Not fast enough...

The White House's impregnable stone wall is starting to crumble

Opinion by Elie Honig

When the House of Representatives launched its impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump over the Ukraine scandal, the White House decried it as "invalid" and "baseless," and ordered some subpoenaed officials not to testify to Congress. This obstructionist strategy worked once before, as the White House effectively stonewalled the House Judiciary Committee's investigation of Robert Mueller's findings on Russian election interference by instructing executive branch employees not to comply with subpoenas.

But this time, something is different. Now, some executive branch employees who had received orders from the White House to clam up chose to comply with the House's request for testimony, as required by law. By doing so, those dutiful public officials met their oath of office to uphold the Constitution and, in the process, called the White House's high-stakes bluff.

Former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch defied the White House's instruction to remain silent and instead testified to the House about the efforts of Trump's counsel, Rudy Giuliani, to have her removed from her post; one House member said she gave a "gripping and emotional account of presidential abuse of power."

Fiona Hill, Trump's former top Russia adviser, testified White House officials were alarmed by Trump's potentially illegal conduct toward Ukraine even before the July 25 call with President Volodymyr Zelensky. And Ambassador Gordon Sondland testified Trump ordered diplomatic professionals to deal with Ukraine through Giuliani, which left Sondland "disappointed" -- particularly when he discovered (later, he claimed) that Giuliani's agenda included prompting Ukraine to investigate Trump's political rivals.

Trump could have tried to enforce his direction to executive branch employees not to cooperate by going to court and seeking restraining orders preventing them from testifying. But -- perhaps recognizing that his legal grounding was shaky at best -- he didn't. Trump blinked. He got caught bluffing and, when Yovanovitch and others called him, he folded.

Now that the parade of witnesses has started, Congress and the public will learn more about Trump's efforts to push Ukraine to investigate his political rivals. Bill Taylor -- the top US diplomat in Ukraine, who famously texted Sondland that it would be "crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign" -- provided devastating testimony Tuesday. In his opening statement, Taylor established clear as day that there absolutely was a "quid pro quo" of American foreign aid in exchange for Ukrainian investigations of Trump's political rivals.

Taylor's testimony reportedly has made a major impact, with one House Democrat calling it a "sea change" and another saying it "resolved any remaining doubts I may have."

Taken together, the testimony of the public officials that have testified so far paints a damning picture. Had they meekly obeyed the White House's instructions to stay quiet -- as Don McGahn, Mike Pompeo and others did before -- neither Congress nor the public would have had a full understanding of Trump's apparent misuse of office and abuse of power. But by refusing to capitulate, these public servants have caused the White House's previously impregnable stone wall to start to crumble.