7 takeaways from Tuesday’s impeachment hearings – By Aaron Blake (Washington Post) / Nov 19 2019
After three witnesses last week painted a broad picture of a U.S. foreign policy hijacked by political interests, this week the impeachment inquiry into President Trump began with testimony Tuesday from four people who serve inside the White House and on the front lines of U.S. foreign policy in Ukraine.
Tuesday’s hearings featured:
- Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the lead Ukraine expert on the National Security Council
- Jennifer Williams, a State Department employee who was detailed to Vice President Pence on Eurasia matters
- Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine
- Tim Morrison, a former NSC aide
All four previously testified in closed-door depositions. Here’s what we learned from their latest testimony.
1. A big correction from Volker
Volker — like the ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland — was forced to correct his testimony after other witnesses called it into question.
The most important clarification came with regard to a July 10 meeting in which Sondland has now acknowledged he brought up investigations with Ukrainian leaders — after previously not disclosing that. Volker had previously testified that there was no mention during that meeting of the investigations Trump and his personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani were seeking. But other witnesses indicated then-national security adviser John Bolton shut down the meeting because Sondland broached them.
So on Tuesday, Volker confirmed it, saying Sondland made “a general comment about investigations” toward the end of the meeting — but Volker said that he himself might not have been around for some of the fallout.
He added, “I think all of us thought it was inappropriate.”
2. Volker says anti-Biden campaign was also inappropriate
Another key shift in his testimony came with respect to whether this effort was a political one. Volker has testified that he didn’t push for an investigation of former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter; he now says that he should have connected the dots between the Bidens and Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian company that employed Hunter Biden.
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