Highlights; Tuesdays impeachment hearing

VINDMAN IS LEAKER, SCHIFF AND VINDMAN MAKE FALSE STATEMENTS

VASTLY DIFFERENT TAKE BY MEDIA

After 10 hours of hearings concerning President Trump's July 25th phone call there were a few revelations and also some clarification in the timeline of events in Ukraine.

Not much was learned from Jennifer Williams, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence, who was on the phone call. She did not find the call to be extraordinary and did not really add anything to what was already known. She did clarify that it was almost impossible for the Vice-President to attend the inauguration of President Zelensky due to the fact that they only had 3 days notice of the date and that the President was out of the country at that time. It is the custom that both do not leave the country at the same time. The Democrats have been making an issue as to why the Vice-President's trip was cancelled.

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, under questioning, revealed that he had immediately notified the NSC lawyers about the phone call that he found inappropriate. He also seemed miffed that the President did not use the talking points he had prepared for the phone call. When asked who else he talked to about the call he answered that he had talked to Secretary Kent, his brother, and a intelligence agency officer. When asked who the intelligence agency officer was, Schiff stopped the hearing and stated that they would not reveal who the whistle blower was. When asked what agency this person was with, Schiff again interjected and stated the whistle blower identity could not be revealed. Both Schiff and Vindman have stated that they do not know who the whistle blower is, but this exchange proved they do know who the whistle blower is and also that Vindman leaked the information to this security officer who is either the whistle blower or someone who passed information to the whistle blower.

Vindman also refereed several times that Trump had demanded that Zelensky conduct investigations. It was pointed out that Trump had asked, and used other phrases but that there was never a demand. The whistle blower in his exaggerated reference to the call had also used the word demand.

It was also revealed by Tim Morrison,Vindman's superior or boss, that Vindman did not report his interpretation of the call to him but went to the NSC lawyers. He also admitted that several people warned him about Vindman when he took over, that they suspected Vindman as a leaker.

Vindman, although denying it , seemed to believe that foreign policy should be determined by the NSC. He also seemed to be unhappy that he was not included in the trips to Ukraine.

No one in any of the questioning could relate that they ever heard that the security money was held up in exchange for investigations. This seems to be how they are attempting to make this now a bribery allegation.

Volker was aware that Zelensky was expected to make a public statement concerning investigations into 2016 activities and Burisma. This was early on in the summer, but there never was such a statement made.

Kurt Volker the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine, who was really the person in charge of Ukrainian negotiations, stated that he understood there was a concern by the president, with good reason, with the history of corruption in Ukraine. He also explained that while this hold on transferring this money was going on there was an effort to evaluate if the new government was really a reform government.

He also stated the Inauguration of Zelensky took place on May. 15., The election of the Parliament took place on July 21, The Parliament was inaugurated August 29. The Parliament then went into session and passed many anti-corruption laws. The present state prosecutor was replaced.

Volker also stated that there was then a meeting in Warsaw Poland on Sept. 1, with Zelensky and Mike Pence and they were all confident that Zelensky was indeed focused on reforming the country.

It was only on Aug 28 that the Ukrainians were aware of the hold on the aid. This was learned from a U.S. news article. Zelensky asked Pence about it and was reassured it was forthcoming. There never was any mention of investigations during this visit. The aid was released on Sept. 11.. This was 12 days after the new government was in place.

I sadly admit to watching the whole thing, I switched to CNN and other media during the breaks. Their big takeaway was that Volker changed his story, which is fake news. Volker stated in his questioning that he never associated the Burisma investigation as a Biden investigation. He understood it as a Ukrainian corruption investigation. He then stated that after listening to the other witnesses he understood that they perceived it differently and stated in hindsight he saw that it was considered by many as a Biden investigation.