Investigation in Ukraine Affair: Trump Criticizes Another Witness via Twitter

US President Donald Trump has made a derogatory comment on Twitter about another witness in the impeachment investigation.

Jennifer Williams, "whoever that is," was to look at both transcripts of his Ukraine phone calls and the statements from Kiev, Trump wrote in the short message service. Then she was supposed to meet with "the other Trump opponents," whom he did not know, and most of whom he had never heard before, to work out a "better attack on the president," he sneered.

Williams is an associate of US Vice President Mike Pence. She had testified on November 7 behind closed doors to Congress on the Ukraine affair. The US House of Representatives' intelligence committee published the transcript of their poll on Saturday night (local time). She overheard the September 25th conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj, which is at the center of the Ukraine affair, criticizing Trump's claims as "inappropriate."

Tell Jennifer Williams, whoever that is, to read BOTH's transcripts of the presidential calls, & see the just released item from Ukraine. Never Trumpers, who I do not know & mostly never heard of, & work out a better presidential attack!

Trump had encouraged Selenskyj to investigate the son of his rival, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. The Democrats in the US House of Representatives are therefore pushing ahead with investigations into possible impeachment against Trump. They accuse him of having abused his office to urge Kiev to interfere in his favor in the US election campaign. There is a suspicion that Trump used military aid to Ukraine as a means of pressure.

Mark Wilson / Getty Images / AFP

Witness Jennifer Williams, a US State Department employee

Williams called Trump's call for such specific investigations in the telephone conversation with Selensky "unusual" and "inappropriate." She said, "For me, that gave rise to possible other motives behind the reluctance of military aid." It appeared that it was more about the President's "personal political agenda" than US foreign policy goals.

On Friday, Trump had already attacked another witness, former US Ambassador to the Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, in the investigation during her ongoing public questioning in Congress, on Twitter. The Democrats then accused him of "intimidation of witnesses". Williams will testify again next Tuesday before the congress - this time in public session.

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