Witnesses up are 2 veteran diplomats acting u. S. Ambassador to ukraine William Taylor and Deputy Assistant secretary of state george cant a tailor has said in closed door testimony he had what he calls a clear understanding the trump wanted to pressure ukraine into investigating his political rival joe biden in exchange for continuing military aid to ukraine cant testify the trumps lawyer Rudy Giuliani pushed for the removal of the former u. S. Ambassador to ukraine marie avantage who will testify on friday the president denies any wrongdoing and says the inquiry is in his words the greatest witch hunt in american history. Kimberly how kate is at the white house and castro is on capitol hill for us where that hearing is of course taking place well be talking to both of them in just a few minutes but 1st patty cohan begins our coverage. From a most the 1st day of his presidency there have been calls for Donald Trumps impeachment. But for the 1st 2 years with his party in control of congress it was more a longing from the left than an actual possibility until. The democrats won back control of the house of representatives in the 28000 election and some of the most left leaning members made clear their intention because were going to go in there with. That was not a sentiment shared by the speaker of the house nancy pelosi who resisted all calls to start an impeachment proceeding. Or after the conclusion of special counsel robert moaners investigation which left it up to congress to decide if the president acted appropriately in regards to russian interference in the 2016 election but that changed in Early September of this year when a whistleblower complaint came to light in it the still Anonymous National security official wrote of more than a half dozen officials who knew about a phone call between President Trump and the president of ukraine and they found it deeply disturbing the allegation was that trump was Holding Hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid meant for ukraine which is fighting off russian aggression intil the ukrainian president promised to investigate trumps potential political rival Vice President joe biden and his son hunter who had worked in ukraine in damage control mode the white house released notes from the call it did more damage because as the notes point out as the ukrainian president is promising to buy more u. S. Missiles trump responds quote i would like you to do us a favor though he goes on to ask for investigations into a debate Conspiracy Theory about the elect. And later brings up the bidens the president must be held accountable no one is about the law thats when democrats announced an impeachment inquiry would be good along with the president s almost daily defense of the call i made a call the call was perfect there was no way broke there was nothing so weak china leading in the polls they have no idea how they stuck me it didnt help in the president s own acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney went on camera and seem to admit it happened and i have news for everybody get over it theres going to be political influence in Foreign Policy he later tried to take it back well the white house made clear they would not cooperate to find subpoenas for testimony and documents attorney bruce fein says that could backfire i was there at nixon what we did is ok that itself the defiance itself is an unthinkable offense will try yourself because the impeachment process becomes farcical if the president can simply withhold and block access to the relevant evidence some members of the Trump Administration have gone to court to ask a federal judge who they should listen to the president who says dont go or the congress that subpoenaed them to show up but while that will take months to work its way through the courts democrats are pushing ahead the 1st 3 to testify in public 3 long Time State Department employees they testified behind closed doors that the president did withhold hundreds of millions in military aid to ukraine because he wanted to debunk Conspiracy Theory and his political opponent investigated republicans have been struggling to defend the president but many seem to be settling on one strategy and i would make the argument that every politician in washington other than me virtually is trying to manipulate ukraine to their purposes menendez tried it murphy tried it biden tried it trumps tried it theyre all doing it they are all trying to manipulate ukraine to get some kind of investigation either end of education or start. Investigation the everyone does it defense except no other president in the history of the country has been proven to do what trump allegedly did a slim majority of americans now support impeaching the president and removing him from office both sides we watching to see if that changes with public hearings the results could determine the president s fate in office and in the history books political hay in aljazeera washington. All right live now to the hearing room on capitol hill where the impeachment choir e is set to begin at any moment now those are the 2 witnesses sat there that we are expecting to hear from adam schiff that begins proceedings seen as chairman of the committee here as a democrat leading this investigation he will be only as part of the houses impeachment inquiry without objection the chair is authorized to declare recess of the committee at any time there is a quorum present here is how the committee will proceed for this hearing i will make an Opening Statement and then reckon member nunez will have the opportunity to make a statement and we will go to witness statements and then to questions for audience members we welcome you and we respect your interest in being here in turn we ask for your respect as we proceed with todays hearing mr chairman it is the intention of the committee to proceed without disruption and then before we make a parliamentary inquiry so i will state the inquiry in the sherman this is our 1st hearing under these new set of rules House Resolution 660 and it gives you the discretion to allow yourself in the Ranking Member periods of extended questions of up to 45 minutes each before other members are allowed to ask questions of possible wed like to know the rules of engagement before we get started have you made a decision yet as to how many 45 minute rounds you will allow yourself in the Ranking Member. I have not as we informed minority yesterday we will see how the 1st period goes and how much material to go through at that point the chair will now its the period if there is a period of the 2nd round which may be up to 45 minutes or well go straight to a 5 minute questions by members for audience members again we welcome you and your interest. In turn we expect in will insist on decorum in the committee as chairman ill take all necessary and appropriate steps to maintain order and ensure the committee is run in accordance with house rules and House Resolution 660 with that i now recognize myself to give an Opening Statement in the impeachment inquiry into donald j. Trump the 45th president of the United States in 2014 russia invaded the United States ally ukraine to reverse that nations embrace of the west and to fulfill that amir putins desire to rebuild a russian empire in the following years 14000 ukrainians died as they battled superior Russian Forces earlier this year Vladimir Zelinsky was elected president of ukraine on a platform of ending the conflict and tackling corruption he was a newcomer to politics and immediately saw to establish a relationship with ukraines most powerful patron the United States the questions presented by this impeachment inquiry are whether President Trump sought to exploit that allies vulnerability and invite ukraines interference in our elections whether President Trump sought to condition official acts such as a white house meeting or u. S. Military assistance on ukraines willingness to assist with 2 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 questions will affect not only the future of this presidency but the future of the presidency itself and what kind of conduct or misconduct the American People may come to expect from their commander in chief or few actions as consequential as the impeachment of a president or the founders did not intend that impeachment be employed for mere differences over policy they also made impeachment a constitutional process that the Congress Must utilize as necessary the facts in the present inquiry are not seriously contested beginning in january of this year the president s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani pressed ukrainian authorities to investigate the countrys Largest National gas producer and the bidens since Vice President joe biden was seen as a strong potential challenger to trump giuliani also promoted a debunked conspiracy that it was ukraine not russia that hacked the 2016 u. S. Election the nations intelligence agencies have stated unequivocally that it was russia not ukraine that interfered in our election but giuliani believe this Conspiracy Theory referred to as crowd strike shorthand for the company that discovered the russian hack would aid his clients reelection giuliani also conducted a Smear Campaign against the u. S. Ambassador to ukraine marie of out of it on april 29 a Senior State Department official told her that although she had done nothing wrong President Trump had lost confidence in her with the sidelining of the yvonne of age the stage was set for the establishment of an irregular channel in which giuliani and later others including gordon saw him land an influential donor to the president s inauguration now serving as a bastard to the European Union could advance the president s personal and political interests. You have on of its replacement in kiev investor bill taylor is a west point graduate and a vietnam veteran as he began to better understand the scheme through the summer of 262019 he pushed back informing Deputy Assistant secretary kent and others about a plan to condition Us Government actions and funding on the performance of political favors by the Ukrainian Government favors intended for President Trump it would undermine our security and our elections several key events in this scheme took place in the month of july on july 10th them bastards saw men and formed a group of us and ukrainian officials meeting at the white house that according to you chief of staff Mick Mulvaney a white house meeting desperately sought by the ukrainian president would trump what happened only if you crane undertook an investigation into the Energy Sector which was understood to mean barbarism and specifically the bidens National Security advisor bolton abruptly ended the meeting and said afterwards that he would not be quote part of whatever drug deal somnolent and mulvaney are cooking up on this and quote week later on july 18th represent of the office of management budget the White House Agency that oversees federal spending announced on a video conference. In the at the direction of the president was freezing nearly 400000000. 00 in Security Assistance authorized and appropriated by congress and which the entirety of the u. S. National security establishment supported one week after that donald trump would have the now infamous july 25th phone call with ukrainian president s alinsky during that call from complain that the u. S. Relationship in ukraine had not been reciprocal. Later zelinsky thanks trump for his support in the area of defense and says that ukraine is ready to purchase more javelins an antitank weapon that was among the most important deterrents a further Russian Military action trumps Immediate Response i would like you to do us a favor though from then requested that selenski investigate the discredited 2016 crowd strike Conspiracy Theory and even more ominous the ominously look into the bidens neither of these investigations was in the Us National Interest and neither was part of the official preparatory material for the call both however were in Donald Trumps personal interest and in the interests of his 2020 Reelection Campaign and the ukrainian president knew about both in advance because stalin and others had been pressing ukraine for weeks about investigations into the 2016 election. And the bidens after the call multiple individuals were concerned enough to reported to the National Security councils top lawyer the white house would then take the extraordinary step of moving the call record to a highly classified server exclusively reserved for the most sensitive Intelligence Matters in the weeks that followed and bastard taylor learn new facts about a scheme that somnolent even song that would describe is becoming more insidious taylor texted stalin quote are we now saying that Security Assistance and white house meeting are conditioned on investigations as some are turned to fall it kept getting more insidious mr solomon testified mr taylor who took notes of his conversations said investor told him in a september 1st phone call that everything. Was dependent on the public announcement of investigations including Security AssistancePresident Trump wanted mr zelinsky in a public box as a trump as a businessman sunland said later when a businessman is about to sign a check to someone who owes him something the businessman asked that person to pay up before signing the check in a sworn declaration after taylors testimony sonnen would admit to telling ukrainians at a september 1st meeting in warsaw quote a resumption of u. S. Aid would likely not occur until ukraine provided the public anticorruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks the president s chief of staff confirmed trumps efforts to coerce ukraine by withholding aid when Mick Mulvaney was asked publicly about it is answer was breathtaking we do that all the time with Foreign Policy he said i have news for everybody get over it theres going to be political influence in Foreign Policy that is going to happen the video of that confession is plain for all to see some of argued in the presence of the fence that the aide was ultimately released and that is true but only after congress began an investigation only after the president s lawyers learned of a whistleblower complaint and only after members of congress began asking uncomfortable questions about quid pro quos a scheme to condition official acts or taxpayer funding to obtain a personal political benefit does not become less odious because it is discovered before it is fully consummated in fact the Security Assistance had been delayed so long it would take another act of congress to ensure that it could still go out. And that Oval Office Meeting that selenski desperately sought it still hasnt happened although we have learned a great deal about these events in the last several weeks there are still missing pieces the president has instructed the state department and other agencies to ignore congressional subpoenas for documents is instructed witnesses to defy subpoenas and refuse to appear and he has suggested that those who do expose wrongdoing should be treated like traitors and spies these actions will force congress to consider as it did with president nixon whether trumps obstruction of the constitutional duties of congress constitute additional grounds for impeachment if the president can simply refuse all oversight particularly in the context of an a pietschmann proceeding the balance of power between our 2 branches of government will be irrevocably altered that is not what the founders intended and the prospects for further corruption and abuse of power in this administration or any other will be exponentially increased this is what we believe the testimony will show both as to the president s conduct and as to his obstruction of congress the issue that we confront is the one posed by the president s acting chief of staff when he challenged americans to get over it if we find that the president and states abused his power and invited foreign interference in our elections or if he sought to condition coerce extort or bribe an ally into conducting investigations to aid his Reelection Campaign and did so by withholding official acts white house meeting or hundreds of millions of dollars of needed military aid must we simply get over it is this what americans should now expect from their president if this is not impeachable conduct what is. As the oath of office itself requiring that our laws be faithfully executed that our president defend the constitution that balances the powers of its branches setting ambition against them bishan so we become no monarchy still have meaning these are the questions much to ask and answer without rancor if we can without delay regardless and without party favor and without prejudice if we are true to our responsibilities and have been frank them was asked what kind of a country america was to become a republic he answered if you can keep it the fundamental issue raised by the impeachment inquiry into donald j. Trump it is and we keep it and i recognize Ranking Member nunez for any marks you may wish to make thanks joan. In a july open hearing of this Committee Following publication of the report the democrats engaged in a last ditch effort to convince the American People that President Trump is a russian agent that herrion was the pitiful finale of a 3 year long operation by the democrats the corrupt media and partisan bureaucrats to overturn the results of the 2016 election after the spectacular implosion of their russia hoax on july 24th and which they spent years denouncing any republican who ever shook hands with a russian on july 25th they turned on a dime and now claim the real malfeasance is republicans dealings with ukraine in the blink of an eye were asked to simply forget about democrats on this committee falsely claiming they had more than circumstantial evidence of collusion between President Trump and russians we should forget about them reading fabrications of trump russia collusion from the still dossier into the congressional record. We should also forget about them trying to obtain nude pictures of trump from russian pranksters who pretended to be ukrainian officials we should forget about them leaking a false story to c. N. N. While he was still testifying to our committee claiming that Donald Trump Jr was colluding with wiki leaks and forget about countless other deceptions large and small that make them the last people on earth with the credibility to hurl more preposterous accusations at their political opponents and yet now here we are supposed to take these people at face value when they trot out a new batch of allegations but anyone familiar with the democrat scorched earth war against President Trump would not be surprised to see all the typical signs that this is a carefully orchestrated media Smear Campaign for example after a valiant publicly that impeachment requires bipartisan support democrats are pushing impeachment forward without the backing of a single republican the witnesses deemed suitable for television by the democrats were put through a closed door audition process and a cult like atmosphere in the basement of the capitol or did work democrats conducted secret depositions released a flood of misleading and one sided leaks and later selectively release transcripts in a highly staged manner violating their own guidelines democrats repeatedly redacted from the transcripts the name of Alexander Chalupa a contractor for the Democratic National committee who work with ukrainian officials to collect dirt on the trunk campaign which she provided to the d. N. C. And the Hillary Clinton campaign. The democrats rejected most of the republicans witness a witness request result in a horrifically one sided process where the crucial witnesses are denied a platform if their testimony does not support the democrats absurd accusations notably they are trying to impeach the president for inquiring about Hunter Bidens activities if they refuse our requests to hear from biden himself the whistleblowers acknowledged to have a bias against President Trump and his attorney touted a coup against the president and called for his impeachment just weeks after the election at a prior hearing democrats on this Committee Read out a purely fictitious rendition of the president s phone call with president zelinsky they clearly found the real conversation to be insufficient for their impeachment narrative so they just made up a new one and most egregiously the staff of the democrats on this committee had direct discussions with the whistleblower before his or her complaint was submitted to the Inspector General republicans cant get a full account of these contacts because democrats broke their promise to have the whistleblower testify to this Committee Democrat members hid these contacts from republicans and then lied about them to the American People on National Television ive noted before the democrats have a long habit of accusing republicans of offenses they themselves are committing lets recall for years they accuse the Trump Campaign of colluding with russia when they themselves were colluding with russia by funding and spreading the still dossier which relied on russian sources and now they accuse President Trump of malfeasance and ukraine when they themselves are culpable. The democrats cooperated and ukrainian election meddling and they defend 100 biden securing of a lavishly paid position with a corrupt Ukrainian Company all while his father served as Vice President despite this. The democrats are advancing their impeachment sham but we should not hold any hearings at all until we get answers to 3 crucial questions that democrats are determined to avoid asking 1st what is the full extent of the democrats prior coordination with the whistleblower and who else did the whistleblower coordinate this effort with 2nd what is the full extent of ukraines election meddling against the Truck Campaign and 3rd why did the higher hunter biden and what did he do for them and did his position affect any u. S. Government actions under the Obama Administration these questions will remain outstanding because republicans were denied the right to call witnesses that know these answers what we witnessed today is a televised the actual performance staged by the democrats and bassett or taylor and mr kemp i like to welcome you here id like to congratulate you for passing the Democrat Star Chamber additions held for the last weeks in the basement of the capitol it seems you agreed waiting or unwittingly to participate in a drama with the main performance the russian hoax has ended and youve been cast in the low rent ukranian sequel all conclude by noting the immense damage the politicized bureaucracy has done to American Space and government the executive branch employees are charged with implementing the policy set by our president who was elected and responsible to the American People. Elements of the Civil Service have decided that they not the president are really in charge. Will learn in these hearings after expressing skepticism of foreign aid and concern about foreign corruption on the campaign trail President Trump outrage the bureaucracy by acting skeptically about foreign aid and expressing concerns about foreign corruption officials alarm at the president s actions was typically based on 2nd and 3rd hand and even 4th hand rumors and innuendo they believed it was an outrage for the president to fire an ambassador even though the president has full authority to retain a removed diplomats for any reason at any time official so the surprising lack of interest in the indications of ukrainian election meddling that deeply concerned the president at whose pleasure they serve despite all their dissatisfaction with President Trumps ukraine policy the president approved the supply of weapons to ukraine unlike the Previous Administration which provided blankets as a defense against invading russians by undermining the president who they are supposed to be serving the elements of the f. B. I. The department of justice. And now the state department have lost the confidence of millions of americans who believe that their vote should count for something it will take years of not decades to restore faith in these institutions the spectacles doing great damage to our country its nothing more than an impeachment process in search of a crime. Today we are joined by ambassador William Taylor and Deputy Assistant secretary of state george cant both of whom are appearing under subpoena ambassador William Taylor has served our country for over half a century you attended u. S. Military academy at west point graduating in the top one percent of his class before serving as an infantry officer in the u. S. Army for 6 years including with 101st Airborne Division during the vietnam war and Buster Taylor led a rifle platoon in vietnam and was awarded the bronze star medal and the air medal for valor following his military service he worked at the department of energy as a staffer in the u. S. Senate as an advisor as well to u. S. Ambassador to nato in the 1990 s. And vaster taylor coordinated u. S. Assistance to Eastern Europe in the former soviet union and later served in afghanistan iraq and worked on the middle east Peace Process in 2006 president bush nominated him as a bastard to ukraine we we served until 2009 and then was appointed by president barack obama to be a special coordinator for middle east transitions Bester Taylor was serving as the executive Vice President of the nonpartisan u. S. Institute for peace when in june 29th teen secretary of state mike pompei o asked him to return to lead the u. S. Embassy in kiev as charge daffaires. Mr george cant currently serves as Deputy Assistant secretary in the department of state bureau of european and your Asian Affairs overseeing policy towards ukraine and other countries he has served twice in ukraine from 2004 to 2007 he was the deputy Political Council including during the orange revolution and for 2015 to 2018 he served as deputy chief of mission in kiev since joining the Foreign Service in 1902 mr kent has served in poland whos back to stand and thailand. He also served as the senior and corruption coordinator and oversaw programs to strengthen the rule of law all witness depositions as part of this inquiry were unclassified in nature and all open hearings will also be at the unclassified level and information that may touch on classified information will be addressed separately congress will not tolerate any reprisal threat of reprisal or attempt to retaliate against any u. S. Government official for testifying before congress including you or any of your colleagues if you would both rise and raise your right hand and i will begin by swearing you in do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give us the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god let the record show that the witnesses answered in the affirmative thank you and please be seated mr chairman before we hear from the witnesses i have a parliamentary inquiry general stater parliamentary inquiry mr chairman when can we anticipate a response to our nov 9th letter requesting certain individual witnesses to be called. The german gentleman should be aware that 3 of the witnesses the majority has requested are scheduled for next week is very your witnesses mr chairman what about the additional 6 witnesses. The general may inquire about additional witnesses or make a request for a vote additional witnesses following the witness testimony and mr chairman i have a point of order under 8660. Will state or point of order mr chairman will you be prohibiting witnesses from answering members questions as you have in the closed door depositions as the gentleman should know she was present for the debits i was there some of them yes i act the the only times i prevented witnesses from answering questions along with their counsel was when it was apparent that members were seeking to out the whistleblower we will do everything necessary to protect whistleblowers identity and im disturbed to hear members of the committee who have in the past voice strong support for whistleblower protections seek to undermine those protections by outing the whistleblower mr jarman only one member and i will now have and the gentleman on this committee has direct knowledge of the agony of the whistleblower will suspend the last parliamentary inquiry and i am responding or point of order im responding. We will not permit the outing of the whistleblower and questions along those lines council will inform their clients not to respond to if necessary which will intervene otherwise i want members to feel free to ask any questions they like and share this matter it is not like im going to make a motion which term and im sorry that this is one of the only for members or get asked questions the record the gentleman is not recognized. As i know its a sham im responding to gentlewomans point of order otherwise members will have every opportunity to ask any questions they like. This can we do seek recognition for what purpose that secret agent had to make a motion that we actually subpoena the whistleblower for a closed door secret deposition so that the questions that should be appropriately asked the person below are by our side and your side maybe ask and i would prefer that rather than your single decision that the committee speak to that issue rather than just the chairman and i move that we i think the german it will be my 2nd piece of the way the whistleblower it wont be my single decision we will entertain a motion to subpoena any witness but after the witnesses who had an opportunity testify that it was a motion will be in order that a motion will be suspended until after the witness i think shows the chairman to begin to speak when we would vote on purpose as mr jordan seek recognition is to ask a clarifying question do you anticipate when we might vote on the ability to have the whistleblower in front of us something you the 435 members of congress you are the only member who knows who that individual is and your staff is the only staff of any member of congress that a chance to talk with that individual we would like that opportunity when might that happen in this proceeding today versus the germ of those thats a false statement i do not know the identity of the whistleblower and im determined to make sure that identity is protected but as i said to mr conaway. You have an opportunity after the witnesses testified to make a motion to subpoena any witness and compel a vote and with that i now recognize the witnesses before i do. I want to just emphasize the microphones are sensitive so please speak directly into them without objection your written statements will be made part of the record and with that Deputy Assistant secretary kent you are recognized for your Opening Statement investor taylor you were a kid nice to me tell you that after for your Opening Statement good morning my name is george kent and i am the Deputy Assistant secretary of state for Eastern Europe and the caucasus i have served proudly as a nonpartizan career Foreign Service officer for more than 27 years under 5 president s 3 republican and democrat as i mentioned in my opening comments last month in the closed door deposition i represent the 3rd generation of my family who have chosen a career in Public Service and sworn the oath of office that all us Public Servants do in defense of our constitution indeed there has been a george cant sworn to defend the constitution continuously for nearly 60 years ever since my father reported to annapolis for his plea summer after graduating 1st in his Naval Academy class in 1965 the year best known for his high xmen winning classmate Roger Staubach my father served a full honorable 30 years including as a captain of a Nuclear Ballistic missile submarine during the height of the cold war 5 great uncles served honorably in the navy and the army in world war 2 in particular tom taggart was stationed in the philippines at the time of the attack on pearl harbor he survived the brutal Bataan Death March and 3 and a half years in a japanese prisoner of war camp unbroken he returned to service as an air force judge advocate upholding the rule of law until his death in 1965. Today i appear before you once again under subpoena as a fact witness ready to answer all of your questions about the events and developments examined in this inquiry to the best of my ability and recollection subject to the limits placed on me by the law and this process i will begin with some opening comments on the creek key principles at the heart of what brings me for you today to wit principled Public Service in pursuit of our enduring National Interests and the place of Ukraine International and security interests for the past 5 years we have focused our united efforts across the atlantic to support ukraine in its fight for the cause of freedom and the rebirth of a country free from russian dominion and the work legacy of soviet institutions and post soviet behavior as i stated in my closed door deposition last month you dont step into the public arena of International Diplomacy in active pursuit of principled u. S. Interests without expecting vigorous pushback including personal attacks such attacks came from the russians their proxies in corrupt ukrainians that tells me our efforts were hitting their mark it was unexpected and most unfortunate however to watch some americans including those who allied themselves with corrupt ukrainians in pursuit of private agendas launch attacks on dedicated Public Servants advancing u. S. Interests in ukraine in my opinion those attacks undermined us and ukrainian National Interests and damage our critical bilateral relationship the United States has a very clear National Interest at stake in ukraine. Ukraines success is very much in our National Interest in the way we have defined our National Interest broadly in europe for the past 75 years after war to u. S. Leadership furthered farsighted policies like the Marshall Plan in the creation of a rules based International Order protected by the collective security provided by nato western europe recovered and thrived after the carnage of world war 2 not withstanding the shadow of the iron curtain europe security and prosperity contributed to our security and prosperity support of ukraines success also fits squarely into our strategy for central and Eastern Europe since the fall of the wall 30 years ago this past week a europe truly whole free and at peace our strategic aim for the entirety of my Foreign Service career is not possible without a ukraine whole free and at peace including crimea and the donbass territories currently occupied by russia represented by the red in the map looking forward the trumpet ministrations National Security strategy makes clear the global strategic challenge now before us Great Power Competition with rivals such as russia and china and the need to compete for a positive influence without taking countries for granted and that sense ukraine has been on the front lines not just of russias conventional war in Eastern Europe since 2014 and its Broader Campaign of malign influence but of the greater geo political challenges now facing the United States ukraines popular revolution of dignity in 2014 forced a corrupt russian leadership the fleet in moscow. After that russia invaded ukraine occupying 7 percent of its territory roughly equivalent to the size of texas the United States at that time ukraines state institutions were on the verge of collapse Ukrainian Civil Society answer the challenge they formed volunteer battalions of citizens including Technology Professionals and medics they crowd sourced funding for their own weapons body armor and supplies they were the 21st century ukrainian equivalent of our own minutemen of 776. 00 buying time for a regular army to reconstitute since then more than 13000 ukrainians have died on ukrainian soil defending their territorial integrity and sovereignty from russian aggression americas support in ukraines own defacto war of independence has been critical in this regard by analogy the american colonies may not have prevailed against the British Imperial might without the help of transatlantic friends for after 776 in an echo of lafayettes organized the assistance to general George Washingtons army and admiral John Paul Jones as Navy Congress has generously appropriated over 1500000000 dollars over the past 5 years and desperately needed trained and equipped Security Assistance to ukraine these funds increase ukraines strength and ability to fight russian aggression ultimately ukraine is on a path to become a full Security Partner of the United States within nato. Similar to von steuben training colonials at valley forge u. S. And nato allied trainers developed the skills of ukrainian units at yobbery for near the polish border and elsewhere they helped rewrite military education for ukraines next generation as von steuben did for americas 1st and supporting ukraines brave resistance to russian aggression we have a front row seat to the russian way of war in the 21st century inning priceless insights that contribute to our own security. This year in 2019 ukrainian citizens passed the political torch to a new generation one that came of age not in the final years of the soviet union but in an independent ukraine president ial and parliamentary elections swept out much of ukraines previous governing elite and seated 41 year old president selenski a cabinet with an average age of 39. 00 and a parliament with the average age of 41. 00 at the heart of that change mandate 5 years after ukraines revolution of dignity is a thirst for justice because there cannot be dignity without Justice Without a reform judicial sector that delivers justice with integrity for all Ukrainian Society will remain unsettled Foreign Investors including american investors will not bring the great investment needed to ensure that ukraines long term prosperity is secured this is why the principled promotion of the rule of law and institutional integrity is so necessary to our strategy for a successful ukraine it is also true for other former captive nations still recovering from the ashes of soviet and communist misrule it is why acting inconsistently with the core principle of the rule of law comes at great peril. I am grateful to all the members of congress and staffers including many of you sitting here today who have traveled to ukraine over the past 5 years and appropriated billions of dollars of assistance and support of our primary policy goals those funds increase ukraines ability to fight russian aggression in the Defense Energy cyber and information spheres and they also empower state institutions and Civil Society to undertake systemic reforms and tackle corruption i believe all of us can be proud of our efforts in ukraine over the past 5 years even though much remains to be done and by all of us i mean those of us in the legislative and executive branches in both parties the Interagency Community working out of our embassy in kieve with ukrainians in government the military and Civil Society in our transatlantic allies and partners we cannot allow our resolve to waver since too much is at stake not just for ukraine in the future of European Security but for the National Interests of the United States broadly defined by prior deposition covered a lot of ground over 10 hours here are the main 10 themes for my testimony i outlined my experience with longstanding u. S. Interest in supporting our anticorruption efforts in ukraine this work gave me a front row seat to problematic activities by successive prosecutors general in command for many of the ensues this committee is investigating my knowledge and understanding is sometimes firsthand and sometimes comes from others involved in specific conversations and meetings this is no different than how any one he learns and carries out his or her Job Responsibilities i have been and remain willing to share my factual observations with the committee and will make clear when those are based on personal knowledge or from information gleaned from others. U. S. Efforts to counter corruption in ukraine focused on building Institutional Capacity so that the Ukrainian Government has the ability to go after corruption and effectively investigate prosecute and judge alleged criminal activities using appropriate institutional mechanisms that is to create and follow the rule of law that means that if there are criminal nexuses for activity in the United States u. S. Law enforcement should pursue the case if we think theres been a criminal act overseas that violates u. S. Law we have the institutional mechanisms to address that it could be through the Justice Department and f. B. I. Agents assigned overseas or through treaty mechanisms such as the mutual Legal Assistance treaty as a general principle i do not believe the United States should ask other countries to engage in selective politically associated investigations or prosecutions against opponents of those in power because such selective actions undermine the rule of law regardless of the country the pervasive in longstanding problem of corruption in ukraine included exposure to a situation involving the energy company. The primary concern of the Us Government since 2014 was barisan was owner of a coal is look cesky whose frozen Assets Abroad we had attempted to recover on ukraines behalf in early 2015 i raised questions with the deputy prosecutor general about why the investigation of mr slow cesky had been terminated based on our belief that prosecutors had accepted bribes to close the case. Later i became aware that 100 biden was on the board of bras much soon after that in a Briefing Call with the National Security staff of the office of the Vice President in february of 2015 i raised my concern that 100 biden status as a board member would create the perception of a conflict of interests let me be clear however i did not witness any effort by any u. S. Official to shield tourism from scrutiny in fact i and other u. S. Officials consistently advocated reinstituting a scuttled investigation of prisoners founder as well as holding the corrupt prosecutors who close the case to account over the course of 20182019 i became increasingly aware of an effort by Rudy Giuliani and others including his associates left part austin eager for a woman to run a campaign to smear him bastra on a bitch and other officials at the u. S. Embassy in key the chief agitators on the ukrainian side of this effort were some of those same corrupt former prosecutors i had encountered particularly sankoh and doctor shopping they were now peddling false information in order to extract revenge against those who expose their misconduct including u. S. Diplomats ukrainian Anti Corruption officials and reform minded Civil Society groups in ukraine during the late spring and summer of 21000. 00 i became alarmed as those efforts bore fruit they led to the ouster of ambassador youve on a bitch and hampered us efforts to establish for poor with the new zealand ski administration in ukraine in mid august it became clear to me that giulianis efforts to gin up politically motivated investigations are now infecting u. S. Engagement with ukraine leveraging president selenski desire for a white house meeting there are and always have been conditionality placed on our sovereign loan guarantees for ukraine conditions include anticorruption reforms as well as meeting larger stability goals and social safety nets the International Monetary fund does the same thing. Congress and the executive branch Work Together to put conditionality on some Security Assistance in the ukraine Security Assistance initiative regarding my testimony today i will do my best to answer your questions questions that will involve issues conversations and documents that spin a number of years i may be limited by 3 considerations 1st the state department has collected all materials in response to the september 27th subpoena that may contain facts relevant to my testimony i have no such documents or materials with me today i will thus do my best to answer as accurately completely and truthfully as i can to the best of my recollection 2nd as this committee knows from deposition testimony throughout this process there have been concerns that questions may be asked about classified information we have asked the state department for guidance about classification concerns related to the public release of my deposition and the state department has declined to provide any so if i ask a question today that i believe may implicate classified implement information i will respectfully decline to answer in this public forum 3rd there may be questions focusing on the identity of people in the Intelligence Community these questions were redacted from my deposit depositions transcript if such a question arises today i will follow my counsels advice and declined to answer i would like to conclude my opening remarks with an observation about some of my fellow Public Servants who have come under personal attacks vestry of on of each tenet colonel inman and dr hill at least one of whom is going to appear before this body in the coming days matia alex and fiona were born abroad before their families or they themselves personally chose to immigrate to the United States they all made the professional choice to serve the United States as Public Officials helping shape our National Security policy towards russia in particular and we and our National Security are the better for it. In this sense they are the 21st century heirs of 2 giants of 20th century u. S. National Security Policy who also were born abroad my former professors big net beat in ski and his fellow immigrant Henry Kissinger like the bridge in season kissingers the yvonne of ages and been minutes fled nazi and communist oppression to contribute to a stronger more secure america that honorable tradition of transatlantic ties goes back to the very founding of our republic our 18th century independence would not have been secured without the choice of european officers the french born lafayette and rochambeau the german born von steuben and the poles polaski and go to come to the new world and fight for our cause of freedom and the birth of a new country free from imperial dominion it is my privilege to sit next to my former boss ambassador taylor today and it is my honor to serve with all of these patriotic americans thank you thank you investor taylor. Was german im appearing today at the committees request to provide my perspective on the events that are the subject of the committees inquiry i want to emphasize at the outset that while i am aware that the committee has requested my testimony as part of impeachment proceedings i am not here to take one side or the other or to advocate for any particular outcome of these proceedings my sole purpose is to provide facts as i know them about the incidents in question as well as my views about the strategic importance of ukraine to the United States. By way of background it has been a privilege for me to serve our country and the American People for more than 50 years starting as a cadet it west point as you have mentioned mr jarman it is an infantry officer for 6 years including with 101st Airborne Division in vietnam and at the department of energy then as a member of a senate staff than at nato then with the state department here and abroad in afghanistan iraq to rouge women and ukraine i retired from the state department 2009 to join the United States institute of peace im neither a career member of the Foreign Service nor of the Civil Service i am nonpartisan and have been appointed to my positions by every president from president reagan to President Trump let me summarize my main points 1st ukraine is a just egypt partner of the United States important for the security of our country as well as europe ukraine is on the front line in the conflict with a newly aggressive russia 2nd even as we sit here today the russians are attacking ukrainian soldiers in their own country and have been for the last 4 years i saw this on the frontline last week the day i was there a ukrainian soldier was killed and 4 were wounded 3rd theres a curious essence we provide is crucial to ukraines defense and to the protection of the soldiers i met on the frontline last week it demonstrates to ukrainians and russians that we are ukraines reliable Strategic Partner it is clearly in our National Interest to deter further russian aggression and finally as the committee is aware i wrote that withholding Security Assistance in exchange for help with a domestic Political Campaign in the United States would be crazy i believe that then and i believe it now let me tell you why. On may 28th of this year i met with secretary of state mike pump aoe who asked me to rejoin the state department and return to keys to lead our embassy in ukraine it was and is a critical time for us ukraine relations i had served as ambassador to ukraine from 2006 to 2009. Having been nominated by george w. Bush and in the intervening 10 years had state and gauged with ukraine across the responsibilities ive had in Public Service ukraine is the highlight and so secretary pompei i was offered to return as chief of mission was compelling since i left ukraine in 2009 the country had continued to turn toward the west but in 2013 let it rip putin was so threatened by the prospect of ukraine joining the European Union they tried to bribe the ukrainian president this triggered mass protest in the winter of 2013 that drove the pratt president to flee to russia in 24 and february 24th team but not before his forces killed 100. 00 ukrainian protesters in central cave days later mr putin invaded crimea holding a sham referendum at the point of russian army rifles the russians absurdly claim that 97 percent voted to join russia in early april putin sent his army and Security Forces into southeastern ukraine to generate illegal armed formations and puppet governments in what we know is done by us did see this on the map in the right hand portion in the eastern portion of the country 14000 ukrainians have died in the war in dumbass and more die each week in july 24th teen these russian led forces and gone bust shut down a civilian airliner en route from amsterdam to malaysia killing all 298 people on board. We the europeans and most of the west impose economic sanctions and kick the russians out of the g. 8 beginning in 2014 we and nato began to provide military assistance to Ukraines Armed forces in the form of training advice military equipment and weapons it is this Security Assistance that is at the heart of the controversy that we are discussing today the pro russian president who was run out of cave in 2014 and let the Russian Armed forces deteriorate to the point of ruin and response to the russian invasion the new ukrainian authorities with an amazing outpouring of support from regular ukrainian people rebuilt the army nearly from scratch spending more than 5 percent of ukrainian g. D. P. On defense since the war started the whole ukrainian nation fiercely responded to the russian attack the nation united like never before a ragtag Army Developed into a strong fighting force and the United States played a vital role as 2014 you in congress have provided over 1600000000. 00 in military assistance to ukraine the Security Systems provide small unit training at an army base near belief in the west of the country it provides ambulances night vision Devices Communications equipment counterbattery radar navy ships and finally weapons the Security Systems demonstrates our commitment to resist aggression and defend freedom during the 20142016 period i was serving outside of government and joined to other former ambassador to ukraine urging the Obama Administration officials at the state Department Defense department and other agencies to provide lethal defensive weapons to ukraine in order to deter further russian aggression. I also supported much stronger sanctions on russia i was pleased when the Trump Administration provided javelin antitank missiles and it acted stronger sanctions all to say i cared about ukraines future and the important u. S. Interests there so when secretary pump aoe asked me to go back to keep i wanted to say yes but it was not an easy decision the former ambassador must leave on a bitch has been treated portly caught in a web of political machinations both in kieve and in washington i fear that those problems were still present i consulted both my wife and the respected former senior republican official who has been a mentor i will tell you that my wife in no Uncertain Terms strongly opposed the idea of the Mentor Council if your country asked you to do something you do it if you can be effective i could be effective only if the u. S. Policy a strong support for ukraine strong