Thread by @Teri_Kanefield

(Thread) David Holmes Deposition

Over the Cliff Notes

The deposition is here: intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/…

Holmes talked about how strange the months were leading up to Yovanovich's dismissal ⤵️

1/ They knew Giuliani was pushing for investigations into Burisma, but the embassy saw no reason to reopen the investigation.

The case had no merit, and was in the political interest of the president and not national interests.

2/ The day of Zelensky’s inauguration—literally the same day Yovanovitch was recalled—Holmes first encountered the Three Amigos (Volker, Sondland, and Perry)

They were now in charge of Ukrainian matters.

Sondland portrayed himself as the “conduit” to Trump and Mulvaney.

3/Sondland bragged about his relationship to Trump⤵️

[In June Pompeo sent Taylor, so the “official channel” had someone to take the lead.]

Holmes testified that the Ukrainians “gradually came to understand that they were being asked to do something in exchange for the meeting."

4/ Contrary to standard procedure, the embassy received no readout of the July 25 Trump-Zelensky call.

The day after the call, July 26, David Holmes, foreign service officer in Ukraine, attended meetings in Kyiv with Taylor, Volker, and Sondland and various Ukrainian officials.

5/ Holmes was the notetaker.

They met with Zelensky, who told them that during the July 25 call Trump had “three times” raised “some sensitive issues” and that he [Zelensky] would have to follow up on those issues when they met “in person.”

6/ At the time, Holmes didn’t know what these were.

After the meetings, Volker and Taylor left for a trip to the front lines.

Sondland stayed to meet Yermak (Zelensky’s top aide).

When Holmes arrived at the office where Sondland was meeting Yermak, a staff member. . .

7/ . . . refused to allow him to enter the room. Sondland and Yermak insisted that the meeting be “one to one.”

Holmes waited with a few others in the anteroom until the meeting ended.

After the meeting, Holmes and two staffers went to lunch with Sondland.

8/ I’ve already detailed the conversation at lunch that Holmes overheard between Sondland and Trump.

To refresh, click here and scroll down for the big block of gold. impeachment-trump.com

(We've seen his opening statement already so we that piece)

9/ When Holmes realized the call was significant, he took out his phone so he could take notes, but the conversation went so quickly he was only able to jot down a few notes toward the end.

10/ When he arrived at the embassy, he briefed several people on the call. He passed along the few notes he took.

He said the call “was confirming things that many people suspected.”

11/ Holmes was surprised that he made the call on his cell phone.

They generally assume cell phones are monitored by the Russians.

Remember that Fiona Hill called Sondland a national security nightmare, and she didn't even know about this.

12/ I would not want to be Sondland right now.

Some interesting tidbits:

As soon as Holmes finished his opening statement, which contained much that was🔥, Rep. Meadows said material was classified (meaning that it shouldn't be made public.)

13/ Schiff said nope, none is classified. In other words, it will be made public.

What change is here?Wasn’t Meadows complaining about how the Democrats were conducting a secret inquiry?

Rep. Zeldin (R) then asked a very strange question⤵️

14/ I assume the point of that question was that the picture not being hung meant the embassy wasn’t sufficiently loyal to Trump.

Like, um, the people who work in the Embassy are the Deep State?

15/ We also get a hint (no hard evidence, just a hint, something Holmes "heard") that he suspects Perry was concerned with the interests of a Texas oil company.

16/ I meant to attach this screenshot to Tweet 2 about how the embassy saw no reason to look into Burisma.

Holmes also testified that the only specific investigation mentioned was the Burisma investigation.

17/ Zeldin also tried the "Giuliani was simply advancing the interests of his personal client, Trump, so what's the problem" defense.

Holmes explained that actually, the Ukrainians viewed Giuliani as an important representative of US interests.