2 Top Russia and Ukraine Advisers Testify in Today’s Impeachment Hearing

Fiona Hill and David Holmes testified about Rudy Giuliani and Trump bribing Ukraine.

Fiona Hill and David Holmes took the stand in today’s impeachment hearing.
 
Hill is a former top Russia adviser on the National Security Council. Holmes is a top staffer at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine and worked closely with former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.  
 
In a closed-door testimony, Hill said learning about Trump and company’s correspondence and bribery with Ukraine was “my worst nightmare” and said she and former White House national security adviser John Bolton were alarmed by Trump and his allies (mainly Rudy Giuliani’s)  efforts to get Ukraine to investigate his political rivals.
 
“If the President, or anyone else, impedes or subvert the national security of the United States in order to further domestic political or personal interests, that is more than worthy of your attention,” she said in her opening statement. “But we must not let domestic politics stop us from defending ourselves against the foreign powers who truly wish to harm us.”

In her testimony, Hill also explained how she learned that Trump, Sondland, and others were pursuing a plot in Ukraine that ran counter to U.S. national security policy.
 

Holmes claims he was told Trump cared more about investigating his rivals than the welfare of Ukraine. He was privy to high-levels conversations between the U.S. and Ukraine and was often asked to take detailed notes about their conversations. One of these conversations were between Trump and Gordon Sondland, assuring him that President Volodymyr Zelensky would be willing to investigate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.

"I've never seen anything like this in my foreign service career,” Holmes said of the phone call during his testimony.

He was questioned heavily about the call—but also took an opportunity to flip the script when Republican Jim Jordan tried to press him on the importance of testifying about the Trump-Zelensky correspondence.