Trump: ‘fraudulent crime’ on the US

Donald Trump has slammed the impeachment inquiry as the Democrats said they would subpoena the White House.

Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the White House. Picture: AP.

Donald Trump has slammed the impeachment inquiry as “bullshit” as the Democrats said they would subpoena the White House for all documents relating to his dealings with Ukraine.

An angry US President lashed out at Democrat leaders overseeing impeachment investi­gations, describing House of Representative intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff as a “low life” who should be investigated for “treason”.

“The Do Nothing Democrats should be focussed on building up our Country, not wasting everyone’s time and energy on BULLSHIT, which is what they have been doing ever since I got overwhelmingly elected,” he tweeted.

The Do Nothing Democrats should be focused on building up our Country, not wasting everyone’s time and energy on BULLSHIT, which is what they have been doing ever since I got overwhelmingly elected in 2016, 223-306. Get a better candidate this time, you’ll need it!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2019

Mr Trump also sought to link the Democrats to the intelligence whistleblower who filed a complaint against him after The New York Times reported that an aide from Mr Schiff’s office had met with the whistleblower in the days before he filed the formal complaint.

“Big stuff. That’s a big story,” Mr Trump said, as he waved a copy of the article in the air at a White House press conference. “He (Schiff) knew long before and helped write it, too. It’s a scam.”

A spokesman for Mr Schiff said such a meeting was standard practice. “Like other whistleblowers have done before and since under Republican- and Democratic-controlled committees, the whistleblower contacted the committee for guidance on how to report possible wrongdoing within the jurisdiction of the intelligence community,” the spokesman said.

“At no point did the committee review or receive the complaint in advance.”

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The whistleblower complaint triggered the release of the text of the phone call in July between Mr Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Mr Trump’s request in that call to investigate political rival Joe Biden is the subject of impeachment investigations launched by the Democrats.

The President tweeted his attacks in real time on Thursday (AEST) as Mr Schiff and house Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a press conference saying they would subpoena the White House for all documents relating to Mr Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian President.

Adam Schiff's account to Congress was a total fabrication. pic.twitter.com/NPKNAOV8B1

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 2, 2019

“The White House’s flagrant disregard of multiple voluntary requests for documents — combined with stark and urgent warnings from the inspector-­general about the gravity of these allegations — have left us with no choice but to issue this subpoena,” Democrat leaders said in a letter.

The subpoena, to be issued on Saturday, will seek all documents relating to Mr Trump’s call to Mr Zelensky as well as details of who was listening to the call and any attempts after the call to cover up the record of the conversation. “This is nothing but more document requests, wasted time, and taxpayer dollars that will ultimately show the President did nothing wrong,” White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said. “The Dems can continue with their kangaroo court, the President will continue to work on behalf of this country.”

Mr Schiff said if the President or his aides tried to stonewall the attempts to secure the documents, the house committees would consider the refusal to be grounds for impeachment.

“We’re not fooling around here,” he said. “We don’t want this to drag on months and months and months, which would be the administration’s strategy.

“So they just need to know, even as they try to undermine our ability to find the facts around the President’s effort to coerce a foreign leader to create dirt that he can use against a political opponent, that they will be strengthening the case on obstruction.”

Ms Pelosi said she believed Mr Trump was “scared” about the ­impeachment crisis.

Mr Trump launched a series of fresh attacks on the Democrats, accusing them of wanting to impeach him from the time he became President and describing the process as a “hoax”.

“This is a fraudulent crime on all the American people,” he said.

Mr Trump also stepped up his attack on the whistleblower, saying he was not a whistleblower because he was not telling the truth. “I have a lot of respect for whistleblowers but only when they’re real,” Mr Trump said.

The Democrats said the President’s comments amounted to “an incitement to violence” against the whistleblower.

Mr Trump also launched a fresh attack on Mr Biden and his son, Hunter, saying they were “stone cold crooked” because of their activities in the Ukraine.

Mr Biden was vice-president overseeing attempts to pressure Ukraine to crack down on corruption at the same time as his son was on the board of a large Ukrainian gas company.

Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia