The White House violated federal law in withholding security assistance to Ukraine, an action at the center of President Donald Trump’s impeachment, a federal watchdog agency said Thursday.
Meanwhile, a close associate of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani is claiming Trump was directly involved in the effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden.
Lev Parnas says he delivered an ultimatum in May, at Giuliani’s behest, to the incoming president of Ukraine that no senior U.S. officials would attend his inauguration and vital American security aid would be withheld if an investigation into Biden wasn’t announced.
As for today’s procession, Chief Justice John Roberts will be sworn in at the Senate to preside over next week’s trial.
We get the latest updates and we dive into the historical and legal dimensions of the upcoming Senate trial.
With files from the Associated Press.
Guests:
Anna Edgerton, politics editor for Bloomberg; she tweets
Barbara Perry, professor, co-chair of the presidential oral history program and director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center; she tweets
David Rivkin, partner at the law firm BakerHostetler; he has previously held positions at the Department of Justice, in the Office of White House Counsel and elsewhere in the federal government; he tweets