Impeachment Inquiry Timeline
Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2019 7:33 pm
So much has happened I thought it may be a good idea to start documenting a timeline.
Subpoenas for testimony
Joeseph Maguire - Director of National Intelligence testified on September 26, 2019, before the House Intelligence Committee that the whistle-blower did the right thing and was genuinely concerned.
Steve Linick - State Department Inspector General met with Congress October 2, 2019 and turned over documents President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani sent to the State Department in the Spring which reportedly included conspiracy theories about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Marie Yovanovitch - Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine was deposed October 11th, 2019. She testified that Mike Pompeo informed her that there had been a campaign attacking her and said she had done nothing wrong. She speculated on the motive for this concerted effort to attack her saying, "that contacts of Mr. Giuliani may well have believed that their personal financial ambitions were stymied by our anti-corruption policy in Ukraine."
Kurt Volker - Former U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine was deposed October 3rd and October 16th. Volker depicted Rudy Giuliani as the driving force behind an effort to get Ukraine to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden and 2016 election interference, according to sources familiar with the testimony. He also expressed misgivings about Giuliani's influence on the president's view of Ukraine. Volker testified he was troubled by the president's call, sources said, once the White House released a summary in late September and he became aware that Biden's name had been mentioned.
Michael Atkinson - Intelligence Community Inspector General was deposed October 4th 2019. The details of Atkinson’s seven-hour closed-door testimony have not been released, but House Intel Chair Adam Schiff said in a statement that the inspector general explained to impeachment investigators why he found the whistle-blower complaint about Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian president Volodmyr Zelensky both urgent and credible.
George Kent - Deputy Assistant Secretary was blocked from testifying October 7th but testified October 15th. He told House investigators he was instructed to “lay low,” focus on the five other countries in his portfolio and defer to Volker, Sondland and Rick Perry — who called themselves the “three amigos” — on matters related to Ukraine, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) told reporters. Kent took that as a sign, Connolly added, that having been critical of the plan he was being pushed aside “because what he was saying was not welcome” at high levels of the government.
Two days after being named among the three primary pointmen for Ukraine, Rick Perry announced his resignation on October 17th. He refused to comply with subpoena to turn over documents.
Ulrich Brechbuhl - State Department Counselor was blocked from testifying.
Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman - Business associates of Rudy Giuliani were arrested on October 9th at Dulles Airport and charged with alleged federal campaign finance-related crimes in New York. They had one way tickets to Vienna where they were set to rendevouz with Giuliani and Sean Hannity.
Fiona Hill - Former White House Russia adviser was desposed October 14th and she recounted a July 10 meeting with senior Ukrainian officials that she, Bolton, and US ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland attended. Per her testimony, Sondland brought up the investigation, leaving those in the room with no doubt that he wanted the Ukrainians to look into the Bidens. Bolton afterward told Hill to speak with top NSC lawyer John Eisenberg about his discomfort with what Sondland said and the Ukraine plan he, Giuliani, and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney were executing. “I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up,” Bolton told Hill, according to the New York Times on Monday night. Apparently, Bolton was already upset at Giuliani for his Ukraine work. “Giuliani’s a hand grenade who’s going to blow everybody up,” Hill recalled Bolton saying in a previous conversation. Not only did Hill outline a meeting in which investigating the Bidens came up, but also it so worried Bolton — the White House’s top national security aide — that he dispatched her to tell a lawyer. Hill noted an undated conversation she had with Sondland in which the ambassador said he was leading Ukraine policy. When she asked under whose authority, he said the president’s.
Semyon Kislin - Businessman, associate of Rudy Giuliani reached "an understanding" with committees and is cooperating, according to his attorney
Michael McKinley - Senior adviser to Secretary Pompeo was deposed October 16th, 2019. McKinley had been Pompeo's top adviser since May 2018, but he abruptly resigned October 11th, 2019. "The timing of my resignation was the result of two overriding concerns: the failure, in my view, of the State Department to offer support to Foreign Service employees caught up in the Impeachment Inquiry on Ukraine; and, second, by what appears to be the utilization of our ambassadors overseas to advance domestic political objectives," McKinley said in prepared remarks. "I was disturbed by the implication that foreign governments were being approached to procure negative information on political opponents," he said.
Gordon Sondland - U.S. Ambassador to the European Union was deposed October 17th, 2019. "Please know that I would not have recommended that Mr. Giuliani or any private citizen be involved in these foreign policy matters," Sondland said in his statement. "However, given the President's explicit direction, as well as the importance we attached to arranging a White House meeting between Presidents Trump and Zelensky, we agreed to do as President Trump directed." Sondland told House lawmakers that President Donald Trump’s pressure on Ukraine to open an investigation into Joe Biden’s son before a White House meeting amounted to a quid pro quo, his lawyer told The Wall Street Journal.
Bill Taylor - U.S. Chargé d'affaires to Ukraine testified before Congress October 22nd, 2019. "I said on September 9 in a message to Ambassador Gordon Sondland that withholding security assistance in exchange for help with a domestic political campaign in the United States would be crazy." ..."Ambassador Sondland told me that President Trump had told him that he wants President Zelenskyy to state publicly that Ukraine will investigate Burisma and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. election."
"Ambassador Sondland also told me that he now recognized that he had made a mistake by earlier telling the Ukrainian officials to whom he spoke that a White House meeting with President Zelenskyy was dependent on a public announcement of investigationsin fact, Ambassador Sondland said, "everything" was dependent on such an announcement, including security assistance. He said that President Trump wanted President Zelenskyy "in a public box" by making a public statement about ordering such investigations."
Laura Cooper - Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense was the first Pentagon official testified Otober 23rd, 2019 after being warned by the Trump Administration not to cooperate with Congress. Her testimony was delayed five hours after House Republicans stormed the sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF). Details of her testimony have not yet come forth.
Phillip T. Reeker - Acting Assistant Secretary of State testified October 26th, 2019. Reeker arrived for his deposition despite the State Department's decision not to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry. Details of his teimony have not yet emerged but he is expected to provide details about the firing of former Ambassador Yovanovitch.
Charles Kupperman - Former Deputy National Security Advisor was expected to testify October 28th but is awaiting a court ruling on whether he can testify.
Alexander Vindman - National Security Council director for European Affairs testified October 29th, 2019. Vindman testified that he overheard the July 25 call between Trump and Zelensky saying,"I listened in on the call in the Situation Room with colleagues from the NSC and the office of the Vice President ... I was concerned by the call. I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen." Vindman said on July 10th "Oleksandr Danylyuk, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council for Ukraine, visited Washington, D.C. for a meeting with National Security Advisor Bolton. Ambassadors Volker and Sondland also attended, along with Energy Secretary Rick Perry. The meeting proceeded well until the Ukrainians broached the subject of a meeting between the two presidents. The Ukrainians saw this meeting as critically important in order to solidify the support of their most important international partner. Amb. Sondland started to speak about Ukraine delivering specific investigations in order to secure the meeting with the President, at which time Ambassador Bolton cut the meeting short. Following this meeting, there was a scheduled debriefing during which Amb. Sondland emphasized the importance that Ukraine deliver the investigations into the 2016 election, the Bidens, and Burisma. I stated to Amb. Sondland that his statements were inappropriate, that the request to investigate Biden and his son had nothing to do with national security."
White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney confirms on live television that there was a quid pro quo for dirt on Biden. He later tries to back peddal out of it by saying he never used the exact words "quid pro quo."
Subpoenas for testimony
Joeseph Maguire - Director of National Intelligence testified on September 26, 2019, before the House Intelligence Committee that the whistle-blower did the right thing and was genuinely concerned.
Steve Linick - State Department Inspector General met with Congress October 2, 2019 and turned over documents President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani sent to the State Department in the Spring which reportedly included conspiracy theories about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Marie Yovanovitch - Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine was deposed October 11th, 2019. She testified that Mike Pompeo informed her that there had been a campaign attacking her and said she had done nothing wrong. She speculated on the motive for this concerted effort to attack her saying, "that contacts of Mr. Giuliani may well have believed that their personal financial ambitions were stymied by our anti-corruption policy in Ukraine."
Kurt Volker - Former U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine was deposed October 3rd and October 16th. Volker depicted Rudy Giuliani as the driving force behind an effort to get Ukraine to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden and 2016 election interference, according to sources familiar with the testimony. He also expressed misgivings about Giuliani's influence on the president's view of Ukraine. Volker testified he was troubled by the president's call, sources said, once the White House released a summary in late September and he became aware that Biden's name had been mentioned.
Michael Atkinson - Intelligence Community Inspector General was deposed October 4th 2019. The details of Atkinson’s seven-hour closed-door testimony have not been released, but House Intel Chair Adam Schiff said in a statement that the inspector general explained to impeachment investigators why he found the whistle-blower complaint about Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian president Volodmyr Zelensky both urgent and credible.
George Kent - Deputy Assistant Secretary was blocked from testifying October 7th but testified October 15th. He told House investigators he was instructed to “lay low,” focus on the five other countries in his portfolio and defer to Volker, Sondland and Rick Perry — who called themselves the “three amigos” — on matters related to Ukraine, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) told reporters. Kent took that as a sign, Connolly added, that having been critical of the plan he was being pushed aside “because what he was saying was not welcome” at high levels of the government.
Two days after being named among the three primary pointmen for Ukraine, Rick Perry announced his resignation on October 17th. He refused to comply with subpoena to turn over documents.
Ulrich Brechbuhl - State Department Counselor was blocked from testifying.
Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman - Business associates of Rudy Giuliani were arrested on October 9th at Dulles Airport and charged with alleged federal campaign finance-related crimes in New York. They had one way tickets to Vienna where they were set to rendevouz with Giuliani and Sean Hannity.
Fiona Hill - Former White House Russia adviser was desposed October 14th and she recounted a July 10 meeting with senior Ukrainian officials that she, Bolton, and US ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland attended. Per her testimony, Sondland brought up the investigation, leaving those in the room with no doubt that he wanted the Ukrainians to look into the Bidens. Bolton afterward told Hill to speak with top NSC lawyer John Eisenberg about his discomfort with what Sondland said and the Ukraine plan he, Giuliani, and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney were executing. “I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up,” Bolton told Hill, according to the New York Times on Monday night. Apparently, Bolton was already upset at Giuliani for his Ukraine work. “Giuliani’s a hand grenade who’s going to blow everybody up,” Hill recalled Bolton saying in a previous conversation. Not only did Hill outline a meeting in which investigating the Bidens came up, but also it so worried Bolton — the White House’s top national security aide — that he dispatched her to tell a lawyer. Hill noted an undated conversation she had with Sondland in which the ambassador said he was leading Ukraine policy. When she asked under whose authority, he said the president’s.
Semyon Kislin - Businessman, associate of Rudy Giuliani reached "an understanding" with committees and is cooperating, according to his attorney
Michael McKinley - Senior adviser to Secretary Pompeo was deposed October 16th, 2019. McKinley had been Pompeo's top adviser since May 2018, but he abruptly resigned October 11th, 2019. "The timing of my resignation was the result of two overriding concerns: the failure, in my view, of the State Department to offer support to Foreign Service employees caught up in the Impeachment Inquiry on Ukraine; and, second, by what appears to be the utilization of our ambassadors overseas to advance domestic political objectives," McKinley said in prepared remarks. "I was disturbed by the implication that foreign governments were being approached to procure negative information on political opponents," he said.
Gordon Sondland - U.S. Ambassador to the European Union was deposed October 17th, 2019. "Please know that I would not have recommended that Mr. Giuliani or any private citizen be involved in these foreign policy matters," Sondland said in his statement. "However, given the President's explicit direction, as well as the importance we attached to arranging a White House meeting between Presidents Trump and Zelensky, we agreed to do as President Trump directed." Sondland told House lawmakers that President Donald Trump’s pressure on Ukraine to open an investigation into Joe Biden’s son before a White House meeting amounted to a quid pro quo, his lawyer told The Wall Street Journal.
Bill Taylor - U.S. Chargé d'affaires to Ukraine testified before Congress October 22nd, 2019. "I said on September 9 in a message to Ambassador Gordon Sondland that withholding security assistance in exchange for help with a domestic political campaign in the United States would be crazy." ..."Ambassador Sondland told me that President Trump had told him that he wants President Zelenskyy to state publicly that Ukraine will investigate Burisma and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. election."
"Ambassador Sondland also told me that he now recognized that he had made a mistake by earlier telling the Ukrainian officials to whom he spoke that a White House meeting with President Zelenskyy was dependent on a public announcement of investigationsin fact, Ambassador Sondland said, "everything" was dependent on such an announcement, including security assistance. He said that President Trump wanted President Zelenskyy "in a public box" by making a public statement about ordering such investigations."
Laura Cooper - Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense was the first Pentagon official testified Otober 23rd, 2019 after being warned by the Trump Administration not to cooperate with Congress. Her testimony was delayed five hours after House Republicans stormed the sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF). Details of her testimony have not yet come forth.
Phillip T. Reeker - Acting Assistant Secretary of State testified October 26th, 2019. Reeker arrived for his deposition despite the State Department's decision not to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry. Details of his teimony have not yet emerged but he is expected to provide details about the firing of former Ambassador Yovanovitch.
Charles Kupperman - Former Deputy National Security Advisor was expected to testify October 28th but is awaiting a court ruling on whether he can testify.
Alexander Vindman - National Security Council director for European Affairs testified October 29th, 2019. Vindman testified that he overheard the July 25 call between Trump and Zelensky saying,"I listened in on the call in the Situation Room with colleagues from the NSC and the office of the Vice President ... I was concerned by the call. I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen." Vindman said on July 10th "Oleksandr Danylyuk, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council for Ukraine, visited Washington, D.C. for a meeting with National Security Advisor Bolton. Ambassadors Volker and Sondland also attended, along with Energy Secretary Rick Perry. The meeting proceeded well until the Ukrainians broached the subject of a meeting between the two presidents. The Ukrainians saw this meeting as critically important in order to solidify the support of their most important international partner. Amb. Sondland started to speak about Ukraine delivering specific investigations in order to secure the meeting with the President, at which time Ambassador Bolton cut the meeting short. Following this meeting, there was a scheduled debriefing during which Amb. Sondland emphasized the importance that Ukraine deliver the investigations into the 2016 election, the Bidens, and Burisma. I stated to Amb. Sondland that his statements were inappropriate, that the request to investigate Biden and his son had nothing to do with national security."
White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney confirms on live television that there was a quid pro quo for dirt on Biden. He later tries to back peddal out of it by saying he never used the exact words "quid pro quo."