Impeachment inquiry announced by Nancy Pelosi cast a new pall over Trump's presidency

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday accused U.S. Attorney General William Barr of going "rogue" in the Justice Department's handling of a whistleblower complaint that President Donald Trump solicited a political favour from Ukraine's president that could help him get re-elected.

Barr is one of several senior administration officials who Democratic lawmakers want to interview as they pursue an impeachment inquiry against the Republican president.

Several members of the House Intelligence Committee said on Friday they have cancelled planned events outside of Washington during the next two weeks and hope to push ahead on interviewing witnesses and holding more hearings.

On Friday, Pelosi criticized Barr's Justice Department for directing the top U.S. intelligence official, Joseph Maguire, to tell the White House about the whistleblower report instead of first going to Congress, as the law requires.

"He's gone rogue," Pelosi said of Barr in an interview with MSNBC.

"I think where they're going is a cover-up of the cover-up. And that's really very sad for them. And to have a Justice Department go so rogue, well, they have been for a while," she said.

Democrats say Barr should recuse himself from matters related to the whistleblower complaint prompted by a July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

According to a summary of the call released by the White House, Trump asked Zelenskiy to work with Barr and his personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Hunter Biden served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company called Burisma when Biden was in office.

Biden is a leading candidate in the Democratic race to challenge Trump in the November 2020 presidential election.

The complaint, which was made public on Thursday, described how White House officials removed an electronic record of Trump's call with Zelenskiy from the computer server where such records are normally kept to one reserved for highly classified intelligence matters.

Trump denies he pressured Zelenskiy to do anything improper and accuses Democrats of launching a politically motivated investigation. An administration official said lawyers for the National Security Council had "directed that the classified document be handled appropriately."

The Justice Department said this week that Trump never asked Barr to contact Ukraine and that Barr has not communicated with Ukraine about a possible investigation or any other subject. The department said Barr will not recuse himself from Ukraine-related investigations.

In Kiev, Ukraine's anti-corruption investigation agency said it was investigating permits given to companies managed by Burisma during 2010-2012. Hunter Biden was hired in 2014. The agency said it would only go further if compelling new testimony emerged.

Democrats say the Ukraine reports raised serious concerns that Trump's actions have jeopardized national security and the integrity of U.S. elections.

More than 300 former national security officials from both Republican and Democratic administrations on Friday endorsed the House's impeachment inquiry, saying they did not prejudge the outcome but wanted to know more facts.

TRUMP CRITICISM

The impeachment inquiry has cast a new pall over Trump's presidency just months after he emerged from the shadow cast by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into whether he colluded with Russia in the 2016 election.

Trump has reacted furiously, accusing Democrats of launching another "witch hunt."

Democrats on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees are pushing for testimony from Barr, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and as many as a dozen current and former White House aides who might be able to corroborate the account of the unidentified whistleblower.

House Intelligence Committee Democrats are also pushing to summon Giuliani, who has acted as a front-line defender and investigator for Trump in connection with the Ukraine controversy, sources said.

Three House committees said they would issue subpoenas to the White House and State Department as soon as Friday if the Trump administration missed a Thursday deadline to send a wide range of documents related to its dealings with Ukraine.