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Kamis, 07 November 2019

Impeachment latest: Bill Taylor transcript offers preview of public hearings — live updates - CBS News

Open impeachment hearings set to begin next week

The latest news on the impeachment inquiry

The House Intelligence Committee will hold the first open hearings of the impeachment inquiry next week, featuring public testimony from three key witnesses.
Democrats released the transcript of closed-door testimony by one of the witnesses, Bill Taylor, on Wednesday.
Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Treasury Department official Tony Sayegh are expected to join the White House communications team to work on impeachment.

Washington -- The House Intelligence Committee announced the first public hearings in the impeachment inquiry will take place next week, featuring testimony from three witnesses.

Trump Impeachment Inquiry More

White House coordinating with House GOP

Wednesday, 5:49 p.m.: Since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi launched the impeachment inquiry in late September, the communications teams for Republican leaders in the House and the ranking members of the committees involved have held daily meetings to go over new developments and hash out messaging and strategy for handling the inquiry.

Until a week ago, no one from the White House attended these meetings, a senior House Republican aide told CBS News. The aide said the White House eventually reached out and asked to be part of the sessions.

The White House has been represented by either Tori Symonds, the director of government communications, or Alexa Henning, director of broadcast media. But they are essentially in "listen only" mode -- they don't deliver messages on behalf of Mr. Trump or the press shop. Instead, they report back what House Republicans are doing and saying so everyone is on the same page.

Still, their participation is another sign that White House officials are finally recognizing the need to have a stronger game plan.

The White House wants to have a firm impeachment-specific communications team in place before the public hearings start on Wednesday, but it's unclear when or if a formal announcement will be made. -- Weijia Jiang

House withdraws subpoena for official who asked court to intervene

Wednesday, 4:08 p.m.: The House of Representatives has formally withdrawn its subpoena of Charles Kupperman, a deputy of former National Security Adviser John Bolton, court records show.

Although he received a subpoena to appear in October, he was told by the White House that he couldn't testify. Torn between the legislative and executive branch directives, Kupperman filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia requesting the court decide whether he should comply with the subpoena or the White House's directive.

"There is no proper basis for a witness to sue the Congress in court to oppose a duly authorized congressional subpoena," a committee official said to explain the move. "Nevertheless, given the schedule of our impeachment hearings, a court process that leads to the dismissal of Dr. Kupperman's flawed lawsuit would only result in delay, so we have withdrawn his subpoena."

Oral arguments in the case weren't scheduled to take place until December 10 - well after the depositions would have wrapped and moved onto public hearings in the impeachment inquiry.

The Intelligence Committee likely expects Kupperman to follow whatever guidance the court gives when it rules on whether former White House Counsel Don McGahn has to testify before the House Judiciary Committee in a separate case. The White House tried to claim that both Kupperman and McGahn had "absolute immunity" from subpoenas to testify.

The McGahn case is much further along and will likely be resolved sooner than the Kupperman case.

It is unclear is what this means for Bolton, who has the same attorney as Kupperman. -- Rebecca Kaplan and Grace Segers

Giuliani hires several attorneys

Wednesday, 3:43 p.m.: Rudy Giuliani wrote on Twitter that he is being represented by several attorneys himself. The attorneys all have extensive experience in criminal investigations in the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York, including one who was previously a former deputy chief of criminal investigations.

"I am represented and assisted by Robert Costello and the Pierce Bainbridge firm in particular , Eric Creizman and Melissa Madrigal," Giuliani tweeted. -- Paula Reid

White House brings on Pam Bondi and Tony Sayegh to help with impeachment messaging

2:18 p.m.: Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Treasury Department official Tony Sayegh are expected to join the White House communications team to work on proactive impeachment messaging and other special projects as they arise, according to a senior administration official.

Their roles will be within the White House as temporary special government employees.

Trump allies have long pushed for a more coordinated messaging strategy from the White House. -- Paula Reid

Graham says Trump administration "incapable of forming a quid pro quo"

"I'm not going to read these transcripts, the whole process is a joke," @LindseyGrahamSC says on transcripts released by House committees leading the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. He adds: "They seem to be incapable of forming a quid pro quo." pic.twitter.com/YISSkFeomw
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) November 6, 2019

11:58 a.m.: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham made the argument to reporters Wednesday that the Trump administration's Ukraine policy was "incoherent," and the administration was "incapable of forming a quid pro quo."

Graham made the comments to reporters on Capitol Hill, reiterating that he won't read the transcripts from the impeachment inquiry. Graham said the entire impeachment process is a sham.

"I heard something yesterday I could not believe," a reporter posed to Graham. "Former impeachment manager Lindsey Graham says he's not going to read the impeachment transcripts? Really?"

"I'm not going to read these transcripts," Graham responded. "The whole process is a joke."

"You just pick things you like," Graham added. "Y'all hate this guy you all want to get him impeached. I'm not buying into Schiff running a legitimate operation."

Graham had told reporters on Capitol Hill the day before he didn't plan on reading transcripts released Tuesday from depositions with U.S. ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland and Kurt Volker, former special representative to Ukraine. -- Alan He and Kathryn Watson

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2019-11-07 11:00:00Z
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Family and authorities piece together from ash what happened to mothers and children massacred in Mexico - CNN

Just that morning, they had seen the three women and their 14 children off to visit family, traveling together for safety. Now, loved ones and investigators are piecing together what happened in the remote mountains where the women and six of their children were killed.

After 'bullets rained from above,' child survivors of a Mexico ambush tried to save each other

The dual US-Mexican citizens were driving through a remote area in the mountains on the border between the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua. They had left the La Mora community, which appears to be a group of fundamentalist Mormons separate from the mainstream Church of Latter-day Saints. One journeyed to pick up her husband, another to meet her husband and move to North Dakota and the third to visit family in the neighboring state of Chihuahua, relative Kendra Lee Miller said.

The three had returned to the family ranch after one of their cars got a flat tire and set off on their way again, Miller said. Miller's brother was fixing the flat when he saw an explosion and rushed to the scene.

The family, their community, the Mexican government and the US government are now all working to understand what happened to the family and why. Here is what happened based on the accounts of the Mexican Security Minister Alfonso Durazo and a commission ordered by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to investigate the attack:

9:40 a.m. local time Monday: The first vehicle carrying Rhonita Miller and her four children, aged 12, 10 and 8-month-old twins, was ambushed, the Investigative Commission said Wednesday. None of the passengers survived. Durazo's account states that the families began their journey around this time.

11 a.m.: The second and third vehicles were attacked, the commission said. One was driven by Dawna Ray Langford. Of the nine children she had with her, two were fatally shot along with her. The third vehicle was driven by Christina Marie Langford Johnson, who had her infant daughter in the car. The baby survived, but Christina did not. Durazo disputes this timing, saying that the families were ambushed at 1:00 p.m. local time.

1:18 p.m.: Durazo said a family member, Julián LeBarón, alerted the National Guard about the attack and requested support.

6 or 7 p.m.: Search efforts begin for the children who survived. Durazo's account sets this an hour earlier than the commission's.

8:30 p.m.: The commission says that five surviving children were given first aid. About 15 minutes later, the commission says they were taken to a hospital in Bavispe, Mexico. The infant was found in her car seat on the floor of her mother's car surrounded by bullets but uninjured, Kendra Lee Miller said. The five children had been hidden in nearby bushes by their 13-year-old brother, who had walked about six hours back to the family ranch, she said. One of their sisters was not with them.

9:45 p.m.: The last surviving child -- a missing girl -- is found, the commission said. Miller said the 9-year-old had left to find help. Another family member said they found her with her feet swollen and covered in blisters from walking.

11:40 p.m.: Air transportation takes five of the children and two family members to a Red Cross ambulance in Agua Prieta, the commission said.

12:05 a.m. Tuesday: The Secretary of National Defense confirmed the deaths of three women and six minors, Durazo said.

12:30 a.m.: Those transported arrive in the US for care, the commission said.

Mistaken identity or targeted attack?

Officials and family members have been at odds over whether this was a case of a cartel mistaking them for a rival or if the family was a target.

Kendra Lee Miller, who lost her sister-in-law in the attack, said "cartels have taken too many of our family members."

These are the mothers and their children who were massacred in Mexico

She said cartels had recently threatened her family over where they can travel.

"They had stood up to the drug cartels, and they did have certain frictions either with the cartels or with neighboring communities over water rights," Former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda said.

But Lafe Langford disputed Castañeda's description of his family.

"It's so far from the truth. The only thing they were activists for was their children, the education of their children and their homesteads," Langford said.

"(Castañeda) said something about a conflict over water rights. We live on a river. We have all the water we could ever need."

A suspect arrested, but manhunt continues

On Tuesday, Mexican authorities announced the arrest of a suspect in relation to the massacre. But Wednesday, Durazo said investigators have learned the suspect was not involved.

Authorities did not say whether the individual has been released.

While the investigation unfolds, authorities in the US and Mexico have different theories on who might be responsible.

Chihuahua Attorney General César Peniche Espejel said he believes the newly formed Los Jaguares cartel, an offshoot of the infamous Sinaloa drug cartel, may be behind the massacre.

"These very cartels of Sinaloa, after the arrest of Guzman 'El Chapo,' have suffered fragmentations," Peniche Espejel said.

But a US official said Tuesday that a rival cartel called La Línea is under scrutiny.

CNN's Bethlehem Feleke, Holly Yan, Gary Tuchman, Angela Barajas, Ray Sanchez, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Konstantin Toropin, Tatiana Arias, Sandra Sanchez, Ana Melgar Zuniga, Samantha Beech, Sarah Chiplin contributed to this report.

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2019-11-07 11:01:00Z
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The 'Giuliani factor' that might condemn Trump to impeachment - CNN

Despite being invisible for days after shelving his train wreck TV interviews he is emerging with President Donald Trump as the most dominant and intriguing figure in the impeachment drama.

The man once feted as America's mayor is looming over events on Capitol Hill as details of his expansive role in the scandal fill publicly released witness testimony.

"He was always swirling around somewhere," US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland testified, adding that Giuliani's shadow foreign policy mission in Ukraine got more "insidious" as time went on.

Giuliani role unnerves some congressional Republicans

Giuliani was ubiquitous, on the phone with Ukrainian officials, inserting himself in US diplomatic meetings, sowing confusion and exasperation about what he was up to, witnesses said.

Even Secretary of State Mike Pompeo couldn't rein in the President's man, rolling his eyes when Sondland mentioned him and saying: "Yes, it's something we have to deal with," according to transcripts of Sondland's testimony.

Revelations about Giuliani's mission are piling up as the Democratic impeachment push races ahead. A critical new stage of the inquiry opens next week with public hearings where the absent Giuliani's name is sure to be on everyone's lips.

Pages of newly released witness testimony appear to be cementing the Democratic case that Trump abused his power by seeking political favors from Ukraine. The President, however insists he did nothing wrong and is dismissing latest revelations.

The Giuliani channel

Prosecutors wary of Giuliani probe colliding with 2020 election, sources say

Evidence of Giuliani's intimate involvement in the Ukraine scheme turns the focus on why the President was apparently so keen to bypass accredited US diplomats and senior officials.

And on a day when Giuliani announced his own high powered legal defense team, speculation is growing about his own legal exposure and how the scandal will stain his own legacy.

"Even someone like Rudy Giuliani who at one point was a pretty significantly good lawyer realizes you need outside counsel," said CNN legal analyst Preet Bharara, who like Giuliani is a former US attorney for the Southern District of New York, on CNN's "Situation Room."

"I don't know that he is in true criminal jeopardy, but at a minimum when people are beginning to investigate you ... you want to have able counsel at your side," he said.

The torrent of revelations about Giuliani will mean that Trump's attitude and mood regarding his lawyer and most vociferous cable television defender needs to be closely watched.

If the President begins to create some distance between them, Giuliani wouldn't be the first Trump lawyer to face carrying the can for his client's alleged wrongdoing -- as former Trump attorney Michael Cohen well knows.

Most fundamentally, the flurry of disclosures about Giuliani poses the question of whether Congress will ever get to the bottom of what happening in Ukraine without his testimony.

Giuliani has said in the past that he would like to testify. But it seems unlikely he has much to gain by doing so. But any attempt to avoid an appearance based on attorney-client privilege or executive privilege would be a tough legal sell given his non-official role and ramblings into Europe -- well beyond the confines of a relationship with Trump.

He might also exercise his right to avoid self-incrimination given the current criminal and counter-intelligence investigation into his business dealings in Ukraine.

Giuliani rejected the idea that he was enriching himself abroad through his associations with the President in a conversation with CNN Investigative Reporter Drew Griffin.

"I am in private law practice. I practice law honorably and well. Never had a complaint. Never had an issue ever in 50 years of private law practice," he said.

Trump has defended Giuliani in recent weeks, but the President does have a history of minimizing his relationship with former associates when they get into trouble. There's also a possibility that his lawyer could become a useful scapegoat.

As recently as last month however, Trump was standing by his fellow New Yorker.

"He's a great gentleman. He was a great mayor, one of the greatest, maybe the greatest mayor in the history of New York," Trump said. "He's a man that looks for corruption ... I know he's an honorable man."

'Talk to Rudy'

State Department official to testify that John Bolton warned about influence of Rudy Giuliani on Ukraine

Once, the former New York mayor was seen as a rogue freelancer, trampling around in Kiev in a bid to suck up dollars for his private business and while peddling conspiracy theories about the 2016 US election.

But it's becoming clear that his role was far more influential than that and he was imbued with presidential authority.

Testimony shows Giuliani set up a powerful alternative diplomatic track that not only bypassed official US channels, it also actively inhibited work to better US-Ukraine ties.

White House officials argue there's been no clear proof that Trump directly demanded a quid pro quo with Ukraine, by making military aid and presidential visits conditional on its agreement to investigate 2020 Democratic candidate Joe Biden.

But the evidence suggests that the President directly tasked Giuliani with running an off-the-books operation -- that his personal attorney used to seek political favors from Kiev.

"He just kept saying: Talk to Rudy, talk to Rudy," Sondland testifed.

Over the course of this year, US diplomats gradually became aware that Giuliani was now the fulcrum of the action in US-Ukraine relations.

James Baker, the former FBI general counsel, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that any argument that Giuliani was not acting at the behest of the President would not be credible.

"Applying your common sense to that this situation, you would think that of course the President was acting through Giuliani," Baker said.

"If the use of Giuliani was to create some sort of plausible deniability like in Iran-Contra, I don't think it works, because it just doesn't make sense."

Biden claims 'not credible'

Justice Department distances itself from Giuliani

The former US envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, said that he told Giuliani his claims that Biden was acting corruptly in Kiev on behalf of his son Hunter were "simply not credible." There is no evidence to support Trump's claims that the former vice president or his so did anything wrong in Ukraine.

"I've known him a long time, he's a person of integrity," Volker said he told Giuliani and his now indicted associate Lev Parnas at breakfast on July 19 at the Trump hotel in Washington.

Volker's testimony also establishes that Giuliani had a pipeline to Trump in Ukraine matters and was painting a dark picture of new President Vlodymyr Zelensky to the US leader.

"He knows all of these things and they have got some bad people around him," Volker paraphrased the President as saying, when testifying about what he called the "Giuliani factor."

Volker also revealed that the Ukrainians knew how to open a direct channel to Trump -- through Giuliani.

Eventually, the President's fixer became a "problem" the special envoy said.

"The negative narrative which Mr Giuliani was furthering was the problem ... it was impeding our ability to build the relationship the way we should be doing," he said.

Volker was not the only one frustrated.

Then-national security adviser John Bolton saw Giuliani as a "hand grenade" who was "going to blow everybody up," according to a yet-to-be-released deposition by former top White House Russia expert Fiona Hill, sources told CNN last month.

Giuliani appears to have been orchestrating the potential quid pro quo that could get Trump impeached.

He insisted that a draft statement that the Ukrainians were preparing to issue at one point about corruption include references to Burisma, the energy giant that employed Hunter Biden, and a 2016 conspiracy theory that Ukrainians and not the Russians interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

"Rudy says: 'Well, if it doesn't say Burisma and if it doesn't say 2016, what does it mean?' Giuliani said, 'You know it's not credible," according to Volker's testimony.

CNN's Drew Griffin and Patricia DiCarlo contributed to this story

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2019-11-07 09:36:00Z
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Taiwan warns of possible attack if China's economy slows down - Al Jazeera English

Beijing could resort to military conflict with self-ruled Taiwan to divert domestic pressure if a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy that is suffering from a trade war threatens the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party, the island's foreign minister has said.

As Taiwan's presidential elections approach in January, China has stepped up a campaign to "reunify" with what it considers a wayward province, wooing away the island's few diplomatic allies and flying regular bomber patrols around it.

More:

In an interview with Reuters, Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu drew attention to China's slowing economy amid its bitter trade war with the United States.

"If the internal stability is a very serious issue, or economic slowdown has become a very serious issue for the top leaders to deal with, that is the occasion that we need to be very careful," Wu said on Wednesday.

"We need to prepare ourselves for the worst situation to come ... military conflict."

China's economy, though still growing, is expected to slow to a near 30-year low this year, underscoring a stiff challenge for Beijing in stepping up stimulus to keep up growth that has been fundamental to the Communist Party's political legitimacy.

Wu said the economic situation in China was "OK" at the moment, but urged other countries to watch for what he saw as problems there, such as unemployment and popular discontent.

"Perhaps Xi Jinping himself is called into question of his legitimacy, by not being able to keep the Chinese economy growing," Wu said, referring to China's president.

"This is a factor that might cause the Chinese leaders to decide to take an external action to divert domestic attention."

China's growing military aggression in the region has become a "very serious" source of tension, Wu said, affecting many countries, but added that Taiwan was trying whatever it could to ensure peace across the Strait.

Foreign Affairs Minister Joseph Wu said that people in Taiwan do not want the same situation that is happening in Hong Kong under the so-called 'one country, two systems' model [Fabian Hamacher/Reuters]

"We certainly hope that Taiwan and China could live peacefully together, but we also see there are problems caused by China, and we will try to deal with it."

Taiwan has lost seven diplomatic allies to China since President Tsai Ing-wen took office in 2016. Beijing suspects Tsai of pushing for the island's formal independence, which Xi has warned would lead to a "grave disaster".

Tsai has repeatedly said she will not change the status quo.

'Trouble in Hong Kong'

Months-long anti-government protests in Hong Kong have provided a lesson for Taiwan, said Wu, who has been a vocal supporter of democracy in the Asian financial hub.

The protests in the former British colony have posed the biggest populist challenge to Xi since he came to power in 2012.

"People here understand that there's something wrong (with) the way the 'one country, two systems' model is run in Hong Kong...Taiwan people don't like to be in the same situation," Wu said.

Beijing has repeatedly proposed to rule Taiwan under a "one country, two systems" formula similar to that prevailing in Hong Kong, guaranteeing certain freedoms, but the island has shown no interest in being run by China.

Wu vowed to help Hong Kong people "striving for freedom and democracy", promising that, if needed, Taiwan would "provide some assistance to them on an individual basis".

He did not elaborate, except for saying Taiwan would not intervene in the protests.

Wu, who described his post as "the most difficult ministerial job in the world," has seen five countries switch diplomatic ties to China, whose complaints also drove many global firms to alter their descriptions of Taiwan.

"Acknowledging that Taiwan is part of China in exchange for some diplomatic space - I believe such a condition is unacceptable," Wu said.

"Taiwan's diplomacy shouldn't be outsourced to China."

China could snatch more of Taiwan's remaining 15 diplomatic allies, Wu added, in a bid to influence the elections, at which Tsai is seeking re-election.

"We are working closely with the United States and other like-minded countries to make sure the switch of diplomatic relations doesn't happen again."

Washington has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to help defend it.

SOURCE: Reuters news agency

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2019-11-07 07:29:00Z
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