Committees Release Sandy, Reeker and Other Transcripts As Part of Impeachment Inquiry
Washington, D.C.—Today, Rep. Adam B. Schiff, the Chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Rep. Eliot L. Engel, the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, the Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, released the transcripts from joint depositions of Deputy Associate Director for National Security Programs at the Office of Management and Budget Mark Sandy and Acting Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Reeker. In addition, the Committees released the transcripts from depositions of witnesses under subpoena who failed to comply.
The Chairs issued the following statement announcing today's release:
"The testimonies from Ambassador Reeker and Mr. Sandy continue to paint a portrait of hand-picked political appointees corrupting the official levers of U.S. government power, including by withholding taxpayer funded military assistance to Ukraine, to further the President's own personal political agenda.
"Mr. Sandy confirmed that he was told by the office of Mick Mulvaney, the Acting White House Chief of Staff, that the President himself had directed the hold on security assistance to Ukraine. However, he was provided no other reason or justification for the hold when he was directed to implement it. And in fact, after he raised concerns with OMB leadership and lawyers that the withholding of funding for Ukraine may violate the law, his authority for approving security assistance funding was revoked and given instead to a hand-picked Trump OMB political appointee.
"Finally, we learned from Mr. Sandy that he was first informed in early September—approximately two months after the hold was implemented—that the reason for the hold was due to concerns regarding European countries not paying their fair share of foreign assistance. Given other testimony and the public admission by Mr. Mulvaney that the aid was held to pressure Ukraine to conduct the investigations desired by the President, this constitutes powerful evidence that this justification was concocted as an after-the-fact rationalization to justify the hold."
The testimony of Mr. Sandy can be found here. Key excerpts of Mr. Sandy's testimony can be found here.
The testimony of Mr. Reeker can be found here. Key excerpts of Mr. Reeker's testimony can be found here.
The transcript of the deposition of Dr. Charles Kupperman on October 28, 2019, who failed to comply with the subpoena, can be found here.
The transcript of the deposition of Mr. Brian McCormack on November 4, 2019, who failed to comply with the subpoena, can be found here.
The transcript of the deposition of Mr. Robert Blair on November 4, 2019, who failed to comply with the subpoena, can be found here.
The transcript of the deposition of Mr. John Eisenberg on November 4, 2019, who failed to comply with the subpoena, can be found here.
The transcript of the deposition of Mr. Michael Ellis on November 4, 2019, who failed to comply with the subpoena, can be found here.
The transcript of the deposition of Mr. Michael Duffey on November 5, 2019, who failed to comply with the subpoena, can be found here.
The transcript of the deposition of Mr. Preston Wells Griffith on November 5, 2019, who failed to comply with the subpoena, can be found here.
The transcript of the deposition of Mr. T. Ulrich Brechbuhl and Mr. Russell Vought on November 6, 2019, who failed to comply with the subpoena, can be found here.
The transcript of the deposition of Mr. John Michael "Mick" Mulvaney on November 8, 2019, who failed to comply with the subpoena, can be found here.
Background
H. Res. 660, which was passed by the House of Representatives on October 31, 2019, authorizes the Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence "to make publicly available in electronic form the transcripts of depositions" with "appropriate redactions for classified and other sensitive information."
Pursuant to this resolution, and consistent with the Committee's rules and longstanding bipartisan practice, the Committee has begun preparing transcripts from the impeachment inquiry for public release, which includes a thorough, nonpartisan security review to protect classified and other sensitive information.
As part of this process, the Committee is redacting (1) personally identifiable information; (2) the names of non-senior Executive Branch personnel and Intelligence Community employees; (3) the names of committee staff who did not ask questions or make on-the-record statements; and (4) classified or potentially classified information or other sensitive information not pertinent to the subject of the impeachment inquiry.
In addition, consistent with the Committee's rules, each transcript has been made available to the witness for inspection, including to identify technical, grammatical, and typographical corrections. The Committee has also taken into consideration requested redactions from witnesses, if they fall within the parameters above.
Although the transcripts list Members of the three Committees who were present at the outset of a deposition, they do not necessarily reflect the attendance of all Members who may have joined or departed a deposition at different points.
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