Top Trump Adviser Quits

Tim Morrison, adviser on Russian and European affairs, steps down
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 30, 2019 6:30 PM CDT
Top Trump Adviser Quits on Eve of Testimony
President Donald Trump walks out of the North Portico of the White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 28, 2019, to travel to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., and then on to Chicago.   (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

President Donald Trump's top adviser for Russian and European affairs is leaving his job at the White House, a day before he's scheduled to testify before the House impeachment investigators, a senior administration official said Wednesday. Tim Morrison owes his job at the National Security Council to Trump, but his testimony Thursday in the House impeachment inquiry might be central to a push to remove the president from office, the AP reports. A senior administration official said Morrison "has decided to pursue other opportunities." The official, who was not authorized to discuss Morrison's job and spoke only on condition of anonymity, said Morrison has been considering leaving the administration for "some time."

Morrison has been in the spotlight since August when a government whistleblower said multiple US officials had said Trump was "using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 US election." Now it's his turn in the impeachment probe's hot seat. Morrison, tall and lean with an authoritative voice, will be asked to explain that "sinking feeling" he got when Trump demanded that Ukraine's president investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and meddling in the 2016 election. Known as a "hawk" in national security circles, Morrison is set to be the first political appointee from the White House to testify before impeachment investigators. The probe has been denounced by the president, who has directed his staff not to testify.

(More President Trump stories.)

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