Testimony continues; Senate talks timetable
WASHING TON» The swift-moving impeachment probe pushed onward Wednesday as a former top State Department aide testified that the Trump administration’s politicization of foreign policy contributed to his resignation, while the Senate GOP leader briefed colleagues on a possible Christmas impeachment trial.
The day’s events, interrupted by an explosive meeting with congressional leaders at the White House, churned as longtime State Department officials are speaking out under subpoena — some revealing striking new details — about the actions of President Donald Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, toward Ukraine that have sparked the House impeachment inquiry.
On Wednesday, Michael McKinley, a career foreign service officer and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s de facto chief of staff, told investigators behind closed doors that the Trump administration’s dealings with Ukraine were among the reasons he ended his 37-year career last week, according to multiple people familiar with the testimony, who, like others who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, was not authorized to discuss it.
Among those was the administration’s failure to support Ukrainian Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, who was ousted in March on orders from Trump.
McKinley decried the politicization of U.S. foreign policy, according to the people familiar with the testimony.
McKinley, who as a Latin America expert was not specifically involved in Ukraine, was also frustrated that there had been no response to an August inspector general’s report that found significant evidence of leadership and management problems, including allegations from career employees that Assistant Secretary of State Kevin Moley and his former senior adviser Marie Stull retaliated or tried to retaliate against them as holdovers from the Obama administration.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., told reporters outside the closed-door hearing that McKinley was complimentary about Pompeo’s role but did raise other issues.
“I think most of this is a concern by a colleague for an ambassador that he held in high regard,” Meadows said, declining to provide more details of the closed session.
Republicans are crying foul over the process of the impeachment inquiry, but as House Democrats press on with the investigation, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell briefed Republicans about the possible trial ahead.
McConnell warned of a possible House impeachment vote by Thanksgiving that would force a trial in the Senate, likely by Christmas.
He used slides and history lessons during a private Senate GOP lunch in the Capitol to talk about the process, according to a person familiar with the meeting.
Congressional leaders abruptly ended an explosive meeting with Trump at the White House on the situation in Syria, with Trump calling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., a “third-rate politician,” according to Democrats, and Pelosi saying the president was having a “meltdown.”
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said he knows his House colleagues didn’t run for office to conduct an impeachment investigation, but he said, “The facts that are already in the public domain are so deeply troubling and must be taken very seriously.”
Another key figure in the impeachment investigation, special envoy Kurt Volker, returned to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to review the transcript of his Oct. 3 testimony to investigators, according to a person familiar with his appearance.