Chris Cillizza: “That last-minute decision by the State Department seems directly at odds with President Trump’s repeated insistence that his phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was ‘perfect’ and that he retained the ‘absolute right’ to ask foreign countries to investigate corruption.”

“If Trump — and, by extension, his State Department — are completely certain they were acting appropriately, why keep Sondland from testifying to that effect? If there is truly nothing to hide here and everything that Trump and his people did was ‘perfect,’ why not let Sondland tell that story?”

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) told reporters that the State Department is withholding EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland’s personal device with relevant messages about the Trump administration’s interactions with the Ukrainian government, Axios reports.

Said Schiff: “Not only is he being deprived of his testimony today, but we’re also aware that the ambassador has text messages or emails on a personal device, which have been provided to the State Department — although we have requested those from the ambassador. And the State Department is withholding those messages as well.”