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Monday 7 october 2019

2nd whistleblower adds to impeachment peril at White House

Continued from Front conduct. “The Democrats
are lucky that they don’t
Crucially, the new whistle- have any Mitt Romney
blower works in the intel- types,” Trump wrote, paint-
ligence field and has “first- ing the 2012 GOP presiden-
hand knowledge” of key tial nominee as a traitor to
events, Zaid said. his party.
The emergence of the sec- Romney tweeted recently
ond whistleblower threat- that Trump’s “brazen and
ened to undermine argu- unprecedented appeal to
ments from Trump and his China and to Ukraine” for
allies to discredit the origi- an investigation of Biden is
nal complaint. They have “wrong and appalling.”
called it politically motivat- The July call raised ques-
ed, claimed it was filed im- tions about whether Trump
properly and dismissed it as held back near $400 million
unreliable because it was in critical American military
based on secondhand or aid to Ukraine as leverage
thirdhand information. This Aug. 1, 2018, file photo shows Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for President Donald Trump, in for a Burisma investigation.
A rough transcript of Portsmouth, N.H. Hunter Biden served on the
Trump’s call with Ukrainian Associated Press board of Burisma at the
President Volodymyr Zelen- finally gotten to a place other Republicans focused As the president often same time his father was
skiy, released by the White where people are saying, mainly on attacking Demo- does when he feels under leading the Obama admin-
House, has already cor- ‘Enough,’” Himes said. crats. A few Republicans attack, he trumpeted his istration’s diplomatic deal-
roborated the complaint’s Democrats have zeroed in suggested that Trump was strong support among Re- ings with Ukraine. Though
central claim that Trump on the State Department in only joking this past week publican voters. He kept the timing raised concerns
sought to pressure Ukraine the opening phase of their when he publicly called lashing out at Utah Sen. Mitt among anti-corruption ad-
to investigate the Bidens. impeachment investiga- on China to investigate the Romney, one of the few vocates, there has been
The push came even tion. Bidens. Republicans who has pub- no evidence of wrongdo-
though there was no evi- The Intelligence, Oversight Republican Sen. Lindsey licly questioned Trump’s ing by either Biden.q
dence of wrongdoing by and Foreign Affairs com- Graham of South Carolina,
the former vice president or mittees have already in- one of Trump’s most vocal
his son Hunter, who served terviewed Kurt Volker, a backers, provided perhaps
on the board of a Ukrainian former special envoy to the strongest defense of
gas company. Ukraine who provided the the president. He said there
Text messages from State text messages. was nothing wrong with
Department officials re- At least two other witnesses Trump’s July conversation
vealed other details, in- are set for depositions this with Zelenskiy and that the
cluding that Ukraine was week: Gordon Sondland, accusation look like a “po-
promised a visit with Trump the U.S. ambassador to the litical setup.”
if the government would European Union, and Ma- As for Trump, rather than vis-
agree to investigate the rie Yovanovitch, who was iting his nearby golf course
2016 election and Ukrai- abruptly ousted as the U.S. in Sterling, Virginia, for a
nian gas company Burisma ambassador to Ukraine in second day, he stayed
— the outline of a potential May. at White House, where he
quid pro quo. Trump and his supporters tweeted and retweeted,
Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., a deny that he did anything with the Bidens a main tar-
member of the House Intel- improper, but the White get.
ligence Committee, said House has struggled to “The great Scam is being
word of a second whistle- come up with a unified re- revealed!” Trump wrote at
blower indicates a larger sponse. No administration one point, continuing to
shift inside the government. officials appeared on the paint himself as the victim
“The president’s real prob- Sunday news shows to de- of a “deep state” and hos-
lem is that his behavior has fend the president, while tile Democrats.