U.S. DIPLOMATS MAKE MINCEMEAT OF GOP REPRESENTATIVES

…Russia Expert, & former White House Aid, Fiona Hill and , US /EU Ambassador, Gordon Sondland

Diplomats, Fiona Hill & David Holmes, continually corrected the Republicans at the impeachment inquiry

The former White House Aid, Fiona Hill and the US Ukraine Diplomat, David Holmes, really did a job on the GOP cross examiners in the latest presidential impeachment inquiry.

We all know that a good cross examiner doesn’t ask questions that he doesn’t know the answers.  But over and over again, that’s what happened with the Republicans at the hearing.

They did not do their homework.

Both diplomats showed high confidence in challenging the premise of the GOP’s lines of questioning.

Unlike previous witnesses who were happy to just recite facts and their recollections, Hill and Holmes continued to anticipate when the GOP members were going in misleading directions, and they aggressively corrected the record.

A key example came when GOP counsel Stephen Castor seemed to be trying to poke holes in Ambassador Gordon Sondland’s damaging testimony the previous day.  He asked about disputes between the two of them, Hill and Sondland, which have occasionally broken out publicly in recent weeks.

But Hill turned it into an answer about how correct Sondland’s testimony was, after she had reviewed it closely.  “Now I actually realize, having listened to his deposition, that he was absolutely right, that he wasn’t coordinating with us because we weren’t doing the same thing that he was doing,” Hill said.

She added: “Because he was being involved [illegally] in a domestic political errand. And we were being involved in national security, foreign policy. And those two things had just diverged. So he was correct. And I had not put my finger on that at the moment, but I was irritated with him and angry with him that he wasn’t fully coordinating. And I did say to him, ‘Ambassador Sondland…Gordon…I think this is all going to blow up.’ And… here we are."

It became clear, as the hearing went on, why the Democrats saved these two witnesses for the final hearing of the impeachment inquiry.

The most telling example came when the committee’s top Republican, Rep. Devin Nunes (CA), tried, but failed, to establish the premise that the “black Ledger” Ukraine had shared on former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort wasn’t credible.

Mr. Holmes declined to grant that premise, though, and he had really done his homework:

NUNES: “And the black ledger…is that seen as credible information?”

HOLMES: “Yes.”

NUNES: “The black ledger is credible?”

HOLMES: “Yes.”

NUNES: “Former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III] Bob Muelle did not find it credible. Do you dispute what Bob Mueller’s findings were? They didn’t use it in the prosecution or in the report.”

HOLMES: “I’m not aware that Bob Mueller did not find it credible. I think it was evidence in other criminal proceedings. Its credibility was not questioned in those proceedings. But I’m not an expert on it.

It was the kind of premise that your average witness, or even one just not terribly interested in rocking the boat,  would probably have let slide.”

Later, GOP counsel Stephen Castor asked Holmes about a review that was conducted in how much European allies gave in aid to Ukraine. Castor’s idea was apparently to suggest Trump was actually concerned about burden-sharing when he withheld military aid, rather than political leverage for investigations that could help him politically.

But Holmes interjected. He made a point to note that the review happened after…. and he emphasized that word… the Ukraine money was held up.  Then he described the findings, which he labeled “illuminating."

“The United States has provided combined civilian and military assistance to Ukraine since 2014 of about $3 billion plus. ... Three $1 billion loan guarantees — those get paid back, largely,” Holmes said. “So just over $3 billion. The Europeans however, at the level of the European Union plus the member states combined since 2014, my understanding have provided a combined $12 billion to Ukraine.”

The retort was clear and Holmes had made his point that the EU had provided major funds to Ukraine, much more than the US.

At another point, the GOP’s Castor suggested to Hill that the “three amigos”, which were Sondland, former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, and Energy Secretary Rick Perry, they had had little contact with Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani before July 19.

Hill, though, had apparently extensively reviewed her fellow witnesses’ testimony, and suggested that was totally wrong:

CASTOR: “Just for sake of a timeline, I think as of July 19, they hadn’t even engaged with Rudy Giuliani. And I don’t believe that happened until a little bit later. So you believe by July 19, they were already engaged in those types of activities?”

HILL: “We had already had a discussion with Kurt Volker, which was in the depositions of his assistant, Chris Anderson, that indicated that he had met with Rudy Giuliani at this point. And Ambassador Sondland made comments about meeting with Giuliani. And as we know in the May 23 meeting they had been instructed to meet with Giuliani. They gave us every impression that they were meeting with Rudy Giuliani at this point, and Rudy Giuliani was also saying on the television and indeed has said subsequently that he was closely coordinating with the State Department. So it was my belief that they were meeting with him.”

Anderson did indeed testify that Volker told him around the “late spring” that he had previously been in touch with Giuliani. He said he believed he learned that even before Trump directed the “three amigos” to “talk to Rudy” on May 23.

But unless Anderson’s timeline was way off, that would put the contacts well before the July 19 date that GOP’s Castor suggested.

This wasn’t the worst GOP moment in the hearing, but it still had plenty of even-worse issues.

The best example was when David Holmes gave his first account, not hearsay, of over hearing the insecure phone conversation between Ambassador Sondland and President Trump in an out-door restaurant in Kiev.

Between Ms. Hill and Mr. Holmes, plus Ambassador Sondland’s testimony on the day before, direct, devastating testimony was given as they made mincemeat of the Republicans in the hearing. 

The Republican Representative of Ohio, Jim Jordan, also known as “The Mouth of the GOP”, he was beside himself at the end of the day after dealing with Hill and Holmes.

It was a good site to see, but it still appears that the Republicans are not convinced that what the president has done is impeachable.

But if President Obama had done just 10% of what Trump has done with his obstruction of justice actions, and his 12,000 documented lies, the GOP would be all over the Democrats.

Copyright G. Ater 2019