What to watch for in this week's public hearings.
Welcome back to the Impeachment Briefing. Today we’re looking ahead to a busy week of public testimony on Capitol Hill. |
- Impeachment investigators are exploring whether President Trump lied in his written answers to Robert Mueller during the special counsel investigation. If he did, it could be the basis for another article of impeachment.
- Mr. Trump said he might offer written answers about his dealings with Ukraine to impeachment investigators. “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!” he tweeted.
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What to watch for in this week’s hearings |
Nine witnesses are testifying in front of the House Intelligence Committee over three days this week. Here’s what we can expect, according to my colleague Michael Shear, who has been covering the hearings. |
- Morning session: Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council’s top Ukraine expert, and Jennifer Williams, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence.
- Afternoon session: Kurt Volker, the former special envoy to Ukraine, and Tim Morrison, the former top Russia and Europe expert on the National Security Council.
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Colonel Vindman, who told impeachment investigators that the rough transcript of the July 25 call between Mr. Trump and Ukraine’s president omitted crucial words and phrases, will be a complicated witness to diminish, Michael told me. |
| Colonel Vindman is important in the same way Marie Yovanovitch was, in how he presents to the public. He’s an Iraq War veteran. He comes across, at least from his testimony so far, as full of honor and duty and patriotism. We think he might show up again in his Army dress, his blue uniform with the medals on his chest. And he was one of three people on the July 25 call who are testifying on Tuesday, meaning it’s hard to criticize him as a secondhand witness. |
In the afternoon session, Mr. Volker is expected to address possible inconsistencies between his original testimony and what others have told investigators. |
Mr. Morrison, meanwhile, is seen by Republicans as one of the few witnesses approved by Democrats who may help bolster their case, Michael said. |
| Mr. Morrison is kind of a dual-hatted witness. On the one hand, he describes a lot of the same angst and alarm that some of the others do about the pressure campaign on Ukraine. But he is a Trump loyalist and a conservative hawk who also testified that he didn’t think the president did anything illegal or improper on the July 25 call with the president of Ukraine. Republicans, including Jim Jordan over the weekend, have latched onto him as a witness who is good for the president’s defense. |
- Morning session: Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union.
- Afternoon session: Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian affairs, and David Hale, the under secretary of state for political affairs.
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Mr. Sondland had to revise his original testimony to acknowledge a quid pro quo negotiation. And subsequent testimony from other witnesses about a phone call that Mr. Sondland had with Mr. Trump has made his appearance on Wednesday among the most anticipated, Michael said. |
| Mr. Sondland seems to be the person other than Mr. Giuliani with the most direct and frequent contact with the president about these issues. He’s a fascinating character because he doesn’t belong here. He’s not a diplomatic professional. He’s a megadonor, a rich guy with a chain of hotels in Portland who found himself playing diplomacy in a part of the world that isn’t even a part of the European Union, his domain. Democrats will say that they have evidence to suggest he wasn’t being forthright with them, and under oath in front of cameras and in front of the American public demand he tell them everything he knows. They hope his self-interest will win out and he’ll spill it all. |
- Fiona Hill, the former top Russia and Europe expert on the National Security Council, and David Holmes, an official from the American embassy in Ukraine who overheard the call between Mr. Sondland and Mr. Trump.
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Ms. Hill has described in some of the clearest terms of any witness the mechanisms that the shadow foreign policy channel used to pressure Ukraine. Most importantly, she brings proximity to the story, Michael said. |
| Ms. Hill has the potential to put the exclamation mark on the Democratic case. Instead of being the faraway victim that Ms. Yovanovitch was, Ms. Hill is the experienced hand inside the White House. Like with others testifying this week, she moves the story from across town at the State Department and across the world in Ukraine to mere feet from the Oval Office. She was part of the president’s own team, and a longtime veteran of these issues. It’s much harder for Republicans to undermine her credibility. |
- Using witness testimony, our graphics team put together a detailed explainer on the Trump administration’s dueling foreign policy channels on Ukraine — one side led by Rudy Giuliani and Mr. Sondland, and the other by officials such as Bill Taylor and Colonel Vindman.
- Top Republicans on the House Oversight and Intelligence Committees asked Senator Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican who joined calls between Mr. Trump and Mr. Sondland, to tell them about “any firsthand information" he has about Mr. Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. Mr. Johnson responded with a 10-page letter that questioned Colonel Vindman’s motives and denounced “bureaucrats” who don’t consider Mr. Trump a legitimate president.
- A fractured media culture has left many Americans struggling to figure out what is true, false or spin when it comes to impeachment news. Some are throwing up their hands and tuning it all out.
- An ABC News/Ipsos poll found that 70 percent of Americans think that asking a foreign leader to investigate a political rival is wrong. And 51 percent believe Mr. Trump should be impeached and removed from office.
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