The third day of public testimony in the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump yielded witnesses who largely propped up Democrats' allegations that the president sought to use his public office to coerce the Ukrainian government into investigating Joe Biden — and even some testimony from witnesses seen as sympathetic to Republicans saying that Mr Biden was not known to have done anything wrong.
Throughout the marathon of hearings, Washington heard from National Security Council official and Army veteran Lt Col Alexander Vindman, Mike Pence staffer Jennifer Williams, former ambassador Kurt Volker, and Tim Morrison.
Mr Vindman provided compelling evidence, noting his long history serving the US, and his family's journey to the United States nearly 40 years ago after living in the former Soviet Union.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump’s personal physician, Navy commander Sean Conley, responded to concerns about the president's health with a letter insisting that his unannounced weekend visit to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, was “a routine, planned interim checkup”.
“Despite some of the speculation, the president has not had any chest pain, nor was he evaluated or treated for any urgent or acute issues,” Commander Conley wrote in his statement, issued by the White House in a bid to dispel rumours that a more serious health complaint was being covered up.
We are expecting further testimony in front of the impeachment committees on Wednesday and Thursday, including highly anticipated remarks from EU ambassador Gordon Sondland.
Democrats, meanwhile, are set to hold their fifth debate of the primary season on Wednesday in Atlanta.
Follow live updates
Watch here for the ongoing impeachment inquiry testimony:
Hello and welcome to The Independent's rolling coverage of the Donald Trump administration.
Trump's doctor insists Saturday medical 'routine checkup'
Donald Trump’s personal physician, Navy commander Sean Conley, has written a letter insisting the president’s unannounced Saturday visit to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, was “a routine, planned interim checkup”.
“Despite some of the speculation, the president has not had any chest pain, nor was he evaluated or treated for any urgent or acute issues,” Commander Conley wrote in his statement, issued by the White House in a bid to dispel rumours that a more serious health complaint was being covered up.
Conley said Trump's total cholesterol is now 165, with an HDL of 70, and LDL of 84 and a non-HDL of 95, all of which are considered healthy levels, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
Trump takes the drug Crestor to lower cholesterol. At his exam in February when he was declared "in very good health" by the White House physician, Trump's total cholesterol was 196.
"Everything very good (great!)," Trump said in a tweet on Sunday about the results. "Will complete next year."
Here's Chris Baynes with more.
Key impeachment witnesses to testify
Four key witnesses are due to appear before the House impeachment inquiry on Tuesday to testify on the Ukraine scandal, promising to make today a dramatic one on Capitol Hill.
Here's the menu:
- Tuesday morning (9am EST/2pm GMT): Lt Col Alexander Vindman, Ukraine expert on National Security Council (NSC), and Jennifer Williams, aide to vice president Mike Pence
- Tuesday afternoon (2.30pm EST/7.30pm GMT): Kurt Volker, ex-Ukraine special envoy, and Tim Morrison, ex-NSC aide
- Tuesday afternoon (2.30pm EST/7.30pm GMT): Kurt Volker, ex-Ukraine special envoy, and Tim Morrison, ex-NSC aide
Vindman and Williams were both of Trump's call of 25 July with the newly elected president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, about political investigations into Joe Biden and both said they had concerns about it.
In all, nine current and former US officials are testifying in a pivotal week as the House's historic impeachment inquiry accelerates and deepens. Democrats say Trump demanded that Ukraine investigate his Democratic rivals in return for US military aid it needed to resist Russian aggression and that may be grounds for removing the 45th president. Trump says he did no such thing and the Democrats just want him gone.
Lt Col Alexander Vindman (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA)
"I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a US citizen," said Vindman, an Iraq War veteran. He said there was "no doubt" what Trump wanted from Zelensky. It wasn't the first time Vindman, a 20-year military officer, was alarmed over the administration's push to have Ukraine investigate Democrats, he testified.
Earlier, during an unsettling 10 July meeting at the White House, EU ambassador Gordon Sondland told visiting Ukraine officials that they would need to "deliver" before next steps, which was a meeting Zelensky wanted with Trump, the officer testified. "He was talking about the 2016 elections and an investigation into the Bidens and Burisma," Vindman testified, referring to the gas company in Ukraine where Hunter Biden served on the board.
"The Ukrainians would have to deliver an investigation into the Bidens," he said. "There was no ambiguity." On both occasions, Vindman said, he took his concerns about the shifting Ukraine policy to the lead counsel at the NSC, John Eisenberg.
Williams, a longtime State Department official who is detailed to Pence's national security team, said she too had concerns during the phone call, which the aides monitored as is standard practice. When the White House produced a rough transcript later that day, she put it in the vice president's briefing materials. "I just don't know if he read it," Williams testified in a closed-door House interview.
Jennifer Williams (Tom Brenner/Reuters)
Sondland, the wealthy donor whose routine boasting about his proximity to Trump has brought the investigation to the president's doorstep, is set to testify Wednesday. Others have testified that he was part of a shadow diplomatic effort with the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Guiliani, outside of official channels that raised alarms. Pence's role throughout the impeachment inquiry has been unclear and the vice president's aide is sure to be questioned by lawmakers looking for answers.
The White House has instructed officials not to appear and most have received congressional subpoenas to compel their testimony.
Trump has already attacked Williams, associating her with "Never Trumpers," even though there is no indication the career State Department official has shown any partisanship.
The president wants to see a robust defence by his Republican allies on Capitol Hill, but so far so far Republicans have offered a changing strategy as the fast-moving probe spills into public view. That is likely to change this week as Republicans mount a more aggressive attack on all the witnesses as the inquiry reaches closer into the White House and they try to protect Trump.
In particular, Republicans are expected to try to undercut Vindman, suggesting he reported his concerns outside his chain of command, which would have been Morrison, not the NSC lawyer. Those appearing in public have already given closed-door interviews to investigators and transcripts from those depositions have largely been released.
Under earlier questioning, Republicans wanted Vindman to disclose who else he may have spoken to about his concerns, as the GOP inch closer to publicly naming the still anonymous whistleblower whose report sparked the inquiry.
Republican senator Ron Johnson, who was deeply involved in other White House meetings about Ukraine, offered a sneak preview of this strategy late on Monday when he compared Vindman, a Purple Heart veteran, to the "bureaucrats" who "never accepted Trump as legitimate."
"They react by leaking to the press and participating in the ongoing effort to sabotage his policies and, if possible, remove him from office. It is entirely possible that Vindman fits this profile, said Johnson.
Vindman told the House investigators in his earlier testimony he was not the government whistleblower. The witnesses are testifying under penalty of perjury and Sondland already has had to amend his earlier account amid contradicting testimony from other current and former US officials.
Morrison has referred to Burisma as a "bucket of issues" - the Bidens, Democrats, investigations - he had tried to "stay away" from.
Sondland met with a Zelensky aide on the sidelines of a 1 September gathering in Warsaw and Morrison, who was watching the encounter from across the room, testified that the ambassador told him moments later he pushed the Ukrainian for the Burisma investigation as a way for Ukraine to gain access to the military funds.
Volker provided investigators with a package of text messages with Sondland and another diplomat, Bill Taylor, the charge d'affaires in Ukraine, who grew alarmed at the linkage of the investigations to the aid. Taylor, who testified publicly last week, called that "crazy."
A wealthy hotelier who donated $1m (£772,000) to Trump's inauguration, Sondland is the only person interviewed to date who had direct conversations with the president about the Ukraine situation.
Morrison said Sondland and Trump had spoken about five times between 15 July and 11 September - the weeks that $391m (£302m) in US assistance was withheld from Ukraine before it was released. Trump has said he barely knows Sondland.
Additional reporting by AP
US Supreme Court blocks release of Trump tax returns to Congress
The Supreme Court has temporarily stopped a lower court order requiring Trump to turn over his tax returns to House Democrats as a part of their impeachment probe, giving the high court time to decide whether to hear the president's challenge to the ruling.
The decision was announced on Monday, with chief justice John G Roberts writing that they had granted the Trump administration's request for a stay on the federal appeals court ruling until "further order".
Before this ruling, the president's longtime accounting firm Mazars USA had been compelled by the US appeals court in Washington to hand over Trump's financial records, following a subpoena from house Democrats. Trump has asked the court to protect his financial records from House investigators as well as the Manhattan district attorney's office in New York, which is conducting a separate investigation into issues related to the president.
Here's Clark Mindock's report.
Trump administration no longer considers Israeli settlements in West Bank illegal
The US has reversed its four-decade policy on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank by saying it no longer considers them inconsistent with international law.
The latest in a series of concessions to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Trump administration said it was “reversing the Obama administration’s approach towards Israeli settlements”.
In a televised appearance at the US state department, Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, said: “The establishment of Israeli civilian settlements is not, per se, inconsistent with international law.”
Here's Andrew Buncombe and Bel Trew with more.
Pompeo refuses to defend State Department official
Speaking of Trump's secretary of state, Pompeo also cravenly refused to defend his former employee Marie Yovanovitch yesterday.
The former Ukraine ambassador was the subject of slings and arrows from the president in the middle of her impeachment testimony on Friday, given after being forced out of Kiev by a Rudy Giuliani smear campaign. The spinelessness of Pompeo's performance was almost breathtaking.
Former acting administrator of the US Drug Enforcement Agency Chuck Rosenberg discussed the secretary of state on MSNBC on Friday night and offered what deserves to be the last word on the man.
Here's Clark Mindock's report on his latest press conference.
Eric Swalwell engulfed in #FartGate furore
It would be remiss of me to go any further without addressing the major US politics story currently trending on Twitter: #FartGate.
Interviewed live on MSNBC last night by Chris Matthews, California Democratic congressman and short-lived 2020 candidate Eric Swalwell appeared to break wind live on TV, sending the internet into rhapsodies of joy.
The press was quickly on the case and, so far, Swalwell is denying all knowledge of the phantom guff.
Hardball, the show he was appearing on, has tweeted to say it was actually the sound of a mug being dragged across a desk but no one's buying that are they?
Here's Greg Evans for Indy100 on the parp heard around the world.
'I'd never seen anything like Trump-Sondland call', says State Dept official in new transcript
Back to more serious matters.
The phone call State Department official David Holmes overheard between President Trump and Gordon Sondland during a lunch in Ukraine was so distinctive - even extraordinary - that no one needed to refresh his memory, according to a transcript of his testimony released late on Monday.
"I've never seen anything like this," Holmes told House investigators, "someone calling the president from a mobile phone at a restaurant, and then having a conversation of this level of candor, colourful language. There's just so much about the call that was so remarkable that I remember it vividly."
Holmes' account of the conversation in Kiev is the first with Trump personally calling about the investigations into Democrats and Joe Biden that are central to the impeachment inquiry. A political counselor at the US embassy in Ukraine, Holmes is scheduled to testify publicly on Thursday.
The conversation between the president and the ambassador on 26 July came one day after the call between Trump and Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky that led to the impeachment inquiry.
Holmes, who joined Sondland and others during the lunch meeting, told investigators Trump was talking so loudly he could hear the president clearly on the ambassador's phone.
"I then heard President Trump ask, quote, 'So he's going to do the investigation?"' Holmes testified. "Ambassador Sondland replied that 'He's going to do it,' adding that President Zelensky will, quote, 'do anything you ask him to.'"
David Holmes (Jose Luis Magana/AP)
Holmes said he didn't take notes of the conversation he overheard between Trump and Sondland but remembers it "vividly."
Pressed during the interview if anyone helped him recall the details, Holmes said, "that wouldn't have been needed, sir, because, as I said, the event itself was so distinctive that I remember it very clearly."
Holmes also said that Russia could well have monitored the call in question. "We generally assume that mobile communications in Ukraine are being monitored," he said.
Holmes recalled that former ambassador Victoria Nuland, a senior envoy to Ukraine under Barack Obama, had seen her communications monitored and disseminated "for political effect."
A transcript was also released late Monday from an interview with David Hale, the State Department's number three official. Hale is scheduled to testify publicly on Wednesday. He was questioned earlier this month about the removal of Marie Yovanovitch and is expected to be able to cast more light on that.
House Democrats to choose leader of powerful Oversight Committee
As the impeachment hearings resume, House Democrats are preparing to choose who will lead the powerful Oversight and Reform Committee - a key role in the ongoing inquiry.
Three veteran lawmakers, including Carolyn Maloney of New York, the acting chairwoman, are seeking to replace the late Elijah Cummings of Maryland, who died last month. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts and Gerry Connolly of Virginia also are seeking the post. The House Democratic Steering Committee will make a recommendation on Tuesday, with the full Democratic caucus set to vote Wednesday.
The committee has a broad portfolio, including oversight of the Trump administration's handling of the census and immigration matters, as well as investigations into Trump's business dealings and security clearances granted to White House officials.
Oversight also is one of three committees that have been leading the impeachment inquiry, although the most visible leader remains House Intelligence chairman Adam Schiff.
Maloney, who lost out to Cummings as the committee's top Democrat nearly a decade ago, is seen as the front-runner. The panel's longest-serving Democrat, Maloney has led the committee on an acting basis since Cummings' 17 October death and has won endorsements from the next two longest-serving Democrats, Washington, DC, delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and William Lacy Clay of Missouri.
Maloney, 73, is in her 14th term representing a district that includes much of Manhattan, including Trump Tower. She said in a statement that she is "focused on discussing the chairmanship directly with my colleagues."
Carolyn Maloney (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)
Connolly, 69, in his sixth term representing Northern Virginia, said he has "substantial support" for the chairman's post "and it's growing." In a letter hand-delivered to House colleagues, Connolly said the Oversight election "is not a business as usual decision. The American people must see the main investigative body of Congress as a force for accountability that upholds our constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the executive. That was the legacy left by Elijah Cummings. That is the work that must continue."
Connolly, an outspoken Trump critic, said in an interview that Democrats "need to put the most capable team on the field we can," adding that he has "a demonstrated ability to lead, a firm commitment" to Oversight and experience as the chairman of the subcommittee on government operations.
Lynch, 64, in his 10th term representing suburban Boston, said he hopes to continue the work begun by Cummings and is "ready and eager to protect and defend the Constitution and the rule of law." He acknowledged in an interview that he faces an "uphill battle" against Maloney's seniority, but pointed out that he has served on the committee for 18 years and chairs the subcommittee on national security.
Maloney, who has served on Oversight since 1993, is best known for her years of advocacy for victims of the 9/11 attacks and famously wore a New York firefighter's jacket at the Capitol and even at the Met Gala until she could secure permanent authorisation for a victims' fund. A measure making the 9/11 fund permanent was a rare example of a bipartisan bill signed into law earlier this year.
Maloney also serves on the House Financial Services Committee, reflecting the importance of the financial industry in her district. She was a key sponsor of a corporate transparency bill approved by the House last month. Maloney has agreed to give up her role leading a subcommittee on investor protection and capital markets if elected to head Oversight.
Additional reporting by AP
Historian says Trump's impeachment 'inevitable'
A historian who has successfully predicted every presidential election since 1984 says he believes Trump’s impeachment by the House of Representatives is now “inevitable”, just days after the first public hearings were held.
Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American University, said as much during an appearance on MSNBC, where he also warned Democrats against rushing their process too much. The opposition, he reasoned, would not have brought the impeachment process this far if they were not confident that they could bring forward successful articles of impeachment.
“Impeachment is now inevitable,” Lichtman said during an appearance on Weekends with Alex Witt. “The Democrats would never have taken it this far - we know how cautious Nancy Pelosi is - without actually voting articles of impeachment in the full House.”
Clark Mindock has more.
Fox News host hits back at Trump: 'We’re not entitled to praise you, we're obligated to question you'
Trump's relationship with the ordinarily gushing Fox News seems to have hit a rough patch of late.
After Fox Business presenter Lisa Kennedy called him a "big dumb baby" for tweeting during the inquiry, host Neil Cavuto leapt to the defence of his colleague Chris Wallace on Monday night after the president attacked the veteran Sunday anchor as "nasty & obnoxious" in a tweet in response to him grilling GOP congressman Steve Scalise.
Cavuto argues, convincingly, that Trump does not distinguish between "fake news" and stories he just doesn't like.
Tim Morrison expected to be quizzed on Giuliani conducting foreign policy through WhatsApp
We'll hear more from National Security Council expert Tim Morrison this afternoon and one of the themes Democrats are expected to pick up with him are his experiences of Rudy Giuliani and his allies conducting US foreign policy on unsecured communication channels.
Morrison and acting ambassador Bill Taylor shared their alarm "that much of Rudy’s discussions were happening over an unclassified cellphone or, perhaps as bad, WhatsApp messages, and therefore you can only imagine who else knew about them,” the former testified.
George Conway in bitter Twitter feud with Nikki Haley
Kellyanne Conway's wayward husband George - one of the most outspoken Trump critics on the right - has found himself attacked online by former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, currently promoting her new book.
The redoubtable Mr Conway had attacked New York Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik as "lying trash" after she attracted attention during the Bill Taylor and George Kent hearing by making life difficult for Adam Schiff, duly winning praise from Trump, who tweeted: "A new Republican star is born."
Haley responded angrily after Conway's tweet was written up as a story by conservative website Townhall:
But George wasn't going to stand for that...
White House sent letter signed by 59 civil rights groups calling for Stephen Miller's dismissal
The pressure is not letting up on Stephen Miller, after the Southern Poverty Law Center reported he had sent Breitbart News some 900 emails between 2016 and 2016 appealing for them to run white nationalist stories on their site.
A letter signed by 59 civil rights groups has now been sent to the White House calling for his dismissal.
"Allowing him to remain a White House advisor is a betrayal of our national ideals of justice, inclusion, and fairness. We call on you to halt your own hateful actions and rhetoric and remove all hate enthusiasts from the administration," wrote the coalition of groups including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Lambda Legal, a leading LGBT+ civil rights organisation.
"Unless and until you fire Stephen Miller - and all who promulgate bigotry - and abandon your administration’s anti-civil rights agenda, you will continue to be responsible for the violence fueled by that hate," the letter continues, adding: "Stephen Miller’s racist, deadly agenda is contributing to this violence and must be stopped."
While prominent Democrats have continued to denounce his attitudes...
...the Republicans had stayed silent, allowing the impeachment inquiry to dominate the headlines in the hope this nasty little episode will just go away.
Fox and Friends implores Trump not to tweet during today's impeachment hearings
Surely he won't be able to resist - will he?
Laura Ingraham apparently made a similar appeal to the president to restrain himself on her show last night.
McConnell calls on Trump to stand up for Hong Kong protesters
While Mike Pompeo was calling for restraint in Hong Kong yesterday, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell did the opposite: appealing to Trump to speak up for the pro-democracy protesters from the floor of the upper chamber.
He has also been moaning about the impeachment inquiry holding up the business of government, despite priding himself on being the "Grim Reaper" of Democratic-sponsored bills.
Yovanovitch asked to make 'statement of loyalty' to Trump on camera
We've already poured over the transcript of David Holmes's deposition to the impeachment inquiry but that of David Hales - another State Department official - arguably contains an even juicier detail.
During her tenure as Ukraine ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch was asked to issue a statement of loyalty to Trump on camera, Hales declares, in exchange for ongoing support from the department.
Harry Cockburn has this report.
North Korea not interested in 'useless' Trump meetings
Kim Jong-un is not interested in another meeting with Trump, even though the American recently signalled by tweet that the pair would be coming together soon as he unexpectedly defended rival Joe Biden from Pyongyang's accusation that he was a "rabid dog".
“I interpreted President Trump’s tweet on the 17th to signify a new DPRK-US summit”, foreign ministry adviser Kim Kye-gwan told KCNA, before adding: “We are no longer interested in these meetings that are useless to us.”
Clark Mindock has more.
Volodymyr Zelensky just said his first public comments on the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, telling reporters: “I think everyone in Ukraine is so tired of Burisma.”
The Ukrainian president went on to note his country’s independence from the US, saying, “We have our country, we have our issues” as reporters asked whether he would launch investigations into one of Mr Trump’s political rivals, Joe Biden.
Mr Trump has called for an investigation into the former vice president’s family while alleging wrongdoing on the part of his son, Hunter Biden, who served on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy firm. There is no evidence to indicate any wrongdoing on either part of the Bidens.
