Thread by @MiriamElder

Here is Fiona Hill’s testimony (sorry if the link is already dead, I don’t know why that happens so soon after they post it!) docs.house.gov/meetings/IG/IG…

Hill says she became aware in Jan/March 2019 of Giuliani’s interest in Ukraine through Solomon’s articles in The Hill and says she’s never met Giuliani

Hill says she tried to find out what Giuliani was up to and “most of the people I spoke to thought it was related to personal business on his part”

Hill calls the recall of Yovanovitch “a real turning point” for everyone who worked on Ukraine. She’s really coming out swinging.

Hill says the first year at NSC was filled with “hateful calls, conspiracy theories” and that it’s started again with her involvement in the impeachment inquiry

Hill says she also got death threats; calls Yovanovitch the target of an anti-Semitic George Soros conspiracy theory

The tyranny of tweets strikes again

Hill says Bolton told her “Rudy Giuliani is a hand grenade that is going to blow everybody up” and says his reaction to Yovanovitch’s removal was “pained”

Fill highlights Yovanovitch’s professionalism, and points to the fact that she was one of the few women at such a high level

Sounds like no one officially informed Hill, or the NSC more broadly, that Trump had tasked Volker and Sondland with talking to Giuliani in order to move ahead on all things Ukraine.

Hill says Amos Hochstein, former Obama energy envoy, came to talk to her over fears of pressure on Naftogaz, the Ukrainian gas company, and that’s when she first heard Burisma and that she had forgotten what it was

Fiona Hill is now basically describing Gordon Sondland manspreading over Ukraine, and says he would give all sorts of people her personal telephone number?? Rude!

Hill says she had serious counterintelligence concerns about Sondland and told him so

🔥🔥🔥

They mis-transcribed Surkov as Sokov :/

No fireworks when she describes why she left the administration

Asked if she supported the president, Hill says she was “agnostic.” (Questioning refers to before she joined the admin.)

Lol Hill offers up that she is not Anonymous

Also, FYI, she is not writing a book! (Yet?)

Hill says she was snorkeling at the time of the July 25 call (on a post-leaving-the-admin vacation)

*sorry, she took vacation ahead of technically having her last day in the admin.

Sondland passed on a message that he was glad Hill was leaving

On her last day (Sept 3), Hill says she knew something was up but not that it related to the July 25 call, and that counsel had instructed them to keep all notes related to Ukraine

Hill again seems really concerned about rumors that have spread about her. “I’m on YouTube. I’m, you know, on the internet.”

Pretty cool when you can’t trust an ambassador to tell the truth

It feels like Hill has been waiting a long time to go off on Sondland (who sounds like an… unideal colleague)

Hill says she warned both George Kent and Bill Taylor before leaving the NSC

Hill, speaking again about the July 10 meeting that prompted Bolton to direct her to go to John Eisenberg, says his drug deal comment referred to Sonland and Mulvaney

Mick “Get Over It” Mulvaney

Hill’s complaint to Eisenberg also involved Mulvaney

A lot of Hill’s anger is about where Sondland spoke with the Ukrainians on July 10 — more intel concerns. Here’s one example.

I am HERE for Hill complaining about Sondland’s bad phone behavior!!! “We kept telling him over and over again, please do not text us."

First mention of Dmytro Firtash in these transcripts 👀 But in the context of the history of corruption in Ukraine’s energy sector.

Here is vividly describing Sondland bigfooting Bolton on setting up a Trump-Zelensky meeting, and the Ukrainians’ reaction

What’s emerged from all these testimonies is that there were actually two apparent quid pro quos — that they had to open these investigations to both a) get a meeting with Trump and b) get the aid delivery.

Hill was the one who informed Taylor of Sondland’s role in Ukraine, he had no idea as he was taking up the post

GOP side asks Hill if she knew which “investigations” Sondland was talking about and while most others have equivocated, she says “Burisma” and they quickly move on.

And here is Hill with an informed analysis of the badly framed Politico article (cc Bill Taylor, who had not read it before giving his testimony and went off what others told him about it)

Kind of a side note but here’s Hill’s analysis of the Mueller probe which is interesting

Her answers to questions about the Black Ledger and Manafort are 🔥

This is someone who has spent a career dealing with Russian misinformation tactics and clearly knows how not to get sucked in.

She always brings it back to Russia 🔥

It’s …. BuzzFeed capital F

Hill says Sondland told her that Trump told him to be his point man on Europe (vs, you know, the EU). Also, you’ll be shocked to learn, he did a lot of name dropping.

Lol he would lie about seeing the president?

Hill watching Giuliani on TV is relatable

Hill is clearly well read on all the conspiracy theories out there (here: the Atlantic Council) and pre-empts them

Asked why she told Volker he shouldn’t meet with Giuliani, Hill goes with: “look, I’m not a psychologist.”

More pointing at Mulvaney

Hill says they “spent a lot of time” in Trump’s first term trying convince him the Ukraine meddling/Crowdstrike theory was false

Ugh so many typos in this thread (I apparently called Fiona Hill “Fill” in one?), sorry.

Hill says she was “shocked” by the transcript of the July 25 call, “I sat in an awful lot of calls, and I have not seen anything like this.”

Hill again says she doubts how often Sondland actually saw Trump but says she knows he was meeting Mulvaney regularly

What is happening here 👀

Hill testifies that Rick Perry wasn’t in on it (at least in this one meeting)

More on Hill’s counterintel fears over Sondland, and how he would just, like, tell random foreign officials to show up at the WH

Kind of a tangent but Hill says she thinks the “DO NOT CONGRATULATE” Putin note was leaked with the intent of getting McMaster fired and says they never intended for Trump to follow the “DO NOT CONGRATULATE” directive anyway??

“DO NOT CONGRATULATE”-gate feels like it happened at least two billion years ago.

Hill says it makes no sense that the call transcript was put into that classified system

Also, sidenote, but this is prob not great!

Also, sidenote/throwback, Hill knew of Konstantin Kilimnik back in the 90s

Is Trump, just like, informally reassigning roles all the time? Here he is using Kash Patel as NSC Ukraine director when in fact it was Alex Vindman

Hill flagged her concerns about Yovanovitch’s recall to a Mulvaney aide and to Keith Kellogg

Ken Vogel blocked me the other day so he prob won’t see this but maybe someone will show it to him.

Anyway

Congratulations to Fiona Hill for getting the first curse (does ass still count as a curse?) into testimony

“We found disparaging remarks made by pretty much every world leader and official at different points about the president” 😬

This is the point Fiona Hill constantly raises when GOP ask her about Ukraine meddling conspiracy theories — keep your eye on Russia for 2020

A testy moment when Hill is laughed at for mentioning being targeted by anti-Soros conspiracy theories, Alex Jones, and Roger Stone

To those wondering, no, I also don’t think this testimony will ever end and I will be reading it forever.

Hill flashing her credentials at Jim Jordan is a mood 🔥

NSC didn’t have Sondland as part of their delegation to Zelensky’s inauguration — Mulvaney’s office added him