Tag: House impeachment inquiry

How Democrats’ missing witnesses could fill in the Ukraine story

The Hill logoThe stonewalling from several key witnesses at the center of President Trump‘s dealings with Ukraine is not stopping Democrats from plowing ahead with their fast-moving inquiry.

Rather than wait to secure their testimony, Democrats say they can move forward because other witnesses have corroborated a whistleblower complaint that sparked the inquiry in September.

Democrats continued to hold that view this week, even as they received a favorable court ruling from a judge who ordered former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify in the probe.

View the complete December 1 article by Cristina Marcos on The Hill website here.

Republicans Seek to Muddy Impeachment Evidence as Their Defense of Trump

New York Times logoThey put forward a shifting array of arguments to defend the president against impeachment — some of which conflict.

WASHINGTON — Republicans mounted an array of defenses of President Trump at this week’s impeachment hearings — making arguments that at times seemed to conflict with one another logically, but that dovetailed in a key way: All served to undermine Democrats’ allegations that Mr. Trump abused his power.

In angry statements from the hearing dais, lines of questioning to witnesses and comments during breaks to reporters, Republicans sought to poke holes in the strength of evidence that Mr. Trump personally put a condition on the government committing official acts — namely, that Ukraine publicize investigations that could benefit him.

But at other times, Republicans suggested that Mr. Trump’s pursuit of those investigations was justified — reading into the record related facts and allegations about Ukrainian actions in 2016 and about the Ukrainian gas company Burisma and its decision to give Hunter Biden, the son of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a lucrative board seat.

View the complete November 21 article by Charlie Savage on The New York Times website here.

Volker says he rejected Biden ‘conspiracy theory’ pushed by Giuliani

The Hill logoFormer U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker on Tuesday pushed back on an allegation about former Vice President Joe Biden amplified by President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, calling it a “conspiracy theory.”

Volker said specifically that he “rejected” the theory during a meeting with Giuliani on July 19 while insisting he had no knowledge of an effort to investigate Biden within the Trump administration.

“At the one in-person meeting I had with Mayor Giuliani on July 19, Mayor Giuliani raised, and I rejected, the conspiracy theory that Vice President Biden would have been influenced in his duties as vice president by money paid to his son,” Volker said in his opening remarks at a House impeachment hearing on Tuesday.

View the complete November 19 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

GOP divided over impeachment trial strategy

The Hill logoDivisions among Senate Republicans are muddying their strategy for a potential impeachment trial.

As lawmakers await any articles from the House, they’re throwing out their own ideas on what the Senate proceeding should look like.

But Republicans disagree over the length of a trial and who should be asked to testify — two issues that will need to be worked out as part of negotiations on the rules of the trial.

View the complete November 17 article by Jordain Carney on The Hill website here.

Top NSC aide puts Sondland at front lines of Ukraine campaign, speaking for Trump

The Hill logoA senior White House official told House impeachment investigators last month that President Trump‘s hand-picked ambassador to Europe had pushed — on behalf of Trump himself — for Ukraine’s president to launch two investigations that could help Trump politically.

Tim Morrison, a top aide at the National Security Council (NSC) who was expected to depart the White House after his testimony, said Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the E.U., had huddled with a top Ukrainian representative on Sept. 1, when he relayed the message that the release of U.S. military aid to the besieged country hinged on Kyiv opening the investigations Trump sought. 

“What he communicated was that he believed … what could help them move the aid was if the prosecutor general would go to the mic and announce that he was opening the Burisma investigation,” Morrison testified privately on Oct. 31, according to the transcript released Saturday by Democrats leading the impeachment investigation.

View the complete November 16 article by Olivia Beavers, Mike Lillis and Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

A Friday night surprise: David Holmes throws a wrench in Trump’s impeachment defense

Washington Post logoFormer U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch’s testimony was the big public spectacle on Friday. The bigger news in the Ukraine scandal appears to have come later in the day in a private deposition.

It came from David Holmes, an aide to top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine William B. Taylor Jr. Taylor said this week that Holmes overheard President Trump speaking with Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland the day after Trump’s call with Ukraine’s president in July.

And it turns out Holmes fills in a number of key details that Taylor didn’t.

View the complete November 16 article by Aaron Blake on The Washington Post website here.

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman to be rotated off National Security Council

AlterNet logoEditor’s note: The headline of this article has been updated to more accurately reflect Vidman’s pending departure from the NSC:

2/ agencies and they eventually go back. That’s true as far as it goes. But he was asked a pretty specific question about whether Vindman was losing his job over the testimony. If he is not it’s pretty easy to say, no he’s not. No NSC appointments from any of these agencies …

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) November 11, 2019

Original article below:

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who testified on October 29 concerning his reaction to Donald Trump’s phone call to Ukrainian President Zelensky, was removed from the National Security Council on Sunday. In an interview on CBS “Face the Nation,”  National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, who replaced John Bolton in that position in September, said that Vindman would be leaving his position along with several others as part of a “streamlining” of the National Security Council. Continue reading “Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman to be rotated off National Security Council”

Majorities in six battleground states support House impeachment inquiry

AlterNet logoMajorities of voters across six key battleground states support House Democrats’ impeachment investigation into Donald Trump, according to recently released data from a New York Times Upshot/Sienna College survey. By anywhere from 4 to 13 points, registered voters in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin stand behind the inquiry, 51%-44%. By nearly the exact same margin though, voters also oppose actually impeaching and removing Trump from office, with 52% against removal and 44% in favor. Here’s the breakdown in support for the inquiry by state:

  • Arizona: 53% support, 40% oppose; +13
  • Florida: 49% support, 44% oppose; +5
  • Michigan: 50% support, 46% oppose; +4
  • North Carolina: 50% support, 45% oppose; +5
  • Pennsylvania: 53% support, 44% oppose; +9
  • Wisconsin: 51% support, 44% oppose; +7

Those numbers should absolutely panic GOP Sen. Martha McSally of Arizona, who’s up for reelection in 2020. In fact, if you break out how the inquiry registers among “independent/other” voters in each state, Arizona independents favor the inquiry by a whopping 18 points.

  • Arizona: 55% support, 37% oppose; +18
  • Florida: 46% support, 47% oppose; +9
  • Michigan: 51% support, 46% oppose; +5
  • North Carolina: 54% support, 45% oppose; +9
  • Pennsylvania: 54% support, 41% oppose; +13
  • Wisconsin: 54% support, 41% oppose; +13

View the complete November 1 article by Kerry Eleveld from Daily Kos on the AlterNet website here.

Watch House Republicans criticize Democrats for the impeachment inquiry vote that they demanded

Washington Post logoJust over an hour after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) formally launched the impeachment inquiry of President Trump last month, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) responded.

“I realize 2016 did not turn out the way Speaker Pelosi wanted it to happen. But she cannot change the laws of this Congress,” McCarthy said. “She cannot unilaterally decide for an impeachment inquiry.”

McCarthy’s argument and that of numerous House Republicans over the weeks that followed was simple: Pelosi could not declare that the House had begun an impeachment inquiry without first voting to authorize it.

View the complete October 31 article by JM Rieger on The Washington Post website here.

Trump and his allies attack Purple Heart recipient to defend against impeachment

Washington Post logoAs a White House national security official prepared to give damaging testimony in the House impeachment inquiry Tuesday, President Trump and some of his allies immediately began a push to attack the integrity and patriotism of the decorated Iraq War veteran.

Former congressman and Trump surrogate Sean P. Duffy said Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vind­man had “an affinity for Ukraine” over the United States because it was his birthplace. Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani joined in with the suggestion on Twitter that Vindman was “advising two gov’s,” an apparent reference to dual loyalties.

And Trump himself attacked Vindman as a political opponent: “Supposedly, according to the Corrupt Media, the Ukraine call ‘concerned’ today’s Never Trumper witness,” the president tweeted Tuesday. “Was he on the same call that I was? Can’t be possible!”

View the complete October 29 article by Toluse Olorunnipa on The Washington Post website here.