In the grand scheme of Thursday’s fifth day of public hearings, a few remarkable things occurred during testimony. They are the following.
- No witnesses testified to any orders for bribery, extortion or quid pro quo
- Hill testified that she believed the Steel Doiser was a “rabbit hole”. It’s a “rabbit hole” that was used for the FISA warrant request that sent us down the path of the Trump-Russia collusion narrative.
- Holmes testified to clearly overhearing President Trump reference Ukraine investigations on a phone call between Trump and Sondland in a restaurant. Ambassador Sondland testified the day before to not having any recollection of that being discussed on the call.
- Hill testified that U.S. fracking, and US energy independence due to it, was a huge concern of Vladimir Putin. This raises the prospect of anti-franking propaganda in the US having been initiated by the Russian government.
- Holmes testified to not previously having disseminated his phone call concerns to his boss Bill Taylor earlier due to him already knowing what was going on. Ambassador Taylor previously testified to not having the information Holmes claimed to hear on the restaurant phone call despite having been with him at the time.
- Fiona Hill is nothing like Fiona Apple, I think it’s possible that Adam Schiff recalled the wrong witness because he was looking for testimony that would help him find a criminal (other than when he looks in the mirror)
- David Holmes nods a lot. I’m pretty sure you could tell him off and he’d nod. That more of less happened a couple of times.
- At the conclusion of the hearing Devin Nunes in his closing statements referenced the Steel Dosier, FISA abuse, and timeline of effort to impeach President Trump beginning with his inauguration. In a separate story today, I’ll bring that timeline and series of events back around.
- After witnessing and disseminating five days of this impeachment hearing I had a headache and I’m pretty sure the country generally does too.
Photo by: Getty Images