Donald Trump has attacked House impeachment inquiry witnesses as “Never Trumpers” without basis and delayed the release of a transcript of his first call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, a gesture his supporters had hoped would prove the president’s intentions towards the country were entirely innocent.
Kiev was reportedly alarmed by the hold-up of $400m (£312m) in American military aid this summer and reached out to Washington for answers, according to the latest records of witness testimony released by the inquiry from senior officials Laura Cooper, Catherine Croft and Christopher Anderson.
A federal judge has meanwhile ruled that the president cannot sue to stop his home state of New York from acquiring his tax returns while Mr Trump has unexpectedly come under fire from Fox host Andrew Napolitano, who took him to task for his “often tasteless banter” and disrespect for the US Constitution.
One man who also won’t be suing: Mick Mulvaney. The president’s acting chief of staff said Tuesday that he no longer plans to sue over the House impeachment proceedings and will instead follow Mr Trump’s directions and decline to cooperate.
In a court filing Tuesday, one day before the impeachment inquiry enters a critical phase of public hearings, Mr Mulvaney said he no longer planned to ask a judge for guidance on whether he must cooperate with the House.
He said he would rely on Mr Trump’s instructions “as supported by an opinion of the Office of Legal Counsel of the US Department of Justice, in not appearing for the relevant deposition.”
Mr Mulvaney had been subpoenaed to appear last week for a closed-door deposition before House impeachment investigators but did not show up.
House Democrats had seen him as a potentially important witness, in part because he has publicly confirmed the contours of a quid pro quo arrangement in which the Trump administration would release military aid to Ukraine in exchange for the country announcing an investigation into Democratic rival Joe Biden.
His name has also repeatedly surfaced in the testimony of other witnesses who have cooperated.
The Justice Department legal opinion that Mr Mulvaney references says close advisers to the president are immune from having to testify to Congress because “preparing for such examinations would force them to divert time and attention from their duties to the President at the whim of congressional committees.”
Additional reporting by the Associated Press. Please allow a moment for our live blog to load
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White House to release transcript of first Trump-Zelensky call
The White House is expected to release a transcript of Donald Trump’s first call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday, a gesture the US president promises will make for “tantalizing” reading and his supporters hope will prove his intentions towards the country were entirely innocent.
Trump promised as much on Monday night, branding himself "the most Transparent President in history" despite refusing to co-operate with the House impeachment inquiry or release his tax returns (more on which shortly).
His first call with Zelensky took place in April and is not to be confused with the 25 July call, during which Trump appeared to demand Ukraine start a high-profile and embarrassing anti-corruption investigation into his domestic political rival Joe Biden and the latter's son Hunter Biden in exchange for the release of $400m (£312m) in much-needed military aid approved by Congress.
A complaint by an anonymous CIA whistleblower about that "quid pro quo" exchange started the whole impeachment furore, which Trump has continued to insist amounts to nothing more than another deep state "witch hunt" designed to oust him following the "failure" of the Robert Mueller probe.
Of this new transcript, Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Saturday en route to Alabama: "They want to have a transcript of the other call, the second call, and I'm willing to provide that. You'll read the second call, and you'll tell me if there's anything wrong with it."
We still don't have a proper transcript of the 25 July call, remember, only a White House memo that the president has repeatedly referred to as a "transcript" to muddy the waters as he angrily denies wrongdoing.
Ukrainians 'alarmed by military aid hold-up', top diplomat told impeachment investigators
Kiev was reportedly alarmed by the hold-up of the US military aid this summer and reached out to Washington for answers, according to Laura Cooper, the Pentagon's deputy assistant secretary for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, whose testimony was one of three published by the House impeachment inquiry late on Monday.
"I knew from my [special envoy] Kurt Volker conversation and also from sort of the alarm bells that were coming from Ambassador [Bill] Taylor and his team that there were Ukrainians who knew about this," Cooper told the panel on Capitol Hill. "The context for the discussion that I had with Ambassador Volker related specifically to the path that he was pursuing to lift the hold would be to get them to make this statement, but the only reason they would do that is because there was, you know, something valuable."
Cooper told investigators that, in a series of July meetings at the White House, she came to understand that Trump's acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, was holding up the aid. "There was just this issue of the White House chief of staff has conveyed that the president has concerns about Ukraine," she said. When she and others tried to get an explanation, they found none. "We did not get clarification," she said.
"My sense is that all of the senior leaders of the US national security departments and agencies were all unified in their view that this assistance was essential," said Cooper. "And they were trying to find ways to engage the president on this."
Laura Cooper (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty)
Cooper said she and other aides were asking questions about what legal authority the White House had to halt congressionally approved aid for Ukraine. She said it was "unusual" to have the congressional funds suddenly halted that way. The Pentagon was "concerned."
Cooper told investigators that it was when Volker visited in August that he explained there was a "statement" that the Ukraine government could make to get the security money flowing. It was the first she had heard of what is now the quid pro quo central to the impeachment inquiry. Cooper describes, "an effort that he was engaged in to see if there was a statement that the government of Ukraine would make that would somehow disavow any interference in US elections and would commit to the prosecution of any individuals involved in election interference."
Cooper also described the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative at the heart of the matter, saying it involved a range of items such as night vision goggles, vehicles, sniper rifles and medical equipment. "Security assistance is vital to helping the Ukrainians be able to defend themselves," she said.
Because Ukraine and Georgia are two "front-line states" facing Russian aggression, the US needed to "shore up these countries' abilities to defend themselves." "It's in our interest to deter Russian aggression elsewhere around the world," she said.
As the aid was being blocked this summer, Ukraine officials began quietly asking the State Department about the freeze. The concern was clear for the young democracy battling an aggressive Russia.
"If this were public in Ukraine it would be seen as a reversal of our policy," said Catherine Croft, the special adviser for Ukraine at the State Department, who fielded the inquiries from the Ukrainians. "This would be a really big deal," she testified. "It would be a really big deal in Ukraine and an expression of declining US support for Ukraine."
The transcripts are beginning to chisel away at a key Republican defence of Trump, his allies having insisted Trump did nothing wrong because the Ukrainians never knew the aid was being delayed.
Croft and Christopher Anderson testified about the oversized reach of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani into foreign policy on Ukraine in unsettling ways as he portrayed Zelensky's new government as an "enemy" of Trump.
Catherine Croft (J Scott Applewhite/AP)
Croft told investigators of her "trepidation" of taking on the role in spring of adviser to Volker because she worried Giuliani was influencing Trump to change US policy toward the ally.
She said she theorised that by "painting sort of Ukraine as being against Trump" it could help the president "distract from a narrative" that Russia had interfered in the 2016 US election to help him.
Anderson, who held the special adviser role before Croft, said, "I had the fear that if Giuliani's narrative took hold, that the Ukrainian Government was an enemy of the President, then it would be very hard to have high-level engagement."
He said Volker had warned him, "Giuliani is not moving on to other issues, and so this might still be a problem for us moving forward."
Judge blocks Trump from suing New York to stop release of tax returns
A federal judge in DC has ruled that the president cannot sue to stop his home state of New York from acquiring his tax returns.
The ruling by district judge Carl Nichols marks a rejection of the president's efforts to intervene before House Democrats can obtain the financial records under a new New York State law and leaves open the possibility that the president might file a similar lawsuit in a different court.
"Mr Trump bears the burden of establishing personal jurisdiction, but his allegations do not establish that the District of Columbia's long-arm statute is satisfied here with respect to either Defendant," wrote Judge Nichols, a Trump appointee.
Here's Clark Mindock's report.
Fox Nation host attacks president's 'tasteless banter' and disrespect
Trump has unexpectedly come under fire from Fox Nation legal analyst Andrew Napolitano, who took him to task for his “often tasteless banter” and disrespect for the US Constitution.
Napolitano - a former New Jersey Superior Court judge - said on his Liberty File show the president is unfit to serve because of his “disparagement of the Constitution he is sworn to uphold”.
Andrew Napolitano (Fox Nation)
His rant in e-minor is well worth quoting at length:
"In nearly three years in office, President Donald Trump has spent federal dollars not authorised by Congress, separated families and incarcerated children at the Texas-Mexico border in defiance of a federal court order, pulled 1,000 American troops out of Syria ignoring a commitment to allies and facilitating war against civilians there, and sent 2,000 American troops to Saudi Arabia without a congressional authorisation or declaration of war.”
"He has also criminally obstructed a Department of Justice investigation of himself, but escaped prosecution because of the intercession of an attorney general more loyal to him than to the Constitution - the Constitution!
"James Madison, the scrivener of the Constitution, insisted that the word ‘faithfully’ be in the presidential oath and that the oath itself be in the Constitution to remind presidents to enforce laws and comply with constitutional Provisions whether they agree with them or not and to immunise the oath from congressional alteration. Recently, Trump referred to a clause in the Constitution as ‘phony’ and he thereby implied that he need not abide it nor enforce it, notwithstanding his oath...
"Who knows what he meant by ‘phony.’ The clause is in the Constitution and it means what it says. Yet, whatever Trump meant by ‘phony,’ it constituted - at the least - a disparagement of the Constitution he is sworn to uphold. And - at the worst - a threat to ignore other clauses that he can disparage."
Napolitano wasn't done there, also attacking Trump's "forceful and often tasteless banter".
"He publicly calls people crude names, uses foul language, and send sends dog whistles of lawless behavior to many of his supporters. All of that is a question of free speech, personal taste, and political risk. But threats to ignore parts of the Constitution are not matters of speech, taste or risk. They reveal character traits but question the president’s fitness for office."
You can watch it in its entirety via Mediaite.
Joe Biden labels Rudy Giuliani a 'chump' at CNN town hall
Democratic 2020 frontrunner Joe Biden was on fighting form at CNN's latest town hall in Grinnell, Iowa, last night, saying he is "more of a Democrat from my shoe sole to my ears" than any of his challengers and branding Rudy Giuliani a "chump".
He did get heckled by angry climate activists though.
Giuliani plotting impeachment inquiry podcast
The subject of Biden's attack is reportedly considering launching a podcast to defend himself as the House impeachment inquiry progresses.
Giuliani has removed himself from the media frontline in recent weeks - as his name crops up again and again in witness testimony and after inviting ridicule with his eccentric interview performances - but he could be about to make a return. To call the strategy "risky" is putting it mildly.
Here's Andrew Buncombe's report.
Erdogan to rebuke Trump for failing to honour agreement on Kurdish fighters in Syria
With the first public impeachment inquiry hearings set to take place before Congress on Wednesday - acting Ukraine ambassador Bill Taylor and State Department official George Kent are up - Trump will be hosting Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House.
Erdogan said on Tuesday he would tell Trump that the United States has not fulfilled the agreement it made last month to remove Kurdish YPG militia from a region of northern Syria along Turkey's border.
"Neither Russia nor the United States has been able to clean [northern Syria] of terrorist organisations within the time they promised," Erdogan told reporters before his flight to Washington.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his wife Emine departing from Ankara for DC (Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Anadolu Agency/Getty)
President smears impeachment witnesses, delays release of first Zelenksy call transcript in early tweets
Trump is up early and his first tweets of the day attack the House impeachment panel's steady release of witness transcripts, making the baseless accusation that the likes of Laura Cooper, Catherine Croft and Christopher Anderson are "Never Trumpers" and thus biased against him and not trustworthy.
He has also delayed his already vague promise to release a transcript of his first call with President Zelenksy. We can now expect it "before week's end".
Here's our breaking story.
Trump says DACA programme's 'Dreamers' are 'hardened criminals'
Trump - currently residing in Trump Tower in Manhattan - is also promoting the economy ahead of his speech on trade policy at the Economic Club of New York today...
...and launching into an outrageous attack on the "Dreamers" seeking to retain US citizenship, saying many are not "angels" (neither were the Kurdish SDF fighters in Syria, you may recall) but "hardened criminals" in a tactic that recalls his racist and unfounded accusations against the asylum seekers of the migrant caravan crossing Mexico ahead of last year's midterm elections.
The US Supreme Court is hearing an oral argument on the Trump administration's policy on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) this morning, with House and Senate leaders holding a press conference in support of Obama's immigration policy this afternoon.
Trump to address Economic Club of New York on trade
The markets are likely to hang on Trump's every word when he does speak in New York later today.
The president's lunchtime address at the club, which has hosted US presidents including Woodrow Wilson and John F. Kennedy, as well as foreign leaders like former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and Chinese premier Li Keqiang, will be closely watched by investors anxious for any positive news about his administration's long-running trade war with China.
"You can expect the president to highlight how his policies of lower taxes, deregulation, and fair and reciprocal trade have supported the longest economic recovery in US history with record low unemployment, rising wages, and soaring consumer confidence," White House spokesman Judd Deere said.
US stock markets have hit record highs in recent weeks on hopes the White House and Beijing are close to a trade deal that could go a long way toward dispelling the uncertainty dogging the global economy. Last week, officials from both sides said they had a deal to roll back tariffs, only to have Trump deny any deal was agreed on.
A positive speech on US-China trade would likely satisfy market participants even without specific details of the "Phase 1" agreement under negotiation, said Jim Paulsen, chief investment officer at The Leuthold Group in Minneapolis. "It still feels like we're pretty close to having something done," Paulsen said on Monday. "Even if it's meaningless, it will be meaningful."
More than 1,350 people are expected to attend the speech, according to the club's spokeswoman, Erin Klem. But not everyone thought Trump's speech to the 112-year-old club, which has served as a venue for major economic policy addresses, would be seen as constructive by investors. Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas, had little hope Trump's speech would mark an end to uncertainty. It remains notoriously hard to predict whether Trump will take a positive or negative tone on trade. "Whatever uncertainty exists today will exist tomorrow also," he said, adding that if Trump were to say he is not rolling back any tariffs, the market would react negatively.
Gregory Daco, chief US economist at Oxford Economics, estimated the trade war had chopped about eight-tenths of a percentage point off US growth. After starting the year with growth running at 3.1 per cent, output throttled back to 1.9 per cent in the third quarter, with weak business investment factoring heavily in the slowdown. Daco questioned whether a limited trade deal with China would be enough to draw businesses back off the sidelines.
"Do you as a business make a decision that now the environment is clearer, there are less tariffs, so now you're more likely to invest? Or, if after the last three years, you're still more cautious and say 'let's wait this one out,'" Daco said. "I'd favour the latter."
Additional reporting by Reuters
Trump 'expected to delay European auto tariff decision'
Also on the US economy, Trump is expected to announce this week that he is delaying a decision on whether to slap tariffs on cars and auto parts imported from the European Union, likely for another six months, EU officials said. "We have a solid indication from the administration that there will not be tariffs on us this week," one EU official told Reuters on Monday.
The Trump administration has a Thursday deadline to decide whether to impose threatened "Section 232" national security tariffs of as much as 25 per cent on imported vehicles and parts under a Cold War-era trade law.
US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross, whose agency is overseeing an investigation into the effect of auto imports on US national security, said on 3 November that the United States may not need such tariffs after holding "good conversations" with automakers in the European Union, Japan and South Korea. Trump delayed a decision on the tariffs by six months last May and another delay would cause automakers across the globe to breathe a sigh of relief.
EU officials said that while a further six-month delay was likely, Trump's actions were unpredictable and he would likely keep the threat of car tariffs hanging over them as the United States and European Union pursue trade negotiations in the coming year.
(Francois Lenoir/Reuters)
"We believe that nothing will happen for now, but the threat of tariffs will be left there as leverage," said a European diplomat. US trade representative Robert Lighthizer and EU trade commission Cecilia Malmstrom have spoken more often in recent weeks and the tone had become more "positive," the diplomat added.
Politico reported on Monday that Trump would announce a six-month delay in the EU car tariff decision.
The EU diplomat said there was no specific timetable for an in-person meeting between Lighthizer and Malmstrom or any concrete sign the United States and Europe were nearing an agreement on trade issues.
The United States wants to include increased US agricultural access to Europe in the talks. But EU member states have resisted that, only authorising negotiations over industrial goods tariffs and regulatory issues.
When the United States and Japan reached a partial trade deal in September involving agriculture and industrial goods, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe said he won a firm commitment from Trump not to impose national security tariffs on Japanese autos.
Trump has complained loudly about the US goods trade deficits of $68bn (£53bn) with Germany and $67bn (£52bn) with Japan in 2018, most of which come from the autos sector.
Additional reporting by Reuters
Mick Mulvaney files lawsuit asking judge to rule on subpoena compliance
White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney (mentioned prominently in Laura Cooper's deposition) on Monday withdrew his request to join a lawsuit seeking a court ruling on whether witnesses must testify in the House impeachment probe, saying he would bring his own case, according to a court document.
Mulvaney had earlier sought to participate in a lawsuit filed by Charles Kupperman, a former deputy to ousted national security adviser John Bolton, seeking a court ruling on whether he should comply with a congressional subpoena or honor the Trump administration's order not to testify.
Mulvaney withdrew the request following a conference call closed to the public held by the judge assigned to Kupperman's lawsuit, US district judge Richard Leon in Washington. According to a transcript of the hearing, Leon said he was "inclined" to deny Mulvaney's request to intervene and encouraged him to instead file his own lawsuit.
(Evan Vucci/AP)
Last week, House Democrats withdrew their subpoena to Kupperman, saying they did not want to delay the impeachment investigation, and asked a judge to dismiss the litigation as moot. Mulvaney "can't intervene into a moot case," Todd Tatelman, a lawyer for the House, said during Monday's hearing.
House investigators issued a subpoena to Mulvaney last week, demanding he testify about his knowledge of Trump's decision to withhold military aid to Ukraine.
Mulvaney has emerged as a central figure in the impeachment inquiry, partly because of his statement at a 17 October news conference that the White House had withheld security assistance for Ukraine.
"I have news for everybody: Get over it. There is going to be political influence in foreign policy," Mulvaney said at the time, although he later contradicted himself.
Before becoming acting chief of staff, Mulvaney ran the White House Office of Management and Budget, which made the decision to block the security assistance for Ukraine last summer.
The White House has instructed current and former Trump administration officials not to cooperate with the impeachment investigation, arguing in court filings that the US Constitution allows presidential aides to defy demands by Congress for testimony.
Mulvaney's lawsuit could lead to a ruling on that argument by Leon, a conservative appointed by George W Bush, who is already assigned to Kupperman's case.
US district judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Barack Obama appointee, is weighing similar questions in a lawsuit the House filed to enforce a subpoena issued to former White House lawyer Don McGahn.
Additional reporting by Reuters
White House infighting flares amid impeachment inquiry
The White House’s disjointed response to the impeachment inquiry has been fuelled by a fierce West Wing battle between two of Trump’s top advisers, according to insiders and congressional officials.
Mulvaney and White House counsel Pat Cipollone are understood to be at odds, the former blaming the latter for not doing more to stop other government officials from participating in the inquiry after a number of State Department officials, diplomats and an aide to vice president Mike Pence all gave sworn testimony to Congress.
Trump ridiculed for deleting tweet in support of Sean Spicer on Dancing with the Stars
The president is being mocked on Twitter this morning after going to the trouble of deleting a tweet attempting to drum up support for his former press secretary Sean Spicer on Dancing with the Stars after the latter was eliminated from the competition.
Which might sound like small beer but consider the appalling tweets he hasn't deleted.
Greg Evans has more for Indy100.
Is Nikki Haley pitching for the presidency?
For Indy Voices, Jay Caruso considers a possible run for the presidency from Trump's ex-ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, who currently has a tell-all book out that contains a few home truths for the administration and the Republican Party.
Hillary Clinton blasts British government for failing to release report into Russian election hacking
Hillary Clinton has branded the British government’s delay in releasing a report into Russian influence on the 2016 referendum as “inexplicable and shameful”.
The former US presidential candidate and first lady told BBC Radio 5 Live the public “deserve to know” what is in the report before the country heads to the polls in December.
The report by the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) was completed in March and sent to the prime minister for approval on 17 October. However, it has not yet been released by the government, despite ISC chair Dominic Grieve saying it is “germane” to voters.
Speaking to Emma Barnett, Clinton said: “I find it inexplicable that your government will not release a government report about Russian influence. Inexplicable and shameful.
Here's Chiara Giordano's report.
Former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick considering 2020 presidential run
Deval Patrick, the ex-governor of Massachusetts, is reportedly planning to join Michael Bloomberg in making a late bid to join the Democratic 2020 field, according to The New York Times.
"He's taking and making calls," one of the Democrats familiar with Patrick's thinking told CNN.
The candidate would undoubtedly face an uphill task if he were to join at this late stage, having limited national profile, insufficient personal wealth to fuel a campaign and because he has already missed the Alabama filing deadline (Arknasas's passes today, New Hampshire's on Friday).
He has also been criticised in the past for a chequered corporate career that has seen him working for subprime mortgage lender Ameriquest, notorious for targeting middle class black families with sky-high loans, and working for private investment firm Bain Capital, co-founded by Utah Republican senator Pierre Delecto Mitt Romney.
Patrick was apparently considering announcing his run late last year before deciding against it after his wife Diane was diagnosed with uterine cancer, writing on Facebook: "After a lot of conversation, reflection and prayer, I've decided that a 2020 campaign for president is not for me. I've been overwhelmed by advice and encouragement from people from all over the country, known and unknown.
"But knowing that the cruelty of our elections process would ultimately splash back on people whom Diane and I love, but who hadn't signed up for the journey, was more than I could ask."
Elizabeth Warren fires back after Biden criticism
Speaking at a town hall in New Hampshire on Monday night, Massachusetts senator and 2020 contender Elizabeth Warren was asked about how she could convince men to vote for her. The answer?
"How about we give them a tough, smart woman to vote for?"
The candidate also went on to tackle rival Joe Biden's comments in a Medium post last week in which he argued, without directly naming Warren herself, that others in the race had "an angry, unyielding viewpoint" and had been "condescending to the millions of Democrats" who do not think as they do.
Elizabeth Warren speaks at Exeter High School in New Hampshire (Joseph Prezioso/AFP)
"So I'm out here every day trying to talk to people about 'my campaign], trying to bring more people into the fight, but if you've got more ideas... I was told what I needed to do was smile more," Warren said sarcastically, to warm laughs from her audience.
The senator also addressed Biden's comment in an email to her supporters on Friday, telling them: "I'm angry and I own it."
Widow of Elijah Cummings to run for his old seat in the House of Representatives
Dr Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, the widow of House Oversight Committee chairman Elijah Cummings who passed away last month, appeared on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show last night to announce she will be running in the special election to succeed him as representative for Maryland's 7th congressional district.
"We fought alongside of each other for a very long time, and now I'm looking to continue to fight. He would want me to continue to fight and so that's what I'm going to do," Rockeymoore Cummings, chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic Party, told Maddow.
