Tokyo stocks retreat amid geopolitical, economic uncertainties
Tokyo stocks retreated on Wednesday as investors grappled with heightened uncertainties surrounding US monetary policy and geopolitical tensions between Ukraine and Russia.
The White House on Tuesday dismissed the impeachment report issued by the US House Intelligence Committee saying it had “failed to produce any evidence of wrongdoing” by President Donald Trump.
White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said in a reference to committee chairman Adam Schiff, “At the end of a one-sided sham process, Chairman Schiff and the Democrats utterly failed to produce any evidence of wrongdoing by President Trump.
“This report reflects nothing more than their frustrations,” Grisham said.
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Earlier on Tuesday, the House report was released said the evidence for impeachment Trump for misconduct in office and obstruction was “overwhelming.”
The 300-page report, meant as the basis for articles of impeachment, accused Trump of endangering national security and of an unparalleled effort to stifle the probe into claims he pressured Ukraine for dirt on a Democratic election rival.
Democrats also accused Trump of an unprecedented effort to obstruct an impeachment inquiry that included categorical refusals to provide documents and testimony from his top advisers, unsuccessful attempts to block career government officials from testifying and the intimidation of witnesses.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and accused Democrats of using the impeachment process to overturn the results of the 2016 presidential election. Opinion polls suggest Americans are bitterly divided over whether to impeach Trump.
After almost a month of calling for greater transparency in the enquiry, the White House changed its strategy this week by prohibiting several of its officials from even testifying behind closed doors before the lower house committees.
Late September, the impeachment inquiry, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi initiated over a complaint by an anonymous whistleblower, is looking into White House’s alleged efforts to withhold military aid to have Ukraine investigate a Trump’s political rival, Joe Biden.
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