Ex-Ukraine ambassador arrives to give testimony

Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch appeared on Capitol Hill Friday morning for closed-door testimony in the House impeachment inquiry.

Yovanovitch is expected to discuss her dismissal as ambassador in May, when she was recalled to Washington, and her knowledge of the efforts by President Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to pressure the Ukrainian government to open a corruption investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.

{mosads}Her appearance bucked expectations. On Tuesday, the White House counsel issued a letter warning Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that it has no intention of cooperating in the Democrats’ requests for documents and witness testimony as they pursue their impeachment inquiry.

And State Department Secretary Mike Pompeo earlier in the week had blocked the deposition of another top diplomat, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, who had flown to Washington and expressed interest in testifying before the three committees — Intelligence, Oversight and Reform and Foreign Affairs — leading the impeachment investigation.

Sondland has since been subpoenaed, and his lawyer said Friday that Sondland hopes to testify next week.

It’s unclear if Yovanovitch was cleared by the State Department to testify Friday, or if her appearance came in defiance of the White House’s threat of blanket stonewalling.

Leading up to her arrival in the Capitol, where scores of reporters and banks of cameras were waiting uncertainly, there was plenty of speculation about whether she would appear or not.

As lawmakers from both parties trickled in ahead of the 10 a.m. deposition, they all seemed to be equally in the dark about whether she would testify.

“I haven’t heard a thing,” said Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), a member of the Intelligence Committee, as he descended the Capitol staircase to the secure basement hearing room where the closed-door deposition is taking place.

Other lawmakers seen entering the hearing were Democratic Reps. Jim Himes (Conn.), Denny Heck (Wash.) and Adam Schiff (Calif.), the chairman of the Intelligence Committee. GOP members included Reps. Mark Meadows (N.C.), Lee Zeldin (N.Y.), Scott Perry (Pa.) and Jim Jordan (Ohio), the ranking member of the Oversight panel.