US President Donald Trump (L), former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R), photo by AFP

The US House Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani for documents on the Ukraine call, pushing the president further towards impeachment. 

Iran PressAmerica: In a letter to Rudy Giuliani dated Monday, the heads of three US House committees asked for information related to the US President Donald Trump and his lawyer’s efforts to get Ukraine’s government to investigate the Biden family. 

They wrote that House Democrats’ probe “includes an investigation of credible allegations that [Giuliani] acted as an agent of the President in a scheme to advance his personal political interests by abusing the power of the Office of the President,” CNBC reported. 

Spokespeople for Giuliani and the White House did not immediately respond to comment.

Giuliani is mentioned frequently in the whistle-blower’s complaint and in recent weeks, he has admitted in interviews to trying to gather damaging information in Ukraine on Democrats, including Joe Biden, that would help the President politically. He has also said the State Department was aware of some of his actions.

He has now been asked by House investigators for a range of communications and documents going back to January 2017. They include anything related to $391 million in American security aid that the Trump administration temporarily withheld from Ukraine and that Democrats have speculated may have been part of an effort to pressure the Ukrainian government.

On the other side, Trump continued his attack on the anonymous whistle-blower whose complaint helped mobilize House Democrats, as well as on Representative Adam B. Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who is leading the impeachment inquiry.

US President said that the whistle-blower “knew almost nothing” and that the White House was “trying to find out” the whistle-blower’s identity — an action legal experts said could constitute an illegal reprisal. And he went as far as to question whether Schiff ought to be arrested for treason — a new extreme even for a president who has shredded modern political rules.

On July 25 a telephone call between Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky was made, the US President asked his counterpart to launch an investigation of Democratic presidential hopeful, Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who had served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.

The decision to launch a formal impeachment inquiry was triggered by allegations that Trump sought help from a foreign government in his reelection bid for the 2020 election.

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