Trump slams impeachment probe as hoax as Democrats seek White House documents

U.S. President Donald Trump addresses a joint news conference with Finland's President Sauli Niinisto in the East Room of the White House in Washington, US - Reuters 

WASHINGTON (Reuters): President Donald Trump on Wednesday angrily denounced an impeachment inquiry into his July telephone call with Ukraine’s leader as Democratic lawmakers said they would subpoena White House records about the call.

At a joint news conference with Finland’s president, a frustrated Trump blasted reporters who asked about the probe, which he called a hoax and a fraud, but said he would cooperate with the inquiry. “I always cooperate,” he said.

His voice rising with anger, Trump lashed out at Reuters reporter Jeff Mason, who asked what he had wanted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to do when Trump brought up the business ties to Ukraine of Hunter Biden, son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

“It’s a whole hoax, and you know who’s playing into the hoax? People like you and the fake news media that we have in this country,” he retorted. He told the reporter not to be “rude” and repeatedly evaded the question.

Trump suggested, however, that his objective was corruption in Ukraine, saying the United States gives the country a lot of money, and “I don’t like giving money to a country that’s that corrupt. ... I don’t like being the sucker country.”

The Democrats’ subpoena request has the potential to become a flashpoint in the showdown between the Republican president and the Democratic-led House of Representatives.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a close ally of Trump, acknowledged earlier in the day during a trip to Italy that he had listened in on the call in which Trump asked Zelenskiy to investigate Biden, a former US vice president and a leading contender for the Democratic nomination to face Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

The call prompted the House to launch its impeachment inquiry last week. Pompeo’s admission came a day after he objected to Democratic efforts as part of the impeachment inquiry to obtain depositions from five current and former State Department officials.

“We’re not fooling around here, though. We don’t want this to drag on months and months and months, which appears to be the administration’s strategy,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, whose panel leads the inquiry, told a news conference alongside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings said he intended to subpoena the White House for the Ukraine-related records on Friday, the latest demand for evidence from an administration that has repeatedly resisted such efforts by Democrats.

The House launched its impeachment inquiry, which threatens Trump’s presidency, following a complaint brought by a whistleblower within the US intelligence community over Trump’s request to Zelenskiy.