What Went Down During Marie Yovanovitch’s Testimony

While we are still waiting for the hearing to resume, the Mueller investigation once again flickered in the background. The verdict just came down in the trial of Roger Stone, the onetime Trump campaign advisor who was charged with making false statements to Congress, obstruction of proceedings, and witness tampering. Stone was found guilty on all seven counts, and the trial revealed new details about the Trump campaign’s communications with WikiLeaks that weren’t visible to the public when the Mueller report was released earlier this year, including Trump’s involvement in his campaign’s efforts to capitalize on the WikiLeaks releases.

After hearing from Democrats and Yovanovitch for the last hour and a half, Congress is taking a recess to vote, which is expected to last about an hour. This means we’ll be on break, too. We will then hear from the Republicans — Nunes and their designated counsel Castor — as they question Yovanovitch for 45 minutes before the hearing is turned over to committee members. Scroll below to see folks’ takeaways from the hearing so far.

So far, I think Democrats’ questioning of Yovanovitch has been quite deft. They took advantage of Trump’s tweet attacking Yovanovitch and the pathos of Yovanovitch’s story. The key will be how Republicans respond. Did Democrats (with Trump’s help) lay a trap by making her seem like she’s continuing to be victimized by powerful government figures? It could be hard for Republicans to vigorously go after her credibility now without seeming like bullies. But there’s still room for them to dismiss her testimony as ancillary to the investigation.