Republicans are “setting a dangerous precedent that threatens the republic itself” in supporting Donald Trump against efforts to impeach him, the former director of the US Office of Government Ethics has warned.
Walter Shaub claims all future presidents will “be able to point to Trump to justify soliciting foreign attacks on elections” and a raft of other accusations levelled at the current commander-in-chief.
Meanwhile, a confidential White House review has revealed the extensive and potentially embarrassing efforts taken to create after-the-fact justification for Mr Trump’s military aid decisions in Ukraine, and thus prevent the ongoing impeachment scandal.
In less impeach-y news, Mr Trump hosted Conan the dog at the White House, where he presented the military canine with a medal and a plaque for his part in the raid on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, last month.
During that Syria raid, Conan was reportedly injured. But he looked quite healthy on Monday.
Mr Trump otherwise kept a low profile on Monday, amid reports that he is increasingly working in the White House residence instead of the Oval Office, apparently because of developing trust issue stemming from the impeachment probe.
“The rule of law is what sets us apart from our adversaries,” Richard Spencer, the secretary of the navy, told the president as he was fired by Mark Esper, the defence secretary, on Sunday.
Mr Spencer had allegedly proposed a backroom deal with the White House designed to resolve a public spat over disgraced Navy Seal Edward Gallagher – without telling Mr Esper.
- Attacking states and private citizens frequently and in terms that demean the presidency
- Using the presidency to tout his private businesses and effectively encouraging a party, candidates, businesses and others to patronise his business
- Engaging in a documented campaign of obstruction of a Special Counsel's investigation.
- Relentlessly attacking the free press
- Violating human rights and international law at our border
- Firing the heads of the government's top law enforcement agencies for allowing investigations of the president
- Retaliating against whistleblowers and witnesses who testify before Congress
In the preview of an interview shown on Fox News on Sunday night, the adviser, who has drawn scrutiny for his role in the Ukraine scandal, also compared the US president to a number of biblical kings, Samuel Lovett reports.
“God’s used imperfect people all through history,” Mr Perry told the broadcaster. “King David wasn’t perfect, Saul wasn’t perfect, Solomon wasn’t perfect.”
Among the hundreds of documents found were email exchanges between Mr Trump's chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House budget officials seeking to provide an explanation for the withholding of nearly $400m (£310m) in security assistance.
White House lawyers are reportedly expressing concern that the review turned up some unflattering and potentially embarrassing exchanges.
The US president’s son appeared to joke about the risks of having sex with people who have the virus, while sharing an article from an LGBT+ website.
The 77-year-old businessman issued a statement on his campaign website under the slogan: “A new choice for Democrats, proven leadership for America.”
He said: “I’m running for president to defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America.
Today is the deadline a federal judge set to decide on whether former White House attorney Donald McGahn must comply with a congressional subpoena and testify before a House committee investigating the president in its impeachment inquiry.
Here's some background on the president's tense relationship with the former White House counsel from a story I wrote in June about Mr McGahn's explosive testimony to former Special Counsel Robert Mueller:
Donald Trump's right-hand man asked White House officials if there were legal grounds to withhold military aid from Ukraine in the month after the president had made the decision - according to an internal investigation uncovered by US media.
The withholding of $391m of aid - and whether the move was used to pressure Ukrainian officials into launching an investigation into Mr Trump's political rival Joe Biden - has become the centrepiece of the impeachment investigation against the president.
Now an internal investigation by the White House's legal department has reportedly uncovered hundreds of documents that reveal the extent of the Trump administration's attempts to justify the delay of the financial support.
Lindsey Graham revealed he blocked a resolution officially recognising Turkey’s genocide of the Armenian people following a request from the White House, because Turkish President Recep Tayyip was visiting at the time of the vote.
The South Carolina Republican said he was asked by senior White House staff earlier this month to block the resolution after a meeting he attended in the Oval Office that was hosted by Donald Trump and included the Turkish president.
Mr Graham was one of five Republican senators present at the White House meeting who had publicly denounced Turkey’s recent invasion of northeastern Syria after Mr Trump announced his decision to pull US troops out of the region. The senator castigated Mr Erdogan as Mr Trump “sat back and watched,” Axios reported, decrying the Syrian invasion and rejecting Mr Erdogan’s claims that Kurdish forces in the region — who are allied with the US — are part of a terrorist group.
Still, Mr Graham went on later that day to vote against the measure that surely would have upset the Turkish president, telling the news outlet he was asked by a White House legislative affairs official to “please object” the resolution.
“After the meeting, we kind of huddled up and talked about what happened," he said. “The only reason I did it is because he [Erdoğan] was still in town. ... That would've been poor timing. I'm trying to salvage the relationship if possible."
Story to come...
