Investigation focus shifts to lawyers
Democrats take inquiry vote and set the terms of impeachment proceedings
The House impeachment inquiry is zeroing in on two White House lawyers privy to a discussion about moving a memo recounting President Donald Trump’s phone call with the leader of Ukraine into a highly restricted computer system normally reserved for documents about covert action.
Deepening their reach into the West Wing, impeachment investigators have summoned former national security adviser John Bolton to testify next week. But they are also seeking the testimony of two other political appointees, John Eisenberg, the lead lawyer for the National Security Council, and Michael Ellis, a senior associate counsel to the President.
The impeachment inquiry is investigating Trump’s call in which he asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for a “favour” — one that alarmed at least two White House staffers who listened in on the July 25 call.
Trump asked Zelenskiy to investigate Democrats in the 2016 election and former Vice-President Joe Biden, a potential 2020 rival as the Trump Administration held up millions of dollars in military aid for the Eastern European ally confronting Russian aggression.
The lawyers’ role is critical because two witnesses have suggested the NSC legal counsel — when told that Trump asked a foreign leader for domestic political help — took the extraordinary step of shielding access to the transcript not because of its covert nature but rather its potential damage to the President.
Trump himself has repeatedly stressed that he knew multiple people were listening in on the call, holding that out as proof that he never would have said anything inappropriate. But the subsequent effort to lock down the rough transcript suggests some people in the White House viewed the President’s conversation as problematic.
Tim Morrison, outgoing deputy assistant to the President who handled European and Russian affairs at the NSC, told impeachment investigators yesterday that military aid to Ukraine was held up by Trump’s demand for the ally to investigate Democrats and Joe Biden.
Morrison testified that he was “not concerned that anything illegal was discussed” on the July 25 call, but said that after listening to what Trump said, he “promptly asked the NSC legal adviser to review it”. Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, a Ukraine expert at the NSC, had the same reaction. He and Morrison were both in the Situation Room in the basement of the West Wing listening in on Trump’s conversation with Zelenskiy. Vindman told impeachment investigators that he was alarmed by what he heard, grabbed his notes from the call and went to see Eisenberg.
“I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a US citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the US Government’s support of Ukraine,” Vindman said.
Vindman told investigators that the call included a discussion of Biden and Burisma — a reference to the gas company where Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, served on the board.
Vindman said Eisenberg, who is known in and outside the White House as a meticulous, deliberate lawyer, suggested moving the document that recounted the call to a restricted computer server for highly classified materials, according to a person who familiar with Vindman’s testimony.
The person was not authorised to publicly discuss it and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
Ellis, the other White House lawyer being asked to testify, was with Eisenberg when he made the suggestion to move the document into the more secure server.
Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, has declined to discuss how the White House handles classified materials, but denies that moving the memo about the call into the highly restricted N.I.C.E. server — which stands for NSC Intelligence Collaboration Environment — amounted to a cover-up.
Meanwhile, the House took its first formal vote on the impeachment inquiry yesterday, approving the process ahead for public hearings and possible drafting of articles of impeachment.
The 232-196 tally split along partisan lines, with all but two voting Democrats supporting the package and all voting Republicans opposed. One Republican-turned-independent joined Democrats in approving the package.
Democrats said they will largely follow rules used during the impeachment proceedings of presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. Trump and Republicans dismiss the process as a sham, and the President has directed his staff not to testify in the House inquiry.
“This is a very solemn day in the history of the country when the President’s misconduct has compelled us to move forward with an impeachment inquiry,” said Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee leading the probe.