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A US district judge has ordered Donald Trump’s former White House counsel Don McGahn to comply with a subpoena issued by House Democrats – originally in response to the Mueller report – that could see him testify to the impeachment inquiry.
In her ruling, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson asserted that "presidents are not kings" and ruled that Mr McGahn — whom the president pressured to deny that he wanted to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, according to the report — must appear before Congress.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, however, told reporters on Tuesday that "we not only have a right, we have a duty" to investigate those leads.
Meanwhile, First Lady Melania Trump was met with a chorus of boos from a crowd of young people at an opioid awareness event in Baltimore, which the president has previously called a "disgusting, rat and rodent-infested mess".
Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal
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She later said, in a statement, that "we live in a democracy and everyone is entitled to their opinion."
She later joined Mr Trump outside the White House for the president's annual turkey "pardoning" ahead of Thanksgiving. Bread and Butter were both spared, but not before Mr Trump swiped at Congressional Democrats, Adam Schiff and members of the press.
Congress continued to push back at the administration, first in a House Budget Committee report that found the White House's Office of Management and Budget engaged in a "pattern of abuse" by withholding aid to Ukraine, and then in a lawsuit aimed at top administration officials over documents that Democrats believe will answer why the administration wanted to include citizenship status in the 2020 Census.
In other news, Mr Trump has reportedly appointed his son-in-law Jared Kushner, already tasked with bringing peace to the Middle East, to oversee the construction of his US-Mexico border wall, as the row over his decision to absolve Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher of war crimes rumbles on.
House Oversight Committee suing Bill Barr, Wilbur Ross over subpoena-dodging
The House Oversight Committee has announced today it is suing attorney general William Barr and commerce secretary Wilbur Ross over their refusal to comply with congressional subpoenas relating to the panel's investigation into their failed attemot to add a controversial citizenship question to the 2020 census.
“Since the Supreme Court ruled against them - and the House of Representatives held them in contempt for blocking the committee’s investigation - attorney general Barr and commerce secretary Ross have doubled down on their open defiance of the rule of law and refused to produce even a single additional document in response to our Committee’s bipartisan subpoenas," said the Oversight Committee's new chairwoman Carolyn Maloney in a statement.
"President Trump and his aides are not above the law," Maloney added, echoing the sentiment of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson yesterday. "They cannot be allowed to disregard and degrade the authority of Congress to fulfill our core Constitutional legislative and oversight responsibilities.”
Mike Pompeo: 'When the time is right, all good things happen'
Speaking at the State Department just now, Mike Pompeo has responded vaguely to Trump's not entirely convincing line that he'd love him to testify while continuing to aid the president by pushing Ukraine conspiracy theories.
Team Trump running misleading Facebook adverts on impeachment
Trump appears to be running some incredibly misleading Facebook adverts, suggesting House Democrats have already voted in favour of his impeachment in order to whip up fury among his base.
Fox News dolt Tucker Carlson said this on his show last night, attacking the House impeachment inquiry: "Why do I care what’s going on in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia? And I’m serious - why do I care. And why shouldn’t I root for Russia - which I am”.
Here's Vincent Wood with more context than this preppy buffoon deserves.
AOC accuses Trump of 'jailing kids and making corruption a cause celebré'
Trump was busy attacking the "Do Nothing Democrats" again over the weekend, claiming the impeachment inquiry is derailing the passage of important legislation through Congress.
Pretty rich given that Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell prides himself on being the "Grim Reaper" of bills but hey ho.
Trump creates task force on missing and murdered Native Americans
The president just signed an executive order that creates a Task Force on Missing and Murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives, intended to address the spike of violence against Native people in the US.
The task force arrives as Attorney General William Barr plans a rollout of a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Initiative.
From AG Barr:
“American Indian and Alaska Native people suffer from unacceptable and disproportionately high levels of violence, which can have lasting impacts on families and communities. Native American women face particularly high rates of violence, with at least half suffering sexual or intimate-partner violence in their lifetime. Too many of these families have experienced the loss of loved ones who went missing or were murdered. President Trump establishing the Task Force on Missing and Murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives will enable us to further strengthen the federal, state, and tribal law enforcement response to these continuing problems.”
Meanwhile, FLOTUS was met with a chorus of boos from the young crowd at B'More Youth Summit, which promotes awareness of the opioid crisis to students.
The boos didn't stop when Melania Trump started speaking.
The Independent's Clark Mindock on Melania Trump's appearance in Baltimore, where she was met with sustained boos as she stepped onstage and smiled and waved:
The intensity of the boos were an apparent first for Ms Trump, who has largely avoided direct backlash during her husband's polarising presidency, and reporters who cover her regularly were quick to note on Tuesday that they had never encountered that level of aggravation aimed at the first lady during a solo appearance.
Trump invited to his Judiciary Committee impeachment hearing
A date has been set for Donald Trump's impeachment hearing in the House Judiciary Committee, following two weeks of hearings from US officials with seemingly explosive testimonies that explicitly linked the president to calls for Ukraine's investigation into Joe Biden and his son in exchange for military aid and a White House visit.
The House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a 4 December impeachment hearing to formally hear charges of "high crimes and misdemeanors" while an argument is made for constitutional grounds for the president's impeachment.
In his letter to the White House, Judiciary Chair Jerrold Nadler invites the president and his attorneys to the hearing, and Mr Nadler promises a "fair and informative process".
Melania Trump loudly booed and heckled by crowd at opioid summit
Trump invited to impeachment hearing or 'stop complaining'
Sarah Huckabee Sanders insists Trump reads 'more than anyone I know'
Betsy DeVos to expand rights for students accused of sexual assault
Federal prosecutors 'eyeing' Rudy Giuliani's donations to Trump fund
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