Democrat bid to cast a Donald Trump ‘lies’ net
A top lawyer said the impeachment probe was examining whether Donald Trump lied in statements to former special counsel Robert Mueller.
The top lawyer for the Democratic-led house said the impeachment probe was examining whether Donald Trump lied in statements to former special counsel Robert Mueller.
The statement on Tuesday to a federal court by Douglas Letter, the House of Representatives general counsel, indicated that the impeachment case against the US President could go beyond his interactions with Ukraine that are the current focus of congress.
Mr Letter told judges that Democratic representatives were looking at whether Mr Trump lied in his written answers to the special counsel’s office, saying that one of the redactions in the Mueller report raised questions about the President’s truthfulness.
That report, which came out earlier this year, was the result of the nearly two-year-old investigation of Russian election interference and whether Mr Trump obstructed justice.
“There is evidence that the President may have provided untruthful answers,” said Mr Letter in arguments before a three-judge panel of a federal appeals court in Washington.
Mr Letter declined to elaborate beyond saying that one of the redactions in the report involving Mr Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort called into question the President’s truthfulness in written answers to the special counsel’s office.
In a previous written filing in the same case, house lawyers suggested that Mr Trump may not have been truthful in telling the special counsel that he had no dealings with WikiLeaks, the website founded by Australian Julian Assange.
Mr Manafort, who was convicted and is serving a prison sentence for dodging taxes and committing bank fraud, told the special counsel that Mr Trump had asked to stay “updated” about WikiLeaks in the website’s release of hacked and stolen Democratic emails during the 2016 campaign.
A White House spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for the President, said in response to a request for comment: “Read the answers to questions. They speak for themselves.’’
Democrats pursuing impeachment say the President abused the power of his office by holding up congressionally approved aid to Ukraine while pushing for investigations that could benefit him politically. Mr Trump has defended his dealings with Ukraine as proper, and congressional Republicans have said he shouldn’t be impeached over them.
But the statement by the house lawyer was the first indication that the impeachment inquiry may ultimately be broader than the Ukraine matter and may touch upon questions about whether he obstructed justice in trying to shut down the Mueller investigation.
The statement came as part of a lawsuit seeking access to some of the investigative materials obtained by Mr Mueller’s probe using a grand jury. Typically such material is secret, though courts have authorised the release of such material in the past as part of impeachment investigations.
A lower-court judge sided with the house, saying that it was entitled to grand jury material obtained by Mr Mueller as part of its impeachment inquiry. The Justice Department appealed to a higher court, arguing that under the law as written, it can’t transmit such material to the house.
“We’re not dealing with a judicial proceeding,” said Mark Freeman, a lawyer for the Justice Department.
The Wall Street Journal
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