LAST UPDATE | 30 Sep 2019

HOUSE DEMOCRATS HAVE subpoenaed US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani for documents related to his interactions with Ukrainian officials.

The House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Reform panels announced the subpoena this evening as they examine Trump’s efforts to have Ukraine investigate political rival Joe Biden and his family. Giuliani assisted in that effort.

The committees are investigating the matter, which was a subject of a whistleblower’s complaint, as part of an impeachment inquiry against Trump.

The whistleblower, reportedly a CIA officer, raised concerns in a report to his or her superiors about the 25 July phone call during which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.

Giuliani was at the centre of the effort to get Ukraine to conduct an investigation of the Bidens, who have not been officially accused of any wrongdoing.

The Democrats have also requested information from three of Giuliani’s associates.

“Pursuant to the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry, we are hereby transmitting a subpoena that compels you to produce the documents set forth in the accompanying schedule by October 15, 2019,” wrote House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff and the chairs of two other panels conducting investigations.

“The Committees are investigating the extent to which President Trump jeopardized national security by pressing Ukraine to interfere with our 2020 election,” the chairmen said in a letter to Giuliani.

Our inquiry includes an investigation of credible allegations that you acted as an agent of the President in a scheme to advance his personal political interests by abusing the power of the Office of the President.

Trump insisted to reporters today that the phone call with Zelensky was “perfect” and claimed that the “whistleblower reported a totally different statement.”

“When the whistleblower reported this, he made it sound terrible,” he said.

Includes reporting by AFP and Associated Press