There is no meeting set between Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump during the Chinese president's trip. | Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
By ORANGE WANG | SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, ORANGE WANG | SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, TEDDY NG I SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, TEDDY NG I SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST and TEDDY NG I SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
This report is being published by POLITICO as part of a content partnership with the South China Morning Post. It first appeared on scmp.com on Nov. 7, 2019.
China and the United States have agreed to remove additional tariffs in phases once their leaders sign an interim deal towards ending a costly trade war, with both sides still working to wrap up the agreement, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.
Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said China and the U.S. had extensive and serious discussions over the past two weeks to try to end their trade war, and the agreement would help stabilize the world economy.
“In the past two weeks, top negotiators have had serious and constructive discussions on resolving issues of core concern. Both sides agreed to remove the additional tariffs imposed in phases as progress is made on the agreement,” Gao said.
“If China and the U.S. reach a phase one deal, both sides should roll back existing additional tariffs in the same proportion simultaneously.”
He said that both sides could decide how much would be scrapped in the first phase based on the content of the agreement.
“Economic and trade teams from both sides have been in constant communication. We hope to resolve our issues of core concern in an equal and mutually respectful manner,” he said.
But Gao said he had no information about where or when an agreement would be signed.
Adding momentum for the trade talks, the General Administration of Customs and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said they were considering removing restrictions on imports of U.S. poultry.
Stocks rallied on Thursday, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbing 0.6 percent. European shares and US stock futures also rose and the yuan strengthened to a three-month high.
Although both the US and China have tried to send positive signals, it is unlikely that the world’s two biggest economies will be able to sign the interim deal this month — as some had hoped.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Greece and Brazil November 10 -15, but so far his itinerary does not appear to include a stop in the U.S. There is also no indication of any meeting between Xi and U.S. President Donald Trump during the trip.
Xi will attend an emerging markets summit in Brazil and hold talks in Greece about a “development regarding the [Chinese-owned] Port of Piraeus,” according to vice foreign minister Qin Gang.
“Besides the Port of Piraeus, the two sides will also talk about how to better build the Belt and Road Initiative,” Qin said.
An initial plan for Xi and Trump to meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Chile on November 16 and 17 had to be abandoned when the Chilean government canceled the forum because of social unrest.
Trump and other U.S. officials have since suggested that a meeting could be held in Iowa, Hawaii or Alaska.
At a recent closed-door event in Washington for members of the U.S.-China Business Council — a non-profit organization aimed at promoting trade between the countries — a senior Chinese diplomat said a presidential meeting appeared “extremely important” for Trump but that Beijing did not see it as critical, according to a source who attended the event.
The Chinese diplomat also said Beijing felt that Trump was fixated on a “phase one” deal for domestic political purposes, according to the source.
An interim trade deal is widely expected to include a U.S. pledge to scrap tariffs scheduled for December 15 on about $156 billion worth of Chinese imports, including mobile phones, laptop computers and toys. China is expected to buy more U.S. agricultural products, open up its financial markets and address restrictions on genetically modified American food, but the deal may not include Chinese energy purchases from the U.S.
Rory Green, an economist from TS Lombard, said the Ministry of Commerce’s announcement was a positive signal.
“Improved household sentiment will support retail sales. Greater business confidence will eventually show in investment data, however there will be some lag between signature of the deal and a signs of improvement in monthly data series,” he said.
Green said he did not expect a pickup in Chinese exports this year, but a positive turn would come in the first quarter of 2020, with improvements in U.S. and European demand helping sales.
Ding Shuang, chief economist for Greater China and North Asia at Standard Chartered, said that if both sides confirmed the tariff removal, the decision should be a positive step.
“A phased rollback of extra trade war tariffs indicates that it is a solution acceptable to both countries,” he said.
“It also lays a foundation for future negotiations, which is quite significant.
“There are still some difficulties ... but at least we now know that the final agreement is linked to tariff cuts, which was not clear before. China is willing to make promises in many aspects, but the compromises must lead to tariff cuts.”
But Yu Chunhai, from Renmin University’s school of economics, said the announcement might simply reflect China’s expectations, given that the U.S. had not said it had agreed to it.
“There are still many uncertainties. A partial tariff withdrawal might happen only when the two sides make breakthroughs in terms of an agreement,” he said.
“A phase one deal won’t be affected by the U.S. declining China’s demand for a tariff withdrawal. It’s part of China’s negotiation strategy. More important, it shows China is thinking about the future and preventing the U.S. from asking for big concessions in the more difficult second and third phases.”
Owen Churchill, Jun Mai, Amanda Lee, Cissy Zhou and Frank Tang contributed to this report.
Hundreds of mourners from the U.S. reportedly spent the night in a remote farming community in northern Mexico ahead of Thursday’s scheduled funerals for some of the victims of a horrible massacre of nine American women and children.
Armed Mexican military personnel, traveling in jeeps, escorted caravans of visitors as they arrived in La Mora, Sonora, from Utah and from Tucson, Ariz., where many had gone to visit the surviving children in a hospital, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
“They won’t ever recover from something as traumatizing as this,” Rebecca Langford, a sister-in-law to victim Dawna Langford, told the newspaper. Dawna Langford’s two sons also were slain in the Monday attack.
“They won’t ever recover from something as traumatizing as this.”
— Rebecca Langford, relative of victims and survivors of cartel attack
More funerals were planned for later in the week in the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora, according to the report.
Framed by heavily armed Mexican authorities, relatives of the LeBaron family mourn at the site where nine U.S. citizens, three women and six children related to the extended LeBaron family, were slaughtered when cartel gunmen ambushed three SUVs along a dirt road near Bavispe, at the Sonora-Chihuahua border, Mexico, Wednesday, Nov 6, 2019. (Associated Press)
Much of the route from the Arizona border to the Mexican village was winding dirt roads and the journey took as long as four hours.
Many Americans who moved to the area will likely end up leaving because of the violence, Steven Langford, a former mayor of La Mora, told the Associated Press.
"It was a massacre, 100 percent a massacre," said Langford, whose sister Christina Langford was one of the women killed. “I don't know how it squares with the conscience of someone to do something so horrible.”
“The country is suffering very much from violence,” added William Stubbs, a pecan and alfalfa farmer who serves on a security committee in nearby Colonia LeBaron. “You see it all over. And it ain’t getting better. It’s getting worse.”
“The country is suffering very much from violence. You see it all over. And it ain’t getting better. It’s getting worse.”
— William Stubbs, farmer on regional security committee
Much of the area has been without law enforcement personnel over the years, so residents have taken it upon themselves to provide for their own security, the AP report said. After the 2009 slaying of an anti-crime activist, residents using high-powered binoculars took turns keeping watch during the night.
Heavily armed Mexican authorities guard a caravan of friends and relatives of the LeBaron family as they arrive at the site where nine U.S. citizens, three women and six children related to the extended LeBaron family, were slaughtered at the Sonora-Chihuahua border, Mexico, Wednesday, Nov 6, 2019. (Associated Press)
But the residents know they can't fight the cartels on their own.
“We're not experts in military and war and weapons,” Stubbs said. “We're farmers, and we have great families and big families, and we definitely want our families to be peaceful."
On Wednesday, army chief of staff Gen. Homero Mendoza said the attack against the three mothers and six children started at 9:40 a.m. Monday, with the nearest army units about 100 miles away.
Soldiers didn't start out for the scene until 2:30 p.m. and didn't arrive until 6:15 p.m. — while five surviving children lay hiding in the mountains with bullet wounds.
Bullet-riddled vehicles that members of the extended LeBaron family were traveling in sit parked on a dirt road near Bavispe, at the Sonora-Chihuahua state border, Mexico, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019. (Associated Press)
Alejandro Hope, a Mexican security analyst, told the AP that Sonora and Chihuahua states, with over 160,000 square miles between them, have only about 4,100 National Guard agents stationed there, or about one for every 40 square miles.
According to the AP, most of the victims lived in La Mora, about 70 miles south of Douglas, Ariz., while the killers were believed to be from La Linea.
Langford, the former mayor, said the Americans living in the area have long been aware of the dangers, but love the beauty of the region.
“We’ve seen the people doing their deal,” he told the AP, referring to those connected to the cartels. “We always had the policy, 'We don't bother them.'
“We never dreamed something like this could happen," he added. "Now this place is going to become a ghost town. A lot of people are going to leave."
Iran has cancelled the accreditation of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspector who was prevented from entering a nuclear facility last week.
The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) said an alarm was triggered when the woman went through screening at the Natanz uranium enrichment plant.
Officials feared she was carrying "suspicious material", it added.
There was no comment from the IAEA, which is in charge of monitoring Iranian compliance with a nuclear deal.
The announcement came as Iran rolled back another commitment under the 2015 accord by resuming enriching uranium at its underground Fordo facility. Enriched uranium can be used to make reactor fuel but also nuclear weapons.
It is the fourth such step Iran has taken in response to the sanctions reinstated by US President Donald Trump when he abandoned the nuclear deal last year.
Under the accord, Iran agreed to limit its sensitive nuclear activities and allow in international inspectors in return for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions.
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Mr Trump wants to force Iran to negotiate a new agreement that would place indefinite curbs on its nuclear programme and also halt its development of ballistic missiles. But Iran has so far refused.
The other parties to the deal - the UK, France, Germany, China and Russia - have tried to keep it alive. But the sanctions have caused Iran's oil exports to collapse and the value of its currency to plummet, and sent its inflation rate soaring.
The incident at Natanz seems to be the first of its kind since the nuclear deal was implemented.
In a statement, the AEOI said the inspector had been denied entry to the facility after a routine check suggested the possible presence of "suspicious material".
Iran reported the incident to the IAEA and cancelled the inspector's accreditation, it added. As a result, she left the country for Austria.
Three diplomats familiar with the IAEA's work told Reuters news agency that the inspector had had her travel documents taken, and two said she was briefly held.
The IAEA has not yet commented on the issue, which is expected to be raised at a special meeting of its 35-nation board of governors in Vienna on Thursday.
There are concerns about how the nuclear inspectors will carry out their work in future.
The board of governors meeting will also discuss Iran's reported failure to co-operate with IAEA inspectors investigating how traces of uranium were found at a site in the Turquzabad area of Tehran, where Israel has said a "secret atomic warehouse" was once located.
Under the nuclear deal, Iran is required to permit the IAEA "regular access, including daily access as requested by the IAEA, to relevant buildings at Natanz".
Before 2015, Iran had two enrichment facilities - Natanz and Fordo - where uranium hexafluoride gas was fed into centrifuges to separate out the most fissile isotope, U-235.
The deal saw Iran agree to only produce low-enriched uranium, which has a 3-4% concentration of U-235, and can be used to produce fuel for nuclear power plants. Weapons-grade uranium is 90% enriched or more.
Iran also agreed to install no more than 5,060 of the oldest and least efficient centrifuges at Natanz until 2026, and not to carry out any enrichment at Fordo until 2031. The 1,044 centrifuges at Fordo were supposed to spin without gas being injected.
On Monday, the head of the AEOI said it had doubled the number of advanced centrifuges being operated at Natanz. Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters it now possessed 60 IR-6 centrifuges, and that it could enrich uranium to 20% concentration "within four minutes" of being given an order.
Shortly after midnight on Thursday, Iran began injecting uranium hexafluoride into the centrifuges at Fordo under the supervision of the IAEA and the enrichment process began, state media reported.
President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that Iran was aware of the "sensitivity" of the other parties to the deal regarding enrichment at Fordo, which was built in secret about 90m (300ft) under a mountain to shield it from air strikes.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that the resumption of enrichment at Fordo represented a "profound change" from Iran's previous position.
"I will have discussions in the coming days, including with the Iranians, and we must collectively draw the consequences," he told reporters in Beijing.
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Iran needed to "stand by the commitments it made and urgently return to full compliance".
Trump's former national security adviser is at the center of several key events related to the investigation, including suggestions that he had raised concerns about the President and Ukraine, calling efforts by some top officials to help push for investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and matters related to the 2016 election a "drug deal," according to testimony last month from former top Russia adviser Fiona Hill.
Chances looked slim that Bolton would comply with the Democratic-led investigation's request to appear Thursday morning, as his lawyer has said Bolton will not testify voluntarily, but it remained unclear if he would comply with a subpoena, should one be issued at the last moment.
Several witnesses in the probe have already testified that Bolton had concerns about Trump's dealings with Ukraine and encouraged his staff to sound the alarm about potentially illegal actions by the President's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. But despite those apparent misgivings, it appears Bolton has little interest in playing the role of star witness for House Democrats.
"Bolton still wants to be a player in GOP politics and Trump still has such high approval ratings," a source close to Bolton said.
"So far, he has tried to walk that tightrope. I expect he will continue to do that," the source added, noting that Bolton is unlikely to try to take on Trump directly due to concerns that attacking the President might make it difficult for Boltonto attract wealthy GOP donors to his super PAC.
Bolton has already injected $50,0000 into the campaigns of conservative Republican candidates.
Despite his abrupt and unceremonious departure from the Trump administration, Bolton's willingness to cooperate in the impeachment proceedings remains a mystery.
He has kept a low profile in recent weeks and stayed tight-lipped about his plans regarding a potential deposition -- not even discussing the matter with some of his closest allies. In fact, Bolton has taken multiple trips abroad in recent weeks, including a weeklong stint in Asia, just as the pace of impeachment proceedings began to intensify and several of his former staffers from the National Security Council prepared to testify, according to sources familiar with his trip.
Not a 'Never Trumper'
While Trump has labeled some witnesses in the impeachment inquiry -- including another career official who still serves on the National Security Council -- as "Never Trumpers," the President would have a hard time making the same case about Bolton.
A hawkish neoconservative who served in the Republican administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, Bolton famously promised Trump he "wouldn't start any wars" when he was hired last March.
His reputation followed him to the White House, where he repeatedly clashed with the President over various foreign policy issues, including Iran and North Korea -- a dynamic that ultimately led to his ouster in September.
Bolton was kicked out of the White House just one day before the hold on the US assistance to Ukraine was lifted. He had been gone for about two weeks when the White House released the transcript of the July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Bolton was not on the call itself, but his deputy Tim Morrison was listening in.
It is unclear what kind of readout Morrison provided to Bolton, but Morrison told lawmakers that he had seen nothing illegal about the call but was fearful of it leaking.
Charles Kupperman, Bolton's former deputy at the National Security Council, who shares the same legal team, failed to appear under subpoena last week after filing a lawsuit asking a federal judge to determine if he was obligated to testify. Kupperman's subpoena was withdrawn Wednesday as House Democrats moved to avoid delays caused by court proceedings.
While it remains unclear what, if anything, the withdrawal of Kupperman's subpoena means for his former boss, sources close to Bolton have told CNN that even if he does appear Thursday, they do not expect his testimony to be explosive, despite any lingering feelings of animosity he may have toward the President.
Bolton's balancing act may include laying blame on several individuals who have come under scrutiny in the impeachment proceedings, including Giuliani, US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.
"He will say that Giuliani, Mulvaney and Sondland, to a degree, were being disloyal to the President," a source close to Bolton said. "John will say, 'I was the guardrail while Giuliani and Mulvaney were saying let Trump be Trump.' "
Bolton has a book deal in the works, which may also deter him from attacking the President directly.
Role in the impeachment depositions so far
Bolton has featured heavily in testimony provided by other witnesses, including current and former officialswho have corroborated allegations that Trump attempted to pressure Ukraine to investigate his domestic political rival with the help of Giuliani and others.
Newly released transcripts of House depositions highlighted how several witnesses knew Trump was pushing for political help from Ukraine this summer. They also knew that the US government was holding up aid from Ukraine while seeking a public announcement that Ukraine would launch investigations into Trump's political rivals, including former Vice President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee.
Specifically, Bolton advised members of his National Security Council staff to tip off White House lawyers about potentially illegal activity being carried out by Giuliani, according to sources familiar with last month's testimony by Hill, who is the President's former top Russia adviser.
According to sources familiar with the testimony, Hill quoted Bolton as saying that Trump's lawyer, who was freelancing on Ukraine policy apparently at the President's request, was a "hand grenade" who was "going to blow everybody up."
Hill also said Bolton warned her that he would not get caught up in what he referred to as a "drug deal" being cooked up on Ukraine by Sondland and Mulvaney -- referring to their efforts to secure a commitment from Ukraine to open multiple investigations for domestic political gain.
Bolton's advice to sound the alarm followed a meeting two weeks before the now-notorious July 25 call in which Trump pressed his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
While Bolton appeared to be aware of concerns regarding Giuliani's dealings with Ukraine, it appears he did little to personally stop it.
Former Special Envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker told the investigating House committees that Bolton "did not engage" on his warnings about Giuliani undercutting established foreign-policy efforts in Ukraine.
According to a transcript of his testimony, Volker had a conversation with Bolton about Giuliani "earlier in August," in which theenvoy said, "Basically the same as with Secretary (of State Mike) Pompeo: 'I want you to know Giuliani's out there spinning these narratives. I'm concerned that this is affecting the President's views of Ukraine.' "
It does appear, however, that Bolton was working behind the scenes to help lift the freeze on military aid to Ukraine, according to testimony from the top US diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor.
Taylor testified that he "was told a couple of times by people at State and people at the NSC that the Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, the National Security Adviser, and the head of the CIA all strongly supported the resumption of this assistance," referring to the Ukraine aid.
Taylor also noted that he "had known from earlier conversations with people that Bolton was working with the two secretaries and the Director of the CIA to get this reversed. So he confirmed that and urged me to make my concerns known to the Secretary again."
In his opening statement, Taylor relayed that Bolton had wanted him to send a cable to Pompeo.
"It was he who suggested then at that meeting that I write this note to Secretary Pompeo, which I did the next day," Taylor said in testimony. "He indicated that he was very sympathetic."
CNN has previously reported Bolton was among those administration officials who opposed the aid freeze from the outset, believing the aid was critical to US national interests and that foreign policy should not be conducted outside the interagency process, something that he had been warned by several officials was occurring, according to their testimonies.
Bolton has long emphasized the importance of process, telling those who worked for him that it can serve as their protector in cases when they have to listen to the person elected.
"Always get the process right: That way your opponents engage you on substance," Bolton would tell staffers, according to those who worked for him.
Bolton will almost certainly be forced to reveal whether he's followed his own advice should he testify Thursday or sometime in the future.
Just that morning, they hadseen the three women and their 14 children off to visit family, traveling together for safety. Now, loved ones and investigators are piecing together what happened in the remote mountains where the women and six of their children were killed.
The dual US-Mexican citizens were drivingthrough a remote area in the mountains on the border between the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua. They had left the La Mora community, which appears to be a group of fundamentalist Mormons separate from the mainstream Church of Latter-day Saints. One journeyed to pick up her husband, another to meet her husband and move to North Dakota and the third to visit family in the neighboring state of Chihuahua, relative Kendra Lee Miller said.
The three had returned to the family ranch after one of their cars got a flat tire and set off on their way again, Miller said. Miller's brother was fixing the flat when he saw an explosion and rushed to the scene.
9:40 a.m. local time Monday: The first vehicle carrying Rhonita Miller and her four children, aged 12, 10 and 8-month-old twins, was ambushed, the Investigative Commission said Wednesday. None of the passengers survived. Durazo's account states that the families began their journey around this time.
11 a.m.: The second and third vehicles were attacked, the commission said. One was driven by Dawna Ray Langford. Of the nine children she had with her, two were fatally shot along with her. The third vehicle was driven by Christina Marie Langford Johnson, who had her infant daughter in the car. The baby survived, but Christina did not. Durazo disputes this timing, saying that the families were ambushed at 1:00 p.m. local time.
1:18 p.m.: Durazo said a family member, Julián LeBarón, alerted the National Guard about the attack and requested support.
6 or 7 p.m.: Search efforts begin for the children who survived. Durazo's account sets this an hour earlier than the commission's.
8:30 p.m.: The commission says that five surviving children were given first aid. About 15 minutes later, the commission says they were taken to a hospital in Bavispe, Mexico. The infant was found in her car seat on the floor of her mother's car surrounded by bullets but uninjured, Kendra Lee Miller said. The five children had been hidden in nearby bushes by their 13-year-old brother, who had walked about six hours back to the family ranch, she said. One of their sisters was not with them.
9:45 p.m.: The last surviving child -- a missing girl -- is found, the commission said. Miller said the 9-year-old had left to find help. Another family member said they found her with her feet swollen and covered in blisters from walking.
11:40 p.m.: Air transportation takes five of the children and two family members to a Red Cross ambulance in Agua Prieta, the commission said.
12:05 a.m. Tuesday: The Secretary of National Defenseconfirmed the deaths of three women and six minors, Durazo said.
12:30 a.m.: Those transported arrive in the US for care, the commission said.
Mistaken identity or targeted attack?
Officials and family members have been at odds over whether this was a case of a cartel mistaking them for a rival or if the family was a target.
Kendra Lee Miller, who lost her sister-in-law in the attack, said "cartels have taken too many of our family members."
She said cartels had recently threatened her family over where theycan travel.
"They had stood up to the drug cartels, and they did have certain frictions either with the cartels or with neighboring communities over water rights," Former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda said.
But Lafe Langford disputed Castañeda's description of his family.
"It's so far from the truth. The only thing they were activists for was their children, the education of their children and their homesteads," Langford said.
"(Castañeda) said something about a conflict over water rights. We live on a river. We have all the water we could ever need."
A suspect arrested, but manhunt continues
On Tuesday, Mexican authorities announced the arrest of a suspect in relation to the massacre. But Wednesday, Durazo said investigators have learned the suspect was not involved.
Authorities did not say whether the individual has been released.
While the investigation unfolds, authorities in the US and Mexico have different theories on who might be responsible.
"These very cartels of Sinaloa, after the arrest of Guzman 'El Chapo,' have suffered fragmentations," Peniche Espejel said.
But a US official said Tuesday that a rival cartel called La LÃnea is under scrutiny.
CNN's Bethlehem Feleke, Holly Yan, Gary Tuchman, Angela Barajas, Ray Sanchez, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Konstantin Toropin, Tatiana Arias, Sandra Sanchez, Ana Melgar Zuniga, Samantha Beech, Sarah Chiplin contributed to this report.
The House Intelligence Committee will hold the first open hearings of the impeachment inquiry next week, featuring public testimony from three key witnesses.
Democrats released the transcript of closed-door testimony by one of the witnesses, Bill Taylor, on Wednesday.
Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Treasury Department official Tony Sayegh are expected to join the White House communications team to work on impeachment.
Washington -- The House Intelligence Committee announced the first public hearings in the impeachment inquiry will take place next week, featuring testimony from three witnesses.
The committee will hear from William Taylor, the top diplomat in Ukraine, and Deputy Assistant Secretary George Kent on Wednesday. Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch will testify before the committee on Friday.
"Those open hearings will be an opportunity for the American people to evaluate the witnesses themselves," House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff told reporters at the Capitol.
The committees also released a transcript of closed-door testimony by Taylor, who raised concerns about whether a delay in U.S. military aid was being used as leverage to get Ukraine to investigate the president's rivals.
On Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland revised earlier testimony to the House committees leading the impeachment probe, saying he now recalls telling a top Ukrainian official that the release of military aid "likely" required the country to announce anti-corruption investigations into President Trump's rivals.
Sondland, in an addendum to his October testimony, claimed his memory has been "refreshed" after reviewing others' testimony. Now, in revised testimony dated Monday, November 4, Sondland said he recalls that aid to Ukraine was, according to his understanding, conditioned on Ukraine making a public anti-corruption statement.
Sondland initially told lawmakers he was unaware Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani was targeting former Vice President Joe Biden by urging Ukrainian officials to open an investigation into Ukrainian gas company Burisma, which had put Biden's son on its board of directors.
In the addendum, Sondland said he now remembers a September conversation with Andrey Yermak, an aide to Ukraine's president, in which he "said that the resumption of U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks."
White House coordinating with House GOP
5:49 p.m.: Since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi launched the impeachment inquiry in late September, the communications teams for Republican leaders in the House and the ranking members of the committees involved have held daily meetings to go over new developments and hash out messaging and strategy for handling the inquiry.
Until a week ago, no one from the White House attended these meetings, a senior House Republican aide told CBS News. The aide said the White House eventually reached out and asked to be part of the sessions.
The White House has been represented by either Tori Symonds, the director of government communications, or Alexa Henning, director of broadcast media. But they are essentially in "listen only" mode -- they don't deliver messages on behalf of Mr. Trump or the press shop. Instead, they report back what House Republicans are doing and saying so everyone is on the same page.
Still, their participation is another sign that White House officials are finally recognizing the need to have a stronger game plan.
The White House wants to have a firm impeachment-specific communications team in place before the public hearings start on Wednesday, but it's unclear when or if a formal announcement will be made. -- Weijia Jiang
House withdraws subpoena for official who asked court to intervene
4:08 p.m.: The House of Representatives has formally withdrawn its subpoena of Charles Kupperman, a deputy of former National Security Adviser John Bolton, court records show.
Although he received a subpoena to appear in October, he was told by the White House that he couldn't testify. Torn between the legislative and executive branch directives, Kupperman filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia requesting the court decide whether he should comply with the subpoena or the White House's directive.
"There is no proper basis for a witness to sue the Congress in court to oppose a duly authorized congressional subpoena," a committee official said to explain the move. "Nevertheless, given the schedule of our impeachment hearings, a court process that leads to the dismissal of Dr. Kupperman's flawed lawsuit would only result in delay, so we have withdrawn his subpoena."
Oral arguments in the case weren't scheduled to take place until December 10 - well after the depositions would have wrapped and moved onto public hearings in the impeachment inquiry.
The Intelligence Committee likely expects Kupperman to follow whatever guidance the court gives when it rules on whether former White House Counsel Don McGahn has to testify before the House Judiciary Committee in a separate case. The White House tried to claim that both Kupperman and McGahn had "absolute immunity" from subpoenas to testify.
The McGahn case is much further along and will likely be resolved sooner than the Kupperman case.
It is unclear is what this means for Bolton, who has the same attorney as Kupperman. -- Rebecca Kaplan and Grace Segers
Giuliani hires several attorneys
3:43 p.m.: Rudy Giuliani wrote on Twitter that he is being represented by several attorneys himself. The attorneys all have extensive experience in criminal investigations in the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York, including one who was previously a former deputy chief of criminal investigations.
"I am represented and assisted by Robert Costello and the Pierce Bainbridge firm in particular , Eric Creizman and Melissa Madrigal," Giuliani tweeted. -- Paula Reid
Trump speaks at White House event
3:10 p.m.: The president is speaking at an event at the White House to "celebrate a profoundly and historic milestone: the confirmation of more than 150 Federal judges," according to the White House. Watch live here.
White House brings on Pam Bondi and Tony Sayegh to help with impeachment messaging
2:18 p.m.: Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Treasury Department official Tony Sayegh are expected to join the White House communications team to work on proactive impeachment messaging and other special projects as they arise, according to a senior administration official.
Their roles will be within the White House as temporary special government employees.
Trump allies have long pushed for a more coordinated messaging strategy from the White House. -- Paula Reid
House releases transcript of Taylor testimony
1:54 p.m.: House Democrats released the transcript of Bill Taylor's testimony. Read more here.
Graham says Trump administration "incapable of forming a quid pro quo"
"I'm not going to read these transcripts, the whole process is a joke," @LindseyGrahamSC says on transcripts released by House committees leading the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. He adds: "They seem to be incapable of forming a quid pro quo." pic.twitter.com/YISSkFeomw
11:58 a.m.: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham made the argument to reporters Wednesday that the Trump administration's Ukraine policy was "incoherent," and the administration was "incapable of forming a quid pro quo."
Graham made the comments to reporters on Capitol Hill, reiterating that he won't read the transcripts from the impeachment inquiry. Graham said the entire impeachment process is a sham.
"I heard something yesterday I could not believe," a reporter posed to Graham. "Former impeachment manager Lindsey Graham says he's not going to read the impeachment transcripts? Really?"
"I'm not going to read these transcripts," Graham responded. "The whole process is a joke."
"You just pick things you like," Graham added. "Y'all hate this guy you all want to get him impeached. I'm not buying into Schiff running a legitimate operation."
Graham had told reporters on Capitol Hill the day before he didn't plan on reading transcripts released Tuesday from depositions with U.S. ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland and Kurt Volker, former special representative to Ukraine. -- Alan He and Kathryn Watson
Schiff says committees will release transcript of Taylor's testimony today
Representative Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, walks to a secure area at the Capitol on Wednesday, November 6, 2019.
J. Scott Applewhite / AP
11:42 a.m.: Schiff told reporters the committees will release the transcript of the closed hearing with Ambassador Bill Taylor on Wednesday.
Taylor, the top diplomat in the U.S. embassy in Kiev, testified before the committee last month that U.S. aid to Ukraine was explicitly tied to the country's willingness to investigate Mr. Trump's political rivals.
"What Americans will see from that transcript is what they have seen from the others, that the GOP claims to be locked out, prohibited from participating, unable to ask questions, are simply false," Schiff said. "In Ambassador Taylor's deposition, as indeed in every deposition, the Republican members have had equal opportunity with Democratic members to ask any questions they would like." -- Grace Segers
Intelligence Committee announces first public witnesses
11:32 a.m.: The House Intelligence Committee will hold the first open hearings as part of the impeachment inquiry on Wednesday, November 13, and Friday, November 15, according to a release by the committee.
Yovanovitch testified in a closed hearing before the committee last month that outside forces including Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal attorney, led a smear campaign against her which led to her dismissal.
"I think you will see throughout the course of the testimony, not only their testimony but many others, the most important facts are largely not contested," Schiff told reporters. "We are getting an increasing appreciation for just what took place during the course of the last year and the degree to which the president enlisted whole departments of government in the elicit aim of trying to get Ukraine to dig up dirt on a political opponent." -- Grace Segers
Mulvaney won't testify, Kellyanne Conway says
9:45 a.m.: Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway says she is told acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney won't show up to testify. Conway made the comment to reporters on the White House driveway Wednesday morning.
Democrats want to hear from Mulvaney, who in an October press conference in the White House briefing room suggested foreign aid is withheld under certain conditions "all the time." He later walked back key parts of his press conference.
State Dept official David Hale arrives at the Capitol
8:45 a.m.: After two days of witnesses defying subpoenas in the Ukraine investigation, David Hale, the under secretary of state for political affairs, arrived at the Capitol at 8:45 a.m. to testify in a closed-door deposition before the House Intel, Oversight and Foreign Affairs Committees. Hale will likely be the only official subpoenaed to appear before the committees today. -- Kimberly Brown
Several administration officials were scheduled to testify
7:12 a.m.: Acting Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought, State Department counselor T. Ulrich Brechbuhl, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Undersecretary of State David Hale are scheduled but not confirmed for closed door depositions before the committees conducting the impeachment inquiry on Wednesday.
Vought and Perry have already indicated that they are not cooperating with the impeachment inquiry. Brechbuhl is also unlikely to appear today, as he is on a plane to Germany with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. -- Grace Segers
DNC calls Sondland's revised testimony a "nightmare" for Trump
Tuesday, 6:55 p.m.: Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez described Sondland's revised testimony as a "nightmare" for Mr. Trump and Republicans.
"For weeks, Trump and his Republican allies used Sondland's denials as Exhibit A in their effort to protect Trump. But now Sondland admitted the truth, and it's a nightmare for Trump," Perez said in a statement to CBS News.
"It's long past time for Republicans to put country above party and hold this president accountable. No one is above the law - not even the president." -- Kathryn Watson
White House lawyers to take lead on impeachment defense
Tuesday, 6:21 p.m.: White House lawyers are expected to take the lead on defending the president in the impeachment inquiry as it moves to its public phase, CBS News has learned.
Throughout the Mueller investigation, the president relied on a team of personal attorneys to represent him on television and in the criminal proceeding. But government lawyers will now take the lead in defending the president against Democrats seeking to remove him from office, a reflection of the fact that this investigation is based on actions the president took while in the White House.
The president's personal attorneys will still have a role to play in certain aspects of the impeachment inquiry, but they will also be busy with litigation over their clients tax returns that is headed to the Supreme Court and other legal challenges facing the president outside of Washington. -- Paula Reid
Graham won't read impeachment transcripts, calls process "B.S."
Tuesday, 4:09 p.m.: Lindsey Graham, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, doesn't plan on reading the transcripts of testimony from Volker or Sondland, declaring the entire deposition and impeachment process "B.S."
Graham dismissed Sondland's apparent reversal in which he now admits he thought Ukraine aid was tied to Ukraine making a public anti-corruption statement. Graham suggested he doesn't care what any "bureaucrat" like Sondland thinks. But Sondland is no bureaucrat -- he was a prominent businessman before becoming ambassador and was a strong supporter of the president, donating $1 million to his inaugural fund.
"That's his opinion," Graham said of Sondland. "All I can say is that the president of Ukraine didn't believe that. The president of the United States on the phone call didn't say that ... if the person being threatened with withholding the aid, if they say, 'I wasn't threatened,' I don't care what any bureaucrat says." -- Alan He and Kathryn Watson
White House responds to release of Sondland and Volker transcripts
Tuesday, 3:30 p.m.: White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham attempted to paint a narrative that the deposition transcripts from Sondland and Volker help rather than hurt the White House. It's the media, she insisted, that's crafting a misleading narrative, even as Americans can read the hundreds of pages for themselves.
"Both transcripts released today show there is even less evidence for this illegitimate impeachment sham than previously thought," Grisham said in a statement. "Ambassador Sondland squarely states that he 'did not know, (and still does not know) when, why or by whom the aid was suspended.' He also said he 'presumed' there was a link to the aid--but cannot identify any solid source for that assumption.
"By contrast, Volker's testimony confirms there could not have been a quid pro quo because the Ukrainians did not know about the military aid hold at the time. No amount of salacious media-biased headlines, which are clearly designed to influence the narrative, change the fact that the president has done nothing wrong." -- Kathryn Watson
Sondland revises testimony, says he now recalls Ukraine aid being linked to public anti-corruption statement
Tuesday, 2:00 p.m.: In a multi-page addendum to his testimony, all of which was released Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland claimed that his memory has been "refreshed" after reviewing others' testimony. Now, in revised testimony dated Monday, November 4, Sondland said he recalls that aid to Ukraine was, according to his understanding, conditioned on Ukraine making a public anti-corruption statement.
Sondland, a Trump donor whose initial testimony seemed to reflect favorably upon the president, had initially testified he was unaware Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani was targeting former Vice President Joe Biden by urging Ukrainian officials to open an investigation into Ukrainian gas company Burisma, which had put Biden's son, Hunter Biden, on its board.
In the addendum to his testimony, Sondland said he now more vividly remembers a conversation with Andrey Yermak, an aide to Ukraine's president.
"I now recall speaking individually with Mr. Yermak" at a September meeting in Ukraine, "where I said that the resumption of U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks," Sondland said in his revised testimony.
At multiple points in his revised testimony, Sondland said he now recalls details that were previously cloudy. -- Kathryn Watson and Nancy Cordes
Sondland and Volker testimony transcripts released
1:50 p.m.: House Democrats have released transcripts of the testimony of two key figures in the impeachment inquiry of President Trump, former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker and U.S. Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland.
In October, Sondland testified he and other diplomats reluctantly worked with Rudy Giuliani at the direction of President Trump. Sondland and others have testified that it was Giuliani who wanted to push Ukraine to investigate U.S. election interference in 2016 and also Burisma, an energy company that employed Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden.
Volker testified that he had expressed misgivings about Rudy Giuliani's influence on the president's view of Ukraine, and he submitted text messages to Congress that included exchanges with Sondland and another diplomat about the efforts to urge Ukraine to announce investigations into Democrats and 2016 election interference.
The man once feted as America's mayor is looming over events on Capitol Hill as details of his expansive role in the scandal fill publicly released witness testimony.
Giuliani was ubiquitous, on the phone with Ukrainian officials, inserting himself in US diplomatic meetings, sowing confusion and exasperation about what he was up to, witnesses said.
Pages of newly released witness testimony appear to be cementing the Democratic case that Trump abused his power by seeking political favors from Ukraine. The President, however insists he did nothing wrong and is dismissing latest revelations.
The Giuliani channel
Evidence of Giuliani's intimate involvement in the Ukraine scheme turns the focus on why the President was apparently so keen to bypass accredited US diplomats and senior officials.
And on a day when Giuliani announced his own high powered legal defense team, speculation is growing about his own legal exposure and how the scandal will stain his own legacy.
"Even someone like Rudy Giuliani who at one point was a pretty significantly good lawyer realizes you need outside counsel," said CNN legal analyst Preet Bharara, who like Giuliani is a former US attorney for the Southern District of New York, on CNN's "Situation Room."
"I don't know that he is in true criminal jeopardy, but at a minimum when people are beginning to investigate you ... you want to have able counsel at your side," he said.
The torrent of revelations about Giuliani will mean that Trump's attitude and mood regarding his lawyer and most vociferous cable television defender needs to be closely watched.
If the President begins to create some distance between them, Giuliani wouldn't be the first Trump lawyer to face carrying the can for his client's alleged wrongdoing -- as former Trump attorney Michael Cohen well knows.
Most fundamentally, the flurry of disclosures about Giuliani poses the question of whether Congress will ever get to the bottom of what happening in Ukraine without his testimony.
Giuliani has said in the past that he would like to testify. But it seems unlikely he has much to gain by doing so. But any attempt to avoid an appearance based on attorney-client privilege or executive privilege would be a tough legal sell given his non-official role and ramblings into Europe -- well beyond the confines of a relationship with Trump.
He might also exercise his right to avoid self-incrimination given the current criminal and counter-intelligence investigation into his business dealings in Ukraine.
Giuliani rejected the idea that he was enriching himself abroad through his associations with the President in a conversation with CNN Investigative Reporter Drew Griffin.
"I am in private law practice. I practice law honorably and well. Never had a complaint. Never had an issue ever in 50 years of private law practice," he said.
Trump has defended Giuliani in recent weeks, but the President does have a history of minimizing his relationship with former associates when they get into trouble. There's also a possibility that his lawyer could become a useful scapegoat.
As recently as last month however, Trump was standing by his fellow New Yorker.
"He's a great gentleman. He was a great mayor, one of the greatest, maybe the greatest mayor in the history of New York," Trump said. "He's a man that looks for corruption ... I know he's an honorable man."
'Talk to Rudy'
Once, the former New York mayor was seen as a rogue freelancer, trampling around in Kiev in a bid to suck up dollars for his private business and while peddling conspiracy theories about the 2016 US election.
But it's becoming clear that his role was far more influential than that and he was imbued with presidential authority.
Testimony shows Giuliani set up a powerful alternative diplomatic track that not only bypassed official US channels, it also actively inhibited work to better US-Ukraine ties.
White House officials argue there's been no clear proof that Trump directly demanded a quid pro quo with Ukraine, by making military aid and presidential visits conditional on its agreement to investigate 2020 Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
But the evidence suggests that the President directly tasked Giuliani with running an off-the-books operation -- that his personal attorney used to seek political favors from Kiev.
"He just kept saying: Talk to Rudy, talk to Rudy," Sondland testifed.
Over the course of this year, US diplomats gradually became aware that Giuliani was now the fulcrum of the action in US-Ukraine relations.
James Baker, the former FBI general counsel, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that any argument that Giuliani was not acting at the behest of the President would not be credible.
"Applying your common sense to that this situation, you would think that of course the President was acting through Giuliani," Baker said.
"If the use of Giuliani was to create some sort of plausible deniability like in Iran-Contra, I don't think it works, because it just doesn't make sense."
Biden claims 'not credible'
The former US envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker, said that he told Giuliani his claims that Biden was acting corruptly in Kiev on behalf of his son Hunter were "simply not credible." There is no evidence to support Trump's claims that the former vice president or his so did anything wrong in Ukraine.
"I've known him a long time, he's a person of integrity," Volker said he told Giuliani and his now indicted associate Lev Parnas at breakfast on July 19 at the Trump hotel in Washington.
Volker's testimony also establishes that Giuliani had a pipeline to Trump in Ukraine matters and was painting a dark picture of new President Vlodymyr Zelensky to the US leader.
"He knows all of these things and they have got some bad people around him," Volker paraphrased the President as saying, when testifying about what he called the "Giuliani factor."
Volker also revealed that the Ukrainians knew how to open a direct channel to Trump -- through Giuliani.
Eventually, the President's fixer became a "problem" the special envoy said.
"The negative narrative which Mr Giuliani was furthering was the problem ... it was impeding our ability to build the relationship the way we should be doing," he said.
Giuliani appears to have been orchestrating the potential quid pro quo that could get Trump impeached.
He insisted that a draft statement that the Ukrainians were preparing to issue at one point about corruption include references to Burisma, the energy giant that employed Hunter Biden, and a 2016 conspiracy theory that Ukrainians and not the Russians interfered in the 2016 presidential election.
"Rudy says: 'Well, if it doesn't say Burisma and if it doesn't say 2016, what does it mean?' Giuliani said, 'You know it's not credible," according to Volker's testimony.
CNN's Drew Griffin and Patricia DiCarlo contributed to this story
