Two more key impeachment witnesses have apparently just come forward to testify against Donald Trump
Even as the House impeachment inquiry kicks off its televised hearings today with testimony from State Department veterans Bill Taylor and George Kent, the House Democrats just announced two more witnesses who are set to testify behind closed doors this week. The two of them, each for a different reason, could prove to be crucial.
The House now says that Bill Taylor’s aide David Holmes is now scheduled to testify behind closed doors on Friday. The Holmes testimony was announced shortly after Bill Taylor revealed that an unnamed member of his staff overheard a phone conversation between Donald Trump and Gordon Sondland, which Sondland made clear was about Trump wanting dirt on Biden. Given the timing, we strongly suspect Holmes is the unnamed staffer, and that he’s going to testify about that phone call.
OMB official Mark Sandy is now scheduled to testify behind closed doors on Saturday. This is significant because Sandy was previously scheduled to testify and refused to show up. Now he’s being scheduled again, this time on a Saturday. If this were merely one of these formalities where House Democrats schedule an unwilling witness just to establish that person’s refusal to show up, we don’t think they’d go to the trouble of setting up shop on a Saturday just for a no-show. This suggests to us that Sandy has changed his mind and is now willing to show up and testify. That would be bad news for Sandy’s boss, OMB Director Mick Mulvaney.
In any case, the impeachment train keeps on rolling. The House generally has to vet witnesses behind closed doors before it can schedule them for public hearings, so we can expect to keep seeing closed-door hearings scheduled as more witnesses become relevant and come forward. If Holmes and/or Sandy turns out to be a viable witness in private hearings, we can then expect them to be called to publicly testify as well.
