NEW: Adam Schiff ends hearing by taking up GOP letter demanding subpoenas for the whistleblower and Hunter Biden and various documents. 'I do not concur in these requests for subpoenas,' Schiff says and committee votes along party lines to table request.
Day 4 of the House impeachment hearings on Wednesday began with explosive testimony from Gordon Sondland, one witness in the House impeachment inquiry who spoke to exactly what President Donald Trump wanted in Ukraine. In the evening, two witnesses -- Laura Cooper, a Pentagon official and David Hale, a top State Department official -- testified.Schiff concluded Wednesday's proceedings, nearly 12 hours after opening the day's session.
"During my visits to Kyiv, I was very impressed by what she was doing there to the extent that I asked her if she'd be willing to stay if that was a possibility, because we had a gap coming up," Hale said."I believe that she should have been able to stay at post and continued to do the outstanding work.""That's right," Hale replied.
"If the U.S. were to withdraw its military support of Ukraine, what would effectively happen?" Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., asked. In response to a follow-up question from Schiff, Cooper confirmed that the Ukrainian Embassy appeared aware of and concerned about the hold on assistance. Trump reiterated that he did not know Sondland well, and addressed Sondland's $1 million donation to the Trump inaugural committee.
Ranking member Devin Nunes, in his opening statement, said in part,"So what exactly are the Democrats impeaching the President for? None of us here really knows, because the accusations change by the hour. Once again, this is an impeachment in search of a crime."Just before, Schiff and Nunes closed the session with sharply contrasting views of the impact of Sondland's testimony.
"Who was the one refusing to take that meeting? There's only one answer to that question and it’s Donald J. Trump, 45th president of the United States. So, who was holding up the military assistance? Was it you Ambassador Sondland? No, it wasn’t. Was it Ambassador Volker? No. Was it Ambassador Taylor? No. Was it Deputy Secretary Kent? No. Was it Secretary of State Pompeo? No."
“Gordon Sondland never told Secretary Pompeo that he believed the President was linking aid to investigations of political opponents. Any suggestions to the contrary is flat out false,” Morgan Ortagus, the State Department spokesperson, said. To which Maloney replied:"Fair enough. If you’ve been very forthright, this is your third try to do so sir. Didn't work so well the first time, did it.""Who would benefit from an investigation of the Bidens?" Dem. Rep. Maloney asks repeatedly."There we have it!" Maloney says sarcastically."Did hurt a bit, did it?" https://t.co/Y33XM75QnT #ImpeachmentHearings pic.twitter.
“It really depends on what you mean by ‘know well,’” Sondland replied. “We are not close friends. No. We have a professional, cordial working relationship.”As Wednesday’s hearing lurched through committee member questioning, Sondland said the hold on Ukraine’s aid “could be looked a” as a benefit to Russia.
Schiff pushed back against the Republican lines of questioning, saying there could still be wrongdoing if the aid money was released or the president never explicitly said it. "They also seem to say that, well, they got the money. The money may have been conditioned but they got the money. Yes. They got caught. They got caught," Schiff said.After the break the committee began a round of questions from members, with each member given five minutes.
"I mean, I've never seen anything like this and you told Mr. Castor that the President never told you that the announcement had to happen to get anything. In fact, he didn't just not tell you that, he explicitly said the opposite," Jordan said in animated remarks.Chairman Schiff ordered a 30-minute break.
"Mr. Giuliani conveyed to Secretary Perry, Ambassador Volker, and others that President Trump wanted a public statement from President Zelenskiy committing to investigations of Burisma and the 2016 election. Mr. Giuliani expressed those requests directly to the Ukrainians. Mr. Giuliani also expressed those requests directly to us," Sondland said in his opening statement.
The president zeroed in on his conversation with Sondland and offered a dramatic reenactment – emphasizing that he told Sondland he didn’t want a quid pro quo with Ukraine. “I don’t know him very well, I have not spoken to him much, this is not a man I know well, seems like a nice guy but I don’t know him well, he was with other candidates, he actually supported other candidates, not me, came in late,” Trump said.
Fiona Hill, a former NSC aide, testified that then-National Security Adviser Bolton made reference to the “drug deal” after a July 10 White House meeting with a Ukrainian delegation. “I probably mentioned that this needs to happen in order to move the process forward,” Sondland testified. “That seemed to be the conventional wisdom at the time.”A lawyer representing committee Republicans pressed Sondland over his testimony that Rudy Giuliani was representing the president’s interest in coordinated a quid pro quo with Ukraine, as Sondland said in his opening statement.
“I think [Sondland’s testimony] is a very important moment for this impeachment inquiry,” Schiff said. "I don't know exactly what I said to him -- this was a briefing attended by many people and I was invited at the very last minute. I wasn't scheduled to be there. But I think I spoke up at some point late in the meeting and said it looks like everything is being held up until these statements get made and that's my you know personal belief," Sondland testified."Again I don't recall any exchange or he asked me any questions.
“Multiple witnesses have testified under oath that Vice President Pence never raised Hunter Biden, former Vice President Joe Biden, Crowdstrike, Burisma, or investigations in any conversation with Ukrainians or President Zelensky before, during, or after the September 1 meeting in Poland.”ABC's Katherine Faulders in the hearing room notes that the moment Sondland characterized his conversations with President Trump stood out.
"That undermines the Republican -- and Trump's -- argument that this was all about rooting out corruption," ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Mary Bruce says in analysis.ABC News' John Santucci and Katherine Faulders are told President Trump is watching the Sondland testimony. Sources tell ABC News White House aides believe this all raises more questions specifically relating to Giuliani, Mulvaney and Pompeo as well as about the operations of the National Security Council.Sondland described a"continuum that became more insidious over time," saying requests for investigations started as generic but started to include more specific demands to look at the Bidens over time.
“I told [Ukrainian chief of staff Andriy] Yermak that I believed that the resumption of U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine took some kind of action on the public statement that we had been discussing for many weeks,” Sondland said. Sondland says he has no reason to doubt other witnesses accounts of that call but that the White House has not let him review a readout or transcript to refresh his memory. But he says the call did not strike him as significant at the time and he does not remember discussing the Bidens after the call, as Holmes testified.
Sondland says"even as late as Sept. 24 of this year," Pompeo"was directing Kurt Volker to speak with Rudy Giuliani. In a WhatsApp message, Kurt Volker told me in part: 'Spoke w Rudy per guidance from S,'" adding that 'S' is the designator for secretary. https://t.co/76PEI9Q3ut pic.twitter.com/p0SM4v00E79:56 a.m.
Hill has testified behind closed doors that the meeting ended abruptly, and afterwards, Ambassador John Bolton, the national security adviser, instructed her to tell the NSC lawyers about the “drug deal Rudy [Giuliani] and [acting White House chief of staff Mick] Mulvaney are cooking up.”During his opening statement, Sondland – who the White House worried was a “wild card” witness – pointed his finger directly at President Trump in coordinating a quid pro quo with Ukraine.
"Precisely because we did not think that we were engaging in improper behavior, we made every effort to ensure that the relevant decisionmakers at the National Security Council and State Department knew the important details of our efforts," Sondland said.Amb. Gordon Sondland:"Sec. Perry, Amb. Volker and I worked with Mr. Rudy Giuliani on Ukraine matters at the express direction of the President of the United States. We did not want to work with Mr. Giuliani.
Luskin is no stranger to major legal proceedings. According the profile on his law firm’s website, Luskin is described as having “represented clients in virtually every high-profile matter in Washington, D.C. over the last three decades,” including defendants in cases brought by past independent counsels and the Justice Department.
"I remind the president that Article 3 of the impeachment articles drafted against President Nixon was his refusal to obey the subpoenas of congress," Schiff said."I remind the president that Article 3 of the impeachment articles drafted against President Nixon was his refusal to obey the subpoenas of Congress." https://t.co/fU9nj4vOQY pic.twitter.
“This is just stunning, an incredible repudiation of President Trump and Rudy Giuliani and in my reading seems to dismantle every counter argument we have thus far heard from Republicans,” Mallin says. - Sondland repeatedly says he was acting at the explicit direction of the president in his interactions with Rudy and says Rudy was “was expressing the desires of the President of the United States.”ABC News' White House reporter Katherine Faulders reports White House sources are worried Sondland is the"wild card" witness.
On May 14, Sondland got a shout-out from the president at an event in Louisiana when Trump said he was doing a “great job.” In October, the president called Sondland “highly respected” and “a really good man and great American.” "I noted there was 'big stuff' going on in Ukraine, like a war," Holmes added, according to his testimony released by the House Intelligence Committee."And Ambassador Sondland replied that he meant 'big stuff' that benefits the President, like the 'Biden investigation' that Mr. Giuliani was pushing."
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