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| Impeachment hearings: key witness to reject claim Ukraine meddled in US election – live | Impeachment hearings: key witness to reject claim Ukraine meddled in US election – live |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Fiona Hill, ex-senior director for Europe and Russia on the national security council, and David Holmes, a state department aide in Kyiv, to testify | Fiona Hill, ex-senior director for Europe and Russia on the national security council, and David Holmes, a state department aide in Kyiv, to testify |
| The witnesses, Hill and Holmes, are behind their chairs and preparing to be sworn in. | |
| The video player atop the blog there is the place to be – hearing room is full and we’re about to begin. | |
| What will it be like to hear Fiona Hill take questions from Jim Jordan? | |
| Brookings Institute senior fellow and Lawfare impresario Ben Wittes has a Twitter thread going about what to expect from Hill. | |
| It includes this warning to Republicans: | |
| Wittes’ thread in full: | |
| Hill will warn that Russia has “geared up to repeat their interference in the 2020 election” and asks the committee not to help them by confusing who it was that attacked the United States in 2016. | |
| But she will be competing with a very loud voice working to sow that confusion: Donald Trump. Witnesses have described an Ahab-like zeal on Trump’s part to uncover evidence of the Fox News- and Kremlin-promoted conspiracy theory that Ukraine worked to undermine him in 2016. “They tried to take me down,” he told diplomats in May. | |
| Every prominent Republican on the intelligence committee, from ranking member Devin Nunes on down, has worked to advance the Ukraine election tampering conspiracy theory during the impeachment hearings. | |
| Stop it, Hill will say: | |
| Fiona Hill will seek to correct Republicans on the intelligence committee who have been saying for weeks that Ukraine colluded with Democrats to tamper the 2016 election, according to her opening statement just released – it is here. | Fiona Hill will seek to correct Republicans on the intelligence committee who have been saying for weeks that Ukraine colluded with Democrats to tamper the 2016 election, according to her opening statement just released – it is here. |
| “This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves,” Hill plans to say. | “This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves,” Hill plans to say. |
| Hill delivered a similar message in her closed-door deposition last month. Hill’s statement this morning reads in part: | Hill delivered a similar message in her closed-door deposition last month. Hill’s statement this morning reads in part: |
| Hill will go on to say that the attack on career public servants during the impeachment proceedings – mounted by Donald Trump and Republicans – are part of the ongoing fallout of the successful Russian active measures campaign: | Hill will go on to say that the attack on career public servants during the impeachment proceedings – mounted by Donald Trump and Republicans – are part of the ongoing fallout of the successful Russian active measures campaign: |
| Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of day five of the impeachment hearings. It could be the final day of public testimony, with no further witnesses currently scheduled. | Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of day five of the impeachment hearings. It could be the final day of public testimony, with no further witnesses currently scheduled. |
| Testimony by Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, on Wednesday reduced Donald Trump to yelling: “I want nothing! I want nothing!” after weeks of urging supporters to read the transcript of a phone call in which he tells the Ukrainian president about the things he wants. | Testimony by Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, on Wednesday reduced Donald Trump to yelling: “I want nothing! I want nothing!” after weeks of urging supporters to read the transcript of a phone call in which he tells the Ukrainian president about the things he wants. |
| Testimony today could prove no less extraordinary, and damaging for Trump. Appearing will be Fiona Hill, former senior director for Europe and Russia on the national security council (NSC), and David Holmes, a state department aide based in Kyiv. | Testimony today could prove no less extraordinary, and damaging for Trump. Appearing will be Fiona Hill, former senior director for Europe and Russia on the national security council (NSC), and David Holmes, a state department aide based in Kyiv. |
| Phrases we might hear today: “drug deal”, “hand grenade”, “loves your ass” and “President Trump does not give a shit about Ukraine”. | Phrases we might hear today: “drug deal”, “hand grenade”, “loves your ass” and “President Trump does not give a shit about Ukraine”. |
| Come for the colorful language, stay for the substance. Hill, a coalminer’s daughter from County Durham, is a senior policy expert who can describe key White House scenes in which Sondland pressed the Ukrainians for investigations in exchange for a White House meeting. | Come for the colorful language, stay for the substance. Hill, a coalminer’s daughter from County Durham, is a senior policy expert who can describe key White House scenes in which Sondland pressed the Ukrainians for investigations in exchange for a White House meeting. |
| Hill’s boss at the time, former national security adviser John Bolton, who has resisted testifying, told her to go straight to NSC lawyer John Eisenberg, she has said: | Hill’s boss at the time, former national security adviser John Bolton, who has resisted testifying, told her to go straight to NSC lawyer John Eisenberg, she has said: |
| Holmes, meanwhile, was expected to describe the sunny day he spent with Sondland last July in Kyiv, which culminated with Sondland on a restaurant patio drinking wine and having a loud cellphone conversation with the president. | Holmes, meanwhile, was expected to describe the sunny day he spent with Sondland last July in Kyiv, which culminated with Sondland on a restaurant patio drinking wine and having a loud cellphone conversation with the president. |
| Sondland acknowledged both the White House meeting and restaurant conversation yesterday, but he did not quite recall every detail, such as telling Holmes that Trump only cares about “the big stuff” in Ukraine – meaning investigations that would help Trump. | Sondland acknowledged both the White House meeting and restaurant conversation yesterday, but he did not quite recall every detail, such as telling Holmes that Trump only cares about “the big stuff” in Ukraine – meaning investigations that would help Trump. |
| Read more about Hill here: | Read more about Hill here: |
| And in case you tapered off before the evening close of yesterday’s hearings, here’s House intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff’s concluding statement: | And in case you tapered off before the evening close of yesterday’s hearings, here’s House intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff’s concluding statement: |