The
latest disclosures came Wednesday, when a former top aide to Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo offered an inside account of what he said was a demoralized State
Department, where career diplomats were sidelined and others apparently were
pressed to use their posts “to advance domestic political objectives.” In six
hours of voluntary testimony, the former aide, Michael McKinley, told
impeachment investigators that he quit his post as Pompeo’s senior adviser amid
mounting frustrations over the Trump administration’s treatment of diplomats
and its failure to support them in the face of the impeachment inquiry,
according to a copy of his opening remarks.
On Thursday, Democrats are set to hear from Gordon D. Sondland,
the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, a central figure in the president’s
pressure campaign on Ukraine. He is expected to testify that he learned that
Trump did not intend to invite President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine to a
meeting in the Oval Office until Zelenskiy pledged to open an investigation
that could benefit Trump’s political fortunes — bolstering a central allegation
in the inquiry that the president steered foreign policy for political gain.
And Democratic lawmakers have directed William B. Taylor Jr.,
one of the top American diplomats in Ukraine, to appear before their committees
next Tuesday, according to an official familiar with the investigation. Text
messages produced as part of the inquiry suggest that Taylor was deeply uneasy
about what he saw as an effort by Trump aides to use a $391 million package of
security assistance as leverage over Ukraine for political favors, calling the
notion “crazy.”
All three are examples of what can happen when Congress secures
cooperation from government witnesses in a rapidly moving investigation aimed
at the president.
The White House has had more success blocking the release of
documents tied to the case. But the president and his lawyers had hoped to use
the power of his office to muzzle current and former diplomats and White House
aides, arguing in presidential tweets and a lengthy letter to Democratic
lawmakers Oct. 8 that their subpoenas are invalid and unenforceable.
“President Trump cannot permit his administration to participate
in this partisan inquiry under these circumstances,” wrote Pat Cipollone, the
White House counsel.
And yet the president has been unable to prevent it.
Just since Trump declared war on the impeachment effort, three
current and former senior State Department officials and a former top White
House aide have testified for nearly 36 total hours, delivering to lawmakers a
consistent narrative of how they were effectively pushed aside by allies of the
president operating outside America’s usual foreign policy channels.
“It’s partly because this shadow foreign policy that the
president was running was so deeply offensive to people in his own administration
who took pride in overseeing a professionally run and arguably exemplary policy
in support of Ukraine,” said Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., a former State
Department official involved in the inquiry. Referring to Trump’s personal
lawyer, he added, “And then to see the official policy undermined by this
clownishly corrupt effort led by Rudy Giuliani on behalf of the president was
just more than many people apparently could bear.”
Republicans who control the Senate view the fast-building case
as serious enough to begin preparing for the trial in their chamber that would
follow impeachment by the House. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the majority
leader, briefed fellow lawmakers over lunch Wednesday about how a trial would
work, expressing his hope of conducting it speedily and completing it by the
end of the year, people familiar with his remarks said.
Facing accusations of secrecy from Republicans, Rep Adam B.
Schiff, D-Calif., chairman of the Intelligence Committee, informed colleagues
Wednesday that he planned to open the inquiry to the public soon. He wrote that
he planned to release transcripts of all the interviews as the investigation
proceeded and pledged to soon hold public hearings “so that the full Congress
and the American people can hear their testimony firsthand.”
For Trump, who is famous for demanding fierce loyalty from those
around him, the daily — or even hourly — crush of damaging headlines is an
infuriating departure from previous successes in controlling disclosures to
Congress from people in his orbit.
During the congressional investigation into Russia’s election
meddling, Trump blocked a deposition of Donald F. McGahn II, his former White
House counsel, and dramatically limited testimony from some of his closest
aides, including Hope Hicks, the former White House communications director,
and Corey Lewandowski, his former campaign manager.
But this is different. Many administration officials targeted
for depositions by Democrats are diplomatic veterans who have expressed anger
and frustration about what they described as the hijacking of U.S. foreign
policy. They have no particular loyalty to Trump nor are they subject to the
same presidential powers to block them from testifying.
So they have turned up at the secure suite of the House
Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill, disappearing behind doors with a red
“RESTRICTED AREA” sign to tell their stories.
Under alternating hourlong question-and-answer sessions by
Democratic and Republican staff lawyers, Marie L. Yovanovitch, the former
ambassador to Ukraine, said she had been ousted at Trump’s direction on the
basis of “unfounded and false claims.” Fiona Hill, a former National Security
Council aide, said John R. Bolton, then the national security adviser, was so
alarmed by the activities of Giuliani, Sondland and others that he instructed
her to alert White House lawyers. She said she reported Sondland to
intelligence officials as a possible national security risk as well.
The decision by Yovanovitch, Hill and others to testify is a demonstration
of the limits of presidential power and the legal constraints Trump is under as
he and his lawyers try to devise a strategy for keeping him in office.
Although the White House has struggled to keep former officials
from agreeing to testify, Trump has more leverage with current administration
employees, who may fear for their jobs if they defy the blockade. But it is not
clear what the political repercussions would be if the president retaliated
against them in the middle of a political scandal.
McKinley told investigators Wednesday that State Department
officials were discouraging people from testifying and were not supporting
diplomats who had received subpoenas and requests to appear before the House,
according to a person familiar with his testimony.
Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill expressed frustration this week
about the depositions, saying White House lawyers should be present and
accusing Democrats of selectively leaking from the testimony. Others were
simply baffled by the cooperation of the witnesses.
“I really don’t understand it,” said Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah,
a member of the Intelligence Committee. “I can’t wrap my head around why some
and why not others.”
Veterans of past legal struggles between the White House and
Congress said Trump was confronting the reality that he had limited ability to
force former or even current government employees to ignore a legally binding
subpoena. It is even difficult — though not impossible — to shield top White
House aides from appearing, they said.
“Particularly if there’s a subpoena, everybody has to appear or
risk being held in contempt,” said W. Neil Eggleston, who served as President
Barack Obama’s White House counsel. “It is just not easy to simply refuse to
appear.”
Eggleston said that defying a subpoena was sometimes possible
for high-profile figures but was especially difficult for functionaries and
other career employees.
Trump’s lawyers have had more success in blocking access to
emails, text messages, memos and other documents in the government’s
possession.
The administration has rejected Democratic subpoenas or requests
for documents at the Office of Management and Budget, the State Department, the
Defense Department and the office of Vice President Mike Pence. Giuliani has
also said he will ignore a subpoena for his records, citing the White House’s
stance.
Democrats have said the refusal to hand over documents will be considered
obstruction of Congress and may be added to the impeachment charges brought
against the president.
The White House has also attempted to limit the questions
witnesses can answer.
In the case of Hill, White House lawyers conceded early Monday
that they could not stop her from arriving on Capitol Hill for a deposition by
the committee later that day, but they demanded that she refrain from speaking
about classified material, conversations with the president and other matters.
Even that proved difficult to enforce, as Hill vividly described
a dramatic confrontation inside the White House between Bolton and Sondland.
Schiff, the Intelligence Committee chairman, said Tuesday that
the sessions with witnesses have been fruitful despite the efforts to block
them.
“It’s a way of trying to chill them from cooperating,” Schiff
said. “It’s not working, but I think that’s the goal.
“It goes to show the legally insupportable position of the White
House,” he added.
No comments:
Post a Comment