Early on Friday morning in Asia, the Washington Post (WaPo) and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) roll out stories that could exert additional pressure on the United States’ (US) President Donald Trump’s impeachment inquiry.
While the WSJ relies on anonymous sources to convey that the Republican leader ordered the removal of the ambassador to Ukraine (Marie Yovanovitch), WaPo mentioned the complaint from Internal Revenue Service (IRS) official that at least one Treasury Department political appointee attempted to improperly interfere with the annual audit of the president or vice president’s tax returns.
Key quotes
“The complaint cites Ms. Yovanovitch’s ouster as one of a series of events that paved the way for what the whistleblower alleges was an abuse of power by the president. Mr. Trump has described the call with his Ukrainian counterpart as “perfect” and the House inquiry as a “hoax.””
“Prior to Ms. Yovanovitch’s recall from Kyiv, her relations with some senior Ukrainian officials were fraught. Ms. Yovanovitch openly criticized the office of Mr. Lutsenko, then the prosecutor general, for its poor anticorruption record.”
“Trump administration officials dismissed the whistleblower’s complaint as flimsy because it is based on conversations with other government officials. But congressional Democrats were alarmed by the complaint, now circulating on Capitol Hill, and flagged it to a federal judge. They are also discussing whether to make it public.”
FX implications
While no major reaction to the news could be witnessed immediately, maybe because of the early Asian session’s tendency to give less importance to the second-tier US political headlines, such developments suggest increasing pressure on the US President Donald Trump, which might lead to his departure from the post. As a result, the US Dollar (USD) could register further weakness against majority of its counterparts whereas safe-havens like the Japanese Yen (JPY) and Gold can benefit from it.
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