with then senior director for european and russian affairs, fiona hill and director of european affairs, lt. col. alex vindman at the nfc, they tried to assure me that they were not aware of any official clang in u.s. policy toward ukraine, omb's announcement not withstanding. they did confirm that the hold on security systems for ukraine came from chief of staff nick mulvaney, who maintained a skeptical view of ukraine. in the same july 19th phone call, they gave me an account of a july 10th meeting with ukrainian and american officials at the white house. they told me that partway through the meeting ambassador sondland had connected investigations with an oval office meeting for president zelensky. which so irritated then national security adviser john bolton that he abruptly ended the meeting, telling dr. hill and leiutenant general vindman they should have nothing to do with domestic politics. he also directed dr. hill to