White House officials who listened to President Donald Trump's July call with Ukraine's president testify at the start of second week in impeachment hearings
Jennifer Williams, a special adviser to Vice President Mike Pence for European and Russian affairs and Lt Colonel Alexander Vindman, director for European Affairs at the National Security Council, are sworn in to testify before a House Intelligence Committee hearing as part of the impeachment inquiry into US President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, November 19, 2019.
Vindman, who arrived at Capitol Hill in military blue with a chest full of service medals, has said he alerted the NSC’s lead counsel to his concerns. The top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep David Nunes, began the hearing with an extended attack on the media and dismissed last week’s testimony as "second-hand and third-hand conversations." He blasted the hearing as a "hoax."
Earlier, during an unsettling July 10 meeting at the White House, Ambassador Gordon Sondland told visiting Ukraine officials that they would need to “deliver” before the next steps, which was a meeting Zelenskiy wanted with Trump, the officer testified. Williams, a career State Department official who has worked for three presidential administrations and counts former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as a "personal hero," said she too had concerns during the phone call, which the aides monitored as is standard practice.
The president wants to see a robust defence by his GOP allies on Capitol Hill, but so far Republicans have offered a changing strategy as the fast-moving probe spills into public view. They’re expected to mount a more aggressive attack on the witnesses as they try to protect Trump. "They react by leaking to the press and participating in the ongoing effort to sabotage his policies and, if possible, remove him from office." It is entirely possible that Vindman fits this profile, said Johnson, R-Wis.
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