Former Pompeo aide testifies; Senate given briefing on trial
Dem leaders walk out of explosive White House meeting on Syria
WASHINGTON >> 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 at the White House, churned as longtime State Department officials are speaking out under subpoena — some revealing striking new details — about the actions Trump, and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, took toward Ukraine that have sparked the House impeachment inquiry.
In another development reported by The New York Times, David Correia, who was charged last week in a campaign finance scheme along with three other
of Giuliani’s associates, was arrested on Wednesday morning in New York, officials said. Correia, 44, surrendered to FBI agents at 10:30 a.m. at Kennedy International Airport after he returned from an unidentified foreign country, officials said. He is charged with participating in a scheme to conceal the source of hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, according to the indictment unsealed last week.
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 he could no longer look the other way amid the Trump administration’s dealings with Ukraine, which 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, were not authorized to discuss it.
“I was disturbed by the implication that foreign governments were being approached to procure negative information on political opponents,” McKinley testified, according to a former colleague familiar with his remarks.
The impeachment inquiry revolves around a whistleblower’s complaint that Trump was pushing Ukraine’s leader into opening an investigation of a company connected to the son of Trump’s potential 2020 Democratic rival Joe Biden. It is illegal to solicit or receive foreign help in a U.S. election.
Among McKinley’s concerns was the administration’s failure to support Ukrainian Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, who was ousted in March on orders from Trump.
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, RN.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.
At the White House, congressional leaders abruptly
ended an explosive meeting with the president on the situation in Syria, when Trump called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a “third-rate politician,” according to Democrats. Pelosi said later the president was having a “meltdown.”
Trump kicked off the meeting bragging about his “nasty” letter to Turkish President Recep Erdogan, according to a Democrat familiar with the meeting who was granted anonymity to discuss it. In the letter, Trump warned the Turkish leader, with exclamation points, not to be “slaughtering” the Kurds. The person called Trump’s opening a lengthy, bombastic monologue.
Pelosi mentioned the House vote and Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, started to read the president a quote from former Defense Secretary James Mattis on the need to keep U.S. troops in Syria to prevent a resurgent of Islamic State fighters.
But Trump cut Schumer off, complaining that Mattis was “the world’s most overrated general. You know why? He wasn’t tough enough.” Trump went on, “I
captured ISIS.”
Schumer intervened at one point and said, “Is your plan to rely on the Syrians and the Turks?”
Trump replied, “Our plan is to keep the American people safe.”
Pelosi said: “That’s not a plan. That’s a goal.”
Trump turned to Pelosi and complained about former President Barack Obama’s “red line” over Syria before adding, “In my opinion, you are a thirdgrade politician.”
At that point, the genteel Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the House Majority Leader, interjected, “This is not useful.”
Pelosi and Hoyer stood and left the meeting. As they did, Trump said, “Goodbye, we’ll see you at the polls.”
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.
Volker provided text messages to lawmakers that revealed an effort at the State Department to push Ukraine’s leader into opening an investigation of the gas company Burisma connected to Biden’s son, Hunter, in return for a visit with Trump.
That effort soon escalated into what one diplomat feared was a quid pro quo for U.S. military aid. Trump has denied that, saying assistance to Ukraine was delayed to pressure the country into addressing corruption.
Another ambassador involved in those text message exchanges, Gordon Sondland, has been asked to appear today.
Pelosi, despite intensifying calls from Trump and Republicans to hold a formal vote to authorize the impeachment inquiry, showed no indication she would do so. She said Congress will continue its investigation as part of the Constitution’s system of checks and balances of the executive branch.
“This is not a game for us. This is deadly serious. We’re on a path that is taking us, a path to the truth,” Pelosi told reporters Tuesday.