Expressed by cooper, sandy, and others, concerns that were discussed within the relevant agencies in late july and throughout august, approximately, ultimately, 35 million of Ukraine Military assistance. Thats 14 of the dod funds remained unspent by the end of the fiscal year in order to make sure that ukraine did not permanently lose the 35 million of Critical Military assistance that had been frozen by the white house. Congress had to pass a provision on september 27th, three days before the funds were to expire to ensure that the remaining 35 million could be sent to ukraine. Now, george kent is an anticorruption and rule of law expert. He told us that american anticorruption efforts Prioritize BuildingInstitutional Capacity, support for the rule of law, not the pursuit of individual investigations, particularly of political rivals. Heres how he explained their approach. U. S. Efforts to counter corruption in ukraine focus on building Institutional Capacity so that the Ukrainian Government has the ability to go after corruption and effectively investigate, prosecute, and judge alleged criminal activities using appropriate institutional mechanisms. That is, to create and follow the rule of law. That means that if there are criminal nexuses for activity in the United States, u. S. Law enforcement should pursue the case. If we think there has been a criminal act overseas that violates u. S. Law, we have the institutional mechanisms to address that. It could be through the Justice Department and fbi agents assigned overseas or through treaty mechanisms, such as the mutual Legal Assistance treaty. As a general principle, i do not believe the United States should ask other countries to engage in selective politically associated investigations or prosecutions against opponents of those in power because such selective actions undermine the rule of law regardless of the country. Now, david holmes concurred during his testimony. Holmes also compared the official approach that we believe in, that we promulgate across the world with what the president and mr. Giuliani actually were doing. So our longstanding policy is to encourage them to establish and build rule of law institutions that are capable and that are independent and that can actually pursue credible allegations. Thats our policy. We have been doing that for quite some time with some success. So, focusing on particular cases including particular cases where there is interest of the president s it just not part of what weve done. Its hard to explain why we would do that. Unfortunately, we do know the explanation. We know why President Trump wanted president zelensky to announce investigations, because it would help him in his election. Now, on september 18th, approximately a week before he was supposed to meet with President Trump at the United NationsGeneral Assembly in new york, president zelensky spoke by telephone with Vice President pence. During her deposition, Jennifer Williams testified that she was Vice President pences assistant. She had testified that Vice President pence basically reiterated that the hold on aid had been lifted and asked a bit more about how zelenskys efforts were going. And following her deposition and while preparing for her testimony at the open hearing on november 19th, williams reviewed the documents. They had not been produced to us by the white house. And those documents refreshed her recollection of Vice President pence call with president zelensky. Now, the white house blocked williams from testifying about her refreshed recollections of the Vice President s call when she appeared at the open public hearing. They claimed that certain portions of the september 18th call including the information that williams wanted to tell us about were classified. On november 26th, she submitted a classified addition to her hearing testimony where she provided Additional Information about the Vice President s september 18th telephone call with president zelensky. The Intelligence Committee provided this classified addition to the judiciary committee. It has been sent to the senate for your review. Now, ive read that testimony. I will just say that a coverup is not a proper reason to classify a document. Vice president pence has repeatedly said publicly that he has no objection to the white house releasing the actual transcript of his calls with president zelensky. And, yet, his office has refused many requests by the committee to declassify williams addendum so the American People could also see the additional evidence about this call. We urge the senators to review it, and we ask again that the white house declassify it. As the house wrote in two separate letters, there is no basis to keep it classified. And, again, in case the white house needs a reminder, its improper to keep something classified just to avoid embarrassment or to conceal wrongdoing. Now, weve been through a lot of facts today. Weve seen the president s scheme, a shakedown of ukraine for his personal benefit. Was, i believe, an obvious abuse of his power. But this misconduct, the scheme, became exposed. Congress asked questions. The press reported. Nonpolitical officers in the government expressed concern. The whistleblower laws were activated. As this happened, there was an effort to create an afterthefact misleading record to avoid responsibility for what the president had actually been doing. These were not the only efforts to hide misconduct, and the misconduct continued. Congressman schiff will review some of those items. So we have about 20 minutes left of the presentation tonight. Id like to now go through with you the president s efforts to hide this corrupt scheme even as it continued well into the fall of last year. On august 12th, a whistleblower in the Intelligence Community submitted a complaint addressed to the congressional Intelligence Committees. This explosive document stated that President Trump had solicited foreign interference from ukraine to assist in his 2020 reelection bid. The complaint alleged a scheme by President Trump to, quote, use the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 u. S. Election. The complaint stated that the president had applied pressure on ukraine to investigate one of the president s main domestic political rivals and detailed the involvement of the president s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. The complaint also stated that the whistleblower believed that the president s activities, quote, posed risk to u. S. National security and undermine the u. S. Governments efforts to deter and counter foreign interference in u. S. Elections. Under the law, the whistleblower was required to file the complaint with the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, which was then required to vet and assess the complaint and determine if it warranted reporting to the Intelligence Committees. The law gives the Inspector General 14 days to conduct an initial review. And then inform the director of National Intelligence about his findings. On august 26th, the Inspector General sent the whistleblower complaint, and the Inspector Generals preliminary determination to the acting director of National Intelligence. The Inspector General wrote that based on his review of the complaint, its allegations constituted an urgent concern and appeared credible under the statute. The Inspector General confirmed that the whistleblower acted lawfully in bringing a complaint and credibly raised a concern that should be communicated to the Intelligence Committees of congress. The director of National Intelligence quickly informed the white house about the complaint. Under the law, the acting director of National Intelligence was required to forward the complaint and the Inspector Generals determination to the congressional Intelligence Committees no later than seven days after he received it. The legal requirement is extremely clear. Upon receipt of the transmittal from the i. C. i. G. , that is the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, the director shall within seven calendar days of such receipt forward such transmittal to the congressional Intelligence Committees together with any comments the director considers appropriate. Yet, despite the clear letter of the law, the white house mobilized to keep the information in the whistleblower complaint from congress, including by inviting the department of justice to render an opinion as to whether the complaint could be withheld from congress. The statutory deadline of september 2nd when the director of National Intelligence was required to turn it over to congress came and went, and the complaint remained hidden from congress. Finally, on september 9th, a full week after the complaint was required to be sent to congress, and, once again, an urgent concern the Inspector General one week after it was required to be spent to congress, the Inspector General wrote to the leaders of the Intelligence Committees to inform them that the director of National Intelligence was withholding a whistleblower complaint in direct countervention of past practice and the law. On september 24th, speaker of the house, nancy pelosi announced that the house of representatives is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry. The next day, the house of representatives passed a resolution calling on the Trump Administration to provide the whistleblowers complaint immediately to the congressional Intelligence Committees. Later that day, the white house publicly released the summary of the july 25th call between President Trump and president zelensky and permitted the acting director of National Intelligence to provide the whistleblowers complaint and relay documents to the intelligence congressional committees. The president himself was happy to discuss the motivations for the scheme in public. That day in a joint press availability with president zelensky at the United NationsGeneral Assembly, President Trump reiterated that he wanted ukraine to investigate the bidens. No, i want him to do whatever he can. This was not his fault. He wasnt there. Hes just been here recently. But whatever he can do in terms of corruption because the corruptions massive. Now, when bidens son walks away with millions of dollars from ukraine and he knows nothing and they are paying him millions of dollars, thats corruption. Finally, the day after President Trump explained to the public that he wanted ukraine to investigate former president former Vice President biden on the morning of september 26th, the Intelligence Committee publicly released declassified redactions of two documents, the whistleblowers august 12th complaint and the Inspector Generals august 26th transmittal to the acting director of National Intelligence. Even after the impeachment inquiry into the ukraine matter began, President Trump and his proxy Rudy Giuliani have continued to publicly urge president zelensky to launch an investigation of Vice President biden and alleged 2016 election interference by ukraine. On september 30 during his remarks at the swearingin of the new labor secretary, President Trump stated now the new president of ukraine ran on the basis of no corruption. Thats how he got elected. And i believe that he really means it. But there was a lot of corruption having to do with the 2016 election against us. And we want to get to the bottom of it. And its very important that we do. Thank you. So here he is, his meeting with the United Nations september 30, and he is still pursuing this bogus crowdstrike Conspiracy Theory with the president of ukraine. On october 2nd in a public press availability, President Trump discussed the july 25th call with president zelensky and stated the conversation was perfect, it couldnt have been nicer. He then linked his notion of corruption with the biden investigation. On october 3rd in remarks before he departed omareen one, President Trump expressed his hope that ukraine would investigate Vice President biden and his son. President trump actually escalated his rhetoric urging not only ukraine to investigate the bidens but china too. What exactly did you hope zelensky would do about the bidens after the phone call . Well, i would think that if they were honest about it, theyd start a Major Investigation into the bidens. Its a very simple answer. They should investigate the bidens because how does a company thats newly formed and all these companies and by the way, likewise, china should start an investigation into the bidens because what happened in china is just about as bad as what happened with ukraine. So i would say that president zelensky, if it were me, i would recommend that they start an investigation into the bidens. The same day President Trump tweeted that he has an absolute right to investigate corruption. That really means is he feels he has an absolute right to investigate or get Foreign Countries to investigate his political opponents. The president sent a similar tweet the next day once again linking corruption with the biden investigation. As president i have an obligation to end corruption, even if that means requesting the help of a foreign country or countries. It is codone all the time. This has nothing to do with politics or a Political Campaign against the bidens. This does have to do with corruption. Give him credit for being so obvious. This has nothing to do with politics or a Political Campaign against the bidens, but you got to investigate the bidens. I guess thats just a coincidence. President trump continued to demonstrate his eagerness to solicit foreign assistance related to his personal interest. Heres whats okay. He said if we feel theres corruption like i feel there was in the 2016 campaign, there was tremendous corruption against me. If we feel this corruption, we have a right to go to a foreign country. President trump added that asking president xi of china to investigate the bidens is certainly something we can start thinking about. Even last month, even last month the president and giulianis scheme continued during the first week of december, giuliani traveled to budapest, kiev, and vienna to meet with the former Ukrainian Government officials as part of a continuing effort to dig up dirt, political dirt on Vice President biden and advance the theory that ukraine interfered in the 2016 election. Asked about his interviews of foreign ukrainian prosecutors, giuliani told the New York Times that he was acting on behalf of his client President Trump. Quote, like a good lawyer, i am gathering evidence to defend my client against the false charges being leveled against him. Indeed, evidence obtained by the house from giulianis associate confirms that he had been representing himself as early as may 2019 as President Trumps personal lawyer, doing donald j. Trumps personal bidding in his dealings with ukraine. This letter, may 10th, 2019, from giuliani to zelensky says, among other things, however, i have a more specif