Trump hints at death penalty for 'treason' of whistleblower who is now threatening his presidency
DONALD Trump hinted he wants the death penalty for the Ukraine whistleblower whose complaint jump-started the bid to impeach him. The informant, who shed light on Trump's attempt to press Ukraine into investigating his 2020 rival Joe Biden, has been revealed as a CIA agent.
Credit: AFP or licensors Speaking at a private event with US diplomatic officials in New York on Thursday, President Trump said the whistleblower is “almost a spy”. “Basically, that person never saw the report, never saw the call, he never saw the call…” Trump said. “They heard something and decided that he or she, or whoever the hell they saw — they’re almost a spy.”“Because that’s close to a spy,” he continued.'WE USED TO HANDLE THINGS DIFFERENTLY'Democrats have condemned Trump's attack on the intelligence community whistleblower, calling it "witness intimidation" in their ongoing impeachment probe.claimed Trump tried to solicit foreign interferenceThe complaint claimed President Trump used the "power of his office to solicit interference" from a foreign country. It was further alleged that White House officials subsequently tried to "lock down" records of that phone call. The rough transcript of the July call, between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, was already released by the White House. It confirmed that Trump sought an investigation from Ukraine into the Biden family, though did not show the president explicitly leveraging U.S. aid as had initially been suggested in some media reports.The President: I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike... I guess you have one of your wealthy people... The server, they say Ukraine has it. There- are a lot. of things that went on, the whole situation. I think you are surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it's very important that you do it if that's possible. President Zelenskyy: Yes it is very important for me and everything that you just mentioned earlier. For me as a President, it is very important and we are open for any future cooperation. We are ready to open a new page on cooperation in relations between the United States and Ukraine. For that purpose, I just recalled our ambassador from United States and he will be replaced by a very competent and very experienced ambassador who will work hard on making sure that our two nations are getting closer. I would also like and hope to see him having your trust and your confidence and have personal relations with you so we can cooperate even more so. I will personally tell you that one of my assistants spoke with Mr Giuliani just recently and we are hoping very much that Mr. Giuliani will be able to travel to Ukraine and we will meet once he comes to Ukraine. I just wanted to assure you once again that you have nobody but friends around us. I will make sure that I surround myself with the best and most experienced people. I also wanted to tell you that we are friends. We are great friends and you Mr. President have friends in our country so we can continue our strategic partnership. I also plan to surround myself with great people and in addition to that investigation, I guarantee as the President of Ukraine that all the investigations will be done openly and candidly. That I can assure you. The President: Good because I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that's really unfair. A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved. Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of New York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General.The transcript has revealed that Trump pressed Ukraine's leader to "look into" Democratic rival Joe BidenBut the whistleblower complaint, released by the Democrat-led House Intelligence Committee ahead of testimony from Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, goes further, though it is not a first-hand account of the call.It cited “multiple White House officials with direct knowledge of the call" and accuses Trump of attempting “to pressure the Ukranian leader to take actions to help the President’s 2020 reelection bid.”"In the days following the phone call, I learned from multiple U.S. officials that senior White House officials had intervened to 'lock down' all records of the phone call, especially the official word-for-word transcript of the call that was produced--as is customary--by the White House Situation Room," the complaint says.The document is sure to fuel the impeachment inquiry formally launched by House Democrats earlier this week.But Trump dismissed the probe, which threatens to oust him, as a “joke” in a press conference at a UN General Assembly meeting on Wednesday.Reports previously claimed Biden, while vice president, threatened to withhold $1billion in American loan guarantees in 2016 if the nation’s leaders did not fire Ukraine’s top prosecutor.IMPEACHMENT is a formal charge of serious wrongdoing against a holder of public office in the United States. It is one of the few ways a sitting president can be kicked out of the White House before an election. The US Constitution states a president "shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanours". The "sole power of impeachment" is held by the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Congress. A simple majority is required - i.e. more than half of Representatives must vote to impeach the president. Then the case would be tried by the Senate, the upper chamber of Congress, where a two-thirds majority is needed. While the Senate is still controlled by the Republicans, with 53 of the 100 seats, the Democrats have control of the House of Representatives, with 235 of the 435 seats. This means that it's possible for the House of Representatives to pass a vote to impeach the president. However, a two-thirds majority of 67 Senators voting to impeach Trump would still be needed in the Senate when it is tried.ExclusiveHUMAN FIREBALLMan accused of shoplifting but bulge in his jeans was just 10in penisROASTED TO DEATHAt the time the prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, was probing the company where Hunter was a board member. However, Ukraine’s current prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko, said in May he had no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden or his son.Donald Trump has faced allegations he tried to solicit interference from another country to win the 2020 electionUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addressing the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly, has so far not commented about the callBiden had earlier been accused of threatening to withhold aid funding to Ukraine over a probe into a gas company that his son worked forDonald Trump says he has informed the House members that he 'fully supports transparency' on the whistle-blower informationor call 0207 782 4368. 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