It’s the first day of impeachment hearings with two sets of witnesses, for a total of four in the day, and the House Intelligence Committee is back for round two. The afternoon hearings feature witnesses Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, and Tim Morrison, a National Security Council Europe and Russia expert.
Volker resigned in September after his name showed up in the whistleblower’s complaint and texts with Rudy Giuliani. The full set of texts involving Volker and other members of Trump’s diplomatic team showed how extensive the effort to pressure Ukraine into interfering in the 2020 election was, with Volker texting gems like “Hi, Mr Mayor! Had a good chat with Yermak last night. He was pleased with your phone call. Mentioned Z making a statement. Can we all get on the phone to make sure I advise Z correctly as to what he should be saying? We want to make sure we get this done right. Thanks!”
Morrison insisted to House investigators that he didn’t hear anything illegal on the Trump-Zelensky phone call, but he did worry that if it leaked, there would be “adverse ramifications.” Morrison was repeatedly looped in on the pressure campaign against Ukraine.
Tuesday, Nov 19, 2019 · 8:28:35 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Schiff opens by making a point that both Morrison and Volker were witnesses requested by the Republicans. Do expect the Republican reps to have parts of both men’s testimony they really want to retread. But also expect that they’ll be back to railing about process, probably before they get past Nunes.
Tuesday, Nov 19, 2019 · 9:00:25 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Volker says his meeting with Zelensky in Toronto wasn’t to make him buckle under to the demands Trump made, but to let Zelensky know “we had a problem” coming from Giuliani. Which seems like a very different perspective on Volker’s role than that presented by Sondland and others, Volker presents his position is one who was urging Zelenksy do the same anti-corruption things he had done in the past, rather than follow the demands for specific investigations.
Tuesday, Nov 19, 2019 · 9:01:47 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Note that Volker says he met with Giuliani and told him that Lutsenko was unreliable — and Volker says Giuliani knew that Lutsenko was unreliable — but Devin Nunes is still citing Lutsenko as an authoritative source in this hearing.
Tuesday, Nov 19, 2019 · 9:17:19 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Volker’s own attempt to “thread the needle” and say he held “a distinction” between investigating Burisma and investigating Biden still seems like a very fragile perch. He clearly understood the two were connected … but it seems like he was stretching to find a way to make Trump happy and give Ukraine something they could sign onto.
Tuesday, Nov 19, 2019 · 9:31:51 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Ha! Democratic counsel Daniel Goldman points out that Morrison didn’t go to his supervisor before talking to Eisenberg. It’s almost as if talking to the NSC legal adviser about legal matters wasn’t something that had to be run by every single boss.