That ambassador saw and had raised before about investigating the bidens right or did and i want to ask you when you heard him say that was the 1st thought that went through your mind frankly i couldnt believe what i was hearing it was probably an element of shock. Joins us now from capitol hill in washington as it were the main points that emerged from these particular witnesses. Or not only did we hear from then then about his concern regarding the phone call but we also learned that he had attended a white house meeting in which aides to ukraines president were visiting the white house prior to this call and they were told explicitly by trumps own aides that there was a quid pro quo that in exchange for a meeting between saloons in trouble in person at the white house that ukraine would have to deliver the investigations into joe biden the other witness we saw on the stand this morning with Jennifer Williams she works with the Vice President s office and she had information on what
Know the identity of the whistleblower and did not fear for retaliation for his testimony lets continue to listen in to these key witnesses in the impeachment hearings on day 32019 in conversations with me following that meeting which i did not attend mr giuliani said that he had stressed the importance of ukraine conducting investigations into what happened in the past and mr year mark stressed that he told mr giuliani it is the Governments Program to root out corruption and implement reforms and they would be conducting investigations as part of this process anyway mr giuliani said he believe ukrainian president needed to make a statement about fighting corruption and that he had discussed this with mr year mark i said i did not think that this would be a problem since that is the governments position anyway i followed up with mr your mom and he said that they would indeed be prepared to make a statement. He said it would reference. And 2016 in a wider context of bilateral relations
Chairman reserves the right to call recess. make an Opening Statement and representative nunes will make an Opening Statement and well turn to the witness for Opening Statement and then to questions. For audience members we welcome you and respect your interest in being here. In turn, we ask for your respect as we proceed with todays hearing. It is the intention of the committee to proceed without disruptions. As chairman ill take all necessary and appropriate steps to maintain order to ensure that 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 april, 2019 the United States ambassador to ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was in kiev when she was called by a Senior State Department official and told to get on the next plane back to washington. Upon her return to d. C. She was informed by her superiors that altho
Concerns and if im forgetting one, please remind me, but the two concerns i had, was one i did not see representatives of sc legal on the call and i wanted to make sure that the Legal Adviser and his deputy were aware of the call and i was also concerned about taking steps to protect the memcon limited disclosure for fear of the consequences of it leaking. And you were concerned about it leaking because you were worried about how it would play out in washingtons polarized political environment, correct . Yes. And you were also worried how that would lead to the bipartisan support here in congress of towards ukraine, right . Yes. And you were also concerned that it might affect the ukrainians perception negatively. Yes. And in fact all three of those things have played out. Havent they . Yes. You didnt ask the lawyers to put her on the code word system, correct . I want to be precise about the lexicon here. I did not ask for it to be moved to a compartmented system. Okay. You just wante
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