WaPo : Why Alexander Vindman's testimony is big

[Celerity]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/10/29/why-lt-col-alexander-vindmans-testimony-is-big/

After Bill Taylor testified last week to multiple corrupt quid pro quos between the Trump team and Ukraine, President Trump attacked him as a “Never Trumper.” He did so despite the fact that Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, was selected for his job just a few months ago by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Good luck trying to pull that with the latest big witness.

Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman will become the latest official Tuesday to testify to a corrupt quid pro quo. And he might be the most significant to date, given his profile and his proximity to some of the key events. According to his prepared testimony, Vindman will say that European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland said after a July 10 meeting with a top Ukrainian official that a long-sought meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump depended upon Ukraine launching specific investigations — those involving former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, as well as a conspiracy theory about the origins of the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election:

Amb. Sondland started to speak about Ukraine delivering specific investigations in order to secure the meeting with the President, at which time [National Security Adviser John] Bolton cut the meeting with [top Ukraine official Oleksandr Danylyuk] short. Following this meeting, there was a scheduled debriefing during which Amb. Sondland emphasized the importance that Ukraine deliver the investigations into the 2016 election, the Bidens, and Burisma.

Vindman adds that he raised concerns about the arrangement — both immediately to Sondland and twice to a top National Security Council lawyer. “I stated to Amb. Sondland that his statements were inappropriate, that the request to investigate Biden and his son had nothing to do with national security, and that such investigations were not something the NSC was going to get involved in or push,” Vindman says. Vindman says elsewhere in his testimony that he didn’t just think the arrangement was wrong, but that he viewed it as harmful to U.S. foreign policy. “I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine,” he says.

snip

[Thomas Hurt]

1. What did the NSC lawyer do with it? Send it to the WH counsel to be covered up...

[FM123]

2. Yes!

The other night on Rachel Maddow she said the very same thing. It's going to be very hard to dismissive when Vindman was literally on the phone when trumpy was trying to shakedown Zelensky...

[NewJeffCT]

6. Time to get the entire transcript

off of that super-secret server

[Botany]

3. Quid please meet pro quo. / "depended upon Ukraine launching specific investigations"

Vindman will say that European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland said after a July 10 meeting with a top Ukrainian official that a long-sought meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump depended upon Ukraine launching specific investigations — those involving former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, as well as a conspiracy theory about the origins of the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election:

[calimary]

4. Let's see the CONS try to attack this man.

Let’s see their lord and weasel attack him! (Which is probably coming, and soon, too.)

[NewJeffCT]

7. They already are

saying that because he's an immigrant and speaks Ukrainian, he's not trustworthy and a possible spy

[Celerity]

8. They already are, yesterday Fux News was saying (especially on that slag Laura Ingraham's show)

that he was guilty of espionage and is a Ukrainian double-agent.

[book_worm]

5. Well, he's trying--he's texted that Vindman is a "never Trumper" too

as if that really means anything. What? only people who have once been supporters of Trump are credible witnesses against him?

[Jarqui]

9. Vindman nails Trump and the GOP on two key issues

- another witness to the inappropriate quid pro quo that the GOP had been claiming never happened (along with Sondland who just flipped to confirm quid pro quo)
- Vindman was on the call and corroborated the whistleblower's interpretation so their attempt to dismiss the whistleblower as hearsay is over - they have another witness who heard the actual call.