I am proud of our career diplomats. They are strong. They love their country.
I would think the US House would be praised for holding confidential committee meetings to get to the truth for the benefit of the country and quite possibly the president. Trump should be happy everything is confidential. It protects whatever reputation he may have. I guess he and Guilliani know the truth and are afraid of it.
By Bobby Allyn
Philip Reeker, the acting assistant secretary of state for Europe, leaves the Capitol in Washington after a closed-door interview Saturday about President Donald Trump's ouster of the ambassador of Ukraine.
Philip Reeker, (click here) a U.S. diplomat who oversees European affairs, told House members he had plans of defending former Ukrainian Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in the face of a smear campaign against her, but Reeker was overruled by top State Department officials, according to a person familiar with Reeker's testimony.
In a rare Saturday hearing, Reeker sat for more than eight hours of questions from lawmakers running the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. Reeker appeared under a subpoena issued by House lawmakers, despite being ordered not to cooperate by Trump.
Reeker, a career foreign servicer officer, was named the acting assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of European and Eurasian affairs in March, a few months before Yovanovitch became a political target and was removed from her post.
Just before her ouster, however, Reeker wanted to draft a strongly-worded statement from State Department officials to strike back at the attacks she was enduring in conservative media and by allies of Trump. But that letter was scotched by David Hale, the No. 3 official in the State Department, according to the person familar with Reeker's testimony....
