Impeachment watch: Trump aide testifies White House cut details from Ukraine 'transcript'

Tuesday was yet another bombshell day in the House’s impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, as a top national security aide testified that the White House omitted key words and phrases from a transcript they released of Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president, the New York Times reported.

According to the New York Times, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman told House investigators that the White House left out a portion of the conversation in which Trump claimed that there were recordings of former Vice President Joe Biden talking about Ukrainian corruption, as well as mentions of Burisma — the company that employed Biden’s son.

Vindman told investigators he tried to restore those omissions from the transcript but was unsuccessful, the New York Times reported.

Vindman’s testimony provides evidence that the White House engaged in an attempted cover-up of Trump’s quid pro quo.

Top Trump defenders sought to undermine Vindman’s testimony by smearing him as a double agent for Ukraine. Vindman is a Ukrainian refugee who came to the United States at the age of 3 and went on to serve in the Army, where he earned a Purple Heart after he was injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq. The attacks on Vindman’s patriotism were so vile even Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), a top Trump defender, condemned the GOP figures who were maligning Vindman.

Here’s what else happened in impeachment news:

• An aide to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) has been trying to out the identity of the whistleblower whose complaint against Trump kicked off the impeachment inquiry. The aide, Derek Harvey, has allegedly been passing notes to Republicans that includes the whistleblower’s name.

• The public will get a chance to hear from a figure tied to the Ukraine scandal on Wednesday. That’s because the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding a confirmation hearing for Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan to become ambassador to Russia. Senate Democrats will get to press Sullivan on the Trump administration’s Ukraine policy and how much the State Department knew of the corrupt actions of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

• Two more diplomats are testifying in the House’s impeachment inquiry on Wednesday: Catherine Croft and Christopher Anderson, both Ukraine experts at the State Department. Both will describe Trump’s animosity toward Ukraine that did not jive with U.S. policy, according to their opening statements obtained by the Washington Post.

• Meanwhile, Democrats released the rules they plan to vote on that outline the process for the public phase of the impeachment inquiry. Democrats are prepared for Republicans to pull stunts to try to delay and muddy the impeachment process against Trump. Republicans already pulled stunts on Tuesday, including an attempt to stop other hearings happening in the House.

Come back tomorrow for more news about the Trump impeachment inquiry.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.