Impeachment inquiry focuses on White House lawyers

House impeachment inquiry is zeroing in on two White House lawyers privy to a discussion about moving a memo recounting President Donald Trump’s phone call with leer of Ukraine into a highly restricted computer system rmally reserved for documents about covert action.

Deepening ir reach into West Wing, impeachment investigators have summoned former national security viser John Bolton to testify next week. But y also are seeking testimony of two or political appointees — John Eisenberg, le lawyer for National Security Council, and Michael Ellis, a senior associate counsel to president.

impeachment inquiry is investigating Trump’s call in which he asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for a “favor” — one that alarmed at least two White House staffers who listened in on July 25 call.

Trump asked Zelenskiy to investigate Democrats in 2016 election and former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential 2020 rival as Trump ministration held up millions of dollars in military aid for Eastern European ally confronting Russian aggression.

lawyers’ role is critical because two witnesses have suggested NSC legal counsel — when told that Trump asked a foreign leer for domestic political help — took extraordinary step of shielding access to transcript t because of its covert nature but rar its potential dam to president.

Trump himself has repeatedly stressed that he knew multiple people were listening in on call, holding that out as proof that he never would have said anything inappropriate. But subsequent effort to lock down rough transcript suggests some people in White House viewed president’s conversation as problematic.

Tim Morrison, outgoing deputy assistant to president who handled European and Russian affairs at NSC, told impeachment investigators on Thursday that military aid to Ukraine was held up by Trump’s demand for ally to investigate Democrats and Joe Biden.

Morrison testified that he was “t concerned that anything illegal was discussed” on July 25 call, but said that after listening to what Trump said, he “promptly asked NSC legal viser to review it.”

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a Ukraine expert at NSC, h same reaction. He and Morrison were both in Situation Room in basement of West Wing listening in on Trump’s conversation with Zelenskiy. Vindman told impeachment investigators that he was alarmed by what he heard, grabbed his tes from call and went to see Eisenberg.

“I did t think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about implications for U.S. government’s support of Ukraine,” Vindman said.

Vindman said Eisenberg, who is kwn in and outside White House as a meticulous, deliberate lawyer, suggested moving document that recounted call to a restricted computer server for highly classified materials, according to a person who familiar with Vindman’s testimony. person was t authorized to publicly discuss it and spoke only on condition of anymity.

Ellis, or White House lawyer being asked to testify, was with Eisenberg when he me suggestion to move document into more secure server. Ellis is stranger to White House controversies. New York Times reported in March 2017 that he allowed his former boss, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., n chairman of House intelligence committee, to review classified material at White House.

material was to bolster Trump’s claim that he was wiretapped during 2016 campaign on orders of Obama ministration. intelligence reports consisted primarily of ambassors and or foreign officials talking about trying to develop contacts in inner circle of n President-elect Trump. report was t confirmed by Associated Press.

Eisenberg and Ellis, both part of White House legal staff, declined to comment through an NSC spokesman.

“Consistent with practices of past ministrations from both parties, we will t discuss internal deliberations of White House Counsel’s Office,” said deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley.

Mick Mulvaney, acting White House chief of staff, has declined to discuss how White House handles classified materials, but denies that moving memo about call into highly restricted N.I.C.E. server — which stands for NSC Intelligence Collaboration Environment — amounted to a cover-up.

“re’s only one reason people care about that, right? And it’s because y think re’s a cover-up,” he told reporters at a recent White House briefing, ding, “re must have been something really, really duplicitous, something really under-handed about how y handled this document, because re must be a cover-up.”

Mulvaney said if ministration h wanted to cover anything up, it wouldn’t have called Justice Department after call to have m look at transcript and wouldn’t have publicly released memorandum of conversation.

so-called “memcon” is close to a verbatim transcript, although audio recordings are me.

Individuals familiar with Trump White House procedure say one Situation Room staffer, using voice-to-text software, repeats each word president says and ar listens and repeats what a foreign leer says. spoken words are rendered as text and a rough draft is produced.

draft, which in this case included a few ellipses, is circulated to several people, including NSC subject matter specialists who listened in on call. y edit draft for accuracy. Each version is separately preserved on T-Net system, forming an archive that documents various edits.

Vindman told investigators that call included a discussion of Biden and Burisma — a reference to gas company where Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, served on board. Vindman said Trump also mentioned that re were audio recordings of Joe Biden discussing corruption in Ukraine, according to individuals familiar with Tuesday’s closed-door testimony.

Vindman said he tried to suggest changes to five-p “memcon,” but was unsuccessful, according to individuals, who were t authorized to discuss testimony and spoke only on condition of anymity.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham pushed back on Thursday, saying Vindman “never suggested filling in any words at any points where ellipses appear in transcript.” She ded that because Vindman testified behind closed doors, White House “cant confirm wher or t Lt. Col. Vindman himself me any such false claim.”

Like most presidential calls with foreign leers, Trump-Zelenskiy call was put into T-Net system where certain individuals are granted permission to re it based on ir need to kw, according to two individuals with direct kwledge of system. NSC officials working on African issues, for example, would t routinely have been given access to Ukraine call.

Taking it off T-Net would involve systems specialists, according to individuals, who were t authorized to discuss systems publicly and spoke only on condition of anymity. y would have to identify every person who accessed document and n wipe any trace of memcon off T-Net server. After that, or NSC workers would have h to place material onto N.I.C.E. system, which is physically housed in NSC intelligence directorate.

According to one of individuals familiar with White House classified computer systems, Eisenberg couldn’t have actually moved it to N.I.C.E. by himself. That raises a question, individual said, as to what reasons were given for needing it to be moved.