Intelligence Watchdog to Brief House Panels: Impeachment Update
Justice Department learned of whistle-blower in August.
(Bloomberg) -- A whistle-blower’s complaint alleges that White House officials tried to “lock down” records of President Donald Trump’s phone call asking Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the administration of a “cover-up” Friday after the release of the complaint opened new avenues for an impeachment inquiry.
Here are the latest developments:
Intelligence Watchdog to Brief House Panels (6:41)
The Intelligence Committee’s Inspector General, Michael Atkinson, will give a closed-door briefing Oct. 4 to the House Intelligence Committee, which is leading the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.
Atkinson is the official who evaluated the whistleblower complaint that detailed allegations that Trump tried to coerce Ukraine’s leader to investigate Biden, one of the president’s chief political rivals. Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, in a letter to House Democrats, said his committee will continue working with other House panels through the two-week recess.
“More subpoenas and investigatory steps will occur next week, as the investigation accelerates,” Schiff wrote. “We have to flesh out all of the facts for the American people. The seriousness of the matter and the danger to our country demands nothing less.
Nevada Republican Amodei Backs Inquiry (6:26 p.m.)
Nevada Representative Mark Amodei became one of the first House Republicans to support an impeachment inquiry, although he declined to say if Trump’s actions merit removal from office.
The Nevada Independent cited Amodei’s comments on a call with reporters, saying he’s “a big fan of oversight” and he supports letting the investigation play out.
“Using government agencies to, if it’s proven, to put your finger on the scale of an election, I don’t think that’s right,” he said. “If it turns out that it’s something along those lines, then there’s a problem.”
Conway Says Pelosi Folded to Male Pressure (4:43 p.m.)
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told reporters on Friday that Pelosi agreed to open an impeachment inquiry after “men around her” pressured her into it.
Conway, one of Trump’s most aggressive spokespeople, insisted that “there were no high crimes and misdemeanors” in Trump’s call with Zelenskiy. She said that Pelosi “finally capitulated to her angry mob” and then accused the House speaker of succumbing to pressure from male Democrats.
“At 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, she told the Atlantic festival -- pull it everyone -- ‘no, no, no we need an investigation first. We’re not close to impeaching. We need an investigation first.’ A couple of hours later, she does the worst thing a woman in power could do, which is she just changes her mind because the men around her said ‘change your mind, we need an impeachment,”’ Conway said.
Asked whether she was alleging that Pelosi was intimidated by men, Conway said: “Clearly. And women -- something happened. I don’t know what she had for lunch, an equivocation sandwich?”
Pompeo Subpoenaed by House Over Ukraine (4:10 p.m.)
Secretary of State Michael Pompeo was subpoenaed for documents related to the Ukraine whistle-blower complaint by the House committees on Foreign Affairs, Oversight and Intelligence as part of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.
”The subpoenaed documents shall be part of the impeachment inquiry and shared among the Committees. Your failure or refusal to comply with the subpoena shall constitute evidence of obstruction of the House impeachment inquiry,” the three chairmen wrote. They gave a deadline of Oct. 4.
The State Department previously missed two deadlines to turn over these documents, prompting Friday’s subpoena.
The committees also requested the testimony of State Department officials, including Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine; Kurt Volker, the current U.S. special representative to Ukraine; T. Ulrich Brechbuhl, a State Department counselor cited in the whistle-blower complaint; and Gordan Sondland, envoy to the European Union. -- Billy House
Intelligence Panel May Hold Hearing Next Week (2:31 p.m.)
House Intelligence Committee members have been told there could a briefing or hearing next week involving a witness in the investigation, but details haven’t been worked out. Congress is set to begin a two-week recess this weekend.
Pelosi said Friday the House impeachment inquiry “doesn’t have to drag on” and will be focused primarily on the Ukraine controversy, a topic in the hands of the Intelligence panel and Chairman Adam Schiff.
Other lawmakers said Friday that the goal is to produce impeachment articles before December.
Pelosi’s plan for a simplified process focused mainly on Trump-Ukraine activities -- which she says can be easily explained to the public -- is a change in strategy from existing impeachment-related investigations by six committees.
Schiff has said his panel wants to hear from Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Attorney General William Barr and others mentioned in the whistle-blower complaint, which says about a dozen White House officials listened to Trump’s call with the Ukraine president.
House Budget Chairman John Yarmuth and Appropriations Chairwoman Nita Lowey demanded that the White House budget office explain why U.S. security aid appropriated by Congress was withheld from Ukraine in possible violation of spending laws. Trump has cited either corruption in Ukraine or Europe’s failure to contribute enough to the country as reasons.
DOJ First Learned of Complaint in August (1:12 p.m.)
The Justice Department first learned of the existence of the whistle-blower complaint on Aug. 14, according to an administration official who asked to remain anonymous to speak about the sensitive matter.
The CIA’s general counsel gave John Demers, head of the department’s national security division, a general description of the complaint during a routine call with other administration officials, according to the person.
Demers went to the White House on Aug. 15 to review a transcript of the president’s call and then notified other Justice officials about it, the official said.
But there was genuine confusion within the Justice Department about whether the CIA was making a referral to investigate if a crime had been committed, the person said. The department didn’t evaluate the transcript for potential crimes until it received a written referral from the director of national intelligence in late August. -- Chris Strohm
NSC Lawyers Directed Transcript Classification (11:24 a.m.)
National Security Council lawyers directed that the record of Trump’s conversation with Zelenskiy be stored on a special, highly-classified server, according to a senior administration official who corroborated a whistle-blower’s complaint.
The whistle-blower, who has sparked an impeachment inquiry, said in a complaint made public Thursday that White House lawyers appeared to have taken the unusual step of concealing the phone call after Trump had pressured Zelenskiy to investigate Biden.
The code-word protected server is typically used for highly sensitive information relating to national security, not for political purposes. --Justin Sink
Pelosi Says Justice Department is Part of ‘Cover-Up’ (8:15 a.m.)
Pelosi said the Justice Department is engaged in covering up Trump’s actions, which said said imperil national security and U.S. elections.
“I think where they are going is a cover-up of the cover-up,” Pelosi said in a Friday morning interview with MSNBC.
Attorney General William Barr has “gone rogue” in his department’s direction to Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire to withhold a whistle-blower’s report from Congress in violation of the law, Pelosi said.
The delivery of the whistle-blower complaint to Congress was delayed based on advice from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel that it did not have to be given to lawmakers.
Turns out, Barr himself was mentioned by Trump in a July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that’s one focus of the complaint. Trump suggested Zelenskiy contact Barr in relation to getting information about Biden. -- Billy House
Key Events
- The complaint by an intelligence community whistle-blower, released Thursday, alleges that multiple government officials were surprised and alarmed about Trump’s conversation with Ukraine’s leader, resulting in efforts at the White House to “lock down” records of the call.
- Maguire called the complaint “unprecedented” in testimony to the House Intelligence Committee. Instead of transmitting it to Congress, he said he took it to the White House to find out if its contents were protected from disclosure by executive privilege.
- Pelosi accused the White House of a “cover-up,” while House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy said the complaint was based on second-hand information and contained no evidence of threats by Trump.
- Trump said the whistle-blower was “almost a spy” and said he wants to know the identities of the person’s sources of information.
--With assistance from Justin Sink, Erik Wasson, Chris Strohm and Steven T. Dennis.
To contact the reporter on this story: Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Joshua Gallu, Anna Edgerton
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.