Former National Security Council official Fiona Hill testified in a 10 hour closed door session before House members yesterday that Trump's fixer / consigliere, unhinged conspiracy-spinner Rudy "Rudy Colludy" Giuliani was running a corrupt, shadow foreign policy with Ukraine in an effort to further sociopath and Kremlin asset Donald "Impeachable Me" Trump's reelection campaign while putting lots of money in his own pockets from shady Ukrainian operators. Hill recounted that her boss, former National Security Advisor John Bolton was infuriated by Giuliani's end run around his team and the State Department:
"Hill testified Monday that Bolton was furious over Giuliani’s politically motivated activities in Ukraine, two officials familiar with her testimony said. She recounted how Bolton likened the former New York mayor to a 'hand grenade who’s going to blow everybody up,' one of these people said, after Bolton learned about Giuliani’s Ukraine campaign." (our emphasis)More like a stink bomb than a hand grenade, but the metaphor is apt. Hill also identified Trump donor Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, as the complicit messenger for Trump regarding the Ukraine reopening a bogus "investigation" into former VP Joe Biden's son Hunter, after no evidence of wrongdoing had already been established. Bolton became aware of the corrupt effort to pressure Ukraine into manufacturing dirt on Biden in a meeting with Sondland:
"During the meeting, Sondland’s agenda for Ukraine began to become clear, when he blurted out to the other officials present that there were 'investigations that were dropped that need to be started up again,' according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter. The officials understood him to be referring to Burisma, the energy company, and Biden — something that made Bolton go 'ballistic' after the meeting, the official said.
Hill told lawmakers that after the meeting, Bolton instructed her to go raise their concerns about the shadow Ukraine operations with White House lawyers. Bolton said he did not want to be part of any “drug deal” that was being cooked up on Ukraine, one person familiar with Hill’s testimony said."Sondland's scheduled to testify later this week before the House investigators. In the meantime, Giuliani has his own legal problems, ranging from violation of campaign finance laws, to acting as an unregistered foreign agent, to violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act which precludes the bribing of foreign officials. He'll be taking a hard fall once all of the evidence is shown to a grand jury.
UPDATE: Sondland is testifying Thursday. Ask him about this --
🚨Fiona Hill describes this scene:— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) October 15, 2019
In a White House meeting, Sondland tells Ukrainians they will get a Trump meeting if they open the investigations Trump wants. Then, Sondland follows the Ukrainians out of the meeting to privately make clear he's talking about Hunter Biden.
(photo: "Boom")
