A10 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14 , 2019
HOUSE IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS
Partners, which sponsored the
event along with the Pet Industry
Joint Advisory Council.
Officially, the dogs’ presence
had nothing to do with impeach-
ment. The animals’ mission was
to “offer congressional staff a
break from the stress of wrapping
up an exceptionally busy year,”
organizers said in a statement.
“Who better to bring comfort andrelief to the hard-working folks
on Capitol Hill than a furry group
of loving, intuitive, and biparti-
san Pet Partners therapy ani-
mals?”
The organizers added that the
dogs were also deployed to pro-
mote the health and wellness
benefits of animal-assisted thera-
py, although researchers say the
scientific evidence for its efficacyremains murky.
But these good dogs don’t
know that, nor do they know
where Ukraine is, or what quid
pro quo means or what a whistle-
blower does. (They probably do
know a bit about whistling,
though.) Their appearance on the
Hill, without a doubt, is unim-
peachably pure.
[email protected]BY KARIN BRULLIARD
Tensions were high on Capitol
Hill on Wednesday. Therapy dogs
were there to help.
Not to help William B. Taylor
Jr., the acting ambassador to
Ukraine, or George Kent, deputy
assistant secretary of state for
European and Eurasian affairs,
the first witnesses in the first
open hearing of the impeachment
inquiry, though they surely could
have used it.Instead, teams of therapy
pooches were camped out in
House and Senate office build-
ings, offering their services to
stressed-out Hill staffers. The
dogs were all registered by the
therapy animal organization PetDog-tired staffers relax with therapy pooches
BY ELLEN NAKASHIMA
A U.S. ambassador’s cellphone
call to President Trump from a
restaurant in the capital of
Ukraine this summer was a stun-
ning breach of security, exposing
the conversation to surveillance
by foreign intelligence services,
including Russia’s, former U.S.
officials said.
The call — in which Trump’s
remarks were overheard by a U.S.
Embassy staffer in Kyiv — was
disclosed Wednesday by the act-
ing U.S. ambassador to Ukraine,
William B. Taylor Jr., on the
dramatic opening day of public
impeachment hearings into al-
leged abuse of power by the
president.
“The member of my staff could
hear President Trump on the
phone” asking U.S. Ambassador
to the European Union Gordon
Sondland about “the investiga-
tions,” Taylor testified, referring
to the president’s desire for a
probe of the son of Trump’s
potential political opponent in
2020, Joe Biden, and the Ukraini-
an energy company on whose
board Hunter Biden once served.
Sondland, Taylor said, told
Trump in that conversation that
“the Ukrainians were ready to
move forward” on the investiga-
tions.
The U.S. Embassy staffer who
overheard the call, political coun-
selor David Holmes, is scheduled
to testify Friday before House
impeachment investigators in a
closed session.
“The security ramifications are
insane — using an open cell-
phone to communicate with the
president of the United States,”
said Larry Pfeiffer, a former se-
nior director of the White House
Situation Room and a former
chief of staff to the CIA director.
“In a country that is so wired with
Russian intelligence, you can al-
most take it to the bank that the
Russians were listening in on thecall.”
The impromptu Sondland-
Trump conversation took place a
day after an official call July 25
between Trump and Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelensky, in
which Trump had pressed for
investigations. Zelensky at that
time was eager to secure a White
House visit. The Trump-Zelensky
call and the pressure on the
authorities in Kyiv to conduct
investigations that could aid
Trump’s 2020 campaign are at
the heart of the impeachment
hearings.
It was also noteworthy in that
ambassadors typically don’t just
pick up the phone and call presi-
dents. “They never do so to
discuss Ukraine policy,” former
U.S. ambassador to Russia Mi-
chael McFaul said in a tweet.
“Doing so on a cellphone from
Kyiv means [the] whole world
was listening in.”
Russia already has shown its
ability to monitor U.S. diplomats’
calls in Kyiv, and the Kremlin has
no hesi ta tion in leaking them
when it suits its interests. In early
2014, an intercepted phone con-versation between then-Assistant
Secretary of State for European
and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nu-
land and then-U.S. Ambassador
to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt ap-
peared on YouTube. On the call,
Nuland was heard referring dis-
missively to slow-moving Euro-
pean Union efforts to address a
looming political and economic
crisis in Ukraine. “F--- the E.U.,’’
she said.She also was heard assessing
the political skills of Ukrainian
opposition figures with unusual
candor. The leaked call was em-
barrassing to Washington and
appeared to be an effort by Mos-
cow to drive a wedge between theUnited States and the European
Union. The State Department
acknowledged the call was au-
thentic, and Nuland apologized
to E.U. officials. But U.S. officials
also were quick to blame Russia
for the leak, describing it as a
form of information warfare.
Calling a president from a
cellphone violates protocols set
up to protect senior administra-
tion officials’ communications.
“It’s indicative of a lack of con-
cern for operational security,”
said a former senior U.S. intelli-
gence official, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity to avoid
being accused of making state-
ments motivated by political
bias. Senior officials, he said, “are
routinely briefed on the threats
to their communications. You
could assume that talking on an
unencrypted line from a foreign
country would be on that list.”
It is also dangerous for a
president to take an off-the-
books call like that, Pfeiffer said.
That is why call logs are kept, he
said. Without them, someone
could assert that the president
said something on a call, and alog “protects the president’s abili-
ty to deny something happened,”
he said. “Good bureaucratic re-
cord-keeping is a protection for
someone in the position of the
president.”
This is not the first time ques-
tions have arisen over Trump’s
un or tho dox phone use. He has
been known to give his personal
cellphone number to other world
leaders, despite aides’ warnings
that his cellphone calls are not
secure. Russia and China in par-
ticular have targeted his personal
cellphone calls, the New York
Times reported.
In general, Trump has ap-
peared unusually cavalier about
operational security. In February
2017, at his Mar-a-Lago Club in
Palm Beach, on an open terrace
in full view of other diners,
Trump and Japan Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe had a sensitive dis-
cussion about how to respond to
a ballistic missile test by North
Korea.
[email protected]Greg Miller and Karoun Demirjian
contributed to this report.Envoy’s July call to Trump from Kyiv restaurant seen as stunning breach
Officials say Russians
probably listened in on
Sondland conversation“The security
ramifications
are insane.”
Larry Pfeiffer,
former senior director of
the White House Situation Roomtranscript of an earlier phone call
with Zelensky on Thursday.
“If you read the transcript, this
was analyzed by great lawyers.
This was analyzed by Gregg
Jarrett, it was analyzed by Mark
Levin, it was analyzed by
everybody,” he said, citing a Fox
News personality, and an author
and radio host. “They said this
statement that I made, the whole
call that I made, was a perfect
one.”
Trump said he had no
recollection of speaking to
Sondland as was alleged during
the day’s testimony.
“I know nothing about that,”
Trump said. “First time I’ve heard
it.... I don’t recall. Not at all. Not
even a little bit.”
He did recall, he said, that
Sondland had testified the
president told him “no quid pro
quo” in a different phone call. He
quickly wanted to move on,
before stopping again.
“That we even have to waste
this gentleman’s time by even
thinking about it, by talking
about it,” he said, decrying the
investigation. “I’d much rather
focus on peace in the Middle
East,” he said.
The president added of the
hearing: “I hear it’s a hoax and it’s
being played as a hoax.”
[email protected]the proceedings on TiVo later.
Meanwhile, Trump spent
much of the day with Erdogan, a
strongman whom Trump
respects and who received the
pomp and circumstance of a
White House visit weeks after
disregarding Trump’s wishes and
invading Syria. Erdogan,
standing in the White House,
declared he had returned an
October letter he had ignored
from Trump urging him not to be
a “tough guy” or “fool” by
invading Syria.
Erdogan was brought into the
Oval Office for more than three
hours — and received a joint
news conference and a meeting
with five senators.
“The purpose of this meeting is
to have an American civics lesson
with our Turkish friends,” said
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.).
“He was very focused on the
meeting,” Graham said in an
interview, saying Trump did not
mention impeachment with
Erdogan and the other senators.
“Before we went in, he heard it
was boring.”
Minutes after the hearing
ended, Trump came into the East
Room for the news conference,
which started about an hour late.
The July 25 call with Zelensky,
Trump said, was “perfect.” He
also said he planned to release aThe Biden family was not
investigated, even though Trump
wanted it to happen.
“This irregular channel of
diplomacy, it’s not as outlandish
as it could be,” said GOP staff
lawyer Steve Castor, questioning
the diplomats.
“It’s not as outlandish as it
could be,” Taylor responded with
a laugh, seeming amazed by the
question. “I agree.”
Trump was particularly
pleased with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-
Ohio), one of the president’s most
vociferous defenders on Capitol
Hill, who was added to the
Intelligence Committee to help
Trump.
“Our administration,” Jordan
said at one point during a news
conference deeming Wednesday
a “great day for the president.” He
quickly corrected himself: “His
administration.”
Privately, in a White House
where aides are accustomed to
being under siege, most
described the day as frenetic but
not that unusual. The claims
were bad but could have been
worse. “Better than expected.
Right?” one senior
administration official texted, on
the condition of anonymity.
Other aides said it was true he
had not been glued to the TV —
but Trump was likely to watch“We hate to break it to these
unelected, career government
bureaucrats who think they
know best: the President of the
United States sets foreign policy,
not them,” Parscale said. He did
not explain that Congress
approved the aid to Ukraine that
Trump withheld, which the
president had signed.
The Republican National
Committee sent seven emails
blasting the proceedings. “Did
you hear that?” read one, saying
the whole process was based on
hearsay. They did not mention
that a rough transcript of the call
confirmed many of the
accusations.
Grisham said the witnesses
had never spoken to Trump and
dinged Democrats for only
attracting secondhand witnesses.
She did not mention that the
White House has blocked many
key aides from being firsthand
witnesses.
They were “two bureaucrats
with a foreign policy gripe,”
Grisham said. But the men, she
said, also helped the president by
admitting there was no “quid pro
quo.”
The entire affair, Grisham said,
was “boring,” a word echoed by
many in Trump’s orbit.
The president eventually gave
the aid to Ukraine, allies said.president was not watching. She
said he was in the Oval Office by
8 a.m. — hours earlier than he
usually descends from the White
House residence. “He’s working,”
Grisham said.
Explaining why the customary
Marine who guards the door
when Trump is in the Oval was
not present, Grisham said
Marines were preparing for the
arrival of Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
White House aides were also
busy, officials said, working on
policy issues. The vice president
was on a plane to California.
Phone calls were happening
about e-cigarettes. The attorney
general was working on guns.
Aides were huddling with Hill
staff about trade.
But TVs were turned on
throughout the West Wing,
blaring the hearings and a
nonstop cascade of negative
headlines. A miniature war room
was set up, with acting chief of
staff Mick Mulvaney and chief
lawyer Pat Cipollone making a
visit to see communications and
research staffers, a White House
official said.
Trump campaign manager
Brad Parscale, in a lengthy
statement, said the two witnesses
only described a policy
disagreement with Trump.MATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POST
Members of the media gather as two diplomats appear before the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday. President Trump sought to discredit the testimony, while
maintaining that his attention was elsewhere on the first day of open impeachment hearings. The White House and Trump’s campaign manager also came to his defense.President Trump
said he was
unimpressed with
Wednesday’s
impeachment
hearing because it
was based on
“lawyers from
television” and “thirdhand”
witnesses who were “Never
Trump.”
But the president only knew
that secondhand, he said,
because he was too busy to
watch.
Trump and the White House
sought to project both disinterest
in the public House
impeachment hearings that
kicked off Wednesday while also
seeking to discredit witnesses,
attack Democrats and defend
Trump as they settled in for a
months-long battle.
By sundown, more than three
dozen tweets and retweets
decrying the day’s events were
posted on the feed of a president
who said he had not “watched a
minute.” They ranged from a
White House video called “New
Hoax, Same Swamp,” to attacks
on Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.),
who is running the hearings, to
quotes exonerating him from Fox
News host Steve Doocy to clips of
Republicans defending him.
The White House also sent out
dozens of pages of talking points
to Republican allies. “The
American People Can’t Trust
Conspiracy Theorist Eric
Swalwell,” read one set sent to
Capitol Hill, referring to the
California congressman. “Kent
Confirms Corruption in Ukraine
Is Widespread,” read another,
referring to witness George Kent.
Allies tested a range of
sometimes dubious theories to
discredit the testimony from two
State Department officials — one
a Trump appointee — who
outlined an array of concerns
about the administration’s
dealings in Ukraine that, in their
words, stretched to the
president’s behavior.
One top diplomat, William B.
Taylor Jr., tied Trump more
closely to the ordeal, describing a
phone call between Trump and
Ambassador to the European
Union Gordon Sondland one day
after the president’s July 25 call
with Ukraine’s president, in
which Trump sought an update
on “investigations.” Afterward,
Sondland told the aide that
Trump cared more about
investigations of former vice
president Joe Biden than other
issues in Ukraine, Taylor said.
“It became clear to me that
[Rudolph W.] Giuliani’s efforts to
gin up politically motivated
investigations were now
infecting U.S. engagement with
Ukraine,” said Kent, a senior
State Department official.
“Never Trumpers!” the
president blared on Twitter,
hours before either man took the
spotlight to thousands of camera
clicks.
White House press secretary
Stephanie Grisham said the
Trump offers secondhand criticism of ‘thirdhand’ testimony