Democrats condemn Trump's 'witness intimidation' after Marie Yovanovitch testimony – as it happened

Live political reporting continues on Monday’s blog:

Thanks for reading! Kari Paul here, signing off for the night. Below are some of the top stories of the last few hours.

• California and 22 other states will sue the Environmental Protection Agency over the Trump administration’s efforts to block tougher tailpipe emissions standards.
• The execution of Rodney Reed has been stayed by court of appeals, just days before it was set to be carried out on 20 November.
• Twitter announced Friday its new ban on political advertising will also limit micro-targeting, further putting pressure on Facebook.
• Prison guards who were tasked with guarding Jeffrey Epstein on the night of his death have been offered a plea deal, the Associated Press reports, but have declined the offer.
• Donald Trump intervened in three military justice cases on Friday, issuing pardons in at least two of them.
• More “damning” details emerged on Friday from the deposition of David Holmes, the Ukraine embassy staffer who reportedly overheard Trump asking Gordon Sondland about “the investigations” in Ukraine.

Breaking news, Rudy Giuliani “f---s everything up” every time he gets involved, Sondland said, according to the Holmes deposition.

Barack Obama and Georgia politician Stacey Abrams spoke to a group of Democratic Donors at the Democracy Alliance meeting on Friday.

Obama sought to assuage fears that the Democratic primary field is too crowded, noting that he had a “very robust” primary as well.

“We have a field of very accomplished, very serious and passionate and smart people who have a history of public service”, he said.

The former president also advised Democrats to stay “rooted in reality” according to journalists tweeting from the event, noting that “Democrats are not driven by the same views that are reflected on certain left leaning Twitter feeds, or the activist wing of our party”.

More details emerged on Friday from the deposition of David Holmes, the Ukraine embassy staffer who reportedly overheard Trump asking Gordon Sondland about “the investigations” in Ukraine.

The transcripts, which are being called “damning”, include Holmes saying he overheard Sondland tell Trump that Ukrainian president Zelensky will do “anything you ask him to”.

Also a quote that may have you questioning what stage of the simulation we are now in:

Read a PDF of the full transcript here.

Donald Trump intervened in three military justice cases on Friday, issuing pardons in at least two of them.

Some Pentagon officials have expressed concerns that the president’s actions will undermine the military justice system, according to the Washington Post. From the report:

The service members involved were notified by Trump over the phone, said the U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. Army Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn, who faced a murder trial scheduled to begin next year, took the phone call and was informed he would receive a full pardon, said his lawyer, Phillip Stackhouse.

In additon to Golsteyn, the other cases involve former Special Warfare Operator Chief Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL convicted of posing with the corpse of an Islamic State militant and former Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, who was convicted of second-degree murder in 2013 for ordering his soldiers to open fire on three men in Afghanistan.

Golsteyn had gone from being decorated with a Silver Star for his service in Afghanistan to facing years of investigation and a court-martial in the 2010 death of a suspected bomb maker in Afghanistan, according to the Washington Post.

Prison guards who were tasked with guarding Jeffrey Epstein on the night of his death have been offered a plea deal, the Associated Press reports, but have declined the offer.

The fact that the guards have been offered a plea deal signals the Justice Department is considering criminal charges in connection with the wealthy financier’s death at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York in August. The city’s medical examiner ruled Epstein’s death a suicide.

From the AP:

The guards on Epstein’s unit are suspected of failing to check on him every half hour, as required, and of fabricating log entries to show they had. As part of the proposed plea deal, prosecutors wanted the guards to admit they falsified the prison records, according to the people familiar with the matter.

Twitter announced Friday its new ban on political advertising will also limit micro-targeting, further putting pressure on Facebook.

The new rules, which go into effect on 22 November, come after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said n 30 October the company would ban all political advertising due to a belief that “political message reach should be earned, not bought”.

Meanwhile, Facebook has faced significant criticism over its political ads policies in recent months, including an aggressive questioning of chief executive Mark Zuckerberg in Congress by Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.

Read Julia Carrie Wong’s full report here.

The execution of Rodney Reed has been stayed by court of appeals, just days before it was set to be carried out on 20 November.

The Texas man, who is African American, was convicted by an all-white jury in 1998 of the murder of 19-year-old Stacey Stites. He claims he was wrongly convicted and his family has spent years trying to get the case overturned.

His execution is now stayed “pending further order” of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine is the latest legislator to speak out against the epidemic of vaping among young people in the US. On Friday she tweeted she is urging the FDA to support stronger actions to prevent kids from getting addicted.

“The dramatic increase in the use of e-cigarettes by our young people is threatening the progress we have made to reduce overall tobacco use”, she said. “Teachers have talked with me about the growing epidemic of vaping in high schools and middle schools in Maine”.

California and 22 other states will sue the Environmental Protection Agency over the Trump administration’s efforts to block tougher tailpipe emissions standards, the Hill reports.

In September, Trump announced he would revoke the waiver California has relied on to force automakers to produce more environmentally-friendly cars for decades.

California attorney general Xavier Becerra said he and others would challenge the change, joining together in a lawsuit to argue argue that EPA lacks the authority to revoke the waiver, calling it “unprecedented in the multi-decade history of waiver requests”.

“We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: California will not back down when it comes to protecting our people, our health, and our environment from preventable pollution”, Becerra said. “California’s Clean Car Standards are achievable. They not only work, many other states around the country have chosen to adopt them. The Trump Administration, on the other hand, has chosen to side with polluters”.

Hello, Kari Paul on the West Coast taking over the blog for the next few hours. Stay tuned for more news.

That’s it from me after a very historic day (and week) in Washington. My west coast colleague Kari Paul will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

• Maria Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine, testified at the second public impeachment hearing. The longtime diplomat’s account of being ousted from her post amid a smear campaign prompted a disparaging tweet from Trump, which Democrats said amounted to witness intimidation. (The president and his allies denied that charge.)
• Yovanovitch told the House intelligence committee that the smear campaign against her, as well as state department leaders’ failure to defend her, has had a “chilling effect” on the diplomatic community.
• David Holmes, the Ukraine embassy staffer who reportedly overheard Trump asking Gordon Sondland about “the investigations” in Ukraine, arrived for his closed-door testimony in the impeachment inquiry.
• Federal prosecutors are reportedly investigating whether Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, sought to profit off his connections to Ukrainian energy projects.
• In non-impeachment news: Roger Stone, a former adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign, was found guilty on all seven counts in his criminal trial.

Kari will have much more coming up, so stay tuned.

Representative Mark Meadows, one of Trump’s closest congressional allies, pushed back against Democratic accusations that the president engaged in witness intimidation by smearing the reputation of Maria Yovanovitch.

The North Carolina Republican, who spoke to reporters after the hearing even though he is not a member of the House intelligence committee, called Trump’s attack on the former US ambassador to Ukraine “a characterization of her resume.”

It’s important to remember that Yovanovitch has been consistently praised by her fellow diplomats and has 33 years of experience in foreign service.

Addressing reporters after the conclusion of the impeachment hearing with Maria Yovanovitch, Adam Schiff applauded the longtime diplomat as an “incredible public servant.”

The committee chairman also argued Yovanovitch’s testimony proved the former US ambassador to Ukraine was pushed out in part because of her efforts to root out Ukrainian corruption, despite claims from Trump allies like Rudy Giuliani.

Asked about Trump’s tweets smearing Yovanovitch’s reputation, Schiff said they fit a “pattern” of the president attempting to obstruct investigations into his administration.

“This is a part of a pattern to intimidate witnesses,” Schiff told reporters. “It’s also a part of pattern of obstruction.”

Some people who watched Maria Yovanovitch’s testimony from the public seating section of the hearing room actually stood to applaud the longtime diplomat as she exited.