Decades who came to testify. In fact, four of President Trumps own National Security counsel staffers, hill, vindman, morrison and mcguire came forward to report trumps scheme to nsc lawyers as soon as they learned of it, didnt they, mr. Goldman . Morrison and vindman went to the lawyers as soon as they learned it, yes. That moved me a lot because my father was a staffer on the National Security council under president kennedy and he said the most important thing you can bring to work with you every day is your conscience. He devoted his career to the idea that people must speak truth to power when power becomes a clear and present danger to democracy and to the people. So i want to talk about two of the many honorable government witnesses who went under oath and stood up for the truth. Mr. Goldman, who is dr. Fiona hill. She was the senior director for the europe and russia directorate at the National Security council until july of this year. And she was President Trumps Senior Advise
Do you recall mr. Morrisons reaction . Mr. Morrison said that he was shocked, i think, and that sinking feeling . Sinking feeling, correct, and then he went and talked to the lawyers at the direction of ambassador bolton. Correct. And mr. Goldman, ambassador taylor also testified that he concluded that the military aid was conditioned on zelensky announcing the investigations and he testified that this was illogic illogical, crazy and wrong, is that right . Thats what ambassador taylor testified to, yes. My colleagues have also pointed out that on september 9 a text message from sondland reflecting that the president has been Crystal Clear that there is no quid pro quo. Mr. Goldman, am i correct that ambassador sondland has now testified that prior to sending his texts, he himself came too believe th believe that the aid was conditioned on the announcement of investigations . Yes. Ambassador sondlands subsequent public testimony revealed at least two things that were precisely false, t
[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] we recessed about to hear from mr. Castor, you are recognized for 45 minutes. Good afternoon chairman and Ranking Member collins, members of the committee and the staff, thank you again for having meto back. And giving me the opportunity to testify about the evidence gathered during the impeachment inquiry. At the outset let me say the evidence does not support the allegations that my democrat colleagues have made. I dont believe the evidence leads to the inclusion they suggest. I am hopeful that some important perspective and context to the facts under discussion today. The chief obligation as a Democrat Impeachment inquiry is trying to assess over the last 76 days is this, whether President Trump abuse the power da his office through quid pro quo, bribery, extortion or whatever by withholding a meeting or Security Assistance as a way of pressuring president zelensky to pressure the
The committee will reconvene. When we recessed we were about to hear from mr. Castor. Mr. Castor, youre recognized for 45 minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for having me back, giving me the opportunity to testify about the evidence gathered during our impeachment inquiry. At the outset let me say the evidence does not support the allegations that my democrat colleagues have made. And i dont believe the evidence leads to the conclusions they suggest. Im hopeful to add some important perspective and context to the facts under discussion today. The chief allegation that the impeachment inquiry has been trying to assess over the last 66 days is this whether President Trump abused the power of his office through quid pro quo, extortion or whatever, by withholding a meeting or Security Assistance as a way of pressuring ukrainian president zelensky to investigate the president s political rival, former vp biden, for the president s political benefit in the upcoming election. The sec
You very much mister chairman that the Ranking Member Mister Collins relative to the Telephone Company subpoenas to include certain information in the majority report from the Intelligence Community. There are two issues involved in one is not involved in word it is fully authorized under the law and procedures but where i do have a problem is ace fact that somebody made a decision to attach the metadata to the subpoena of phone numbers of journalists and members of congress that is the beginning of the absolutely outrageous with the freedom act of 2013. Had chairman schiff decided to man up rather than hiding behind Mister Goldman and his team of investigators we couldve gotten to the bottom of this to make sure that this never happens again. I do not want to see members of congress with their subpoena power without any type of cause and then to go the next step to publish the results in a report that is an abuse of power here we see a clear abuse of power on the part of the people th