Thread by @RepMarkMeadows

The House Democrats' impeachment report is 300 pages of nonsense, with far too many problems to address individually. But let's go over a few of them...

1) Up front, Democrats released this report to the public around 2:00pm. Again, it's 300 pages. They're having the full Intelligence Committee vote on the report the same day... just a few hours later. Should be an automatic red flag.

2) Democrats claim @realDonaldTrump "demanded" Ukraine investigations. They build their case on this using Alexander Vindman, who said he interpreted the call this way too.

The "demand" characterization is ridiculous, for many reasons. @RepChrisStewart lays out a few.

Additionally, Tim Morrison, Vindman's SUPERIOR, testified and directly undermined Vindman's interpretation. Morrison says there was NO "demand" at all.

In fact, Vindman actually undermined his *own* claim. Note page 256 of his deposition, where he gets pressed on whether Trump "demanded" anything:

Vindman eventually admits: "I guess you can interpret it in different ways."

Trump didn't demand anything.

3) Democrats rely enormously on Gordon Sondland. His name appears over 600 times (!) in their report.

FLASHBACK: When Gordon Sondland was asked if he had any evidence @realDonaldTrump tied aid to investigations, Sondland said no—"other than my own presumption."

So again, for the entire reason we're here—the accusation that President Trump tied aid and political investigations—Gordon Sondland, one of the Democrats' most featured witnesses (cited 600+ times), admits he has no evidence of it.

That is stunning.

4) But it wasn't just Sondland. No Democrat witness brought any firsthand knowledge of Trump decisions. Taylor, Kent, Yovanovitch, Vindman, Hill, etc. None. Not one could provide any firsthand information of Trump tying aid to political investigations.

5) Ambassador Volker shredded the Democrats' case, and they ignored it. Remember: Volker said @realDonaldTrump never told him of an aid/political investigations link, and Ukraine never mentioned it either.

Mind you, Volker actually spoke to POTUS. He had firsthand knowledge.

Tim Morrison confirmed Volker's account.

In other words, these Democrat-led impeachment hearings were one career bureaucrat after another saying (without evidence) they "believed" there was a political quid pro quo - while officials in the room say it never happened.

6) Between July 18 (when aid got paused) and Sept 11 (when aid was released), there were 5 interactions between President Zelensky and U.S. officials.

A link between aid/investigations was discussed in ZERO of those interactions. 0/5. The Democrat report virtually ignores this.

Here are those 5 interactions, if you're curious.

7/25: Trump/Zelensky phone call
7/26: Volker & Taylor meet Zelensky
8/27: Bolton meets Zelensky
9/1: VP Pence meets Zelensky
9/5: Sens. Johnson, Murphy meet Zelensky

Not *one time* was an aid/investigation link discussed.

To recap:

A) There was no "demand"

B) No Democrat witness had any firsthand evidence of an aid/political investigations link

C) Multiple witnesses who spoke to POTUS say: there was no political link

D) A political link didn't come up once in FIVE U.S.-Zelensky interactions.

Bottom line: Democrats can write what they want, but they can't provide any serious evidence supporting this latest conspiracy theory. And they know it.

This Democrat impeachment effort is (and will continue to be) baseless and nakedly partisan.

Americans will see through it.