The House Intelligence Committee has additional evidence of Mike Pence’s knowledge of what was going on in Ukraine, thanks to testimony from Pence adviser Jennifer Williams. Following her public testimony, Williams remembered specific information about phone calls between Pence and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and brought it to the Intelligence Committee. But that information isn’t part of the report that the committee produced at the end of the impeachment inquiry—because Pence has classified the material.
According to Politico, Intelligence chairman Rep. Adam Schiff has stepped up the attempt to release this information. In a letter to Pence, Schiff states that “The Office of the Vice President’s decision to classify ‘certain portions’ of the Sept. 18 call … cannot be justified on national security or any other legitimate grounds we can discern.” The letter presents Pence with a December 11 deadline to declassify the material so that it can be included in the impeachment information going forward.
Williams was not only a witness to Pence’s call to Zelensky, but one of several direct witnesses to Donald Trump’s July 25 phone call to the Ukrainian president. Her — entirely accurate — description of that call earned Williams’ attacks from Trump following her testimony along with claims that she is a “Never Trumper” on the same day that Trump described Never Trumpers as “scum.”
The information that she provided on Pence’s call is described by a committee aide as “corroborative evidence,” which may simply mean that it supports what’s already known about Pence’s relatively tame communication with Zelensky. On the other hand, the fact that it was classified suggests that it either covers some area which hasn’t yet been made public, or corroborates some portion of testimony made by other member’s of Trump’s team in Europe.
In earlier testimony, Williams described Pence’s call with Zelensky as “positive” and said it did not contain any mention of the investigations demanded by Trump. It’s unclear if this new information changes any portion of that assessment.