USA TODAY International Edition
IMPEACHMENT MANAGERS
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi selected seven lawmakers Wednesday to act as impeachment managers.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D- Calif.:
As chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Schiff played a key role during the House’s impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s actions on Ukraine. He is the lead manager of the impeachment trial. He was a prosecutor in the U. S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.
Rep. Jerry Nadler, D- N. Y.:
As chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Nadler ushered the articles of impeachment through his committee and onto the House floor for the historic vote. Nadler said there was a “mountain of evidence” that Trump “betrayed his country by trying to extort Ukraine.”
Rep. Jason Crow, D- Colo.:
An Army veteran and lawyer, Crow sits on the House Armed Services Committee. He was part of a group of House Democrats who said in a Washington Post op- ed in September that they’d support an impeachment inquiry if allegations about Trump’s conduct on Ukraine were true.
Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D- Texas:
A member of the House Judiciary Committee, Garcia played a public role during the impeachment hearings. She represents a Houston- area district and became one of the first Latinas to represent a Texas district when she was elected in 2018. Garcia was a judge in the Houston Municipal System.
Rep. Val Demings, D- Fla.:
A member of the Judiciary and Intelligence committees, Demings played a public role during the impeachment hearings. She was the first female Orlando chief of police and could bring her police experience to the proceedings. As a Floridian, she could help counter GOP criticism of impeachment as being led by lawmakers from only blue areas.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D- N. Y.:
A litigator in private practice before he ran for office, Jeffries sits on the Judiciary Committee and chairs the House Democratic Caucus, which has helped shape Democrats’ messaging on impeachment. His position makes him the highest- ranking lawmaker in the group. He said his role was to “present the truth to the American people.”
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D- Calif.:
A member of the House Judiciary Committee, Lofgren offers a unique perspective as a member who served in Congress during President Bill Clinton’s impeachment and as a staff member of the Judiciary Committee during the impeachment investigation of President Richard Nixon.
WASHINGTON – A top House Democrat demanded an investigation Wednesday into new evidence suggesting that former U. S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was under surveillance by associates of Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer.
The evidence emerged Tuesday when House Democrats released text messages and other documents gathered as part of the impeachment probe into Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine for an investigation into a political rival.
The text messages reveal that an associate of Giuliani’s, Lev Parnas, was in contact with Robert Hyde, a pro- Trump congressional candidate in Connecticut who claimed to have Yovanovitch under surveillance. Parnas worked with Giuliani to execute Trump’s Ukraine pressure campaign.
In March, Parnas sent Hyde articles critical of Yovanovitch, to which Hyde responded, “Wow. can’t believe Trumo ( sic) hasn’t fired this b****.”
Hyde sent Parnas a series of messages suggesting he had hired people in Ukraine to surveil the ambassador and was getting updates about her whereabouts and activities.
“She’s talked to three people. Her phone is off. Computer is off,” Hyde wrote in one message. In another: “They will let me know when she’s on the move.”
Rep. Eliot Engel, D- N. Y., the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called the messages “profoundly alarming” and said he would demand documents and a briefing from State Department officials.
“The messages suggest a possible risk to Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch’s security in Kiev before she was recalled from her post last year,” Engel said. Trump yanked her from her post early after Giuliani complained that she was obstructing efforts to get Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.
“This unprecedented threat to our diplomats must be thoroughly investigated and, if warranted, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Engel said.
Yovanovitch told lawmakers that she received a call in April from a State Deparment official, who told her she needed to leave Ukraine on the next flight home. “This is about your security. You need to come home immediately,” Yovanovitch said she was told.