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janrinok [soylentnews.org] writes:

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story [aljazeera.com]:

Kurt Volker appears for day-long interview with House investigators behind closed doors.

The complaint alleges that Trump used "the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 US election". Trump denies any wrongdoing.

At the centre of the complaint is a phone call in July between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky [aljazeera.com]in which the US leader asked for help [aljazeera.com] with investigating Joe Biden, the former US vice president and a 2020 Democratic hopeful and his son.

The complaint said Volker tried to "contain the damage" from efforts of Giuliani to get Ukraine to look into Biden.

Volker told members of the House that Giuliani was warned Ukrainian claims of alleged corruption by Biden and his son Hunter were not credible, the Washington Post newspaper reported, citing to unnamed people familiar with his testimony.

Republicans who sat in on the interview said Volker's testimony did not support the allegation that Trump withheld $400m in military aid from Ukraine to pressure Zelensky to investigate Biden.

"The argument that President Trump was trying to get President Zelensky to manufacture dirt on the Bidens, Ambassador Volker's testimony blew a massive hole in that argument," Republican Lee Zeldin told reporters.

"Rudy, just talked to Volker. Gave me a Zelensky update. I have been in touch directly w Zelensky as well. You able to meet in NY or DC Mon morning? I have some EU issues to discuss," Sondland's text message read.

Giuliani characterised the texts as evidence he was working with the full knowledge of US diplomats.

Volker provided 60 pages of documents, mostly text messages, prior to his interview with the House committee, according to the New York Times newspaper. Zeldin said the text messages should be publicly released.

Volker's appearance before House members came against another explosive day [aljazeera.com] for Trump, who publicly said China should also investigate Biden.

Trump made the comments to reporters on Thursday morning. On Wednesday, Trump railed against reporters and ramped up his rhetoric and tweets against the impeachment inquiry, which he describes as a "hoax" and "witch-hunt garbage".

There has been no evidence of wrongdoing by Joe Biden or his son. 

SOURCE: Al Jazeera News

© 2019 Al Jazeera Media Network

 

Original Submission