Monday kicks off yet another marathon week of depositions in the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, with some high-profile names scheduled to appear before investigators.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry, former national security adviser John Bolton, and Acting Director of Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought are among the biggest names on this week’s schedule, as well as other lower-level administration officials caught up in Trump’s Ukrainian dealings.
However, Perry and Vought have said they plan to ignore legally binding congressional subpoenas and not show up for their testimony, according to the Washington Post.
Politico reported that National Security Council lawyer John Eisenberg — whom Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman testified tried to cover up Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president — also plans on ignoring a subpoena.
And it’s unclear if Bolton will show up, given that he is represented by the same lawyer as another Trump administration official who is refusing to show up for testify until a judge has ruled whether it’s necessary to adhere to the congressional subpoena.
Here’s what else is happening in impeachment news:
- Trump over the weekend continued to attack the whistleblower — whose complaint kicked off the impeachment probe. In a lie-filled rant from the White House lawn, Trump wrongly said that the whistleblower’s complaint was inaccurate and kept bringing up unconfirmed reports from right-wing media about the whistleblower’s identity — raising the possibility that Trump outs the complainant and risks his or her safety.
- In a string of tweets over the weekend, Trump went after House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, who he wrongly said “fraudulently made up” what Trump said on a call with the Ukrainian president on July 25. A simple scan of the transcript Trump released of the call show Schiff was accurate in his comments. Trump then went after GOP senators, who have finally settled on a defense of Trump’s conduct which boils down to, yes, there was a quid pro quo, but that’s not illegal. He also took aim at the media, which he said is protecting the whistleblower’s identity — offering yet more proof that Trump wants to out the whistleblower, ignore laws that protect people who sound the alarm about government misdeeds, and risk this person’s safety.
- Politico reported that Trump attempted to build a hotel and resort in Ukraine, but it never came to fruition, raising more questions about Trump’s animosity toward the country that is trying to ward off a Russian takeover.
Come back tomorrow for more impeachment news.
Published with permission of The American Independent.
