White House personnel on Oct. 2 were told by the U.S. Department of Justice that they must preserve notes regarding President Donald Trump’s meetings and calls with foreign leaders.
“This preservation instruction is consistent with and supplements the litigation hold already in effect in this action, which instructed relevant personnel to preserve all evidence relevant to the claims and defenses in this case,” the DOJ court documents also stated. “It further supplements pre-existing instructions to all White House personnel to preserve all presidential records, whether in hard-copy or electronic form.”
The lawsuit comes after House Democrats last week moved on an impeachment inquiry against Trump, accusing him of pressuring his Ukranian counterpart in a July phone call on investigating former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential 2020 opponent, and his son, Hunter.
Trump, however, dismissed the inquiry and said the Democrats have accomplished nothing, leading them to distract the American public with the impeachment proceedings.
“The Do-Nothing Democrats should be focused on building up our Country, not wasting everyone’s time and energy,” he said, adding that it’s “what they have been doing ever since I got overwhelmingly elected in 2016, 223-306.” He was referring to the electoral vote.
Pelosi added that she believes Trump “didn’t understand that I thought what he did was wrong” on the call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The report seemed to be confirmed by a Schiff spokesman, who said: “Like other whistle-blowers have done before and since under Republican and Democratic-controlled committees, the whistle-blower contacted the committee for guidance on how to report possible wrongdoing within the jurisdiction of the intelligence community.”
