Trump news: First arrests made in Ukraine scandal, as Trump offers to mediate between Turkey and the Kurds
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Two associates to Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani have been indicted on federal campaign finance violations after allegedly scheming to undermine Joe Biden’s 2020 candidacy and purchase political influence on behalf of a Ukrainian official.
The news arrives as the GOP has been conspicuous by its absence from American TV screens in recent days, with usually loyal Trump supporters on Capitol Hill making themselves scarce and declining media opportunities to defend the president, clearly unnerved by the White House’s refusal to co-operate with the House of Representatives’ inquiry into his dealings with Ukraine.
Mr Trump is meanwhile under fire for washing his hands of responsibility for the Turkish assault on Kurdish fighters in Syria, made possible by his decision to withdraw US troops from the territory earlier this week, with #TrumpGenocide and #TrumpBetrayedTheKurds trending on Twitter and protesters hanging a banner outside Trump Tower in Las Vegas denouncing the betrayal.
He is set to host a rally in Minneapolis this evening, where he has begun a feud with the Democratic mayor, Jacob Frey, over $530,000 in costs associated with the event that the mayor says remain outstanding.
It might be a pretty decent idea to try and get the Trump campaign to pay upfront — while they have raised more than $100 million for Mr Trump's re-election in 2020, they are notorious for skipping out on rally bills.
Trump 2020 launch: Fascist Proud Boys, baby blimps and Uncle Sam
Show all 30But, the president's campaign has threatened Mr Frey and his city with a lawsuit, claiming extortion.
On the silly side of news, Mr Trump's ally Lindsey Graham was reportedly duped by a couple of Russian comedians in August, who pretended to be a Turkish official. Mr Graham appeared to contradict his public comments about Kurds, at least his recent comments.
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Mike Pence said he would release transcripts of his phone calls with Ukraine and denied Donald Trump asked for foreign help in his re-election efforts, despite the president appearing to do exactly that on the White House lawn just days ago.
The vice president said he was working with the White House counsel’s office to release the transcripts of his own calls with Volodymyr Zelensky after House Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry into Mr Trump, alleging an abuse of power during his 25 July phone call with the Ukrainian president.
“I’d have no objection to that,” Mr Pence said when asked by reporters on Wednesday whether he would release the transcripts.
A whistleblower complaint stemming from the phone call in question alleged Mr Trump withheld military financial aid from Ukraine just days before the call, then urged Mr Zelensky to launch an investigation into one of his 2020 political rivals, Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter.
Mr Trump also requested the Ukrainian president look into the origins of the US probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election to seemingly support his unfounded claim that Ukraine was behind foreign interference rather than the Kremlin.
Story to come...
The Miami Herald has a photograph of Donald Trump standing alongside the two associates of his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who were arrested over campaign finance charges:
New reporting suggests the associates of Rudy Giuliani had one way tickets out of the country -
Authorities released mugshots of the two Republican donors accused of campaign finance violations. Lev Parnas, left, and Igor Fruman were reportedly arrested at Dulles International Airport near Washington DC. They apparently had one-way international tickets with them.
As well as the president and his personal lawyer, Parnas and Fruman have been seen with another acolyte of the Trump family - Donald Jr.
This photo, posted on a Facebook page by the Campaign Legal Center, shows, from left, Donald Trump Jr, Tommy Hicks J - co-chair of the Republican National Committee - Parnas and Fruman. It was posted on 21 May, 2018.
News has emerged that senator Lindsey Graham was duped by a couple of Russian pranksters on a hoax phone call, believing instead that he was speaking to the Turkish minister of defense in early August.
The phone call has been reported by GQ and Politico, and feature Mr Graham contradicting what have now been his public comments that the Kurds are endangered by the Turkish invasion of northern Syria.
In the calls, Mr Graham says the Kurds are a danger to Turkey.
Breaking news: Donald Trump's secretary of energy has been issued a subpoena by House Democrats investigating Donald Trump over his Ukraine impeachment scandal:
The Democrat-controlled House Oversight, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees have alleged Rick Perry was potentially involved in "conveying or reinforcing" the president's "efforts to press Ukraine for dirt on a political opponent" -
To be clear, the associates of Rudy Giuliani arrested this week are not some former aides from a time long, long ago. The president's personal attorney was dining with these men at his private business the day before they were arrested for campaign finance violations -
House Democrats have subpoenaed outgoing Energy secretary Rick Perry for documents related to Donald Trump's efforts to pressure the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden.
Mr Perry marks the latest official to face subpoenas as a part of the impeachment inquiry, and suggests that Democrats are concerned that he is involved in the Ukrainian efforts.
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