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A TOP US official restricted access to the summary of Donald Trump’s Ukraine call that triggered an impeachment probe, fearing it would damage the president, testimony released yesterday showed.
White House Ukraine expert Timothy Morrison told House investigators he knew immediately how sensitive the call was when he heard Trump press Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former US vice president Joe Biden.
Morrison said in his 31 October deposition that he had asked National Security Council (NSC) lawyers to review the call because he thought it would be “damaging” if it leaked.
“I recommended to them that we restrict access to the package… that we did not need quite so many people to have access to the package,” said Morrison, who left the NSC a day before testifying.
The conversation, which took place on 25 July while the White House was withholding military aid to Ukraine, is central to the House impeachment inquiry into Trump.
Democrats leading the probe say the call summary shows the president abused his office by bullying a vulnerable ally into interfering on his behalf in the 2020 US election.
The investigation threatens to make Trump the third US president to be impeached, although the Republican-controlled Senate would need to convict him to remove him from office.
“The testimony released today shows that President Trump’s 25 July phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky immediately set off alarm bells throughout the White House,” Adam Schiff, the congressman leading the inquiry, said in a statement released jointly with other senior Democrats.
‘Unusual and inappropriate’
Morrison said however the summary had been placed on a highly classified system due to a “mistake” by White House staff – casting doubt on allegations that it was squirreled away as part of a deliberate cover-up.
He also broke with other witnesses who have spoken out against the call, telling House investigators he heard nothing wrong.
House investigators also released testimony yesterday from Jennifer Williams, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence, who told lawmakers Trump’s push for Ukraine to open investigations was “unusual and inappropriate”.
Williams listened in on the 25 July call and said the requests appeared to have been made to further Trump’s “personal political agenda” rather than US foreign policy goals.
“I guess for me it shed some light on possible other motivations behind a security assistance hold,” she added.
The depositions were made public as another official arrived on Capitol Hill to answer questions on the White House’s withholding of nearly $400 million in congressionally allocated military aid for Ukraine.
Mark Sandy was the first staffer from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to testify, rejecting a Trump administration directive not to cooperate.
OMB acting director Russell Vought and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who still has the title of OMB director, defied congressional subpoenas to appear.
Previous witnesses have testified that the money was delayed as part of a wider extortion plot to extract a public announcement from Zelensky that Biden was being investigated.
Smear campaign
The White House says Trump delayed the cash because of broad concerns over Ukrainian corruption but Mulvaney undermined this defense when he told reporters in October that there was indeed a “quid pro quo” of aid for investigations.
“That’s why we held up the money,” he said. “Get over it.”
Sandy told investigators he did not know why the assistance was held up but added that he had never seen such a move during his career at the agency, according to The Washington Post.
Sandy’s deposition caps a blockbuster week on Capitol Hill, in which the House of Representatives staged the first public hearings in the probe.
On Friday Marie Yovanovitch, a 33-year diplomatic veteran ousted by Trump, accused the president’s aides of undermining US foreign policy in Ukraine.
The ambassador testified that she was subjected to a “painful” smear campaign before being abruptly pulled from Kiev.
Trump was accused of witness intimidation, a crime punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison for normal citizens, after he launched an extraordinary real-time Twitter attack during her testimony.
The public impeachment hearings kicked off Wednesday with testimony by two senior diplomats including the current top envoy to Ukraine, William Taylor.
The gray-haired former Army officer and veteran diplomat testified that he was told by an aide that Trump cared more about the probe than he did about Ukraine.
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So Trump made the phone call because he was worried about Ukrainian corruption…. Lol…. Staggers belief
@James Doherty: Trump made the call because he wanted his opponent Joe Biden to be investigated….
@James Doherty: is that why he sacked the top USA ambassador, long experienced in corruption practises and brought in instead, three dodgy characters to work unofficially with another Ukrainian who had been found corrupt by his own country and the USA state department? Got it. Trump is a saint.
Stay deluded.
@James Doherty: The pretendsident beggars belief!
@James Doherty: The Pretendsident beggars belief.
@Unitedpeople: Agreed, Pretendsident Trump is toxic.
I think at some point, there will be a challenge to the OLC opinion that a sitting president cannot be indicted for a crime. It has the effect of putting the POTUS (of whatever party) above the law which was surely not it’s intention. That removal from office has never happened and ‘Impeachment’ has only happened twice before shows how restrictive the constitutional remedy is. The founders, for all their perceived wisdom, never envisioned a character like Trump in office. Even those before him (Bush 1&2, Clinton, Obama and Carter) suggested the weight of the office would temper his impulses. Evidently not.
What the US have now is a popularity competition available to only the very richest and well known combined with an inability to remove those they vote in no matter how bad s/he really is.
@lambda sensor: The result of, for lack of any better description, a sustained campaign to build a fascistic framework at all levels of US politics by various interests through the exploitation of widespread institutionalised low level corruption. We aren’t quite there yet but we’re well on our way, with the influence of many of those same interests funding and supporting groups here
Does The orange guy press the big red button in season 2
@Tony Henry: orange guy? Discrimination much?
@Caoimhín O Neill: google “discrimination” there’s a good lad.
@Caoimhín O Neill: Morto for you
The first couple of seasons won’t be able to compete with the reality of living thru this sic-com … but it’ll be worth sticking with it to get to rewatch the finale ..
@CAMILA REMONA: The script leaked already. They just lose the plot and start killing people off
So what you’re saying is Trump is undermining US policy in Ukraine, that it is his job and at his sole discretion to set in the first place and change as he sees necessary.
I know there’s a clamour to get him out, but they really could have tried harder to come up with an impeachable event than this. With the amount of spying they had going on and insiders working against him, surely they could have found something better than this, especially as he is supposedly the most corrupt and evil man ever to have held the Presidency.
@Burn_the_Witch: speaking of trying harder your deflection game could do with being stepped up burn. Phoning it in a bit lately.
@GMCManning: Ah sure you know Graham, the Ruble has been having a hard time of it lately, it’s hardly worth making the effort anymore.
@Burn_the_Witch: come on over to our side then, they pay better!
@GMCManning: Ye already have the media and a few good men such as yourself, but you can’t even hold a conversation with most on the dark side, so I’ll stick with the low pay and conditions. Besides, I don’t like losing very much, and they say the after party is not to be missed, and I missed the last one as I was too busy being a screaming liberal tearing my hair out, no word of a lie.
@Burn_the_Witch: Now there’s a conversation I’d love to have, how you went from being liberal to supporting Trump to the point of deflecting away from the things he has done wrong on every article about him. Pints and a quiet pub would be ideal, you should’ve let us know when you were visiting Cork.
@Diarmuid Hunt: I’ll happily get em in
@GMCManning&Diarmuid: I’ll be up for the Christmas shopping at some stage, but the Mrs mightn’t appreciate it. However I’m sure I can free up my diary for November 3rd, 2020. I’d rather spend the night with you guys just to see the look on yer faces. I’ll bring the man size tissues for ye.
@Burn_the_Witch: I just think it would be interesting, I’m not emotionally attached to your political views so I don’t know why tissues would be needed. I find it hard to believe you were ever a liberal and so I’d love to understand what changed your mind and figure out the progression that led you to where you are now.
@Diarmuid Hunt: I’m certainly far more liberal than conservative, always supported the dems since I became interested in American politics 30 odd years ago. I’ll put it to you like this, how can you still support the dems after all the lies and utter corruption of the Russiagate affair? Not saying you should support the Republicans, I certainly don’t, but the dems have zero credibility after the last three years. 3rd world levels of corruption coming out of that party. I only support Trump against the dems efforts to remove him at any cost. That’s not democracy.
@Burn_the_Witch: hehe…I’d genuinely be up for that but somehow doubt you’d actually turn up. Either way twould be hilarious as the results roll in. And your dishonest deflectionary characterisation of the dems is hilarious given Trumpys seemingly endless lies, corruption and endemically bankrupt in every way followers.
@Burn_the_Witch: I don’t support the Democrats or the Republicans but that is no reason for me to support or defend Trump either. The ‘russiagate’ affair has led to imprisonments, it is not all just some dreamt up conspiracy against Trump. Do you think Trump hasn’t lied? Do you think none of his dealings in his past have been corrupt? You defend Trump so vigorously and attack Dems so viciously and that is why I find it interesting that at some point you considered yourself a liberal. Disliking Trump does not mean that I automatically love the Democrats, it is not a situation where I have to choose one or the other. It is not a dichotomy and treating it as such is disingenuous.
@GMCManning: “dishonest, deflectionary characterisation of the dems”, that’s a brilliant piece of comedy right there Graham, well done. Problem is, you’re believing everything you’re being told. The dems are truly rotten to the core. I’m not going to convince you of that, wouldn’t waste my time unknotting the s?!t that goes on in there, instead I’ll leave it to CNN or ‘The Young Turks’ or wherever you get your American news to break it to you when the news eventually gets out. And it will.
I would love to meet up Graham, you’re a bit of a pop icon around here. It’s a 150km round trip though, so no promises. You’re always welcome out west though, beautiful at this time of year.
@Diarmuid Hunt: Yeah maybe you should look up what those arrests were for, and what they were not for i.e. anything to do with colluding with Russia. You sound like you only looked at this from a distance. The collusion with Russia is a complete fabrication. Do you still actually believe that? I’m stunned.
@Burn_the_Witch: pretty low bar for comedy but meh. Speaking of comedy I actually read Fox News way more (gutted when it got yanked off tv), always good to engage with those you disagree with and avoid echo chambers. Hint, hint. Where out whest? County only, not askin for ur address, as I do fair bit of wandering annoying politicians so ya never know mite be round your neck of da woods sometime.
@GMCManning: Keep the flattery up Graham and you never know.
@Burn_the_Witch: guess urself and Trumpy have that in common
Time for Trump to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue to test if his apologists continue to defend him,
it’s so wild in the White House these days.
But but what about Hilarys emails???
@Stevie Doran: Literally any day now and IG Horowitz will release his report. God only knows what he’ll say about it, but at least it will be finally put to bed.
Journal clutching straws
“Account suspended”
LOL. Imagine that? A trump bot with a suspended twitter account.
@Caoimhín O Neill: Another Trump supporter, fake account suspended.
Time for Orangutan Man to snuff someone on Fifth Avenue to test if his apologists continue to defend him, it’s so wild in the White House these days.
I couldn’t blame him. Calls with heads of state are sensitive. It appears that every call DT has is leaked. This is dangerous and undermines the US president. The swamp is proving tough to drain.
The hearing are going well for DT. No evidence of a crime. Most of ppl speaking out have foreign policy differences. In the case of Yovanovitch, she comes across as a disgruntled employee bitter after getting fired. Most of the witnesses didn’t even listen in on the call-they heard off a colleague who heard off a colleague. It appears the Dims are clutching at straws.
@JackSimpson: yup, imagine draining something you’re simultaneously filling must be pretty hard alrite.
@JackSimpson: I cannot believe that you believe the drivel that you have just written.
@JackSimpson: Aye, heads of state are sensitive calls – so for a start, it’s best not to take them or make them in a restaurant with people around, DOH!!!
@Tracy Moore: Well you obviously haven’t read/listened to any of the witness testimonies. If you had you’d know that it is a witch-hunt.
@JackSimpson: if it is then they seem to be finding lots of witches. Hope they keep it up. Mannafort, Cohen, Stone…
US President specifically used US tax payers money as bait to get a foreign government to come up with dirt on a US citizen political rival.
Greedy, self-centered, egocentric blowhard thought he could get away with it.
@JackSimpson: jack – listen to yourself.
@JackSimpson: Actually I have watched them all so far and all of the people testifying have been not only been people of good character and nonpartisan career diplomats but also extremely believable. You need to get out of whatever echo chamber you’ve been in since 2016 and start thinking for yourself instead of regurgitating the bile that you’ve been exposed to.
@Dave Hammond: that’s the last person he or anyone else should be listening to
@Tracy Moore: Anyone with a functioning brain (few and far between these days evidently) can see this is a hoax. How many witch-hunts does there have to be before you realise what is going on?! The whole thing is a farce:
1) The impeachment inquiry is headed by a man, shifty Schiff, with clear DTS.
2) Elites in Ukraine have repeatedly come out to say there was no quid pro quo;
3) Rights of republicans is limited, i.e. can’t get witnesses they want, can’t ask certain questions. Shifty is coaching witnesses.
4) Radcliffe asked all witnesses what crimes had been committed – none could answer. It appears they may have disagreed with DTs methods + foreign policy.
5) Most of witnesses only had 2nd or 3rd or 4th hand knowledge of call. Why not interview witnesses with 1st hand knowledge?
Etc
No s**t.They all know he’s screwed.
@Keith O’Reilly: funny thing is he’s prob not. He’ll walk away from this, prob more popular. No idea which is worse at this stage. Most Americans fall into one of the two parties and no matter what protect and vote that way.
Look at all the ‘Dems’ backing up HRC after saying the Gallard and Stein were Russian agents.
@Cormac Flanagan: sorry Gabbard.
@Keith O’Reilly: Wrong yet again Keith.
@Keith O’Reilly: Wrong again Keith. Never get tired?
have your say