New York Times: Trump asked for Australia's help to challenge Mueller's investigation

President Donald Trump has pressed Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to help US Attorney General William Barr collect information to question the credibility of Robert Mueller's investigation into possible Russian interference in the presidential election, while House committees summoned a Trump lawyer, The New York Times reported, citing US officials. To testify about the latter's telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart in which he asked to open a corruption investigation with former US Vice President Joe Biden.

One US official told the newspaper that the White House had allowed a limited number of Trump aides to view the recent call record with the Australian prime minister.

Barr has asked Trump to call Morrison to ask for his help in reviewing Muller's probe, which discussed whether the Trump campaign could be complicit with the Russian government to intervene in the 2016 US election, the source said.

Western intelligence
Justice Minister Barr held private meetings abroad with British, Italian and Australian intelligence officials and personally asked them to investigate the activities of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), according to informed sources. ).

At the request of Trump, the US Department of Justice is investigating the sources of the investigation by private investigator Mueller, which Trump has repeatedly called a "campaign of political persecution."

The FBI's first investigation into Russia's interference in the US presidential election opened after the FBI received news from Australian officials, The New York Times reported.

Later, Mueller took up an investigation into a US Justice Department assignment after President Trump sacked FBI director James Comey.

Trial investigations
These developments come at a time when three committees in the US House of Representatives issued a subpoena for Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani to testify about the president's telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump asked to open a corruption case against Joe Biden, Trump's likely presidential contender. Next.

A US intelligence agent filed a complaint about a July 25 telephone conversation between the US president and his Ukrainian counterpart, which led to the House of Representatives opening an investigation to isolate the president.

According to a joint statement by the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, Oversight and Reform Committees, Giuliani was summoned as part of a preliminary investigation into Trump's parliamentary trial that began Tuesday, which is considering the possibility of endangering US national security by pressuring Ukraine to intervene in the next presidential election.

Trump said his administration was seeking to identify the informant who disclosed his telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart, adding that the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, a Democrat, claimed what the president did not say in the phone call.

"We are trying to find out the identity of the informant," Trump said. "We have an informant who makes false statements. As you may know now, what you said to the Ukrainian president was excellent, but the informant made a completely different statement and made what you said look bad."

Senate
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would have no choice but to proceed with Trump's parliamentary trial if the House of Representatives votes to condemn the president.

If an absolute majority (50% +1) in the 435-member House of Representatives controls the removal of the US president, Trump will face a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate, where his conviction requires - and thus removed - a two-thirds majority vote. .

According to one of McConnell's aides, any senator could seek to reverse charges in the early stages of the accountability process, but that would require a vote by the Senate.