Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the United States House of Representatives has announced a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump acquiescing to mounting pressure from fellow Democrats and plunging a deeply divided nation into an election-year clash between Congress and the president.
The announcement last week came amid reports Trump may have abused his presidential powers and sought help from a foreign government to undermine former Vice President Joe Biden, the current Democratic frontrunner, and help his own re-election.
In a summer phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Trump asked for help investigating Biden, according to a White House-released summary of the call. In the days before the call, Trump ordered advisers to freeze $400m in military aid for Ukraine – prompting speculation that he was using the money as leverage for information on Biden. Trump has denied that charge but acknowledged he blocked the funds, which were later released.
The Trump-Ukraine phone call is part of the whistle-blower’s complaint that was released last week.
Trump has blasted the inquiry as “Witch Hunt garbage” and said he has done nothing wrong.
As a formal impeachment inquiry in the House gets under way, here are all the latest updates:
Saturday, October 5
Pompeo blasts ‘harassment’ by Congress over impeachment probe
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused members of Congress of harassing his department to obtain documents linked to the impeachment investigation against Trump.
“There have been congressional inquiries that have harassed and abused State Department employees by contacting them directly and seeking to have them provide documents… that belong to the State Department, that are official US government records” he said during a visit in Greece.
“That’s harassment. And I’m never going to let that happen to my team.”
Pompeo, who has been subpoenaed in the probe, told reporters in Athens his department would provide “all the documents required by the law”.
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