The whites of his eye sockets by @BloggersRUs

The whites of his eye sockets

by Tom Sullivan

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sees the whites of his eye sockets. She has the votes and believes she will not miss. The House is set today to vote on a resolution setting rules for the impeachment inquiry of President Donald J. Trump.

The New York Times reports:

The vote is on a resolution that would set rules for the public phase of an impeachment inquiry that has so far been conducted exclusively behind closed doors. It would authorize the House Intelligence Committee — the panel that has been leading the investigation and conducting private depositions — to convene public hearings and produce a report that will guide the Judiciary Committee as it considers whether to draft articles of impeachment against President Trump.

The rules will allow Trump's lawyers will to participate in Judiciary Committee proceedings. Republicans may request subpoenas for witnesses and documents. Trump's Republican defenders who accuse Democrats of running a "Soviet-style process" will get the openness and transparency they have demanded since hearings began.

"They want transparency like a hole in the head, for crying out loud," said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.). "Transparency is not going to help them."

Witness after witness has corroborated the original "fire alarm" account from the whistleblower.

Reporting from Tuesday's appearance by Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council's Ukraine expert, seemed only to deepen the impeachment hole Trump dug for himself. Vindman listened to the July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He attended the July 10 meeting in national security adviser John Bolton's office in which European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland urged two Ukrainian officials to investigate former vice president Joe Biden, his son Hunter, and Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company that placed Hunter in its board. Sondland “emphasized the importance that Ukraine deliver the investigations into the 2016 election, the Bidens, and Burisma,” Vindman's states in his opening statement.

White House Russia adviser Fiona Hill and Kurt Volker, the State Department’s special envoy to Ukraine also attended the meeting Bolton allegedly cut short after Sondland's request. Hill has already testified in closed session. Sondland through his attorney denies mentioning the Bidens on July 10 or at any other discussion of Ukraine policy.

The Washington Post reports additional details from Vindman's testimony about the July 10 meeting, the July 25 call, and complaints to White House lawyer John Eisenberg:

Vindman objected, telling Sondland that the request was “totally inappropriate,” according to a person familiar with his testimony.

As tensions mounted, Sondland asked the two Ukrainian officials if they would like to step out of the meeting temporarily, the person said.

Hill, whom Bolton had instructed to monitor Sondland, had just entered the Ward Room. She immediately echoed Vindman’s objections that the request was counter to national security goals, according to her testimony.

“She was very emotional,” one person who heard Vindman’s account of the meeting recalled, adding that Hill raised her voice and strongly objected.

Vindman and Hill complained directly to Eisenberg about the episode, according to his testimony and people familiar with their actions. It is unclear whether Eisenberg took any steps in response.

Vindman also reported the July 25 call to Eisenberg. Anonymous sources tell the Post Vindman provided a firsthand account identifying Eisenberg as the official responsible for isolating the July 25 call transcript within the National Security Council's code-word-level server normally reserved for "intelligence programs and top-secret sources and methods."

The call summary released by the White House omitted Zelensky's mention of Burisma on the call, Vindman asserts.

The Post's source on Vindman's testimony said when Trump asked Zelensky "to do us a favor,” Vindman "looked up and made eye contact" with Tim Morrison, former deputy to national security adviser John Bolton. Vindman reported a second time to Eisenberg after the call, believing “it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine.”

Morrison has resigned in advance of his testimony today. Eisenberg is set to testify on Monday and Bolton on November 7.

"But the whistleblower" is dead and buried. Republican complaints about transparency in a process drafted and approved by a Republican-controlled House bear a DNR. Despite witness after witness testifying to the contrary, Trump continues to insist he has done nothing wrong.

.....the call with the Ukrainian President was a totally appropriate one. As he said, “No Pressure.” This Impeachment nonsense is just a continuation of the Witch Hunt Hoax, which has been going on since before I even got elected. Rupublicans, go with Substance and close it out!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2019

He insists Republicans defend him on the substance of the accusations. But that won't help him, and so far, they won't do it. Greg Sargent summarizes:

First, Trump wanted the Ukrainian president to launch “investigations” to absolve Russia of its role in sabotaging our election in 2016, and help rig the 2020 election by smearing potential opponent Joe Biden. This was dramatically reinforced by Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman’s testimony this week.

Second, part of the quid pro quo has already been established: We know that Trump’s ringleaders in this scheme, acting at Trump’s direction, conditioned a White House meeting on getting those “investigations." That was confirmed in those texts and also reinforced by Vindman.

Televised testimony from recalled witnesses will only drive home the public impression that Trump was jeopardizing national security and essentially extorting opposition research on the Bidens for his own gain. Unclear is where Rudy Giuliani, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman fit in, or where Parnas' alleged fraudulent contributions to GOP politicians does, or the "suspicious transactions in Parnas’s accounts" now under investigation by the FBI. Trump's actions and associations are painting his defenders into an ever-tighter corner.

Pulling on these threads only raises the potential for additional articles of impeachment and for Trump's presidency to unravel whether or not Senate Republicans stand with him to the end.