NPR BREAKING NEWS: Trump's Russia Director To Leave National Security Council Amid Impeachment Inquiry.

Tim Morrison, a key aide on the White House's National Security Council, is expected to leave his post imminently.

Sarah Silbiger/Reuters

Tim Morrison, the top Russia official on President Trump's National Security Council, who is scheduled to testify in the impeachment inquiry on Thursday, is expected to leave his White House post imminently, three sources familiar with the plan told NPR.

Morrison, a conservative hawk who has served as the senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council, will be replaced by Andrew Peek, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Iraq and Iran in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, according to the sources.

Morrison and Peek could not immediately be reached for comment by NPR. The National Security Council declined comment.

Morrison was picked for the job by Trump's then-national security adviser, John Bolton. Morrison started in July, overlapping with his predecessor, Fiona Hill — another witness in the impeachment inquiry — who had announced her plans to leave the White House in August.

Morrison is a crucial figure in the House Democratic investigation into whether Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to launch an investigation of a political rival.

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Morrison had alerted NSC lawyers about alleged demands being placed on the Ukrainian government to investigate a company where the son of former Vice President Joe Biden sat on the board, according to testimony this month from William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine.

Taylor testified that Morrison told him that Gordon Sondland, Trump's ambassador to the European Union, had informed a top Ukrainian official that U.S. military aid hinged on Zelenskiy's committing to investigating the firm connected with Biden's son.

An attorney for Morrison said Morrison planned to appear before House investigators on Thursday if subpoenaed.

It was not clear whether Morrison had been asked to leave his job or was departing voluntarily, and NPR could not immediately confirm the exact timing of his departure. His attorney, Barbara Van Gelder, would not discuss Morrison's job status or plans.

Peek's out-of-office response on his State Department email notes that he has been detailed to work at the NSC.

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Morrison has been described as a hawk on arms control issues who raised hackles from Republican and Democratic opponents alike during his time on the House Armed Services Committee.

"He may have more hawkish views, but he still colors within the lines of what is normally the practice of diplomacy," said Brett Bruen, who served as the White House's director of global engagement in the Obama administration. "Tim is an example, like Fiona [Hill], of serious foreign policy people who are having a seriously difficult time navigating the unethical world of Trump's national security structure."

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John Gans, a former Defense Department speechwriter, said one of the ironies of Morrison being asked to testify is that officials who raised eyebrows with their hard-line views when they joined the NSC under Trump have become a source of hope for people who are concerned about the Ukraine situation.

"And Tim Morrison is one of those people," said Gans, author of White House Warriors, a book about the NSC. "But in fact now we see those who are trying to get to the bottom of the impeachment are placing a lot of hope on his testimony — that he will be willing to say, despite his sort of hard-line views and despite perhaps agreeing with President Trump on some matters, that, in fact, there was a problem here on Ukraine."

As the senior director responsible for that region, Morrison would be the person at the National Security Council with the closest relationship with that country's issues.

"If there was a quid pro quo, he would know," said one former NSC official in the Trump administration. "He would know if there is a hold on military assistance."

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House investigators are expected to press Morrison to corroborate key elements of testimony from other national security officials and U.S. diplomats who testified that Trump sought to withhold military aid from Ukraine unless an investigation was announced.

It was Morrison who described having a "sinking feeling" and alerted NSC lawyers after a Sept. 7 call between Sondland and Trump about the alleged pressure, according to Taylor's testimony.

"According to Mr. Morrison, President Trump told Ambassador Sondland that he was not asking for a 'quid pro quo,' " Taylor wrote in his opening statement. "But President Trump did insist that President Zelenskiy go to a microphone and say he is opening investigations of Biden and 2016 election interference, and that President Zelenskiy should want to do this himself. Mr. Morrison said that he told Ambassador Bolton and the NSC lawyers of this phone call between President Trump and Ambassador Sondland."

AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION: Help keep underrepresented philosophers directory up to date.

Dear DAVID,   The UPDirectory—Directory of Philosophers from Underrepresented Groups in Philosophy currently contains entries for more than 1,600 philosophers in the English-speaking world who are members of underrepresented groups in philosophy, including women, racial and ethnic minorities, disabled philosophers, and LGBTQ philosophers, among others. It is the only resource that collects information about the work of philosophers from underrepresented groups.   Conference organizers can use the UPDirectory to locate philosophers from underrepresented groups with expertise in the subject of the conference. Editors can use it to find referees or contributors to anthologies. Hiring committees can use it to broaden their applicant pools. Philosophy instructors can use it to construct more inclusive syllabi.   Participation in the UPDirectory is voluntary. In order to keep the directory current, we ask philosophers from underrepresented groups to enter themselves using the “Want to Add Yourself?” form. If you are included in the database but your information is incorrect, please fill out the “Request to Edit Information” form. You may suggest other living philosophers to be listed by using the “Want to Add Someone Else?” form. Those suggested will be asked for their permission to be entered into the UPDirectory.   The UPDirectory was created by Ruth Chang, Rebecca Millsop, Tina Botts, Manuel Vargas, Sally Haslanger, and Elizabeth Anderson. Support for the UPDirectory was provided by the APA Committee on the Status of Women, the APA Committee on the Status of Black Philosophers, MIT, the University of Michigan, Rutgers University, and the University of San Francisco.   Please help keep the UPDirectory current by forwarding this message to underrepresented philosophers, especially new graduate students, lecturers, and assistant professors. We hope you will find this directory to be a valuable resource!   All the best,   Amy Ferrer Executive Director

AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION. UPDATE: [Links now working] Call for Participants: APA Strategic Planning Focus Groups.

Yesterday, not long after we sent this email, our email provider experienced an extended service outage. For much of yesterday afternoon and evening, none of the links in our emails were working. Today, the links are working, so if you're interested in participating in a focus group, you can now access the form.

Dear DAVID,   As you may know, the American Philosophical Association is currently engaged in a strategic planning process. Following a survey circulated this past summer, we are organizing a series of focus groups with philosophers, both members and nonmembers, to provide feedback on the APA's current work and potential future directions and priorities.   There will be five online focus groups held via the Zoom web conferencing software this November. In addition, one in-person focus group will be held at each of the 2020 APA divisional meetings. While the in-person focus groups will be open to anyone who wishes to participate, participants in the online focus groups will be pre-selected to ensure the focus groups include philosophers with a variety of experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds.   Two of the five focus groups will be targeted to particular constituencies that were underrepresented among survey respondents, to ensure voices from those constituencies are included in the strategic planning process. One focus group will be targeted to adjunct and contingent faculty; another will be targeted to community college faculty. Adjunct and community college faculty are welcome to participate in the general focus groups as well, but the targeted focus groups will include exclusively faculty members from these constituencies.   If you are interested in participating in one of the APA strategic planning focus groups, please complete the focus group interest form. Those who are selected to participate will be informed by email in advance of the focus groups.   If you are unable to participate in a focus group but would like to submit feedback for inclusion in the strategic planning process, send an email to strategicplanning@apaonline.org.   Thank you for participating in this important process.   All the best,   Amy Ferrer Executive Director

NPR BREAKING NEWS. Top Ukraine Expert Reported Concerns About July Trump-Ukraine Call.

The early morning light hits the U.S. Capitol Building on Oct. 17.

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

The top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council repeatedly raised concerns with his superiors and lawyers about President Trump's demands that Ukraine investigate former Vice President Joe Biden. Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who is a veteran of the Iraq War and expected to testify Tuesday as part of the House impeachment inquiry, listened in on the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Vindman says he believed if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the energy company where Biden's son sat on the board, Ukraine would lose bipartisan support — and the investigation would "undermine all U.S. national security," according to a copy of the opening statement obtained by NPR. "I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government's support of Ukraine," Vindman states.

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READ: Ukraine Expert Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman's Opening Statement

Vindman will be the first White House official to testify who was on the July 25 call. That call is now at the center of House Democrats' impeachment inquiry into whether Trump improperly used his office to pressure a foreign government to investigate a political rival.

I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government's support of Ukraine.

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman

Vindman says he took his concerns first to NSC lawyers on July 10 and then again after the July 25 call. Vindman says he learned in the spring that "outside influencers" were promoting a false narrative of Ukraine inconsistent with the views of much of the administration. He said the narrative was not only harmful to U.S. government policy, but also "undermined U.S. government efforts to expand cooperation with Ukraine."

Vindman didn't specifically state who those outside influencers were, but that he once confronted Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the Europeon Union after a July 10 meeting with a Ukraine delegation. Vindman said Sondland emphasized to Ukraine officials that they need to open investigations of the 2016 election and the Bidens. "I stated to Amb. Sondland that his statements were inappropriate, that the request to investigate Biden and his son had nothing to do with national security, and that such an investigation were not something that the NSC was going to get involved in or push," Vindman states.

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Vindman said he was proud to serve his country and that he sought to raise his concerns internally to National Security officials "in accordance with my decades of experience and training, sense of duty, and obligation to cooperate within the chain of command."

Read the statement below or click here.