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Maanvi Singh in San Francisco (now) and Joan E Greve in New York (earlier)

White House says it will not comply with impeachment inquiry – as it happened

Live political reporting continues on Wednesday’s blog:

Evening summary

Here’s a recap of today:

  • The White House will not comply with the House democrats’ impeachment inquiry. In a letter to House leaders, the White House called the impeachment investigation a partisan effort “to overturn the results of the 2016 election”.
  • The letter, signed by White House counsel Pat Cipollone echoed Trump talking points accusing House intelligence committee chair Adam Schiff of colluding with the whistleblower against the president.
  • House Democrats have subpoenaed Gordon Sondland after the Trump administration blocked the US ambassador to the EU from testifying for the impeachment inquiry. “In light of Secretary Pompeo’s direct intervention to block your appearance before our Committees, we are left with no choice but to compel your appearance at a deposition,” the House democrats’ subpoena reads.
  • A White House official who listened to Trump’s July call with the Ukrainian president described it as “crazy” and “frightening,” the whistleblower memo.
  • Two new polls show that a majority of Americans now support the impeachment inquiry.

Trump administrations announces visa restrictions on Chinese officials

Secretary of state Mike Pompeo has announced visa restrictions on Chinese officials suspected of being involved in “a highly repressive campaign against Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other members of Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang).”

Earlier today, the US commerce department issued a list of 28 state security bureaus and tech companies in China that it said are being used to suppress muslims and other ethnic minorities.

Pompeo’s statement condemns “mass detentions in internment camps; pervasive, high-tech surveillance; draconian controls on expressions of cultural and religious identities” in China.

These actions come days before the US and China are scheduled to resume trade negotiations in Washington.

Updated

The White House letter also says that “Chairman Schiff’s office, and perhaps others — despite initial denials — were involved in advising the whistleblower before the complaint was filed”.

This is highly misleading.

The New York Times first reported that Schiff had learned about the whistleblower complaint before it was filed -- after the CIA officer who made the complaint approached a House Intelligence committee aide for advice on how to proceed with concerns over Trump’s phone call with Ukranian president Zelenskiy. The Washington Post confirmed the Times’ reporting.

When asked by MSNBC in September whether he had spoken to the whistleblower, Schiff said: “We have not spoken directly with the whistleblower.” While one can debate the meaning and significance of the word “directly” it’s fair to criticize Schiff for mischaracterizing the situation.

But that doesn’t mean that Schiff or any other House democrat helped shape the complaint, as Trump and his allies have claimed.

Politifact explains:

Schiff did receive some information about the whistleblower complaint before it was formally presented to Congress. But both the House Intelligence Committee and a lawyer representing the whistleblower told us the complaint was drafted independently of Schiff’s input, and we could find no evidence to the contrary. At the same time, Trump and Republicans have produced no evidence to suggest Schiff had helped draft or shape the complaint.

The White House letter in response to the impeachment inquiry, which almost verbatim repeated Trump talking points, contains several inaccuracies.

More than once, the letter claims that Trump’s call with Ukranian president Zelenskiy was “completely appropriate” and that representative Adam Schiff of created “a false version of the call and read it to the American people”.

“After the actual record of the call was released, Chairman Schiff chose to concoct a false version of the call and to read his made-up transcript to the American people at a public hearing,” it reads.

Fact check: During a House Intelligence Committee hearing, Schiff said he would outline “the essence of what the president communicates” not an “exact transcribed version of the call”. In any case, the rough transcript released by the White House detailing the phone call cautions explicitly that it is “not a verbatim transcript”.

Bernie Sanders’ daughter-in-law has died

Raine Riggs, a neuropsychologist who was married to Levi Sanders, died Saturday, shortly after Bernie Sanders returned to Vermont after suffering a heart attack.

Riggs, 46, had recently been diagnosed with cancer, according to her obituary. She was the director of behavioral medicine at Dartmouth Medical School and she started the Palliative Care Department for Dartmouth Medical Center.

Updated

Democrats subpoena Gordon Sondland

After Donald Trump said he prevented the US ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, from testifying before congress, House democrats have issued a subpoena.

“In light of Secretary Pompeo’s direct intervention to block your appearance before our Committees, we are left with no choice but to compel your appearance at a deposition,” the House democrats’ subpoena reads.

They are also subpoenaed Sondland for documents that are relevant to the Ukraine controversy.

It’s unclear what, if anything, could convince the White House to cooperate with the House democrats’ investigations.

Updated

“The President has done nothing wrong, and the Democrats know it,” the White House press secretary said in a statement, echoing the White House counsel’s letter to House democrats.

The impeachment inquiry “violates the Constitution, the rule of law, and every past precedent”, the statement reads.

The constitution permits Congress to impeach a president if enough lawmakers vote to say that the president has committed “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Updated

White House letter to Pelosi: Trump 'cannot permit his Administration to participate' in impeachment investigation

The White House has sent an eight-page letter to speaker Nancy Pelosi and the House democrats pursuing an impeachment inquiry.

“As you know, you have designed and implemented your inquiry in a manner that violates fundamental fairness and constitutionally mandated due process,” the letter reads, addressing Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Eliot Engel and Elijah Cummings — the democratic representatives leading the impeachment investigation.

Signed by White House counsel Pat Cipollone, the letter accuses democrats of seeking to “overturn the results of the 2016 election and deprive the American people of the president they have freely chosen”.

The letter stopped short of demanding that Pelosi call a vote on the impeachment inquiry, instead calling on House democrats to “abandon the current invalid efforts to pursue an impeachment inquiry”.

Updated

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • House Democrats intend to subpoena Gordon Sondland after the Trump administration blocked the US ambassador to the EU from testifying for the impeachment inquiry.
  • A White House official who listened to the call between Trump and the Ukrainian president described it as “crazy” and “frightening,” according to a memo reportedly written by the whistleblower.
  • The Senate judiciary committee has invited Rudy Giuliani to come speak before the panel, but the president’s personal lawyer said he did not intend to comply with a subpoena from the House intelligence committee.
  • Two newly released polls showed that a majority of Americans support the impeachment inquiry, with one poll putting the figure at 58 percent and another at 53 percent.
  • The Senate intelligence committee released its bipartisan report on Russian operatives’ use of social media to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Like the intelligence community, the committee concluded that the Kremlin meddled in the race to benefit Trump and hinder Hillary Clinton’s bid.

Maanvi will have more on the news of the day, so stay tuned.

The White House is expected to issue a letter today effectively declaring war on House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, per a New York Times reporter.

Rudy Giuliani alluded to such a letter earlier today when he said he would not comply with a subpoena from House Democrats.

The president’s personal lawyer told the Washington Post that he expected the White House to soon issue a letter arguing the committees are illegitimate.

The Quinnipiac poll also found that Elizabeth Warren is slightly ahead of Joe Biden in the Democratic presidential primary.

According to Quinnipiac, Warren attracts the support of 29 percent of Democratic voters across the country, compared to Biden’s 26 percent.

Bernie Sanders is the only other candidate with a double-digit level of support, receiving the backing of 16 percent of Democrats.

With the latest results, Warren is just barely ahead of Biden in the RealClearPolitics national polling average of the race.

The Quinnipiac poll on impeachment shows Republicans are clearly opposed to the impeachment inquiry against Trump, contradicting the results of the Washington Post-Schar School poll released earlier today.

According to Quinnipiac, 88 percent of Republicans consider House Democrats’ inquiry to be a “witch hunt,” compared to just 8 percent who view it as a legitimate investigation.

In comparison, the Post poll found that almost 3 in 10 Republicans supported the impeachment inquiry, with almost a fifth of Republicans saying they would back removing Trump from office.

White House official who heard Ukraine call described it as 'crazy,' according to whistleblower

The whistleblower who raised concerns about Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president wrote in a memo that a White House official described the conversation as “crazy” and “frightening.”

ABC News reports:

ABC News has learned that the two-page memo, written by the whistleblower a day after Trump’s call, suggests that at least one close aide to the president feared that Trump’s own words in the call were damning. ...

The notes were based on a brief conversation between the whistleblower and the White House official and described ‘highlights’ from the president’s call. The document was later provided to the intelligence community’s inspector general, who reviewed the whistleblower’s complaint.

Yang qualifies for November debate

Tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang has now qualified for the November debate thanks to a national Quinnipiac poll showing him attracting the support of 3 percent of Democratic voters.

Yang is the eighth Democratic candidate to qualify for the November debate – joining Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Tom Steyer.

But what’s perhaps even more notable about the poll is that it shows Yang either tied with or pulling ahead of more establishment candidates like Harris, Booker and Beto O’Rourke.

Hillary Clinton responded to Trump’s attempt to resurrect the issue of her private email server by joking that he should not “tempt” her to run for president again.

The former secretary of state and presidential candidate has already voiced support for House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry and has previously mocked Trump as a “corrupt human tornado.”

The White House is reaching out to external lawyers to discuss helping with the impeachment response, CNN reports.

According to CNN, one of the lawyers the White House has contacted is Trey Gowdy, the former Republican congressman who gained nationwide attention for his investigation into the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya.

It was that investigation that first uncovered evidence of Hillary Clinton’s private email server, which Trump used to repeatedly attack the former secretary of state during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Supreme Court hears LGBT rights case

The Supreme Court heard arguments today in a case meant to determine whether the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects LGBT people from discrimination in employment based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

LGBT advocates rally outside the Supreme Court shortly after the court heard oral arguments in discrimination cases.
LGBT advocates rally outside the Supreme Court shortly after the court heard oral arguments in discrimination cases. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA

The AP reports:

With the court’s four liberal justices likely to side with workers who were fired because of their sexual orientation or transgender status, the question in two highly anticipated cases that filled the courtroom was whether one of the court’s conservatives might join them.

Justice Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump’s first Supreme Court appointee, said there are strong arguments favoring the LGBT workers. But he wondered whether the justices should take into account ‘the massive social upheaval’ that might follow a ruling in their favor.

Two other conservatives, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh did not squarely indicate their views, although Roberts also questioned how employers with religious objections to hiring LGBT people might be affected by the outcome.

Bernie Sanders addressed his recent heart attack, telling reporters in Vermont that he was “dumb” to ignore symptoms over the past two months as he campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The heart attack, which Sanders did not disclose for almost three days, has raised questions about whether the Vermont senator will continue with his presidential bid.

But so far, Sanders has shown no sign of calling it quits, telling staffers in a phone call he would use the experience to emphasize the principles of his candidacy.

Almost immediately after Trump concluded his call with the Ukrainian president, White House aides rushed to contain the potential damage of his comments, according to CNN.

CNN reports:

The scramble and fallout from the call, described by six people familiar with it, parallels and expands upon details described in the whistleblower complaint.

The anxiety and internal concern reflect a phone conversation that deeply troubled national security professionals, even as Trump now insists there was nothing wrong with how he conducted himself. And it shows an ultimately unsuccessful effort to contain the tumult by the administration’s lawyers.

At least one National Security Council official alerted the White House’s national security lawyers about the concerns, three sources familiar with the matter said, a detail that had not been previously disclosed. Those same lawyers would later order the transcript of the call moved to a highly classified server typically reserved for code-word classified material.

Giuliani says he won't testify before House investigators

Rudy Giuliani said that he would not comply with a subpoena from the House intelligence committee. The president’s personal lawyer added that he “can’t imagine” other Trump administration officials would do so either.

“The position I’m stating is now the position of the administration,” Giuliani told the Washington Post, claiming that the White House has written a letter asserting the congressional committee is illegitimate.

Giuliani said: “I wouldn’t testify in front of that committee until there is a vote of Congress and [chairman Adam Schiff] is removed. ...

“Let them hold me in contempt. We’ll go to court. We’ll challenge the contempt.”

Giuliani was initially given until Oct. 15 to hand over materials relevant to the impeachment inquiry. If he does not comply, Democrats will likely argue that it is further evidence of obstruction by the Trump White House.

Representative Mark Pocan, a Democrat of Wisconsin and a co-chair of the progressive caucus, is now suggesting that whoever decided to block the testimony of Gordon Sondland should have their salary suspended.

Sondland said that the State Department had “directed” him not to appear before Congress, but Trump appeared to take responsibility for the decision in a morning tweet.

Of course, Trump has donated his government salary every quarter since taking office, so Pocan’s suggestion may not carry the same weight with him.

The Senate intelligence committee also interestingly concluded that African Americans were targeted by Russian trolls more than any other demographic in the 2016 election.

The panel’s bipartisan report reads: “The Committee found that no single group of Americans was targeted by IRA information operatives more than African-Americans. By far, race and related issues were the preferred target of the information warfare campaign designed to divide the country in 2016.”

And the committee noted that the Kremlin actually escalated its disinformation campaign after the 2016 election concluded.

The report says: “The data reveal increases in IRA activity across multiple social media platforms, post-Election Day 2016: Instagram activity increased 238 percent, Facebook increased 59 percent, Twitter increased 52 percent, and YouTube citations went up by 84 percent.”

Senate committee releases report affirming Russia sought to help Trump

The Senate intelligence committee has released its bipartisan report on Russia’s use of social media to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, which concludes that the Kremlin sought to help Trump’s campaign by spreading disinformation.

The report reads: “The Committee found, that the IRA sought to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election by harming Hillary Clinton’s chances of success and supporting Donald Trump at the direction of the Kremlin.”

The committee also concluded that Russian operatives similarly targeted Republican presidential candidates, including Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush.

The lawmakers recommended that “social media companies work to facilitate greater information sharing between the public and private sector” and specifically called on the Executive Branch to “reinforce with the public the danger of attempted foreign interference in the 2020 election.”

That last point implicitly criticizes the president, who has repeatedly cast doubt on the intelligence community’s finding that Russia meddled in the 2016 election to Trump’s benefit.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • The White House has blocked Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the EU, from testifying before three House committees leading the impeachment inquiry.
  • House Democratic leaders have now said they will subpoena Sondland for his testimony and documents that are relevant to the Ukraine controversy.
  • The Senate judiciary committee has invited Rudy Giuliani to appear before the panel, but it’s unclear whether the president’s personal lawyer will accept the offer.
  • A new poll found that nearly 6 in 10 Americans now support House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, and almost half of the country backs removing Trump from office.

The blog will have more of the latest impeachment news, so stay tuned.

Meanwhile, tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang hopes he will get his fourth qualifying poll today to participate in the November debate.

Seven Democratic presidential candidates have qualified for the debate so far: Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Tom Steyer.

No other candidate is close to qualifying, with Beto O’Rourke and Amy Klobuchar both still needing three more polls to make the cut.

It’s quite possible the November event will feature a significantly smaller field of candidates than the October debate, which is taking place in Ohio next week. Twelve candidates have qualified for that face-off.

Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee, voiced support for Lindsey Graham’s proposal to have Rudy Giuliani appear before the panel.

The California Democrat said in a statement: “I welcome the opportunity to question Rudy Giuliani under oath about his role in seeking the Ukrainian government’s assistance to investigate one of the president’s political rivals.

“Democratic members have plenty of questions for Mr Giuliani and this would give us an opportunity to help separate fact from fiction for the American people.”

But Graham’s statement inviting Giuliani raised concerns that the appearance would be used as an opportunity for Republicans to amplify baseless corruption claims against Joe Biden.

Updated

Trump has reacted to the latest subpoena of one of his administration officials by attacking the Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee.

Gordon Sondland said in a statement earlier today that he was “profoundly disappointed” he could not appear before Congress, so it will likely be much harder for Trump to prevent him from testifying now that he has been subpoenaed.

The Democratic committee chairmen noted in their statement about the subpoena of Gordon Sondland that the US ambassador to the EU was directed by the state department late last night not to testify before Congress.

According to the senior House Democrats, Sondland received a voicemail at 12.30am informing him that the Trump administration would not allow him to appear before the committees.

That voicemail will likely be included in the Democrats’ subpoena of Sondland.

Updated

The three Democratic chairmen – Adam Schiff of the House intelligence committee, Eliot Engel of the House foreign affairs committee and Elijah Cummings of the House oversight committee – are requesting testimony and documents from Gordon Sondland.

Schiff told reporters today that the US ambassador to the EU has texts and emails relevant to the inquiry stored on personal devices. The California Democrat accused the state department of withholding that pertinent information from the House committees.

The chairmen also blasted the White House’s interference with Sondland’s scheduled testimony. They said in their statement about the subpoena: “We consider this interference to be obstruction of the impeachment inquiry.”

Updated

House Democrats move to subpoena Sondland

The Democratic chairmen of three House committees leading the impeachment inquiry said they would subpoena Gordon Sondland after the US ambassador to the EU failed to appear for his deposition.

Rudy Giuliani expressed openness to appearing before the Senate judiciary committee after the panel’s Republican chairman, Lindsey Graham, invited the president’s personal lawyer to discuss “corruption in Ukraine.”

The former New York mayor told CNN: “Love Lindsey, but I am still a lawyer and I will have to deal with privilege.”

But Giuliani added: “Given the nature of his invitation about my concerns I might be able to do it without discussing privileged information.”

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is eager to question Rudy Giuliani if the president’s personal lawyer accepts Lindsey Graham’s invitation to appear before the Senate judiciary committee.

A CNN reporter noted that three Democratic presidential contenders sit on the Senate panel, potentially throwing an even brighter spotlight on what would already be a very high-profile appearance.

Nearly one million migrants arrested along southern border this fiscal year

Mark Morgan, the acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, announced that apprehensions at the southern border reached nearly 1 million during the 2019 fiscal year – marking a 12-year high.

The Washington Post has more on the numbers:

[Morgan] told reporters at a White House briefing that just more than 52,000 migrants were taken into custody — including those deemed inadmissible to the country — in September at U.S. ports of entry and between them. It was a decline of 18 percent from August.

Overall, U.S. border authorities made more than 975,000 arrests during the 2019 fiscal year, according to the latest data. Morgan said arrests increased 88 percent during the 2019 fiscal year, calling it a ‘staggering’ increase.

‘These are numbers no immigration system in the world is designed to handle,’ he said.

Updated

At least one Democratic congressman is calling for the resignation of Gordon Sondland after the US ambassador to the EU did not show up for his deposition with the House committees leading the impeachment inquiry.

Sondland expressed disappointment that he was “directed” by the State Department not to appear, but representative Anthony Brown said the diplomat should step down if that is what it would take to comply with the panels’ request.

Updated

On the 2020 campaign trail, Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has released a new digital ad called “Light the Way.”

The 30-second ad – which will run on social media platforms and other sites in the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada – includes footage from Buttigieg’s recent rally in Sparks, Nevada.

The audience there enabled the Indiana mayor to finish his remarks after the power went out by using the flashlights on their cell phones.

The text in the ad reads: “Together, we can light the way to a better future.”

Graham offers Giuliani the chance to testify

Senator Lindsey Graham, another congressional ally of Trump’s, said he would allow Rudy Giuliani to testify before the Senate judiciary committee about “corruption in Ukraine.”

Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, reportedly played a key role in pressuring Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son. The former New York mayor has already been subpoenaed by House Democrats.

A Politico reporter noted that Graham’s invitation could indicate Republican lawmakers are open to exploring an investigation of the baseless corruption claims against Biden, as Trump has pushed for.

And Trump is somehow still talking about Hillary Clinton’s emails, even as his own White House blocks a senior official from testifying for House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.

Despite Trump’s many efforts to direct attention away from the impeachment inquiry, support for the investigation continues to climb among the American public.

A new Washington Post-Schar School poll out today found that 58 percent of Americans back the inquiry, marking an increase of 21 points since just July.

Meanwhile, just in case Trump momentarily forgot about the impeachment inquiry against him, a protester with a sense of humor is providing a very noisy reminder of it just outside the president’s window in Washington.

Trump’s congressional allies echoed the president’s talking points slamming House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry as a “kangaroo court.”

Representative Mark Meadows, a Republican of North Carolina, said Gordon Sondland should only testify when it can be assured that a “fair process” will be followed. “This is not a fair process,” Meadows said.

One of Meadows’ colleagues, Jim Jordan of Ohio, said he was not concerned about Trump’s Ukraine call because he was “doing his duty” to look into corruption abroad.

But the memo that the White House released on the phone call shows that Trump specifically referenced baseless allegations against Joe Biden and his son.

The Republican lawmakers added that they want to see the transcript of the congressional testimony from Kurt Volker, the former US ambassador to NATO, released before the inquiry proceeds.

Updated

Schiff says Sondland's blocked testimony presents 'additional strong evidence of obstruction'

Representative Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee, slammed the White House’s decision to block the congressional testimony of Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the EU.

The California Democrat said the State Department was also withholding text messages and emails from Sondland that were stored on a personal device and were “deeply relevant” to the impeachment inquiry.

“It is hard to overstate” the significance of Sondland’s testimony, Schiff said. He warned that the decision to block his appearance presented “yet additional strong evidence of obstruction.”

Updated

Trump defends blocking Sondland testimony

The president has weighed in on the White House’s decision to block the congressional testimony of Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the EU.

Trump said that he would “love” to have the State Department official testify but that it has been made impossible because the impeachment inquiry has devolved into a “kangaroo court.”

But the New York Times has reported that Sondland’s text (not a tweet) denying any quid pro quo only came after he spoke with Trump.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris offered the president a warning about impeachment after the White House blocked the congressional testimony of Gordon Sondland.

The California senator has repeatedly promised on the campaign trail to “prosecute the case” against Trump.

Representative Adam Kinzinger, a Republican of Illinois, told CNN this morning that he considered Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian president to be “inappropriate” but not necessarily “impeachable.”

Those comments seem to water down Kinzinger’s initial criticism of the conversation. “No president should ever utilize or use American power in any way like to affect an election,” the Republican lawmaker said late last month. “So, if that happened, that would be a problem.”

Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the EU who was supposed to testify before House Democrats today, said in a statement that he was “profoundly disappointed” he could not appear today.

The senior official added that the State Department “directed” him not to testify before the panels leading the impeachment inquiry against Trump.

Trump blocks witness from testifying to Democrats as impeachment troubles mount

Good morning, live blog readers!

House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry is firing at all cylinders, despite the Trump administration’s many efforts to slow it down. Most recently, the White House has blocked Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the EU and a key witness in the Ukraine controversy, from appearing for a deposition.

The decision to block Sondland’s testimony could carry grave consequences for Donald Trump, given the House committees’ repeated warnings in letters subpoenaing senior officials that any failure to produce requested documents “shall constitute evidence of obstruction of the House’s impeachment inquiry”.

But the White House’s efforts to block the inquiry cannot stem the shifting tide of public opinion. According to a new Washington Post-Schar School poll, 58% of Americans support House Democrats’ decision to launch a formal impeachment inquiry. Nearly half of Americans – 49% – back the more severe step of removing Trump from office.

The president is, as usual, taking all of this very much in stride by tweeting out a blustery defense of his widely criticized decision to clear the way for a Turkish military operation against America’s Kurdish allies. But his defensive tweet underscores the deep trouble Trump is in as he faces potentially career-ending controversies on every front.

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

  • Trump will have lunch with the vice-president and award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former attorney general Edwin Meese.
  • The Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee, Adam Schiff, will speak to reporters about Sondland’s blocked testimony at 9.30am ET.
  • Nancy Pelosi will participate in a conversation on drug pricing in Seattle at 11.30am ET.

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

Updated

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