inspector general. a trump appointee. he put out a statement just yesterday pushing back on that. republican senator chuck grassley also pushing back on secondhand knowledge attacks. and there s more bad tape for pompeo. this defense of state department officials. to the best of my knowledge, from what i ve seen so far, each of the actions that were undertaken by state department officials was entirely appropriate. we ll see. because at least one of those officials has stepped down already. ambassador volker felt he could no longer be effective in that job. just this afternoon, the chairman of the three house committees fired back at pompeo s stonewalling attempt with an apparent threat. any effort to intimidate witnesses or prevent them from talking with congress including state department employees is illegal and will constitute evidence of obstruction of the impeachment inquiry. that is where we start today withfavorite reporters and friends. eli stokols, white house reporter
senate, i ve got bill barr at the justice department, and as long as i ve got those things, i can act basically with impunity. i think, though, what the president has done, what he s finally been caught doing, because we don t know that he hasn t been doing this all along, is to really ensnare his top human shields in this. i mean, the whistle-blower names bill barr and rudy as the president s accomplices in this wrongdoing. we know from jeanne s reporting that mike pompeo was on the call, so mike pompeo either thought there was nothing wrong with eight requests to investigate hunter biden, or he d seen something worse and i m not sure i think both make him an even more important witness to be responsive to subpoenas. it s interesting, the thug culture. if you probably saw a tape of bill barr 10, 15 years ago, saw a tape of mike pompeo 10, 15 years ago, different. it s amazing that transformation that happens in trump s orbit, and to your point, to your point earlier, i do not