Bill Taylor, the veteran State Department official who called freezing Ukrainian aid “crazy,” has been asked to give a deposition before House committees.
According to CNN, an interview has not yet been scheduled and will likely draw opposition from the White House and State Department, who have tried to block testimony from other players in the Ukrainian scandal.
Taylor became part of the story when Kurt Volker, former special envoy to the Ukraine, release a tranche of text messages between himself, Taylor and U.S. ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland.
In the messages, Volker and Sondland particularly try to create a bridge between Rudy Giuliani and Ukrainian officials, eventually planning communications between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky centered on digging up dirt on the Bidens. Taylor is the only one who ever pushes back on the scheme, calling the freezing of Ukrainian military aid “crazy” and hinting that he may quit.
House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) expressed interest in talking to Taylor on Tuesday, calling him a “potentially important witness on the subject.”
Let’s just start with a subpoena right off the bat, shall we?
Does the Executive Branch have a legal right to prevent Taylor from testifying before Congress? What legal exposure does he face if he defies the administration and does indeed testify?
I’m interested in what light others here may shed on this topic.
Mostly the career suicide bit. Lots of ways for them to make life miserable for him until he decides to take early retirement.
Maybe I’m slow, but I don’t understand the legal mechanism by which the White House (executive branch) can block the legal request from the legislative branch to call a witness to give a deposition, or testify? It’s not as if State Department employees are acting as the President’s legal counsel.
It sounds outside of the law and closer to obstruction than anything legal?
I can’t link tweets, but just read breaking news that Amb. Sundland “will defy State Dept order and testify to Congress in impeachment inquiry, his lawyers say.” So I’m guessing his lawyers have advised him that the executive branch does not have the right to prevent testimony, and ignoring the new subpoena exposes him to legal jeopardy.