Trump's personal lawyer subpoenaed by House committees

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - Three House committee chairmen subpoenaed U.S. President Donald Trump's personal attorney Monday, demanding documents related to their ongoing impeachment investigation.

"Pursuant to the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry, we are hereby transmitting a subpoena that compels you to produce the documents set forth in the accompanying schedule by October 15, 2019," the chairmen of the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight Committees wrote in a letter to Rudy Giuliani.

The document requests are related, in part, to Giuliani's Sept. 19 comments in which he said he asked Ukrainian authorities to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.

"Of course, I did," he said in response to a CNN anchor's question.

“In addition to this stark admission, you stated more recently that you are in possession of evidence—in the form of text messages, phone records, and other communications—indicating that you were not acting alone and that other Trump Administration officials may have been involved in this scheme,” the chairmen wrote.

"The subpoena requires you to produce all of those communications, and other related documents, to the Committees in order to determine the full extent of this effort by the President and his Administration to press Ukraine to interfere in our 2020 presidential communication," they added.

They further requested documents from three of Giuliani's business associates: Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman and Semyon Kislin. The men have until Oct. 10, Oct. 11 and Oct. 14 respectively to produce the requested documents.

During a July 25 telephone call, Trump repeatedly asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, over unsubstantiated claims of corruption. The elder Biden is the leading Democratic nominee heading into next November's presidential election, making him a clear political rival to the president.

Trump has repeatedly maintained the call was "perfect" and denied any sort of wrongdoing. The president has acknowledged the call and freezing aid to Ukraine just days before, but denied he held up funding to pressure Zelensky, insisting there was no "quid pro quo” -- a favor or advantage granted or expected in return for something.

Trump additionally continued to heap criticism on the whistleblower whose complaint brought the story to light and kickstarted an ongoing congressional impeachment investigation.

"The Whistleblower knew almost nothing, its 2ND HAND description of the call is a fraud!" Trump said.

The individual, whose identity has remained unknown to this point, said in the nine-page complaint he or she received information from "multiple U.S. government officials" alleging Trump was "using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election."

That included requests to have Zelensky investigate the Bidens during the July 25 telephone call.

During the call, Zelensky brings up a potential arms purchase from the U.S., which Trump then responds to by asking for a favor.

"I would like you to do us a favor," Trump said.

"There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution, and a lot of people want to find out about that, so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great," he said. "I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call, and I am also going to have Attorney General Barr call, and we will get to the bottom of it. I'm sure you will figure it out."

The whistleblower said multiple officials informed him Giuliani then traveled to Spain around Aug. 2 to meet Zelensky aide Andriy Yermak as a "direct follow-up" to the July 25 call.