The Washington Post - 16.11.2019

saturday, november 16 , 2019. the washington post eZ Re A

tacitly blame Lt. Col. Alexander

Vindman, who has delivered

damaging testimony against the

president, for the discrepancy in

the official readout offered in

April and the memorandum of the

phone call.

“It is s tandard operating proce-

dure for the National Security

Council to provide readouts of the

president’s phone calls with for-

eign leaders. This one was pre-

pared by the NSC’s Ukraine ex-

pert,” spokesman Hogan Gidley

said friday.

But Vindman was not responsi-

ble for making the final update to

the readout, according t o a person

familiar with his account. The

official readout was based on talk-

ing points that the president did

not follow, according to a person

briefed on the call who spoke on

the condition of anonymity to

describe internal deliberations.

After the call, the White House

staff did not update the readout to

reflect what Trump actually said

— and what he left out.

Yovanovitch’s dramatic first-

person narrative of her abrupt

recall this spring from Kyiv, where

she had served as ambassador

since 2016, dominated much of

the second day of televised im-

peachment hearings.

former independent counsel

Ken Starr, a frequent Trump de-

fender, said on fox News that the

president “was not advised by

counsel in deciding to do this

tweet. Extraordinarily poor judg-

ment.”

Earlier friday, t he White House

released a rough transcript of

Trump’s April 21 phone call with

Zelensky, a largely congratulatory

conversation after Zelensky’s

election victory.

While Trump viewed the call as

exculpatory, it quickly became a

controversy of its own after dis-

crepancies between the rough

transcript and a previous White

House readout of the call were

discovered.

The White House readout,

which serves as the administra-

tion’s post-call description of the

conversation, said the call under-

scored “the unwavering support

of the United States for Ukraine’s

sovereignty and territorial integ-

rity.” T he readout also said Trump

spoke with Zelensky about “re-

forms t hat strengthen democracy,

increase prosperity and root out

corruption.”

None of those topics are men-

tioned in the rough transcript

released friday.

The White House seemed to

tion in Ukraine.

republicans attempted to play

down Yovanovitch as irrelevant to

the impeachment inquiry, point-

ing out just how much she didn’t

know, and questioning why the

Intelligence Committee was inter-

viewing her.

“I’m not exactly sure what the

ambassador is doing here today,”

the panel’s ranking republican,

rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.), said,

suggesting that Yovanovitch’s p re-

dicament was little more than a

personnel dispute that would be

“more appropriate for the sub-

committee on human resources

on foreign affairs.”

But Trump’s tweet could ulti-

mately make friday’s hearing a

more central part of his own im-

peachment.

Schiff told reporters during a

break in the hearing that the na-

tion had just seen “witness i ntimi-

dation in real time by the presi-

dent of the United States.” other

Democrats discussed drafting an

article of impeachment related to

obstruction of justice.

Some conservatives also criti-

cized the tweet as misguided, and

several republican lawmakers

contradicted Trump by praising

rather than attacking Yovano-

vitch’s public service.

House impeachment hearing

In addition to criticizing the

“smear campaign” t hat forced her

to book an unexpected flight to

leave Ukraine on short notice,

Yovanovitch also described in de-

tail how it felt to read a rough

transcript of Trump’s July phone

call with Zelensky when it was

published in September — and to

learn that the two world leaders

had traded insults about her.

“I was shocked, absolutely

shocked, and devastated frankly,”

she said.

Even as she spoke, back at the

White House, where aides said

Trump did not plan to watch the

proceedings, Trump was tweeting

about the former ambassador.

“She started off in Somalia, how

did that go?” Trump added, refer-

ring one of the numerous hard-

ship postings the veteran diplo-

mat held in her 33-year career.

“Then fast forward to Ukraine,

where the new Ukrainian Presi-

dent spoke unfavorably about her

in my second phone call with

him,” Trump continued. “It is a

U.S. President’s absolute right to

appoint ambassadors.”

Asked later to respond to alle-

gations that he committed wit-

ness tampering by tweeting dis-

paragingly about Yovanovitch

during her testimony, Trump piv-

oted and said the real tampering

was done by the Democrats for

not allowing the White House

lawyers to ask questions or the

republicans to call their own wit-

nesses.

“I have the right to speak. I have

freedom of speech, just as other

people do,” Trump told reporters

at the end of a White House event

on lowering prescription drug

prices.

The House impeachment in-

quiry is expected to intensify in

the days ahead, something the

White House decried friday.

“It is difficult to imagine a

greater waste of time than today’s

hearing, and yet unfortunately we

expect more of the same partisan

political theater next week from

House Democrats,” White House

press secretary Stephanie Gr-

isham said in a statement.

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

carol leonnig, John wagner, Rosalind

s. helderman, colby itkowitz and

Mike deBonis contributed to this

report.

first read how Trump had talked

about her to his Ukrainian coun-

terpart in a July phone call —

saying ominously that “she’s go-

ing to go through some things” —

the color drained from her face.

“It sounded like a threat,” she

said.

Yovanovitch’s five-hour testi-

mony, which began with a pas-

sionate defense of American di-

plomacy and ended to a crescendo

of applause, took a dramatic turn

when Trump took to Twitter to

denigrate her again as she spoke.

“Everywhere marie Yovano-

vitch went turned bad,” Trump

wrote shortly after the diplomat’s

opening statement.

Trump’s attack on a widely re-

spected foreign Service officer —

while she calmly but forcefully

denounced previous attempts to

smear her — drew widespread

criticism, with many Democratic

lawmakers calling it witness in-

timidation and some republicans

distancing themselves from the

president’s scorched-earth tactics

even as they pushed back against

the Democrats’ charge.

Yovanovitch called the tweets

“very intimidating.”

“I can’t s peak to what the presi-

dent is trying to do,” she said after

House Intelligence Committee

Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Ca-

lif.) read Trump’s tweets to her.

“But I think the effect is to be

intimidating.”

While the second day of the

House public impeachment hear-

ings ended with both parties still

firmly entrenched behind their

battle lines, Yovanovitch’s highly

personal testimony put republi-

cans on the defensive, undercut-

ting GoP talking points with a

sober account of what she called a

“smear campaign” conducted by

Trump’s allies in Ukraine.

While her interactions with

Trump were minimal, Yovano-

vitch described how actions by

the president and Giuliani served

to undermine American interests

in Ukraine. A campaign led by

Giuliani and supported by cor-

rupt officials led to her abrupt

ouster from her post in Kyiv, she

said.

She also methodically dis-

missed several republican at-

tempts to advance theories em-

braced by Trump and Giuliani,

ranging from alleged Ukrainian

interference in the 2016 election

to the charge that Biden and his

son had been involved in corrup-

nian interference i n the 2016 pres-
idential election.
It came just hours after marie
Yovanovitch, the former U.S. am-
bassador to Ukraine, told the
House Intelligence Committee
that Trump recalled her after a
“smear campaign” aimed at ad-
vancing corrupt interests in
Ukraine. Yovanovitch, who said
that she had felt threatened by
Trump’s previous negative com-
ments about her, was forced to
respond to a fresh attack by the
president while she spoke.
“It’s very intimidating,” she
said after Trump took to Twitter to
criticize her career during her
testimony.
Holmes testified that he over-
heard parts of Trump’s phone call
with Sondland during a lunch in
Kyiv, because the president was
speaking so loudly that his voice
was audible through the phone to
others sitting at the table nearby,
according to the people familiar
with the testimony.
Holmes’s testimony, which con-
firmed an account relayed
Wednesday by acting ambassador
to Ukraine William B. Ta ylor Jr.,
increases pressure on republi-
cans, who have dismissed other
witnesses as relaying hearsay and
speculation about Trump’s mo-
tives in withholding almost
$400 million in aid from Ukraine.
It also raises the stakes for next
week’s testimony by Sondland,
who will be pressed to answer
questions about the call. Sond-
land didn’t mention the call dur-
ing closed-door testimony before
lawmakers last month, according
to a transcript. Instead, he
claimed little knowledge of any
link between Biden and the inves-
tigations sought by Trump.
Holmes testified that when he
asked Sondland about Trump’s
views concerning Ukraine after
the phone call, Sondland said
Trump didn’t c are about the c oun-
try and was primarily interested
in the investigations it could pro-
vide into allegations of corruption
by Biden and his son Hunter be-
ing pushed by the president’s per-
sonal lawyer, rudolph W. Giu-
liani.
During her testimony, Yovano-
vitch criticized Giuliani and
Trump, saying “foreign and cor-
rupt interests hijacked our
Ukraine policy” with their help.
Yovanovitch s aid that when she

impeachment from a

State Dept. aide says Trump asked about p robe of Bidens

Jahi chikwendiu/the washington Post

David holmes, an embassy aide, arrives at the capitol to give private testimony about a phone call

overheard in Kyiv.  F or video of Marie Yovanovitch’s testimony, go to wapo.st/Yovanovitch.

BY MIKE DEBONIS

on the House floor, rep. Elise
Stefanik has built the record of a
republican maverick: She’s o ne of
the few GoP lawmakers to vote
against the party’s sweeping 20 17
tax bill, back equal rights for
LGBT Americans and support an
effort to grant legal status to
young undocumented immi-
grants.
But inside the ornate Capitol
Hill hearing room where lawmak-
ers are gathering evidence for a
possible impeachment of Presi-
dent Trump, she has been a com-
plete team player. The New York
lawmaker has emerged as one of
Trump’s m ost reliable a llies o n the
House Intelligence Committee, an
outspoken critic of panel Chair-
man Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) and
one of the GoP’s most effective
messengers as it seeks to under-
mine the Democratic-led probe.
Early in friday’s hearing with
former ambassador to Ukraine
marie Yovanovitch, Stefanik
sought to make a point by speak-
ing up during a period of question-
ing reserved for rep. D evin N unes
(r-Calif.) and his counsel under
rules that passed the House on a
party-line vote last month.
“The gentlewoman will sus-
pend,” Schiff said. “You are not
recognized.”
“What is the interruption for
this time?” she shot back in an
exchange calculated to under-
score republican objections to a
process controlled by Democrats.
“This is the fifth time you have
interrupted members of Con-
gress, duly elected members of
Congress.”
Her performance friday caught
Trump’s attention: In remarks at
the White House before the hear-
ing ended, Trump lamented to
reporters t hat “certain very talent-
ed people weren’t even allowed to
ask questions,” a reference to Ste-
fanik — though she actually a sked
numerous questions later in the
hearing. Trump also retweeted a
video clip posted to Stefanik’s ac-
count showing the exchange with
Schiff.
In a brief interview after the

hearing, Stefanik said she saw no

dissonance between her centrist

policy views and her prominent

role attacking Democrats and de-

fending Trump in the impeach-

ment hearings.

“This is a matter of constitu-

tional importance, and I’m asking

substantive, fact-based questions

to the witnesses,” she said. “I have

one of the top 10 percent most

bipartisan records in this House

and one of the most independent

records. But when it comes to

constitutional matters, we should

focus on the facts. We should not

let this be a partisan attack the

way Adam Schiff is conducting

himself.”

Some Democrats see some-

thing else at work in Stefanik’s

newly prominent role on t he I ntel-

ligence Committee — stage man-

agement by a largely m ale c orps of

republican lawmakers. Stefanik

is the only GoP woman on the

panel and, at 35, the youngest of

the 13 republican women in the

House.

“I think everything they did

today was strategy,” said rep. Val

Demings (fla.), one of three Dem-

ocratic women on the committee.

“She’s one of the newer members

on the committee, and she’s a

woman.... When they are badger-

ing a female witness who is a

career foreign Service o fficer with

an impeccable record, and they

want to badger her, I think it’s a

better look when a woman is tak-

ing the l ead on that.”

Stefanik has not shied away

from her p arty’s f raught record on

gender, delivering stern warnings

to the men running her party that

the GoP needs to do a better job

recruiting female candidates and

appealing to female voters. To t hat

end, she has raised more than

$340,000 this year for her politi-

cal action committee devoted to

electing women — an effort that

has t he backing of House m inority

Leader Kevin mcCarthy (Calif.)

and o ther top p arty o fficials.

She bristled at the suggestion

that her role in this week’s hear-

ings had anything to do with gen-

der: “They’re putting me forward

because I ask the best questions,”

Stefanik emerges as

key defender of Trump

Stefanik said, calling any sugges-

tion otherwise “shameful.”

Inside a closed oct. 29 deposi-

tion, Stefanik sparred with the

lawyer of Lt. Col. Alexander Vind-

man, the National Security Coun-

cil director overseeing Ukraine,

over what she later c alled a “sexist

remark.”

“I don’t know who you are, if

you could identify yourself for the

record,” said the lawyer, michael

Volkov, when Stefanik asked a

question.

“I’m on the House Intelligence

Committee,” she replied, adding,

“I get asked this a lot.”

“oh, that’s good,” Volkov s aid.

Stefanik shot back, “No, it’s not

good. B ut I will c ontinue my l ine o f

questioning.”

According to transcripts re-

leased by the Intelligence Com-

mittee, Stefanik attended at least

part of seven of the 11 depositions

for which the panel has issued

transcripts. Stefanik asked ques-

tions in t wo o f those seven d eposi-

tions.

That is an above-average atten-

dance rate among t he members of

the three committees authorized

to participate, but Stefanik is not

among the handful of republi-

cans who have attended every ses-

sion and asked frequent ques-

tions.

Early in Wednesday’s hearing

with two State Department offi-

cials, Stefanik interrupted Schiff

to ask whether Democrats would

be “prohibiting witnesses from

answering members’ questions as

you have in the closed-door depo-

sitions.”

Schiff shot back, “A s the gentle-

woman should know, if she was

present for t he depositions — ”

“Which I was,” s he interjected.

“for some o f them,” Schiff s aid.

Stefanik has o therwise used her

time in both public hearings to

deliver key GoP messages: that

Trump’s policy of delivering aid

for lethal weapons was better for

Ukraine than former president

Barack obama’s; that Trump was

justified in seeking investigations

of Ukrainian corruption; and that

Ukraine ultimately got military

aid.

“for the millions of Americans

viewing today, the two most im-

portant facts are the following:

Number o ne, Ukraine received the

aid. Number two, there was, in

fact, no investigation into Biden,”

she s aid Wednesday.

Stefanik represents New York’s

North Country, stretching from

the outskirts of Saratoga Springs

across the Adirondack mountains

to the Canadian border — territo-

ry that has long been considered

politically moderate but took a

sharp turn to the right in 2016,

voting for Trump by 14 p oints.

Stefanik’s own 14-point victory

over Democrat Tedra Cobb last

year was her closest race since

winning election to a vacant seat

in 2014. Cobb is again running to

unseat Stefanik and has seized on

the impeachment proceedings to

paint h er a s a partisan.

“Instead of upholding her con-

stitutional duty, Elise Stefanik

continues to choose the advance-

ment of her political career at the

expense of our national security,”

Cobb tweeted Wednesday.

on friday, Cobb suggested Ste-

fanik’s high-profile role had been

a boon f or her c ampaign fundrais-

ing: “I am overwhelmed by the

support we’re seeing today.”

As she was emerging as a GoP

star of friday’s impeachment

hearing, Stefanik was also bur-

nishing her bipartisan bona fides.

Voting during a recess in the hear-

ing, Stefanik was one of only 13

republicans who joined with 222

Democrats to reauthorize the U.S.

Export-Import Bank — a long-

standing target of House conser-

vatives.

[email protected]

Matt Mcclain/the washington Post

Rep. e lise Stefanik (R-n.Y.) speaks as former ambassador to Ukraine marie Yovanovitch appears Friday before the house intelligence

committee. Stefanik’s exchange during the hearing with panel chairman adam B. Schiff (D-calif.) caught president trump’s attention.

UPLOADED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws