Here's A Dog Walking Itself On Capitol Hill — And Everything Else You've Missed During Impeachment Inquiry

What does the inquiry into the impeachment of President Donald Trump possibly have in usual with your dating life? Ghosting and checking receipts, apparently.


Let’s explain: This was the initial beginning week that Democrats released transcripts of the closed-door hearings involved in the inquiry to the public. Up until right now, we didn’t know a ton about what happened in the basement of the capital, indoors a room called the Sensitive Compartmented Statistics Facility (SCIF) — other than the short statements witnesses like Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a staffer and top Ukraine expert for the National Security Council, released and whichever some of the people in the room told reporters after the testimonies. These newly-released transcripts issue the complete dialogue of what went down in these interviews.


Yet for as several transcripts as we right now have, there really are plenty of other, newer holes in the patchwork: To continue with the trend of Trump administration witnesses refusing to sit for interviews, several more ghosted their testimonies this week, including former national security adviser John Bolton, national security council legal advisor and deputy counsel to the president for national security affairs John Eisenberg, and White Residence aide Robert Blair.


All along, Republicans have complained about the perceived lack of transparency surrounding the impeachment process so far — they wanted the transcripts at the very least. Yet as soon as they got what they wanted, the receipts weren’t what they expected. We’ll get into that down below.


To catch you up:


On August 12, a whistleblower sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr and California Representative Adam Schiff detailing a July 25 phone call in which President Donald Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to dig up dirt on his potential political rival and former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, as well as to investigate an agency involved in the FBI inquiry of Russia’s 2016 election interference. Trump allegedly dangled $400 million in aid to the nation along with a personalized meeting between the two leaders as leverage. The White Residence released a memorandum (read: not an exact transcript) of the call that confirmed this.


On September 24, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the Home of Representatives would file a formal impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump. Last week (November 31), The Residence of Representatives voted to “affirm” the impeachment investigation soon after obtaining heavy blowback from Republicans for not officially authorizing the proceedings.


Between that time, a bipartisan committee has been busy investigating, which requires calling plenty of people in for questioning. Within the past few weeks, they’ve heard from plenty of witnesses, including Ambassador Bill Taylor, the best diplomat in Ukraine; Fiona Hill, Trump’s top Russia advisor; and Gordon Sondland, the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a staffer and top Ukraine expert for the National Security Council, testified on Tuesday (October 29), and on Wednesday (October 30) Residence investigators spoke to Catherine Croft, who served as a director for the National Security Council covering Ukraine from July 2017 to July 2018. Christopher Anderson, a foreign service officer in the State Department, also testified, and Tim Morrison, the best Russia expert on the National Security Council, resigned on Wednesday (October 30) and then testified on Thursday (October 31). Messy!


So what happened this week?


Monday, November 4


Congress released a transcript of its October 11 interview with Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine who was allegedly ousted amidst pressure from Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personalized lawyer. Yovanovitch had testified that Giuliani and former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko attempted to have her removed because she was working to get rid of corruption in the nation. Congress also released a transcript its October 16 interview with Michael McKinley, a former top adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who mentioned that he resigned immediately after a “puzzling and baffling” lack of support for Yovanovitch from the U.S. Government. His testimony served largely to bolster Yovanovitch’s claims. Also on Monday, Lev Pernas, one of Giuliani’s associates who allegedly played a key role in the Ukraine scandal, agreed to cooperate with impeachment investigators.


Tuesday, November 5


Before we get into what is likely the most interesting thing that happened in impeachment news this week, I'd like to take a moment to celebrate this dog that showed up on Capitol Hill carrying their own leash. May we remember them in the annals of history for their steadfast commitment to independence.


Anyway.


Remember how Gordon Sondland, the American ambassador to the E.U. And Trump donor, gave his testimony to investigators on October 17? This testimony caused a lot drama indoor within the beltway because not only was it the most beneficial testimony to the President, nevertheless it directly contradicted accounts by some of the other witnesses. While Republicans wanted all the transcripts of the conversations between witnesses and investigators to be released, they were intimately excited for this specific transcript. So, it was a little bit of a shock that, whenever the transcript of that October testimony was released on November 5, it came letter along with a three-page addendum by Sondland that revised what he had mentioned in his interview, and planned new evidence about how the Trump administration was directly pressuring the Ukrainians. Sonland originally told investigators that he didn’t know anything about whether the U.S. Withheld military aid to Ukraine to coerce an investigation, and mentioned there was absolutely no quid pro quo that he knew of. Nevertheless, in these new pages, he mentioned that not only did he know about the quid pro quo, nevertheless that he was the person who communicated the quid pro quo from the U.S. To the Ukrainian government.


Wednesday, November 6


Impeachment investigators dropped the deposition transcript of Bill Taylor, a former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, in which Taylor mentioned Trump directed officials to hold foreign aid to Ukraine up until the nation investigates the Bidens. Home Democrats also reported they'll hold public impeachment hearings next week, so we’ve got that to look forward to.


Right-wing news site Breitbart attempted to out someone they believe to be the whistleblower, and Donald Trump Jr. Tweeted out the story. Absurdity ensued on The View. If you’re not sure in case you need to also begin naming whistleblowers, here’s a good rule to follow: don’t.


Thursday, November 7


The Residence released the testimony of George Kent, a State Department official in charge of Ukraine policy, who told investigators that he was replace of foreign policy decisions as well as other experienced diplomats categorize in attempt to create room for Giuliani’s decision-making. He mentioned that Trump’s demand for investigations was intimately political and that Trump wanted Zelensky to name “Clinton” in connection with potential wrongdoing. No other witnesses have said the Clintons in relation to the Ukraine call that we know of.


Jennifer Williams, a national security aide to Vice President Mike Pence who listened to the now-infamous Trump-Zelensky call, appeared on Capitol Hill to answer questions about Pence’s involvement in the scandal. Her testimony was maybe the last one to be contained in back of closed doors, so we won’t know all of the specifics up until the transcript is released.


Friday, November 8


White Residence Chief of Personnel Mick Mulvaney was called to testify on Friday, nevertheless he dipped before the hearing was set to start. “This morning, one minute before his scheduled deposition was to begin, Mr. Mulvaney’s outdoors counsel informed us that his client had been directed by the White Residence not to abide by the duly authorized subpoena and asserted ‘absolute immunity,’” an official Instructed them Hill.


This isn’t the opening time the White Home has tried to leverage the President’s executive privilege as a umbrella for his aides, whom Deputy Assistant Attorney General James Burnham has previously called the “alter ego of the President.” Judges are set to rule on whether that holds, following two concurrent hearings that were contained on October 31.