Page 938 - Wrongdoing News Today

So the impact that can have by the most powerful person in the world can be to intimidate, and she said she felt intimidated. >> she was suggesting that further attacks from this president who wrote that everywhere she went turned bad. he said that in realtime. chairman schiff brought up that tweet during the hearing later calling it witness intimidation in realtime. here he goes. >> the president implicitly threatened you in that call record, and now the president in realtime is attacking you. ...

>> i mean, i dont think i have such powers, not in mogadishu, somalia, and not in other places. >> what effect do you think that has on other witnesses willingness to come forward and expose wrongdoing? >> well, its very intimidating. >> well, i want to let you know, ambassador, that some of us here take witness intimidation very, very seriously. >> late this afternoon, the president offered his own defense of his move. >> reporter: what do you say to democrats who say you were witness tampering...

Way hes driving this? >> whats interesting is before the public hearings start and private hearings started nancy pelosi was looking for adam schiff to lead this because of his intelligence background and because of the nature of the wrongdoing president trump has been part of. i dont think its necessarily surprising adam schiff is leading this. but we see the way in which he takes a thoughtful practical approach to this, trying to maintain some amount of decorum. the republicans are putting on ...

Terms. but they dont quite understand this military aid portion of it. so what democrats need to do is make that more salient. make them understand it and show them mark sandy who had this up-close relationship to the information and the hold to make that point and try to get that out into the public discourse around impeachment. >> okay, guys i want to go through a second headline we have. that being the take-aways from marie yovanovitchs testimony. among them were the consistent gop effort to ...

What effect do you think that has on other witness willingness to come forward and expose wrongdoing? >> well, its very intimidating. >> its designed to intimidate, is it not? >> i mean i cant speak to what the president is trying to do, but i think the effect is to be intimidating. >> well, i want to let you know, ambassador, that some of us here take witness intimidation very, very seriously. >> joining us now is lawrence tribe. he is a harvard law professor at constitutional law and coauthor ...

Come forward and expose wrongdoing? >> well, its very intimidating. >> designed to intimidate, is it not? >> i mean, i cant speak to what the president is trying to do, but i think the effect is to be intimidating. >> well, i want to let you know, ambassador, that some of us here take witness intimidation very, very seriously. >> part of the reason this standard trump attention trick of saying something outrageous and diverting everybodys attention from what was going onto instead pay attention ...

The russians. >> the russians shamay have tak it as invitation to actually take military action against ukraine, is that right? >> the russians always look for vulnerabilities and they know that the united states has supported ukraine. >> they could have pounced. >> they could have taken advantage. >> now, how would this theory of ukraine interference in the 2016 election be in vladimir putins interest? >> well, i mean, president putin must have been aware that there were concerns in the u.s. ab...

But when president trump tried that standard one trick pony trick today in the middle of marie yovanovitchs testimony it went wrong for him in a couple of important ways. >> ambassador, youve shown the courage to come forward today and testify. notwithstanding the fact you were urged by the white house or state department not to, notwithstanding the fact that as you testified earlier the president implicitly threatened you in that call record. and now the president in realtime is attacking you. ...

Election be in vladimir putins interest? >> well, i mean, president putin must have been aware that there were concerns in the u.s. about russian meddling in the 2016 elections and what the potential was for russian meddling in the future. so, you know, classic for an intelligence officer to try to throw off the scent and create an alternative narrative that might maybe get picked up and get some credence. >> an alternative narrative that would absolve his own wrongdoing? >> yeah. >> yeah. turns...

Professional character while she was giving testimony. >> now the president realtime is attacking you. what effect do you think that has on other witnesses willingness to come forward and expose wrongdoing? >> well, its very intimidating. >> but there was more. into the wee hours in d.c. an important closed door deposition in the skiff yesterday. it was david holmes answering questions and then leaving the building or leaving the very skiff, itself, at 10:00 p.m. he is the political counselor at...