The first interview transcripts were released. (Plus, readers' Halloween costumes.)
Welcome back to the Impeachment Briefing. Today marked the beginning of the public phase of the impeachment investigation, with the release of two witness transcripts. |
- Impeachment investigators released the transcripts of closed-door interviews with Marie Yovanovitch, the former American ambassador to Ukraine, and Michael McKinley, a top diplomat who advised Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The campaign to oust Ms. Yovanovitch from her post has been key to the investigation.
- Investigators are expected to release two more transcripts tomorrow that are central to their case, including one for Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union.
- Four Trump administration witnesses refused to sit for interviews today with investigators, including John Eisenberg, the top lawyer on the National Security Council, and Robert Blair, an aide to Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff.
- The White House informed Mr. Eisenberg's lawyer on Sunday that President Trump was directing him not to testify. The White House is claiming "absolute immunity" — a form of executive privilege that contends the president's closest advisers are not obligated to cooperate with Congress.
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Today's transcripts give us an idea, in the witnesses' own words, of how alarmed they were by what they felt was a pressure campaign exerted on Ukraine for Mr. Trump's political benefit. |
Ms. Yovanovitch told investigators that she knew as early as late 2018 that the president's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others allied with him, including the former top prosecutor in Ukraine, were painting her as disloyal to Mr. Trump. |
| "Basically, it was people in the Ukrainian government who said that Mr. Lutsenko, the former prosecutor general, was in communication with Mayor Giuliani, and that they had plans, and that they were going to, you know, do things, including to me." — Yovanovitch transcript, Pages 27-28 |
Ms. Yovanovitch also said that she was hurried out of Ukraine. |
| "The reason they pulled me back is that they were worried that if I wasn't, you know, physically out of Ukraine, that there would be, you know, some sort of public either tweet or something else from the White House. And so this was to make sure that I would be treated with as much respect as possible." — Yovanovitch transcript, Page 132 |
Mr. McKinley told investigators that his resignation as a senior aide to Mr. Pompeo was prompted by his belief that the State Department was being used to dig up dirt on Mr. Trump's political opponents. |
| "In 37 years in the foreign service and different parts of the globe and working on many controversial issues, working 10 years back in Washington, I had never seen that." — McKinley transcript, Page 112 |
Mr. McKinley said that Mr. Trump's dealings with Ukraine — and those helping him with it — were compromising the integrity of the entire diplomatic corps, the "overwhelming majority" of which shared his concern. |
| "It became clear to me that State Department officials, if not the State Department itself, were being drawn into the domestic political arena in some way. And I repeat: I feel that this is not the way we maintain the integrity of the work we do beyond our borders." — McKinley transcript, Pages 130-131 |
- Adored by the left, reviled by the right, Representative Adam Schiff has become a Rorschach test for American politics.
- Long before his pivotal phone call with Ukraine's president, Mr. Trump was exchanging political favors with a different Ukrainian leader.
- Mr. Pompeo finds himself at the most perilous moment of his political life, trying to demonstrate loyalty to the president while insisting to others that he is pursuing a traditional foreign policy.
- Hoping to shape opinion on impeachment and tie up phone lines, the Republican National Committee paid to generate thousands of calls to the congressional offices of nearly three dozen House Democrats.
- Some Republicans are testing out a new refrain: Even if a quid pro quo between Mr. Trump and Ukraine existed, it is not grounds for impeachment. "Concern is different than rising to the level of impeachment," Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday.
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P.S.: Your impeachment costumes |
We asked Impeachment Briefing readers to send us impeachment-related Halloween costumes, and you did not disappoint! Here are a few of our favorites. |
From Stefanie in Arvada, Colo., we have "Squid Pro Quo": |
Dante in Santa Monica, Calif., went as the "anonymous whistle-blower": |
And finally, from Laura, Dave, Chip, Lois and Carol in Fort Collins, Colo., comes this ensemble costume. They explain: "The pink in the middle was a Rockford Peach (from "A League of Their Own"), on the glove side is a display of mints. The three in the middle are flanked by a Whistle-Blower and an Unnamed Source." |
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