US House Cmtes. Release Transcripts Of Hill, Vindman Impeachment Testimonies - Statement

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th November, 2019) The US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee said in a release on Friday that the transcripts of the closed-door impeachment inquiry testimonies provided by former Trump adviser on Russia Fiona Hill and National Security Council Director for European Affairs Alexander Vindman have been released.

"Today, Rep. Adam B. Schiff, the Chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Rep. Eliot L. Engel, the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, the Acting Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, released transcripts from joint depositions of one current and one former White House official responsible for Ukraine policy: Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman and Dr. Fiona Hill," the release said.

The release said the three chairs issued a joint statement announcing the move, saying that Vindman and Hill are "two courageous and patriotic Americans who testified despite pressure by the White House to silence their testimony."

The three chairs also said Vindman's and Hill's superiors in the White House "have declined to cooperate with the inquiry, but transcripts released today show clearly that individuals close to the President were alarmed by a presidential scheme as illicit and corrupt as a 'drug deal.

'"

Hill testified that former National Security Adviser John Bolton described Trump personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani as a "hand grenade that is going to blow everybody up" with respect to US foreign policy on Ukraine.

She described former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch as the "best of the best" in terms of nonpartisan career officials.

Hill also said in her testimony that former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert spent a lot of time warning US President Donald Trump that the "alternative theory" about Ukraine interfering in the 2016 election was false.

In addition, Hill said that Russia offered to disengage from Venezuela in return for the United States backing off from Ukraine.

Vindman testified that the US-Ukraine relationship is damaged and "will continue to be damaged and undercut."

The House Intelligence Committee will hold its first public hearings in the impeachment inquiry next week.