Post by account_disabled on Mar 5, 2024 22:24:57 GMT -8
Donald Trump asked Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to help US Attorney General William Barr investigate the origins of the Russian plot, according to the New York Times . Barr himself asked Trump to make this request to Morrison, which came weeks after Trump did something similar to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He also asked Zelensky to work with his lawyer, Rudy Giulani, to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Trump's request to Morrison consolidates the American president's way of thinking: he believes that the Department of Justice is a political tool that he can throw at his rivals. The New York Times has also reported that the White House has restricted access to the transcript of Trump's conversation with Morrison to a small group of the president's advisers.
Australia plays a special role in this plot: the FBI launched an investigation after Australian diplomats warned the bureau , after a meeting with Trump adviser George Papadopoulos, that Russia had sent Middle East Phone Number List "thousands" of emails to harm Hillary Clinton. Discover more stories on Business Insider Spain. President Donald Trump pressured Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to collaborate with Attorney General William Barr, who wants to clarify the origins of the FBI investigation into the Russian plot. It was published this Monday by the New York Times . A person who knows about the conversation between Trump and Morrison has explained to this newspaper that Trump brought up the subject at Barr's request.
This conversation took place weeks after Trump made a similar request to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about collaborating with Barr on the Russian issue. He also asked Zelensky to collaborate with his personal lawyer, Rudy Giulani, to investigate former US Vice President and political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden ahead of the 2020 election. Trump's request to Zelensky so alarmed US intelligence workers that one of the officials immediately filed an anonymous complaint accusing the president of using his position to solicit foreign interference in US elections. Read more: Lawyers for the author of the complaint against Trump fear for their client's safety after the US president has suggested it was an act of treason But this request to Morrison is even murkier, since the president would seek to interfere in an ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice and its consequences could be much deeper than Trump's own powers as chief executive.