An "urgent" congressional briefing taking place Wednesday between the State Department inspector general and lawmakers reportedly centers on alleged instances of political retaliation against career agency officials who wish to cooperate with Democrats’ impeachment inquiry. No details of that retaliation were immediately available, but the IG, Obama holdover Steve Linick, requested late Tuesday to meet with members of eight separate congressional committees to share certain documents related to the investigation into the State Department and Ukraine.
The briefing comes on the heels of sparring on Tuesday between several House committees and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who accused Democrats of trying to bully State Department officials into cooperating with their impeachment inquiry. Democrats issued their own response, ordering that Pompeo "immediately cease" his witness intimidation.
Of course, Pompeo is now a fact witness in the inquiry after he admitted Wednesday morning that he had indeed been on the phone call between Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, an admission Pompeo had dodged for weeks in multiple interviews.
Now it appears that political appointees at the agency, under Pompeo's direction, have been intimidating career diplomats who are trying to cooperate with the investigative requests made by House Democrats. Just one more instance of a cover-up related to Trump's supposedly "perfect" call.
Wednesday, Oct 2, 2019 · 8:43:42 PM +00:00
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Kerry Eleveld
UPDATE: Rep. Jamie Raskin, just out of the briefing, failed to make much coherent sense of the IG’s concerns. He said the IG turned over to lawmakers a package of propaganda used to undermine former U.S. Ambassador to the Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. Yovanovitch was recalled from Ukraine in May by Trump, who later called her “bad news.” She is scheduled to testify before the House Intelligence Committee next week.
Thursday, Oct 3, 2019 · 12:37:03 AM +00:00
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Kerry Eleveld
UPDATE: Here’s part of the House Intelligence statement on the briefing: “The briefing and documents raise troubling questions about apparent efforts inside and outside the Trump Administration to target specific officials, including former Vice President Joe Biden’s son and then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Masha Yovanovitch, who was abruptly removed as Ambassador in May after a sustained campaign against her by the President’s agent, Rudy Giuliani. [...] These documents also reinforce concern that the President and his allies sought to use the machinery of the State Department to further the President’s personal political interests.”
Also, it appears some of the disinformation documents were hatched by Rudy Giuliani.