[indistinct conversations] shuttering] [indistinct conversations] the committee will come to order. This is the third in a series of public hearings that the committee will be holding as part of the house of representatives impeachment inquiry. The chair is authorized to declare a recess of the committee at any time. We will proceed today in the same fashion as our first hearing. Ill make an Opening Statement and Ranking Member nunez will have the opportunity to make a statement. Well turn to the witnesses for their Opening Statements and questions. For audience members, we welcome you. We ask for your respect as we proceed with todays hearing. It is the intention of the committee rep. Schiff this meeting will come to order. Good morning everyone. This is the third in a series of public hearings the committee will be holding as part of the house of representatives impeachment inquiry. Without objection the chair is authorized to play recess of the committee at any time that there is a quorum present. Recognize myself to give an Opening Statement in the impeachment inquiry into donald j. Trump. Last week we heard from three experienced diplomats who testified about President Trumps scheme to condition official acts, a white house meeting and hundreds of millions of dollars of u. S. Military aid to fight the russians on a deliverable by the new ukrainian president zelensky. One involved a Conspiracy Theory that ukraine, not russia was responsible for interfering in our 2016 election. As ambassador sondland would say after speaking to the president , trump did not give a he used an expletive, about ukraine. He cares about big stuff that benefits the president , like the biden investigation that giuliani was pushing. To press a foreign leader to announce an investigation into his political rival, President Trump put his own personal and political interests above those of the nation. He undermined our military and diplomatic support for a key ally and undercut u. S. Anticorruption efforts in ukraine. How could our diplomats urge ukraine to refrain from political investigations of its own citizens if the president of the United States was urging ukraine to engage in precisely the same kind of political investigations of one of your own citizens. At the white house, career professionals became concerned that President Trump through an irregular channel that involved his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, Gordon Sondland and Rudy Giuliani was pushing a policy at odds with the national interest. This morning we hear from two of the National Security professionals who became aware of those efforts. Lieutenant colonel alex vindman whose family fled oppression when he was a toddler is a career army officer, an iraq war veteran, who was awarded a purple heart and an expert in russia and ukraine who has worked at the highest levels of the pentagon. In july 2018, he was detail today the white house to coordinate policy on ukraine. Jennifer williams is a Career Foreign Service officer who is detailed to the office of the Vice President and responsible for europe and eurasia related issues. Following the phone call with president zelensky, President Trump asked Vice President pence to represent him at the inauguration. Ms. Williams was working on the logistics of the trip. Pence would be a coveted attendee and wof sent an important signal of support to the new president. Rudy giuliani has been planning to go to ukraine to pursue the president s interest but had to call off the trip after it became public. Among others, giuliani blamed people around zelensky for having to cancel. Three days later, the Vice President was called off of the inauguration. Senator ron johnson and Lieutenant Colonel vindman would also attend. After returning from the inauguration, several members of the delegation briefed President Trump on their interactions with zelensky. Trump criticized ukraine and instructed them to work with rudy. A few weeks later, on july 10th, ambassador sondland met at the white house with a group of officials including colonel vindman and informed the group that the white house meeting sought by the ukrainian president with trump, what happened if ukraine undertook certain investigations. Bolton ended the meeting and said afterwards that he would not be part of whatever drug deal sondland and mulvaney are cooking up on this. Sondland brought the ukrainian delegation downstairs to another part of the white house and was more explicit according to witnesses. Ukraine needed to investigate the bidens or burisma if they were to get a white house meeting with trump. After this discussion, he went to the National Security councils top lawyer to report the matter. Vindman was told to return in the future with any concerns. A week later, on july 18th, the representative of the office of management and budget announced on a Video Conference call that mulvaney was freezing nearly 400 million in military assistance to ukraine which was appropriated by congress and enjoyed the support of the entirety of the u. S. National security establishment. One week after that, trump would have the now infamous july 25th phone call with zelensky. During that call, trump complained that the relationship had not been reciprocal. Later zelensky thanks trump for his area of defense and said he was ready to purchase more weapons. Trumps immediate response, i would like you to do us a favor, though. Trump then requested that zelensky investigate the 2016 Conspiracy Theory and look into the bidens. Neither was part of the official prep te preparetory information for the call. Sondland and others have been pressing ukraine for weeks about investigations into the 2016 election, burisma and the bidens. Both colonel vindman and ms. Williams were on the call. Due to ukraines dependency on the u. S. , the favor was really a demand. After the call, multiple individuals including vindman were concerned enough to report it to the National Security councils top lawyer. It was the second time in two weeks that vindman has relayed concerns. The otherwise inexplicable hold on u. S. Military assistance to ukraine. Both colonel vindman and ms. Williams took note of the word of burisma, left out of the record of the call now locked away on a secure server. They believed that zelensky must have been prepped on the call, a fact that other witnesses have confirmed. In the weeks that followed the july 25th call, colonel vindman continued to push for a release of the military aid to ukraine and struggled to learn why it was being withheld. Word of the hold has reached ukrainian officials prior to its becoming public. By mid august, the Ukrainian Deputy ambassador asked vindman why the United States was with holding the aid. Vindman didnt have an answer, sondland made it explicit to ukrainians at a meeting. They needed to commit to these investigations if they hoped to get the aid. Ms. Williams, we all saw the president s tweet about you on sunday afternoon and the insults he hurled at ambassador yovanovitch last friday. You are here today and the American People are grateful. Certainly vindman we have seen attacks on your character and watched how certainly personalities have questioned your loyalty. You have shed blood for america and we owe you an immense debt of gratitude. I hope no one on this committee will become part of those attacks. Todays witnesses, like those who testified last week are hear because they were subpoenaed to appear not because they are for or against impeachment. That question is for congress not the fact witnesses. If the president abused this power and invited foreign interference in our elections, if he sought to condition, coerce, extort or bribe an ally into conducting investigations, to aid his reelection campaign, the white house meeting or hundreds of millions of dollars of needed aid, it will be up to us to decide whether those acts are compatible with the office of the presidency. I now recognize Ranking Member nunez. I would like to address a few brief words to the American People watching at home. If you watch the impeachment hearings last week, you may have noticed a disconnect between what you actually saw and the Mainstream Media accounts describing it. When you saw three diplomats who disliked President Trumps ukraine policy, discussing secondhand and thirdhand conversations about their objections with the trump policy. Meanwhile, they admitted they had not talked to the president about these matters. They were unable to identify any crime or Impeachable Offense the president committed. What you read were accounts of shocking testimony that fully supports the democrats accusations. If these accounts have a familiar ring, this is the same reporting the media offered for three years on the russian hoax. It was reported on the newest bombshell revelations showing that President Trump and everyone surrounding him were russian agents. It really wasnt long ago that we were reading these headlines from cnn, Congress Investigating russian Investment Funds with ties to trump officials. This was false. New york times, Trump Campaign aids had contacts with russian operatives. Also false. New york magazine, will trump be meeting with his counterpart or his handler. This was false. The guardian, manafort held secret talks with assange. Also false. Buzzfeed, President Trump directed his attorney to lie to congress about the moscow tower project. All of these were false. Ju with their misreporting on the russian hoax, the media lost confidence and because they refused to acknowledge how badly they botched the story, theyve learned no lessons and expect americans will believe them as they try to stoke yet another partisan frenzy. In previous hearings ive outlined three questions the democrats and the media dont want asked or answers. The media are trying to smother and dismiss them. Those questions start with what is the full extent of the democrats prior coordination with the whistleblower and who else did the whistleblower coordinate this effort with . The media have fully accepted the democrats stunning reversal on the need for the whistleblower to testify to this testimony. The democrats were insisting on his testimony, the media wanted it too. But things have changed since it became clear the whistleblower would have to answer problematic questions that include these, what was the full extent of the whistleblowers prior coordination with chairman schiff, his staff and any other people he cooperated with while preparing the complaint . What are the whistleblowers political biases and connections to democratic politicians . How does the whistleblower explain the inaccuracies in the complaint . What contact did the whistleblower have with the media which appears to be ongoing . What are the sources of the whistleblowers information, what else did he talk to, and was the whistleblower prohibited by law for relaying any of that information . The media have joined the democrats in dismissing the importance of cross examining this crucial witness now that the whistleblower has successfully kick started impeachment, hes disappeared from the story as if the democrats put the whistleblower in their own witness protection program. My second question, what was the full extent of ukraines election meddling against the Trump Campaign . In these depositions and hearings, republicans have cited numerous indications of ukraine meddling in the 2016 elections to oppose the Trump Campaign. Many of these instances were reported, including the posting of many primary source documents by veteran investigate journalist john sullivan. Since the democrats switched from russia to ukraine for their impeachment crusade, sullivan is reporting on burisma, hunter biden has become inconvenient for the narrative and so the media is smearing and liabling sullivan. The publication of the hill told staff yesterday it would conduct a review of the ukraine reporting. Coincidentally, the decision comes three days after a democrat on this Committee Told a writer that she would stop speaking to the hill it had run solmans stories. Now that the reporting is a problem for the democrats, its a problem for the media as well. I would like to submit for the record, John Solomons october 31st story about biden and election interference. I encourage viewers today to read this story and draw your own conclusions about the evidence solomon has gathered. Ask unanimous consent that we put this into the record, mr. Chair. Without objection. The campaign by the media to discredit and disown some of their own colleagues is shocking. We see it again in the sudden denunciations of New York Times reporter ken vocal as a Conspiracy Theoryist after he covered similar issues. My third question, why did burisma hire hunter biden, what did he do for them, and did it affect any actions under the obama administration. We have now heard testimony from the democrats own witnesses that diplomats were concerned about a conflict of interest involving hunter biden. Thats because he had secured a wellpaid position despite having no qualifications on the board of a corrupt Ukrainian Company while his father was Vice President , charged with overseeing ukrainian issues. After trying out several different accusations against President Trump, the democrats have recently settled on bribery. According to widespread reports, they replaced their quid pro quo allegation because it wasnt polling well. But if the democrats in the media are suddenly so deeply concerned about bribery, you would think they would take some interest in burisma paying hunter biden 83,000 a month. And you think they would be interested in joe biden threatening to with hold u. S. Loan guarantees unless the ukrainians fired a prosecutor who was investigating burisma. That would be a textbook example of bribery. The media of course are free to act as democrat puppets and theyre free to lurch from the russia hoax to the ukraine hoax at the direction of their puppet masters, but they cannot expect to do so without alienating half the country who voted for the president theyre trying to expel. Americans have learned to recognize fake news when they see it and if the Mainstream Press wont give it to them straight, theyll go elsewhere to find it. Which is exactly what the American People are doing. That i yield back. I thank the gentleman. Today we are joined by Lieutenant Colonel vindman and jennifer williams. Vindman is an active duty officer, serving in south korea, germany and iraq. He was deployed to iraq at a time of heavy fighting and was awarded a purple heart after being wounded by a roadside bomb. Since 2008, colonel vindman has served as an officer specializing in eurasia, serving both at home and in u. S. Embassies in ukraine and russia. He has served as a military Affairs Office for russia for the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. He joined the Trump Administration in july 2018 when he was asked to serve on the National Security council. Jennifer williams began her career in Government Service in 2005 shortly after graduating from college when she joined the department of Homeland Security during the george w. Bush administration and after working as a field representative on the 2004 bushchaney president ial campaign. She joined the Foreign Service the following year. Prior to joining the office of the Vice President , she served as the u. S. Embassy in london as a public Affairs Officer. In april 2019, ms. Williams was detailed to the office of the Vice President , mike pence, where she serves as a special adviser on his Foreign Policy team covering europe and russia issues. In that capacity, she keeps the Vice President aware of Foreign Policy issues in europe and russia and prepares him for Foreign Policy engagements and meetings with foreign leaders. Two final points, first witness depositions as part of this inquiry were unclassified in nature and all open hearings will also be held at the unclassified level. Any information that may touch on classified information will be addressed separately. Second, congress will not tolerate any reprisal, threat of reprisal or attempt to retaliate against any Government Official before testifying before congress. If you both please rise and r