Thread by @AdrianMorrow

The last day of impeachment testimony (for now) is about to start. Up today are former NSC staffer Fiona Hill and David Holmes, the diplomat who overheard Trump and Sondland talking about investigations in a Kyiv restaurant.

Livestream it here theglobeandmail.com/world/us-polit…

David Holmes says that in March, work at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv suddenly became "overshadowed by a political agenda promoted by" Rudy Giuliani and other people with a direct line to the White House

Holmes outlines the smear campaign run against then-U.S. ambassador Marie Yovanovitch by Yuriy Lutsenko, a Ukrainian prosecutor who was upset that Yovanovitch had pressed him for failing to crack down on corruption

Holmes says Gordon Sondland, despite not having Ukraine in his portfolio, Rick Perry and Kurt Volker took over Ukraine policy and called themselves "the three amigos"

Despite Sondland also being an interloper on the Ukraine file, Holmes says Sondland wasn't thrilled with Giuliani's involved. "Damn it Rudy," Holmes quotes Sondland as saying. "Every time Rudy gets involved he goes and effs everything up"

Holmes says in June Sondland told Bill Taylor that for Zelensky to get a meeting with Trump he would have to make clear he was "not standing in the way" of investigations into Burisma and the 2016 election

Holmes says the U.S. embassy in Kyiv was never given a summary of Trump's call with Zelensky on July 26, when Trump told Ukraine to investigate Biden and 2016 conspiracy theories

Holmes says he was excluded from a July 26 meeting between Sondland and Yermak, Zelensky's top aide. Sondland apparently did not want a note-taker in the meeting

Holmes describes the Sondland/Trump call on the terrace of a Kyiv restaurant. He says Trump's voice was "loud and recognisable" over Sondland's mobile -- so loud that Sondland had to hold the phone away from his ear

Holmes says Sondland told Trump "President Zelensky loves your ass"
"So he's going to do the investigation?" Trump replied, Holmes says
"He's going to do it. President Zelensky is going to do everything you want him to do," Holmes says Sondland told Trump

After that, Holmes says, Sondland told Trump that A$AP Rocky was "kind of effed there" and that Trump should "let him get sentenced, play the racism card give him a ticker tape when he got home...you can tell the Kardashians you tried"

Holmes says he subsequently asked Sondland whether Trump cared about Ukraine. Sondland said Trump only cared about "big stuff." Holmes said he told Sondland "there was big stuff going on in Ukraine, like a war with Russia"

Holmes says Sondland told him Trump only cared about "big stuff that benefits the President -- like the Biden investigation"

Telling detail from both today's and yesterday's testimony: Trump's people appeared less interested in Ukraine actually doing an investigation into Biden, and more interested in Zelensky *announcing* the investigation on CNN. The goal was to put Biden under a cloud

Holmes says Ukraine's example of transitioning to democracy is an inspiration "from Moscow to Hong Kong," and has to be supported by the U.S.

Fiona Hill opens with a massive subtweet of Devin Nunes, who has been pushing the same conspiracy theory Trump wanted investigated, that Ukraine meddled in 2016. "This is a fictional narrative that has been propagated by the Russian security service itself," she says

Hill calls on members of the committee to not promote a "politically-driven falsehood that advances Russian interests"

Hill says Russia's goal in 2016 was to put whoever became president "under a cloud." She says the current rancor is "exactly what the Russian government was hoping for, if they seed doubt"

Under questioning from Adam Schiff, Holmes agrees Ukraine felt pressured to announce the investigation. He says that even after the military aid was released, the Ukrainians still want to please Trump because they need U.S. support against Russia. That "continues to this day"

Dan Goldman, the lawyer for committee Democrats, points to Putin promoting the Ukraine/2016 conspiracy at a press conference with Viktor Orban, and Trump meeting with Orban on the same day Pence's office was informed he wouldn't be going to Zelensky's inauguration

Hill says that she asked John Bolton if there was anything they could do about Giuliani pushing the Ukraine conspiracy. Bolton "looked pained" and indicated that he couldn't do anything. Bolton said "Rudy Giuliani was a hand grenade which was going to blow everyone up"

Goldman has both Hill and Holmes confirm that everyone knew Burisma was tied to Hunter Biden, undercutting Sondland's defence that he thought it was okay to push the Burisma investigation because he didn't know it was actually an investigation into the Bidens

Hill recounts the July 10 White House meeting where Ukraine's national security advisor asked for an Oval Office invite for Zelensky. She says Sondland "leaned in" and told them there was an agreement to trade a White House invitation for investigations

Hill says Sondland told her he had a deal with Mick Mulvaney on the meeting/investigations trade. When Hill told Bolton this, she says he told her to report it to NSC lawyers. "I am not part of whatever drug deal Mulvaney and Sondland are cooking up," Hill quotes Bolton as saying

Holmes says he, like Sondland, believed the freeze on military aid was meant to ransom the investigation. He says Ukraine would have believed that too. "When they received no explanation they would have drawn that conclusion," he says

Story: On Fiona Hill warning against conspiracy theories, John Bolton labelling the quid pro quo a "drug deal" and the Trump/Sondland restaurant call theglobeandmail.com/world/us-polit…

Nunes opens the Republican questioning by asking Hill about Christopher Steele

Steve Castor, lawyer for the Republicans on the committee, has Hill confirm that there are various reasons why foreign aid might be stopped

Hill says she was surprised when Sondland told her he was in charge in Ukraine. "Well, who put you in charge?" Hill says she asked. Sondland replied "the President." Hill says no one had previously told her this

Hill says that she had a run-in with Sondland where she pushed him on having meetings in Ukraine that the normal diplomatic channels didn't know about. Sondland said: "I'm briefing the President, I'm briefing chief of staff Mulvaney, I'm briefing Secretary Pompeo"

Hill says she now knows that Sondland was doing something completely different in Ukraine than she was. "He was being involved in a domestic political errand, and we were involved in national security policy." She told Sondland "this is all going to blow up and here we are"

Hill clarifies her concerns over Vindman. She says that he is a military man and not a politico, so she wasn't sure "how he would manage a highly charged and partisan issue, which it had not been before" in Ukraine

Jim Jordan is now shouting at Holmes that Bill Taylor has never mentioned the Trump/Sondland call. Taylor revealed the call at the inquiry last week theglobeandmail.com/world/us-polit…

It's not clear what Jordan was trying to say, but Holmes is explaining why Taylor didn't know about the call until last week. Holmes can't finish the answer because Jordan keeps interrupting to shout at him

A pretty cinematic recounting by Hill of the aftermath of the July 10 White House meeting. After leaving Bolton's office, she says, Sondland, Vindman, Volker and the Ukrainians went to the Ward Room. When Hill walked in, Vindman was talking to Sondland an "looked alarmed"

Hill says Sondland told them he had a deal with Mulvaney that Zelensky would get a White House invite if he announced investigations into 2016 election and Burisma. "This is inappropriate, we're the national security council, we can't be involved in this," Vindman told Sondland

Hill says this entire conversation happened in front of the Ukrainian officials. At one point, they were asked to wait outside -- which she says was also weird cos leaving foreign dignitaries unattended in the White House is maybe not a great idea

Mike Turner spends his entire five minutes berating Hill and Holmes without asking a question. He suggests Holmes shouldn't have revealed the Trump/Sondland call because Sondland's comments are embarrassing for Zelensky

Republican Chris Stewart says he has no questions or statements that haven't already been made. "This Impeachapalooza Tour finally comes to an end"

Elise Stefanik says "not a single Republican member of this committee has said that Russia did not meddle in the 2016 elections"

Eric Swalwell says Sondland broadly asking Trump what he wanted on Ukraine and Trump saying "there's no quid pro quo" is "like being pulled over for speeding..and saying 'I didn't rob the bank'"

Strange dynamic today: GOP inadvertently solicited Hill and Holmes's most pointed lines. While being berated by Jordan, Holmes revealed everyone in the embassy knew Trump wanted Biden investigated and there was a quid pro quo. "It was obvious what the President was pressing for"

...and Hill's line about Sondland "being involved in a domestic political errand" that he was briefing Trump, Mulvaney and Pompeo on, came during questioning from Steve Castor

Mike Conaway, pushing Holmes on why he disclosed Sondland's conversation, says Sondland has "no expectation of privacy, he's blustering around"

Maloney asks Hill if it's believable that Sondland didn't realise that Trump wanted an investigation of Joe Biden because he didn't know what Burisma was. "It's not credible to me at all that he was oblivious," Hill says

Hill outlines the stakes for the U.S. in being unreliable on military aid to its allies. "Putin is always looking out to see if there is any hint that we will not follow through on promises that we have made, because he will always follow through on a threat"

In his closing statement, Nunes says the impeachment inquiry is "a show trial" and "the verdict was decided before the trial ever began"

Nunes also laments that the new NAFTA/USMCA might not be ratified this year. He says that's because the House is too busy with impeachment. USMCA hasn't been ratified because the Dems and Lighthizer haven't reached a deal yet on changes the Dems want to the deal

In his closing, Schiff says the Republicans have tried to "attack" witnesses but haven't refuted any of their actual evidence

Schiff says Trump's "no quid pro quo" line to Sondland "is the 'I'm not a crook' defence." He says Trump ransoming military aid to Ukraine is much worse than the "third-rate burglary" at the centre of the Watergate scandal

Schiff closes by pointing out Trump called Zelensky about the investigations just one day after Mueller testified. "This President believes he is above the law, beyond accountability...I would just say to people watching...'We are better than that'" *bangs gavel* "Adjourned!"