Trump impeachment inquiry: What 2,677 pages of testimony reveal about Trump’s Ukraine scandal
CNNCNN — To President Donald Trump, the whole flap with Ukraine is over a “perfect” phone call. Hill, who was the former top White House Russia adviser, and the National Security Council’s Ukraine expert, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, testified that the Ukrainians were told on July 10 that the White House meeting with Trump they were seeking was conditioned on opening investigations into the President’s rivals. Bill Taylor, the top US diplomat in Ukraine, testified Sondland said Trump told him “everything” – meaning the aid money and a meeting – was conditioned on Ukraine publicly announcing an investigation. In a conversation between senior State official George Kent, who was in charge of Ukraine policy, and Volker, Kent says Volker made clear to him that they would deal directly with Giuliani “because it was clear that the former mayor had influence on the President in terms of the way the president thought of Ukraine.” To Sondland, Trump was even more blunt: “He just keep saying: ‘Talk to Rudy, talk to Rudy.’” Sondland then testified that Giuliani’s demands continued to get more “insidious” from May 23 until later when he “became aware that there might be a link between the White House visit and aid to the Ukraine that was being held up when I couldn’t get a straight answer as to why the aid was being held up.” Vindman testified that the “alternative narrative” pushed by Giuliani “undermined U.S. government efforts to expand cooperation with Ukraine.” And he added that the Ukrainians were confused by Giuliani’s role and concerned that “it could be undermining the consensus policy.” “It wasn’t until that call that it became, that he was pulled into kind of an official role,” Vindman added, referring to the July call where Trump urged the Ukrainian President to work with Giuliani. “I don’t want to spend any time with that.” Trump’s attitude toward Ukraine contributed to Giuliani’s ability to have influence over US policy in Ukraine, because Trump administration officials believed they needed to convince Giuliani to sway the President.