Norton Announces Her Participation in Impeachment Inquiry Interviews

Press Release

Using her senior position on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, one of the three committees primarily responsible for the ongoing impeachment inquiry, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced she will attend two impeachment inquiry transcribed interviews this week.

Tomorrow, Norton will attend the transcribed interview of Gordon Sondland, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union (E.U.). Sondland, who has no jurisdiction relevant to Ukraine, was a participant in several troubling text exchanges concerning conditioning federal funding to Ukraine on Ukraine's commitment to investigate one of President Trump's rivals in the 2020 presidential campaign, former Vice President Joe Biden, despite no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden. In 2017, Sondland donated $1 million to the President's inauguration committee. The following year, Trump nominated him to be Ambassador to the E.U.

On Friday, Norton will attend the transcribed interview with former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie "Masha" Yovanovitch. Trump removed Yovanovitch from her position as Ambassador to Ukraine after months of lobbying from Rudy Giuliani, who said she was undermining efforts to persuade the Ukrainian government to investigate Biden.

"We now have multiple instances and substantial evidence that President Trump and his administration have reached out to foreign governments to ask for their interference with the upcoming 2020 election, and have worked to cover up that request for interference," Norton said. "However, it is essential that our committees work carefully and methodically to get all of the facts, particularly considering that new revelations are coming in almost every day."

Today, the three committees subpoenaed documents from Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Acting Director Russell Vought related to the impeachment inquiry. The request to the Department of Defense concerns, among other things, the President's telephone conversations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, including documents related to Trump's July 25th call during which he solicited Zelensky's assistance in investigating Biden. The request to OMB concerns the administration's delay of bipartisan appropriated funds, including those for foreign and security assistance, to Ukraine.

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