Democrats prep impeachment report to send to Judiciary Committee after Thanksgiving
Latest updates on the impeachment inquiry
- A federal judge ruled former White House counsel Don McGahn must comply with a congressional subpoena for testimony.
- The three House committees that have led the impeachment probe are drafting a report on their findings to send to the Judiciary Committee after Thanksgiving.
- The Judiciary Committee is responsible for drafting any articles of impeachment against the president.
- An internal White House review has uncovered emails showing deliberations over the delay in nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine over the summer.
Washington -- Democrats on the House committees leading the impeachment inquiry are preparing a report about the president's dealings with Ukraine and efforts to stymie their investigation, which they plan to transmit to the House Judiciary Committee shortly after Thanksgiving.
The Judiciary Committee is charged with drafting any potential articles of impeachment under a resolution establishing the procedure for the inquiry passed by the House in October.
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said in a letter to colleagues that the three committees that have taken the lead on the inquiry so far are drafting a report on their findings pursuant to the resolution.
Schiff also hinted that the report will catalog an "unprecedented campaign of obstruction" by the White House, which ordered administration officials not to comply with the probe, with varying degrees of success. Schiff said the report will "allow [the Judiciary] Committee to consider whether an article of impeachment based on obstruction of Congress is warranted."
Meanwhile, an internal White House review has uncovered emails between administration officials attempting to justify the decision to withhold military aid to Ukraine and debating the legality of the hold.
The review, conducted by the White House counsel's office, was first reported by The Washington Post on Sunday. The Post, citing three people familiar with the records, said the documents discovered include "early August email exchanges between acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House budget officials seeking to provide an explanation for withholding the funds."
Two senior administration officials confirmed the emails' existence to CBS News. Those close to Mulvaney see the revelation of the review as the latest salvo in an internal struggle between Mulvaney and White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who has been angling to replace Mulvaney as chief of staff.
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) ordered the hold on the funds in the weeks before President Trump's July 25 call with the Ukrainian president, in which Mr. Trump urged him to open investigations into the Bidens and events in the 2016 campaign.
A spokeswoman for OMB said the office followed standard protocol in ordering the delay.
"To be clear, there was a legal consensus at every step of the way that the money could be withheld in order to conduct the policy review," said Rachel Semmel. "OMB works closely with agencies on executing the budget. Routine practices and procedures were followed."
A source familiar with Mulvaney's legal strategy tells CBS News that Mulvaney will not testify in the impeachment inquiry, regardless of the outcome of litigation over testimony by former White House officials. Mulvaney had attempted to join one such lawsuit but eventually dropped that effort and said he would comply with a White House order not to cooperate.
The source said Mulvaney's legal team believes that if executive privilege extends to just one person beyond the president, it's the acting chief of staff, a position they are willing to defend in court. -- Major Garrett and Paula Reid and Stefan Becket
Judge sides with House Democrats, ruling McGahn must comply with subpoena
6:23 p.m.: In a blow to White House efforts to block testimony by administration officials, a federal judge sided with the House Judiciary Committee and ruled that Don McGahn, a former White House counsel, must comply with a congressional subpoena.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson ruled that executive branch officials cannot claim "absolute immunity" to avoid cooperating with subpoenas, which the White House has asserted in the impeachment inquiry.
"[I]f a duly authorized committee of Congress issues a valid legislative subpoena to a current or former senior-level presidential aide, the law requires the aide to appear as directed, and assert executive privilege as appropriate," Jackson wrote.
"Donald McGahn must appear before the Committee to provide testimony, and invoke executive privilege where appropriate," she said.
The McGahn case originally centered on Democrats' demand for testimony stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, not the impeachment probe. A number of current and former officials have declined to comply with subpoenas or requests for testimony in the impeachment inquiry, indicating their desire to have the courts decide whether they should cooperate with Congress or follow a White House order not to.
Read more here.
Schiff says committees are preparing report to send to Judiciary after Thanksgiving
2:55 p.m.: Schiff says the committees in charge of the first phase of the impeachment probe are working on a report to send to the Judiciary Committee shortly after the Thanksgiving break.
In a "dear colleague" letter to fellow lawmakers, Schiff said House Democrats "will not allow the President or others to drag this out for months on end in the courts."
"The President has accepted or enlisted foreign nations to interfere in our upcoming elections, including the next one; this is an urgent matter that cannot wait if we are to protect the nation's security and the integrity of our elections," Schiff wrote.
Schiff said the three committees that have led the investigation -- Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight -- are "now preparing a report summarizing the evidence we have found this far, which will be transmitted to the Judiciary Committee soon after Congress returns from the Thanksgiving recess." The report is pursuant to a House resolution that established the process for the impeachment probe in October.
The chairman hinted that White House efforts to block testimony and documents under subpoenas could constitute obstruction of justice and form the basis for additional articles of impeachment.
"We will catalog the instances of non-compliance with lawful subpoenas as part of our report to the Judiciary Committee, which will allow that Committee to consider whether an article of impeachment based on obstruction of Congress is warranted along with an article or articles based on this underlying conduct or other presidential misconduct," Schiff wrote. "Such obstruction was the basis of the third article of impeachment against President Richard Nixon."
Schiff also said the committees are open to hearing from additional witnesses even as they craft their report.
"If other witnesses seek to show the same patriotism and courage of their colleagues and deputies and decide to obey their duty to the country over fealty to the President, we are prepared to hear from them," he said. -- Stefan Becket
Trump says he still has confidence in Mulvaney
12:52 p.m.: After a surprise White House event with Conan the dog, who was injured in the raid that kill ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, President Trump responded to shouted questions from CBS News about whether he still has confidence in Mulvaney.
"Yes, of course," Mr. Trump said. -- Paula Reid
House Intelligence Committee has records from indicted Giuliani associate
10:23 a.m.: The House Intelligence Committee is now in possession of records from Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, CBS News' Catherine Herridge has confirmed.
A source closed to the case confirmed Parnas provided the materials, noting the committee's subpoena for the records. Parnas "wants to tell his story," the source said.
Parnas, a Ukrainian-born businessman, was indicted last month on campaign finance violations, along with Igor Fruman.
Kellyanne Conway says White House ready to "go on offense" in Senate impeachment trial
6:00 a.m.: White House counselor Kellyanne Conway says the administration is prepared to mount a robust legal and political defense of President Trump if House Democrats vote to impeach him and the Republican-controlled Senate holds a trial to decide whether to remove him from office.
"Defense will go on offense if there is a Senate trial," Conway said on "Face the Nation" Sunday. "We'll be able to call witnesses, we'll be able to challenge their witnesses, produce other evidence and those witnesses may include the whistleblower and I would say his attorney."
Public hearings by the House Intelligence Committee concluded last week. Several current and former administration officials detailed a campaign by Mr. Trump and his allies to pressure the Ukrainian government for political favors. The efforts included the abrupt ouster of the former ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, a 30-year career diplomat who said she was smeared by the president's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.
Read more here.
How Russian intelligence officers interfered in the 2016 election
5:30 a.m.: There was a lot of testimony during this past week's impeachment inquiry about foreign interference in our 2016 election, including the president's assertion that Ukraine was involved. But the president's own intelligence agencies say it was the Russians who "hacked" the 2016 elections. Special counsel Robert Mueller spelled it out in his report.
Now the Justice Department has at least two open cases against Russian citizens for interfering with our presidential and congressional races. "60 Minutes" decided to take a closer look at one of them: the case against 12 Russian military officers accused of breaking into the Democratic Party's computers, stealing compromising information, and selectively releasing it to undermine Democratic candidates. There's no evidence of similar operations against Republicans in 2016.
With the 2020 election approaching, the story of "The Russian Hack."