House Democrats Based Their Case for Abuse of Power on Hearsay, Assumptions, and Conjecture…repeatedly lying and relying on witnesses who had no communications with the President…”I never talked to the President”…”I never met the President”…
· Taylor said he had never met nor had any “communications” with President Trump.
· Not only had Kent never spoken with the President, but he had “never in 27 years been on a call made by a President of the United States.”
· Cooper noted she had “never had any communications with the President, period.”
· When asked, Yovanovitch testified she had not spoken with President Trump at all in 2019.
Multiple witnesses admitted that they had no actual knowledge of the abuse of power Congressional Democrats are claiming.
· Asked if he had any actual firsthand knowledge about the aid being withheld, Sondland said “None … other than I was aware of it.”
o SONDLAND: “The aid was my own personal, you know, guess.”
· Taylor testified that he had no idea what the President was “thinking about the Ukrainians” and could only “tell you what I heard from people.”
· Yovanovitch made clear that she could not “speak for what President Trump thought or what others thought.”
· Neither Cooper, nor Hale had ever spoken with the President about the hold on aid.
o Q: “Both of you, have you ever spoken with the President about Ukraine aid?” HALE: “No, I have not.” COOPER: “No, ma’am.”
· Holmes claimed that it was “unclear” to him why the aid to Ukraine was held up in the first place and any knowledge he had just came from media reports.
· Hale’s knowledge of House Democrats’ claims came from “what was exposed to the media of these various things that people were saying about it.”
· Hill had left her position in the White House on July 19th and neither participated on the July 25th call nor was involved with anything relating to the pause in aid.
o Q: “Dr. Hill, you mentioned I think, when you left your position, you didn’t have any firsthand knowledge about why the military assistance was being frozen.” HILL: “Correct.”
The only people who have heard directly from the President said he wanted no quid pro quo.
· The only witness who directly spoke with President Trump was Sondland, who said the President told him “I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo.”
· Sen. Ron Johnson backed up Sondland, saying the President told him too that he wanted no quid pro quo in Ukraine.
o JOHNSON: “I asked him about whether there would be some kind of arrangement where Ukraine would take some action and the hold would be lifted. Without hesitation, President Trump immediately denied such an arrangement existed.’”