Harris, colleagues seek Ukraine info via public records law

Presidential hopeful Kamala Harris and two of her Democratic Senate colleagues are trying to force the Trump administration to release documents related to Ukraine and potential investigations into the president's domestic political rivals through the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Harris, of California, will join Richard Blumenthal, of Connecticut, and Sheldon Whitehouse, of Rhode Island, in filing a request Wednesday with the Department of Justice seeking documents related to Ukraine, China and various investigations into companies associated with Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

The request comes as the U.S. House of Representatives seeks its own information via its impeachment inquiry into Trump. The Trump administration routinely ignores requests from Congress for documents and witnesses, including from Democrats in the House who have subpoena power.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks during a rally at Aiken High School in Aiken, S.C. Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019. (Michael HolahanThe Augusta Chronicle via AP)

The three senators, all members of the Judiciary Committee, say they are turning to the public records law because of the Republican administration's resistance to sharing information.

But requests via the Freedom of Information Act can take months or even years to fulfill, meaning it's unlikely the senators will get documents soon, said Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive and an expert in the Freedom of Information Act. He said Congress has a history of using the law to try to pry loose documents from the executive branch. The law also is frequently used by journalists.

Harris, a former California prosecutor, has achieved viral attention for her past questioning of Attorney General William Barr. As she tries to rise from the middle of the 2020 presidential pack to the top tier, the impeachment inquiry could offer her a fresh opportunity to garner attention.

She and four other senators seeking the Democratic nomination could be pulled away from the campaign trail if impeachment reaches a Senate trial. The others are Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Cory Booker of New Jersey.

The information request seeks communications to, from or with officials in the attorney general's office that include roughly 75 words or phrases, such as Giuliani, the last name of the president's personal attorney; Bill Taylor, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, who gave closed-door testimony to a House committee Tuesday; and Fraud Guarantee, the name of a company run by Giuliani associates who have been arrested on campaign finance violations.

The senators want documents showing communications between the attorney general's office and China or Ukraine regarding Trump's political rivals or any requests to investigate companies associated with Hunter Biden.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn’t order the death of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny in February, according to an official familiar with the determination.

While U.S. officials believe Putin was ultimately responsible for the death of Navalny, who endured brutal conditions during his confinement, the intelligence community has found “no smoking gun” that Putin was aware of the timing of Navalny's death — which came soon before the Russian president's reelection — or directly ordered it, according to the official.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.

Soon after Navalny’s death, U.S. President Joe Biden said Putin was ultimately responsible but did not accuse the Russian president of directly ordering it.

At the time, Biden said the U.S. did not know exactly what had happened to Navalny but that “there is no doubt” that his death “was the consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.”

Navalny, 47, Russia’s best-known opposition politician and Putin’s most persistent foe, died Feb. 16 in a remote penal colony above the Arctic Circle while serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges that he rejected as politically motivated.

He had been behind bars since January 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany, where he had been recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.

Russian officials have said only that Navalny died of natural causes and have vehemently denied involvement both in the poisoning and in his death.

In March, a month after Navalny’s death, Putin won a landslide reelection for a fifth term, an outcome that was never in doubt.

The Wall Street Journal first reported about the U.S. intelligence determination.

FILE - Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny gestures while speaking during his interview to the Associated Press in Moscow, Russia on Dec. 18, 2017. U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn't order the death of Navalny, the imprisoned opposition leader, in February of 2024. An official says the U.S. intelligence community has found "no smoking gun" that Putin was aware of the timing of Navalny's death or directly ordered it. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)