House Wants Files on Pence's Ukraine Meeting

Panels cite reports an aide listened to Trump call
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 4, 2019 4:10 PM CDT
House Wants Files on Pence's Ukraine Meeting
Vice President Mike Pence addresses employees of Caterpillar in Green Valley, Arizona, on Thursday.   (Kelly Presnell/Arizona Daily Star via AP)

House investigators want Vice President Mike Pence to give them documents that could shed light on whether he helped President Trump pressure Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden. In a letter to Pence on Friday, the Democratic chairmen of three House committees cite reports that a Pence aide may have listened to the July phone call in which Trump pushed Ukraine's president to investigate unfounded charges that Biden was involved in corrupt activities there. They say they also want to learn more about Pence's Sept. 1 meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the AP reports. The letter says there are "questions about any role you may have played in conveying or reinforcing the President's stark message to the Ukrainian President."

Trump insisted Friday that his call for China to investigate former Biden will have no bearing on upcoming high-stakes trade talks with the nation. The president told reporters at the White House, "One thing has absolutely nothing to do with the other." Negotiations between the US and China are scheduled to resume next week as a protracted trade war continues. On Thursday, Trump had publicly encouraged China to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter, snubbing his nose at an impeachment inquiry into whether a similar, private appeal to Ukraine violated his oath of office. The president repeated Friday that he wants China to investigate the Bidens, per Politico. (Calls to Ukraine and China were all "about corruption," Trump says.)

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