Key take aways:
Hill was said to have told investigators that she registered concerns about President Trump’s policy to pressure the government of Ukraine in exchange for commitments to launch investigations that might help him in the 2020 election.
Hill also is said to have told investigators that her then-boss, then-national security adviser John Bolton, also didn’t want to go along with Trump’s plan.
NPR:
“I went back to talk to Ambassador Bolton. And Ambassador Bolton asked me to go over and report this to our NSC counsel, to John Eisenberg. And he told me, and this is a direct quote from Ambassador Bolton: You go and tell Eisenberg that I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up on this, and you go and tell him what you’ve heard and what I’ve said. So I went over to talk to John Eisenberg about this. … I told him exactly, you know, what had transpired and that Ambassador Sondland had basically indicated that there was agreement with the chief of staff that they would have a White House meeting or, you know, a Presidential meeting if the Ukrainians started up these investigations again. And the main thing that I was personally concerned about, as I said to John, was that he did this in front of the Ukrainians.”
The Guardian:
Vindman was said to have registered concern over Trump’s request almost immediately with the legal staff on the National Security Council and was said to have told investigators that a top NSC lawyer decided to move records about the call onto a highly classified system that few could access.
NPR:
Q: All right. So you did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen. You used the word “demand,” it was not proper to demand. Where in the transcript do you believe that the President made a demand to investigate a U.S. citizen?
A: So, Congressman, the power disparity between the President of the United States and the President of Ukraine is vast, and, you know, in the President asking for something, it became—there was—in return for a White House meeting, because that’s what this was about. This was about getting a White House meeting. It was a demand for him to fulfill his—fulfill this particular prerequisite in order to get the meeting.
The Guardian:
