Beginning
Tuesday morning, in a rush of five hearings ahead of the Thanksgiving
recess, eight witnesses -- including several who have provided
inconsistent accounts of key events -- are set to testify over three
days in what could be a make-or-break week in
House Democrats' impeachment investigation.
Less than 24 hours before the proceedings are set to be gaveled in at 9 a.m. ET, President Trump
floated the idea of testifying, rather than
tweeting, during the inquiry. A top Republican
called
for a last-minute postponement, citing secretive new developments
behind closed doors. And, the Trump campaign has pointed out apparent
inconsistencies in some testimony already on the record.
The
key witness to focus on amid the rapid-fire series of developments is
likely to be Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, the
wealthy donor who has bragged about his proximity to President Trump --
and who repeatedly has frustrated Democrats' narrative by
contradicting several other key witnesses in the probe. Though he won't
testify until Wednesday, Sondland will loom large in Tuesday morning's
proceedings.
In
part, that's because Sondland previously testified behind closed doors
that Trump directly told him there were to be "no quid pro quos of any
kind" with Ukraine, and that he didn’t recall any conversations with the
White House about withholding military assistance in return for Ukraine
helping with the president’s political campaign. Democrats have alleged
that Trump held up the aid to ensure a public probe into the Ukraine
business dealings of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Then,
William Taylor,
the U.S. chargé d'affaires for Ukraine, told lawmakers that
Sondland himself said "everything" — a White House visit for Ukraine's
new leader and the release of military aid to the former Soviet republic
— was contingent on a public announcement of investigations into the
2016 election and into Ukraine gas company Burisma. (Hunter Biden
held a highly lucrative role on the board of Burisma, despite having
little relevant experience, while his father oversaw Ukraine policy as vice president.)
Weeks
later, after testimony from Taylor and National Security Council [NSC]
official Tim Morrison placed him at the center of key discussions,
Sondland suddenly amended his testimony and claimed his recollection had
been "refreshed." Sondland said he now could recall a September
conversation in which he told an aide to Ukraine President Volodymyr
Zelensky that military aid likely would not occur until Ukraine made
public announcements about corruption investigations. Sondland said he
came to "understand" that arrangement from other sources.
Morrison,
the NSC's outgoing senior director of European and Russian affairs and
White House deputy assistant, is to testify Tuesday afternoon. In his
closed-door deposition, which Democrats released over the weekend,
Morrison said Trump didn't want tax dollars funding Ukrainian
corruption, and
remarked that he wasn't concerned Trump's calls with Ukraine's leader were tied to his political interests.
Additionally,
Sondland has insisted he knew acting White House Chief of Staff Mick
Mulvaney only well enough to wave and say hello — and that’s about it.
He said he may have spoken to him once or twice on the phone, but not
about Ukraine. Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a National
Security Council official, has testified Sondland cited a discussion
with Mulvaney when pushing Ukrainian officials to open the
investigations that Trump wanted into the 2016 U.S. presidential
election and into potential 2020 election opponent Joe Biden.
Vindman
is scheduled to testify Tuesday morning. Republicans have further noted
that Morrison has testified privately that he "had concerns about
Lieutenant Colonel Vindman’s judgment" and had heard concerns that
Vindman was a leaker.
Separately, Fiona Hill, another White House
national security official, said Sondland often talked of meetings with
Mulvaney. In a further link between the two men, she quoted the-then
National Security Adviser John Bolton as telling her he didn’t want to
be part of “whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney were cooking up.”
Hill is to testify Friday morning, after Sondland's appearance.
She
also has recalled scolding Sondland face-to-face after tense July 10
meetings at the White House involving U.S. and Ukrainian leaders,
reminding him of the need for proper procedures and the role of the
National Security Council. She said Bolton "stiffened" when Sondland
brought up investigations in front of the Ukrainian officials and
immediately ended the meeting. Vindman, too, said he made clear to
Sondland his comments were inappropriate "and that we were not going to
get involved in investigations."
But, Sondland said he didn't
recall a cross word from Hill, Bolton or anyone else about his Ukraine
work. In fact, he said, Bolton signed off on the whole Ukraine strategy.
"Indeed,
over the spring and summer of 2019, I received nothing but cordial
responses from Ambassador Bolton and Dr. Hill. Nothing was ever raised
to me about any concerns regarding our Ukrainian policy," Sondland said.
When Hill left her post in government, he recalled, she gave him a big
hug and told him to keep in touch.
Testimony
from multiple witnesses has centered on the July 10 White House
meetings. Several of those present said Sondland, on that day,
explicitly connected a coveted White House visit to the country’s public
announcement of corruption investigations. It was something he just
“blurted out,” Hill said, recalling him saying: "Well, we have an
agreement with the Chief of Staff for a meeting if these 'investigations
in the energy sector start."
Vindman, too, said he
remembered Sondland saying that day that the Ukrainians would have to
deliver an investigation into the Bidens.
But, Sondland told a
different version of the day. He said he didn’t recall mentioning
Ukraine investigations or Burisma. The only conflict he described from
that day was a disagreement on whether to schedule a call between Trump
and Zelensky promptly. He was in favor.
Sondland likely won't be
the only witness in the impeachment inquiry facing credibility concerns
this week. Late Monday, the Trump campaign
pointed out
that State Department official David Holmes' testimony concerning
Trump's call with Sondland -- in which Trump allegedly called for
"investigations" -- seemed to conflict with Taylor's remarks under oath.
Taylor,
who testified before the House Intelligence Committee last Wednesday,
said he had just learned about the July phone call this month. But,
Holmes'
timeline of events, according to a written statement from his closed-door interview, seemed to depart from
Taylor's -- saying he notified Taylor of the call shortly after it happened.
Holmes is slated to testify Thursday. Late Monday, Democrats released
testimony from Holmes'
Nov. 15 closed-door deposition in which he stated that the phone
call he overheard between Trump and Sondland during a lunch in Ukraine
was so distinctive — even extraordinary — that nobody needed to refresh
his memory.
"I've never seen anything like this," Holmes told
House investigators, "someone calling the president from a mobile phone
at a restaurant, and then having a conversation of this level of candor,
colorful language. There's just so much about the call that was so
remarkable that I remember it vividly."
Holmes also
testified that he told "a number of friends of mine" about the call because it was
"like, a really extraordinary thing"
to be "part of" a lunch in which "someone called the president." He
insisted he didn't go into detail about the call while he boasted about
it, but estimated that he may have told as many as six friends.
"It was, like, a really extraordinary thing."
— State Department official David Holmes, on overhearing Trump's call with Gordon Sondland in a restaurant
For
his part, Trump has insisted Democrats had been out to get him any way
they could. The president has noted, for example, that The Washington
Post
discussed the push to impeach Trump just minutes after he took office in 2017 -- and, the Ukraine whistleblower's lawyer
openly called for a "coup" and impeachment
around the same time. Prominent Democrats, including Michigan Rep.
Rashida Tlaib, rang in 2019 with colorful vows to impeach Trump.
House
Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Doug Collins, R-Ga., sent a letter
Monday to the panel's chairman, Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., panning what
he called the "Democrat impeachment crusade" for lacking the "due
process protections afforded in all past presidential impeachments,
including those protections afforded to President Clinton by
Republicans."
Collins continued, "It is an unfair process for many
other reasons, chief among them the fact that minority questions are
not being answered in depositions and the president’s counsel has had no
voice in the fact-gathering phase of this impeachment inquiry."
For
his part, Trump revealed Monday he was considering an invitation from
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to provide his own account to the
House, possibly by submitting written testimony. That would be an
unprecedented moment in this constitutional showdown between the two
branches of U.S. government.
Trump
tweeted:
“Even though I did nothing wrong, and don’t like giving credibility to
this No Due Process Hoax, I like the idea & will, in order to get
Congress focused again, strongly consider it!”
But, a Democratic
official working on the impeachment probe told Fox News on Monday that
they weren't taking the offer seriously.
"If President Trump were
serious about providing information to our investigation, he’d stop
obstructing his administration from providing documents and people to
provide testimony," the official said. "There are people who could
testify, including John Bolton and Mick Mulvaney. This is not serious.
We're not going to play that game."
Tuesday’s sessions at the
House Intelligence Committee are to start with Vindman, an Army officer
at the National Security Council, and Jennifer Williams, his counterpart
at Vice President Mike Pence’s office.
The witnesses, both
foreign policy experts, said they listened with concern as Trump spoke
on July 25 with the newly elected Ukraine president. The government
whistleblower’s complaint about that call led the House to launch the
impeachment investigation.
Vindman and Williams said they were
uneasy as Trump talked to Zelensky about investigations of the Bidens.
Vindman also said he reported the call to NSC lawyers.
Williams said she found it "unusual" and inserted the White House's readout of it in Pence's briefing book.
"I
did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government
investigate a U.S. citizen," Vindman said, adding there was "no
doubt" what Trump wanted.
Pence's role remained unclear. "I just don't know if he read it," Williams testified in a closed-door House interview.
Vindman
also lodged concerns about Sondland, relaying details from
the explosive July 10 meeting at the White House and saying the
ambassador pushed visiting Ukraine officials for the investigations
Trump wanted.
"He was talking about the 2016 elections and an investigation into the Bidens and Burisma," Vindman testified.
Morrison
referred to Burisma as a "bucket of issues" -- the Bidens, Democrats,
investigations -- from which he had tried to "stay away."
Along
with Volker's testimony, their accounts further complicated Sondland’s
testimony and characterized Trump as more central to the action.
Sondland
met with a Zelensky aide on the sidelines of a Sept. 1 gathering in
Warsaw, Poland, and Morrison, who was watching the encounter from across
the room, testified that the ambassador told him moments later he
pushed the Ukrainian for the Burisma investigation as a way for Ukraine
to gain access to the military funds.
Volker
provided investigators with a package of text messages with Sondland
and Taylor, who said he grew alarmed at the possible linkage of the
investigations to the aid.
Republicans are certain to mount a more
aggressive attack on all the witnesses as the inquiry has reached
closer into the White House.
The president has aimed to see a
robust defense by his GOP allies on Capitol Hill, but so far they have
offered a changing strategy as the fast-moving probe spilled into public
view.
Republicans first complained the witnesses were offering
only hearsay, without first-hand knowledge of Trump’s actions. But, as
more witnesses came forward bringing testimony closer to Trump, they
more recently have said the president was innocent because the military
money eventually was released.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell, R-Ky., during an appearance Monday in Louisville, Kentucky,
acknowledged the House will likely vote to impeach the president.
But,
the GOP leader said he "can't imagine" a scenario in which there would
be enough support in the Senate -- a supermajority 67 votes -- to remove
Trump from office.
McConnell said House Democrats "are seized
with 'Trump derangement syndrome,'" a catch-phrase used by the
president's supporters. He said the inquiry seemed "particularly
ridiculous since we're going into the presidential election and the
American people will have an opportunity in the very near future to
decide who they want the next president to be."
Pelosi, though, said the president could speak for himself.
"If
he has information that is exculpatory, that means ex, taking away,
culpable, blame, then we look forward to seeing it," she said in a CBS
News interview that aired Sunday. Trump "could come right before the
committee and talk, speak all the truth that he wants if he wants," she
said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Trump
"should come to the committee and testify under oath, and he should
allow all those around him to come to the committee and testify under
oath." He said the White House's insistence on blocking witnesses from
cooperating raised the question: "What is he hiding?"
The White
House has instructed officials not to appear, and most have received
congressional subpoenas to compel their testimony.
Those appearing
in public already have given closed-door interviews to investigators,
and transcripts from those depositions largely have been released.
Sondland is
to appear Wednesday. The wealthy hotelier, who donated $1 million to
Trump’s inauguration, was the only person interviewed to date who had
direct conversations with the president about the Ukraine situation.
Morrison
said Sondland and Trump had spoken about five times between July 15 and
Sept. 11 — the weeks that $391 million in U.S. assistance was withheld
from Ukraine before it was released.
Trump has said he barely knew Sondland.
Besides
Sondland, the committee is set to hear Wednesday from Laura Cooper, a
deputy assistant secretary of defense, and David Hale.
Hale, the State Department’s No. 3 official,
testified in a Nov. 6 closed-door deposition that
no one in the Trump administration or any "government channel" ever
mentioned former Vice President Joe Biden or his son Hunter as a reason
for withholding aid from Ukraine, according to a
transcript of his remarks released late Monday by House Democrats.
Hale
said he saw the Bidens referenced only in media reports -- as well as
in a "speculative" email from former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine
Marie Yovanovitch, who testified last week. Hale is scheduled to testify publicly Wednesday.
Fox News' Chad Pergram, Brooke Singman, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.