Whistleblower alleges White House coverup

In this file photo, Kurt Volker, US special envoy for Ukraine, speaks during a news conference in Kiev on July 27, 2019.

Kurt Volker, US special envoy to Ukraine, has resigned one day after the release of a whistleblower report alleging a coverup by the White House of a call between President Trump and the Ukrainian leader, three sources familiar with the matter confirmed to CNN.

The State Department has not returned messages seeking comment.

The State Press, the school paper of Arizona State University, first reported the development.

What we know about Volker: He has become a key player in the unfolding scandal surrounding the whistleblower complaint concerning Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

CNN has reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had joked with Volker about Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, in a meeting before the phone call. Volker later set up the meeting between Giuliani and a Zelensky adviser in an effort to get the Biden matter out of official talks. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by either Joe or Hunter Biden.

President Trump met today with White House lawyers and his personal counsel to discuss strategy for dealing with the Democrats’ impeachment investigation, according to a source familiar with the matter.

ABC was first to report the meeting.

Michael Atkinson, the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, is expected to brief the House Intelligence Committee behind closed doors on Oct. 4, a committee source tells CNN.

What we know about Atkinson: Atkinson is widely regarded as a career non-partisan with little interest in the public limelight but he currently finds himself at the center of the high profile controversy related to whether the whistleblower complaint.

Why is the IC IG an important player here? At the end of August, two weeks after Atkinson received the whistleblower’s complaint about President Trump’s July phone call with the Ukrainian leader, he notified his superior, the acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire. Atkinson believed the complaint to be a credible complaint and found it worthy to be handled by the intelligence community.

Rudy Giuliani told CNN today he would not testify for the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry without consulting his client, President Trump.

Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, said his work for the President should be protected by attorney-client privilege.

Giuliani said he has not heard from any of the three House committees investigating whether Trump acted improperly in his communications with the Ukrainians. Asked if he was concerned he would be subpoenaed by the House, Giuliani laughed.

“I consider them a joke. A sad joke. They have no legitimacy. I would think of challenging their subpoena on the grounds that they’re not a legitimate committee,” Giuliani said.

Giuliani is among those who House Democrats have told CNN they would like to hear from.

CNN’s Manu Raju, Haley Byrd and Alex Rogers contributed to this reporting.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been subpoenaed by three House committees for failure to produce documents on Ukraine.

The chairs of House committees for Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight sent Pompeo a letter on Sept. 23 requesting documents pertaining to President Trump, his lawyer Rudy Giuliani and the Ukrainian government to be delivered to the Hill by Thursday.

Pompeo failed to meet the deadline from the chairmen. The subpoena is for Pompeo to produce Ukraine documents by Oct. 4.

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said the Pentagon officials will provide “whatever information” they can to Congress around the matter of delaying US military aid to Ukraine.

“We will make, we will provide to Congress and whomever whatever information we can provide with regard to this incident, just—with regard to this matter, just as we would with any other matter,” he said.

Esper also said that at “no time” did the delay in US military aid to Ukraine affect US national security. 

“Most of the money is out the door. And at no time or at any time has any delay in this money, this funding, affected US national security,” Esper said today.

Some background: Trump considered blocking $250 million in military aid to Ukraine, effectively pausing disbursement of the funds during a formal review process. This happened more than a month after the phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky which prompted a whistleblower to complain.

Days later, the administration hold on Ukraine aid was lifted.

Former Vice President and current 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden tweeted that US elections should be “decided by the American people — not foreign governments.”

Why we’re talking about Biden: A whistleblower’s complaint, which was released yesterday, said President Trump repeatedly pushed for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Biden — who is his potential 2020 rival — and Biden’s son, Hunter, during a July 25 phone call.

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

Here’s Biden’s tweet:

The list of House Democrats who have not called for President Trump’s impeachment continues to shrink as Democratic presidential candidate and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard changed her position today and now supports the inquiry.

Gabbard said in a statement, “Up to this point, I have been opposed to pursuing impeachment because it will further divide our already badly divided country.”

She continued: “However, after looking carefully at the transcript of the conversation with Ukraine’s President, the whistleblower complaint, the Inspector General memo, and President Trump’s comments about the issue, unfortunately, I believe that if we do not proceed with the inquiry, it will set a very dangerous precedent.”

Here are the 12 House representatives who haven’t made public statements in support of impeachment, or have offered only conditional support.

Republican Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said he supports an impeachment inquiry into President Trump, making him the first GOP governor to do so.

Scott’s move is a notable departure from the largely party-line Republican response to a mounting Ukraine controversy. While governors play no official role in an impeachment process, Scott’s support for an inquiry joins a surging number of House Democrats who have come out in support for the politically divisive escalation in recent days as scrutiny over Trump’s interactions with Ukraine has grown.

Scott has previously broken rank with the Republican party in his role as governor. In July, Scott allowed a comprehensive abortion rights bill to become law and in April 2018, he signed into law sweeping gun control measures for the state.

Attorney General William Bar and President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani will likely be called to testify in the House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment inquiry into Trump and Ukraine, according to a House Democrat who sits on the committee.

According to a White House-released transcript of Trump’s phone call with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump suggested four times that Barr speak to Zelensky. He also suggested Giuliani get in touch with Zelensky to research former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.

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

The whistleblower complaint alleges that two State Department officials spoke with Giuliani to “contain the damage” caused by his work with Ukraine, which the former mayor denies.

Asked if the committee would enforce subpoenas or hold the two men in contempt should the White House attempt to block their testimony, Rep. Mike Quigley said, “I think the committee will take whatever actions are necessary.” 

“Rudy may be the best source of information, because he doesn’t know what he shouldn’t say,” Quigley added.

Reps. Eric Swalwell and Jackie Speier, both Democrats from California, said they have canceled events in their home districts next week to prepare for action in the House Intelligence Committee.

The House is supposed to be on recess for the next two weeks, but some Democrats have been told to prepare to stay in Washington.

Nothing is set: They have not been told what they need to be in Washington for or what hearings have been scheduled.

But it’s possible there could be a hearing: Committee Chair Adam Schiff said they preparing for hearings as early as next week. Democrats want to talk to the whistleblower as soon as possible.

House Intel Chairman Adam Schiff told CNN there will be a “busy couple weeks” and said they are preparing for hearings as soon as next week.

“I expect subpoenas,” he said, adding depositions are going to go out and move as “expeditiously as possible.”

He wouldn’t comment on any specifics.

And if the White House stonewalls? “It will strengthen the case on obstruction,” he said.

The list of House Democrats who support opening an impeachment inquiry into President Trump climbed to 222 this week — but there are still some holdouts.

Here are the 13 House representatives who haven’t made public statements in support of impeachment, or have offered only conditional support.

Eleven of the holdouts represent districts that Trump carried in 2016.

Some context: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi initiated impeachment proceedings by instructing the six House committees already investigating Trump to continue their investigation “under that umbrella of impeachment inquiry.”

For the impeachment to officially start, a simple majority of the House (or 218 members) needs to vote in favor. Then, the Senate conducts a trial. A two-thirds majority vote in the Senate is required to convict and remove the president from the office — which has never happened before.

Rep. James Comer, a member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee and a Republican from Kentucky, told CNN this morning he believes the Trump administration “needs to answer” why they used a highly secure system for the Ukraine call record. 

Comer added that he’s “confident” that Democrats will be asking that question “as they press forward with their quest to try to impeach the President.”

The White House is acknowledging for the first time that officials did direct key documents be filed in a separate classified system.

In a statement provided to CNN, a senior White House official says it was under the direction of National Security Council attorneys: “NSC lawyers directed that the classified document be handled appropriately.”

What this means: The admission lends further credibility to the whistleblower complaint description of how the transcript with the Ukrainian president, among others, were kept out of wider circulation by using a system for highly sensitive documents.

The statement does not explain whether anyone else in the White House was part of the decision to put the documents in the more restrictive system.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) confirmed in a statement Friday it was investigating activity at gas company that previously employed Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden.

It clarified that it was examining the company’s activity prior to Hunter Biden’s employment with the firm.

Here’s the NABU’s full statement:

President Trump is tweeting this morning about the anonymous whistleblower who filed a complaint against him.

Trump claimed the information has “proved to be so inaccurate” and suggested it may have come from a “leaker or spy” or “partisan operative.”

Some context: According to the whistleblower’s complaint, he or she was not a direct witness to Trump’s call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. However, he or she cites conversations with White House officials who had direct knowledge of the phone call.

Many details of the whistleblower’s complaint match up with the White House transcript released on Wednesday.

The president also tweeted “IT WAS A PERFECT CONVERSATION WITH UKRAINE PRESIDENT!”

The exact details about how House Democrats will proceed with their impeachment inquiry are still unclear, but we have a general sense of how it will work.

Democrats hope to wrap the inquiry up by years’ end, and the goal is to potentially impeach by Thanksgiving.

Here’s what we know about the next steps:

Members of the House Intelligence Committee have been told to be prepared to potentially return to Washington during the upcoming two-week recess as Democrats try to wrap up the impeachment inquiry this fall, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Here’s why: It’s possible the committee could hear testimony from the whistleblower and again from Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, according to lawmakers. Other witnesses are possible, but it’s unclear yet who will come.

Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is asking for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to immediately testify about the President’s call with the Ukrainian president.

In a letter to Pompeo, Menendez wrote that it “remains unclear what, if anything, you and the State Department did in response to this unacceptable behavior.”

Menendez also demanded justification as to why Rudy Giuliani was involved and details on his engagement with  Special Envoy Kurt Volker.