Dear Commons Community,

Mark Sandy, a longtime career employee at the White House Office of Management and Budget is expected to break ranks and testify tomorrow in the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, potentially filling in important details on the holdup of military aid to Ukraine.  As reported by the Washington Post:

“Mark Sandy would be the first OMB employee to testify in the inquiry, after OMB acting director Russell T. Vought and two other political appointees at the agency defied congressional subpoenas to appear. The White House has called the impeachment inquiry unconstitutional and ordered administration officials not to participate.

Unlike these other OMB officials, Sandy is a career employee, not one appointed by the president. He has worked at the agency off and on for over a decade, under presidents of both parties, climbing the ranks to his current role as deputy associate director for national security programs.

“If he is subpoenaed, he will appear,” Sandy’s lawyer, Barbara “Biz” Van Gelder, said Thursday evening.

Sandy is expected to testify during a closed-door deposition, which is not open to the public. Typically, witnesses in the impeachment inquiry have been served with subpoenas immediately before their depositions are scheduled to begin, an approach Democrats say is designed to give them cover against an administration that has ordered officials not to comply with the inquiry.”

Sandy’s decision to testify is interesting mainly because he is the first individual outside the State Department sphere to do so and also because it appears he is defying a White House order not to participate in the impeachment proceedings.

Tony

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