Live updates: Trump denies witness tampering; State official says president asked about ‘investigation’ into Bidens – The Washington Post, Google News

Ukraine embassy staffer David Holmes has completed his closed-door testimony. It began around 3 p.m. Friday.

Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) Raised doubts about Yovanovitch’s commitment to the United States during an appearance on CNN late Friday, stating“That’s a tough question”when asked if there’s any question about the former US ambassador’s loyalty to the country.

The House Republican made the remark in an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo after noting Yovanovitch was born in Canada and has Ukrainian parents. )

Yovanovitch was born in Canada to parents who fled the Soviet Union and moved to Connecticut as a child. The 33 – year career diplomat has served presidents of both parties.

A White House readout of an April call between Trump and Zelensky that does not match the rough transcript released Friday was drafted before the call occurred and was never updated, according to a person briefed

The official readout – which said Trump “expressed his commitment” to work with the newly elected president to “strengthen democracy, increase prosperity, and root out corruption” – was based on talking points that the president did not follow, the person said.

After the call, the White House staff did not update the readout to reflect what Trump actually said – and what he left out, the person said.

In response to questions about the discrepancy Friday, deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley blamed National Security Council Ukraine expert Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who he said prepared the readout.

But Vindman was not responsible for making the final update to the readout, according to a person familiar with his account, who said he recalls that then-press secretary Sarah Sanders held onto the readout before turning it over for public release.

David Holmes, a career diplomat, told lawmakers Friday that he overheard a phone call in Kyiv between President Trump and Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union, during which Trump pressed for updates on the Ukrainians’ willingness to conduct an “investigation,” a day after Trump had asked Ukraine’s president to launch probes into former vice president Joe Biden and his son as well a debunked theory about The 2016 election.

Details of the July 26 conversation were disclosed by Holmes in his opening statement to impeachment investigators, which was obtained by CNN.

Holmes said that at the conclusion of the call, Sondland told him and other aides present that Trump does not “give a shit” about Ukraine and was primarily interested in the “Biden investigation” that was being pushed by Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Guiliani.

Holmes, the counselor for political affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, was with Sondland at a restaurant in Kyiv on July 26 when the ambassador called Trump to update him on the status of his meetings with Ukrainian officials in Kyiv, including with Zelensky.

Sondland told Trump, according to Holmes, that Zelensky would do “anything you ask him to” and confirmed that this included “the investigation.”

“So, he’s gonna do the investigation ? ”Asked Trump, according to Holmes. “He’s gonna do it,” Sondland replied.

Holmes told investigators he could hear the president’s voice through the earpiece of the phone. It wasn’t on speaker phone, but Sondland held it away from his head because it was so loud. The account of the new call has thrust a new fact witness with purportedly firsthand information into an impeachment inquiry that Republicans have attacked as lacking primary source evidence.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Said President Trump’s tweet attacking Yovanovitch was the “wrong thing” to do, adding, “he knows her strength and he was trying to undermine it . ”

“ Of course presidents appoint ambassadors, ”Pelosi said in an interview on CBS’s“Face the Nation. ”“ But people don’t insult people, especially when they’re giving testimony before the Congress of the United States. I think even his most ardent supporters have to honestly admit this was the wrong thing for the president to do. ”

Pelosi said Trump’s word’s carry a lot of weight and that he should avoid frivolously throwing out insults.

“I think part of it is his own insecurity as an impostor. I think he knows full well that he’s in that office way over his head, ”Pelosi said. “And so he has to diminish everyone else.”

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) Said David Holmes, a political counselor at the embassy in Kyiv, clearly overheard Trump talking to Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland about investigations of the Bidens.

“He has some specific quotes that leave no doubt about what the president of the United States was thinking,” Lieu said, adding that he would like to see Holmes testify in public.

Acting US ambassador to Ukraine William B. Taylor Jr. revealed at a public hearing Wednesday that one of his aides overheard a phone call between Sondland and Trump in which they discussed the political investigations at the heart of the inquiry.

The Washington Post later reported that aide was Holmes. Lieu said that two additional people also heard the call because Sondland was at a luncheon with several embassy aides.

As the hearing unfolded, some of the pre sident’s supporters sought to present a united front online, flooding social media with precise and coordinated messaging.

One line in particular gained traction on Twitter: “I hired Donald Trump to fire people like Yovanovitch. ”

The statement gained about 12, 600 interactions – meaning tweets, Retweeted, mentions and replies – during a roughly 2½-hour period on Friday morning, according to analysis conducted by Marc Owen Jones, a disinformation researcher and assistant professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Doha, Qatar. It continued to spread through much of the afternoon, appearing on other major social media platforms, such as Facebook, as well as on Trump-friendly message boards on 4chan.

The line echoed the defense mounted by the White House and congressional Republicans that it was the president’s prerogative to dismiss the career diplomat. And it picked up steam as Trump assailed Yovanovitch with a mid-hearing tweet of his own.

Dialing up the volume on the single line was evidence of the discipline that is a hallmark of Trump’s online followers.

While the online mantra appeared to originate with an authentic user, some of its amplification seemed to exhibit coordinated activity that alarmed researchers. Jones said it was unusual to see a tweet copied and pasted without attribution “on such a large scale from so many accounts.” Many of the accounts in question were created in January 2017, further pointing to the possibility of a centralized campaign.

Addressing reporters after Friday’s public hearing, Rep. Elise Stefanik (RN.Y.) said she disagreed with Trump’s disparaging tweet about Yovanovitch, but added it does not amount to witness intimidation.

The focus, Stefanik said, should remain on impeachment, which is a “constitutional matter.”

“You can disagree or dislike the tweet, but we are here to talk about impeachment, and nothing in that room today and nothing in that room earlier this week – nothing rises to the level of impeachable offenses, ”she said. “This is wishful political thinking by Democrats, this is not the first or last tweet they’re going to complain about.”

Stefanik was the first GOP lawmaker to question Yovanovitch in the five-minute rounds, and her inquiries sought to get the witness to confirm statements helpful to Republicans’ defense of Trump.

Several Democrats on Friday accused Trump of trying to intimidate Yovanovitch during her testimony. Asked if she found the tweet to be intimidating, Stefanik emphasized that while she disagreed with the tone, Yovanovitch was “still able to answer questions.”

“I happen to disagree with the Tweet – but again, as we know, Democrats want to continue making this a political food fight, ”she said.

The White House displaced blame for the discrepancy in the official readout offered in April of Trump’s first conversation with Zelensky and the memorandum of the phone call released earlier Friday, saying it was the fault of National Security Council Ukraine expert Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman.

“It is standard operating procedure for the National Security Council to provide readouts of the president’s phone calls with foreign leaders. This one was prepared by the NSC’s Ukraine expert, ”said White House spokesman Hogan Gidley.

Vindman, who was on both calls Trump had with Zelensky and provided damaging testimony against the president in his closed deposition, will testify publicly Tuesday and will certainly be asked about this.

The official readout after the initial call said Trump discussed rooting out corruption in Ukraine, but in the rough transcript Trump does not mention corruption at all.

With the public hearing over, House investigators are preparing to hear from another witness in a closed-door session, Ukraine embassy staffer David Holmes.

Holmes is one of two people believed to have overheard a July phone call in which Trump was said to have asked US ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland about “the investigations” sought from Ukraine into Trump’s political rivals.

Trump has told reporters that he has no recollection of the call. *********************

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) Told reporters after the hearing that Trump’s disparaging tweet directed at Yovanovitch was “part of a broader and incriminating pattern of conduct.”

“The president’s attack on a witness today is not something we view in isolation,” Schiff said. “This is part of a pattern to intimidate witnesses.”

Other Democrats suggested earlier Friday that Trump’s tweet could form the basis for a separate article of impeachment.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) Gaveled the open hearing to a close after praising Yovanovitch’s service and courage.

In closing remarks, Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif), the top Republican on the panel, disparaged the proceedings as a “show trial.”

Applause and cheers rang out as Yovanovitch got up to leave the hearing room .

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) pressed Yovanovitch about criticism in 2016 from several Ukrainian officials of then-candidate Donald Trump – but Yovanovitch said the comments didn’t, in her view, constitute election interference.

Jordan, a staunch Trump ally, listed a number of negative comments several Ukrainian officials made about Trump and asked Yovanovitch whether she could see why Trump was frustrated and therefore justified in being skeptical of Ukraine.

“No one did anything,” Jordan said, asking if “you see why maybe, maybe the president was a little concerned about what went on in Ukraine.”

Yovanovitch responded: “I can’t speak for the president on this. … From my point of view, that doesn’t create a Ukrainian government strategy to interfere in our election. … “It doesn’t necessarily constitute interference.”

Asked to respond to allegations that he committed witness tampering by tweeting dispar agingly about Yovanovitch during her testimony, Trump pivoted and said the real tampering was done by the Democrats for not allowing the White House lawyers to ask questions or the Republicans to call their own witnesses.

) “I have the right to speak. I have freedom of speech, just as other people do, ”Trump said, when pressed by reporters at the end of a White House event on lowering prescription drug prices.

A reporter asked Trump if he was trying to intimidate Yovanovitch with his tweets, but Trump ignored the question, repeating, “I just want to have a total – I want freedom of speech.”

A reporter asked the question again several times, then asked whether he believed his words could be intimidating.

“I don’t think so at all,” he said.

Trump also criticized the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry more broadly, saying it was getting in the way of getting other things done.

“I think it’s considered a joke all over Washington and all over the world, ”he said.

“ In all of your years of service, you ever come across a president … or known of colleagues who were asked by an American president to have to help that President get an American investigated overseas? ”Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.) Asked Yovanovitch.

“I’m not aware of that,” she replied.

Yovanovitch was recalled from Kyiv in May, well before Trump personally asked Zelensky for the “favor” of investigating Hunter Biden, the son of the former vice president.

But Castro posed a hypothetical : “If a president asked you to investigate the former vice president for this purpose, what would you have said?”

“I mean, with what I know today, I would have said no, ”Yovanovitch said, adding,“ There are channels for conducting proper investigations, and that would have been the best way to handle something like this. But certainly it would be, it’s bizarre for a president to ask that some American be investigated by another government. It’s very unusual. ”

“It’s like a Hallmark movie – you ended up at Georgetown; this is all okay, ”Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) Cheekily started his questioning, seeming to ridicule Republicans who have argued that Trump had every right to dismiss Yovanovitch, who is now serving as a fellow of Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.

Quigley asked her a series of questions about her earlier plans to remain in Kyiv through the end of her tour of duty. “There’s nothing wrong with Georgetown. It’s a fine place, right? ”Quigley concluded.

“ It’s a wonderful place, ”Yovanovitch replied.

“ But it’s your only choice, at the end of a distinguished career, ”Quigley said. “After all that, it’s not the end of a Hallmark movie. It’s the end of a really bad reality-TV show, brought to you by someone who knows a lot about that. ”

Many in the room, recognizing the reference to the star of “The Apprentice,” chuckled.

In response to a Republican lawmaker’s question, Yovanovitch said that it is appropriate for the United States to investigate foreign corruption but that there’s a regular process to follow for doing so, suggesting the way Trump sought to do it was irregular.

“I think it is appropriate if it is part of our national strategy. What I would say is that we have a process for doing that. We have one with Ukraine. Generally, it goes from our Department of Justice to the Ministry of Justice in the country of interest, ”Yovanovitch said.

Rep. Chris Stewart (RN.J.) also asked Yovanovitch if she had any information regarding Trump accepting bribes or being involved in any criminal activity at all.

Yovanovitch answered “no” to both .

Under questioning from a Republican lawmaker, Yovanovitch questioned why the president had to “smear my reputation” – even as she confirmed his right to fire her.

Rep. Brad Wenstrup (Ohio) sought to have Yovanovitch confirm, as other Republicans had before him, that ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president.

“I obviously don’t dispute that the president has the right to withdraw an ambassador, at any time, for any reason, ”she said,“ but what I do wonder is, why it was necessary to smear my reputation? ”

Wenstrup responded curtly before yielding his time back.

“Well, I wasn’t asking you about that, but thank you very much, ma’am.”

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Trump’s tweet attacking Yovanovitch in the middle of her testimony “was not witness intimidation, it was simply the president’s opinion, which he is entitled to . ”

Other Republicans had mixed reactions to Trump’s tweet.

“ I’d rather not be attacking the poor career Foreign Service officers who are just trying to do a good job, ”said Rep. Francis Rooney (Fla.)

Rep. K. Michael Conaway (Tex.) Said, “It’s not something I would do,” but declined to say whether it was witness intimidation.

But Rep. Lee Zeldin (NY) said the Trump has the right to defend himself.

Other Republicans on Capitol Hill declined to comment, while still others said they hadn’t seen Trump’s tweets.

Alexandra Chalupa, a former Democratic National Committee consultant, pushed back at GOP accusations that she was working with Ukraine to get dirt on Trump during the 2016 election and said she had instead raised concerns about Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s relations with Russia.

“For the record: I have never worked for a foreign government,” Chalupa tweeted. “I have never been to Ukraine. I was not an opposition researcher. In 2008, I knew Manafort worked for Putin’s interests in Ukraine. I reported my concerns about him to the [National Security Council] in 2014 & sounded the alarm bells in 2016. ”

Chalupa has said the Ukrainian embassy was helpful when she sought information about Manafort but that the country was not trying to interfere in the US election.

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) Advanced the conspiracy theory in his opening statement, accusing Democrats of ignoring “Ukrainian election meddling even though Chalupa publicly admitted to the Democrats’ scheme.”

Republicans included Chalupa on the list of witnesses they wanted called in the impeachment inquiry.

Yovanovitch is scheduled to appear at an open hearing of the House Intelli gence Committee beginning at 9 a.m.

She was recalled from her post in May after facing an onslaught of attacks from right-wing media. With encouragement from Giuliani – but with no evidence – conspiracy theorists painted her as an enemy of the president who used her power to covertly undermine him and assist Democrats.

In an Oct. 11 closed-door deposition, Yovanovitch said that she remained worried that she would be a target of retaliation by Trump, who referred to her in a July 25 phone call with Zelensky as “bad news” and someone who was “going to go through some things.”

House investigators also expect to hear in a closed-door session starting around 3 pm Friday from Holmes. He is an embassy staffer referred to Wednesday in testimony by William B. Taylor Jr., acting ambassador to Ukraine.

Holmes is one of two people believed to have overheard a July phone call in which Trump was said to have asked US ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland about “the investigations” sought from Ukraine into Trump’s political rivals.

Trump has told reporters that he has no recollection of the call. *********************

It remains unclear when the White House might release a transcript of a call between Trump and Zelensky that took place in April, shortly after Zelensky had been elected president.

That’s a few months before the July call that has been central to the impeachment inquiry in which Trump pressed Zelensky for investigations that could benefit him politically at a time when US military aid was being withheld from Ukraine.

Witnesses in the impeachment probe familiar with the first call have described it as relatively innocuous.

) Trump has pledged to release the transcript by the end of the week. He first suggested it would be released Tuesday and then Thursday. It hadn’t been released by Friday morning.

As the historic public impeachment hearings kicked off Wednesday with televis ed testimony that threatens Trump’s tenure in office, more than 13 million people tuned into broadcast and news networks while an untold number streamed the event online.

For some critics, however, the opening day of the hearings came up short. It “lacked the pizazz necessary to capture public attention,” according to an NBC News analysis. “Unlike the best reality TV shows – not to mention the Trump presidency itself – fireworks and explosive moments were scarce,” Reuters reported. One Fox News commentator called it “a tepid bore.”

These assessments did not sit well with Comedy Central host Trevor Noah.

) “Impeachment is like a family reunion,” Noah said Thursday night on his show. “If it’s sexy, something has gone horribly wrong.”

Noah wasn’t the only one Thursday to attack coverage that focused more on the hearing’s entertainment value than the substance.

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel sought to play down the significance of Yovanovitch’s planned testimony on Friday, noting that she had already been removed from her position by the time of Trump’s July call with Zelensky.

“So the first hearing we heard witnesses who had hearsay of hearsay of hearsay, and now we’re going to hear from somebody who wasn’t even there when the call took place,” McDaniel said during an appearance on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends.” “I mean, it is so ridiculous. Democrats are grasping at straws. ”

McDaniel said Republican members of the Intelligence Committee should ask Yovanovitch what she knows about Hunter Biden’s service on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, while his father was vice president. That is among the issues Trump pressed Zelensky to investigate.

In his Washington Post column, Fareed Zakaria explained the backstory of how Zelensky planned to announce the investigations sought by Trump on his CNN show. The interview eventually was canceled.

“His team apparently concluded that since he was planning an interview with me anyway, that would be the forum in which he would make the announcement, though neither he nor any of his team ever gave us any inkling that this was their plan, ”Zakaria wrote. “However, after my meeting with him in Kyiv, my team began to discuss potential logistics of the interview with his team – time and place.”

Read Zakaria’s columnhere.