That quote the temple of social media and other criticisms were such that she felt she could no longer function unless there was a strong statement of defense of her from the debate state department. Is that correct correct and this message and secretary pompei i was aware of her situation is that correct yes i briefed him the next day and hes the ultimate authority who could issue that strong statement of support correct correct. But he never ever did issue a statement right we did not issue a statement at the time but in fact you insight you testified around the same time that the secretary did not render assistance to a long serving and highly respected him bassett or he made 2 phone calls to Rudy Giuliani is that right. Its correct that he has seen a record that he made those phone calls one on march 28th and again the next day on march 29. Saw the record of the yes right so we dont know what he said to Rudy Giuliani we have a pretty good idea what really Rudy Giuliani said to him get rid of you have an image she was gone in the state but never came forward right correct and when she was recalled and wanted to find out what happened secretary pompei would not meet with or i was out of the country at the time i cant comment on the all right what in then mr brack deal who is next in line didnt meet with or. I dont know this came for you to give her the news it went to the deputy secretary i believe held a meeting i was in foreign foreign travel at the time well be interesting if we could have secretary pompei o be here to to tell us what his conversations were with Rudy Giuliani the person who was fomenting the discontent about in a master who is fighting corruption i want to thank you and i want to thank mr cooper for your service. To this malone. Well as cooper secretary hale scooper thank you for working late on a wednesday the last time we tend to hear testimony the republicans were good enough to bring pizza down to the skiff. But im kidding aside i know we did detain you for about 5 hours that day so on behalf of the committee thank you for your forbearance we do appreciate your patience with this quick question. For you and i think just one question for you secretary hale. Was d. O. D. Able to. Put all the Security System funds into contract before the end of the fiscal year. And how much was were they not able to obligate. What was left on the i believe the think here was 35000000. 00 and we were able to actually outlook 88 percent total and i think you mentioned that you were able because of legislation the Congress Passed a continuing resolution to do that as i went through the remainder we are in the process of obligating me right now mainly because of the provision in the continuing resolution right so but for and literally an act of congress you couldnt have spent all the money if we had not received the provision in the continuing resolution we wouldve obligated 88 percent but not the full amount right which of course. Would be a violation of law to not spend money that congress appropriated. I am not a lawyer but that is my understanding sure. Thank you secretary hill where were you born and arbor michigan. And family from ireland and i was at the no sir im sorry. Strike you another question with respect to sector youve on of age. You served as ambassador to i believe 3 countries correct Jordan Jordan lebanon understand august 11th and. While you were ambassador to those 3 countries did anyone ever ask you to issue a support praising personally the president United States you know how do you view such requests depend on the situations where someone said say you went to someone and you were having problem with your job and you said how can i do better and they said you should publish something personally praising the president flattering to him. With that strike you as unusual yes so we told you to go big or go home would that change your mind. I dont quite understand well thats what ambassador youve on a beach was treated to when she went to ambassador solomon seeking advice and she declined to do so i believe she said it would strikers to political 2nd system with the pro cheap the approach you might take i thought that sounds sensible yes thank you of the meantime back to the chairman thank you both for being here theres a mix ambassador hale and the school for thank you both for being with us just a quick question before i get into some questions about ambassador sohn who we heard from today i want to ask both of you if President Trump withheld Critical Military aid from ukraine because high ranking officials so poor dead the president s political of ponette would you consider that an official acceptable appropriate action that the president of the United States ambassador hale its not what i would advise the scooper you know that is not an appropriate. Ambassador hale you testified that you were aware in bassett of saddam than was and involving himself in matters that and i quote went beyond the normal wit writ of the of an ambassador to the European Union unquote as you understood it who authorized ambassador isaan to work on ukraine. I have no firsthand knowledge of that i received a readout from a meeting that the president ited states had with the delegation on may 23rd in which the briefing i received anyway indicated that the president wanted the members of that delegation which included ambassador sol and to carry forth the policies that were discussed in the course of the meeting so that encouraged and and meeting in the oval office on may 23rd is where you heard that information from the readout of a written readout from that yes you testified that and i quote it was clear that the members of that inaugural delegation were empowered by the president thats what you testified you also said and i quote as a practical matter it would be ambassador of vocoder and ambassador sohn presumably working with taylor who would be the ones really doing the continual effort here did you understand that ambassador sohn then had to read access to the president. In the few occasions in which i had conversations with investor song he often would let it know that he was in direct contact with the president thats all i knew so you receive that information directly from investors sunland that he had direct contact with the president in previous occasions yes not nest not related to this particular matter so anything about ambassador tomlins role that struck you as problematic based on what i knew at the time i was satisfied that this delegation was what the president wanted to have you know continue to pursue these policies and i saw that ambassador vocal and it was professional had been a Foreign Service officer an ambassador of distinction and steeped in Ukrainian Affairs was part of that group so i had no great concerns so what you knew at the time you were ok with his role but did your opinion change about his appropriateness of his role. As i testified i was not aware of these various activities related to negotiations over investigations preconditions related to that i just wasnt aware of it so i had no reason to be making any kind of judgment one way or the other if you review the Text Messages between ambassadors on line and volcker ive seen some of them that were reported in the media were you surprised by anything in those messages that you heard reported or personally witnessed herbs or i was surprised by what i saw in those reports in the media i want to ensure i understand your testimony ambassador hale you believed in bass recently and was empowered by the president according to what you found out from the may 23rd meeting to work on ukraine policy and you said quote none of that really struck you as problematic because of the time difference is there what you knew is that correct based on what i knew yes ok you are the under sect secretary for Political Affairs you testified that and that capacity you are responsible for the management of the United States bilateral relations with and i quote every country in the world that we recognize for the management of our policies towards those countries as well as our relationship or policies as they relate to malta lateral organizations that include u. S. Policy and relations with you crying it does but when we have a special envoy who reports directly to the secretary related to a country or an issue that special envoy will take the day to day responsibilities how about u. S. Policy and relations with the European Union yes i am but you were not aware fully of ambassador silence activities on behalf of President Trump thats correct ok thank you mr chair i yield back. Good evening thank you so much for being here. Under secretary hale. You and your colleagues testify that youve gathered official records at the state department with the understanding that they would be provided to congress right i was not involved in the Decision Making or i have no responsibilities related to gathering documents i understood that it was under way and i certainly received the documents that i described earlier i see. In terms of the materials that were collected. Do they include electronic files and emails for instance i can only speak to the documents that were made available to me and it did include emails and paper documents and paper documents. Would tape recordings potentially be among the files that are gathered i really couldnt speculate on that but you cant rule out that possibility i dont i dont know of tape recordings but i so i cant really comment on that and are you familiar with. From whom the documents have been collected like the individual custodians i dont know that sir. Youre aware that despite a duly authorized congressional subpoena has been served on the state department we have yet to receive even a single document correct. I understand that yes. Mr cooper in the interagency process. Did anyone in any committee. Potentially bring up the lack of allied funding as a reason for why there should be a hold on military assistance to ukraine. I can only speak to the 3 meetings that i attended the p. C. C. D. S. T. And then p. C. C. And i have no recollection of the issue of allied burden sharing coming up at that point i did provide information in my deposition about what i thought was a completely separate query that i received in mid june from the secretary of defenses front office and one of the questions there just asked a question about the degree to which allies were contributing to Ukraine Security assistance just to be very clear ok but after the hold was put in place on july 18th you did you havent heard any concerns about a lack of allied funding as a reason for why the whole should be in place in those meetings that i attended i did not hear that or i dont recall hearing that as a reason the only reason that i had heard was the president s views on corruption no further information got it same question to you undersecretary hill could you repeat the question so i assume you didnt hear about the lack of allied funding as a reason for the whole body being put in place after july no i never heard a reason for the old you never and i soon neither of you heard any reason whatsoever for why the hold was in place except for the fact that o. M. B. Put it in place at the direction of the president right thats thats correct and i assume you know one of my colleagues brought up the idea that the hold was put in place to assess whether or not president celebrity was legit i assume that was not a reason that was offered either no sir i never heard that as a reason and i heard no reason. Under secretary hill what is the importance of a world leader having a meeting at the white house. Well really it is case by case but particularly for a new leader its an extremely important opportunity to demonstrate the strength of our relationship for building of that relationship at a personal level leadership level to demonstrate common goals how about in the case of president selenski how important was it for him to have this what a meeting at the white house was President Trump well i never talked to president s lenski about that myself i met him before he became president i met with president poroshenko in the 2 leading candidates but as an expert on these matters is it fair to say that a new World Leaders such as president and ski having a meeting at the white house with President Trump is extremely important for his image that he projects especially toward folks like russia well an Oval Office Meetings incredibly valuable for any foreign leader let me just state that general principle and for a ukrainian president it is indeed what you just said to demonstrate that the bond between the United States and ukraine is strong and that there is continuity in our policies and that we are going to continue to Work Together in our policy goals including countering iran russian aggression and intimidation of ukraine thank you so much i yield back that concludes the member questioning mr news do you have any concluding remarks in the gentleman what do we learn from the democrats and peach mint inquiry they promised the country a fair hearing what have they delivered impeachment version of 3 card monte notorious short con card trick where the mark this case President Trump and the American Public stands no chance of winning democrats promised the whistleblowers testimony in fact they told us that we need to speak with the whistleblower and then we learned that the whistleblower corden a did with the democratic staff before alerting the intelligence communities inspector general. To hide their condo democrats pound the table and gaslight the country telling us that the whistleblowers entitled to an imaginary statutory right of anonymity they accuse us of trying to out the whistleblower knowing that theyre the only ones who know who he is they say that if the facts are against you argue the law if the laws against you argue the facts and if both are against you pound the table and yell like hell it seems that law school these days is teaching their students a 4th tactic if the facts and the largest you simply rig the game and hope your audience is too stupid to catch your duplicity this is not an impeachment inquiry its an and pietschmann inquisition in the middle ages the inquisitor was free to act on his own and bring suit against any person who was even vaguely the subject of the lowest rumor and the accused was denied any right to confront their accusers incredibly or maybe not so much given the democrats track record an inquisition victim had more rights than the democrats are giving the president after all inquisition victims had the right to know their accusers name for those of you at home its time to change the channel turn down the volume. Or hide the kids but im to bed now yield to mr shift for story time our thank the gentleman as always for his remarks. I want to be brief this evening its been a long day and i said most of what i wanted to say earlier in the day but i did want to and this evening and 1st of all thank you both for your testimony and your long service to the country we are grateful that you answered the lawful process of a congressional subpoena. I want to share a few reflections on 2 words that have come up a lot in the course of these hearings. And those words are corruption and Anti Corruption we are supposed to believe i suppose i imagined listening to my colleagues that donald trump is a great Anti Corruption fighter that his only concern about ukraine was that it would fight corruption but lets look at that argument lets look at the president s words and look lets look at his deeds and baster yavanna of it she was an Anti Corruption champion no one has contradicted that that has come forward to testify here she was a champion and on the day she is at a meeting acknowledging in ukraine another Anti Corruption champion a woman who had acid thrown in her face and died a painful death after months she is called back to washington because of a vicious spear campaign by the president s lawyer Rudy Giuliani among others she is recalled that is not Anti Corruption that is corruption and one of the people responsible for this Smear Campaign in addition to mr giuliani and it is a long and sordid list of those who were involved is a man named senco someone who the minorities own witness acknowledges has a poor reputation as selfserving and corrupt and what do we see about mr lew sankoh and his predecessor mr shoket what does the president have to say about one of these corrupt former prosecutors he praises them. He says they were treated very unfairly thats not Anti Corruption thats corruption and when ambassador saw and testified today that there was unquestionably a quid pro quo and everybody knew it conditioning a white house meeting that ukraine desperately wanted to show its friend and foe alike it had the support of the president of the United States when that was conditioned that official act was conditioned on the receipt of things of value to the president political investigations that was not Anti Corruption that was corruption and when ambassador saw him and testified today that he could put 2 and 2 together and so can we that think there was also a quid pro quo on the military aid that that aid was not going to be released unless they did a Public Statement ukraine did a Public Statement of these political investigations the president wanted thats not Anti Corruption that is corruption and lets look at the president s words on that phone call that infamous phone call on july 25th does he ask president selenski how is that reform coming in the rada what are you doing to root out corruption what about that new Anti Corruption court of course not of course not we really to believe that was his priority no what is the ask i want you to do of his favor of favor investigate this crazy 2016 server conspiracy that the servers somewhere in ukraine and more ominously investigate the bidens thats not Anti Corruption that is corruption and the next day when hes on the phone to him bastards somnolent in that outdoor block restaurant in kiev. What does he want to know about this we want to know how zelinsky is going to fight corruption of course not the only thing he brings up in that call is the investigation he wants into the bidens thats not Anti Corruption that is corruption every now and then theres a conversation that really says all you need to know and sometimes it doesnt seem all that significant but ill tell you this one really struck me and it was a conversation that ambassador volcker related in his testimony and was a conversation just this past september when hes talking to andre yamaka top adviser to president s alinsky and hes advising him as indeed he should you know you may not want to go through with an investigation or prosecution of former president poroshenko engaging in political investigations is really not a good idea and you know what your mark says oh you mean like you want us to do of the bidens and the clintons well theres a word for that too and its not corruption into corruption its called hypocrisy and this is the problem here we do have an Anti Corruption policy around the world and the great men and women in your department under secretary hale and in your Department Ms cooper they carry that mesh message around the world that the United States is devoted to the rule of law but when they see a president of the United States who is not devoted to the rule of law who is not devoted to Anti Corruption but instead demonstrates in word and deed corruption they are forced to ask themselves what does america stand for any more. I conclude. Stephenies hearing i will ask the witnesses to issues themselves members should remain we have a business matter to take up right that is sad and shift drawing a line under todays proceedings in a long day 3. Witnesses we have heard today giving their testimony. In these open hearings public hearings in the impeachment inquiry into us president dont trump alan fischer with us our correspondent in washington d. C. As i said has been a lot to take in today. How about you take us through your views on what weve seen and heard today. Big day important day historic day i think you know the republicans are parts missing a trick at the end of the proceedings for the last couple of days and sent to live just said yeah this is a show or tonight it was devon is saying this is story time thank you and good night where is adam schiff sums up his view of what the evidence has pointed them to undoubtedly the most important testimony came from Gordon Saunders of the man who is the e. U. Ambassador the Us Ambassador to the e. U. The man who when asked was there a quid pro quo when it came to giving aid to ukraine he said yes he then implicated senior figures in the trumpet ministration saying everyone acted at the direction of the president and everyone knew about this the secretary of state might pompey or Vice President mike pence chief of staff might move any of the Energy Secretary rick perry and he said that they knew that Rudy Giuliani was speaking to the ukrainians and trying to force them to start an inquiry into the Bidens Joe Biden and his son hunter who worked for a Ukrainian Company and they wanted a public announcement of this he told us that they werent really bothered in what the investigation phone dont they just wanted the announcement and who was going to benefit from that will sunderland says it was donald trump because then he could talk about how joe biden was being investigated for corruption in ukraine very important testimony interestingly enough mike pence the Vice President secretary of state might pompei or theyve postmans in the last couple of hours saying that Gordon Sunderlands testimony is not correct interestingly enough they put their statements to the media Gordon Sunderland was actually giving evidence under oath and if you lie under oath even to a congressional hearing you can be in really big trouble you have to remember that so big important day historic day donald trump tweeting saying its all over the impeachment. They should just wrap itself up because again Gordon Sunderland wouldnt draw the direct link between donald trump and what was happening in ukraine but he took is very close to the line if anything it has moved the democrats closer to passing articles of impeachment in the house but as ive said many times before kemal the reality