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Wednesday 20 november 2019

GOP-requested witness rejects Trump 'conspiracy theories'

Continued from Front lier Tuesday Republican White House visit or military
lawmakers used his prior aid without committing
"The allegations against comments to try to dis- to investigations. He said
Vice President Biden are credit another witness, Lt. he would have objected
self-serving and non-credi- Col. Alexander Vindman. had the president asked
ble," Volker declared. The White House even cir- him to get Ukraine to do
Broader corruption in culated a tweet that was investigations. Morrison,
Ukraine was "plausible," but an earlier quote by Morri- who stepped down from
corruption by Biden wasn't, son questioning Vindman's Trump's National Security
he said. judgment. Democrats say Council shortly before he
Volker testified alongside there may be grounds for appeared behind closed
former White House nation- impeachment in Trump's doors last month, said he
al security official Tim Mor- push for Ukraine's new was not concerned that
rison in the second hearing leadership to investigate anything illegal was dis-
of the day in the House's his Democratic rival and cussed on Trump's July 25
impeachment inquiry, only the 2016 U.S. election as he call with Ukraine's leader,
the fourth in history against withheld military assistance Ambassador Kurt Volker, left, former special envoy to Ukraine, testimony that Republicans
a U.S. president. approved by Congress. and Tim Morrison, a former official at the National Security have repeatedly highlight-
Morrison, also requested Trump says he did nothing Council, testify before the House Intelligence Committee on ed.
Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2019, during a
by GOP members on the wrong and dismissed the public impeachment hearing of President Donald Trump's "As I stated during my dep-
House Intelligence Com- hearings as a "kangaroo efforts to tie U.S. aid for Ukraine to investigations of his political osition, I feared at the time
mittee, said at the outset court." Volker was the first opponents. of the call on July 25th how
that he was not there to person to come behind Associated Press its disclosure would play in
question the "character closed doors in the inquiry ly before he did so. Since had been deeply involved Washington's political cli-
or integrity" of any of his that started in September, then, a parade of witnesses with Ukrainian officials on a mate," he said Tuesday.
colleagues, though ear- resigning his position short- has testified publicly and statement, never released, "My fears have been real-
privately about what they that would have commit- ized." He told lawmakers
recalled about the July 25 ted the country to inves- Tuesday that the transcript
phone call between Trump tigating Burisma and the of the call was incorrectly
and Ukraine's new leader, 2016 U.S. election. placed in a highly secure
Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Many Volker himself requested location.
of those statements cast a meeting on July 19 with Democrats have seen ill in-
doubt on Volker's account Rudy Giuliani, Trump's per- tent in that action, but he
that he didn't know the sonal lawyer, at which said, "It was a mistake ... an
Ukraine gas company Bur- Giuliani mentioned accu- administrative error."
isma was tied to Biden, and sations about the Bidens as Morrison has confirmed to
that he wasn't aware of a well as the discredited the- investigators that he wit-
possible quid pro quo of- ory that Ukraine interfered nessed a key September
fered by Trump. in the 2016 U.S. election. conversation in Warsaw
A number of White House He said he believes now, between Gordon Sond-
and State Department of- thanks to hindsight and the land, the U.S. ambassador
ficials were listening to the testimony of other witness- to the European Union, and
call, but Volker was not. es, that Trump was using a Ukrainian official. Sond-
On Tuesday, he said he op- the aid to pressure Ukraine land told the official that
posed any hold on security to investigate Hunter Biden U.S. aid might be freed if
assistance. And he said, "I and his role on the compa- the country's top prosecu-
did not understand that ny's board. tor "would go to the mike
others believed that any in- "In retrospect I should have and announce that he was
vestigation of the Ukrainian seen that connection dif- opening the Burisma inves-
company, Burisma, which ferently, and had I done tigation," Morrison said in
had a history of accusa- so, I would have raised my previous closed-door tes-
tions of corruption, was own objections," Volker tes- timony. Volker shifted his
tantamount to investigat- tified. account of a pivotal July
ing Vice President Biden. I Yet he also acknowledged 10 interaction at the White
drew a distinction between that Trump never told him House. In his closed-door
the two." he was withholding aid for interview last month, he
Even though, he said, he Ukraine unless there were said there was no discus-
understood that Biden's son investigations. He also said sion of Giuliani's activities
Hunter had been a board Ukrainians never told him in Ukraine or investigations
member -- and he himself that they wouldn't get a sought by the president.q