The latest on the Trump impeachment inquiry

Our live coverage of the impeachment inquiry has ended for the day. Read up on the latest news below and visit CNN’s impeachment tracker.

Acting assistant secretary of state Philip Reeker was expected to testify in the impeachment inquiry today that he did not find out there was a push by Trump administration officials for Ukraine to publicly announce investigations into Vice President Joe Biden and the 2016 election until the whistleblower complaint was made public, a source familiar with his testimony told CNN.

While Reeker’s testimony for the Democratic led House impeachment inquiry appeared to be absent the more explosive allegations that came from depositions earlier in the week with regard to the assistance, his comments are expected to color in details surrounding the firing of the Marie Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine who was discharged at President Trump’s behest.

Reeker is testifying behind closed doors in a rare Saturday session before the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees as part of the impeachment inquiry sparked by a whistleblower complaint alleging Trump pushed Ukraine to open investigations that would help his reelection campaign at the same time that US security aid to Ukraine had been frozen.

Some background on Reeker: He was involved in the discussions about Yovanovitch dating back to his first week on the job in March.

Reeker was an advocate of an internal push for the State Department to put out a statement of support for Yovanovitch when she left the post. But other top State Department officials under Secretary Mike Pompeo forbid the kind of statement he thought was necessary.

Reeker has known Yovanovitch for over 20 years and, as many other foreign service officers, supported her work. 

Yovanovitch said that she was told the decision was due to Trump losing confidence in her based on “unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, spoke at a stakeout outside the sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) today as members held a deposition for acting assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Reeker.

Raskin cheered yesterday’s court ruling allowing for Democrats to get their hands on grand jury material related to the Mueller investigation saying, “The single best line in the whole case appeared on page two, where Chief Judge Beryl Howell says the Department of Justice is wrong.” 

When asked about making the impeachment inquiry a more public process Raskin said, “it is our intention to make everything public that we can make public at the correct time. And we have every interest in transparency.”

Raskin also took a shot at Attorney General William Barr.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke at an event with Polk County Democrats at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, today where she touched on several impeachment threads.

As has been the case for all of the current administration officials who have testified, acting assistant secretary of state Philip Reeker was issued a subpoena before he appeared this morning for his deposition before congressional committees, per an official working on the impeachment inquiry. 

Some context: Reeker is well-regarded among those who know him, with multiple officials pointing to his smarts.

Sources suggest he won’t be bringing any bombshells to his testimony.

“I have a feeling his testimony will simply be repeating what other people said,” a former State Department official who knows him told CNN, noting Reeker’s status as an acting secretary.

Reeker has served in the role in an acting capacity since March following the departure of A. Wess Mitchell in February. He has known former US Special Envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker, who was an early witness in the impeachment inquiry, for decades.

According to the former State Department official, the two would check in with each other, and Volker wanted to keep Reeker in the loop on what was happening with US-Ukrainian relations. That official said they did discuss President Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and that Volker had told Reeker about when he met with Giuliani. Reeker seemed to indicate he did not want to get involved with the matter, according to the official.

Reeker was among the State Department officials who sought to shield former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie “Masha” Yovanovitch from the campaign of false allegations against her in March, according to internal emails turned over to Congress by State Department Inspector General Steve Linick in early October. Yovanovitch was removed from her post in May.

As President Trump tweets about the impeachment probe hitting the media on the question of whether he is concerned, the President said “I am not because I did nothing wrong. It is the other side, including (House Intelligence Chairman Adam) Schiff and his made up story, that are concerned. Witch Hunt continues.”

The President’s tweet from this morning also focuses on the Washington Post which has a story about Trump still looking for help on the impeachment defense.

Also in a separate tweet, the President continued to hit the theme of the whistleblower not testifying.

The whistleblower’s attorneys, Mark Zaid and Andrew Bakaj, wrote an op-ed arguing their client doesn’t need to testify in person

Trump’s tweet comes after the White House urged all federal agencies to cancel subscriptions to the Washington Post and New York Times.

Read Trump’s tweet below:

Acting assistant secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Reeker has arrived at the Capitol ahead of his deposition as part of the House’s impeachment inquiry.

Acting assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Reeker’s testimony today comes as the House works to move forward expeditiously with its closed-door depositions as part of the impeachment inquiry.

Testimonies were canceled on Thursday and Friday in light of Rep. Elijah Cummings’ memorial and funeral.

What we expect from Reeker: Reeker is well-regarded among those who know him, with multiple officials pointing to his smarts.

“He is one of the more creative and independent-minded people you will find in the State Department,” a former State Department official who knows him told CNN. “He is a problem-solver.”

However, sources suggest he won’t be bringing any bombshells to his testimony.

“I have a feeling his testimony will simply be repeating what other people said,” the former State Department official said, noting Reeker’s status as an acting secretary.

Reeker has served in the role in an acting capacity since March following the departure of A. Wess Mitchell in February. He has known former US Special Envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker, who was an early witness in the impeachment inquiry, for decades. According to the former State Department official, the two would check in with each other, and Volker wanted to keep Reeker in the loop on what was happening with US-Ukrainian relations. That official said they did discuss President Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and that Volker had told Reeker about when he met with Giuliani. Reeker seemed to indicate he did not want to get involved with the matter, according to the official.

Reeker was among the State Department officials who sought to shield former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie “Masha” Yovanovitch from the campaign of false allegations against her in March, according to internal emails turned over to Congress by State Department Inspector General Steve Linick in early October. Yovanovitch was removed from her post in May.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff has arrived at the sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, ahead of the 11 a.m. deposition of acting assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Reeker.

Reeker is well regarded among those who know him, with multiple officials pointing to his smarts.

However, sources suggest he won’t be bringing any bombshells to his testimony.

About Reeker: He was among the career state officials who undertook a concerted effort to shield then-ambassador Marie Yovanovitch from conspiracies peddled by conservative media outlets beginning in March.

Reeker, along with State Department official George Kent, sought to provide counselor Ulrich Brechbuhl and Undersecretary for Political Affairs David Hale with facts to counter the conspiratorial narratives being pushed about the career diplomat.

President Trump alluded to the Mueller investigation in a tweet today, saying that the “Ukraine investigation is just as Corrupt (sic) and Fake (sic) as all of the other garbage that went on before it.”

Trump also again claimed House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff “made up” what Trump said on his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Trump’s referring to Schiff’s summary of his call at an open intel hearing.

From CNN’s fact check at the time: CNN can’t endorse Trump’s claim that Schiff “lied,” since Schiff introduced his comments at Thursday’s committee hearing by saying he would be outlining “the essence of what the president communicates,” not providing “the exact transcribed version of the call.” And it’s important to note that we do not even have an “exact transcribed version” of the call – the rough transcript released by the White House cautions explicitly that it is “not a verbatim transcript.”