Senate Minority Leader Chuck is pressuring Senate Republicans to take action on a whistleblower complaint concerning Donald Trump that the Trump administration is withholding from Congress. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, POLITICO reports that Schumer demanded the Senate initiate hearings into why the administration delayed about $350 million in military aid to Ukraine. He also requested that the Senate subpoena the complaint, which was required by law to be delivered to both the Senate Intelligence Committee as well as its House counterpart.
"The Republican-led Senate has remained silent and submissive, shying away from this institution’s constitutional obligation to conduct oversight," Schumer wrote. “The Republican Senate's ‘see no evil, hear no evil' attitude toward such a serious national security concern is unacceptable and must change.”
Trump is alleged to have encouraged the Ukrainian president to launch an anti-corruption investigation in an effort to politically damage Democratic front-runner Joe Biden. The misconduct allegation regarding a Ukrainian gas company on which Biden's son Hunter held a board seat has been shown to lack any merit whatsoever. But Trump inexplicably withheld military aid to Ukraine allegedly in an effort to leverage it for the initiation of an investigation.
Most Senate Republicans have remained unusually silent regarding the latest allegation against Trump. Utah Sen. Mitt Romney has said the allegation must be investigated while Texas Sen. John Cornyn has defended Trump, saying the allegation is based on “hearsay.” Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham has both suggested Trump should release the transcript of his call with the Ukrainian president and said the Justice Department should investigate Trump's allegations against the Bidens.
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