10/25/2019

CONGRESS/IMPEACHMENT/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “At the time, the disclosure was offered almost as a footnote to the explosive contents of a phone call in which President Donald Trump pressed his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate political rival Joe Biden. As a summary of the call was released by the White House last month, senior Justice Department officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be identified, said prosecutors had reviewed whether the president’s solicitation of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky was a potential crime. The review, done at the request of the inspector general of the intelligence community, was narrow. It was based entirely on the written summary of the call, which even the White House indicated was imperfect. Authorities conducted no interviews to learn why a whistleblower took the extraordinary step of taking his concern to the inspector general for the nation’s intelligence agencies.”

Kevin Johnson, “As Trump impeachment probe heats up, some say Congress is doing inquiry the Justice Department should’ve done,” USA Today, October 25, 2019 12:45 pm