Nov. 19 (UPI) — The National Security Council’s top Ukraine specialist Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman reiterated to the House intelligence committee Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s conduct in the phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was “improper.”
Tuesday marked the start of the second week of public impeachment hearings in Washington D.C.
Vindman’s concerns reinforce the Democrats’ allegations that Trump conditioned the release of nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine on whether Zelensky would publicly announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Trump wanted to know more about Ukrainian ties to Hunter Biden, who got a lucrative position at Burisma, a Ukrainian oil and gas company.
“I was concerned by the call. What I heard was inappropriate,” Vindman said in his opening statement Tuesday. “It is improper for the president of the United States to demand a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen and a political opponent. It was also clear that if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the 2016 elections, the Bidens and Burisma, it would be interpreted as a partisan play. This would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing bipartisan support, undermining U.S. national security and advancing Russia’s strategic objectives in the region.”
Vindman, a career U.S. Army officer whose family fled oppression in the Soviet Union, said he reported his concerns to the proper channels.
“My intent was to raise these concerns because they had significant national security concerns for our country,” Vindman said.
Tuesday’s hearings will be conducted in two parts, with the first hearing featuring Vindman and vice presidential aide Jennifer Williams. At the second hearing at 2:30 p.m., former Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker and former National Security Council aide Tim Morrison will testify.
The chairmen of the House intelligence, foreign affairs and oversight committees last weekend released transcripts detailing the joint depositions of Williams and Morrison. Their testimony showed the July 25 phone call between Trump and Zelensky “immediately set off alarm bells throughout the White House.”
In his closed-door testimony, Vindman testified that he didn’t know the identity of the whistle-blower who made the initial complaint about Trump’s call.
In her closed-door testimony, Williams, Vice President Mike Pence’s special adviser on Europe and Russia, confirmed an account by Vindman that Zelensky specifically mentioned Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company that Hunter Biden worked for, during the call — contrary to a transcript of the call released by the White House.
“My notes did reflect that the word Burisma had come up in the call, that the president mentioned Burisma,” she said in her deposition.
Williams also said Trump had asked Pence not to attend Zelensky’s inauguration, as previously planned.
2:30 p.m. hearing
The second hearing will feature Volker, who the chairmen identify as having “played a direct role” in arranging meetings between Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani and Zelensky aides.
The whistle-blower’s complaint stated that Volker flew to Ukraine with U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland to advise Ukrainian leadership about how to “navigate” the demands Trump had made of Zelensky.
The committee chairmen said Voker’s Oct. 3 deposition showed the progression of Trump and Giuliani using the State Department to pressure Ukraine into conducting investigations of the Bidens to advance the president’s personal and political interests.
Volker told the committees he found the decision to withhold funding to Ukraine “unusual” and was unable to receive an explanation for why it was held. The aid was ultimately released on Sept. 11.
Morrison said in his deposition last month that Sondland told a Ukrainian official the United States would release the aid if Kiev investigated the Bidens. He added, however, that he didn’t find Trump’s actions inappropriate or illegal.
“It was the first time something like this had been injected as a condition on the release of the assistance,” Morrison said. “So it was not something I had been tracking as part of our process for calculating how do we get the president the information he needs to make the decision that it was within American interest to release the assistance.”
Sondland, Morrison and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor have said in their testimony that Trump withheld the aid as a means to persuade Ukraine to investigate the Bidens. Trump has previously said the two actions were unrelated.
Thursday
Investigators are scheduled to publicly question two witnesses on Thursday — David Holmes, a U.S. diplomat stationed in Ukraine, and former National Security Council aide and Russia expert Fiona Hill. That hearing will begin at 9 a.m. EST.
Holmes told investigators last week in his deposition he heard Trump ask Sondland about Zelensky’s willingness to cooperate and investigate the Bidens. Hill provided her deposition on Oct. 14.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.