and what happened in ukraine is huge you know so 1st i'm concerned about ukraine now i'm also concerned about the united states because this whole ukrainian affair is now the basis for these so-called impeachment hearings where i hear i'm sorry a lot of inaccurate information a lot of people i get an angry and if trying to support us feel deceived they are being easy if they feel that you know they voted in 2016 for this man and the view it as their last chance to keep the country that is slipping out of their hands under their control this is not my words you know i read it in there plenty of it's an article by a young brand a pretty good article you know about the borders so which see how 1st ukraine was destabilized the united states was destabilized no the european you. union is destabilized and they blame it all all trump trump and put him i hear them almost like charlie chaplin seen all the time competent competent competent from which it was kind and in reality it's the same people in washington in brussels who destabilized ukraine destabilize the united states now through these

embassy in kyiv, ukraine. while it is an honor to appear before you today, i want to make clear that i did not seek this opportunity to testify today. since you determined that i may have something of value to these proceedings and issued a subpoena, it is my obligation to appear and to tell you what i know. indeed, as secretary pompeo has stated, i hope everyone who testifies will do so truthfully and accurately. when they do, the oversight role will have been performed, and i think america will come to see what took place here. that is my only goal, to testify truthfully and accurately to enable you to perform that role. and to that end, i put together this statement to lay out as best i can my recollection of events that may be relevant to this matter. by way of background, i have spent my entire professional career as a foreign service officer. like many of the dedicated public servants who have testified in these proceedings, my entire career has been in the service of my country. graduate of pomona colle

ukraine. to reverse the nation's embrace of the west and to fulfill vladimir putin's desire to build a russian empire. in the following years, 14000 ukrainians died as a battle superior russian forces. earlier this year bottom is zelensky was elected president of ukraine on a platform of ending the conflict and tackling corruption. he was a newcomer to politics and sought to establish a relationship with ukraine's most powerful patron, the united states. the questions presented by this impeachment inquiry of whether the president sought to exploit the vulnerability and bring ukraine's into our election and the condition of the official acts such as the white house meeting or u.s. military assistance on ukraine's willingness to assist with two political investigations that would help his reelection campaign. and if president trump did either, whether such an abuse of his power is compatible with the office of the presidency. the matter is as simple and as terrible as that. our answer to these q

military aid to ukraine was being held up, that itself is a damaging thing to ukraine. not just them losing the aid which hurts them materially but everybody knowing their aid was in jeopardy, it was being held up by the american president, that itself incurs damage. >> ukrainians would like to be able to negotiate from a position of strength or at least more strength than they now have. part of that strength, part of the ability of the ukrainians to negotiate against the russians with the russians for an end to the war depends on the united states and other international support. if we withdraw or suspend or threaten to withdraw our security assistance, that's a message to the ukrainians, but it's at least as important as your question indicates, mr. chairman, to the russians who are looking for any sign of weakness or any sign we are withdrawing our support for ukraine. >> the russians are looking for any sign of weakness, any sign that we are withdrawing our support for ukraine. so if it becomes known that that support is threatened, that itself hurts ukraine. that b

given ukraine's history of corruption that's understandable he said the ukraine was a corrupt country full of terrible people he said they tried to take me down in the course of that conversation he referenced conversations with mayor giuliani it was clear to me that despite the positive news and recommendations being conveyed by this official delegation about the new president president trump had a deeply rooted negative view on your grain rooted in the past he was receiving other information from other sources including marriage giuliani that was more negative causing him to retain this negative view within a few days on may 29th president trump indeed signed the congratulatory letter to president clinton which included an invitation to the pres president to visit him at the white house however more than 4 weeks passed and we could not nail down a date for the meeting i came to believe that the president's long held negative view toward ukraine was causing hesitation in actually scheduling the meeting much as we had seen in our oval office discussion after weeks of reassuring the uk

as related to ukraine and u.s. security sector assistance to that country. >> el provide the most complete and accurate information i can consistent with my commitment. whether the conduct the subject of inquiry merits impeachment is a question for the u.s. house of representatives. i provide factual information based on knowledge and recollection of events. i will not waste time restating details of my deposition that is made public. however, i will highlight the following key points. first, as i previously stated i do not know who the whistle-blower is nor do i intend to speculate as 0 who the individual may be. second, i have great respect for my former colleagues from the nsc and the rest of the interagency. i'm not here today to question their character or integrity. my recollections and judgments are my own. some of my colleagues recollections on conversations and interabss may differ from mine but i do not view the differences as an untoward purpose. third, i continue to believe ukraine is on the front lines

gets into ukraine the more it seems to resemble the ukraine go ahead. alex absolutely true and if you drills through to what these impeachment argument is all about what it is is accusations made by each side not without some course that they have become implicated in ukrainian corruption yet that's what it's all about ultimately that's what that's why we're talking hearing all this about you know hunter biden and riz my holdings it's all about people being involved in getting payoffs in ukraine american officials american politicians the sons of american politicians receiving large amounts of money to provide protection to bear his oligarchs ukrainian oligarchs that what one side is the other side is accusing the republicans of dorothy's or donald trump of rummaging around ukraine getting bromley they're trying to use ukrainian politicians or you create an agency is to investigate their opponents it's all about this and of course it's unsurprising because when the united states went into ukraine in such a massive way in 2014 it had totally unrealistic

afekds ukraine. but even more so interested in how does this affect our national security? now, i think you said that if we believe in a principle sovereignty of nations where countries get to determine their own economic, political and security alliances, we have to support ukraine and its fight, that the kind of aggression we see by russian can't stand. how is it important to american national security that we provide for a robust defense of ukraine's sovereignty? >> mr. chairman, as my colleague, deputy assistant secretary george kent described, we have a national security policy, a national defense policy, that identifies russia and china as adsaries. the russians are violating all of the rules, treaties, understandings, that they committed to that actually kept the peace in europe for nearly 70 years. until they invaded ukraine in 2014, they had abided by sovereignty of nations, of inviability of borders, that order that kept the peace in europe and allowed for prosperity as well as peace in eur

ukraine relationship demonstrating support for ukraine in the face of russian aggression and advancing broader u.s. foreign policy interests unfortunately president trump was skeptical he expressed concerns that the ukrainian government was not serious about reform and he even mentioned that ukraine tried to take him down in the last election in response to our persistent efforts in that meeting to change his views president trump directed us to quote talk with rudi we understood that talk with rudi meant talk with mr rudy giuliani the president's personal lawyer let me say again we weren't happy with the president's directive to talk with rudy we did not want to involve mr giuliani i believed then as i do now that the men and women of the state department not the president's personal lawyer should take responsibility for ukraine matters. nonetheless based on the president's direction we were faced with a choice we could a band of the efforts to schedule the white house phone call on a white house visit between presidents trump and selenski which was unquestionably in our foreign polic

invaded ukraine. two and -- to reverse that nation's embrace of the west and to fulfill putin's desire to build a russian empire. in the following years, 14 thousand ukrainians died as they battled superior forces. earlier this year volodymyr zelensky was elected on a corruption.ending he immediately sought to establish a relationship with the united states. the questions presented by this inquiry are whether president trump sought to exploit that ally's vulnerability and invite ukraine's interference in our elections. whether president trump start -- sought to condition official acts on ukraine's willingness to assist with two political investigations that would help his reelection campaign. if president trump did either, whether such an abuse of his power is compatible with the office of the presidency. the matter is as simple and as terrible as that. these questions will affect not only the future of this presidency, but of the presidency itself, and what kind of conduct or misconduct the american

policy toward ukraine o.m.b.'s announcement notwithstanding they did confirm that the hold up security systems for ukraine came from chief of staff mick mulvaney who maintained a skeptical view of ukraine in the same july 19th phone call they gave me an account of a july 10th meeting with ukrainian american officials at the white house they told me that part way through the meeting a besar someone had connected investigations with an oval office meeting for president alinsky which so irritated then national security adviser john bolton that he abruptly ended the meeting telling dr hill and authentic heard of him and that they should have nothing to do with domestic politics he also directed dr hill to brief the lawyers dr hill said that ambassador bolton referred to this deal as the this is a drug deal after the july 10th beating besar bolton opposed to call between presidents alinsky and president trump out of concern that it would be a disaster needless to say the ukraine the meetings were confused besar bolton

meanwhile, russia is violently attacking people in ukraine donbass area. does that weaken ukraine? >> i think it sends the wrong signal and it did for a short period of time. again, the the assistance from the fy 19 was released and is in the process of heading towards ukraine. >> does it embolden russia when there was no aid being sent to ukraine? >> i think the signal that there's controversyra in questi about the u.s. support of ukraine sends the signal to vladimir putin that he could leverage that as he seeks to negotiate with not only ukraine, but other countries. >> thank you. ambassador taylor, i think you mentioned that a white house meeting for zelensky would boost his ability to negotiate for a peaceful settlement with vladimir putin and russia in general. is that true? >> mr. spier, certainly true that u.s. support for mr. zelensky in his negotiations with russians is very important. and will enable him to get a better agreement with that support from the united states. bothhe from the military, and ao from the political assistance we can provide. >> he has not yet had t

anticorruption efforts in ukraine. in conditioning a meeting was a linsky and then military aide securing an investigation of his rival trumpet his personal and political interests above the united states as ambassador sonnen would later tell career foreign service officer david holmes immediately after speaking to the president trump did not give a expletive about ukraine he cares about big stuff that benefits him like the biden investigation that giuliani was pushing david holmes is here with us today is a foreign service officer currently serving as the political counselor at the u.s. embassy in kieve also with us is dr fiona hill who's job as a national security council senior director for european and russian affairs and compass the coordination of u.s. policy towards ukraine dr hill left the n.s.c. in july after more than 2 years in that position dr hill and mr holmes each provide a unique perspective on issues relating to ukraine dr hill from washington d.c. and mr holmes from on the ground in kieve in early 201

who is the director of ukraine? >>r director of ukraine is ale vindman. >> who did this individual in ee refer to. >> the individual said the name cash. >> did you know who that was? >> i had to search my mind, the only cash i knew was cash patel. >> and cash patel did not work on ukraine matters that you oversaw, is that right? >> not that i oversaw. >> so the indication was that cash patel provided information to the president without your knowledge? >> that seemed to be the indication. >> back to the july 25th call, where president trump in another excerpt asked president zelensky aboutes his political -- potentl political opponent, vice president joe biden. in this excerpt the president said the other thing, there's a lot of talk about biden's son, that biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that. so whatever o you can do with t attorney general would be great. biden went around bragging that he stopped thebr prosecution, s if you can look into it. it sounds horrible to me. dr d

that makes ukraine's adversaries think twice. >> javelins to ukraine was blocked during the previous administration. is that correct? >> they made a determination. i was not apart of those discussions. obviously they have not yet made a determination whether to produce javelins. >> did you understand -- >> i think that most agencies wanted to provide javelins to ukraine. >> in the new administration under president trump, the ability for ukraine weapon raised significant advantage or significant step forward? >> we thought it was important. >> has it played out that way? >> well, it has. it is a symbol of our strong support for ukraine. this year there were questions as to whether or not our security system is going to go through that kind of undermines that strong message of support. >> ukraine has the ability to acquire javelins, correct? >> are you talking about purchasing javelins? >> yes, we do. >> it was paused for 55 days but it ultimately went through, correct? >> as my understanding. >> okay. you testified that you were proud of the efforts that the united states during your

he is the ukraine embassy official who says he overheard president trump call gordon sondland in ukraine to check in on the investigations. wolf? >> you know, it's amazing that sondland himself blew up the inquiry wide open with his testimony yesterday confirming there was, in fact, a quid pro quo and that it came directly from the president of the united states. the eu ambassador said everyone knew exactly what was going on. holding up military aid in exchange for announcing political investigations from the vice president mike pence to the secretary of state mike pompeo. and other senior officials as well. chris? >> all right, wolf. let's begin our coverage here on capitol hill with one of the most incisive questioners i've seen in this. i'm going to have mike quigley next to me. but let's get the play from manu raju. you are not one of the most incisive questioners. i saw your smile there. but you are one of our best journalists. how's it going? >> it's going well. we should expect some news this morning from fiona hill, the former top russia adviser at the white house. i'm told from

embassies in ukraine and russia. he has searched as a "politico" military affairs officer for russia for the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. he joined the trump administration in july, 2018, when he was asked to serve on the national security council. jennifer williams began her career in government service in 2005. shortly after graduating from college when she joined the department of homeland security as a political appointee during the george w. bush administration. and after working as a field representative on the 2004 bush/cheney presidential campaign. she joined the foreign servicet tos inamaica, joining the offic the vice president, she served at the u.s. embassy of london as a public affairs vice president mike pence where she serves as a special adviser on his foreign policy team covering europe and russia issues. in that capacity, she keeps the vice president aware of foreign policy issues in europe and russia and prepares him for foreign policy engagements and meade meetings with foreign leaders.

. >> in ukraine. so this is east coast time. that's right. this slightly less than a half hour before the call between president trump and president zelenskyy? >> right. >> can you just read what you wrote there? >> just after the lunch i had with andre, good lunch. thanks. heard from white house. assuming president z convinces trump he will will investigate, get to the bottom of what happened in 2016. we'll nail down date for visit to washington. good luck. see you tomorrow, kurt. >> and does this accurately relay the message you received from ambassador sondland? >> yes. >> now mr. morrison, did the national security council also prepare talking points for president trump for this call? >> and per usual custom, are these talking points based on the official united states policy objectives? >> we operate under national security presidential memorandum four. it's available on the internet. that lays out how the president wants to be provided options for his decision. >> and there is an extensionive pr

i'm here in ukraine and an advisor saw on one side. said he loves your ass when he won he said you see if you can do to investigation so you heard president trump ask ambassador sunland is he going to do the investigation yes or what was ambassador songlines response he said oh yeah he's going to do it he'll do anything you ask and was that the end of the ukraine portion of the conversation yes afterwards you described a follow on conversation that you had with ambassador sunland where you asked him i think generally what did president trump think of ukraine is that right correct what did ambassador sunland say to you. he doesn't really care about ukraine did he use slightly more colorful language than that he did what did he say that he does care about he said he cared about big stuff did he explain what he meant by big stuff like i asked him well what kind of big stuff we have big stuff going on here like a war with russia and he said no big stuff like that by an investigation that mr giuliani is pushing now. were you familiar with t

does that weaken ukraine? >> well, i think it sends the wrong signal and it did for a short period of time. again, the assistance from the fy-19 was released and is in the process of heading towards ukraine. >> does it embolden russia when there was no aid being sent to ukraine? >> i think the signal that there's controversy and question about the u.s. support of ukraine sends the signal to vladimir putin that he can leverage that as he seeks to negotiate with not only ukraine but other countries. >> thank you. ambassador taylor, i think you mentioned that a white house meeting for zelensky would boost his ability to negotiate for a peaceful settlement with vladimir putin and russia in general. is that true? >> ms. speier, it's certainly true that u.s. support for mr. zelensky, president zelensky in his negotiations with russians is very important and will enable him to get a better agreement with that support from the united states. both from the military assistance but also from the political assistance that

security assistance for ukraine. the vice president responded and promised to relay their conversation to president trump that night. during the meeting neither the vice president nor president zelinski mentioned the specific investigations discussed during the phone call. thank you again for the opportunity to provide the statement. i would be happy to answer any questions. >> mr. chairman, ranking members, thank you for the opportunity to address the house permanent select committee on intelligence with respect to activities related to ukraine and the events under investigation. i have dedicated my entire professional life to the united states of america. for more than two decades it has been my honor to serve as an officer of the united states army. as an infantry officer, i served multiple overseas tours including south korea and germany and deployed to iraq for combat operations. since 2008 i have been an officer specializing in embassy affairs. i served in kiev, ukraine and moscow, russia. in washington, d.c. i

support for ukraine, is that right? >> that's correct, sir. >> and that would weaken ukraine in negotiating an end to the war. >> it would. the russians are violating all of the rules, treaties, understandings, that they committed to, that actually kept the peace in europe for nearly 70 years. until they invaded ukraine in 2014, they had abided by sovereignty of nations, of inviability of borders. that rule of law, that order that kept the peace in europe and allowed for prosperity, as well as peace in europe, was violated by the russians and if we don't push back on that, on those violations, then that will continue and that, mr. chairman, effects us, it effects the world that we live in, that our children will grow up in and our grandchildren. this effects the kind of world that we want to see, so, that effects our national interests very directly. ukraine is on the frontline of that -- of that conflict. >> impeachment proceedings against president trump starting on day one with as clear an exfully case about what u.s

that makes ukraine's adversaries think twice and either provision of javelins to ukraine was was. blocked during the previous administration is that correct i think they made a determination. i was not a part of those discussions but obviously they had not yet made a determination about whether to provide javelins b. do you have any understanding of what the interagency consensus was with regard to javelins during the previous administration. i think that most of the interagency you wanted to provide javelins to ukraine. and so in the new administration under you know president trump the ability to afford ukraine this weaponry is significant advantage significant step forward we thought it was important and has it played out that way. well. it has a vision of the devil and it's a symbol of our strong support for ukraine. but when then you know this year there are questions as to whether or not our security assistance is going to go through that kind of undermines that that strong message of support the. ukraine still has the ability to acquire the javelins there are act are you no

to cement the u s ukraine relatiohip. but from what i understood from the participants president trump did not share her their enthusiasm for a meeting with president zelensky. i rise in kyiv's the actions oboth e regular and the irregular channels of foreign policy appeared to serve the same goal. a strong us ukraine rtnership. but it became to me. it became clear to me by august that the channels had diverge to in their objectives as this occurred i became increasingly concerned. we're trying to facilitate a vit by presidents alinsky to the white house for a meeting with president trump which prident trump had promised in his congratulatory letter of may 29th. ukrainians were clearly eager for the meeting to happen. but during my subsequent communications with investors volker and sondland they relate to me that the president wanted to hear from zelinsky before scheduling the meeting in e oval office. it was not thereto be. on je 27th investor simon told me ring a phone conversation the president zelensky needed to make

but the difference is i see it, and ukraine as compared to these other countries, is that ukraine is engaged in a hot war with russia, right now. and it seems that withholding that money was irresponsible, considering that they had taken steps to meet all the conditions that we had requested of them, and congress had appropriated the funds. is that not the case? >> ma'am, i and my dod colleagues advocated strenuously for the release of these funds because of their national security importance. entireasically, the interest of the department of defense and state department were consistently supportive of releasing these funds. everyone was mystified as to why the funds were without, and everyone is running -- withheld, and everyone is running around trying to find an answer, and you are getting obtuse responses. saying it was the president because of corruption. now, what we see is president zelensky gets elected in april. the expectation is vice president pence will attend the inauguration in september, and then the president pulls the carpet out from under him in terms of him going.

arrival dan about ukraine. william taylor was speaking at the house impeachment hearing into whether trump pressured ukraine to investigate his rival. trump has been hosting the turkish president at the white house for the first time since turkey's syria offensive. the president said europe should be paying more to cover the costs of syrian refugees. according to medical sources, two palestinians were killed overnight as israeli military jets continue to target gaza. rockets are being launched into israel. since tuesday, the number of dead in gaza is 24. gaza's skies filled with smoke for the second day as israel's military continues to target what it says our rocket launch sites. level, theernight rockets are fired from gaza into israel. gaza city has all but shut down. many of its people are hiding. >> i think the situation is going toward war like in 2014. still, it is not clear. in the coming hours, the situation will become more clear. tuesday, israeli fighter jets killed a leader. israel blamed him for do

i served in ukraine and russia. in washington, d.c., i was the political military affairs officer for russia for the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. in july 2018 i was asked to serve at the white house national security council. at the ncs, i'm the principal adviser to the national security advisor on ukraine and other countries in my portfolio. my role at the ncs is to develop, coordinate and implement plans and policies for the countries in my portfolio. i coordinate policy with departments and agencies. the committee has heard from many of my colleagues about the importance of ukraine as a bulwark against russian aggression. our country's policy of supporting ukrainian sovereignty and instructing a free and democratic ukraine has been a consistent bipartisan foreign policy objective and strategy across various administrations, both democratic and republican. and that president zelensky's election in april 2019 created an unprecedented opportunity to realize our objectives. i became of two disruptive actors

policy with ukraine. explain what you know they're going to testify, because we've talked to their attorneys and done some reporting, but also the larger question about the trump administration's policy to ukraine and russia. >> it's going to be fascinating to watch these nonpoliticians, these career public servants, who unlike the people asking questions of them, are not very comfortable in the public spotlight. they were subpoenas delivered to them to compel them to appear today as foreign service officers. what you'll hear is a description by subject matter experts. they're going to come back time and again to why ukraine is stuck in this tug of war between vladimir putin's russia and the west. and they will emphasize why it was so dangerous from their perspective and undermining of u.s. national security to have even the hint of military aid withheheld. remember, ukraine is caught in a hot war with russia in its east. in 2004 putin sent in militias to annex crimea. the trump administration has been pr

support for ukraine. leading the diplomacy around ukraine negotiations had long been my official responsibility but i welcomed the added support and influence of a cabinet member and our eu ambassador. fifth, i was not aware that ambassador sondland spoke with president trump on july 26th, while ambassador taylor and i were visiting the conflict zone. mr. chairman, members of the committee, allow me to thank you again for the opportunity to provide this testimony. i believe that u.s. foreign policy and national security interests in ukraine are of critical importance and i would be pleased to answer your questions. thank you. >> thank you, gentlemen for your opening statements. we'll proceed to the first round of questions. as detailed in the memo provided committee members it will be 45 minutes of questions conducted by the chairman or majority counsel followed by 45 minutes for the ranking member or minority counsel and unless i specify extended questioning we'll proceed under the five-minute rule and e

support for ukraine. in particular, they related to me that the inability of officials to respond to explicit questions about security assistance was troubling them. i was experiencing the same tension in my dealings, including a meeting i had had with the defense minister that day. 5, i companied senators johnson and murphy during their visit to keith -- kiev. zelensky's first question was about the withheld security assistance my understanding was that both senators had stressed that support in washington was ukraine's most supportive -- important strategic asset and zelensky should not jeopardize that support getting drawn in to u.s. domestic politics. i continued to make this point all of my official contacts but the odd push to make president zelensky publicly commit to investigations of alleged interference in the election showed how the official foreign policy of the united states was undercut by the irregular efforts led by mr. giuliani. two days later, i had a conversation with mr. morrison where

/ukraine policy? >> obviously anti-corruption reforms is a big part of our policy. >> i -- >> i understand. i was not in a position to determine whether these particular investigations were appropriate. >> that's fair. colonel, is it true that president trump directed the ukrainian president on the call on july 25th to work with mr. giuliani on these investigations? >>. >> that is correct. >> in fact, mr. giuliani has made no secret of the fact athat he is acting on behalf of president trump. as mr. giuliani told "the new york times," and i'm going to put this on the screen, he told them, quote, my only client is the president of the united states. he's the one i have the obligation to report to. and to tell him what happens. he added that the investigations would be, quote, very, very helpful to my client and may turn out to be helpful to my government, ent quote. colonel, is it fair to say the ukrainian officials you are on a daily basis -- you're in contact with given your portfolio were concerned

the ukraine. this president has basically betrayed our own allies in syria and handed syria to the russians and to iran. and just today, frankly, wolf, it is something that concerns me a great deal, this president even though he talks about our national defense and the strength of our national defense, this president is undermining the discipline of our military by basically saying to those that have violated laws in the military that he's going to support them, which undermines the most essential ingredient of our national security which is military discipline. he's undermining that. so these are things i think we need to pay attention to because they relate to the very security of our country. >> it's been clearly a very historic two weeks here in washington, mr. secretary. you served in washington a lot of different capacities. you were a member of congress, served in the white house and the defense department and the cia. have you ever seen anything like this? >> you know, i think we all recog

rudy giuliani will be able to travel to ukraine and we'll meet once he comes to ukraine. did that surprise you? >> again, i didn't have the transcript at the time. all i heard was rudy giuliani was mentioned but mr. martian says rudy giuliani was mentioned in the call. >> zelensky is looking forward to speak to america's mayor. >> that's what i found out when i read the transcript on the 25th of september or so. >> no, mr. kent, corruption in ukraine is epidemic, correct? >> that's correct. >> it affects the courts, the prosecutors and historically been problems with all prosecute rs with ukraine, correct? >> up until the new set of prosecutors appointed by president zelensky in the last two months, correct. >> the u.s. government, the consensus of the state department and national security council and white house. skelet zelensky is a real deal. he's interested in rudy giuliani's corruption and prosecuting the bad guys. correct? >> we are cautiously optimistic. we'll work where ever there is a pleasant hill cal will to do the right thing and put forward genuine reform. >

/ukraine policy. the nsc and interagency departments, including the state department, grew increasingly concerned about such information was having on our country's ability to achieve the national security objectives. on april 21, 2019, volodymyr zelensky was elected president of ukraine in a landslide victory on unity reform and anti-corruption platform. president trump called president zelensky on april 21, 2019 to congratulate him on his victory. i was the staff officer who produced the call materials and was one of the staff officers who listened to the call. the call was positive and president trump expressed his desire to work with president zelensky and extended an invitation to visit the white house. in may i attended the inauguration of president zelensky as part of the presidential delegation led by secretary perry. following the visit, the members of the delegation provided president trump a debriefing offering a positive assessment of president zelensky and his team. after this debriefing,

policy of strong support for ukraine was shifting. i have a little trouble with longstanding based on what we just talked about, because it wasn't really longstanding strong support. it seems to me the strong support came with this administration. would you agree with that, sir? unless you consider mres and blankets strong support, i wouldn't call it longstanding. >> the longstanding that i'm referring to there is the longstanding political support, economic support and increasing military support. >> well, certainly that strong support came from congress but it didn't come from the previous administration as compared to what this administration has decided to do. the strong support came with this administration, not the obama administration. and maybe now we understand what president obama meant when he told russian president medvedev that he would have more flexibility after his election. maybe that flexibility was to deny lethal aid to the ukraine, allowing russia to march right in and kill ukranians. again, in your deposition, you

ukraine policy? >> obviously anticorruption reforms is a big part of our policy, i understand i was not in a position to determine whether these particular investigations were appropriate. >> is it true that president trump directed ukrainian president on the call on. july 5 to work with mr. giuliani on these investigations? >> that is correct. >> in fact mr. giuliani has made no secret that he is acting on behalf of president trump as mrk times, i'll put this on the screen, he told them my only client is the president of the united states, he's the one i had the obligation to report to, tell him what happens, he said the investigations would be very, very helpful to my client and may turn out to be helpful to my government". is it fair to say ukrainian officials that you want a daily basis, you're in contact with given your portfolio were concerned about mr. giuliani's advances? >> yes they were. >> in your assessment did they understand the political nature of the request being asked of them? >> i

embassy in ukraine. heard sondland on his phone outside a restaurant in kiev talking to the president of the united states. >> yeah. so this was a detail that was revealed by a u.s. diplomat at the embassy in ukraine after gordon sondland spoke with lawmakers. and david holmes came forth with this new detail saying that, i was out to lunch with ambassador gordon sondland when he picked up the phone, the cell phone in this public setting and made a phone call to president trump. and so i want to read to you exactly how david holmes describes that in his closed door testimony. he said, quote, i heard president trump ask so he's foing to do the investigation. ambassador sondland replied he's going to do it adding that president zelensky will do, quote, anything you ask him to. i asked ambassador sondland if it was true that president trump did not give a about ukraine. i asked why not and ambassador sondland stated that the president only cares about big stuff. i noted that there was big stuff going on in u

security assistance for ukraine. the vice president responded that ukraine had the united states' unwavering support and promised to relay their conversation to president trump that entitlnight. during the september 1 meeting neither the vice president nor president zelensky mentioned the specific investigations discussed during the july 25th phone call. thank you again for the opportunity to provide a statement. i'd be happy to answer any questions. >>> mr. chairman, ranking members, thank you for the opportunity to address the house select committee on intelligence with respect to activities relating to ukraine and my role in the events under investigation. i have dedicated my entire professional life to the united states of america. for more than two decades, habeen my hor terve as infantryd multiple overseas tours including south korea and germany and i was deployed to iraq for combat operations. since 2008, i have been a foreign area officer specializing in european and eurasia political military affairs. i serv

-ukraine partnership. it became clear to me by august that the channels had diverged in their objectives. as this occurred, i became increasingly concerned. in late june both channels were trying to facilitate a visit by president zelensky to the white house for a meeting with president trump which president trump had promised in his congratulatory letter of may 29th. the ukrainians were clearly eager for the meeting to happen. during my subsequent communications with ambassadors volker and sondland they relayed to me that the president wanted to hear from zelensky before scheduling the meeting in the oval office. it was not clear to me what this meant. on june 27th ambassador sondland told me during a phone conversation that president zelensky needed to make clear to president trump that he, president zelensky was not standing in the way of investigations. i sensed something odd when ambassador sondland told me on june 28th he did not wish to include most of the regular interagency participants in a call

-ukraine relations. i served as ambassador to ukraine from 2006 to 2009. having been nominated by george w. bush and in the intervening ten years had stayed engaged with ukraine. across the responsibilities i have had in public service, ukraine is the highlight and so secretary's pompeo's offer was compelling. since i left ukraine in 2009 the country had continued to turn toward the west, but in 2013 vladimir putin was so threatened by the prospect of ukraine joining the european union that he tried to bribe the ukrainian president. this triggered mass protests in the winter of 2013 that drove the president to flee to russia in 2014 but not before his forces killed 100 ukrainian protesters in central kiev. days later mr. putin invaded crimea at the point of russian army rifles. the russians absurdly claimed that 97% voted to join russia. in early april putin sent his army and security forces into southeastern ukraine to generate illegal arm formations and puppet governments in what we know as dombas. you can see this on the map, in the right-hand portion,

policy towards ukraine? >> u.s. policy towards ukraine was about fighting corruption. >> was it specifically about these kinds of investigations which was burisma? >> in order to fight corruption you need to conduct the investigation any to see what they are doing. >> was that the purpose of that? or was it because the president -- that the president wanted the investigation to be done as a condition of them to have a meeting with the white house? >> first off, we have to be clear will were talking about in terms of the investigation. were not talking about vice president biden -- >> charisma has nothing to do -- >> i'm saying the ukrainians within burisma had acted in a corrupt way. were insulted by the reference and if ukraine can make a statement of their intentions on fighting corruption that is helpful in order to convince president trump ultimately -- >> with all due respect ambassador volker, we heard from two witnesses this morning that those investigations were not official u.s. policy. ambassador volker, i

ukraine, i also make the point that we've also talked about here today, ukraine is important for your national security and we should support it. not to provide that would be folly. >> did you get an answer to your cable? >> not directly. no, sir. >> do you know what happened to it? >> secretary kent tells me -- >> i was on vacation, but my understanding is it made it to its recipient, secretary pompeo. >> we know secretary pompeo was on the call a month earlier on july 25th. what did he do with it? >> i honestly can't say for sure what happened with the cable once the message was brought in at the highest level. >> one other question, gentlemen, on september 1st, you recall a meeting between the vice president and the president of ukraine, mr. zelensky, in which right off the bat the president of ukraine raises security assistance and the vice president, according to your telling, says i'll talk to the president tonight about that, i'll make a call. do you know if the vice president made that call? >> i don't know, sir. >> do you know what if anything the vice president had to do wit

a part of europe but want ukraine to stay in. you know under russia's thrall and that's not in our national security interests a.q. investor you want to thank you so very much thank you for your balance my time to the chair i think the gentleman understand that either would discuss would like take a short break let's take a 5 minute recess if members of the audience could please remain a seats to allow the witness or counsel to leave ahead of us so we will resume in a few minutes we are in recess right. right so we've just been listening to testimony and questioning of ambassador maria event of it this of course the ousted ambassador of ukraine you'll remember that she was removed from office by president trump she is the 3rd witness now in public impeachment hearings investigating whether president donald trump abused his power for personal political ends and it was a dramatic testament to testimony by a well known and widely respected ambassador and diplomat whose korea spans 32 years that really came through in some of the que

. >> we don't need ukraine's help -- >> i'm not asking about this. i'm going to ask about the quid pro quo in a moment. >> that is -- [ multiple speakers ] >> let me read the part that i'm referring to and sparked this impeachment inquiry. this is the president. there is a lot of talk about biden's son and that biden stops the prosecution and people want to find out about that so whatever you could do with the attorney general would be great. biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution. so if you can look into it, it sounds horrible to me. this is the president asking another foreign leader to look into a man who is the leading candidate to be his political rival. you don't have to say 2020 for it po be clear. >> i have to push back on all of that. first of all, look at what he asked him to do. he asked him to investigate what happened when joe biden as vice president of the united states, dana, stopped a prosecution of a company where his son who -- as his son admitted only got the jobs because of his last name and got the contracts b

that there was no pressure put on ukraine, on the ukraine president zelensky. but we'll let you be the judge because right after president zelensky said that he was ready to buy more anti-tank missiles from the u.s., president trump said this. and i quote, "i would like you to do us a favor, though, because our country has been through a lot and ukraine knows a lot about it. i would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with ukraine. they say crowdstrike. i guess you have one of your wealthy people. the server, they say, ukraine has it." president trump referring to a false conspiracy theory that ukraine was involved in 2016 election meddling, not russia. and then he went on to say the other thing, there's a lot of talk about biden's son. that biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that, so whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great." and that brings us to the new bombshell that taylor revealed yesterday. the very day after the ukraine call, he says an aide overheard a cell phone convers

"ukraine meddling lie." and you see the subhead there, "narrative furthered by russia," she asserts. here's that "tampa bay times" from florida. hill, discord serves putin. former security aid and expert fiona hill warns the gop of fictions and dramatic comments on thursday. up in the great state of maine this was the "portland press herald" today. "witness: fictions about ukraine help russia." testimony in the last scheduled public hearings reinforces the case that the president's efforts work toward the detriment of u.s. security. and then you see the subhead there below the fiona hill photo. ex-white house aide says moskow was behind the claim. this is "the washington post" today. multiple stories on the impeachment inquiry overall and again another big main photo taking up most of the front page. four columns wide in the "post," fiona hill arriving for her testimony under the big headline, whirlwind week of testimony wraps up, a warning that conspiracy theories advance russia and divide americans. and th

support to ukraine. ambassador yovanovitch in her deposition said president trump's decision to provide lethal weapons to ukraine, our policy actually got stronger over the last three years. she also said in materials of lethal assistance, we all felt it was very significant that this administration made the decision to provide lethal weapons to ukraine. ambassador taylor said its a substantial improvement in that this administration provided javin anti-tank weapons and the americans are willing to provide more than blankets. ambassador volker testified providing lethal defensive arms to ukraine has been extremely helpful. mr. volker stated mres and blankets is fine but if you're being attacked with mortars and artilleries and tanks you need to be able to fight back. secretary george kent stated javelins are incredibly advanced weapons to stop the russians advanced and russians are scared of them. and ambassador stated the decision to provide javelins we believe is counter to russian interests. do you di

we in ukraine are an independent country, an independent ukraine. we're going to do everything for the people. you are, as i said, a great example, we're hoping we can expand on our jobs as you did. you will also be a great example for many. you're a great example for our new managers. i'd also like to invite you, if possible, to the inauguration. i know how busy you are, but if it's possible for you to come to the inauguration ceremony, that would be great, great for you to do to be with us on that day. the president: that's very nice, i'll look into that and give us a date at the very minimum we'll have a great representative or more from the united states will be with you on that great day. so we will have somebody at a minimum a very, very high level and will be with you, really an incredible day for an incredible achievement. zelensky: again, thank you, we're looking forward to your visit, to the visit of a high level delegation, but there's no word that can describe our wonderful country, how nice, warm and friendly our people are. how tasty a