Pence aide -- who was concerned about July 25 call -- will testify if subpoenaed

Last edited Wed Nov 6, 2019, 08:33 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: CNN

(CNN) An aide to Vice President Mike Pence, Jennifer Williams, will show up for testimony on Thursday if she receives a subpoena, according to a source familiar with the matter. Williams was on the July 25 call between President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymr Zelensky. Williams was concerned about what she heard on the call but there is no indication Williams raised her concerns to her superiors, according to the source. Generally, the House has been sending subpoenas on the morning of their scheduled testimony.

Williams, a longtime State Department staffer, is detailed to Pence's office as special adviser on European and Russian affairs and was one of two Pence aides on the call. The other was Gen. Keith Kellogg, the vice president's national security adviser, who has not yet been called to testify. Williams would be the first person on Pence's national security team to appear. She has knowledge of how much the vice president knew about the efforts by Trump and those around him to push Ukraine to launch investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, as well as 2016 election interference, a source familiar with her thinking told CNN.

Pence did not listen in, but a transcript of the call was put into his daily briefing binder, an administration source says. He has repeatedly insisted that Trump did nothing wrong but Pence has not clarified how much he himself knew about efforts to pressure Ukraine and the parallel Ukraine policy that Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others were leading outside the normal diplomatic and official channels.

If she testifies, Williams would join a stream of other government officials who have given closed-door depositions in recent weeks as House investigators continue their impeachment inquiry stemming from a whistleblower complaint about Trump's July call with Zelensky.


Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/06/politics/jennifer-williams-testify/index.html