Donald Trump’s phone call with Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, in which he is accused of pressuring Zelensky to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, was followed by a similar call to China. Trump’s reported continued pressure campaign has shocked Democrats as well as some Republicans, who have expressed concerns about the president’s behavior.
During an interview with CNN, Massachusetts Rep. Stephen Lynch blasted Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine and claims that he won’t be able to cover up the scandal, claiming there are “far too many witnesses,” Newsweek reports.
“There are multiple levels of misconduct here and look, there were 12 people on that call that the president made to the Ukraine president. Now we’re hearing from individuals, this week, who were actually on the call and people who talked directly to people who were on the call.”
He also expressed surprise that there was “only one whistleblower” that “stood up for the Constitution,” although he acknowledged that other people are beginning to come forward.
“But one lone, courageous American decided to come forward and say, this is not right…this violates the Constitution,” he said.
According to Trump, the Ukraine scandal and impeachment probe it sparked are part of another concerted effort to destroy his presidency. He also suggested in a recent Twitter post that Democrats would lose House seats over impeachment before taking aim at House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.
“Schiff fabricated phone call, a crime,” he wrote.
Trump told Pirro on Fox that Zelensky brought up the former US ambassador to Ukraine to him on the call, “out of the blue.”
The call document shows *Trump* brought her up; Zelensky said, “It was great that you were the first one who told me that she was a bad ambassador…” pic.twitter.com/jM6HVXXvIT
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 14, 2019
Schiff’s statements during acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire’s testimony have been the subject of criticism. He reportedly misrepresented Trump’s phone call with Zelensky by misquoting Trump and exaggerating the contents of the transcript of the call. According to fact-checkers, Schiff made numerous false and misleading claims, but Schiff defended himself by suggesting that some of the statements were meant to be a parody. Regardless, they have given Trump ammunition in the midst of the Ukraine scandal.
A recent development in the ongoing scandal is the revelation that former National Security Advisor John Bolton confronted Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the EU, about Rudy Giuliani’s involvement in Ukraine and subsequently asked an aide to warn White House lawyers about Giuliani’s “rogue operation.” The revelation came from the Monday testimony of Fiona Hill, Trump’s former adviser on Russia and Europe, and one of a handful of people who will testify this week as part of the impeachment inquiry into Trump.
