President Trump’s State Department cut and ran in the wake of the documents released that show President Trump’s mob posse ran by Rudy Giuliani stalked US Ambassador Yovanovich, canceling a briefing on embassy security and their as yet unsubstantiated claims regarding their unauthorized strike of former Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.
“The State Department abruptly canceled a classified congressional briefing Wednesday that was supposed to focus on embassy security, a House aide said, infuriating Capitol Hill staffers seeking answers on alleged Iranian threats to U.S. missions overseas,” Politico reported on Wednesday.
“Staff are furious. This briefing is required by law every month, and today’s was the most important we’ve had scheduled in a long time. The State Department has given us no explanation whatsoever,†Politico reports this House aide told them.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper has already said that he has not seen specific evidence of imminent threats, and indeed when pressed, Republicans cannot name any and instead recite a litany of past behavior by Soleimani, who was by all accounts a dangerous actor.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
After the Trump administration used “imminent attacks” as their excuse for avoiding congressional approval prior to striking, Senator Chris Murphy (D-CN) led Democrats in requesting a briefing from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Trump and State Department Secretary Pompeo’s claims that Soleimani was planning imminent attacks on multiple U.S. embassies.
“On at least three separate occasions last Friday, President Trump alleged that former Iranian General Qassem Soleimani was involved in actively targeting multiple U.S. embassies. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also stated on Friday that, ‘We had specific information on an imminent threat and that threat stream included attacks on U.S. embassies. Period. Full stop.’â€
“There was no mention of any of this classified evidence during the All Senators Briefing last Wednesday by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, Chairman Mark Milley, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Gina Haspel. Furthermore, on Sunday Secretary Esper said President Trump ‘didn’t cite a specific piece of evidence’ regarding an imminent attack on four embassies and that Secretary Esper ‘didn’t see’ that evidence.â€
According to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll. more Americans disapprove than approve of President Trump’s handling of the situation with Iran.
Yovanovitch has called for an investigation into whether or not Trump was having her surveilled in his efforts to further his Ukraine conspiracy plot against former Vice President Joe Biden.
Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Connect with Sarah on Post, Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.
