Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections

A State Department official told impeachment investigators on Nov. 15 that he overheard President Donald Trump talking with a U.S. ambassador about "investigations" in Ukraine, according to people familiar with the testimony.

US President Donald Trump announced on Twitter that this week he will publish a transcript of his "first, and most important," conversation over the phone with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, which was held back in April.

There was no hinting around, it was a straight-out trade, two key White House officials told impeachment investigators. If Ukraine's new leader wanted an Oval Office welcome from Donald Trump — and he did — he would have to open a public probe into the president's Democratic foe Joe Biden and his son.

There have been impeachment trials in the United States before, but never in an environment as polarized as this. Following the Mueller investigations, it looked like the current era of political tribalism would prevent House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from even bringing forward articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.

A deeply divided U.S. House of Representatives took a major step on Oct. 31 in the effort to impeach President Donald Trump when lawmakers approved rules for the next, more public, stage in the Democratic-led inquiry into Trump's attempt to have Ukraine investigate a domestic political rival.

George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign aide who was a key figure in the FBI's Russia probe, filed paperwork Tuesday to run for the US House seat being vacated by Democrat Katie Hill.
Papadopoulos didn't immediately comment, but on Sunday he tweeted, "I love my state too much to see it run down by candidates like Hill. All talk, no action, and a bunch of sellouts."

A U.S. Justice Department review of the origins of the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election is now a criminal investigation, a person familiar with the matter said on Oct. 24
The person, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, declined to say whether a grand jury had been convened in the investigation.

Testifying in defiance of President Donald Trump's ban, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch told House impeachment investigators on Oct. 11 that Trump himself had pressured the State Department to oust her from her post and get her out of the country.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says there was "no blackmail" in a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump that helped spark an impeachment inquiry.

Donald Trump has accused Democrats leader of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi of treason and added that she should be removed from office. Data on the second whistleblower on the removal of US President Donald Trump are still scarce. Hearings on the case over Trump's conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart, Vladimir Zelensky, have begun in Congress last night Bulgarian time.