Earlier today the House Intelligence Committee held its third hearing against President Trump hurco lawmakers heard testimony from lt. Col. Vindman, National SecurityCouncil Director for europe at Jennifer Williams russia and europe advisor to Vice President pentz. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] the committee will come to order good morning everyone this is the third in a series of public hearings will be holding as a part of the impeachment inquiry prick without objection the chairs authorized to declare recess at any time for there is a quorum present well proceed in the sameze fashion as in the first hearing of will make a statement and then we will turn to our witnesses for their Opening Statements and then two questions prick audience members we respect you and your interest to be here we asked for your respect t as we proceed with todays hearing is the intention to proceed without disruption as chairman ill take all necessary and appropriate steps to maintain order to make sure it is run in accordance with house rules revelation one resolution 660 iraq myself an Opening Statement into the emperor at one impeachment inquiry into the 45th president of United States donald j tropical last week we heard from experienced diplomats testifying about the president scheming over official acts over hundreds of millions of dollars of us military aid made undeliverable by the new ukrainian president to politically motivated that that would help his Reelection Campaign one involved the biden the other the discredited Conspiracy Theory that that they were is responsible for interfering or 2016 elections. As david holmes was told immediately after speaking to the President Trump did not give a expletive aboutaf ukraine. Its only the big stuff that benefits the president like the biden investigation that giuliani was pushing. For a foreign leader to invest dash announce the investigation the president announced his own personal interest above those of the nation he undermined military and diplomatic support for a keyum ally and undercut anticorruption efforts in ukraine how could diplomats urge ukraine from refraining from political investigations from its own citizens if the president engaged to engage in precisely the same investigations of one of our own citizens. At the white house career professionals became concerned that President Trump with the chief of staff Nick Mulvaney and Rudy Giuliani pushing a policy that was at odds with National Interest. This morning we hear from two National Security professionals that were aware of those efforts. Lt. Col. Vindman whose family fled oppression in the soviet union as a toddler a career army officer and iraq war veteran awarded a purple heart and jul july 2018 detailed to the white house to coordinatee policy with ukraine. Jennifer williams is a Career Foreign Service officer detailed to the office of the Vice President responsible for europe and eurasia related issues following the phone call with president zelensky on april 21st, the president asked t 14 to represent him at the upcoming inauguration. And he would be a coveted attendee second in significance only to the president and would send an important signal ofki support to the new ukrainian president. In early may Rudy Giuliani was planning to go to ukraine to have the bidens investigated but it had to be called off aftero became public he blamed people around president cancely for having to and saying they were antagonistic three days later the president called off the Vice President s attendance at the inauguration progressed at a lower level delegation was named as ambassadors or call the three amigos but lt. Col. Vindman would also attend freckle after returning from the inauguration several members of the inauguration briefed the president on their interactions with president zelensky and urged him to meet with ukrainian president but instead he criticized ukraine and instructed them work with rudy. A few weeks later on in july 10h meeting at those officials including lt. Col. Vindman according to chief of staff mulvaney that the meeting would happen if ukraine undertook certain investigations National Security advisor bolton abruptly ended the meeting and said he would not be part of whatever drug deal they are cooking up. And deterred bringing the ukrainian delegation downstairs to the part of the white house and was more explicit accordingh to witnesses to investigate the bidens if they would get a white house meeting with trump after this discussion going to the National Security council top lawyer to report the matter he was told to return in the future with any concerns and soon find the need to do so. One week later july 18 omb announced on a Video Conference callk that mulvaney at trumps direction was freezing nearly 400 million and military assistance to ukraine to enjoy the support of the entirety of the National Security establishment. One week aftererto that trump would now have the infamous phone call with president zelensky. During that call he complained the us relationship with ukraine had up and reciprocal later president zelensky says thank you for defense in ukraine was ready to buy more javelins and antitank weapons trumps Immediate Response is i would like you to do us a favor though. Trump then requested that president zelensky investigate the theory and look into the bidens neither was part of the official prep material of the call but they were in Donald Trumps personal interest of his Reelection Campaign and ukrainian president knew about both in advance because they were pressing ukraine for weeks about the investigation into the 2016 election over the bidens. Lt. Col. Vindman and ms. Williams were on the july 2h call due to the unequal bargaining position of the two leaders in the dependency on the us the favor was really a demand. After the call multiple individuals concerned enough to report it to the top lawyer of a National Security council the second time in two weeks lt. Col. Vindman had raised concerns with tennessee lawyers. Williams also thought asking president zelensky to undertake these was inappropriate it might explain Something Else she had become aware of that hold on military assistance to ukraine. Ms. Williams and lt. Col. Vindman took note of the word by president zelensky that was taken out of the call now walked away locked away in a server he must have been prepped to make that connection between biden and charisma that has now beent confirmed. With a july 25 call lt. Col. Vindman pushed release of aid to ukraine and struggle to learn why it was being withheld to reach ukrainian officials prior to this becoming public by mid august the deputy ambassador asked why the United States was withholding aid although lt. Col. Vindman did not have an answer it was explicit to a meeting in warsaw that they needed to publicly a commit to these investigations if they hope to get the aid. We all saw the president s tweet about you on sunday afternoon and the insults he felt that the ambassador last friday you are here today in america people are grateful. Lt. Col. Vindman we have seen far more scurrilous attacks in your character and watched certain personalities question your loyalty we know you are shed blood for america and we owe you an immense debt of gratitude. I hope no one on this committee will become a part of those vicious attacks. Todays witnesses like those who testified last week are here because they were subpoenaed not because they are for or against impeachment that question is for congress if the president abuses power invited foreign interference into elections and to extort or bribe an ally to aid their Reelection Campaign by withholding official acts or hundreds of dollars of needed military aid it would be prepped for us to decide if those are compatible with the office of thers presidency. I now recognize a Ranking Member for any remarks they iduld like you would like to make. I would like to address the American People watching at home. If you watch the impeachment hearings last week you may have noticed a disconnect between what you saw in the Mainstream Media accounts describing it. When you saw three diplomats who disliked President Trumps ukraine policy discussing secondhand and thirdhand conversations about theirr objections with the trump policy. Meanwhile they admitted they had not talked to the about these matters and were unable to identify any crime or Impeachable Offense the president committed. What you read in the pressd was explosive and shocking testimony that fully supports the democrats accusationsns. But these accounts have a familiar ring because this is the same preposterous reporting the media offered for three years on the russian hoax on a nearly daily basis the top news outlets in america reported on the newest bombshell revelations showing that President Trump and everyone surrounding him were russian agents it wasnt that long ago we were reading these headlines from cnn Congress Investigating rush investment ties with trump officials. This was false. New york times Trump Campaign aides had repeated contact with russian intelligence. Also falls. The trump server communicating with russia. False. New York Magazine will trump the meeting with his counterpart or his handler cracks false. The guardian. Secret talks at the ecuadorian embassy. Also falls. The speed for coPresident Trump directed his attorney to lie to congress about the moscow tower project. All of these are false. No objectivity or fairness in the media russia stories just a fevered rush to tarnish and remove a president who refuses to pretend the media are Something Different than what they really are. Puppets for the democratic party. With their bias misreporting the media lost confidence of millions of americans because they refuse to acknowledge how badly they botched the story they have learned no lessons and simply expect americans uswill believe as they try to stoke a partisan frenzy. In previous earrings i have outlined three questions the democrats are media dont want asked or answered instead of shedding light the media tries to smother and dismiss them. It starts with what is the full extent of the coordination of thei whistleblower and who else did the whistleblower coordinate this with rex the media has fully accepted thehe stunning reversal of the needs of the whistleblower to testify to this Committee Democrats were insisting on his testimony the media wanted it to. But things have changed since it became clear the whistleblower would have to answer problematic questions that include these. Was the full extent of the whistleblowers prior coronation with chairmanship and anyone else he cooperated with while preparing the complaint . What a whistleblowers political biases and connections to democratic politicians . How does the whistleblower explain the inaccuracies in the complaint . What contacted the whistleblower have with the media which appears to be ongoing . What are the sources of the whistleblower information . Who else did he talk to and was he prohibited bywht law to convey any of that information . Media have joined the democrats to cross examine this crucial witness now that the whistleblower has successfully kick started impeachment he has 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 with the Trump Campaign cracks in these depositions and hearings republicans decided ukrainian meddling to oppose the Trump Campaign many were reported including the posting of many primary source documents by john solomon the democrats switched from russia to ukraine with the impeachment crusade solomon reporting on marie smith and ukraine have become inconvenient for the democratic narrative so the medias smearing solomon. On the hill they told the staff yesterday they would conduct a review the decision comes a hill writer was told she was to stop speaking to the hillal because it ran solomon stories and she urged the writer to relay her concerns to management. Now that solomons reporting is a problem for the democrats of the problem for the media as well. I submit for the record solomons october 31st story debunking the myths about biden and election interference for quite hnencouraged viewers today to read the story and dryer own conclusions about the evidence solomon has gathered. Ask unanimous consent to put this into the record. Without objection to make a Concerted Campaign to discredit their own colleagues and shocking we see it again in the sudden denunciation of New York Times reporter as a conspiracy theorist after he uncovered a 2017 political peace entitled ukrainian efforts to sabotage trump backfire my third question. Why did barisma hire hunter biden and did it affect any actions under the Obama Administration . We have heard testimony from the democrats of witnesses that diplomats were concerned of a conflict of interest regarding hunter biden because he had a secured well paid position having no qualifications on the board of a corrupt Ukrainian Company while his father was Vice President charged with overseeing ukrainianal issues. After trying out several different accusations against resident trump democrats have settled on bribery. According to widespread reports they replaced their quid pro quo allegation because i was not pulling well. If the democrats and the media are so subtly concerned about bribery you think it would take some interest in barisma paying hunter biden 83000 a month and you think they would be interested in joe biden threatening to withhold us loan guarantees unless the ukrainians fired a prosecutorld investigating barisma. That would be a textbook example of bribery. The media are free to act as democratic puppets and to lurch from the folks of their puppet masters but they cannot reasonably expect to do so without alienating half the country who voted for theat president that they are trying to expel. Americans have learned to recognize fake news when they see it if the Mainstream Press will not give it to them straight they will go elsewhere to find it which is exactly what the American People arees doing. I yield back. I think the gentlemen today we are joined a by lt. Col. Vindman and Jennifer Williams. Lt. Col. Vindman is an active duty military officer joining the army after serving multiple tours overseas serving in south Korea Germany and iraq. Deployed to iraq at a time of heavy fighting and awarded the purple heart after being wounded in a roadside bomb. Since 2008 lt. Col. Vindman for an area officer specializing in eurasia at home and us embassies in ukraine and russia. Serving as a Political Military Affairs officer for russia for the joint chief of staff joining the Trump Administration a jul july 2018 when he was asked to serve on National Securityt council. Jennifer williams began her career 2005 shortly after graduating from college when she joined department of Homeland Security as a political appointee during the george w. Bush administration after working as a field representative on the bush cheney president ial campaign she joined Foreign Service the following year Beirut Lebanon and jamaica. Prior to joining the office of the Vice President she served as the public Affairs Officer at april 2019 was detailed to the office of the Vice President where she serves as a special advisor on Foreign Policy team covering europe and russia issues she keeps the Vice President aware of issues and prepares them for foreignpolicy engagements worker two final points, the first witness deposition were unclassified the principal advisor the National Security adviser on ukraine and other countries in my portfolio the role the nsc is to develop and coordinate and implement the lands and policies with a full range of diplomatic military and economic