Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has dropped out of former White House aide Charles Kupperman's lawsuit against congressional Democrats, who have subpoenaed him to appear on the Hill and answer questions in their impeachment inquiry against President Trump. After it appeared a federal judge would decline Mulvaney's effort, he's filing one of his own, according to reports.
The White House told Mulvaney he doesn't have to appear before Congress, raising the question of immunity. Do Trump's advisers have the right to reject Democrats' demands to testify?
It's a huge week for Democrats who are trying to prove the president deserves impeachment, with public hearings beginning on Wednesday and Friday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi launched the inquiry after the reveal of a whistleblower complaint that alleged Trump threatened to withhold military aid from Ukraine after asking Ukrainian President Zelensky to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden's ties to a corrupt Ukrainian gas company in July. On the surface his ask seemed politically motivated, but Trump maintains he was trying to weed out corruption. Democrats pounced on the quid pro quo narrative even before the transcript came out. And here we are.
Trump indicated that he had another phone call with Zelensky in April that he thinks is "very important." He's just tweeted that he plans to publish that transcript by the end of the week.
I will be releasing the transcript of the first, and therefore more important, phone call with the Ukrainian President before week’s end!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2019
According to some Democrats, they must get the public support they need to impeach Trump. Of course, as recent polling would have it, most Americans have already made up their mind on the matter - hearings or no hearings.
Most Americans say they've made up their mind on impeachment before we've had a single day of public testimony, per a new @CBSNews poll: https://t.co/MNVZVHLr9Y pic.twitter.com/5dAy92PPoT
— Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5) November 12, 2019