Impeachment inquiry speeds up with Giuliani subpoena and Barr revelations
Key facts and latest news
- Attorney General William Barr and the president asked foreign officials for help investigating the origin of the Mueller probe.
- Three House committees subpoenaed Rudy Giuliani for documents about his dealings with Ukraine, and sent letter requesting documents from three business associates.
- In a July phone call, President Trump urged the president of Ukraine to open an investigation targeting Joe Biden.
- Soon after the call, White House officials moved a record of the call to a highly classified computer system, severely restricting who could access it.
Washington -- A series of rapid-fire developments brought the House impeachment inquiry into clearer focus Monday afternoon, with Democrats issuing new demands for evidence and new revelations about the circumstances of the president's call with Ukraine coming to light.
Just before 4 p.m., three House committees announced they had subpoenaed Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, for documents related to his work on behalf of President Trump to persuade Ukraine to open an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden. The committees also requested material about Giuliani's work to secure Ukraine's cooperation into a Justice Department review of the origins of Robert Mueller's Russia probe.
Shortly after the subpoena was announced, The Wall Street Journal reported Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on the July 25 call between the president and the Ukrainian leader. CBS News has confirmed Pompeo was on the call.
The New York Times reported Mr. Trump had called the prime minister of Australia to request assistance in the Justice Department review. The call came at the behest of Attorney General William Barr.
A Justice Department official then told CBS News that Barr had asked Mr. Trump to reach out to a number of foreign officials to request their assistance in his review, which is being led by the U.S. attorney in Connecticut. A source familiar with the matter said Barr traveled to Italy as part of his effort, and The Washington Post reported he has also reached out to intelligence officials in the United Kingdom.
In the call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25, Mr. Trump repeatedly asked him to work with Barr to pursue a fringe conspiracy theory about the origins of the 2016 U.S. counterintelligence investigation that would became the Mueller probe.
"I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it," Mr. Trump told Zelensky, according to the summary released by the White House.
It was in that conversation that Mr. Trump also urged Zelensky to open an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, and said he would put him in touch with both Giuliani and Barr.
"There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great," the president said.
A Justice Department spokeswoman said last week that Barr was not aware of the call until several weeks after it took place, and had not discussed "anything relating to Ukraine with Rudy Giuliani." The spokeswoman said the U.S. attorney conducting the 2016 review had received information from Ukrainian citizens, and that Barr "has yet to contact Ukraine in connection with this investigation."
Later Monday night, the inspector general for the intelligence community issued a statement defending the whistleblower from critics, saying the individual acted appropriately and had first-hand knowledge of the events in question. -- Stefan Becket
Kurt Volker will appear before House Committees Thursday
10:43 p.m. Former U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker will testify in a deposition before three House committees Thursday, as noted in documents that were issued Friday by Congress, CBS News confirms, according to three sources, two of whom are Arizona State University officials. MSNBC first reported that he would appear Thursday.
Volker resigned from his position Friday after his name appeared in the whistleblower complaint, which alleged that he had gone to Kiev in late July, met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian political figures and advised them on "how to 'navigate'" the demands Mr. Trump made of Zelensky.
The committees also scheduled depositions for other witnesses mentioned in the whistleblower complaint, but it is not yet clear whether they will appear.
-- Olivia Gazis and Nancy Cordes
Inspector general says whistleblower followed procedure when filing complaint
5:52 p.m.: The intelligence community inspector general concluded the whistleblower who filed a complaint involving the president's Ukraine call acted appropriately and by the book, pushing back on insinuations by a number of Republicans that the individual didn't follow federal rules for whistleblower disclosures.
"In summary, regarding the instant matter, the whistleblower submitted the appropriate Disclosure of Urgent Concern form that was in effect as of August 12, 2019, and had been used by the ICIG since May 24, 2018," the inspector general's office concluded Monday. "The whistleblower stated on the form that he or she possessed both first-hand and other information. The ICIG reviewed the information provided as well as other information gathered and determined that the complaint was both urgent and that it appeared credible."
Some Republicans in the Senate are questioning why the intelligence community last year changed its rules allowing whistleblower protections for those who don't necessarily have first-hand knowledge. Republicans have argued the whistleblower's claims aren't based on eyewitness testimony, even though the whistleblower's complaint and the call summary with Ukraine's president are consistent.
The inspector general's office noted the whistleblower claimed to have both direct and second-hand knowledge of the matters detailed in the complaint. -- Kathryn Watson
Barr and Trump asked foreign officials for help investigating origin of Russia probe
5:54 p.m.: Attorney General William Barr has asked Mr. Trump to reach out to a number of foreign officials to request assistance in the Department of Justice's review of the origins of the Mueller probe, a department spokeswoman said Monday.
Barr asked Mr. Trump to call Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to alert him that the attorney general would be reaching out, a department official told CBS News. The New York Times first reported the two leaders had spoken.
John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, is heading up a review of the FBI and CIA's activities in 2016. The status of that review, which Barr ordered in May, is unclear at this time.
"Mr. Durham is gathering information from numerous sources, including a number of foreign countries. At Attorney General Barr's request, the President has contacted other countries to ask them to introduce the Attorney General and Mr. Durham to appropriate officials," Kerri Kupec, a Department of Justice spokeswoman, said in a statement.
The department official declined to say which other countries were involved. The Washington Post said the other countries included the United Kingdom, and a source familiar with the matter said Barr traveled to Italy last week to discuss the review.
The Justice Department official said other countries have been helpful in regards to the Durham review and said no "pressing" has been required to obtain their cooperation.
Mr. Trump continues to be frustrated by the Russia probe, which arguably posed the greatest threat to his presidency until the House launched its impeachment probe last week.
The Times reported the White House restricted access to a transcript of Mr. Trump's call with the Australian prime minister, akin to what was done with records of his call with Ukraine's president. -- Clare Hymes and Kathryn Watson
Wall Street Journal: Pompeo was on Ukraine call
5:09 p.m.: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was among those on Mr. Trump's July 25 call with Ukraine's president, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing a senior State Department official.
Last week, House committees subpoenaed Pompeo for documents related to the Ukraine controversy, and he has only until Friday to produce the documents.
Rudy Giuliani said on CBS News' "Face the Nation" Sunday that he spoke Pompeo last week, and said the secretary told him he was aware of his unorthodox campaign to pressure Ukraine's government to dig up dirt on the Bidens.
"I did not do this on my own. I did it at the request of the State Department and I have all of the text messages to prove it. And I also have a thank you from them from doing a good job," Giuliani said on "Face the Nation." "When I talked to the secretary last week, he said he was aware of it." -- Kathryn Watson
House subpoenas Giuliani for Ukraine documents
3:58 p.m.: Three House committees issued a subpoena demanding documents related to Ukraine from Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer.
"Pursuant to the House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry, we are hereby transmitting a subpoena that compels you to produce the documents set forth in the accompanying schedule by October 15, 2019," the chairmen of the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Reform committees wrote.
The chairmen -- Adam Schiff, Eliot Engel and Elijah Cummings, respectively -- also sent letters requesting documents from three of Giuliani's business associates -- Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman and Semyon "Sam" Kislin.
While not unexpected, the move still marks a significant next step as congressional Democrats push forward with their impeachment inquiry.
Giuliani has not committed to testifying, and gave various answers on the Sunday talk show circuit when asked whether he would comply with congressional probes.
Giuliani has until October 15, when Congress returns, to produce the documents.
The White House said it had no comment on the subpoena, and Giuliani did not immediately respond to a request for comment. -- Kathryn Watson
Senior White House aides meeting to chart impeachment defense
3:20 p.m.: Senior White House officials have been meeting all day to discuss their response to congressional Democrats' impeachment push, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The White House has so far been struggling to present a cohesive, comprehensive strategy, both internally and from a public relations standpoint.
The president's personal attorneys, particularly Rudy Giuliani, are not expected to be a part of the White House's strategy sessions or response. But, as always, the president will have the final say in what the White House does, and how. -- Weijia Jiang, Paula Reid, Kathryn Watson
"We're trying to find out" who whistleblower is, Trump says
2:35 p.m.: During a swearing-in ceremony for Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, Mr. Trump was asked whether he knew the identity of the whistleblower.
"Well, we're trying to find out about a whistleblower, when you have a whistleblower that reports things that were incorrect," the president said. "As you know, and you probably now have figured it out, the statement I made to the president of Ukraine, a good man, a nice man, new, was perfect. It was perfect. But the whistleblower reported a totally different statement."
Mr. Trump has insisted the phone call was "perfect" and the whistleblower's account was "incorrect," even though the call summary his own White House released mirrors the complaint leveled by the whistleblower.
Over the last few days, the president has expressed frustration over the whistleblower and any White House officials who provided the whistleblower information. And on Monday morning, the president tweeted he should be able to face his accuser.
Democrats and some Republicans are insisting that keeping the identity of the whistleblower secret is a top priority. -- Kathryn Watson
Legal scholar explains next steps on impeachment
1:55 p.m.: Jonathan Turley, a legal scholar at George Washington University and a CBS News legal analyst, testified before Congress in 1998 that President Bill Clinton could be impeached for lying under oath. He joined "CBS This Morning" to discuss what Democrats need to prove about Mr. Trump's call with Ukraine for impeachment to move forward:
First of all, you can bring in hearsay evidence in an impeachment process. You can bring it in in the trial itself. Also, if this is proven, this is a clear impeachable offense. This would be self-dealing using public office to your own political or personal advantage. You have to prove it. You got to get a quid to go with the pro quo.
A quid -- the fact is that the transcript does not do it. People say you really don't have to show that he made this connection to withhold military aid. You really do. If you're going to take down a president, you're going to need to show that he made that linkage. I've got $400 million on the table, and this is what I want. He falls short of that. This is a president who has a curious ability to rest on the line of criminality. A place that most presidents avoid.
[...]
This is really sort of turbocharging congressional investigative powers. Once you're in impeachment, the courts tend to defer to Congress. They did that in the Nixon case. In the Nixon case, the Supreme Court said there is executive privilege, but by the way we're not going to let you use it. So if there's an allegation of impeachable acts or offense, the courts tend to defer to the process. In this case, it could be both. This could be a criminal act. It most certainly could be an impeachable offense. You just have to prove it.
Ukrainian president says country "can't be ordered to do anything"
1:20 p.m.: Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, told reporters he can't be pressured to open investigations into Joe or Hunter Biden.
"It has nothing to do with me," he said, according to The Associated Press. "Our independent law enforcement agencies are ready to investigate any violations of the law."
Zelensky said Ukraine "cannot be ordered to do anything. We are an independent country." He appeared alongside Mr. Trump at the United Nations last week and said "nobody pushed" him to order an investigation into the Bidens. -- Stefan Becket
McConnell: Senate would have "no choice" but to act on impeachment
12:25 p.m.: Rebuffing speculation that the Senate could change its rules to disregard potential articles impeachment passed by the House, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the upper chamber would be obligated to act, repeating his position three times.
"It is a Senate rule related to impeachment that would take 67 votes to change, so I would have no choice but to take it up," McConnell said in an interview with CNBC's "Squawk Alley." "How long you're on it is a whole different matter, but I would have no choice but to take it up, based on a Senate rule on impeachment."
Under the Constitution, the Senate is responsible for holding impeachment trials to decide whether the accused should be removed from office.
The CNBC host asked whether McConnell urged the White House to release the summary of the call with the Ukrainian president, and whether in hindsight that was a good decision. McConnell deflected the question.
"Well, I did say on numerous occasions I had called the secretary of state and the secretary of defense wondering what the hang up was ongoing forward with the aid to Ukraine, which I very much supported, and I was curious as to what the delay was, but at least it all ended well," he said, referring to an aid package to Ukraine passed by Congress that the White House withheld for months. "Fortunately the aid was released." -- Alan He
Pelosi to hold weekly press conference Wednesday
11:55 a.m.: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will hold her weekly press conference on Wednesday at the Capitol, keeping up the pressure on the administration even as Congress is back home for a two-week recess.
On "60 Minutes" on Sunday, Pelosi laid out why she decided to launch an impeachment probe after resisting pressure from progressive lawmakers for months.
"We could not ignore what the president did. He gave us no choice," the speaker said. "So it wasn't any change of mind. I always said we will follow the facts where they take us. And when we see them, we will be ready. And we are ready." -- Stefan Becket
Ex-Ukrainian lawmaker: "Well-known" that Trump wanted dirt on Biden
10:55 a.m.: A former member of the Ukrainian parliament and adviser to Ukraine's president told CBS News it was a "well-known fact" there that Mr. Trump wanted "compromising" information on Biden. Serhiy Leshchenko added that Ukraine's president knew U.S. aid to his country was at stake.
"I am sure that issue of Biden was forever on the table between Zelensky and Trump," said Leshchenko. As a former lawmaker and adviser to Ukraine's president, Leschenko believes it was clear that Mr. Trump wanted Ukraine to investigate his Democratic rivals.
"Of course, he wanted political privileges, favors, for his reelection from Ukraine," he said.
"In return for military aid?" correspondent Roxana Saberi asked.
"I would say yes," Leshchenko replied.
"Do you have any evidence of that?" asked Saberi.
"It was, like, well-known fact in Ukraine," Leshchenko replied.
Read more here.
Number of Democrats supporting impeachment proceedings ticks up
10:02 a.m.: The number of Democrats supporting impeachment proceedings continues to tick upwards -- and it might be easier to start tracking the handful of Democrats who don't support impeachment.
As of Monday morning, 224 Democrats supported impeachment proceedings. There are 235 Democrats in the House, meaning all but 11 of them now support moving forward with an impeachment inquiry. -- Kathryn Watson
See the full list at our Impeachment Tracker.
Jeff Flake says Trump's actions "warrant impeachment"
9:31 a.m.: Republican Jeff Flake, a former senator from Arizona and a CBS News contributor, urged Republicans to stand up to Mr. Trump with an op-ed in The Washington Post.
Under the headline "Fellow Republicans, there's still time to save your souls," Flake argues the president's actions "warrant impeachment." But even if other Republicans don't see it that way, he urges them to not support the president's reelection. Flake highlights the gravity of impeachment.
"If the House decides against filing articles of impeachment, or the Senate fails to convict, Senate Republicans will have to decide whether, given what we now know about the president's actions and behavior, to support his reelection. Obviously, the answer is no," Flake writes.
The time, Flake argues, is now for Republicans to speak out against the president's behavior.
"My fellow Republicans, it is time to risk your careers in favor of your principles. Whether you believe the president deserves impeachment, you know he does not deserve reelection," Flake writes. "Our country will have more presidents. But principles, well, we get just one crack at those. For those who want to put America first, it is critically important at this moment in the life of our country that we all, here and now, do just that. Trust me when I say that you can go elsewhere for a job. But you cannot go elsewhere for a soul." -- Emily Tillett
Trump scolded over tweet quoting speculation of "civil war"
9:00 a.m.: Late Sunday night, the president tweeted out a partial quote from far-right pastor Robert Jeffress, suggesting a successful impeachment of the president would lead to "civil war."
"'If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal,'" the president tweeted, apparently quoting pastor Robert Jeffress on Fox News.
That suggestion brought immediate blowback, including from GOP Representative Adam Kinzinger, a veteran who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"I have visited nations ravaged by civil war. @realDonaldTrump I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President. This is beyond repugnant," Kinzinger tweeted.
Kinzinger is an occasional critic of the president, specifically tagging the president on Twitter when he exercises such opinions. But so far, Kinzinger is one of the few Republicans to publicly criticize the president over the Ukraine matter. -- Emily Tillett
Trump says he wants to meet whistleblower
8:40 a.m.: In a series of tweets, President Trump said he deserves the right to meet the whistleblower that came forward with details of his calls with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Mr. Trump said he wants to meet the whistleblower as well as "the person who illegally gave this information, which was largely incorrect, to the whistleblower." While the acting director of national intelligence testified that the whistleblower "did the right thing" in coming forward, the president suggested they were a spy and threatened "big consequences."
In the same series of tweets, Mr. Trump said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff should be "questioned at the highest level for fraud and treason." -- Emily Tillett
Tom Bossert "deeply frustrated" by Trump's Ukraine interference conspiracy theory
8:03 a.m.: Former Department of Homeland Security adviser Tom Bossert said the president's repeated suggestion that Ukraine, and not Russia, was behind the 2016 election interference effort in the United States is "deeply frustrating." President Trump referred to the claim during his July call with Ukraine's president.
Bossert told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday he specifically explained to the president that it was a "completely debunked conspiracy theory" appearing to place the blame squarely on the president's legal team for perpetuating the theory.
"I am deeply frustrated with what he and the legal team is doing and repeating that debunked theory to the president. It sticks in his mind when he hears it over and over again," Bossert said.
Mr. Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, however, fired back, saying Bosset has no idea what he's talking about.
"With all due respect to Tom Bossert, he doesn't know what he's talking about that I invented this. This was given to me. It was given to me," Giuliani said. -- Emily Tillett
Schiff plans to subpoena Giuliani, expects whistleblower to testify
6 a.m.: Congressman Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told "60 Minutes" he expects to subpoena Mr. Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani for information about his contacts with Ukraine and his work to encourage the country to open an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden.
"We're going to need evidence from Rudy Giuliani," Schiff said. "And it's our intention as soon as first thing next week to subpoena him for documents. And there may very well come a time where we want to hear from him directly."
The chairman said the committee has "a pretty good road map, thanks to the courage of this whistleblower. The complaint sets out any number of witnesses, any number of documents that we need to seek." Schiff and two other committee chairmen issued subpoenas for documents from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday.
Schiff also said the committee has an "agreement that [the whistleblower] will testify," but lawyers for the individual said in Sunday that no time or date has been set and that talks are continuing. -- Stefan Becket
Lawyers fear for whistleblower's safety
5:30 a.m.: A letter from attorneys for the whistleblower says they fear for their client's safety, and that individuals have issued a "$50,000 bounty" for information on the identity of the whistleblower.
The whistleblower's legal team sent the letter to the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire. It says the events of the past week have heightened concerns that the whistleblower's identity will be revealed and, as a result, he or she could be "put in harm's way." The letter also thanked Maguire's office for activating "appropriate resources" to ensure the whistleblower's safety.
Read the letter here.
Majority of Americans support impeachment inquiry, CBS News poll finds
5:00 a.m.: A CBS News poll released Sunday found that more than half of Americans -- and an overwhelming number of Democrats -- say they approve of the fact that Congress has opened an impeachment inquiry, but there is no national consensus on how to assess the president's actions.
Partisans have immediately and predictably split: most Democrats call the president's handling of matters with Ukraine illegal, and deserving of impeachment.
Most Republicans call his actions proper -- or, even if improper, then still legal -- and feel they're an example of things that past presidents typically did, too. Most Americans think that because Congress is now taking up the matter, it will be unable to work on other issues.
Read more from the poll here.