Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maanvi Singh in San Francisco (now) and Oliver Laughland in New York (earlier)

Trump claims Schiff 'helped write' whistleblower complaint – as it happened

Live political reporting continues on Thursday’s blog:

Updated

Evening summary

It’s been another whirlwind day in US politics.

  • Donald Trump claimed that House Intelligence chair Adam Schiff “helped write” the whistleblower complaint. He also tweeted a bizarre video featuring the song “Photograph” by Canadian rock band Nickelback and picture of Joe and Hunter Biden golfing with Ukrainian energy executives.
  • Secretary of state Mike Pompeo admitted that he listened in on Trump’s July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian president, after previously evading questions about his knowledge of the call.
  • House Democrats warned the Trump administration against stonewalling their impeachment inquiry and threatened subpoenas on Friday if the administration failed to comply with their requests.
  • Democratic presidential candidates participated in a gun safety forum. They all largely agreed that background checks and assault weapon bans were necessary.
  • Bernie Sanders did not attend the forum; he was recovering after being treated for a blocked artery.
  • The state department inspector general called an urgent meeting with Senate and House committee staffers, purportedly to give them documents related to the Trump-Ukraine inquiry. Instead, he provided them with disinformation about Joe Biden and his son that Trump.
  • The Trump administration plans to collect DNA from hundreds of thousands of immigrants in federal custody and enter it into a criminal database.

Updated

Justice Department intervenes in lawsuit over a subpoena of Trump's tax returns

Lawyers with the Justice Department urged a federal judge to delay ruling on whether or not Donald Trump should be made to turn over his tax returns as part of a criminal probe by the Manhattan district attorney.

The justice department appeared to side with Trump in his ongoing efforts to skirt a grand jury subpoena seeking tax records from his longtime accounting firm.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. is seeking the records as he investigates the Trump Organization’s involvement in hush-money payments made to pornographic actor Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal.

More from the AP:

Five Washington Justice Department lawyers and officials were listed as submitting arguments that pertained to procedural matters. They said the judge should “support interim relief as necessary to allow for appropriate briefing of the weighty constitutional issues involved.”

The Justice Department lawyers said U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero should retain jurisdiction of the case, rather than let a state court decide any issues. Vance, a Democrat, has said any dispute should be decided in state court.

Trump’s lawyers have said the investigation is politically motivated and the quest for his tax records should be stopped because he is immune from any criminal probe as long as he is president.

Attorneys for Vance counter that Trump’s immunity should not interrupt a probe that includes a look into the actions of individuals and businesses other than Trump, especially since the statute of limitations is in play.

Congress is authorized by the Constitution to investigate presidents and remove them from office, but the law is unclear as to whether a sitting president can be indicted and prosecuted in a state or federal court.

Facebook blocks Trump ad promoting conspiracy theory, citing profanity

The Guardian’s Julia Carrie Wong reports from San Francisco:

Facebook has blocked a Donald Trump campaign advertisement that promoted a false conspiracy theory about Joe Biden and Ukraine. The company said it took the ad down because it violated Facebook’s policies, but not because the 30-second video spot is misleading. Instead, Facebook blocked the ads because they contain profanity.

The video spot, which can be viewed on YouTube here, falsely claims that Joe Biden “promised Ukraine a billion dollars if they fired the prosecutor investigating his son’s company”. As the Guardian and fact-checkers have pointed out repeatedly, this is a mischaracterization of Biden’s role in US foreign policy when he was vice president.

The video uses a snippet of audio of Biden discussing Ukraine during a 2018 appearance before the Council on Foreign Relations, when he said, “If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well son of a bitch, he got fired.” The editing makes it appear that Biden is admitting to extorting Ukraine on behalf of his son, rather than carrying out the Obama administration’s foreign policy. The Washington Post Fact Checker column wrote of this speech: “Biden is certainly being self-congratulatory here. But, as noted, Biden’s action was coordinated with other major players in the region and celebrated at the time because Shokin was widely seen as a failure.”

The video spot, which can be viewed on YouTube here, falsely claims that Joe Biden “promised Ukraine a billion dollars if they fired the prosecutor investigating his son’s company”.
The video spot, which can be viewed on YouTube here, falsely claims that Joe Biden “promised Ukraine a billion dollars if they fired the prosecutor investigating his son’s company”. Photograph: The Guardian

Facebook has faced criticism in recent days over its policy not to apply fact-checking to political ads. Versions of the ad were viewed by more than 1m Facebook users before they were taken down, according to data from the Facebook political ad archive.

“Our systems disapproved the ads because they contain profanity,” a Facebook spokesperson said by email. “We have reached out to the campaign to let them know they must edit it before it can run again.”

Indeed, new versions of the ad with the same misleading narrative are now running with the word “bitch” bleeped out.

The Facebook spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions about why the ads were only “disapproved” by the company’s systems after being viewed more than 1m times.

Updated

One of the last democratic holdouts on the impeachment issue, New York representative Max Rose has expressed his support for the inquiry.

A majority of House democrats have already said they support the Trump-Ukerakine impeachment inquiry.

2020 Gun Safety Forum wraps up

Beto O’Rourke pushed for his assault weapon buyback program during the forum.
Beto O’Rourke pushed for his assault weapon buyback program during the forum. Photograph: John Locher/AP

The Guardian’s Abené Clayton reports from Las Vegas:

The 2020 gun forum is wrapping up with Senator Kamala Harris as the last candidate to take the stage alongside moderator and MSNBC host Craig Melvin.

The crowd was filled with representatives from national violence prevention groups like March for Our Lives, Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, and Moms Demand Action as well as community organizers from Chicago and New Orleans who were there to be a visible force for addressing the community violence that is often overlooked in the national gun conversation.

Nine of the top candidates spoke; Bernie Sanders did not attend because he is recovering from a heart surgery.

Each candidate commented on The October 1 mass shooting in Vegas where a gunman killed 58 people, and they all emphasized their support of assault weapons bans and background checks.

The only piece of gun control that was not universally accepted by candidates was the mandatory assault weapon buyback program that Beto O’Rourke has been pushing. During his time on the forum stage South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg voiced his disagreement over the feasibility of Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke’s proposed federal assault weapon buyback program Buttigieg referred to it as “a shiny object” that could distract lawmakers from accomplishing other gun control goals.

O’Rourke told reporters after his time on stage: “How in the world can you say that to survivors of mass shootings? I was really offended by those comments.”

Buttigieg “represents a kind of politics that is focused on poll testing and focus groups before arriving to a conclusion”, O’Rourke added. “I think our politics has to be about doing the right thing.”

Updated

Trump involved Pence in efforts to pressure Ukraine’s leader

The president involved vice president Mike Pence in his efforts to pressure the Ukrainian president to investigate Joe Biden, the Washington Post reports:

Trump instructed Pence not to attend the inauguration of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in May — an event White House officials had pushed to put on the vice president’s calendar — when Ukraine’s new leader was seeking recognition and support from Washington, the officials said.

Months later, the president used Pence to tell Zelensky that U.S. aid was still being withheld while demanding more aggressive action on corruption, officials said. At that time — following Trump’s July 25 phone call with Zelenksy — the Ukrainians probably understood action on corruption to include the investigation of former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

Officials close to Pence insist that he was unaware of Trump’s efforts to press Zelensky for damaging information about Biden and his son, who had served on the board of an obscure Ukrainian gas company, when his father was overseeing U.S. policy on Ukraine.

Pence’s activities occurred amid several indications of the president’s hidden agenda. Among them were the abrupt removal of the U.S. ambassador to Kiev; the visible efforts by the president’s lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, to insert himself in the U.S.-Ukraine relationship; as well as alarms being raised inside the White House even before the emergence of an extraordinary whistleblower complaint about Trump’s conduct.

Lindsay Graham asks countries to cooperate with the Trump administration’s investigation into the origins of the Mueller investigation

The republican senator sent a letter addressed to the leaders of the UK, Australia and Italy asking them to cooperate with attorney general William Barr as investigates the origins of the Mueller report, which brought forth evidence that Donald Trump may have obstructed justice.

Barr has traveled to the UK and Italy to chase conspiracy theories around the origins of the Mueller investigation.

“I write to request your country’s continued cooperation with Attorney General Barr as the Department of Justice continues to investigate the origins and extent of foreign influence in the 2016 U.S. presidential election,” Graham wrote.

Updated

State department IG reportedly distributed disinformation

The state department inspector general distributed dozens of documents containing unproven claims about Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, according to CNN.

IG Steve Linick asked to meet with the staff of several House and Senate committees today to provide them with documents from State’s acting legal adviser related to Ukraine, according to multiple reports.

The documents in question appear to repeat the same unverified allegations against Biden that Rudy Giuliani and other Trump advisers and aides have been making publicly.

Per CNN, which obtained a copy of the documents:

The documents include claims against the Bidens as well as charges against former US Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, who was recalled earlier this year and whom President Donald Trump criticized in his July call with the Ukrainian president.

The packet also included internal State Department emails from officials discussing articles critical of Yovanovitch, calling some of it a “fake narrative.”

There is no evidence of wrongdoing by either Joe or Hunter Biden.

State Department inspector general Steve Linick told Congress that the State Department’s office of legal counsel provided the documents to the inspector general in May. The inspector general provided them to the FBI, and the FBI did not object to the documents being released to Congress, which could suggest the FBI is not actively investigating the matter.

Updated

Trump admin expands plan to collect DNA from migrants in detention

The administration is moving forward with plans to collect DNA from hundreds of thousands of immigrants in federal custody and enter into a national criminal database, according to multiple reports.

The Justice Department is developing regulations that would allow immigration officers to collect genetic information from most migrants detained at the border and at federal facilities. This would expand a pilot program that uses rapid DNA technology to collect data from families suspected of child trafficking.

Once DNA is collected, it would be transferred to an FBI’s database currently used to store information about people accused or convicted of serious crimes.

Elizabeth Warren sent her 2020 opponent Bernie Sanders’ campaign team dinner, in a gesture of goodwill as Sanders recovers from heart surgery.

Apprently, there were cookies.

US imposes tariffs on European wine and whiskey

The administration announced it ill be imposing tariffs on $7.5bn in European imports, beginning Oct. 18, over European Union subsidies to the airplane maker Airbus.

From the AP:

The administration received a green light earlier Wednesday from the World Trade Organization, which ruled that the United States could impose the tariffs as retaliation for illegal aid that the 28-country EU gave to Airbus in its competition with its American rival Boeing.

Culminating a 15-year fight over the EU’s subsidizing of Airbus, the administration’s Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said it plans to publish a list of targeted products later Wednesday or on Thursday.

Afternoon summary

  • Reports indicate that the state department inspector general, Steve Linick, has briefed a number of House and Senate committees about recent instances of “political retaliation” by department leaders against career staff over Ukraine.
  • Linick left Congress moments ago and we’re expecting further details on the briefing shortly.
  • Trump led a rambling joint press conference with the Finnish president, Sauli Niinistö, in which he accused the Democrat Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House intelligence committee, of co-authoring a whistleblower complaint detailing Trump’s attempts to dig up dirt on Joe Biden’s family by pushing the Ukraine president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to commission an investigation into the former vice-president’s son. Trump cited no evidence for this allegation.
  • Bernie Sanders has tweeted his thanks to supporters and well-wishers after he was hospitalized due to a blocked artery.

Updated

And it appears that Linick is done with the briefing. This video just posted shows him leaving Capitol Hill.

State Department IG reportedly briefing Congress on "political retaliation" over Ukraine

We’re finally getting some more information on what the State Department Inspector General is briefing Congress about today.

According to Reuters, which is quoting two “familiar sources” Steve Linick will tell lawmakers about recent instances of “potential political retaliation” by department leadership against career officials over Ukraine.

Here’s the full report.

The two sources familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not provide details about what the potential retaliation may have involved.

The briefing is part of the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry into whether President Donald Trump sought help from Ukraine to investigate his political rival, Democrat Joe Biden, the former vice president.

Following a whistleblower complaint last week, Democrats are looking into a July 25 call in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Biden, a leading Democrat seeking to run against Republican Trump in 2020.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is on a three-day trip to Italy, on Wednesday confirmed that he had listened in on the call, saying the conversation had centered on U.S. policy priorities.

State Department Inspector General (IG) Steve Linick, who conducts independent oversight to combat waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement at the agency, was to provide the closed-door briefing to eight congressional committees at 3 p.m. (1900 GMT).

A notice about the inspector general’s briefing said it would concern Ukraine and that Linick would bring documents provided by the Department’s acting legal advisor, said a third source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The panels invited are the House and Senate committees on intelligence, foreign affairs, government oversight and appropriations, congressional aides said.

The State Department did not respond to requests for comment.

If the House inquiry results in articles of impeachment, or formal charges, against Trump, there would be a trial in the Senate on whether to remove him from office. The president’s fellow Republicans control the Senate and have shown little appetite for removing him.

The impeachment inquiry has begun to ensnare both career and politically appointed officials in the State Department.

Updated

Bernie Sanders has tweeted his thanks to well wishers after he underwent heart surgery for a blocked artery. He has suspended campaign appearances but used his condition remind supporters of a key campaign goal: medicare for all.

Trump claims Schiff 'helped write' complaint

OK - here are some takeaways from that press conference. It was a long one involving a lot of incoherent and rambling answers from the president. But here’s my best shot of at some of the most important comments relating to impeachment and the ongoing Ukraine scandal.

Firstly, Trump responded to a New York Times report, published earlier today, stating that the whistleblower had approached a House Intelligence Committee staff aide days before filing his complaint. The report states that the committee chairman, Adam Schiff, was later made aware of the nature of the allegations but was not given any information on the whistleblower’s identity. A spokesman for Schiff has confirmed parts of this reporting, and stated it is standard procedure for the committee to offer advice to whistleblowers on how to file complaints.

Trump responded to the report during the press conference, making wildly unsubstantiated claims suggesting that: “I think he [Schiff] probably helped write it [the whistleblower complaint].” He added: “He [Schiff] knew long before, and he helped write it too.”

There is no reporting to suggest this occurred and Trump provided no evidence.

Secondly, Trump indicated he plans to personally sue people involved in the special counsel’s investigation into Russian inference in the 2016 election. He did not give specific names when invited to by a reporter. But he said he and his personal attorney Rudy Guiliani were exploring the possibility. He said:

“I probably will, I was going to definitely, but I probably will be bringing litigation against a lot of people having to do with the corrupt investigation into the 2016 election. And I have every right to.”

It’s pretty difficult to interpret that at this stage given the president did not cite any specific grounds or names.

Finally, Trump continues to show complete contempt for the White House press corps. Here’s the exchange where he starts bossing a reporter around and making derisive comments about the media:

Updated

I’m still parsing that bizarre press conference. But meanwhile, on Capitol Hill:

This press conference is quickly descending into a farce as Trump starts bossing reporters around, describing them as “fake news media” as they push the president on what he wanted the Ukrainian government to do to Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

Trump then instructs a reporter to ask Finland president Sauli Niinistö a question. The reporter obliges. Trump then attempts to answer the question on the president’s behalf.

I’ll type a few highlights as it wraps up.

We’re switching now to a joint press conference being held at the White House with Donald Trump and Finland president Sauli Niinistö.

You can watch that below:

The 2020 Gun Safety Forum is underway in Las Vegas.

Nine of the top presidential candidates are receiving 20-25 minutes of solo stage time to talk about their platforms on gun control. Staff with March for our Lives and the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence organized the event and invited local groups and community organizers to ask candidates questions and network amongst each other.

The forum comes one day after the 2 year anniversary of the October 1, 2017 mass shooting at the Route 91 music festival which left 58 people dead. And organizers hope to expand the conversation from mass shootings to include suicides, domestic violence, and urban community violence which account for the majority of gun deaths.

Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak, Nevada’s first democratic governor in 20 years and Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui, who survived the 2017 shooting gave opening remarks. Jauregui recalled dropping to the ground and having her husband lay on top of her to block the gunfire.

Sisolak tearfully recalled walking through the fairgrounds in the aftermath of the Route 91 shooting. He highlighted the sweeping gun reforms that came after the shooting. Reforms include universal background checks and banning bumpstocks, the gun accessory that was used during the Route 91 shooting.

“We will not be defined by the evil acts of a lone monster two years ago but rather by resilience,” Sisolak said.

Updated

The Democratic National Committee has announced that 12 candidates have now qualified for the next presidential primary debate in Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio on 15 October.

Those candidates, in alphabetical order, are:

Vice President Joe Biden

Sen. Cory Booker

Mayor Pete Buttigieg

Sec. Julian Castro

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard

Sen. Kamala Harris

Sen. Amy Klobuchar

Rep. Beto O’Rourke

Sen. Bernie Sanders

Mr. Tom Steyer

Sen. Elizabeth Warren

Mr. Andrew Yang

Early afternoon summary

Here’s where things stand after an incredibly dramatic morning in the world of US politics.

  • Top House Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff warned the Trump administration against stonewalling on the impeachment inquiry and accused Donald Trump of inciting violence with intimidatory tactics against the whistleblower and witnesses in the Ukraine scandal.
  • Bernie Sanders was hospitalized in Las Vegas after experiencing chest pains on the campaign trail yesterday and has had a procedure to treat a blocked artery. The 2020 Democratic candidate has canceled campaign events until further notice.
  • State department inspector general Steve Linick is to brief Senate and House committee staffers behind closed doors on Capitol Hill this afternoon, after requesting urgent meeting. Details are scarce but it’s said to involve documents related to the Trump-Ukraine scandal.
  • House Democrats threatened subpoenas on Friday if the office of the president fails to comply with requests from Congress relating to the impeachment inquiry.
  • Secretary of state Mike Pompeo admitted he listened in on Donald Trump’s phone call in July with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Pompeo skipped around questions on his and Trump’s appropriateness of conduct and summarized the growing scandal as “all this noise”.

Updated

Trump has used a brief press appearance at the Oval Office to lay into House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff again.

Trump’s comments were riddled with misrepresentations and inflammatory language leveled at Democrats and members of the press pool.

He says that Schiff should be investigated for treason over his questioning of the acting DNI Joseph Maguire in Congress last week.

“He [Schiff] made up my conversation. He actually made it up. It should be treasonous. He made it up. Every word of it. Made it up. And read to Congress as though I said it. I’ll tell you what, he should be forced to resign. Adam Schiff, he’s a low life. He should be forced to resign. He took a perfect conversation, realized he couldn’t read it to congress because it was a very nice conversation,” Trump says.

The comments Trump appears to be referring to are remarks Schiff made at the hearing, which he clearly signposted beforehand as a paraphrase that did not include direct quotation.

Here’s some video of the President.

The Associated Press has more details on Bernie Sanders current condition following heart surgery for a blocked artery.

A top official in Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign says the Democratic candidate is in Las Vegas where he’s resting after having a heart procedure for a blocked artery.

Campaign adviser Jeff Weaver says that Sanders’ wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders, is on her way to Las Vegas.

Weaver isn’t saying whether the Vermont senator is still hospitalized.

O’Meara Sanders says in an email that her husband “was doing really well.”

The Trump campaign have just released a new, inflammatory and misleading attack advert reusing the “Coup” rhetoric tweeted by the president earlier in the week.

According to the campaign’s press release:

The spot will be mixed into an existing $8 million ad buy the campaign previously announced. Combined with a separate $2 million buy made by the Republican National Committee with different ads, the total buy is $10 million.

Democrats issue stern warning over impeachment inquiry

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congressman Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House intelligence committee, delivered a stern warning to the White House: attempts to “stonewall” the impeachment inquiry “will be considered further evidence of obstruction of justice”.

“We’re not fooling around here,” Schiff said, speaking at an unusually crowded press conference.

Pelosi said Trump’s threats against the whistleblower and officials who spoke with the whistleblower are “dangerous”.

The whistleblower has the right under statue to remain anonymous and we will do everything in our power to make sure that that whistleblower is protected,” Schiff said.

He said Trump’s attacks were engaging in “a blatant effort to intimidate witnesses, it’s an incitement of violence. I would hope that we’re starting to see members of both parties speaking out against attacking this Whistleblower and others that have pertinent information.”

“The president probably doesn’t realize how dangerous his statement is,” Pelosi added.

Schiff outlined the actions taken by the three key committees leading the impeachment inquiry. He said the chairman expect Rudy Giuliani to comply with the subpoena they issued on Monday. He said they are “deeply concerned about Secretary Pompeo’s effort now to potentially interfere with witnesses whose testimony is needed before our committee.”

Congressman Elijah Cummings, the chairman of the Oversight and Reform Committee, notified the panel on Wednesday of his intention to subpoena the White House if it did not comply by Friday with a request for documents related to Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukrianian leaders to investigate Biden.

“I do not take this step lightly,” Cummings said in a statement. “Over the past several weeks, the committees tried several times to obtain voluntary compliance with our requests for documents, but the White House has refused to engage with — or even respond to — the committees.”

Kurt Volker, the former US special envoy to Ukraine, who resigned from his post last week, is due to appear before the committee on Thursday.

Next week, Marie Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine who was ousted from her post in May, will also sit for a joint deposition with the committees.

“We’re very busy,” Schiff said. “We are proceeding deliberately but at the same time we feel a real sense of urgency here.”

Both defended the inquiry against attacks by Republicans, some of who have conceded that it was problematic but does not amount to impeachment.

Pelosi said Trump’s behavior on the call, which Democrats allege amounts to an attempt by a president to solicit foreign intervention in a US election, is “absolutely” serious enough to be an impeachable offense. She says he undermined national security, his oath of office and the US Constitution.

“It’s hard to imagine a set of circumstances that would have alarmed the Founders more than what’s on that call,” Schiff said. “It’s hard to imagine a more corrupt course of conduct.”

Updated

Clearly President Trump was watching that House Democratic press conference. He has taken to Twitter posting a typically furious, factually inaccurate and, this time, expletive ridden diatribe.

Candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination have begun sending well wishes to Senator Bernie Sanders, after his campaign announced he was hospitalized due to a blocked artery. Sanders has canceled campaign events as he undergoes recovery from heart surgery.

My colleague Lauren Gambino is at the press conference in DC:

Schiff provides an update on the status of the House impeachment inquiry. He goes over the status of subpoenas issued to key players and departments at the centre of the Trump-Ukraine scandal.

He then levels a direct attack on Mike Pompeo. He states:

“We are deeply concerned about secretary Pompeo’s effort to potentially interfere with witnesses who are set to appear before out committee.”

He adds, of the inquiry as a whole: “We are proceeding deliberately, but at the same time we feel a real sense of urgency.”

Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff have started a morning press conference.

You can watch it here:

Bernie Sanders cancels campaign events due to illness

Some breaking news from the campaign of US senator Bernie Sanders, who has fallen ill and has cancelled campaign events “until further notice”.

Here’s the full statement:

During a campaign event yesterday evening, Sen. Sanders experienced some chest discomfort. Following medical evaluation and testing he was found to have a blockage in one artery and two stents were successfully inserted. Sen. Sanders is conversing and in good spirits. He will be resting up over the next few days. We are canceling his events and appearances until further notice, and we will continue to provide appropriate updates.

Context on today's closed door State Department IG briefing

Here’s some more context on the State Department Inspector General’s closed door “urgent briefing” later today.

We’re expecting Steve Linick to brief a number of Senate and House committee staffers this afternoon. While we don’t know the precise details of the briefing, ABC News, which first reported the meetings, says the matter concerns documents obtained from the department’s Office of the Legal Adviser related to the State Department and Ukraine.

Linick was appointed to his post under the Obama administration in 2013 and previously oversaw the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.

The career government official previously served as executive director of the Department of Justice’s National Procurement Fraud Task Force and as deputy chief of the fraud section in the DOJ Criminal Division from 2006 to 2010. He was also an assistant US attorney in California and Virginia.

Although, to stress again, we don’t know the details of this closed door briefing, there is predictable speculation on Twitter:

House Democrats threaten White House with subpoenas

The impeachment inquiry continues to gain pace. House Democrats have announced they plan to subpoena the White House on Friday if the office of the president fails to comply with requests from Congress.

Updated

Kamala Harris writes to Jack Dorsey requesting Trump Twitter account be suspended

Lets return to some of the president’s inflammatory tweeting last night, in which he described the House impeachment inquiry as a “COUP”.

We won’t embed the tweets here or reprint the contents due to their inflammatory and misleading nature, but they’re available to view here if you want to take a look.

As you’d expect the comments are drawing serious criticism from a number of high profile Democrat. Probably the most newsworthy of all these is from California senator and presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who issued a press release this morning saying she has written to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, requesting Trump’s account be suspended.

The letter cites a number of recent inflammatory messages, including Trump’s suggestion that House Intelligence Committee Chairman should be arrested for treason.

Here’s an extract from the letter her campaign attached to the press release.

Mr. Dorsey:

I write to call your attention to activity that President Trump has been engaged in on his Twitter account, which appears to violate the terms of the user agreement that your company requires all users on the platform adhere to.

Twitter’s user agreement specifically states that users “may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other people to do so,” which includes “violence against an individual or a group of people.” Furthermore, the agreement states that the platform considers abusive behavior as “an attempt to harass, intimidate, or silence someone else’s voice,” and that it prohibits “the glorification of violence.”

In recent days, President Trump published the following tweets from his Twitter account to target, harass, and attempt to out the whistleblower who set forth credible allegations that the President has abused his power by urging a foreign government to investigate a domestic political rival.

The letter concludes:

No user, regardless of their job, wealth, or stature should be exempt from abiding by Twitter’s user agreement, not even the President of the United States.

Some more context on Secretary Pompeo’s admission that he took part in the July phone call between Donald Trump and Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Pompeo’s involvement in the call (he listened in to the conversation and does not appear to have actively participated) was first reported by the Wall Street Journal last week. Pompeo’s admission, made earlier today on an official trip to the Vatican, confirms this reporting.

Although Pompeo has sought to downplay the relevance of his participation, describing it as part of normal state department business, that explanation only takes you so far.

Aside from the substance of the call, which involved Trump pushing Zelensky to commence a domestic investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden with the assistance of his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, Pompeo has also pleaded ignorance over the existence of the conversation in previous interviews.

When reports of the whistleblower complaint first emerged in last month, Pompeo was asked by ABC News about his knowledge of the conversation between Trump and Zelensky. His response, which I will publish in full below, was particularly evasive, and implied he was not aware of the nature of the conversation, which we now know he was participating in.

ABC: And I want to turn to this whistleblower complaint, Mr. Secretary. The complaint involving the President and a phone call with a foreign leader to the director of national intelligence inspector general. That’s where the complaint was launched by the whistle-blower. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that President Trump pressed the president of Ukraine eight times to work with Rudy Giuliani to investigate Joe Biden’s son. What do you know about those conversations?

    POMPEO: So, you just gave me a report about a I.C. whistle-blower complaint, none of which I’ve seen. I can tell you about this administration’s policies with Ukraine. I remember the previous administration was begged -- begged by the Ukrainian people to deliver defensive arms, so that they could protect themselves from Vladimir Putin and Russia. And they gave them blankets. This administration took seriously the responsibility of the Ukrainian people. We’ve provided now on multiple occasions resources, so that the -- the Ukrainians can defend themselves. We’ve worked on that. We -- we’re working -- we’ll see President Zelensky this week. We want a good relationship with the Ukrainian people.

Morning summary

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of US politics.

Here’s what we’ll be following today:

  • US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has admitted he took part in the July phone call that is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, in which the US president put pressure on his Ukrainian counterpart to look for compromising material against Joe Biden. We’ll bring you reaction to that news as it happens.
  • State department inspector general Steve Linick is expected to give an urgent private briefing to several House and Senate committee staffers. Linick is said to have requested the meetings himself, according to reports. There is no official word on the substance of the meetings, but ABC News reports it concerns documents related to the state department and Ukraine.
  • Donald Trump will meet with Finnish president Sauli Niinistö at 12.10pm. The heads of state will hold a joint press conference later in the afternoon.
  • Trump is facing a backlash after a series of incendiary Tweets yesterday evening referring to the House impeachment inquiry as a “COUP”.

Updated

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
‘I’m trying to de-escalate. He has a needle in my arm’: Southern California woman goes to tattoo shop. Then the owner asks her something shocking
A woman has sparked discussion online after she called out her tattoo artist for his inappropriate behavior once he learned she was recently single.
The Mary Sue
The Mary Sue
Forget birdwatching, I’m into moth-watching: they’re fascinating and misunderstood insects
According to new research, distinguishing between the UK’s 2,500 species could halt cognitive decline – so my brain could not be happier, or healthier, says science writer Helen Pilcher
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
I tried HigherDose’s $1,400 PEMF mat to help me relax. I got weird dreams and disappointment
This pricey infrared therapy mat claims to help mood, sleep and muscle recovery. It felt more like a glorified heating pad
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Florida judge asked if Black defendant had ever ‘chopped cotton’ as he mulled community service sentence, report says
The judge acknowledged his remarks were ‘ill-considered,’ court documents state
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Watch Zakk Wylde in emotional video for Black Label Society's Ozzy Osbourne tribute
Zakk Wylde and Black Label Society release video for Ozzy's Song – their touching tribute to the late Prince of Darkness
Metal Hammer
Metal Hammer
Robert Pattinson Sparks Buzz After Relationship “Red Flag” Remark Fans Link To Kristen Stewart
“100% shading Kristen Stewart,” one user wrote
Bored Panda
Bored Panda
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play