October 11, 2019 09:41 AM UTC

Ambassador Will Ignore Trump and Testify Before Congress

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: CNN reports on some eye-opening statements today from Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.

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The White House has been refusing to cooperate with Congress regarding impeachment investigations, but it appears that President Trump’s hands are not large enough to corral all of his underlings. As the Washington Post reports:

U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, a key figure in the Ukraine controversy, bucked the State Department on Friday and announced he would appear before House investigators under subpoena next week.

The State Department blocked Sondland from appearing before three panels last week as the White House informed Democratic leaders they had no intention of cooperating with the impeachment inquiry.

Lawmakers also are hearing closed-door testimony Friday from Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who was recalled from her post in May.

As NBC News reports, Sondland may have realized that he had better speak for himself on this matter:

Fiona Hill, who was until recently President Donald Trump’s top aide on Russia and Europe, plans to tell Congress that Rudy Giuliani and E.U. ambassador Gordon Sondland circumvented the National Security Council and the normal White House process to pursue a shadow policy on Ukraine, a person familiar with her expected testimony told NBC News.

Hill’s appearance next week before Congress has stoked fear among people close to the president, said a former senior White House official, given her central role overseeing Russia and Ukraine policy throughout most of the Trump administration…

…Hill plans to say that Giuliani and Sondland side-stepped the proper process for accessing Trump on Ukraine issues, the person familiar with her expected testimony said, including circumventing John Bolton, who was Trump’s national security adviser until September.

It appears that there are plenty of people not named Cory Gardner who have no intention of going quietly under the bus for the Big Orange Guy.