Impeachment Hearings Day 2
Creator: Trikosko, Marion S., photographer; Related Name: O'Halloran, Thomas J. , photographer [Public domain]
The public impeachment hearings resume Friday morning, with former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch appearing before the House Intelligence Committee:
Yovanovitch was removed as ambassador in May after Giuliani and other Trump allies attacked her in television appearances and on Twitter, claiming she was disloyal to the Trump administration. In closed-door testimony in October, she told lawmakers that Giuliani worked in tandem with Yuriy Lutsenko, a former prosecutor in Ukraine, to allege she was standing in the way of investigations into supposed Ukrainian interference in the 2016 campaign and Burisma, the energy company that had employed Hunter Biden, the former vice president’s son.
Although her Ukraine tour was supposed to end in 2020, in late April she was “abruptly told” to return to Washington “on the next plane.” She did not know why she was being recalled and met with the deputy secretary of state, who told her Mr. Trump “had lost confidence” in her “and no longer wished me to serve as his ambassador.” The secretary also told her there had been “a concerted campaign against” her, and there had been pressure to remove her since 2018.
Yovanovitch was also mentioned in Mr. Trump’s July 25 call with the president of Ukraine. The president said she was “bad news” and “going to go through some things,” according to the White House summary of the call.
Her removal and treatment by the administration rankled many officials in the State Department, one of whom resigned in September over the secretary of state’s failure to publicly defend her.
The hearing can be viewed here and join the commentareum in discussing events as they unfold.
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I’m not sure if it’s raining outside or if I’m just hearing the shards of the GOP and Trumps feeble protestations raining down. Sondland just blew what few fig-leafs they had erected into flinders.Report
At this point if Mulveney wants to avoid prosecution (since he’s not protected by DoJ procedures) he needs to come to the Hill, spill his guts to his old House colleagues, and be done with it.Report
Mulveney is probably confident he’d get a pardon if it came to that whereas if he turns on Trump he’ll never work in his chosen fields again.Report
Is there a Day 3 going up?
I’m mulling over this tangent from a new article from The Week… now that Sondland has maybe opened some floodgates, the call to trade some collateral Biden damage while going for the kill is interesting to contemplate.
“On the other hand, Nunes and Jordan and others have made sure to complain about how Democrats won’t call people like Hunter Biden and Alexandra Chalupa to testify about Burisma and Republican fever dreams related to the 2016 election. Democrats at this point really should be willing to make that trade — Biden and Chalupa for Mulvaney, Giuliani, Perry and the president himself, provided the latter cohort goes first. Call the bluff.”Report
The GOP wouldn’t take the deal and would simply pretend it had never been offered.Report
I believe it… what struck me as interesting, though, was how the Democratic Front Runner feels about the willingness of parts of the party to sell out his son.
Though, after today’s news of the Arkansas Baby, maybe he’s gonna see what he can get and do it himself.Report
I’d wait for this evening’s reactions to Sondland, who is now on his third version of events. Maybe nobody else was in the loop (none of the other Democrat’s witnesses confirm Sondland v3.0) despite Sondland claims everyone was in on it, or maybe all these important events and insights only existed in his own head.Report
Gordon Sondland was never a loyal Party member. He is now just a blurry spot next to Trump.Report
Yeah I can imagine you’re crabby at Sondland considering he blew apart your previous Georgisms into little bits.
What the other Democratic witnesses did is expose Sondland’s own obfuscations and half truths, slowly forcing him to update and correct his previous testimonies to be more precise and forthcoming until he was forced to simply say what actually happened or face perjury and lying to congress charges. Sondland’s not happy he is having to give this testimony, but the other witnesses fenced him in to the point where his choice was taking the fall for Trump or telling the truth. He chose the latter.Report