{"id":45864,"date":"2019-10-25T04:44:40","date_gmt":"2019-10-25T04:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/10\/25\/pentagon-told-witness-not-to-testify-in-trump-impeachment-inquiry\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T08:28:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T08:28:22","slug":"pentagon-told-witness-not-to-testify-in-trump-impeachment-inquiry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2019\/10\/25\/pentagon-told-witness-not-to-testify-in-trump-impeachment-inquiry\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon told witness not to testify in Trump impeachment inquiry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 A Defense Department official who testified in the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump did so in defiance of the Pentagon, which told her not to cooperate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A letter to Laura Cooper\u2019s attorney obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday cites an administration-wide policy against participating in the impeachment probe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The directive underscores Trump administration efforts to discourage or prevent some executive branch employees from cooperating with House Democrats, who are investigating Trump\u2019s prodding of his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden. The administration this month blocked Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, from testifying, though he ultimately did so under subpoena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The letter cites concerns about whether the House is authorized to conduct an impeachment inquiry without a formal vote and about what it says is a \u201cblanket refusal\u201d to permit Defense Department lawyers from being present for the interviews. Excluding department lawyers, the letter says, \u201cviolates settled practice and may jeopardize future accommodation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTo reiterate, the Department respects the oversight role of Congress and stands ready to work with the Committees should there be an appropriate resolution of outstanding legal issues,\u201d reads the Defense Department letter to Cooper\u2019s lawyer, Daniel Levin.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2019\/10\/23\/the-white-house-will-have-final-say-over-the-pentagon-documents-given-to-house-impeachment-inquiry\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"171\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/UK4.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">The White House will have final say over the Pentagon documents given to House impeachment inquiry<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The Pentagon is sorting through thousands of documents and correspondence related to Ukrainian military aid, but a good chunk of those might be withheld from the House impeachment inquiry.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, it adds, \u201cAny such resolution would have to consider the constitutional prerogatives and confidentiality interests of the co-equal Executive Branch &#8230; and ensure fundamental fairness to any Executive Branch employees involved in this process, including Ms. Cooper.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Several witnesses, including Cooper, have appeared for closed-door interviews after receiving subpoenas from the House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cooper, who oversees <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/09\/29\/trump-claim-on-stalled-aid-for-ukraine-draws-new-scrutiny\/\" target=_blank>Ukraine policy at the Defense Department<\/a>, had to wait hours for her interview to begin on Wednesday after Republicans stormed the secure room being used for depositions. The act of protest brought the proceedings to a halt. The interview began about five hours late and ended after roughly four hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The New York Times was the first to report on the letter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Defense Department official who testified in the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump did so in defiance of the Pentagon, which told her not to cooperate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":89975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[8,160,11,36,19,48],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1300],"class_list":["post-45864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress","category-daily-news-roundup","category-global","category-newsletters","category-pentagon","category-the-americas"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"YKDXXC3XC5DOBEACSVVHRQJP7I","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/10\/25\/pentagon-told-witness-not-to-testify-in-trump-impeachment-inquiry\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pentagon told witness not to testify in Trump impeachment inquiry - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Defense Department official who testified in the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump did so in defiance of the Pentagon, which told her not to cooperate.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pentagon told witness not to testify in Trump impeachment inquiry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Defense Department official who testified in the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump did so in defiance of the Pentagon, 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