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| William Barr reportedly refused to declare Trump broke no laws over Ukraine – live | William Barr reportedly refused to declare Trump broke no laws over Ukraine – live |
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| Attorney general refused a request by Trump to hold a news conference and declare that no laws were broken in the call, New York Times reported | Attorney general refused a request by Trump to hold a news conference and declare that no laws were broken in the call, New York Times reported |
| The president is laying down fire on Twitter in response to reports that he wanted attorney general William Barr to hold a news conference to say Trump’s 25 July call with the Ukrainian president was not criminal by any stretch. | |
| Trump has sent out a pair of tweets claiming that “the degenerate Washington Post MADE UP the story.” He does not mention the Times’ corroborating report. | |
| Now Trump is going on about the whistleblower whose complaint the White House fought for six weeks to prevent Congress from obtaining – because Trump had done nothing wrong? | |
| “Read the transcript,” Trump concludes, referring to a partial transcript of his call with Zelenskiy in which Trump said “the United States has been very very good to Ukraine” then asked for the “favor” of investigations into Joe Biden and 2016 election tampering. | |
| Evidence that Trump used the power of his office to solicit Ukraine’s interference in the 2020 election goes well beyond the record of the call. That evidence includes the testimony of more than a dozen witnesses before Congress and public statements by Trump, his lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney. But also: Read the transcript! | |
| Hello and welcome to our politics live blog coverage. | Hello and welcome to our politics live blog coverage. |
| Attorney general William Barr has done a lot for Donald Trump. He pre-baked the Mueller report. He is hard at work on a report that is expected to attack the work of US intelligence agencies on which that report was built. He did not recuse himself from a justice department review of a phone call Trump had with the Ukrainian president, despite being mentioned himself on the call. The review, perhaps not surprisingly, found that the call was, legally speaking, peachy. | Attorney general William Barr has done a lot for Donald Trump. He pre-baked the Mueller report. He is hard at work on a report that is expected to attack the work of US intelligence agencies on which that report was built. He did not recuse himself from a justice department review of a phone call Trump had with the Ukrainian president, despite being mentioned himself on the call. The review, perhaps not surprisingly, found that the call was, legally speaking, peachy. |
| But there are lines, apparently, that even Barr will not cross. The attorney general refused a request by Trump to hold a news conference and declare that no laws were broken in the call, the Washington Post reported late Wednesday in an account backed up by the New York Times. (Correction: we originally had those news organizations reversed; it was a Post scoop.) | |
| Trump is a big believer in the power of press conferences. In 2017 he pressured then FBI director James Comey to go on TV and declare he was not a target in the nascent investigation of Russia and the Trump campaign. Comey likewise refused. At the heart of the impeachment inquiry is a demand by Trump that the Ukrainian president “go to a microphone and say he is opening investigations of [Joe] Biden and 2016 election interference.” | Trump is a big believer in the power of press conferences. In 2017 he pressured then FBI director James Comey to go on TV and declare he was not a target in the nascent investigation of Russia and the Trump campaign. Comey likewise refused. At the heart of the impeachment inquiry is a demand by Trump that the Ukrainian president “go to a microphone and say he is opening investigations of [Joe] Biden and 2016 election interference.” |
| Elsewhere, it looks like the congressional committees pursuing an impeachment inquiry against Trump will wangle their second witness of the week today – out of about a dozen subpoenas and requests on the week. | Elsewhere, it looks like the congressional committees pursuing an impeachment inquiry against Trump will wangle their second witness of the week today – out of about a dozen subpoenas and requests on the week. |
| Scheduled to testify is Jennifer Williams, a national security aid to vice president Mike Pence who listened to the 25 July call between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. | Scheduled to testify is Jennifer Williams, a national security aid to vice president Mike Pence who listened to the 25 July call between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. |
| Also invited to testify today, but apparently not planning to appear, is John Bolton, the former national security adviser. | Also invited to testify today, but apparently not planning to appear, is John Bolton, the former national security adviser. |
| Thanks for joining us! | Thanks for joining us! |