House Democrats are planning to pursue new subpoenas for documents and testimony in their impeachment inquiry into President Trump, an escalation in a showdown with increasingly high stakes.
Attorneys representing the whistleblower who filed the complaint about the president's July phone call with the president of Ukraine wrote in a letter obtained by "60 Minutes" that their client fears for his or her safety. The letter says a "$50,000 bounty" has been issued by unspecified individuals for information about the whistleblower's identity.
Democratic lawmakers discussed the way forward on their impeachment inquiry on Sunday, even as members returned home for a two-week congressional recess.
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Trump says he wants to meet whistleblower
In a series of tweets, President Trump claimed that he deserves the right to meet the whistleblower that came forward with details of his calls with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelesnky.
Mr. Trump said he wants to meet the whistleblower as well as "the person who illegally gave this information, which was largely incorrect, to the whistleblower." While Acting DNI Joseph Maguire testified that the whistleblower "did the right thing" in coming forward, the president suggested they were a spy and threatened "big consequences."
In the same series of tweets, Mr. Trump said that House Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Adam Schiff should be "questioned at the highest level for fraud and treason."
Tom Bossert "deeply frustrated" by Trump's Ukraine interference conspiracy theory
Former Department of Homeland Security adviser Tom Bossert said the president's repeated suggestion that Ukraine, and not Russia, was behind the 2016 election interference effort in the United States is "deeply frustrating." President Trump referred to the claim during his July call with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Bossert told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday that he specifically explained to the president at the time that it was a "completely debunked conspiracy theory" appearing to place the blame squarely on the president's legal team for perpetuating the theory.
"I am deeply frustrated with what he and the legal team is doing and repeating that debunked theory to the president. It sticks in his mind when he hears it over and over again," said Bossert.
Mr. Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, however, fired back, saying Bosset has no idea what he's talking about.
"With all due respect to Tom Bossert, he doesn't know what he's talking about that I invented this. This was given to me. It was given to me," Giuliani defended.
Schiff plans to subpoena Giuliani, expects whistleblower to testify
6:00 a.m.: Congressman Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told "60 Minutes" he expects to subpoena Mr. Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani for information about his contacts with Ukraine and his work to encourage the country to open an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden.
"We're going to need evidence from Rudy Giuliani," Schiff said. "And it's our intention as soon as first thing next week to subpoena him for documents. And there may very well come a time where we want to hear from him directly."
The chairman said the committee has "a pretty good road map, thanks to the courage of this whistleblower. The complaint sets out any number of witnesses, any number of documents that we need to seek." Schiff and two other committee chairmen issued subpoenas for documents from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday.
Schiff also said the committee has an "agreement that [the whistleblower] will testify," but lawyers for the individual said in Sunday that no time or date has been set and that talks are continuing. -- Stefan Becket
Whistleblower fears for safety, lawyers say
5:30 a.m.: A letter from attorneys for the whistleblower says their client fears for his or her safety, and that individuals have issued a "$50,000 bounty" for information on the identity of the whistleblower.
The whistleblower's legal team sent the letter to the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire. It says the events of the past week have heightened concerns that the whistleblower's identity will be revealed and, as a result, he or she could be "put in harm's way." The letter also thanked Maguire's office for activating "appropriate resources" to ensure the whistleblower's safety.
Read the letter here.
Majority of Americans support impeachment inquiry, CBS News poll finds
5:00 a.m.: A CBS News poll released Sunday found that more than half of Americans -- and an overwhelming number of Democrats -- say they approve of the fact that Congress has opened an impeachment inquiry, but there is no national consensus on how to assess the president's actions.
Partisans have immediately and predictably split: most Democrats call the president's handling of matters with Ukraine illegal, and deserving of impeachment.
Most Republicans call his actions proper -- or, even if improper, then still legal -- and feel they're an example of things that past presidents typically did, too. Most Americans think that because Congress is now taking up the matter, it will be unable to work on other issues.
Read more from the poll here.
2019-09-30 11:15:00Z
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