Just another ‘manic Monday’ on Capitol Hill. Earlier today, two White House officials did not appear for their depositions, and a third is expected not to attend later today as scheduled. Shortly after, a letter from the Justice Department sent to Pat A. Cipollone, Counsel to the President yesterday, was released which concluded senior White House advisers have “absolute immunity” from congressional subpoenas for their testimony.
Just moments ago, the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees released transcripts from two hearings of the beginning of their ridiculous depositions lasting hours upon hours. The two transcripts released were testimonies of Marie Yavanovitch and Michael McKinley. Yovanovitch is former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine and McKinley is a former aide to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Fox News reports that Yovanovitch said “she learned from Ukrainian officials last November or December that Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, was in touch with Ukraine’s former top prosecutor Yuri Lutsenko, ‘and that they had plans, and that they were going to, you know, do things, including to me.”
As for McKinely, he said in his deposition that “part of the reason he resigned was he was a witness to State Department officials trying to dig up dirt on the president’s opponents-something he hadn’t seen ‘in 37 years in the Foreign Service.”
Last week the House passed a resolution laying out the impeachment process and rules which authorizes committees to make transcripts public in “advance of open hearings.” As these are just the first two transcripts of hundreds of hours and multiple witnesses being deposed, it remains to be seen which side of the aisle the testimonies will favor. Then again, as President Trump reminded everyone yet again on twitter today, “Read the transcript!”
Read the Transcript!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2019
