WASHINGTON — A current State Department official and a former one were set to testify Wednesday in the House impeachment inquiry, a day after Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman testified that he had raised concerns to his superiors about the phone call between President Donald Trump and the president of Ukraine that prompted the inquiry.
Catherine Croft, a special adviser for Ukraine at the State Department, was expected to begin her closed-door deposition on Wednesday morning before the three House committees leading the inquiry.
Christopher Anderson, who was a special adviser to former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, was scheduled to testify in the early afternoon. Anderson left his position in mid-July and was succeeded by Croft.
According to their opening statements obtained by NBC News, neither Anderson nor Croft listened firsthand to the July 25 call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelinskiy.
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Croft, who joined the National Security Council in July 2017 and stayed there through the first half of 2018, was expected to tell lawmakers that she received multiple calls from Robert Livingston — a lobbyist and former GOP member of Congress who resigned in 1998 for an affair — who told her that Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, should be fired.
“He characterized Ambassador Yovanovitch as an ‘Obama holdover’ and associated with George Soros,” she planned to say, according to prepared remarks. “It was not clear to me at the time—or now—at whose direction or at whose expense Mr. Livingston was seeking the removal of Ambassador Yovanovitch.”
Croft was expected to add that she documented those calls and told her boss, Fiona Hill, and George Kent, and that she was not aware of any action that was taken in response.
She also is expected to say that in July, she participated in a video conference where an official at the Office of Management and Budget reported that acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney had placed a hold on U.S. security assistance to Ukraine. The only reason given was that the order came “at the direction of the president,” her opening statement said.
Meanwhile, Anderson was expected to say in his opening statement that former national security adviser John Bolton had cautioned him that “Giuliani was a key voice with the President on Ukraine which could be an obstacle to increased White House engagement.” Anderson was also expected to testify that Rudy Giuliani’s attempt to urge the Ukrainian government to open investigations was discussed at a Ukraine strategy meeting at the Department of Energy in June. It was a June 18 meeting this year in which “Secretary [Rick] Perry hosted a follow-up meeting at the Department of Energy to discuss how to move forward” with engaging Ukraine.
Anderson will say that just before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s inauguration in May he saw the tweet by Giuliani saying that President-elect Zelenskiy was “surrounded by enemies of President Trump.” To counter Giuliani’s statement, Anderson will testify that he pushed for a high-level delegation to attend Zelenskiy’s inauguration, which included Perry; Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland; Volker; Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council; and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc.
Both State Department officials were told by Under Secretary of State Brian Bulatao on October 28 not to appear before the committees, guidance that directed by the Office of White House Counsel. Both witnesses are appearing under subpoena, according to their attorney Mark MacDougall.
In a statement provided by MacDougall, he says that neither Croft nor Anderson are the whistleblower, but he says that they will protect that person’s identity in their depositions. The whistleblower’s complaint helped led to the impeachment inquiry, and Trump has said the identity of the whistleblower should be made public.
“To the extent we reasonably conclude that any questions directed to Ms. Croft (and Mr. Anderson) this morning are intended to assist anyone in establishing the identity of the Whistleblower, we will make the necessary objections and give the witness appropriate instructions,” MacDougall said in a statement.
Their testimony comes a day after Vindman, appearing voluntarily under congressional subpoena, told members of Congress that he was on the Trump- Zelinskiy call in which Trump asked for an investigation into the Bidens — and that he raised concerns about the conversation to his superior.
Vindman also told lawmakers that he tried to edit a White House log of the July phone call to include details that were omitted.
