Next up in the Congressional impeachment hearings

A key witness in the House’s impeachment investigation filed a lawsuit in federal court Friday asking a judge to rule on whether he can testify to congressional investigators after President Trump invoked “constitutional immunity."

Charles Kupperman, who served as President Trump’s deputy national security adviser, was subpoenaed by House Democrats on Monday to testify in their investigation into the president’s dealings with Ukraine. However, the White House declared Friday that Trump had invoked “constitutional immunity” to bar Kupperman from appearing on Capitol Hill.

  The Hill

Reason number whatever for why you pack the courts.

Constitutional immunity extends beyond the powers of executive privilege, which the White House has used to block testimony from several other current and former officials. While executive privilege frees a person from being forced to divulge any dealings with the White House to investigators, constitutional immunity means individuals cannot be forced to testify before Congress at all, and do not even have to appear at hearings.

“The president … has asserted that plaintiff, as a close personal adviser to the president, is immune from congressional process, and has instructed plaintiff not to appear and testify in response to the House’s subpoena,” the lawsuit reads.

Sources told CNN that Tim Morrison [Trump’s top Russia and Europe adviser on the National Security Council] will testify before Congress that he did not see anything wrong with what the administration did but noted that there will be “nuance” to his testimony.

Morrison is the first current White House official scheduled to testify as part of Democrats' impeachment inquiry into Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. An attorney for Morrison said he intends to testify if he is subpoenaed, even if the White House seeks to block him.

  The Hill

Nuance? How about simple truth and facts? If he doesn't see anything wrong with it, so be it, but he still needs to tell the truth.

She declined to provide a preview of what Morrison plans on telling investigators, though he is set to support testimony from William Taylor, who serves as the chargé d’affaires for Ukraine, according to CNN. Taylor laid out in detailed testimony this week that Trump decided to withhold roughly $400 million in financial aid until he secured a commitment from Ukraine that they would investigate Biden, one of his top political rivals.

[...]

Morrison was mentioned 15 times in Taylor’s opening statement, including when he testified that Morrison described a “sinking feeling” from Trump saying there was no quid pro quo with Ukraine while he pushed Zelensky to investigate Biden.

[...]

Morrison is known to have been on the July phone call.

I'm waiting for Pence's advisor Keith Kellogg, who was on the call, to testify what he heard and what he told Pence.

Officials close to Pence contend that he traveled to Warsaw for a meeting with Zelensky on Sept. 1 probably without having read — or at least fully registered — the transcript of Trump’s July 25 call with the leader of Ukraine.

  WaPo

He may not have read it, but his advisor most assuredly explained it to him.

White House officials said that Pence probably would have received the detailed notes of the president’s call in his briefing book on July 26. The five-page document also should have been part of the briefing materials he took with him to Warsaw to prepare for the meeting, according to the officials, who, like others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.

Of course.

But officials said Pence and his staff weren’t aware that the call had provoked alarm inside the White House — even though his national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, had been monitoring it.

Pure bullshit.

Kellogg, Pence’s top national security adviser, listened in on the call from the Situation Room, which was the standard practice, but did not see it as unusual or flag any concerns about it to the vice president, officials said.

Which, if true, could mean that Pence was in on the scheme all along.

White House lawyers, alarmed by the call, quickly moved detailed notes of it from a widely shared internal computer network to one reserved for “codeword-level” records about CIA covert action programs and other highly classified material.

[...]

[Trump] sent Pence, with instructions to “take the measure” of the Ukrainian leader and inform him that the administration wasn’t going to release the aid until it had assurances that Zelensky was committed to fighting corruption, U.S. officials said.

[...]

A Pence aide disputed the notion that the vice president was poorly prepared for his meeting with Zelensky, and pointed to the eventual outcome — that the Trump administration ultimately released the aid — as a sign of a productive meeting.

In other words, Pence took the message to Zelensky, and Zelensky agreed to the terms.

Once the meeting began, Pence faulted the E.U. for not providing more security aid to Ukraine, just as Trump did on the July 25 call, and also reiterated the administration’s position that Zelensky needed to do more to fight corruption.

But he wasn't briefed on that call? B.S.

When Zelensky asked about the aid, Pence replied that the administration was “still looking at it,” a U.S. official said.

[...]

Pence conveyed the news that hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid to Ukraine was not going to be released amid concerns about the country’s lagging efforts to combat corruption. He also emphasized Trump’s frustration that he thought the European Union was not doing a sufficient job in helping to provide aid. A participant in the meeting said Zelensky was “crestfallen” by the news, though a second participant described the meeting as “cordial” and Zelensky as understanding of U.S. concerns.

[...]

The White House Counsel’s Office did not alert the vice president’s office to the existence of the whistleblower complaint until the day before it became public, the aide added.

Now that I can believe.