There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century

by Fiona Hill

The Democratic members of the committee protested Gaetz’s presence. He insisted that he had the right to sit there to observe a “secret political show trial” hidden behind closed doors and to protect the interests of the president. In fact several of President Trump’s stalwart congressional supporters were at the table, not least Ohio congressman Jim Jordan, who was leading the grilling of the witnesses. And there was certainly nothing secret about the proceedings. The press was everywhere. Even while we were in session, they seemed on top of what was going on. I never left the room, apart from an escorted bathroom break and then a lunch break, nor did Lee Wolosky and Sam Ungar, on my legal team. But members of Congress from both parties went in and out, evidently filling people in. By the time I got home late that evening, everyone seemed to know what I had said.