The House impeachment inquiry on Monday released a transcript of the testimony of Christopher Anderson, a special adviser for Ukraine negotiations and former aide to then-U.S. special envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker. Catherine Croft, whose testimony transcript was also released Monday, replaced Anderson in that role this summer.
Anderson testified that Gordon Sondland, the EU ambassador who played a key role in the White House’s pressure campaign on Ukraine, had an impressive amount of access to the President. After a delegation attended Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s inauguration in May, Anderson recalled, Sondland arranged for a meeting to brief President Trump within three days — indicating to Anderson that Sondland was taken “more seriously than the State Department bureaucracy.”
The next month, in a meeting between attended by Volker and then-National Security Adviser John Bolton, Anderson recalled Bolton saying that the President’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, another central player in the pressure campaign, was a “key voice” in Ukraine policy who would be an “obstacle to increased White House engagement” with the country.
A few days later, Anderson accompanied Volker to a meeting that included Sondland and Energy Secretary Rick Perry. Acting Ukraine Ambassador Bill Taylor joined on the phone from Ukraine. Later that day, Anderson recalled, Taylor warned him “not to push for individual investigations in Ukraine,” as the President himself later did on the phone with Zelensky. Anderson separately described pushing for individual investigations as “contrary” to the U.S. anti-corruption stance in Ukraine.
Anderson also included specific details about the President. Trump “put an embargo on any statements” after Russia fired upon and seized Ukrainian ships in the Sea of Azov in November 2018, he recalled. A few weeks later, after the United States called off a “freedom-of-navigation” operation in the Black Sea that was detailed in a CNN report, Bolton told Anderson that Trump called him “to complain about that news report.” A similar operation was later carried out in February.
Read Anderson’s testimony here, or below:
Bolton can’t be bothered to testify before Congress, but has time for private events, which I presume are paid speeches? Needless to say, it Bolton has the proof, this is impeachable.
A right wing hawk still needs to feather their nest.
I love how the career foreign service staff keep contradicting the political appointees. Even an idiot would know which is telling the truth.
BTW, there are 7 uniformed services in the federal government. Everyone knows of the 5 (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard). The two usually forgotten are the Diplomatic Corps and the Public Health Corps. Diplomatic and Public Health have rank, just as the military. The Surgeon General typically wears a naval uniform, since the Public Health Corps sprang from the navy.
Career ambassadors with distinguished service can be an O-10, which means they have 4 stars, the same as generals and admirals in the military services. Career employees at the State Department do not have to be ambassadors to achieve rank. Foreign Service Specialists attain their warrant from the Secretary of State, not President (as military warrants do) and can rank as high as a full-bird colonel. And yes, sometimes they “pull rank” with the military advisors in embassies and consulates.
The political appointees serving as ambassadors are not members of the Diplomatic Corps and therefore have no rank. There are some political appointees, though, that are pretty rank individuals.
“Look at the orators in our republics; as long as they are poor, both state and people can only praise their uprightness; but once they are fattened on the public funds, they conceive a hatred for justice, plan intrigues against the people, and attack the democracy.”
― Aristophanes, Plutus
Bottom line is that Trump is acting as a Russian Agent. The democrats need to make this more and more clear, it needs to be the focus.
(1)His response to Comey telling him about the pee pee tape was to ask Comey to try to show that the Russian’s did not have it.
(2) His son said that most of their money came from Russians, and it appears that DB’s private banking group arranged loans to Trump from Russians (to help them launder money) when Trump was unable to get money elsewhere.
(3) He has hid his taxes which will show where Trump’s $$$$ come from
(4) He has been subservient to Putin in his public meetings, and has tried to hid the contents of his private calls with Putin.
(5) Russia was the one that most benefited by his holding up Ukrainian aid and a meeting with Zalinski
(6) now we learn he personally intervened to prevent a US military show of force in Ukraine’s interest.
THAT EVERYTHING TRUMP DOES SHOWS RUSSIA IS CONTROLLING HIM needs to be at the center of the upcoming hearings. It is not about Ukraine or the Biden, it is about Trump selling out America’s national interests. It is about Treason.