Republicans stepped up their attacks Monday on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) over the impeachment inquiry following late-night tweets from President Trump suggesting she should be removed from office, not him.
The broadsides came as a State Department official declined to appear Monday morning at a planned deposition by House investigators seeking to learn more about Trump’s efforts to press the leader of Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
On Sunday, the attorney representing the whistleblower who first raised alarm about the call said that “multiple” whistleblowers have now come forward. Meanwhile, a group of 90 former national security officials who served under presidents of both parties released a public letter applauding the actions of the initial whistleblower.
●Whistleblower’s attorney says team now representing ‘multiple’ officials as impeachment inquiry expands.
●Trump’s defiance of oversight presents new challenge to Congress’s ability to rein in the executive branch.
●A torrent of impeachment developments has triggered a reckoning in the Republican Party.
Read the whistleblower complaint | The rough transcript of Trump’s call with Zelensky |What’s next in the Trump impeachment inquiry
10 a.m.: Pelosi highlights concerns of Founding Fathers about foreign election interference
Pelosi shared an article on Twitter on Monday highlighting concerns that the nation’s founders had with foreign election interference.
Jordan E. Taylor, at Smith College, wrote that Pelosi, in a letter last week to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), pointed out that “our Founders were specifically intent on ensuring that foreign entities did not undermine the integrity of our elections.”
“Pelosi is right,” Taylor continued. “The first generation of American political leaders understood the danger of foreign involvement in their elections because they lived through it. Throughout the 1790s, France’s ambassadors repeatedly sought to influence the results of American elections, hoping to sway policy in their favor. Even after this meddling ended, fear of foreign influence persisted, ultimately making subsequent untainted elections seem illegitimate.”
9 a.m.: State Department official does not appear at scheduled deposition
George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state in the European and Eurasian Bureau, did not appear for a deposition before three House committees scheduled for Monday morning.
“No, Democrats originally scheduled him for deposition today, but his appearance has not yet been worked out or confirmed,” said a person familiar with the planned deposition who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo balked at the timing of several planned depositions of State Department officials, saying House Democrats were not giving them adequate time to prepare.
House investigators are planning to hear Tuesday from Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union who has become a central figure in the probe, and Friday from Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who was recalled from the post early.
Discussions remain ongoing with other State Department officials, a Democratic aide said.
— reporting by John Hudson
8:05 a.m.: Trump again accuses whistleblower of being partisan
In Monday morning tweets, Trump again accused the anonymous whistleblower of being “partisan” without citing evidence and claimed the whistleblower was “very wrong” about Trump’s July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In fact, the whistleblower’s complaint closely tracks a rough transcript of the call released by the White House.
Trump also referred to reports of multiple whistleblowers, writing, “Bring in another Whistleblower from the bench!”
6:45 a.m.: Republicans step up attacks on Pelosi
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel attacked Pelosi in an early morning tweet, echoing Trump and other leading members of the GOP who have upped their efforts to tear down the House speaker.
“Nancy Pelosi isn’t interested in the truth,” McDaniel tweeted. “She is only out to destroy @realDonaldTrump – and the American people see right through it!”
McDaniel included a link in her tweet to an opinion piece by former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) published by Fox News over the weekend. In it, he argued that Pelosi and House Democrats are “creating a rigged game that sets up a coup to destroy the president.”
Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani also went on Twitter early Monday morning, resurrecting his idea of filing a lawsuit against Pelosi for “conspiracy to violate constitutional and civil rights.”
6:30 a.m.: Dozens of national security officials applauding whistleblower
A group of 90 former national security officials who served under presidents of both parties released an open letter on Sunday applauding the original whistleblower in the Ukraine controversy and calling on the government and media to protect his identity.
“A responsible whistleblower makes all Americans safer by ensuring that serious wrongdoing can be investigated and addressed, thus advancing the cause of national security to which we have devoted our careers,” the letter says. “What’s more, being a responsible whistleblower means that, by law, one is protected from certain egregious forms of retaliation. Whatever one’s view of the matters discussed in the whistleblower’s complaint, all Americans should be united in demanding that all branches of our government and all outlets of our media protect this whistleblower and his or her identity.”
Those signing the letter, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, include former CIA director John Brennan, former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. and former defense secretary Chuck Hagel.
6:15 a.m.: Colin Powell: ‘The Republican Party has got to get a grip on itself’
As many GOP lawmakers continue to defend Trump amid an expanding impeachment inquiry, Colin Powell, the retired general who served under three Republican presidents, said the party “has got to get a grip on itself.”
In remarks broadcast Sunday on CNN, Powell criticized Republican members of Congress for staying silent as Trump’s efforts to pressure a foreign power to target a political rival were exposed.
Republican leaders, Powell said, “are holding back because they’re terrified of what will happen to any one of them if they speak out.”
He continued, “When they see things that are not right, they need to say something about it, because our foreign policy is in shambles right now.”
Read more here.
— Deanna Paul
6 a.m.: Trump suggests Pelosi, Schiff committed ‘Treason,’ should be impeached
Since Democrats began an impeachment inquiry, Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), the House Intelligence Committee chairman, by accusing him of treason and demanding that he be removed from office.
On Sunday night, Trump repeated those claims on Twitter — and this time, suggested that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is also guilty of “High Crimes and Misdemeanors, and even Treason,” while insisting that both Democratic leaders should be impeached.
Members of Congress cannot be impeached. The Constitution gives the House or Senate the power to expel one of its own members by a two-thirds vote.
“Nancy Pelosi knew all of the many Shifty Adam Schiff lies and massive frauds perpetrated upon Congress and the American people, in the form of a fraudulent speech knowingly delivered as a ruthless con, and the illegal meetings with a highly partisan ‘Whistleblower’ & lawyer,” Trump tweeted.
Read more here.
— Tim Elfrink