Giuliani subpoenaed as impeachment inquiry accelerates
WASHINGTON — At one end of Pennsylvania Avenue, the president raged about treason. At the other, the methodical march toward impeachment proceeded apace.
Democrats on Monday subpoenaed Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer who was at the heart of Trump’s efforts to get Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden’s family. That was after one of Trump’s staunchest defenders, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, said he would have “no choice” but to consider articles of impeachment if the House approved them.
With Congress out of session for observance of the Jewish holidays, Democrats moved aggressively against Giuliani, requesting by Oct. 15 “text messages, phone records and other communications” that they referred to as possible evidence. They also requested documents and depositions from three of his business associates.
Meanwhile, the circle of officials with knowledge of Trump’s phone call to Ukraine’s president widened with the revelation that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listened in on the July 25 conversation.
Pompeo’s presence on the Ukraine call, confirmed by two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an internal matter, provided the first confirmation that a Cabinet official heard Trump press President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Hunter Biden’s membership on the board of a Ukrainian gas company. It is that call, and the circumstances surrounding it, that are fueling the new Democratic drive for impeachment.
Trump sought Australia’s help on Russia probe origins
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump recently asked the Australian prime minister and other foreign leaders to help Attorney General William Barr with an investigation into the origins of the Russia probe that shadowed his administration for more than two years, the Justice Department said Monday.
The revelation underscores the extent to which Trump remains consumed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, and the ways in which he has used the apparatus of the United States government to investigate what he believes are its politically motivated origins. It also highlights Barr’s hands-on role in leading that investigation, including traveling overseas for personal meetings with foreign law enforcement officials.
Trump’s interactions with foreign leaders — and Barr’s role in those discussions — are under heightened scrutiny now that the House has launched an impeachment inquiry into the president. The probe centers on Trump’s summertime call with Ukraine’s president, revealed by a whistleblower CIA intelligence officer, in which Trump presses for help investigating Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump has heaped praise on Barr since he took the helm of the Justice Department earlier this year, viewing him as a key ally for his political agenda, including his push to “investigate the investigators” in the Russia probe. But the Justice Department has denied Barr had any knowledge that Trump encouraged Ukraine to work with him on a separate investigation into Biden.
The president has sought, without evidence, to implicate the Bidens in the kind of corruption that has long plagued Ukraine. Hunter Biden served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company at the same time his father was leading the Obama administration’s diplomatic dealings with Kyiv.
Wintry blast closes schools, plunges temps. in Rockies
HELENA, Mont. — Some schools in Montana took their earliest snow day in memory Monday after a blizzard dumped several feet of snow, while plunging temperatures threatened crops across other parts of the Rocky Mountains in an unusually early blast of wintry weather.
Freeze warnings were in effect in parts of Utah and Idaho, and temperatures were expected to drop into the teens and 20s in those states and Montana overnight and Tuesday morning. The cold set in with the lingering fall storm system that dumped snow for three days across much of central and western Montana, including over 4 feet on the Blackfeet Reservation and Glacier National Park.
While parts of the Rockies were dealing with frigid temperatures and unusually early snow, warnings of extreme wildfire danger emerged in eastern Utah and much of Colorado, where temperatures as high as the mid-80s, gusty winds and dry air were expected to create critical conditions.
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock has declared an emergency after the storm brought heavy, wet snow and high winds that closed roads, downed trees and caused scattered power outages. The declaration allows the state to mobilize resources to help areas that were hit.
For the 2nd time this year, NYPD gunfire kills one of its own
NEW YORK — For the second time this year, a New York City police officer has been killed by friendly fire.
Officer Brian Mulkeen was fatally struck by two police bullets while struggling with an armed man after chasing and shooting at him Sunday in the Bronx, Police commissioner James O’Neill said.
“This is an absolute tragedy,” O’Neill said Monday, quickly turning the blame on the man Mulkeen was grappling with, who was also killed in the burst of gunfire.
“Make no mistake, we lost the life of a courageous public servant solely due to a violent criminal who put the lives of the police and all the people we serve in jeopardy,” O’Neill said.
Investigators are still piecing together exactly what happened, but police officials described a chaotic confrontation in which six officers fired 15 shots in about 10 seconds.
Prosecutor: Officer’s testimony on killing neighbor ‘absurd’
DALLAS — A prosecutor on Monday dismissed as garbage a former Dallas police officer’s claim that she believed she was in her own apartment when she fatally shot a neighbor in his home.
Assistant District Attorney Jason Fine used his closing argument to describe Amber Guyger as “an intruder” who killed Botham Jean in his apartment — one floor above hers — last September.
Guyger tearfully testified last week that she mistook Jean’s apartment for her own after a long shift. Speaking publicly for the first time about the events of that night, she said she found the door of what she believed was her apartment unlocked and was afraid that someone had broken in. She said she feared for her life and opened fire using her service weapon when a silhouetted figure walked toward her in the dark.
“Most of what she said was garbage,” Fine said Monday.
Defense attorney Toby Shook said Monday that Guyger made “a series of horrible mistakes” that were entirely understandable. He noted that other residents have also gone to the wrong apartments in that complex after parking on the wrong floor.
By wire sources
