Impeachment hearings: Vindman says he told Zelensky not to meddle in U.S. politics

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman revealed that while he was in Ukraine as part of a high-level U.S. delegation to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s inauguration, he directly offered Zelensky two pieces of advice during a bilateral meeting: “To be particularly cautious with regard to Russia and its desire to provoke Ukraine, and to stay out of U.S. domestic” politics, he testified.

Vindman explained that he had already “alerted” Eisenberg to Gordon Sondland’s push for political investigations during a July 10 meeting at the White House with Ukrainian officials, and that subsequent to reporting the contents of that meeting to Eisenberg he was “invited to follow up with any other concerns.”

That “courageous decision” led Vindman and his brothers to pursue American military service, which he said became “a special part of our family’s story” in their adopted country. Schiff asked Williams to make a classified submission of any information relevant to the inquiry, to which Williams offered to appear in a closed session. Schiff applauded her compliance, but noted it would not be necessary for Williams to appear so long as she submitted the information in writing.

Williams testified, however, that she did not know whether Pence ever reviewed the call record — which she said she found “unusual” given Trump’s discussion of domestic politics — and she said she never found out why the military aid had been withheld, which she learned about on July 3.House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff opened the hearing by raising President Donald Trump’s attacks on impeachment inquiry witnesses, including ousted former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.

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