Witnesses provide new details about efforts to oust the American ambassador to Ukraine and Giuliani’s shadow foreign policy efforts.
Two more witnesses are headed to Capitol Hill on Wednesday and, according to their draft opening statements, will provide more detail to impeachment investigators about the unorthodox ways in which Ukraine policy was being shaped at the White House.
Both witnesses — Catherine M. Croft and Christopher J. Anderson — worked as advisers to Kurt D. Volker, the United States’ special envoy to Ukraine, who resigned last month amid the controversy over President Trump’s phone call with the president of Ukraine.
Ms. Croft’s testimony shifts the timeline of when attacks on the American ambassador to Ukraine, Marie L. Yovanovitch, started, going back to as early as the summer of 2018. Ms. Croft said she fielded multiple calls from a former Republican congressman-turned-lobbyist, Robert Livingston, who pushed a narrative about the ambassador’s loyalty to Democrats. Ms. Yovanovitch was fired in May of 2019.
Mr. Anderson describes a June 13 meeting at the White House with Mr. Volker and the national security adviser at the time, John R. Bolton, in which concerns about Mr. Giuliani’s influence in United States foreign policy with Ukraine were raised. During the meeting, Mr. Anderson said Mr. Bolton cautioned that “Mr. Giuliani was a key voice with the president on Ukraine, which could be an obstacle to increased White House engagement.”
White House official tells lawmakers what was left out of the reconstructed transcript of the July phone call.
A former White House official on Tuesday who was on the July 25 phone call between Mr. Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine told impeachment investigators that crucial words and phrases were left out of the reconstructed transcript that was publicly released, raising questions about why they were not included. Mr. Trump has consistently pointed to the transcript of the call as evidence that he did nothing wrong.
The omitted phrases do not fundamentally change lawmakers’ understanding of the call, which was first reported by the C.I.A. whistle-blower whose complaint set off the impeachment inquiry.
Among the omissions, according to the witness, Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, was Mr. Trump’s comments that there were recordings of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Colonel Vindman also said at one point on the call, Mr. Zelensky specifically said the name of the energy company whose board employed Mr. Biden’s son Hunter Biden, Burisma Holdings.
In mentioning the tapes of the former vice president, Mr. Trump appears to be referencing Mr. Biden’s comments at a January 2018 event at a New York-based think tank.
Schumer calls for Army to protect Vindman from internal retaliation and outside threats.
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, implored the Army secretary on Wednesday to take steps to protect Colonel Vindman in light of his testimony to impeachment investigators about Mr. Trump’s actions toward Ukraine.
“He is a patriot for being willing to do what we hope and expect every service member will do: to tell the truth when asked,” Mr. Schumer wrote in the letter to Ryan McCarthy, the Army secretary. “It is incumbent on the Army to ensure that he is afforded the same protections as whistle-blowers and protected from reprisal for testifying before Congress.”
Mr. Schumer asked to be briefed on what specific steps the Army would take to protect Colonel Vindman from internal retaliation and outside threats.
Colonel Vindman is a Ukrainian-American whose family fled to the United States when he was 3. Some of the president’s allies in the conservative news media have questioned the patriotism of Colonel Vindman, who was awarded a Purple Heart after he was wounded in Iraq by a roadside bomb.
“These attacks are outrageous and unacceptable, but more importantly, this vitriol toward LTC Vindman may result in professional reprisals and threats to his personal safety and that of his family,” Mr. Schumer wrote.
— Nicholas Fandos