Impeachment: New revelations shed light on Trump-Ukraine call — live updates – CBS News

Just before 4 p.m., three House committees announced they had subpoenaed Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, for documents related to his work on behalf of President Trump to persuade Ukraine to open an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden. The committees also requested material about Giuliani’s work to secure Ukraine’s cooperation into a Justice Department review of the origins of Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.

Shortly after the subpoena was announced, The Wall Street Journal reported Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on the July 25 call between the president and the Ukrainian leader. CBS News has confirmed Pompeo was on the call.

The New York Times reported Mr. Trump had called the prime minister of Australia to request assistance in the Justice Department review. The call came at the behest of Attorney General William Barr.

A Justice Department official then told CBS News that Barr had asked Mr. Trump to reach out to a number of foreign officials to request their assistance in his review, which is being led by the U.S. attorney in Connecticut. A source familiar with the matter said Barr traveled to Italy as part of his effort, and The Washington Post reported he has also reached out to intelligence officials in the United Kingdom.

In the call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25, Mr. Trump repeatedly asked him to work with Barr to pursue a fringe conspiracy theory about the origins of the 2016 U.S. counterintelligence investigation that would became the Mueller probe.

“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,” Mr. Trump told Zelensky, according to the summary released by the White House.

It was in that conversation that Mr. Trump also urged Zelensky to open an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, and said he would put him in touch with both Giuliani and Barr.

“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,” the president said.

A Justice Department spokeswoman said last week that Barr was not aware of the call until several weeks after it took place, and had not discussed “anything relating to Ukraine with Rudy Giuliani.” The spokeswoman said the U.S. attorney conducting the 2016 review had received information from Ukrainian citizens, and that Barr “has yet to contact Ukraine in connection with this investigation.”

Later Monday night, the inspector general for the intelligence community issued a statement defending the whistleblower from critics, saying the individual acted appropriately and had first-hand knowledge of the events in question. — Stefan Becket