comports with what other witnesses have said. that s right. it s been remarkably consistent from colonel vindman to almost every official who has testified except for perhaps ambassador sondland. what struck me about his testimony, having spent a lot of time with officials similar to him, is that, you know, he s probably sat in dozens if not hundreds of these type of meets, bilateral meetings with officials of several different levels from other countries. and he knows and probably had a sense that something was off. obviously he included the very specific reference to the ask for an announcement about investigations. so even not knowing the specifics about the military assistance, he knew that wasn t aligned with the briefing paper, with the meetings that he d been attending through the interagency with the traditional process that had been discussing ukraine for months if not years. john, you know, you mentioned the idea of bolton sort of maintaining his credentials with republic
appearance. and it should end in two to three hours, but could stretch langer. leland: theres a chance that a few of the members would have something to say. if they do we ll check in. gillian: the president is out at his golf club in sterling, virginia, not too far from washington d.c. and he arrived a bit ago, tweeted, slamming several democrats. rich edson is the at the white house. and the justice said that they ll r is turn over the grand jury information and testimony. the administration is expect today appeal that. and jerry nadler said the statement of that, the court s thoughtful reeling recognizes that our impeachment inquiry fully comports with the
this morning, quote: the ukraine investigation is just as corrupt and fake as all the other garbage that weapon on before it. congressional democrats are continuing to push the administration for these fines of interviews types of interviews in their inquiry. eric. eric: eric meanwhile, the democrats picked up what s considered a major win. reporter: they did. this was a federal judge deciding that the department of justice must provide grand jury information, all part of that mueller investigation. top democrat on the house judiciary committee said, quote: the court s thoughtful ruling recognizes that our impeachment inquiry fully comports with the constitution and thoroughly rejects spurious white house claims to the contrary. this grand jury information that the administration has tried to block the house from seeing will be critical to our work. his republican counterpart, congressman doug collins, wrote, quote: this ruling is dangerous
that this was not being steered by the white house or by political appointees close to the white house. in this case it appears that the attorney general is not only involved, has been sort of doing some of the investigating himself in this inquiry. first i want to ask if my understanding of that comports with how you understand it through your reporting and what the implications of that might be in this change of the status of the investigation? well, certainly you re correct that bill barr has been very, very hands on in this investigation. he traveled to italy, he spoke with australian officials when they were in washington for a state dinner this fall to talk about this concerns that he had about the opening of the russia investigation and he s reached out to our allies, so he has been incredibly involved every step of the way. that is not wrong at all. keep in mind, bill barr expressed skepticism of the russia investigation very, very soon after he was made attorney general th
department would take pains to make sure that everybody knew that this was an independent matter, that this was not being steered in any way by the white house or by political appointees close to the white house. but in this case it appears that the attorney general has been doing is not only involved, but has been sort of doing the investigating himself in this inquiry. first, i want to ask if my understanding of that comports with how you understand it through your reporting, and what the implications of that might be for this change in the status of the investigation. well, first, you re correct bill barr has been hands on in the investigation. he traveled to italy. he spoke with australian officials when they were in washington for a state dinner this fall to talk about this, you know, concern that he had about the opening of the russia investigation. and he reached out to our allies. so he has been incredibly involved every step of the way. that is not wrong at all. also keep