Another career diplomat is testifying to Congress in a closed-door session Tuesday in Democrats' ongoing impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump’s Ukraine scandal.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent was reportedly subpoenaed by House investigators after the State Department and White House directed him not to appear, a pattern that has already played out with two other Trump officials. Kent has been a State Department employee since the early '90s, and his present portfolio includes overseeing U.S. policy in Ukraine and other Eastern European countries, according to CNN. One of Kent’s former State Department colleagues, Molly Montgomery, told CNN that Kent has "never been shy with his opinions."
Kent reportedly worked to protect U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch from the smear campaign mounted against her by Trump's allies. Internal emails given to Congress show that Kent was among the people who tried to counter false claims lodged against Yovanovitch with facts he provided to the State Department counselor and the undersecretary for public affairs. Kent called the fabricated "do not prosecute" list that Yovanovitch supposedly turned over to Ukraine's then-prosecutor general a "totally manufactured/fake list of untouchables."
According to The New York Times, Kent warned his colleagues as early as March about the Trump-Rudy Giuliani pressure campaign aimed at Ukraine. He tagged Giuliani as perpetrating a "disinformation" campaign to tarnish the reputations of Trump's political enemies.
The appearance of Kent, an expert on Ukraine, before the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, and Oversight committees Tuesday was preceded Monday by the damning testimony of former top Trump national security adviser Fiona Hill, an expert on Russia.