USA Today - 31.10.2019

IMPEACHMENT

6A z THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019 z USA TODAY NEWS

declared a formal impeachment inquiry
Sept. 24 amid reports Trump urged Uk-
raine President Volodymyr Zelensky to
investigate Biden, the former vice presi-
dent, while withholding military aid.
Trump has called the inquiry a partisan
“witch hunt,” and White House counsel
Pat Cipollone notified Pelosi on Oct. 8
that the administration wouldn’t coop-
erate for lack of a full House vote.
The resolution charts a public phase
of the investigation. Six committees
have been investigating Trump for a va-
riety of reasons, including possible
abuse of power and obstruction of jus-
tice: Financial Services, Foreign Affairs,
Intelligence, Judiciary, Oversight and
Reform, and Ways and Means.

Questioning witnesses

Provisions in the resolution allow In-
telligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-
Calif., and Rep. Devin Nunes of Califor-
nia, the panel’s top Republican, to each
question witnesses for up to 90 minutes
or delegate their time to staffers before
rank-and-file lawmakers each ask ques-
tions for five minutes. Republicans on
the Intelligence and Judiciary commit-
tees could subpoena witnesses and
documents, and if the chairman object-
ed, Republicans could ask for a commit-
tee vote.
The Intelligence Committee and oth-
er panels would provide reports to the
Judiciary Committee, which would
draft possible articles of impeachment.
At Judiciary hearings, the president’s
counsel would be able to participate by
receiving evidence and staff reports,
questioning witnesses, submitting ad-
ditional evidence and being invited to
offer a concluding presentation.
But if the administration refuses to
make witnesses or documents available
to the committees, Judiciary Chairman
Jerry Nadler could deny requests from
the president’s counsel to call or ques-
tion witnesses.
“This is a serious moment for our na-
tion,” said Nadler, D-N.Y. “This commit-

tee is committed to executing its part of

the House’s ongoing impeachment in-

vestigation with the highest fealty to the

Constitution.”

The provisions weren’t enough to ap-

pease concerns among Republicans,

who worried about the lack of addition-

al resources for committees participat-

ing in the inquiry and that the Intelli-

gence Committee might not pass along

all the confidential evidence it has gath-

ered to the Judiciary Committee.

“The Soviet-style process that

Speaker Pelosi and Adam Schiff have

been conducting behind closed doors

for weeks now has been rotten to the

core,” said Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisi-

ana, the second-ranking Republican in

the House.

The White House denounced the

measure in a statement by press secre-

tary Stephanie Grisham, saying the res-

olution continues the impeachment

“scam” without allowing “any due proc-

ess for the president.”

The Intelligence Committee has been

taking depositions for weeks about Uk-

raine, and Morrison, who was set to tes-

tify Thursday, was mentioned repeated-

ly in the House testimony Oct. 22 of Bill

Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine.

Taylor described how NSC and State

Department officials learned bit by bit

about the back-channel efforts of

Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani,

to pressure Ukraine into investigating

Biden and his sonHunter.

Taylor said he asked Morrison during

a call Aug. 22 whether U.S. policy to-

ward Ukraine had changed. Morrison

replied “it remains to be seen” but said

the “president doesn’t want to provide

any assistance at all,” according to

Taylor.

“That was extremely troubling to

me,” said Taylor, who had warned Sec-

retary of State Mike Pompeo that he

would resign if the U.S. didn’t strongly

support Ukraine.

The conversation with Morrison was

sandwiched between Trump’s July 25

call to Zelensky, when the president

urged an investigation of the Bidens,

and the White House release of a sum-

mary of the call Sept. 25, when Taylor

learned of its details.

A timeline of events

Three key House committees –

Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, and Over-

sight and Reform – are investigating

how the president withheld nearly

$400 million in military aid during the

summer while also urging Zelensky to

investigate Biden.

Democrats contend the effort could

be an impeachable abuse of power. But

House Republicans have accused

Democrats of selectively leaking snip-

pets of testimony from the closed-door

sessions to make the president look

bad. Trump has vigorously defended his

authority to urge the investigation of

corruption.

Morrison succeeded Fiona Hill, the

former NSC senior director for Europe

and Russia, who resigned during the

summer. She told lawmakers Oct. 14

that National Security Adviser John

Bolton said he wasn’t part of “whatever

drug deal” Gordon Sondland, the U.S.

ambassador to the European Union, and

acting White House chief of staff Mick

Mulvaney were “cooking up,” according

to reports about her testimony.

Bolton referred to Giuliani as “a hand

grenade who’s going to blow everybody

up,” according to Hill. Bolton told her to

notify NSC lawyer John Eisenberg about

a July 10 White House meeting of offi-

cials dealing on Ukraine.

Taylor picked up the thread with de-

tails about how national security and

diplomatic officials learned about the

results of pressuring Ukraine to begin

investigations.

‘All or nothing’

On Sept. 1, Zelensky met with Vice

President Mike Pence in Warsaw.

Sondland also met there with Andriy

Yermak, an assistant to Zelensky, ac-

cording to Taylor.

Morrison described Sondland telling

Yermak that the military aid wouldn’t

come until Zelensky committed to in-

vestigate Burisma, the Ukraine energy

company that employed Hunter Biden

as a board director, according to Taylor.

“This was the first time I had heard

that the security assistance – not just

the White House meeting – was condi-

tioned on the investigations,” Taylor

said.

Taylor alerted Alexander Danyliuk,

Ukraine’s national security adviser, that

the military assistance was “all or

nothing” because the funding would ex-

pire with the end of the U.S. fiscal year

Sept. 30.

On Sept. 2, Morrison met with Dany-

liuk in Warsaw and later told Taylor that

the Ukrainian expressed concern about

the losing U.S. support.

On Sept. 7, Morrison said he had a

“sinking feeling” after a conversation

with Sondland, according to Taylor.

Trump told Sondland that he wasn’t

asking for a “quid pro quo” but insisted

that “Zelensky go to a microphone and

say he is opening investigations of

Biden and 2016 election interference,”

Taylor said.

Vote

Continued from Page 1A

President Trump has called the inquiry

a partisan “witch hunt.”ALEX BRANDON/AP

Today’s scheduled vote

would put moderate

lawmakers from both parties

under scrutiny heading

into the 2020 election.

WASHINGTON – Two State Depart-
ment officials with expertise on Ukraine
testified Wednesday before lawmakers
leading the impeachment inquiry of
President Donald Trump.
Catherine Croft and Christopher An-
derson appeared before the House
Oversight, Intelligence and Foreign Af-
fairs committees. Their attorney’s open-
ing statements indicate that both were
served with subpoenas to testify.
Both worked under former U.S. spe-
cial envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, who
has emerged as a key witness in the im-
peachment investigation.
Croft’s background includes work on
Ukraine for both the State Department
and the National Security Council. Sim-
ilarly, Anderson’s resume includes
working at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.
Croft walked out after a little more
than five hours of testimony. She did not
make any comments or answer ques-
tions as she walked away. Anderson ar-
rived shortly after for his time with the
three committees. He did not make any
remarks as he entered the secure room
in the Capitol basement.
According to a copy of her opening
statement obtained by USA TODAY,
Croft said that during her time at the
National Security Council, she re-
ceived “multiple calls from lobbyist
Robert Livingston, who told me that
Ambassador (Marie) Yovanovitch
should be fired.”
Croft said Livingston, a former con-
gressman from Louisiana, “character-
ized Ambassador Yovanovitch as an
‘Obama holdover’ and associated with
George Soros.”
She was unaware who directed Liv-
ingston to reach out to her, but she re-
ported the calls to her superiors.
Yovanovitchwas the American am-
bassador to Ukraine who had told Con-
gress she had been ousted following
Trump’s pressure to remove her.
She said she was unaware of a hold
on aid to Ukraine until a July 18 video
conference with the Office of Manage-

ment and Budget, where she was in-

formed a hold was placed on security

assistance to Ukraine, stemming from

an order “at the direction of the Presi-

dent.”

Anderson, according to a copy of his

opening statement obtained by USA

TODAY, said that National Security Ad-

viser John Bolton said Trump’s personal

attorney Rudy Giuliani, who took part in

a pressure campaign in Ukraine, “could

be an obstacle to increased White

House engagement.”

At a June 18 meeting at the Depart-

ment of Energy on Ukraine, Anderson

said there were “vague discussions in

the meeting about how to address Mr.

Giuliani’s continued calls for a corrup-

tion investigation.”

Both he and head Ukraine diplomat

William Taylor agreed it was important

not to ask the Ukrainians to commit to

specific investigations like those Giulia-

ni had called for.

Anderson and Croft’s insight could

be helpful to Democrats hoping to learn

more about the dual strategies that the

U.S. was taking on Ukraine — the official

one and the operation that multiple offi-

cials have told lawmakers hinged on the

country investigating a political rival of

the president.

Officials tried to avoid ‘sordid

Giuliani efforts,’ lawmaker says

Speaking to reporters, Rep. Gerry

Connolly, D-Va., said the testimony

from diplomats and national security

officials showed that civil servants

wanted to “separate themselves from

having anything to do with” what he

called the “shadowy, sordid Giuliani ef-

forts” in Ukraine.

“It is my strong impression that she

made it very clear she wished to be sep-

arated from that mess,” he said of Croft.

Asked what role he thought Presi-

dent Donald Trump played in the pres-

sure campaign, Connolly suggested he

played a direct role.

“Given the relationship between Mr.

Giuliani and President Trump, one has

to assume all of this had the approba-

tion, if not the actual initiation of the

President himself,” Connolly said.

“If I were an enterprising reporter, I

would spend a little time on the issue of

Javelin missiles,” he added, alluding to

the security aid withheld from Ukraine.

The two diplomats appeared before

the congressional committees despite

attempts by theTrump administration

to block various witnesses Democrats

have called before them, including one

witness earlier this week who filed a

lawsuit in hopes that the courts could

help guide witnesses as the legislative

and executive branch face off.

Members of Congress gather to

debate impeachment resolution

Also Wednesday, Democrats and Re-

publicans got their first chance to face

off on impeachment as they bickered

over a resolution outlining procedures

for the impeachment inquiry as it moves

forward to its next phase, which will be

in public.

The 13-member House Rules Com-

mittee, featuring nine Democrats and

four Republicans, crammed into a small

room with blue and gold walls to weigh a

number of proposed GOP changes to the

eight-page resolution.

“This is a sad day,” Chairman Jim Mc-

Govern, D-Mass., said opening the

hearing. “I never wanted our country to

get to this point.”

The committee, which normally

doesn’t attract headlines, fought over

subpoena powers for Republicans, due-

process rights for the president, how

impeachment has been handled histori-

cally and plans for public hearings in the

House Intelligence Committee.

Reporters stood outside the room,

hoping for access that was only granted

to a handful of journalists who could fit

into the small room that features a large

crystal chandelier flanked by two small-

er chandeliers. Staff members for law-

makers lined the walls and photogra-

phers sat on the floor cross-legged.

Pelosi: Time for Republicans to

put country over party

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ap-

plauded the previous witnesses in a

Wednesday morning tweet.

“We’ve learned so much about

Trump’s months-long campaign to

pressure Ukraine because military vet-

erans & his own national security aides

stood up to tell the truth,” she wrote.

She also called for Republicans to “do

the same” as the witnesses.

“They put their country ahead of ev-

erything else. It’s not too late for Repub-

licans in Congress to do the same,” she

continued.

State Dept. officials share testimony

Diplomats could clarify

administration’s actions

Christal Hayes and Nicholas Wu
USA TODAY

Catherine Croft, State Department special adviser for Ukraine, arrives for a

session before House committees Wednesday.SHAWN THEW/EPA-EFE