Were it not for WH obstruction, we'd already have confirmation of Sondland's "you'll get a WH meeting in exchange for investigations" statement in a June '19 WH mtg w/ Ukrainians (denied by Sondland but testified to by Hill today).
Hill says it came near the end of the mtg, which Bolton was trying to wrap up b/c Ukrainians were raising the issue of scheduling Zelensky's WH visit and Bolton had nothing to tell them. Bolton wanted to duck, and said he had to leave for another meeting.
Hill says it was then that Sondman jumped in to say that there was already an "agreement" (apparently among Sondman, Mulvaney and Yermak) that Zelensky would get his visit if and only if Zelensky made a public commitment to open investigations.
At that point, Hill says, she saw Bolton stiffen and push back from the table. The meeting ended. Back in his office, Bolton instructed Hill to go to John Eisenberg, senior NSC legal counsel, and tell him what had happened.
Specifically, Hill was instructed to tell Eisenberg that Bolton was "not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up." The 'drug deal' comment was obviously predicated on what Sondland had told the Ukrainians at the end of the meeting.
Hill testified that she did deliver that message to Eisenberg. She didn't specify the timing of her meeting w/ Eisenberg, but I presume it was as soon as possible after the mtg w/ the Ukrainians wrapped, probably same day.
Here's the evidentiary point, blocked by WH obstruction. Bolton's "drug deal" comment, conveyed to Eisenberg by Hill, obviously had a specific predicate. It would only be intelligible to Eisenberg in relation to something Sondland had just said to Ukrainians, in Bolton's presence
Eisenberg would certainly have memorialized his conversation with Hill, in which she communicated Bolton's misgivings and the 'drug deal' comment. Eisenberg has the memo in his files. It will record precisely when Hill came to see him, and what she said.
A contemporaneous record of Hill's report, to a senior WH lawyer, of Sondland's explicit reference to an "agreement" that a Zelensky WH mtg would only happen after investigations were announced will put the lie to several aspects of Sondland's testimony. END
