For Impeachment Witnesses, Testifying Can Cost $15,000 or More

Source: New York Times

For Impeachment Witnesses, Testifying Can Cost $15,000 or More

Caught in a struggle between two branches of government, career government workers on civil-servant salaries are worried about how to pay for lawyers to guide them through.

By Sharon LaFraniere
Oct. 25, 2019
Updated 11:39 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON — As a parade of State Department officials began trooping to Capitol Hill this month to testify in the impeachment inquiry imperiling President Trump, officials from the department’s employee association dispatched an appeal to its nearly 17,000 members.

Send money, they pleaded.

For the second time since Mr. Trump took office, an investigation into his conduct has set off a scramble across Washington for lawyers to represent witnesses — and for the money to pay them. This time, instead of high-rolling players in Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign, many of the witnesses are career government workers who helped shape or carry out policy toward Ukraine.

On civil-servant salaries, they have racked up bills of $15,000 or more for lawyers who can guide them through the morning-to-dusk sessions before congressional inquisitors. Already caught in a struggle between two branches of government, many are now worried about how to pay for legal advice that can cost $750 to $1,500 an hour.

“We have never faced a comparable situation,” said Eric Rubin, a senior American diplomat who runs the organization, the American Foreign Service Association. “Our colleagues are facing unprecedented legal bills.”

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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/25/us/politics/impeachment-lawyers.html