All four witnesses called by House impeachment inquiry to testify on Monday have refused to appear, according to NBC News.
Two of the witnesses are lawyers for the National Security Council, and two others are top White House aides who investigators believe have knowledge of an alleged pressure campaign by the White House on the government of Ukraine.
They included John Eisenberg, legal adviser to the National Security Council, and his deputy, Michael Ellis, as well as Robert Blair, a top aide to acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, and Brian McCormack, an aide at the White House Office of Management and Budget who previously worked for Energy Secretary Rick Perry. All four witnesses were issued subpoenas by the House Intelligence Committee, and all four defied them.
Eisenberg's testimony is considered especially relevant to the inquiry because of his central role in the immediate aftermath of a July 25 phone call between the president and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump asked Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden, the former vice president's son, who sat on the board of a Ukrainian company.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing in his dealings with Ukraine and repeatedly attacked the impeachment process. On Monday, he wrote on Twitter, "What I said on the phone call with the Ukrainian President is "perfectly" stated. There is no reason to call witnesses to analyze my words and meaning. This is just another Democrat Hoax that I have had to live with from the day I got elected .
The fourth witness set to testify Monday was McCormack, a former aide to Energy Secretary Rick Perry. According to testimony from several current and former administration officials in recent weeks, Perry was part of a group of three administration officials who were charged with running a shadow foreign policy towards Ukraine, and working closely with the president's personal lawyer, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
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