White House in huddle after Trump suffers double blow

A federal judge handed a victory to House Democrats on Friday when she ruled that they were legally engaged in an impeachment inquiry, a decision that undercut President Donald Trump’s arguments that the investigation is a sham.


The declaration came in a 75-page opinion by Chief Judge Beryl Howell of the US district court in Washington. She ruled that the House Judiciary Committee was entitled to view secret grand jury evidence gathered by the special counsel,

Robert Mueller

.

Typically, Congress has no right to view such evidence. But in 1974, the courts permitted lawmakers to see such materials as they weighed whether to impeach President

Richard Nixon

. The House is now immersed in the same process focused on Trump, Howell ruled, and that easily outweighs any need to keep the information secret from lawmakers.

And in a rebuke to the Trump administration, she wrote that the White House strategy to stonewall the House had actually strengthened lawmakers’ case. “Congress’ need to access grand jury material relevant to potential impeachable conduct by a president is heightened when the executive branch willfully obstructs channels for accessing other relevant evidence.”

Though the impeachment inquiry has broadened to focus on investigating the

Ukraine

scandal that erupted last month, the dispute before Judge Howell arose from an earlier stage: the aftermath of the Mueller investigation.

The administration is likely to appeal the ruling; the US justice department was reviewing it, a spokeswoman said. According to media reports in US, White House officials are privately conceding they are losing the messaging battle against Democrats in the month-old, rapidly moving impeachment inquiry against the US president and have scrambled to create an impeachment war room that huddles together at 10am almost everyday to figure out an on-thego communications strategy against the mounting threat to the Trump presidency.

The setbacks also came on a day when House investigators issued three more administration officials with subpoenaed, including Russell Vought, the acting head of the White House budget office.