Here’s a catch-up post from the previous week. I took a much-needed vacation and came back to oh-so-much news! We’re starting to get depositions from witnesses to Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, so things should start moving more quickly now. Hopefully, we’ll be getting some public testimony soon.

Here’s what happened on the impeachment front for the week ending October 13…

General Happenings:

1. Several GOP politicians criticize Trump’s dealings with Ukraine around withholding military aid, but they also say nothing Trump did rises to the level of impeachable acts.
2. According to a memo written by the whistleblower, one White House official said Trump’s phone call with Ukraine was “crazy,” “frightening,” and “completely lacking in substance related to national security.” Several White House officials voiced concern that the call didn’t follow traditional diplomacy, with some feeling that it had crossed the line and was a criminal act.

• • Much of this memo comports with the public record of the call.

3. Trump ordered Energy Secretary Rick Perry and two top diplomats (Kurt Volker and Gordon Sondland) to circumvent official diplomatic channels and work directly with Rudy Giuliani to set up meetings between Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump.
4. After career staff at the Office of Management and Budget (OMD) questioned whether withholding military aid to Ukraine was legal, Trump shifted authority over those funds to a political appointee.
5. In a win for Trump, Ukraine President Zelensky says for the first time publicly that Ukraine is happy to investigate the far-right conspiracy theory that it was the Ukrainians, and not the Russians (as unanimously concluded by all our intelligence agencies), who interfered in our 2016 elections. Zelensky also encouraged officials to reopen investigations into Burisma.

• • At the same time, Zelensky insists that he isn’t Trump’s puppet and there was no blackmail.
  • He also says U.S. officials haven’t provided any evidence of Ukraine’s interference in the elections.

6. At least four national security officials brought their concerns about Trump’s pressuring Ukraine and about the call itself to a White House lawyer. One of their early concerns was the removal of Ambassador Maria Yovanovitch, followed by Giuliani’s conspiracy theories and indications that the White House wanted Ukraine’s new government to investigate the Bidens.
7. Andriy Yermak, a top advisor to Zelensky, says that political leaders from the U.S. have been peddling accounts about Ukraine that are ill-informed. He thinks these false narratives gave Trump an excuse to withhold military aid.
8. In a letter with dubious legal reasoning, White House counsel Pat Cipollone tells House members that the White House won’t cooperate with the impeachment inquiry.

• • He also accuses Democrats of wanting to overturn the 2016 election. It’s about three years too late for that, Pat.
  • The White House had already been blocking requests for documents and witness testimony.
  • Legal experts say the letter gives mostly political arguments rather than legal ones, and the arguments that are legal aren’t legally valid.
  • It’s actually kind of a doozy, if you want to read it.

9. One complaint by the White House is that the House hasn’t taken a full vote to start impeachment hearings, so the investigations are being done in private. Because of this, Republicans accuse Democrats of not letting them participate fully in the inquiries. House Democrats say Republicans are participating; the depositions just aren’t open to everyone yet. Since it’s behind closed doors, it’s all he-said/she-said.
10. After the White House blocks Gordon Sondland’s testimony, House leaders subpoena him for testimony and documents. Sondland agrees to testify to Congress next week.
11. House Democrats consider masking the identity of the whistleblower from Trump’s allies in Congress to prevent them from exposing the person. This is extraordinary and illustrates the level of distrust in Congress right now.
12. House leaders subpoena Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Office of Management and Budget acting director Russell Vought for documents related to Ukraine.
13. While the State Department strongly supported issuing military aid to Ukraine, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is receiving criticism from within his department because he didn’t push the administration to issue the aid and didn’t intervene to protect U.S. diplomats caught in the middle.
14. After Trump throws Rick Perry under the bus and blames him for the call with Ukraine, House Democrats subpoena Perry for documents related to a state-owned energy company in Ukraine and related to Perry’s involvement in Trump’s call with the Ukraine president.
15. Once again, the White House accidentally sends their talking points to Democrats on The Hill, this time to counter Yovanovitch’s testimony.

• • One of the talking points included attacking House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, and those attacks were hard to miss this week.

16. Seventeen former Watergate prosecutors write an op-ed describing why they think Trump should be impeached. They support impeachment based on:

• • Trump’s public statements
  • Mueller’s findings
  • The transcript of Trump’s phone call with Zelensky
  • Trump’s continued obstruction of investigations
  • Public information, including the newly released text messages

17. Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues to try to keep the focus of the impeachment inquiries on Trump’s behavior with Ukraine; but as allegations of the abuses of power start to come out, other Congressional Democrats push her to expand the scope.
18. Michael McKinley, a career diplomat and senior adviser to Pompeo, resigns. He doesn’t give a reason, but he’s been disappointed in Pompeo’s lack of public support for diplomats.
19. Following Trump’s request to China that they investigate Hunter Biden, Michael Pillsbury, a Trump advisor who previously said he had dirt on Biden walks that back and says everything he knew was public knowledge.
20. Hunter Biden steps down from the board of a China-backed company, a position that’s become the target of Trump’s accusations. He says it’s because he wants to avoid any appearance of conflicts of interest and that he won’t work for any foreign companies should Joe Biden become president.
21. Congressional sources say additional whistleblowers have stepped forward and are currently being vetted.
22. Former GOP Representative Trey Gowdy agrees to serve as Trump’s personal legal advisor on impeachment issues.

Trouble for Parnas, Fruman, and Giuliani:

1. Here’s a super big surprise in the middle of all this. The Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office indicts Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman and officers arrest them at Dulles airport as they appear to be fleeing the country. Rudy Giuliani, ironically enough, was planning to meet up with them in Europe.

• • The charges against the two include setting up shell companies to funnel foreign money to federal and state candidates in order to buy influence. Recipients of the funds include:
    • America First, the main pro-Trump super PAC.
    • House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who received $500,000 and who previously accused Trump and former Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of being paid by Russia.
    • Rep. Pete Session (R-TX), who received $3 million. The two wanted Session’s help in removing U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Maria Yovanovitch from her post.
  • Parnas and Fruman arranged for Giuliani to meet with former Ukraine prosecutors Shokin and Lutsenko. These are the two who told Giuliani what he wanted to hear, but are now backpedaling on their stories. For example, Lutsenko told Giuliani that Yovanovitch gave him a “do not prosecute” list, something he now says isn’t true.
  • Parnas and Fruman also wanted political help with setting up a marijuana business in Nevada.
  • Both Parnas and Fruman did work for Russian oligarch Dmytro Firtash, who currently faces bribery charges in the U.S.
  • House Democrats subpoena the two for information about what they worked on for Giuliani. They both say they’ll refuse to cooperate.

2. Trump denies knowing Parnas and Fruman, though they’ve dined together and have pictures together.
3. Federal prosecutors New York are investigating Giuliani for potential lobbying violations in his dealings with Ukraine.
4. Giuliani says he won’t cooperate with the impeachment inquiries, though he’s been subpoenaed for both testimony and documents.

Maria Yovanovitch Deposition:

1. Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Maria Yovanovitch testifies under subpoena, even though she was ordered by the State Department not to. Here are some highlights of what we know she said:

• • With no warning, she was told to leave Kyiv on the “next plane” and was removed from her post upon arrival.
  • The Deputy Secretary of State told her she hadn’t done anything wrong but that Trump had lost confidence in her.
  • The White House had been applying significant pressure to remove her for almost a year.
  • Giuliani had been criticizing her behind her back, accusing her of privately badmouthing Trump and trying to protect Biden (both of which she denies).
  • She says she was removed based on “unfounded and false” stories
  • Yovanovitch made enemies in Ukraine due to her efforts to help build the National Anti-Corruption Bureau in Ukraine, which has also come under fire from the Trump administration.

2. In Trump’s call with Zelensky, he said that Yovanovitch “is going to go through some things.” I wonder what that meant? Was it a threat?
3. Giuliani says that Trump ordered Pompeo to fire Yovanovitch.