Tag: House Impeachment hearings

More Than 70 Million Americans Watched Impeachment Hearings

More than 70 million Americans watched at least some portion of the House impeachment hearings on television over the past two weeks, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

The numbers, complied by Nielsen, do not include those who watched the hearings on C-SPAN or PBS, nor does it include millions who watched through streaming services.

NBC News told the L.A. Times that its streaming services recorded almost 10 million “starts” for the impeachment hearings.

View the complete November 27 article by Dan Desai Martin on the National Memo website here.

4 takeaways from Marie Yovanovitch’s testimony

Washington Post logoMarie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who was ousted from that job in April amid a smear campaign, testified Friday in the second public impeachment hearing into President Trump.

Below are some takeaways from what happened in the hearing.

1. Trump’s alleged ‘witness intimidation’ — and GOP blowback

Perhaps the most colorful moment in the hearing came in the 10 o’clock hour. President Trump — whom the White House had said would not be watching the hearing beyond Republican Devin Nunes’s (Calif.) opening statement — tweeted about Yovanovitch.

View the complete November 15 article by Aaron Blake on The Washington Post website here.

‘Unimaginable’ that GOP lawmaker Jim Jordan didn’t know about sexual assaults at Ohio State: CNN legal analyst

AlterNet logoAppearing on CNN’s New Day with host Christi Paul, a trial lawyer said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) likely knew about sexual assaults occurring at Ohio State University years ago when he served as a coach at the school.

Reacting to news that a referee has come forward in a lawsuit saying he told Jordan the team doctor masturbated in the shower in front of him, yet Jordan took no action, CNN legal analyst Page Pate cast doubt on Jordan’s claim he had no idea what had been going on in light of hundreds of claims that have been filed.

“Let’s talk about the college wrestling referee who now says he complained to Ohio State wrestling coaches about one of the athletic doctors but they did nothing about it,” Paul began. “One of those at the time was Jim Jordan. The referee is at least the second one who told Jordan about the alleged behavior by Dr. Richard Strauss. Congressman Jordan denies knowing about any of the allegations. I know in the lawsuit, Jordan isn’t even listed as one of the OSU authorities authorized to take corrective action. Does that mean anything for Jordan at this point?”

View the complete November 9 article by Tom Boggioni from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

4 big takeaways from Bill Taylor’s full transcript

Washington Post logoHouse Democrats on Wednesday released the impeachment inquiry’s full testimony of the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, William B. Taylor.

We already knew Taylor was the first U.S. official to indicate that an explicit quid pro quowas communicated to top Ukrainian officials, based upon his publicly released opening statement. That claim that has since been confirmed by White House aide Tim Morrison and European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland, who personally conveyed the quid pro quo.

Below are some takeaways from Taylor’s full testimony.

View the complete November 6 article by Aaron Blake on The Washington Post website here.

House to hold public impeachment hearings next week

The Hill logoHouse Democrats announced Wednesday that they will hold their first public impeachment hearings next week, marking an escalation of their investigation into President Trump‘s dealings with Ukraine.

Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said that lawmakers initially plan to call in three witnesses as Democrats begin making their case to the public that Trump pressured a foreign power to investigate political opponents.

Schiff said that William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, and George Kent, a top State Department official, will testify next Wednesday. Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch is then expected to testify next Friday.

View the complete November 6 article by Olivia Beavers on The Hill website here.

Impeachment Probe Eyes Mulvaney’s Office in Early Effort to Hold Up Ukraine Aid

When the Trump administration first decided to send anti-tank weapons to Ukraine, Mick Mulvaney’s OMB put a mysterious, previously-unreported hold on the sale.

When the Trump administration first decided to sell Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, officials at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) moved to temporarily pause the effort, according to multiple sources briefed on the matter.

The unusual move didn’t just foreshadow the huge fight that has President Donald Trump now facing impeachment. It also caught the eye of congressional investigators in the impeachment inquiry. This summer, OMB delayed the provision of a second shipment of military aid to Ukraine. An Intelligence Community whistleblower pointed to the Trump administration’s decision to temporarily hold up the aid as a source of concern about alleged efforts to extort Ukraine. Democrats responded by opening an impeachment inquiry.

In 2017, with the enthusiastic support of Defense Sec. Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the Trump administration moved to greenlight sending of over $40 million worth of Javelin anti-tank missiles to Kyiv. But enthusiasm for the move wasn’t unanimous; in late 2017, as the interagency process moved forward, OMB temporarily gummed it up.

View the complete November 1 article by Betsy Swan and Sam Brodey on the Daily Beast website here.

Democrats threaten contempt after White House official refuses to testify

The Hill logoHouse Democrats are threatening to charge a key witness in their impeachment investigation with contempt after he defied a subpoena and failed to show up at the Capitol Monday morning.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said the lawsuit filed by Charles Kupperman, a deputy to former national security adviser John Bolton, questioning his obligation to appear before Congress “has no basis in law” since Kupperman is now a private citizen. 

Schiff said Democrats will forge ahead with their impeachment investigation, vowing not to let the White House bog their investigation down in the courts.

View the complete October 28 article by Mike Lillis and Olivia Beaver on The Hill website here.

House Democrats subpoena EU ambassador blocked from Ukraine testimony

Axios logoThe chairs of the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees have subpoenaed U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland, who was blocked by the Trump administration from testifying in their Ukraine investigation on Tuesday, to turn over documents by Oct. 14 and appear at a deposition on Oct. 16.

The big picture: The chairs said in a statement that the State Department’s decision to stop Sondland from testifying will be considered evidence of obstruction in their impeachment inquiry. They added that the State Department is withholding relevant messages from Sondland’s personal device about the Trump administration’s interactions with the Ukrainian government.

“These actions appear to be part of the White House’s effort to obstruct the impeachment inquiry and to cover up President Trump’s misconduct from Congress and the American people.  Ambassador Sondland’s testimony and documents are vital, and that is precisely why the Administration is now blocking his testimony and withholding his documents.”

— Chairmen Adam Schiff, Eliot Engel and Elijah Cummings

View the complete October 8 article by Zachary Basu on the Axios website here.