After two dramatic days of closed-door depositions, House investigators are hitting the pause button Thursday in honor of the late congressman Elijah E. Cummings, the former chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee.
The Maryland Democrat will lie in state in the Capitol on Thursday ahead of a funeral in Baltimore on Friday. But debate over the fairness of the inquiry is continuing unabated, with Trump and his Republican allies airing grievances Thursday morning.
Democrats, meanwhile, are looking to make the proceedings public by mid-November as they build a case about Trump pressing Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden at a time when U.S. military aid was being withheld.
●U.S. ambassador to E.U. “does not recall” threatening Ukraine over funding, attorney says.
9:15 a.m.: Hoyer says Trump will have opportunity to defend himself at Senate trial
House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said Thursday that Trump will have ample opportunity to defend himself once a trial is held in the Senate.
Hoyer, during an appearance on MSNBC, responded to Republican critics of the House impeachment process who have argued it is unfair to Trump.
“Frankly, [Supreme Court] Chief Justice Roberts will preside over the trial,” Hoyer said. “That’s in America … where you get the chance to call witnesses, to present evidence, to cross-examine the people who are asserting wrongdoing, That’s when you get that chance, not now.”
Hoyer also dismissed GOP critics who have called for a vote to formally open the impeachment inquiry.
“They’re going to get a vote. They’re going to get a vote on the floor. That’s the only way impeachment can happen,” Hoyer said.
8:45 a.m.: Grisham says Trump ‘very supportive’ of GOP storming hearing room
Grisham said Thursday that Trump was “very supportive” of the Republicans who stormed the secure room where depositions are being taken and prompted a five-hour delay Wednesday in the testimony from a witness.
“It was great, and the point was well taken,” Grisham said during an appearance on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends.” “I think this showed full support for the president.”
The move came after Trump urged congressional Republicans this week to “get tougher and fight” against his impeachment.
Under House rules, only members of the three committees involved in the impeachment inquiry are allowed to attend the closed-door depositions. Both Democrats and Republicans who are on the committee are being given opportunities to question witnesses, but Republicans have argued that the process should be more open.
Their protest Wednesday was intended to convey that message.
“He was happy to see it happen,” Grisham said of Trump. “He was very supportive of it, as he should be.”
During the interview, Grisham also said Trump did not regret using the term “human scum” to describe Republicans who’ve opposed his presidency known as “Never Trumpers.”
“No, no he shouldn’t,” she said. “The people who are against him and have been against him and working against him since the day he took office are just that. … They deserve strong language like that.”
8:15 a.m.: Swalwell says ‘very key witnesses’ in inquiry have talked to one another
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), a member of the Intelligence Committee, said Thursday that House investigators have “direct evidence” that “very key witnesses” in the impeachment inquiry have talked to another about their testimony.
Swalwell made the comments during an interview on CNN in which he defended the use of closed-door depositions, which he described as “a first pass” at gathering information that will later become public.
“We have evidence, very recently, that there are witnesses in our case who are talking to each other,” Swalwell said. “That’s exactly what we don’t want to happen until we have that preliminary investigation. We don’t want them to tailor their testimony to each other. We don’t want them to manufacture alibis. So we’re trying to protect the information as much as we can before we bring it forward to the public.”
Pressed for elaboration, Swalwell said more could be said in a few weeks.
“We have direct evidence that very key witnesses in this case have talked to each other about their testimony,” he said.
8 a.m.: House investigators pause depositions in honor of Cummings
House investigators have postponed additional depositions until Saturday in honor of Cummings.
The Maryland Democrat will lie in state in the Capitol on Thursday ahead of a funeral Friday in Baltimore, where scheduled speakers include former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, as well as former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Depositions resume Saturday with testimony from Philip Reeker, acting assistant secretary for European and Eurasian affairs, according to an official working on the impeachment inquiry.
On Monday, the three House committees conducting the inquiry expect to hear testimony from Charles Kupperman, former deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs.
Timothy Morrison, special assistant to the president and senior director for Europe and Russia in the National Security Council, is expected to appear in a closed session on Thursday. Morrison was on the July 25 call between Trump and the Ukrainian president.
7:20 a.m.: RNC chairwoman says impeaching Trump is ‘all Democrats have wanted from the start’
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on Thursday sought to portray Democrats as having had designs on impeaching Trump long before the Ukraine scandal emerged.
In a tweet, she quoted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) saying, “None of us came to Congress to impeach a president.”
“Oh really?” McDaniel wrote in her own words, before citing two Democrats who called for Trump’s impeachment long ago, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.). Tlaib generated headlines in January after she expressed her desire to see Trump impeached on her first day in office, using a profane term.
“This is all Democrats have wanted from the start!” McDaniel wrote in her tweet.
Pelosi resisted calls from many in the Democratic caucus to formally launch impeachment proceedings until the details of the Ukraine controversy came to light.
7 a.m.: Democrats eye Bolton as key witness
As Democrats prepare to hold public hearings in the impeachment inquiry, many are eyeing John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, as a key witness.
Bolton, who was ousted last month, made known around the White House his visceral opposition to the campaign to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which was directed in part by Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani.
Testimony from Bolton could be particularly devastating for the White House, though it remains unclear whether Democrats would subpoena him or when. After Bolton resigned, he told The Washington Post that he would “have my say in due course.”
— Rachael Bade and Karoun Demirjian
6:30 a.m.: Trump returns to Twitter for another post-midnight airing of grievances
For the second day in a row, Trump turned to Twitter after midnight to air grievances about the impeachment process, calling it a “Witch Hunt” and lashing out at the “Do Nothing Dems” who are leading it.
Trump also highlighted the move by Republicans on Wednesday to storm the secure room at the Capitol where testimony is being taken from witnesses in the impeachment inquiry. That included a retweet of House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), who participated in the protest, which delayed a deposition for five hours.
“If people scatter out of a room when you walk in & turn on the light, it begs the question: What are they hiding in there?” Scalise tweeted. “That’s exactly what happened when my colleagues & I entered the backroom Schiff is trying to impeach @realDonaldTrump from to get the truth. Unacceptable!”
6:15 a.m.: House Republicans seek public testimony from whistleblower
House Republicans are calling for public testimony from the whistleblower whose complaint sparked the inquiry.
In a letter Wednesday to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), three leading Republicans expressed concerns that he had backed away from publicly announced plans to have the whistleblower appear before House investigators behind closed doors.
Schiff has since said it may not be necessary to hear from the anonymous U.S. intelligence official because other witnesses have corroborated information in his complaint.
“As the so-called impeachment inquiry gathers information that contradicts the employee’s allegations, we ask that you arrange for the Committees to receive public testimony from the employee and all individuals he or she relied upon in formulating the complaint,” says the letter, signed by Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio), Devin Nunes (Calif.) and Michael T. McCaul (Tex.).
They are the top Republicans, respectively, on the Oversight and Reform, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees.
6 a.m.: Sanders expressed hope for ‘a fair trial’ in the Republican-led Senate
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) expressed hope Wednesday night that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would “do the right thing” and allow “a fair trial” in the Republican-led Senate if Trump is impeached by the Democrat-led House.
Appearing on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” Sanders, a Democratic presidential hopeful, said he thinks there is “a strong case for impeachment.”
“I think the House will impeach him,” Sanders said. “I hope they do. The trial comes to the Senate. And I hope, I just hope, that the Republican leadership allows for a fair trial, and lets the American people and the Senate make their decision.”
“I hope McConnell will do the right thing,” Sanders added.
“He’s never done the right thing before, though,” Kimmel interjected.
“Right,” Sanders said. “Maybe I’m being overly optimistic here, but bottom line is you have a president in my view who is probably the most corrupt president in the modern history of this country.”
Sanders said that many of his Republican colleagues have been “intimidated and frightened by this president.”
“With very few exceptions, they don’t have the guts to stand up and tell the truth about what’s going on,” he said. “I hope that in this process, some of these Republicans understand that the future of this country is more important than just Donald Trump.”