US Democratic lawmakers have demanded documents from the White House as part of their impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
The documents relate to a call between Mr Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on 25 July.<\/p>\n
In the call, Mr Trump pushed Mr Zelensky to investigate his leading Democratic political rival, Joe Biden.<\/p>\n
The impeachment inquiry stems from the call, which was flagged up by a whistleblower in August.<\/p>\n
The whistleblower alleged that Mr Trump used a $400m military aid package to Ukraine, which had been suspended earlier in July, as leverage to persuade Mr Zelensky. The White House released the aid in September.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump has denied any wrongdoing, accusing his political opponents of a “witch hunt”.<\/p>\n
But in a move to crank up the pressure on the president, the three House committees leading the investigation have given him until 18 October to hand over the documents.<\/p>\n
“We deeply regret that President Trump has put us – and the nation – in this position, but his actions have left us with no choice but to issue this subpoena,” the Democrats wrote in a letter to the White House.<\/p>\n
The subpoena – an order to hand-over evidence –\u00a0was issued on Friday by the chairmen of the committees for Oversight, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs<\/a>.<\/p>\n White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham sought to play down the subpoena, saying it “changes nothing”.<\/p>\n A separate request for records has also been sent to Vice-President Mike Pence, with Democrats asking him to clarify “any role you may have played” in Mr Trump’s overtures to Ukraine.<\/p>\n If Democrats manage to impeach Mr Trump – by way of a vote in the House of Representatives – a trial would be held in the Senate.<\/p>\n Senators would have to vote to convict Mr Trump by a two-thirds majority to remove him from office.<\/p>\n But that outcome is seen as unlikely given that the president’s fellow Republicans control the Senate.<\/p>\n In their letter to the White House, the committees accused Mr Trump of “stonewalling” multiple requests for records relating to his July 25 call with Mr Zelensky.<\/p>\n By refusing to voluntarily release the documents, the Democrats said Mr Trump had “chosen the path of defiance, obstruction, and cover-up”.<\/p>\n Failure to comply with the subpoena would amount to “evidence of obstruction”, which is also an impeachable offence, the committees warned.<\/p>\n On Friday, Mr Trump said Democrats “unfortunately have the votes” to impeach him, but predicted he would win in a trial in the Republican-led Senate.<\/p>\n Most Republicans are standing squarely behind Mr Trump, though two Republican senators have spoken out against the president.<\/p>\n Mitt Romney of Utah\u00a0labelled the president’s actions “appalling” on Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n His remarks came a day after Mr Trump publicly called on Ukraine and China to investigate Mr Biden and his son, Hunter.<\/p>\n There has been no evidence of wrongdoing by Hunter Biden, who served on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma until earlier this year.<\/p>\n On the same day,\u00a0text messages released by congressional Democrats<\/a>\u00a0showed how US officials worked to prod the Ukrainian president into opening a public inquiry into Mr Biden.<\/p>\n As the fast-moving investigation into Mr Trump escalates, there are reports of a second intelligence official considering making a complaint against the president.<\/p>\n The New York Times said the unnamed official had “more direct information”<\/a>\u00a0about the events surrounding Mr Trump’s phone call with Mr Zelensky.<\/p>\n Michael Atkinson, the general inspector of the intelligence community, interviewed this official to corroborate the original whistleblower’s allegations, the paper reported.<\/p>\n Given the original whistleblower, reported to be a CIA official, did not directly witness the call, the testimony of a second official could prove valuable to the Democrats’ inquiry.<\/p>\n Why is Mr Trump being investigated?<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n A whistleblower alleges he used “the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the US 2020 election”, by asking Ukraine to investigate his main rival, Joe Biden.<\/p>\n Is this illegal?<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n If this is what he’s proven to have done, then yes: it’s illegal to ask foreign entities for help winning a US election. Mr Trump says it’s a witch-hunt and he did nothing wrong.<\/p>\n What could happen next?<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n If the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives voted to impeach Mr Trump, there’d be a trial in the Senate.<\/p>\n Could he be removed?<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n A Senate vote needs a two-thirds majority to convict, but Mr Trump’s Republican party controls the Senate so that’s unlikely. And the Mueller inquiry made clear you can’t charge a sitting president with a crime.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What documents are the Democrats demanding?<\/h2>\n
What’s the latest reaction?<\/h2>\n
Could there be a second whistleblower?<\/h2>\n
Four quick questions on Trump-Ukraine<\/h2>\n