This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/23/us/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry.html

The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 3 Version 4
Republicans Grind Impeachment Inquiry to Halt as Picture Darkens for Trump Republicans Grind Impeachment Inquiry to Halt as Evidence Mounts Against Trump
(about 3 hours later)
WASHINGTON — House Republicans ground the impeachment inquiry to a halt for hours on Wednesday, staging an attention-grabbing protest at the Capitol that sowed chaos and delayed a crucial deposition as they sought to insulate President Trump against mounting evidence of misconduct. WASHINGTON — House Republicans ground the impeachment inquiry to a halt for hours on Wednesday, staging a protest at the Capitol that sowed chaos and delayed a crucial deposition as they sought to deflect the spotlight from the revelations the investigation has unearthed about President Trump.
The day after the most damning testimony yet about Mr. Trump’s pressure campaign to enlist Ukraine to smear his political rivals, House Republicans stormed into the secure office suite where impeachment investigators have been conducting private interviews that have painted a damaging picture of the president’s behavior — and refused to leave. Chanting “Let us in! Let us in!” about two dozen Republican members of the House pushed past Capitol Police officers to enter the secure rooms of the House Intelligence Committee, where impeachment investigators have been conducting private interviews that have painted a damaging picture of the president’s behavior.
Chanting “Let us in! Let us in!” about two dozen Republican lawmakers — most of whom are not on the committees conducting the inquiry and are therefore not entitled to attend their hearings — pushed past Capitol Police officers to enter the secure rooms of the House Intelligence Committee, which is leading the investigation. Republicans who are on the committees have been in on the hearings from the start and have had the chance to hear from all the witnesses. They refused to leave, and the standoff in the normally hushed corridors was marked by shouting matches between Republican and Democratic lawmakers and an appearance by the House sergeant-at-arms, the top law enforcement official in the chamber.
After several contentious hours marked by shouting matches between Republican and Democratic lawmakers and an appearance by the sergeant-at-arms, the top law enforcement official in the Capitol, Wednesday’s witness began testifying. Laura K. Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, answered questions for more than three hours before the panel wrapped up its work for the day. After waiting about five hours for the protest to break up, Laura K. Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, answered questions for more than three hours before the panel wrapped up its work for the day.
Across the Capitol, leading Republican senators who have become resigned to the prospect of serving as jurors in the impeachment trial of their own party’s president were struggling to cope with the revelations about Mr. Trump. “This is a Soviet-style process,” declared Representative Steve Scalise, the No. 2 House Republican. “It should not be allowed in the United States of America. Every member of Congress ought to be allowed in that room. The press ought to be allowed in that room.”
“The picture coming out of it, based on the reporting that we’ve seen, I would say is not a good one,” Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Republican, told CNN. “But I would say also that until we have a process that allows for everybody to see this in full transparency, it’s pretty hard to draw any hard and fast conclusions.” Roughly a quarter of House Republicans are members of the three panels conducting the inquiry, and have been allowed to participate in the private depositions and interviews from the start. But most of the Republicans who rushed the secure rooms on Wednesday morning are not committee members.
His comments came a day after Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, denied a claim by Mr. Trump that the senator had told the president that a telephone call he had with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, which has become a crucial focus of the inquiry, was “perfect” and “innocent.” Mr. McConnell said he could recall no such conversation. The protest came a day after the most damning testimony yet about Mr. Trump’s pressure campaign to enlist Ukraine to smear his political rivals, which unfolded even as Mr. Trump met privately at the White House with ultraconservative Republicans who promised aggressive measures to defend him against the impeachment onslaught.
In the House, Republicans were rushing to Mr. Trump’s defense as the president has publicly demanded, as they protested the inquiry and insisted on access. In his testimony on Tuesday, William B. Taylor Jr., the top American diplomat in Kiev, effectively confirmed Democrats’ main accusation against Mr. Trump: that the president withheld military aid from Ukraine in a quid pro quo effort to pressure that country’s leader to incriminate former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and smear other Democrats.
“This is a Soviet-style process,” declared Representative Steve Scalise, the second-ranking House Republican. “It should not be allowed in the United States of America. Every member of Congress ought to be allowed in that room. The press ought to be allowed in that room.” Ms. Cooper appeared under subpoena, in defiance of the Defense Department, which has said it would not cooperate in the inquiry. Lawmakers said her testimony was less dramatic and more technical than Mr. Taylor’s, and gave a narrower view of the suspension of aid at the heart of the inquiry. But Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the Intelligence Committee chairman, who is leading the inquiry, said the panel was “grateful that the witness is a real professional and has come forward notwithstanding the obstacles.”
Some of the Republicans brought their cellphones into the secure room, which is not permitted and considered a security breach. The sergeant-at-arms, the top law enforcement officer in the Capitol, was called in to handle the situation as Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, attempted to intervene. Across the Capitol, leading Republican senators who have become resigned to the prospect of serving as jurors in the impeachment trial of their party’s president were struggling to explain away the revelations about Mr. Trump.
The standoff stretched into the afternoon as protesting Republicans ordered pizza and fast food for the throng of reporters assembled to witness their spectacle. It came the day after the explosive testimony of William B. Taylor Jr., the top American diplomat in Ukraine, who effectively confirmed Democrats’ main accusation against Mr. Trump: that the president withheld military aid from Ukraine in a quid pro quo effort to pressure that country’s leader to incriminate former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and smear other Democrats. “The picture coming out of it, based on the reporting that we’ve seen, I would say is not a good one,” Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Senate Republican, told CNN. “But I would say also that until we have a process that allows for everybody to see this in full transparency, it’s pretty hard to draw any hard and fast conclusions.”
Democrats said the timing was no coincidence, and characterized the Republican disruption — “sit-in, stand-in, call it whatever you want,” said Representative Harley Rouda, Democrat of California — as a desperate attempt to deflect attention from the damaging testimony. On Tuesday, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, denied that he had told Mr. Trump that a telephone call the president had with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was “perfect” and “innocent.” The call is a crucial focus of the inquiry, and Mr. Trump had said that Mr. McConnell had told him he approved of it. Mr. McConnell said he could recall no such conversation.
At the White House, Mr. Trump took to Twitter to assail Mr. Taylor and his lawyer John Bellinger — and to offer encouragement to Republican protesters. Indeed, some Republicans are growing increasingly uneasy about the inquiry, and fretting that it could get much, much worse for them. Publicly, they are taking their cues from the president, and Wednesday’s performance appeared intended to please Mr. Trump. The president has fumed publicly and privately that Republicans have not been tough enough in defending him, and has recently tried to undercut the inquiry by suggesting that the whistle-blower whose allegations touched it off is not credible or does not exist.
“Where’s the Whistleblower?” the president tweeted on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the senior Republicans on the three investigative panels involved in the inquiry formally requested that Mr. Schiff arrange for public testimony by the whistle-blower, and all government officials the whistle-blower relied on to compile that account.
Representatives Jim Jordan of the Oversight and Reform Committee, Devin Nunes of the Intelligence Committee and Michael McCaul of the Foreign Affairs Committee wrote to Mr. Schiff that the testimony was needed to “fully assess the sources and credibility of the employee,” given what they called “inconsistencies between facts as alleged by the employee and information obtained during the so-called impeachment inquiry.”
But some Republicans concede privately that it is difficult to mount an effective defense of Mr. Trump when much of the testimony and evidence available paints an unfavorable picture of the president, and there are few witnesses they could call who could credibly refute the accounts of a stream of administration officials who have testified.
The result has been a haphazard approach by Republicans defined mostly by public spectacles like Wednesday’s scene, which even some in the party said crossed the lines of propriety.
“This is nuts, they’re making a run on the SCIF,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, a close ally of Mr. Trump, referring to the Secure Compartmentalized Information Facility where the intelligence panel meets. “That’s not the way to do it.”
Mr. Graham later backtracked on Twitter, saying Republicans had been peaceful in their protest, and adding, “I understand their frustration and they have good reason to be upset.”
The pandemonium unfolding in the Capitol came amid other fast-moving developments in the inquiry. A federal judge ordered the State Department on Wednesday to release records related to Ukraine within 30 days to a government watchdog group.
And impeachment investigators leveled new demands of the State Department, requesting access to a relatively narrow set of communications, notes and memorandums related to Ukraine that could bolster damning witness testimony. Among the documents in question are summaries of key executive branch meetings, and diplomatic cables about Mr. Trump’s decision to freeze $391 million in security assistance for Ukraine.
The House, meanwhile, passed its third piece of legislation — the Shield Act — aimed at preventing foreign interference in American elections. But Mr. McConnell has indicated that he will not bring it up for a vote, and Mr. Trump threatened to veto it.
The day began with House Republicans rushing to Mr. Trump’s defense as the president has publicly demanded. About 9:45 a.m., not long after Ms. Cooper arrived, a parade of House Republicans, led by Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, marched into the bowels of the Capitol where a phalanx of reporters and television cameras were gathered outside the secure rooms.
One by one, they denounced the inquiry as a “sham,” in the words of Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona, as they demanded access to the room. Representative Earl L. “Buddy” Carter of Georgia issued a dire warning: “If a government can do this to the president of the United States, they can do it to you as well. You need to be scared. You need to be very scared.”
When they were done, they stalked off, barging through the ordinarily closed double doors into the secure space. Some brought their cellphones, which is not permitted and considered a security breach. Representative Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, later wrote to the sergeant-at-arms, asking him to “take action” against Republicans for what he called a “blatant breach of security.”
The standoff stretched into the afternoon as protesting Republicans ordered pizza and fast food for the throng of reporters assembled to witness their demonstration. Democrats noted that some of the protesting lawmakers were on relevant committees — and thus had the right to attend the deposition. Eventually, lawmakers were summoned to the House floor for a vote, which put an end to the sit-in.
Democrats said the timing of the protest was no coincidence, given Mr. Taylor’s testimony on Tuesday. They characterized the Republican disruption — “sit-in, stand-in, call it whatever you want,” said Representative Harley Rouda, Democrat of California — as a desperate attempt to deflect attention from the damaging testimony.
“They crashed a room where there were a bunch of Republicans getting ready to question a witness,” said Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, adding, “Their attempt to act like Freedom Riders is really an attack on the committee system in Congress.”
At the White House, Mr. Trump took to Twitter to assail Mr. Taylor and his lawyer, John Bellinger — and to offer encouragement to Republican protesters.
“Never Trumper Republican John Bellinger, represents Never Trumper Diplomat Bill Taylor (who I don’t know), in testimony before Congress!” the president wrote. “Do Nothing Democrats allow Republicans Zero Representation, Zero due process, and Zero Transparency.”“Never Trumper Republican John Bellinger, represents Never Trumper Diplomat Bill Taylor (who I don’t know), in testimony before Congress!” the president wrote. “Do Nothing Democrats allow Republicans Zero Representation, Zero due process, and Zero Transparency.”
For weeks now, lawmakers on three House committees — Intelligence, Oversight and Reform, and Foreign Affairs — have been conducting private question-and-answer sessions, which have produced a stream of compelling testimony from government witnesses, much of it confirming and expanding on the intelligence whistle-blower complaint that touched off the impeachment inquiry. For weeks now, lawmakers on the three House committees involved in the inquiry have been conducting private question-and-answer sessions, which have produced a stream of compelling testimony from government witnesses, much of it confirming and expanding on the whistle-blower complaint.
Those sessions are attended by both Democrats and Republicans, and both have an opportunity to question witnesses; more than 100 of the 435 members of the House are eligible to participate. Democrats have said that they plan to hold open hearings after the committees finish deposing witnesses, and that they intend to make public complete transcripts of witness testimony after they have been reviewed for classified material.Those sessions are attended by both Democrats and Republicans, and both have an opportunity to question witnesses; more than 100 of the 435 members of the House are eligible to participate. Democrats have said that they plan to hold open hearings after the committees finish deposing witnesses, and that they intend to make public complete transcripts of witness testimony after they have been reviewed for classified material.
But amid a drip-drip-drip of news accounts from the closed sessions, Republicans have grown increasingly frustrated, complaining that Democrats are controlling the narrative. For now, however, the inquiry has unfolded entirely behind closed doors, as has been the case in the preliminary stages of past congressional investigations conducted by members of both parties, including the one Republicans opened during the Obama administration into the attack on American diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012.
On Wednesday morning, Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida led a parade of his colleagues to the bowels of the Capitol, where Ms. Cooper was to be deposed in the secure room, known as a SCIF, for Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. Emily Cochrane, Catie Edmondson and Michael D. Shear contributed reporting.
Also on Wednesday, House impeachment investigators leveled new demands of the State Department, requesting access to a relatively narrow set of communications, notes and memorandums related to American policy toward Ukraine that could bolster damning witness testimony.
Among the documents in question are summaries of key executive branch meetings, diplomatic cables about Mr. Trump’s decision to freeze $391 million in security assistance for Ukraine, text and email messages among key figures in the inquiry, and other records created as Mr. Trump and his allies sought to pressure Ukraine into undertaking investigations into his political rivals.
“These documents include information central to the inquiry’s core area of investigation: the president’s efforts to press Ukraine to initiate investigations that would benefit his personal and political interests, and not the national interest,” wrote three Democratic committee leaders guiding the inquiry, Mr. Schiff; Representative Eliot L. Engel of New York, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee; and Representative Carolyn B. Maloney of New York, the acting chairwoman of the Oversight and Reform Committee.
In keeping with confidentiality rules around the investigation, the three Democrats did not specifically identify the documents in question, but they appeared to match descriptions of records referenced in recent days by key witnesses.
On Tuesday, Mr. Taylor told the committees that he kept detailed notes of his time in Kiev that allowed him to recreate a damning portrait of events in his testimony. He referred to memos, including a June 30 account of his conversation with the Ukrainian president, that could provide new and potentially explosive avenues of investigation for Democrats if they get their hands on them. He also discussed a late-August cable he composed “describing the ‘folly’ I saw in withholding military aid to Ukraine at a time when hostilities were still active.”
A lawyer for Gordon D. Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, indicated before his deposition with investigators that the ambassador had produced communications and other records to the State Department that he hoped would be handed over to investigators. They were not.
And another former State Department official told investigators that one of his former colleagues, George P. Kent, had written a memo documenting an early October meeting with a State Department lawyer about how to respond to the impeachment inquiry that had alarmed him.
The Democrats did not put a due date on their request, and for now have chosen not to issue a subpoena. The State Department defied an earlier, broader subpoena for a swath of potential records related to the case. It may be considerably more difficult for the department to justify not handing over documents matching the latest request, though, given the political pressure created by the testimony from Mr. Taylor, Mr. Sondland and others.
Nicholas Fandos, Emily Cochrane and Michael D. Shear contributed reporting.