And another: https://mobile.twitter.com/charlie_savage/status/1208114825336905729?s=20
FISA Court news: Judge Rosemary Collyer, who I am told has health issues, will step down early as presiding judge & Chief Justice Roberts has tapped Judge James Boasberg to take over that role in the new year. (Collyer will apparently remain a FISA judge; her term ends in March.)
Was this known?
https://www.thewhitehouseinsider.com/2019/12/witness-in-trump-impeachment-found-dead.html?m=1
American Diplomat Melanie Honcharenko was discovered dead in her North Potomac, MD home early Wednesday morning. No details are known at the moment; Maryland authorities have yet to make a statement of any kind.
What is known is that Honcharenko has played an active diplomatic role in Ukraine since 2016, and was an active participant in a number of the incidents described by the witnesses in the Impeachment proceedings of President Donald Trump, and was set to be deposed behind closed doors sometime next week due to the classified nature of her work in Ukraine.
Honcharenko was a Ukrainian born refugee, who came to the United states at the age of 4 as her parents fled the then Russian state. She attended Brown University, and later Oxford University in England. She was recruited out of college by a number of diplomatic agencies, and served her country in various roles before joining the diplomatic ranks.
She had been a member of the diplomatic community for more than 20 years, and was lauded for her passionate anti-corruption stance and humanitarian efforts.
She was expected, according to reports, to further corroborate the testimonies of previous witnesses, and said to have a great deal of perspective from the Ukrainian point of view based on her frequent interactions with Ukrainian government officials.
Melanie Honcharenko stepped down from her position in May, just days after Ambassador Marie Yovanovich was recalled. There has been some speculation that Honcharenko was the whistle blower who launched the congressional investigation into President Trump, although no Republican has gone any further than insinuations on the subject.
As stated, no official report has been made, or any acknowledgement of Melanie Honcharenko’s death; the story was only leaked to various outlets this morning.