Published 11:43 IST, October 1st 2019
Donald Trump's lawyer Giuliani subpoenaed by House of Intelligence
The House Democrats are moving fast in their investigation against Trump’s lawyer Giuliani. The lawyer and former New York Mayor has been subpoenaed
According to media reports, the House Democrats are moving swiftly in their investigation against Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani. As a part of their impeachment inquiry, the lawyer was subpoenaed for documents concerning the dealings of the US President with Ukraine’s counterpart. The subpoena was announced by the House of Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Reform panels as they examine the documents to assess the efforts of Donald Trump to ask Ukraine to investigate his political rival Joe Biden and his son. Guiliani was the key person of contact during the entire engagement.
The subpoenas
The subpoenas were issued to the lawyer on September 30, by the former mayor of New York, to submit the text messages, phone records and other documents related to the communications with the Ukraine President, these will be referred to as the possible evidence. The foreign media also reported that three of Guiliani’s business associates have been asked for documents and depositions. The committees are looking into the impeachment inquiry with the target to pace-up the investigation and also conduct voting on the articles on impeachment by the end of this year.
Other officials also involved?
As per the reports, the number of officials involved in the Trump’s effort to seek investigation widen after the Cabinet official, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made the revelation after listening to the July 25 conversation. The abuse of power by Donald Trump by calling his Ukraine counterpart and the circumstances surrounding it are escalating the Democrats' drive for the impeachment inquiry. It was reported that both Trump and Giuliani have accepted the deed to influence Volodymyr Zelenskiy to call for an investigation into Hunter Biden’s involvement with the board of a Ukrainian gas company, while his father Joe Biden was taking care of Obama’s administration diplomatic dealings with Kyiv. It was revealed that there were no illegal acts committed either by father or son.
Giuliani acknowledged putting pressure on Ukraine officials
According to the international media, the chairman presiding the committees did note Giuliani’s acceptance of pressurizing the Ukrainian officials on the television. The chairman also noted that after this stark admission, there were possibilities of other officials also involved in the act. The investigation will proceed further after examining the evidence submitted by Giuliani. The investigation comes after a secret complaint was filed by a whistleblower, detailing a July 25 call between Trump and Zelenskiy.
(With AP Inputs)
Updated 19:21 IST, October 1st 2019