial support, while emphasizing that the country could always use more.

Updated

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, opened his remarks in a meeting with Trump at the UN General Assembly with a joke.

“It’s better to be on TV than on the phone,” Zelenskiy quipped, in reference to the controversial phone call that is at the center of a whistleblower complaint on Trump’s interactions with Ukraine.

Trump meets with the Ukrainian president

Trump is sitting down with the Ukrainian president amid the uproar over the pair’s phone call that referenced a potential investigation into Joe Biden.

In the White House memo on his conversation with the Ukrainian president, Trump referenced CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm that helped uncover a connection between Russia and the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee.

The reference was a bit baffling to many who read the memo – including CrowdStrike’s own employees.

Vice’s Motherboard reports:

In a confusing ramble, Trump told Zelenksy he’d like him to look into ‘the server,’ and namedropped CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm that investigated the hack on the Democratic National Committee in 2016.

For what it’s worth, people at CrowdStrike are as confused as we all are.

‘I got nothing,’ Adam Meyers, the vice president of intelligence at CrowdStrike, told me in an online chat, when asked why Trump may have referred to the company in the call. ...

How Trump managed to remember the name ‘CrowdStrike,’ which is mentioned only four times in the Mueller report, each in footnotes, is anyone’s guess. And honestly, who knows what the fuck Trump is actually trying to say here. It’s unclear why he believes Ukraine has ‘the server,’ and what server he is even talking about. Presumably, Trump is referring to the DNC server that’s at the center of a conspiracy theory completely made up by Trump’s imagination, though perhaps he’s thinking of Hillary Clinton’s private email server. ...

According to this conspiracy, the FBI and CrowdStrike failed to seize a DNC server that supposedly holds important information related to the hack. In reality, there’s no missing server, and both CrowdStrike and the US government concluded that Russian government hackers broke into the DNC.

GOP operatives bragged that Trump’s reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee raked in about $1m yesterday after Nancy Pelosi’s impeachment announcement. But it appears Democrats were also overwhelmed with donations.

The New York Times reports:

At least initially, most Democrats were less explicit than Mr Trump in seeking to monetize the impeachment push, with several emailing their lists of supporters to first ask them to sign impeachment petitions, rather than asking directly for donations.

But money still flowed: The online ticker for ActBlue, the company that processes most online Democratic donations, showed that Tuesday was one of the bigger fund-raising days in recent months that was not linked to a Democratic debate or a monthly deadline. The site showed $4.6m in donations on Tuesday, after $4.2m on Monday.

All the 2020 Democratic presidential campaigns use ActBlue, as do most Democratic House and Senate candidates.

Updated

Senator Ted Cruz is the latest Republican lawmaker to echo the White House talking point that the Ukraine call memo does not show a direct quid pro quo.

The Texas Republican said in a statement: “Despite the wild speculations from the media, career intelligence community staffers, and congressional Democrats, the actual transcript of the call reveals no illegal quid pro quo.”

Meanwhile, Trump has sent at least 11 retweets in the last 20 minutes to amplify messaging from his allies that his conversation with the Ukrainian president was above board.

Representative Liz Cheney, the chair of the House GOP conference, accused her Democratic colleagues of launching an impeachment inquiry with “absolutely no justification.”

Cheney said at a news conference earlier today: “We’re now in a situation where not only have they hurt national security, but they’re fundamentally abdicating their constitutional responsibility.

“Impeachment is a very solemn, grave responsibility we all have and for this Speaker to be going down this path, and for the Democratic caucus to be going down this path before they have seen any evidence at all is something that I think is absolutely unprecedented in our history.”

Of course, Democrats might say that the reason they had not seen any evidence regarding the Ukraine call was because the White House had obstructed their efforts to obtain evidence at every turn – hence the impeachment inquiry.

Speaking alongside the Japanese prime minister in New York, Trump made the argument that Nancy Pelosi was pursuing a “manufactured crisis” with the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.

The president said Democratic lawmakers would be unable to pursue any other policy proposals if they focused on impeachment. “I don’t think they can do any deals,” Trump said.

But according to one Senate Democrat, negotiations on potential gun legislation remain ongoing, even after Pelosi’s impeachment announcement.

Senator Bob Casey, a Democrat of Pennsylvania, issued a statement in support of Trump’s impeachment in the wake of the White House releasing its memo on the Ukraine call.

Casey said: “The recent revelation that President Trump pressured a foreign government to investigate his political opponents is a textbook case of abuse of power which demands action. In order to hold President Trump fully accountable, I support a formal impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives.”

Casey won his third Senate term last year, beating his Republican opponent in the swing state of Pennsylvania by about 13 points. But the statement from a Democratic senator hailing from a state Trump narrowly carried in 2016 is still notable.

The Democratic chairs of four House committees investigating Trump have released a statement calling the Ukraine call an “unambiguous, damning, and shocking abuse of the Office of the Presidency for personal political gain.”

The statement is attributed to Adam Schiff of the intelligence committee, Jerry Nadler of the judiciary committee, Elijah Cummings of the oversight committee and Eliot Engel of the foreign affairs committee.

The chairs said: “The record of the call released by the White House confirms our worst fears: that the President abused his office by directly and repeatedly asking a foreign country to investigate his political rival and open investigations meant to help the President politically. ...

“Let’s be clear: no quid pro quo is required to betray our country. Trump asked a foreign government to interfere in our elections—that is betrayal enough.”

Nancy Pelosi is reportedly huddling with fellow senior House Democrats to determine a path forward on the impeachment inquiry after the House speaker’s bombshell announcement yesterday.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • The White House released a memo on Trump’s call with the leader of Ukraine showing that the president did push him to investigate Joe Biden and his son.
  • Democratic lawmakers expressed shock over the memo’s contents, while emphasizing that it demonstrated the need to receive the original whistleblower complaint. (The White House memo, after all, is not a verbatim transcript of the conversation between Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskiy.)
  • But congressional Republicans are arguing the memo shows no direct quid pro quo between Trump and the Ukrainian president – insisting that Democrats are raising concerns about a “nothing call,” as Trump called it.

The blog is still covering fallout over the memo’s release, so stay tuned.

The White House just offered a reminder to always double-check the recipients before hitting “send” on that office email.

The White House appeared to accidentally send its talking points on the Ukraine call to House Democrats. The talking points encouraged the president’s allies to argue that there was no direct quid pro quo conveyed in the memo and that the whistleblower complaint was handled “by the book.”

After realizing the error, the White House tried to recall the email to House Democrats. At the risk of stating the obvious: it seems a bit late for that.

Trump quoted a CNN reporter to amplify his argument that the White House memo on the Ukraine call falls short of a quid pro quo.

But a CNN anchor noted the reporter went on to make the argument that Trump appeared to be alluding to US aid in his conversation with the Ukrainian president before suggesting investigations.

In the tug of war between Trump insisting his conversation with the Ukrainian president was a “nothing call” and Democrats arguing it represents an abuse of power, Volodymyr Zelenskiy is trapped in the middle.

Andrew Roth reports from Kyiv on the Ukrainian president’s conundrum:

Zelenskiy is squeezed between a US president urging him to dig up dirt on his political rival Joe Biden and a Democratic party that sees the White House’s pressure on him as a compelling argument to unseat Trump.

Ukraine, which counts on US political support and military aid to help repel its larger neighbour Russia, could end up being treated like a political football in the upcoming impeachment battle and the 2020 elections, even as it grapples with larger issues of security and reforms.

‘I am afraid that Ukraine could become as toxic as Russia was during the Mueller investigation,’ said Alyona Getmanchuk, director of the Kyiv-based New Europe Center. ‘We understand that every move that Trump does in Ukraine will be seen through this scandal. Every ‘no’ to Ukraine will be seen as an act of revenge. Every ‘yes’ is a sign that he wants to prove people wrong.’

Some Senate Republicans concerned over the contents of the memo

Representative Adam Schiff has concluded his news conference, in which he expressed shock about the contents of the White House memo and hope that the whistleblower would soon testify before the House intelligence committee.

Meanwhile, over in the other chamber of Congress, some Republican senators are complaining about the White House’s decision to release the memo. One Senate Republican called the move a “huge mistake,” according to the Washington Post.

The Post reports:

A top Senate GOP aide said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is expecting Wednesday’s closed-door lunch to be eventful and possibly tense as Republicans react to the transcript and debate their next step. ...

Three Senate GOP aides said Wednesday that their bosses were grousing and frustrated by the White House’s decision and the sense that Republican lawmakers were being forced into the difficult position of defending Trump while contending with what many see as an alarming or at least problematic transcript.

Of course, some of the president’s closest allies, including senator Lindsey Graham, are echoing Trump’s claim that the memo represents a “nothing call.”

Adam Schiff said the whistleblower who first raised concerns about Trump’s communications with Ukraine is “eager” to speak to the House intelligence committee.

The California Democrat added that he hoped the whistleblower would be able to speak to his panel as soon as tomorrow.

The whistleblower is reportedly conferring with the acting director of national intelligence to determine how to testify before Congress.

Adam Schiff dismissed Republicans’ argument that the White House memo reflects no direct quid pro quo in the conversation between Trump and the Ukrainian president.

The House intelligence committee chairman noted that the Ukrainian president mentioned his country’s need for military assistance before Trump asked for “a favor” from the foreign leader.

Schiff added that a direct quid pro quo is not the bar for impeachable offenses. “There is no quid pro quo necessary to betray your country or your oath of office,” Schiff said.

But he added that he thought one could read the conversation, as conveyed by the White House memo, as a quid pro quo.

Adam Schiff once again compared Trump’s communications with Ukraine, as reported in the White House memo, to the actions of a mobster.

The House intelligence committee chairman said Trump’s conversation with the Ukrainian president represented a “classic, mafia-like shakedown of a foreign leader.”

“This is how a mafia boss talks,” Schiff said. “And it’s clear that the Ukraine president understands exactly what is expected of him.”

Updated

Schiff says he is 'shocked' by the White House memo

Representative Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House intelligence committee, is speaking at a news conference now.

The California Democrat said he was “shocked” by the contents of the White House memo and the idea that Trump officials thought it would reflect well upon the president.

Schiff said: “The notes of the call reflect a conversation far more damning than I or many others had imagined.”

Democratic presidential candidates reacted to the release of the White House memo with censure and demands for more transparency from the Trump administration.

Many of the reactions to the memo have centered around astonishment that the White House chose to release it, apparently believing that it would reflect well upon the president.

From a Republican strategist and outspoken Trump critic:

From a former senior adviser to senator Ted Cruz:

From an MSNBC host:

From a former FBI special agent:

From a University of Alabama law professor:

Some of Trump’s closest congressional allies were invited to the White House this morning to review the memo before it was released and discuss it, according to a Washington Post reporter.

It is perhaps unsurprising then that lawmakers close to Trump have quickly coalesced around messaging that the memo does not incriminate the president and shows no direct quid pro quo.

House judiciary committee chairman calls on Barr to recuse himself

Representative Jerry Nadler, the Democratic chairman of the House judiciary committee, called on attorney general William Barr to recuse himself from matters dealing with Trump’s Ukraine call after the White House memo was released.

The memo showed that Trump repeatedly suggested that the Ukrainian president work with Barr and Rudy Giuliani to launch investigations in his country. Trump went on to specifically reference a possible investigation of Joe Biden and his son.

The Justice Department put out a statement asserting that Barr did not discuss any potential investigation of Biden with Trump, but that is unlikely to reassure Nadler and other Democratic members of his committee.

Romney reiterates that he finds the Ukraine call memo 'troubling'

Republican Senator Mitt Romney, speaking at the Atlantic magazine festival in Washington, said of the memo released by the White House: “My reaction was the same as I had a few days ago, which is this remains deeply troubling and we’ll see where it leads. But my first reaction is it’s troubling.”

Asked if it shows a quid pro quo, the former presidential nominee added: “I don’t know I focused so much on the quid pro quo element as perhaps some do. I just focus on, if the president of the United States asks the leader of a foreign country to carry out an investigation of a political nature, that’s troubling.”

Romney said it was important for more information to be made public. “The consequences are being considered by the House and I’m not going to give advice to Speaker Pelosi... We’ll see where that leads.”

Questioned over whether this could rise to an impeachable offence, Romney appeared hesitant. “I’m going to leave it at what I said and let the process gather the facts that ultimately will come out.”

Republican messaging: There's no quid pro quo

Trump and his allies appear to be coalescing around an argument that the memo released by the White House shows no direct “quid pro quo” in the president’s conversation with the leader of Ukraine.

Trump himself trumpeted this argument in a tweet quoting Fox News host Bret Baier. (As always, take Trump’s tweeted quotes with a grain of salt. They have previously proven far from accurate.)

It’s true that the memo, which is not a verbatim readout of the conversation, does not include a line demanding an investigation of Joe Biden in exchange for releasing military aid to Ukraine.

But that doesn’t mean the conversation conveyed in the memo is totally above board. On the contrary, Zelenskiy brings up military aid and Trump is quoted as responding, “I would like you to do us a favor though.” He goes on to discuss possibly investigations and later brings up Joe Biden and his son.

So the fact that there is no “we must have this for that” line doesn’t mean the president is exonerated.

Representative Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee, compared Trump’s comments to the Ukrainian president to “a classic mob shakedown.”

Trump's allies jump to his defense

Some of Trump’s congressional allies are rushing to claim that the White House memo proves Democrats’ fears about the Ukraine call were baseless – a claim directly contradicted by the memo itself.

From the top Republican on the House judiciary committee:

From the chairman of the House freedom caucus:

It is true that the Ukrainian president was the first to bring up Rudy Giuliani, according to the memo the White House released. But Trump then pushed Zelenskiy to talk to Giuliani and specifically referenced a possible investigation of Joe Biden, which the Ukrainian president had not mentioned at all.

At least one Republican lawmaker is openly voicing his discomfort with the memo’s contents. Senator Mitt Romney, who previously voiced concern about the Ukraine allegations, said he found the transcript “deeply troubling.”

Trump falsely claims memo represents a 'nothing call'

Speaking to reporters in New York, Trump insisted the White House memo proved his conversation with the Ukrainian president was a “nothing call” – an argument directly contradicted by the contents of the document.

“The way you had that built up, that call, it was going to be the call from hell,” Trump said. “It turned out to be a nothing call, other than a lot of people said I never knew you could so nice.”

But the White House memo, which again is not a verbatim transcript of the call, clearly shows that Trump brought up a possible investigation of Joe Biden in a discussion about providing military aid to Ukraine.

Close readers of the memo put out by the White House note that Trump appears to ask for “a favor” from the Ukrainian president immediately after the subject of military aid is raised.

That raises the possibility that Trump was posing a possible investigation of Joe Biden as a “quid pro quo” for the funding.

It’s important to remember that the document the White House released does not represent a verbatim readout of the conversation between Trump and the Ukrainian president.

In fact, the document includes repeated ellipses at points where the conversation appeared to turn to an investigation of Joe Biden.

Warren: 'Transcript is a smoking gun'

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren said the memo of Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president is, in and of itself, a “smoking gun.”

It is likely that many Democrats will soon echo the argument that the document proves the need for lawmakers to see the full whistleblower complaint.

Updated

Trump insists memo of the Ukraine call reflects well upon him

Speaking in New York, Trump appeared to stick to his argument that the memorandum of the Ukraine call reflected very well upon him.

On how people were reacting to the memo, Trump said, “A lot of people said, ‘I never knew you could be so nice.’”

He blamed coverage of the memo, which clearly shows that Trump brought up an investigation of Joe Biden with the Ukrainian president in a conversation about military aid to the country, on “corrupt” journalists.

Updated

It seems likely that the memo released by the White House does not include all of the conversation that took place between Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Even before the memo was released, journalists and national security experts warned that the document released would not be a verbatim readout of the conversation.

But that fact really sparks the question: if this is the positive spin on the conversation, what incriminating information is in the whistleblower complaint?

Updated

Justice Department declined to open criminal investigation into Trump's dealings with Ukraine

The criminal division of the Justice Department declined to open an investigation into Trump’s dealings with Ukraine after a whistleblower raised concerns about his communications, according to the New York Times.

The Times reports:

After a whistle-blower raised concerns about Mr. Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, the director of national intelligence and the inspector general for the intelligence community each referred the complaint for a possible criminal investigation into the president’s actions, according to a Justice Department official.

The department’s criminal division reviewed the matters and concluded that there was no basis for a criminal investigation into Mr. Trump’s behavior. Law enforcement officials determined that the transcript of the call did not show that Mr. Trump had violated campaign finance laws by soliciting from a foreign national a contribution, donation or thing of value.

The Justice Department has released a statement asserting that the attorney general, William Barr, has not spoken with Trump about urging Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden.

According to the memorandum of his call with the Ukrainian president, Trump repeatedly encouraged Volodymyr Zelenskiy to work with Barr and Rudy Giuliani on an investigation.

Updated

Republicans stunned by memorandum of the Ukraine call

Republican lawmakers are surprised that the White House chose to release this memorandum of the Ukraine call, particularly after Trump insisted it would exonerate him. The president even said this morning that Democrats would “apologize” after seeing it.

A HuffPost reporter mocked Trump’s repeated assertions that the memorandum would clear him of any wrongdoing in his communications with Ukraine.

Updated

Trump encourages Zelenskiy to work with Giuliani

Trump repeatedly mentioned his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, in his phone call with the Ukrainian president and encouraged Zelenskiy to work with him in an investigation.

“Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor bf New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you,” Trump said, according to the memorandum.

“I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what’s happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great.”

Trump repeated his suggestion for Zelensky to talk to Giuliani before concluding the call. “I will tell Rudy and Attorney General Barr to call,” Trump said.

Updated

Hillary Clinton backs impeachment

Hillary Clinton announced in the wake of the memorandum’s release that she supported impeaching Trump.

Updated

Trump asks Ukrainian president for 'a favor' before mentioning Biden

Trump specifically asked the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to launch an investigation, invoking special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony a day before the call took place.

“I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike,” Trump said.

“I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it’s very important that you do it if that’s possible.”

The reference to Crowdstrike is unclear, although a cybersecurity firm by that name conducted an analysis of the Democratic National Committee hack in 2016 and determined that two groups connected to the Russian government were behind the attack.

Updated

Memorandum shows Trump urged investigation of Biden and his son in Ukraine phone call

A newly released memorandum from the White House shows Trump discussed Joe Biden, Rudy Giuliani and special counsel Robert Mueller in his conversation with the Ukrainian president.

“There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it ... It sounds horrible to me,” Trump said.

Updated

Ross: I wasn't asleep; I was 'concentrating'

The blog briefly interrupts impeachment coverage to provide a critical update on another important matter: whether Trump’s commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, was asleep during the president’s speech at the UN General Assembly yesterday.

It certainly looked that way to many viewers of the speech. At one point, a camera panned to Ross and other senior White House officials in the audience for several moments, during which the commerce secretary never opened his eyes.

Ross has now provided a statement to the Guardian in which he clarified that he was not asleep, merely “concentrating” on the president’s speech.

“This is fake news,” Ross said. “I wear hearing aids and, during President Trump’s inspiring speech, which covered in detail the entire range of significant issues facing the world, was concentrating on what was being said.”

Republicans see political gain in impeachment fight

Meanwhile, over on Capitol Hill – a shining example of the depth and maturity of US government – House Republicans are handing out impeachment Mad Libs in their morning caucus meeting.

Many Republicans believe impeachment could be beneficial for them politically, activating their base and aggravating centrist voters who turned away from them in the 2018 midterms.

There has already been some anecdotal evidence to substantiate that argument. Trump’s reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee raised around $1 million yesterday by sending emails to supporters, encouraging them to join the “Official Impeachment Defense Task Force.”

Trump was reportedly taken aback by Nancy Pelosi’s impeachment announcement, incorrectly believing that his morning phone call to the House speaker yesterday had assuaged her concerns.

Pelosi mentioned the phone call in her appearance at the Atlantic Festival yesterday. She said Trump called to discuss gun legislation but that the conversation veered into “other things.” The speaker declined to elaborate on what those “other things” were.

CNN reports:

He had felt confident after phoning Pelosi earlier that morning. ... It was after that call that Trump made the decision to release an ‘unredacted’ version of the transcript of his July call -- against the advice of aides such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who warned him it would set a risky precedent. Trump wanted to undercut the argument from Democrats that he acted inappropriately, he said, and felt he had nothing to hide.

But when the announcement he would release the transcript did little to quell the growing calls for his impeachment, Trump was in disbelief.

Trump says Democrats should apologize after seeing the Ukraine call memorandum

Trump is still tweeting away, insisting that Democrats should “apologize” after they see the transcript of his phone call with the Ukrainian president, which is expected to be released as soon as this morning.

But Democrats have consistently said since reports of the call emerged that seeing the transcript would not be enough. They want the full whistleblower complaint, which may rely on more information than just one phone call between the two presidents.

Trump and his allies are likely to argue once the transcript is released that it totally answers any and all questions Democrats might have. But Pelosi and her caucus members have already made clear that it will not stop their investigation into the call.

Updated

Trump has been consistently tweeting since Nancy Pelosi made her impeachment announcement yesterday evening.

The president has shared several clips from Fox News with sympathetic hosts and commentators arguing that impeachment is a desperate ploy on the part of Democrats who are hell-bent on ousting Trump.

Of course, Pelosi said herself yesterday that she had tried to avoid launching a formal impeachment inquiry, despite ardent urging by many members of her caucus.

The House speaker previously said she would not take this step unless she felt her caucus members had the strongest possible case to make on impeachment. Apparently she thinks that now they do.

Trump: Democrats are 'frozen with hatred and fear'

Trump continues to lash out against Democratic lawmakers in the wake of Nancy Pelosi’s impeachment announcement, retweeting allies and accusing House Democrats of pursuing a “Witch Hunt.”

Giuliani says he has heard the transcript of Trump's Ukraine call

Good morning, live blog readers!

Well, here we are: the day after the official start of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry. With her announcement, Nancy Pelosi signaled her caucus is entering a new phase of its investigations of Donald Trump – and the president’s team is already giving the House speaker plenty of material to work with.

Appearing on “Fox and Friends” this morning, Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, said the transcript of the president’s call with the leader of Ukraine had been read to him. When asked whether he had heard the whole transcript, Giuliani replied, “I hope.”

The answer is sure to spark concerns for House Democrats. Why, they might ask, was a private citizen allowed to hear the transcript of the call before the elected lawmakers who have specifically requested information on whether Trump tried to pressure the Ukrainian president to investigate Joe Biden?

Giuliani’s comments come on the heals of a Washington Post report asserting that the president’s personal lawyer was deeply involved with pressuring Ukraine in the hopes of politically benefiting Trump.

The Post reports:

‘Rudy — he did all of this,’ one U.S. official said. ‘This s---show that we’re in — it’s him injecting himself into the process.’

Several officials traced their initial concerns about the path of U.S.-Ukrainian relations to news reports and interviews granted by Giuliani in which he began to espouse views and concerns that did not appear connected to U.S. priorities or policy.

The former New York mayor appears to have seen [Volodymyr] Zelenskiy, a political neophyte elected president of Ukraine in April and sworn in in May, as a potential ally on two political fronts: punishing those Giuliani suspected of playing a role in exposing the Ukraine-related corruption of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and delivering political ammunition against Biden.

It seems virtually certain that Giuliani will soon be dragged in front of one (or more) House committees to answer questions on these allegations. But whether the White House will actually let him answer is far less certain.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a luncheon during the UN General Assembly.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a luncheon during the UN General Assembly. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Here’s what else the blog is keeping its eye on today:

  • Trump is still in New York and will meet with the Ukrainian president at 2:15 p.m. EST.
  • The House Democratic caucus will hold a meeting this morning, where members will surely discuss next steps in the impeachment inquiry.
  • Senator Mitt Romney and representative Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House intelligence committee, will appear at the Atlantic Festival today.

That’s all still coming up, so stay tuned.

Updated

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