This archive report was first published on 6 November 2019.
Impeachment Inquiry Update: Key Witnesses Testify ¶
On Wednesday, David Hale, the No. 3 official at the State Department, became the first administration official this week to comply with investigators’ request to appear in the impeachment inquiry.
Hale, the under secretary for political affairs, is expected to be questioned about the ouster of former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie L. Yovanovitch and why he and others did not defend her against political attacks.
Yovanovitch was recalled as part of a shadow foreign policy effort on Ukraine driven largely by President Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, who sought to smear her as disloyal to the president.
According to Yovanovitch, she personally asked Hale to talk to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about issuing a statement of support, but she never heard back.
Other administration officials, including Russell Vought, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, and T. Ulrich Brechbuhl, a counselor at the State Department, were also summoned to testify but failed to appear.
Democrats are rushing to call the last of the witnesses they are seeking to interview as they wrap up the fact-finding phase of their inquiry and move toward public hearings as soon as next week.
Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, has indicated he will count refusals to appear as part of an article of impeachment against President Trump for obstruction of Congress.
Lawyer for Fiona Hill Disputes Gordon Sondland’s Account ¶
The lawyer for Fiona Hill, a former top White House foreign policy adviser, accused Gordon D. Sondland, the United States ambassador to the European Union, of having fabricated conversations with Hill during his testimony to impeachment investigators.
According to a transcript of Sondland’s testimony, he described his relationship with Hill as cordial and said they had talked over coffee several times.
However, Hill’s lawyer, Lee Wolosky, disputed Sondland’s account, saying that Hill had told investigators that she and Sondland had not had any conversations over coffee and that she had expressed her concerns about the lack of coordination on Ukraine and the dismissal of Ambassador Yovanovitch.
From Tuesday: House Democrats Released Revised Testimony from Sondland and Summoned Mulvaney ¶
On Tuesday, impeachment investigators released revised testimony from Sondland, which added that he had told Ukrainian officials that military aid was tied to their commitment to investigations President Trump wanted.
House investigators also summoned Mick Mulvaney, the president’s acting chief of staff, to appear for a deposition on Friday.
Mr. Mulvaney was deeply involved in the alternate Ukraine foreign policy campaign and has been inconsistent in his accounts of the July 25 phone call that is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.
Trump Liked What He Read in Kurt Volker’s Transcript ¶
Impeachment investigators on Tuesday released the transcript of Kurt D. Volker’s deposition, and President Trump thanked him on Wednesday for telling investigators that he did not know anything about a quid pro quo.
Volker, the former special envoy to Ukraine, was responding to an investigator’s question about the conversations he had with two other witnesses in early September about the quid pro quo with Ukraine.
