For the US Senate, President Trump is a danger who grows desperate with each day. Democrats in the House are sure to convict the president, who now looks like he is jumping from the frying pan, right into the fire.
In the latest move in the impeachment inquiry, Democrats have demanded that the White House turn over documents related to allegations that President Donald Trump pressured Ukraine for political favours.
"The White House has refused to engage with — or even respond to — multiple requests for documents," the Democratic chairmen of the House oversight, intelligence and foreign affairs committees said.
Trump on Friday openly egged on China by asking Xi Jinping to carry out investigations on Hunter Biden, seeking to expose former vice president Joe Biden's son for corruption.
The congressional committees heading the probe cranked up the heat on the White House as evidence mounted that Trump illicitly used his office to enlist Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky's help to damage 2020 Democratic rival Joe Biden, in exchange for military aid.
The subpoena includes a request for documents tied to the President's July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the holding up of foreign aid to Ukraine and efforts by Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his associates to push the Ukrainians to investigate Burisma, the company that has Hunter Biden on its board and other related proof of communication.
"After nearly a month of stonewalling, it appears clear that the President has chosen the path of defiance, obstruction, and cover-up.
"His actions have left us with no choice but to issue this subpoena." In their letter to acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, the committees demanded that he turn over the requested files by October 18.
The subpoena followed a demand earlier Friday for documents from Vice President Mike Pence, as a Pence aide may have listened-in on the 25 July phone call to Ukraine's President Voldyrmyr Zelenskiy, in which Trump pushed the latter to investigate Biden and his son Hunter for corrupt activities. The Ukrainian President was awaiting for hundreds of millions of dollars of US military aid that had been withheld as Trump awaited on a 'deliverable' from the investigation.
As per several pages of messages released by the Democratic leaders of the committees, US diplomats discussed setting up the July 25 telephone call between Trump and Ukrainian President. It supported accusations that Trump had illegally sought foreign help for his re-election effort.
The investigators also pointed to Pence's knowledge of Trump's calls to Zelensky and his meeting on September 1 with the Ukraine leader. A cache of messages released also suggest that top US diplomats encouraged the investigation to seek political dirt on Joe Biden.
Trump pushed back hard against the allegations, saying it was his responsibility to investigate "corruption." "I don't care about Biden's campaign but I care about corruption," he said.
Trump has alleged that Biden's son Hunter earned "millions" from sitting on the board of directors of a Ukraine tycoon's gas company.
There is, however, no evidence that shows wrongdoing on the part of either Biden.
Republican Senator Mitt Romney blasted Trump's comments that Beijing and Kyiv should investigate Biden for corruption. "By all appearances, the President's brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden is wrong and appalling," tweeted Romney, the Republican presidential nominee in 2012.
"When the only American citizen President Trump singles out for China's investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the Democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated."
