Devin Nunes slams Marie Yovanovitch as ‘not a material fact witness’

Rep. Devin Nunes on Friday dismissed former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch’s testimony during the House impeachment inquiry, saying she “is not a material fact witness” and that her ouster from the post was more of a “human resources” issue.

But first he took a shot at Democrats for holding closed-door hearings to take depositions from her and other witnesses prior to their public testimony, which started this week.

“Ambassador, I congratulate you. You’ve been down in the secret deposition meeting rooms. You’ve graduated for your performance today. Later this afternoon, I should note that, for the public, that we will be back down in the basement of the Capitol doing more of these secret depositions,” said Nunes (R-Calif.), the ranking GOP member of the Intelligence Committee, referring to the deposition of State Department official David Holmes.

“Ambassador, I just have — I don’t really have very many questions for you. You admitted in your opening statement that you don’t have any firsthand knowledge of the issues that we’re looking into,” he said.

He then pressed her about whether she had spoken to either President Trump or acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, or had listened to Trump’s July 25 call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which the president asked for investigations into Joe Biden, his son and the 2016 election.

She said she had not.

Nunes then argued that her dismissal was an HR matter and that she should not be testifying.

“I’m not exactly sure what the ambassador is doing here today. This is the House Intelligence Committee that’s now turned into the House impeachment committee,” Nunes asserted.

“This seems more appropriate for the Subcommittee on Human Resources at the Foreign Affairs Committee. If there’s issues with employment, it seems like that would be a more appropriate setting instead of an impeachment hearing where the ambassador is not a material fact witness to any of the accusations that are being hurled at the president for this impeachment inquiry,” he concluded.

Republicans have complained that there have been no witnesses with firsthand knowledge of Trump’s thinking on Ukraine.

Democrats countered that Trump has ordered his staffers not to cooperate, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday inviting the commander-in-chief to testify before the committee.

He then tried to yield time to Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), but Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said that under the rules for the proceeding, only Nunes or staff counsel Steve Castor could question witnesses during the initial 45 minutes of questioning.