Four key witnesses in the impeachment inquiry just wrapped up their day-long public testimonies before the House Intelligence Committee. Our live coverage has ended.
In case you missed them, here are some of highlights from the two hearings:
From Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and Jennifer Williams
From Kurt Volker and Tim Morrison
Kurt Volker, the former US special envoy to Ukraine, said the White House’s Twitter attack on Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman “isn’t appropriate.”
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Illinois, asked Volker about the tweet. As Vindman was testifying, the official White House Twitter account sent out a tweet saying, “Tim Morrison, Alexander Vindman’s former boss, testified in his deposition that he had concerns about Vindman’s judgement.”
Some context: Last week, as former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch testified, President Trump tweeted an attack on her.
As today’s second impeachment inquiry hearing draws to an end, President Trump tweeted “a great day for Republicans, a great day for our Country!”
The House Intelligence Committee is currently hearing testimony from Kurt Volker, a former US special envoy to Ukraine, and Tim Morrison, a former National Security Council aide. Both are witnesses the Republicans requested.
This morning, they heard from Jennifer Williams, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence, and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a National Security Council aide.
Rep. John Ratcliffe, a Republican from Texas, pointed out that Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman used the same phrase as the whistleblower when describing President Trump’s actions toward Ukraine regarding investigations into the Biden.
Vindman was the first witnesses to describe Trump’s request as a “demand.” During the afternoon hearing with other witnesses, Ratcliffe pointed out that the whistleblower also used that same phrase.
Earlier in the day, Republicans teased out the possibility that Vindman provided information to the whistleblower, who is an official in the US intelligence community. Vindman testified that he doesn’t know who the whistleblower is, but he spoke to someone in the US intelligence community about Trump’s call.
What Vindman said in his closed-door deposition: “The power disparity between the President of the United States and the President of Ukraine is vast, and, you know, in the President asking for something, it became – there was — in return for a White House meeting, because that’s what this was about. This was about getting a White House meeting. It was a demand for him to fulfill his — fulfill this particular prerequisite in order to get the meeting.”
Here’s what Vindman said publicly this morning: “It was inappropriate — it was improper for the president to request — to demand an investigation into a political opponent, especially a foreign power where there’s, at best, dubious belief that this would be a completely impartial investigation,” And that this would have significant implications if it became public knowledge and it would be perceived as a partisan play. It would undermine our Ukraine policy and it would undermine our national security.”
What the whistleblower complaint said: “Based on multiple readouts of these meetings recounted to me by various U.S. officials, Ambassadors Volker and Sondland reportedly provided advice to the Ukrainian leadership about how to ‘navigate’ the demands that the President had made of Mr. Zelensky.”
During his questioning of Kurt Volker, Rep. Denny Heck asked the former US envoy to Ukraine to explain to people watching at home why support for Ukraine is so important.
Volker said the US is “not pushing back hard enough on Russia, and we owe Ukraine a great deal of support.”
Volker continued by saying that Ukrainians “want reform” and want to see their country as “successful.”
“They are fighting a war of aggression against them designed to hold them back. And if we want to live in a world of freedom for the united States, we ought to be supporting freedom for people around the world,” he said.
See more:
Former National Security Council aide Tim Morrison said he never asked his Ukrainian counterparts to investigate the Bidens because “it was not a policy objective.”
Early in his line of questioning, Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from California, asked if the President “executes the foreign policy of the United States.”
Morrison — who was on the July 25 call between President Trump and Ukraine’s president — responded, “yes.”
Here’s how the rest of Swalwell’s exchange with Morrison played out:
Rep. Mike Conaway asked Chairman Adam Schiff to put into the record “the federal statute that provides for absolute immunity or right to immunity that you’ve exerted over and over and over.”
Schiff responded that he was “happy to enter into the record the whistleblower statute that allows the whistleblower to remain anonymous.”
While Schiff did not specify which statute he was entering, no law explicitly prevents anyone, other than the inspector general and their staff, from revealing the name of a whistleblower. But that doesn’t mean it’s legal.
Under 2012 guidelines issued by President Obama, whistleblowers are protected from work-related retaliation, including “an appointment, promotion, or performance evaluation, or any other significant change in duties, responsibilities or working conditions.”
Robert Litt, former general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence under Obama, argues it could be considered retaliatory if the individual disclosing the name is also a member of the intelligence community. But Litt notes that if a members of Congress identified the whistleblower on the floor of Congress, they would be protected from criminal prosecution under the Speech or Debate Clause.
Experts note that this situation is largely unprecedented, therefore the answer is not so cut and dried.
You can read more about the protections regarding anonymity that whistleblowers have here.
Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik used her time to ask Kurt Volker and Tim Morrison a series of rapid-fire questions about President Trump’s July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Starting with Morrison, who was on the call, Stefanik asked him: “There was no mention of withholding aid on the call, correct?
“That is correct, congresswoman,” he replied.
The exchange continued:
She repeated the same line of questions for Volker whose answers mirrored those given by Morrison.
Tim Morrison said he “noted” concerns from staffers that Lt. Col Alexander Vindman may have leaked information — but he “didn’t take them for face value.”
This morning, Vindman, a National Security Council aide, testified under oath that he never leaked information.
Asked about Morrison’s previous testimony — in which he said Vindman may have leaked information — Vindman said it was “preposterous” to think he’d leak.
Jackie Speier, a Democrat from California, just asked Morrison about Vindman’s response to his previous testimony.
“Now would you, therefore, want to maybe rearrange your comments about the references you made to Col. Vindman?” she asked.
“No, ma’am,” Morrison responded.
“So even though under oath he said that he has never leaked, you’re believing people who said to you that he may have leaked?” she asked.
“Ma’am, I didn’t believe or disbelieve them. I’m relaying what they told me,” he said.
Morrison continued:
Rep. Brad Wenstrup asked former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker if part of his job meant working “through any means available,” including with the President’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani in order to get his “message and advice” to Trump.
Volker said he believed “the messages being conveyed to Mr. Giuliani were a problem” because they were “at variance with our official message to the President” and “not conveying that positive assessment” that Volker and others had of the new Ukrainian president.
Volker added: “So I thought it was important to try to step in and fix the problem.”
Watch:
Democratic Rep. Jim Himes asked Kurt Volker to expand on his testimony about the President’s July 25 call with the Ukrainian president.
In his latest testimony, Volker said he found the record of the call unacceptable.
Asked by Himes what he specifically found “unacceptable or troubling,” Volker said, “It is — the reference to Vice President Biden.”
After a high level national security aide detailed to Vice President Mike Pence’s office testified that President Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president was “unusual,” two of his top aides are dismissing her concerns.
Jennifer Williams, a State Department employee, went before lawmakers today. Later, Pence’s national security adviser Keith Kellogg issued a rare statement saying he “heard nothing wrong or improper on the call.”
In her testimony, Williams, who has been detailed to Pence’s office since April, was asked if she expressed concerns to anyone in her office.
“My supervisor was in listening on the call as well, so because he had heard the same information, I did not feel the need to have a further conversation with him about it,” Williams said.
It’s unclear if Kellogg briefed the vice president on what Trump said on the July call that’s now at the center of the impeachment inquiry.
“Today, in her testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Ms. Williams also accurately testified regarding the vice president’s preparation for and conduct during his Sept. 1 meeting in Poland with President Zelensky,” Kellogg continued.
Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short also went on television after Williams testified, though he said he didn’t know if she had political motivations.
“I think she is a career State Department employee detailed to help us out on specific areas of her expertise. But I don’t know her political affinity,” he said.
The vice president’s office has spent the last several days distancing itself from Williams — describing her only as a State Department employee after Trump claimed she was a “Never Trumper,” which she denied today under oath.
The top Republican on the Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, has twice called today’s impeachment hearings a “drug deal.”
It’s an interesting use of phrase since it’s already in use in the impeachment inquiry.
Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council official, said during her closed deposition that her former boss, national security adviser John Bolton, referenced a “drug deal” when told of a linkage between US assistance and investigations into Trump’s political rivals.
Nunes is obviously making a different point — that the proceedings are somehow a sham.
“People aren’t buying the drug deal that you are trying to sell,” he said as this round of questioning began.
Whether he was intentionally trying to refer back to Bolton’s alleged claim isn’t clear.
Tim Morrison and Kurt Volker said they have never seen foreign aid withheld because a US President requested an investigation into a political rival.
“My colleagues asked about, ‘Well, doesn’t aid get held up for all kinds of reasons?’ Ambassador Volker, have you ever seen military aid held up because the President wanted his rival investigated?” House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff asked.
“No, I have not seen that,” Volker said.
When Schiff asked Morrison, he responded, “No, chairman.”
The House Intelligence Committee has moved into rounds of questions from members. Each member on the committee will get five minutes to ask Tim Morrison and Kurt Volker questions.
House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff just started his round.
GOP Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, called out Chairman Adam Schiff, claiming the Democrats invented a “magical” motion in today’s hearing.
After a short break, Schiff said both the Democrats and Republicans would get 15 more minutes to ask questions before the members’ individual five-minute rounds begin.
Schiff said the motion was included in the House impeachment inquiry rules.
Under the rules, Schiff can call for additional rounds of questioning — as long as Republicans and Democrats get equal time.
Watch:
Democratic staff lawyer Daniel Goldman turned up the heat on former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker in his second round of questioning this evening, pressing him repeatedly on his knowledge of the investigations President Trump wanted from Ukraine.
This was the first time in the impeachment hearings that Chairman Adam Schiff gave the staff lawyers a second round of questioning, instead of turning to the round-robin of five-minute sessions with lawmakers from both sides.
Goldman zeroed in on the investigations Trump wanted — into Joe Biden and into a conspiracy theory about the 2016 election, that it was Ukraine (not Russia) who interfered in the election. Goldman asked some pointed, rapid-fire questions — a more aggressive approach than what he did during his first round of questions.
Volker conceded that these were the only “investigations” being discussed regarding Ukraine. But he kept some distance from the topic by saying that US Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland only referenced “investigations” during a July 10 meeting at the White House. Sondland didn’t mention Biden, Volker said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Volker amended his previous closed-door testimony and acknowledged that he now understands that references to “Burisma,” a Ukrainian energy company, were actually references to the Bidens. Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, sat on the board of Burisma.
A federal judge said she will rule on whether former White House counsel Don McGahn must testify in a House proceeding by Nov. 25.
What is this about: Earlier today, the House Judiciary filed documents in federal court stating that the committee wants McGahn to testify about Trump soon after the Ukraine hearings end.
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman said he never thought he’d have to testify in front of Congress.
But he was the center of attention today as he described the call between President Trump and the Ukrainian leader as “inappropriate” and “improper.” He added that he “couldn’t believe what I was hearing.”
His emotional testimony — including a reassurance to his dad that he was safe from retribution — highlighted a revelatory day as three other witnesses appeared in public hearings. Three of the four witnesses today were on the July 25 call.
Zachary Wolf, senior writer and publisher of the Impeachment Watch Newsletter, guests hosts and makes sense of a consequential day with CNN national security reporter Kylie Atwood and CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff just announced that the Democrats and Republicans will each have a 15-minute round to ask questions.
The Democrats are going first, and their lawyer, Daniel Goldman, is asking questions now.
