Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounces "harassment" against State Department staff.
The Trump administration is not fooling around. Three Democrat-controlled House of Representatives commissions announced Friday that they have summoned the White House to hand in documents related to their investigation for "Impeachment".
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" Bullying "
On a visit to Athens, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Saturday that Congress had "Abused State Department employees by contacting them directly and seeking documents that belong to the State Department. It's harassment »he said.
The Secretary of State, who was present at the call between MM. Trump and Zelensky, however, promised to be "More responsive" and to provide "All documents required by law".
An Assistant to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives told CNN that Mr. Pompeo had not delivered within the specified time the documents requested in an injunction sent on 27 September.
Second whistleblower
Friday night, the New York Times mentioned the existence of a second potential whistleblower who would have more direct information than the first. According to the daily, it is also a member of the intelligence services, which is among the people interviewed by the Inspector General Services, Michael Atkinson, to corroborate the words of the first whistleblower.
The second man was also alarmed by the president's attitude towards Ukraine, and is considering filing his own complaint to testify in front of the Congress, according to the newspaper.
Donald Trump again defended Saturday his phone call " perfect " with Mr Zelensky, accusing the whistleblower of being inaccurate in his version of events. "The media are (…) corrupt. They have nothing to do with the truth. The New York Times and the Washington Post are pure fiction », he got away with Twitter.
The Media is "Fixed" and Corrupt. It bears no relationship to the truth. The @nytimes & @washingtonpost are pure fi … https://t.co/RTyior3ET0
Meanwhile, the investigation has brought new revelations. of the SMS exchanged by US diplomats, very embarrassing for Trump and made public by the Congress on Thursday, show that the US administration put pressure on the Ukrainian president to investigate Joe Biden in the run-up to the presidential election.
Republican camp
Mr. Trump acknowledged that the impeachment process was likely to lead to the House of Representatives, and called on Republicans to block the Senate where they are in the majority, because that is where a potential " trial ". For the moment, most Republican tenors are careful not to criticize.
Among the exceptions, Mitt Romney, a former presidential candidate in 2012 and Utah senator, ruled "Appalling" that the president has called foreign powers to investigate Mr. Biden. What caused him to be treated as "Pretentious moron" Saturday by Donald Trump.
"Could anyone wake up Mitt Romney and tell him that my conversation with the Ukrainian President was pleasant and very convenient", at tweeted President. "If Mitt Romney had worked so hard on Obama, he would have won. Unfortunately, he crashed! "he joked in reference to his defeat in the presidential election.
Our selection of articles on the case of the appeal between Trump and Zelensky
