Trump news: Giuliani accused of 'campaign of lies' in impeachment inquiry, as president ordered to pay $2m over misuse of foundation
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Your support makes all the difference.The House impeachment inquiry interviewed Mike Pence special adviser Jennifer Williams, a specialist on European and Russian affairs who listened in on Donald Trump’s “quid pro quo” call with Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, after issuing a subpoena commanding her to appear, circumventing White House objections to her giving testimony.
The president has meanwhile angrily denounced as “degenerate” a Washington Post report that he asked his attorney general, William Barr, to declare publicly that the Zelensky call of 25 July contained no illegality, only for Mr Barr to decline.
House investigators released the transcript of their interview with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent, who accused Mr Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani of leading a campaign of “lies and deceit” against former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.
Meanwhile, Mr Giuliani is lawyering up as federal investigators look into whether he violated lobbying laws in his attempts to dig up dirt on Mr Trump's political rivals.
Next week, the first televised witness testimonies in the impeachment proceedings begin with Bill Taylor, whose damning testimony contradicted the so-called quid pro quo arrangement between Mr Trump and Ukraine.
Mr Taylor and Mr Kent appear on Wednesday.
On Friday, viewers will hear from Ms Yovanovitch.
In another blow to Mr Trump, a judge has ordered he must personally pay $2m following a lawsuit from the New York Attorney General alleging that his now-dissolved foundation twas used as a personal "chequebook" for his political and personal dealings. Last year, the president said on Twitter that he "won't settle" the case and called it a political attack from "sleazy" New York Democrats.
At a rally in Louisiana on Wednesday night, Mr Trump attacked the Democrats as “totalitarian”, labelling the inquiry into his conduct in office a “hoax” and reviving his attack on 2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren, again deriding her claim to Native American heritage by labelling her “Pocahontas”.
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Williams testifying after House issues subpoena
We're hearing that Pence adviser Jennifer Williams is giving testimony right now because a subpoena was issued for her this morning by the panel. The White House had opposed her appearance as part of the president's blanket refusal to co-operate.
Trump rages at impeachment process, smears witnesses
More anti-impeachment fury from Trump, who is attacking the House rules as voted on last Thursday and baselessly smearing the witnesses as "Never Trumpers", regardless of whether or not his administration appointed them in the first place.
He's also pushing his own approval ratings.
President continues to vent fury at Washington Post
Trump now says The Post is "a garbage newspaper" and names the three reporters behind the Barr story, calling them "lowlifes" and their sources "pure fiction".
He said only last week he would no longer be taking the paper at the White House.
Washington Post reporters respond to Trump vitriol
The journalists attacked by the president have hit back at Trump by inviting his followers to subscribe to the newspaper and offering some background on their reporting.
Their colleagues have also been defending them stoutly.
Trump though will not let it go.
Steve Bannon expected to testify against Roger Stone
Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon is set to testify against eccentric political operator Roger Stone - he of the Richard Nixon back tattoo - in his trial for lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing justice, according to federal prosecutors.
Prosecutor Aaron Zelinksy (an interesting name!) is also calling on another ex-Trump aide, former deputy campaign manager Rick Gates, to testify against Stone, accusing him of “straight up lying” in his forceful opening statement in DC on Wednesday. Defence lawyer Bruce Rogow countered that Stone never "willfully and intentionally" misled lawmakers.
The case against the Republican agitator and self-described “dirty trickster” stems from FBI special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, with the trial now in its second day, the first curtailed early when the defendant complained of food poisoning.
Zelinsky accused Stone of lying to the House Intelligence Committee over his pursuit of emails apparently stolen from Democratic National Committee servers by state-backed Russian hackers and placed in the hands of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Stone labouring under the belief they contained information harmful to Trump’s 2016 rival Hillary Clinton.
"Now you'll ask, why didn't Roger Stone just tell the truth?" Zelinsky asked the jurors. "The evidence in this case will show that Roger Stone lied to the House Intelligence Committee because the truth looked bad. The truth looked bad for the Trump campaign, and the truth looked bad for Donald Trump."
(Win McNamee/Getty)
Prosecutors noted that Stone, in sworn testimony to the Intelligence Committee, denied that these communications ever occurred. Stone placed several calls to then-candidate Trump that were timed around significant developments concerning WikiLeaks, though prosecutors acknowledged they do not know the content of those calls.
Zelinsky said the prosecution's case rests on five false statements Stone made to the committee related to WikiLeaks and Assange.
In addition to lying about his communications with Trump campaign figures, Zelinsky said Stone made multiple other false statements including claiming a radio host named Randy Credico was his only intermediary with WikiLeaks when in fact he had a second source in conservative author Jerome Corsi. In one July 2016 email shown to jurors, Stone told Corsi "get to Assange!" in London and "get the pending WikiLeaks emails."
Stone, according to the prosecution, later tried to tamper with Credico's testimony and urged him to "do a 'Frank Pentangeli'" - a reference to a character in the film The Godfather Part II who recants his testimony to Congress about a mobster amid witness intimidation. Credico is due to testify later in the trial, which could run at least two weeks.
Rudy Giuliani assembling legal team
Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, says he has assembled a legal team to represent him in the criminal investigation into his activities related to Ukraine, after weeks of being unable to find a lawyer willing to take him on as a client.
Giuliani said on Twitter that he would be represented by three lawyers, including his long-time friend, Robert Costello.
The hires show how seriously he is treating the inquiry by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, who are investigating whether he violated lobbying laws in his efforts to dig up damaging information about Trump’s rivals.
Trump 'misses reality' TV and plotting a post-presidency series called The Apprentice: White House
The president is “very keen” on launching a new reality TV series when he quits the Oval Office and has “sporadically kept in touch” with his old Apprentice producer Mark Burnett, according to The Daily Beast.
The pair have even reportedly raised the idea of launching a new version of the show titled The Apprentice: White House because literally nothing is sacred to this man.
Here's Chris Riotta's report.
Bernie Sanders pledges to break-up ICE and undo Trump's anti-immigration policies
Vermont senator and 2020 contender Bernie Sanders has vowed to end the Trump's administration's demonisation of immigrants should he become president, pledging to break up Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), stop family seperations at the border, close squalid detention centres and reinstate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme.
New White House press aide Pam Bondi, conservative pundit Tomi Lahren guest on Fox and Friends
A couple of highlights from this morning's edition of the president's favourite breakfast show starring the White House's new comminications team hire Pam Bondi, Tomi Lahren and a decidedly well-refreshed Mickey Rourke.
Where in the world is Ivanka Trump?
Trump's beloved daughter is visiting Morocco for the first time, a trip intended to promote her Women's Global Development and Prosperity initiative that has seen her meeting with women in Sidi Kacem who are benefiting from changes to the law that allow them to own land for the first time
At an olive grove in a province two hours north of the capital of Rabat, the White House adviser met four women who had inherited land or bought it.
She later "strutted her way into a ceremony as participants banged drums and blew horns", it says here. "Inside, women ululated to show their approval."
Some serious Sex and the City 2 vibes about this jaunt, which, if you've seen it, you'll know is not a compliment.
(Jalal Morchidi/EPA)
(Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty)
(Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
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