Tag: Trump abuse of power

Fiona Hill says Sondland was engaged in politics, not foreign policy

Hill also aide chides Republicans for peddling ‘fictions’ on Ukraine, Russia

Fiona Hill, a Russia expert who worked on President Donald Trump’s National Security Council, on Thursday said she came to understand that Trump’s ambassador to the European Union was on a “domestic political errand” and was not engaged in furthering the foreign policy of the United States.

In detailed testimony during the fifth day of public impeachment hearings into Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, Hill connected dots between current and former administration witnesses over the last eight days, delivering perhaps the most forceful testimony countering the Republican defense of Trump and his dealings in Ukraine.

Hill told the committee that her misunderstanding of Sondland’s responsibilities led to tension between the two.

View the complete November 21 article by Patrick Kelley on The Roll Call website here.

Impeachment hearings live updates: Hill said she told Sondland that his efforts in Ukraine would ‘blow up’

Washington Post logoFormer White House adviser Fiona Hill testified Thursday that she had warned Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, that his efforts in Ukraine on behalf of President Trump would “blow up.”

Hill, a Russia expert who reported directly to John Bolton when he was national security adviser, was testifying alongside David Holmes, a top staffer at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, before the House Intelligence Committee as part of the impeachment inquiry.

Democrats are seeking information to bolster the case that Trump sought to leverage U.S. military aid to Ukraine and a White House visit by President Volodymyr Zelensky in exchange for investigations of former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, among others.

View the complete November 21 article by John Wagner and Felicia Sonmez on The Washington Post website here.

Testimony ensnares Pompeo in Ukraine scandal as he mulls political future

Washington Post logoSecretary of State Mike Pompeo became a major focus of the House impeachment inquiry Wednesday, with the recounting of emails and conversations linking him more closely to the effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate President Trump’s political rivals than previously known.

The accounts — provided in sworn testimony by the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland — prompted fresh calls for Pompeo to testify on Capitol Hill and explain his actions concerning a Ukraine policy that he has at times refused to discuss but defended as “wholly appropriate.”

Sondland said several senior U.S. officials knew about a “quid pro quo” linking a White House visit for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigations into Trump’s political rivals. In addition to Pompeo, he said, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and then-national security adviser John Bolton were aware of the effort.

View the complete November 20 article by John Hudson on The Washington Post website here.

House Republicans overlook oversight in Trump defense

Some experts view Republican questions at impeachment proceedings as a betrayal of Congress’ constitutional role

Tactics that House Republicans have used during the ongoing impeachment hearings to defend President Donald Trump’s interests come at a cost to Congress’ constitutional role as a check on the president, some congressional watchers warn.

Republicans clearly have a duty to test the credibility and potential bias of witnesses at the House Intelligence Committee and to vigorously object to what they see as an unfair and overly partisan process.

But some of Trump’s congressional allies have gone beyond that in ways that could ultimately abdicate the responsibility to do oversight of the executive branch to ensure the president doesn’t undermine U.S. policies and properly dispenses appropriated funds, experts say.

View the complete November 21 article by Todd Ruger on The Roll Call website here.

Fiona Hill Viewed Serving Trump as Risky. Now She’s an Impeachment Witness.

New York Times logoDr. Hill’s decision to be the president’s top adviser on Russia and Europe strained friendships, made her a target of conspiracy theories — and landed her in the center of the tumult over Ukraine.

WASHINGTON — Fiona Hill knew she was taking a risk in going to work for President Trump.

A British-born coal-miner’s daughter with a Ph.D. from Harvard, Dr. Hill is a respected Russia expert, former intelligence analyst and co-author of a 500-page book analyzing the psyche of its president, Vladimir V. Putin. So the prospect of working for a president who speaks admiringly of Mr. Putin and has expressed doubts that Russia interfered in the 2016 election gave her pause.

Her decision to join the National Security Council in April 2017 — and to stay for more than two years after Mr. Trump cozied up to Mr. Putin and publicly disparaged the nation’s intelligence agencies — strained friendships and made her a target of right-wing conspiracy theorists who spread rumors that she was a Democratic mole.

View the complete November 21 article by Sheryl Gay Stolberg on The New York Times website here.

Sondland’s bombshell testimony leaves Trump’s Republican allies scrambling

Washington Post logoThe White House and President Trump’s allies scrambled on Wednesday to contain the damage from new allegations from Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, whose testimony in front of impeachment investigators detailed an explicit “quid pro quo” with Ukraine at Trump’s ultimate directive.

The bombshell testimony from Sondland alleging that the president attempted to leverage an invite for Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky in exchange for an investigation into his political opponents forced the White House, which was not aware of his testimony in advance, to quickly recalibrate its defense of the president’s actions.

Administration officials immediately sought to emphasize that Sondland was relying in part on his own presumptions based on conversations with Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani — an argument echoed by GOP lawmakers later Wednesday — and that Trump himself never personally told Sondland about preconditioning $400 million in military aid to Ukraine or a coveted White House visit on the probes.

View the complete November 20 article by Seung Min Kim, Josh Dawsey and Kayla Epstein on The Washington Post website here.

Pentagon official testifies Ukraine inquired about military aid on July 25

Axios logoDefense Department official Laura Cooper testified in an impeachment hearing Wednesday that members of her staff recently brought her two unclassified State Department emails revealing that the Ukrainian Embassy had asked about U.S. military aid — which had by then been suspended — on July 25.

Why it matters: July 25 is the same day of President Trump’s infamous phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, though the emails from the State Department came after the morning call. Cooper’s testimony suggests the Ukrainians knew there was “some kind of issue” with the security assistance by July, and that they were aware the aid had been suspended by August.

  • The surprise revelation could potentially undermine a key Republican defense that Zelensky could not have felt pressure from Trump to carry out investigations into his political rivals because the Ukrainian president was not aware of the frozen aid.

View the November 21 article on the Axios website here.

In an Echo of Watergate and John Dean, an Adviser Points to Trump

New York Times logoTestimony by Gordon D. Sondland gave Democrats the crisp, accusatory lines they sought. But Republicans elicited an account of one conversation that they hope will help exonerate President Trump.

WASHINGTON — Gordon D. Sondland had not even finished his testimony on Wednesday before it was being called the “John Dean moment” of the President Trump impeachment drama. With the presidency on the line, a once-trusted lieutenant pointed the finger at Mr. Trump in a proceeding that could lead to Watergate-style charges of high crimes and misdemeanors.

For the first time, Mr. Trump’s critics got the sort of viral moments they have craved, crisp accusatory cancer-on-the-presidency lines uttered on camera that can now be played over and over again on social media and cable television, making clear just who was in charge of the campaign to pressure a foreign power to help bring down the president’s domestic political rivals.

“We followed the president’s orders.”

View the complete November 20 article by Peter Baker on The New York Times website here.

Sondland says he told Pence that Ukraine military aid appeared conditioned on political investigations

Washington Post logoVice President Pence was informed just before meeting with the president of Ukraine in September that a U.S. ambassador believed that stalled military aid to Ukraine probably would not be released until Ukraine agreed to announce political investigations sought by President Trump, the envoy testified Wednesday.

Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, told the House Intelligence Committee that he informed Pence of his fears just before the vice president met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Warsaw on Sept. 1, a meeting where Sondland anticipated that Zelensky was likely to ask about frozen U.S. aid.

The testimony is the first indication that Pence may have known that congressionally appropriated funds for security assistance were conditioned on a foreign power agreeing to open investigations to assist Trump’s political prospects. The Ukrainians were being pressured to announce probes into Burisma, a gas company that hired former vice president Joe Biden’s son, and a debunked assertion that their country interfered in the 2016 campaign, according to congressional testimony and text messages.

View the complete November 20 article by Rosalind S. Helderman and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

Ken Starr suggests Ambassador Sondland’s testimony could prompt GOP senators to ‘make a trip to the White House’ and ask Trump to resign

AlterNet logoIn the run-up to the release of Gordon Sondland’s opening statement for this Wednesday’s impeachment hearings, Fox News contributor Ken Starr suggested that Sondland’s testimony could cause GOP senators to push for President Trump’s resignation.

“The real issue is the senators are watching,” Starr said. “Are senators going to now say in light of what we hear today, it’s going to be a long day even with the ambassador alone, in light of what we have heard, ‘We need to make a trip down to the White House’?”

“That historic example set during the Nixon presidency,” Starr continued. “From what I’ve been able to glean I don’t think that’s going to happen. But obviously what happens today could—has the potential to be a game-changer.”

View the November 20 article from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.