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The House is now conducting a formal impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump's actions as president, spurred by a still-classified whistleblower complaint and by Trump's own admission that he asked the Ukrainian president to investigate supposed "corruption" by one of his potential 2020 rivals.
A roundup of today's events:
• This morning saw the (somewhat inexplicable) White House release of the so-called "transcript" of a conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The document was allegedly cobbled together from voice recognition software and notes from participants, and it is far from clear that it represents the full contents of the call.
• But the White House's pre-vetted version was nonetheless shocking. Trump repeatedly pressured Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter, instructing him to work with Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr.
• In a key phrase immediately after Zelensky and Trump discussed U.S. military aid to the nation currently at war with Russia, Trump told Zelensky "I would like you to do us a favor, though," after which he asked the Ukrainian president to investigate "Crowdstrike" and "the server, they say Ukraine has it." He appears to have been referring to a far-far-far-right conspiracy theory claiming a "missing" Democratic National Committee server is actually somewhere in ... Ukraine?
• After leading a Department of Justice effort to block Congress from receiving a whistleblower report alleged to detail Trump's actions, Barr is now himself directly implicated in the scandal he attempted to hide. In testimony to the Senate last May, Attorney General Bill Barr evaded a direct question as to whether Trump ever "asked or suggested" he open an investigation. From the White House call readout, however, we know that Trump personally considered Barr to be a top contact for the "corruption" probe into the Bidens.
• Democratic House committee chairs issued a joint statement after reviewing the White House document. "The record of the call released by the White House confirms our worst fears: that the President abused his office by directly and repeatedly asking a foreign country to investigate his political rival and open investigations meant to help the President politically."
• This afternoon, the administration finally transmitted the previously withheld whistleblower report to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. After their reviews of the still-classified document, Democrats were grim. They described the whistleblower complaint as "extraordinarily detailed," "deeply disturbing" and "urgent." "The idea that the Department of Justice would have intervened to prevent it from getting to Congress throws the leadership of that department into further ill repute," said committee chair Rep. Adam Schiff.
• We learned today that Barr's Department of Justice reviewed, then quashed, an investigation into whether Trump's conversation with Zelensky represented a violation of U.S. campaign laws.
• In a spectacular blunder, the Trump White House sent the talking points to be used by Republicans in defending Trump to Democratic lawmakers as well. Top among the chosen talking points: an assertion that there was no "quid pro quo" contained in the call, which was indeed heavily relied upon in Republican statements today. It is also false.
• Republicans made seeming heavy use of those talking points in their own defenses of Trump today. Despite the seriousness of the charges against Trump, zero Republican lawmakers expressed support for the now-launched impeachment inquiry against him. The Trump campaign, for its part, sought to fundraise using news of the inquiry.
• Republican Sen. Susan Collins, for her part, continues to remain concerned. And Sen. Lindsey Graham retains his ability to believe whatever deep-seated conviction best fits the needs of the moment.
• Trump "personal" attorney Rudy Giuliani continues to look like the preferred fall guy, despite his insistence that he was acting on behalf of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's State Department. Giuliani told Fox & Friends this morning that while he didn't read the call "transcript" before its release, "Let's say it was read to me."
• At the United Nations, Trump delivered a long, rambling, and pointedly sulky speech complaining about his enemies and denying wrongdoing. The speech also repeated numerous lies, which media anchors felt obliged to clarify to their viewers.
• Trump's almost-asleep demeanor might have been caused by a late and restless night: Trump spent last night furiously tweeting a series of Fox News clips and grievances.
• House Democrats should resist the urge to conduct a "quick and dirty" impeachment inquiry. The nation deserves answers on each of Trump's many alleged illegal acts.