U.S. President Donald Trump has denounced the impeachment inquiry threatening his presidency as a “coup,” as his administration pushed back against the investigation.
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Mr. Trump’s comments came after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed to prevent or delay five State Department officials from testifying in the investigation probing accusations that Mr. Trump abused his office by seeking dirt from Ukraine on a 2020 election rival.
“As I learn more and more each day, I am coming to the conclusion that what is taking place is not an impeachment, it is a COUP,” Mr. Trump tweeted.
It is “intended to take away the Power of the People, their VOTE, their Freedoms, their Second Amendment, Religion, Military, Border Wall, and their God-given rights.”
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Mr. Pompeo, meanwhile, accused three Democratic House committee heads conducting the impeachment inquiry of “an attempt to intimidate, bully and treat improperly the distinguished professionals of the Department of State.”
Bid to obstruct probe
But Democrats accused the top U.S. diplomat of “stonewalling” the investigation and, according to media reports, scheduled interviews with at least two of the diplomats who both had direct involvement in the Ukraine matter.
It was the first major clash of the impeachment probe, pointing to a mounting political and legal siege as Mr. Trump battles to save his presidency.
Mr. Trump faces the possibility of becoming only the third President ever impeached by Congress, which could lead to his going on trial in the Senate.
Democrats decided last week to seek impeachment after a whistleblower complaint, supported by a White House call transcript, showed Mr. Trump pressuring Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to supply him with politically useful information on Democratic former Vice-President Joe Biden, who is the most likely Democrat to challenge Mr. Trump’s reelection bid next year.
The first move of the three powerful House Democrats — Adam Schiff of the Intelligence Committee, Eliot Engel of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Elijah Cummings of the Oversight Committee — was to subpoena Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Trump’s private lawyer Rudy Giuliani for documents and to summon the five diplomats to testify.
News reports said the State Department’s former special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, would testify on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump got support from Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who said he saw “nothing compromising” in the conversation.