85
analyst, Andrew Bakaj, hand-delivered the
letter informing the House Intelligence Com-
mittee of the complaint’s existence. The next
day, the committee’s Democratic chairman,
Adam Schiff, wrote the Acting Director of
National Intelligence, demanding he release
the complaint, and was rebuffed. The Di-
rector of National Intelligence later testi-
fied that the White House counsel had told
him he could not release the whistle- blower’s
complaint to Congress because it was cov-
ered by executive privilege. Schiff went pub-
lic. Facing a subpoena, the DNI finally re-
leased the complaint to Congress on Sept. 25.
FIona hIll FIrst heard the news at the
airport in Newark after arriving from an ex-
tended visit to her native England, a long-
awaited break after her previously scheduled
July 19 departure from the White House. Her
flight had no wi-fi, and as she scrolled through
news stories that noted Congress wanted to
hear from “current and former” Administra-
tion officials involved in the Ukraine matter,
she knew her brief respite from the chaos of
the Trump Administration was over.
During the following weeks, key House
committees set out on an official impeach-
ment inquiry, requesting testimony from of-
ficials ranging from Vindman and Sandy to
Pompeo, Mulvaney and Sondland. Trump’s
political appointees fought back. In an Oct. 1
letter, Pompeo called Democrats’ requests to
depose five current and former State officials
“an attempt to intimidate, bully, and treat
improperly, the distinguished professionals
of the Department of State.” When the com-
mittees sought testimony from Laura Coo-
per, one of the Defense Department officials
who had grappled with Trump’s suspension
of military aid, one of her political bosses sent
a note reminding her of the Administration-
wide direction that Executive Branch per-
sonnel “cannot participate in [the impeach-
ment] inquiry under these circumstances.”
The public servants made up their own
minds. One of the remarkable aspects about
their efforts—from Ukraine hands like Marie
Yovanovitch and Bill Taylor to more obscure
government employees like the analyst or
Mark Sandy—is that as deeply as they may
have felt about the dangers of the President’sTHE SENATE
GOP leader Mitch
McConnell, center,
addresses impeachment
ahead of a likely trial
in January