Ambitions. Our selfrespect. Our love of freedom and the rule of law. Our fierce constitutional patriotism. Now, it looked like President Trump might get might get away with his ukraine shakedown. After all, most americans didnt know anything about it. And the few who learned of it would be too afraid, too intimidated to cross the most powerful man on earth. Fr President Trump could rest easy. But if donald trump misjudged the american character, the framers of our constitution did not. I count 17 honorable Public Servants who came forward to testify over the intimidation and disparagement of the president. Is that right, mr. Goldman . Yes, there were 17. And i count a dozen Career State Department and National Security officials who served republican and democratic president s alike, over decades, who came to testify. In fact, four of President Trumps own National Security councils staffers, hill,
vindman, morrison, and mcguyer, came forward to report trumps scheme to nsc lawyers as soon as they learned it, didnt they, mr. Goldman . Morrison and vindman went to the lawyers as soon as they learned of it. Yes. They went to thele lawyers. And that moved mey a lot becau my father was a staffer on the National Security council under president kennedy. And he said the most important thing you can bring to work with you every day is your conscience. And he devoted his career to the idea that people must speak truth to power. When power becomes a Clear And Present Danger to democracy and to the people. So i want to talk about two of the many honorable government witnesses who went under oath and stood up for the truth. Mr. Goldman, who is dr. Fiona hill . Dr. Fiona hill was the senior director for the europe and russia directorate at the National Security council until july of this year. And she was President Trumps Senior Advisor on s russia . Correct. Her family had fled both nazi
germany and soviet russia. I think her family actually came from england. It was Marie Yovanovitch who had that was ambassador yovanovitch. Dr. Hill voiced her concerns, the nscs lawyers, on july 10 and july 11th long before anyone on this committee knew about it. Why was she why did she go to report what she had learned . What motivated her . She was concerned that ambassador sondland and Mick Mulvaney were entering into essentially a transaction. Whereby the ukrainians would open up these investigations for President Trumps political interests. In return for getting the white house meeting that President Trump had offered. And i want to talk about Deputy Assistant secretary george kent, who served as a Career Foreign Service officer for more than 27 years under five different president s. Democrats and republicans alike. And he wrote or updated notes to file on four different occasions to record his grave contemporaneous concerns about the president s conduct. Mr. Goldman, what were the events that led mr. Kent to draft these notes to his file . There were several. There was a conversation at the end of june. Where several american officials had indicated to president zelensky that he needed to go forward with these investigations. There was one on august 16th, i recall, that he talked about. But you bring up a very important point. Which is all of these state Department WitnessesIn Particular and, frankly, almost all the witnesses other than ambassador sondland, took unbelievabled, meticulous notes. I would have dreamed for a witness like that as a prosecutor. And it makes for a very clear and compelling record and clear and compelling evidence thats based on contemporaneous notes. So do we have mr. Kents notes in this process . We have no state department records, including these memos
to file. I the notes. Ambassador taylors firstperson cable. Emails. Theres so many documents that the few that we have gotten have been so helpful to the investigation. Why do we not have them . The state department refused to provide them, notwithstanding our subpoena under the president s direction. You know, in authoritarian societies like putins russia, people are terrified about tto about the crimes of their political leaders. Even thoughli President Trump h tried to intimidate or silence them and he is trying to make our country more like russia and we can be thankful that you found a lot of heroes who stood up for the truth in our constitution. I yield back. Gentleman yields back. Thank you, plrmr. Chairman. My first two questions are for the American People. America, are you sick and tired yet of this impeachment sham . And, america, would you Like Congress to get back a to work d actually get something done . Because i sure would. Mr. Castor, the rest of the questions are for you. And i would like yes or no answers, if possible. Mr. Castor, my first question is important. Did any of the democrats fact witnesses establish that the president had committed bribery, extortion, or a high crime or misdemeanor . Good heavens, no. Mr. Castor, the Deputy Assistant to the president of the National Security, mr. Morrison, listened in on the phone call. He testified that he was not concerned that anything discussed on the phone call was illegal or improper. Is that correct . Yeah. He was worried about leaks. Several democrat witnesses testified that it is fairly common for foreign aid to be paused for various reasons,
including concerns that the country is corrupt and Taxpayer Dollars may be misspent. Ambassador volker testified that this hold on Security Assistance to ukraine was not significant. Is that correct . Ni yes. A number of witnesses also said the same thing. For former u. S. Ambassador to ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, testified thattc in ukraine, ani quote, corruption is not just prevalent but, frankly, is the system. Is that correct . Yes. He all the witnesses confirmed the environment is very corrupt. Mr. Castor, Ukraine EnergyCompany Burisma holdings had a reputation in ukraine as a corrupt company. Is that correct . Big time. According to New York Times, hunter biden was part of a broad effort by burisma to bring in wellconnected democratsec during a period whe the company was facing investigations. Is that correct . Yeah. The new yorker also had a
pretty extensive report on that, as well. Obamas Deputy Assistant secretary of state, george kent, testified that he raised concerns directly to Vice President bidens office about hunter bibidens services on burismas erboard. Is that correct . Yes or no . Yes. Mr. Castor, in the July 25th Call, President Trump referenced joe biden bragging about how he stopped the prosecution. We all saw that video earlier today. Where joe biden bragged about how he told ukraine, if the prosecutor is not fired, youre not getting the money. Mr. Castor, is this the same prosecutor that looked into burisma . It is. Me in a similar scheme, obama Assistant Attorney General said,
and i quote, awarding prestigious Employment Opportunities to unqualified individuals in order to influence Government Officials is corruption, plain and simple. Mr. Castor, here is another key question. Given that, one, burisma had a reputation of being a corrupt company. Two, obamas own state department was concerned about hunter biden serving on burismas board at the same time thatd Vice President biden was acting as the point person to ukraine. And, three, obamas Assistant Attorney General said in a similar scheme that that corruption that there was corruption plain and simple. Do you think, then, it is understandable, reasonable, and acceptable for President Trump to ask the Ukrainian President to look into the hunter
biden Burisma Potential Corruption Scheme . Yes. Mr. Castor, there are four undisputable facts that will never change. That prove there is no impeachable offense. T there was no quid pro quo on the July 25th Call. Ukraine leadership did not know the aid wasid held up at the ti of the july 25th telephone call. Ukraine received the white house meeting, phone call, and aid. Even though four ukraine didnt initiate any investigations. Do you agree . Ukraine received a meeting with Vice President pence in warsaw. And a meeting, not at the white house but in new york at the united nations. Mr. Castor, did mr. Turley testify in the past hearing that this Impeachment Inquiry has not passed chairman nadler es threeprong test . He did. Thank you. Ie yield back. Thank you. The gentlewoman from washington
is recognized. Thank you. Mr. Goldman, lets focus on the republican claim that President Trump withheld military aid to ukraine because he was supposedly concerned about corruption. Rathered than the fact that he abused his office for personal gain. And let me be clear. We actually do not have to read the president s mind on this. As your report notes on page ten, and as we will see on television, he told us himself exactly what his intent was. What exactly did you hope zelensky would dou about the bidens after your 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. So the first and best witness about the president S Corrupt Intent was donald trump. There is also plenty of corroborating evidence. So letspl just review some of e basic facts that weve already established. First, President Trump does not even mention the word corruption
during either of his calls with president zelensky. And he disregards all of the Talking Points that were prepared for him on corruption by the National Security council. Second, investigations of the bidens and a debunked Conspiracy Theory about the 2016 election were not supported by official u. S. Policy. And, third, congress authorized military aid to ukraine. Ukraine passed all the checks that the United States established to ensure that it was taking appropriate actions to fightte corruption. And there was unanimous consensus among the state department, department of defense, and National Security council that the president Shouldri Release The Military A that ukraine critically needed to fight russian aggression. So, mr. Goldman, between the time that President Trump put a hold onid military aid to ukrai and then released the aid. The president never conducted an actual review or corruption assessment onw ukraine, did he . That is correct. No witness testified that there was any review or any investigation of any sort related to the ukraine aid. And isnt it also true that the Defense Department actually determined not to conduct a review on ukraine after the president froze the military aid . Because ukraine had already met all of the Corruption Benchmarks in may of 2019. Yes, and everyone involved in ukraine policy believed that they were on thepo right path. And president zelensky, In Particular. And in addition to ukraine having satisfied all the relevant Corruption Assessments prior to u. S. Military aid being withheld, there is significant Witness Testimony that both the state department and the Ukrainian Embassy actually advised that a white house meeting with president zelensky would help further an anticorruption agenda, correct . Both the anticorruption agenda and the aggression fighting the aggression from russia. And, in fact, president
trumps budget actually cut funding for fighting corruption in ukraine. Now, mr. Castor argues that President Trump withheld military aid to ukraine because he was skeptical of foreign assistance in general. But in both 2017 and 2018, didnt President Trump release military aid for ukraine without any complaints about corruption . Thats ptcorrect. So, mr. Goldman, the president was perfectly fine giving military aid to ukraine in 2017 and 2018. But somehow not in 2019. So what changed . Joe biden started running for president. Vice President Biden started running. So the and i would add the Mueller Report came out, which did not even though it did not charge the president , it implicated the president in his campaign in welcoming the assistance from russia and utilizing it. And the sequence of events and all the corroborating evidence makes it Crystal Clear that President Trump didnt care about corruption at all. In fact, as he told us himself on national television, he
simply cared about his own politicallymotivated investigations into his political rival. And you saw the clip. Where ambassador sondland picked up thewh phone, called presiden trump. And then mr. Holmes asked him what the president thoughtol abt ukraine. Andbo quickly, what was mr. Sondlands answer . Mr. Sondland said the president does notan give a ble about ukraine. He only cares about the big stuff. Meaning the Biden Investigation that mr. Giuliani was pushing. And by the way, just to add. That is a directevidence conversation between President Trump andde ambassador sondlandn that day. And there are many that we have not talked about on the minority side. So we know what President Trump was interested in based on his words, his actions, and Witness Testimony. Thetn president of the United States wanted ukraine to announce an investigation into a political rival for his own personal, political benefit. To interfere in our election and he was willing to use u. S. Military aid, which is Taxpayer Dollars. And an essential white house meeting as his leverage. That is unacceptable and a grave abuse of power. I yield back. Us the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized for five minutes. Thanked you, madam chairwoma. You know, in the navy, we had a saying. Bluff. Which is bottom line up front. Let me give everybody the bottom line. We are here because democrats are terrified that President Trump is going to win reelection. Thats really what this all comes down to. Let me get into specifics. We are here dealing with impeachment because Democrats Dont Wanter to talk about the d hot trump economy. They dont want to talk about the fact that we have the lowest unemployment rates in 50 years. We are dealing with impeachment because democrats dont want to talk about how the president has worked to protect American Companies from chinese aggression. How hes trade deals to
benefit american workers. How hes eliminated eliminated burdensome regulations that hurt the economy and that help job creators. Congressional democrats dont want to be reminded the American People, that the democrat agenda includes such laughable ideas like banning airplanes. Giving Illegal Immigrants taxpayerra funded healthcare. And taking private Health Insurance away from the American People. Thats really why were here. This whole process is just a distraction. And an attempt to hide the farleft radical agenda. So lets talk about the facts. Schiffs report claims the administration froze military for ukraine without explanation. Yet, the facts are that President Trump gave more military aid to ukraine than president obama. Ve president obama gave Ukraine Well Wishes and blankets. President trump gave the ukrainians javelin missiles. Thats a difference and those are the facts. Lets go over