Top NSC aide puts Sondland at front lines of Ukraine campaign, who bragged about 'speaking' for Trump

Olivia Beavers,Mike Lillis and Morgan Chalfant
The Hill
Sat, 16 Nov 2019 20:54 UTC

© Fox News

EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland

A senior White House official told House impeachment investigators last month that President Trump's hand-picked ambassador to Europe had pushed — on behalf of Trump himself — for Ukraine's president to launch two investigations that could help Trump politically.

Tim Morrison, a top aide at the National Security Council (NSC) who was expected to depart the White House after his testimony, said Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the E.U., had huddled with a top Ukrainian representative on Sept. 1, when he relayed the message that the release of U.S. military aid to the besieged country hinged on Kyiv opening the investigations Trump sought.

"What he communicated was that he believed ... what could help them move the aid was if the prosecutor general would go to the mic and announce that he was opening the Burisma investigation," Morrison testified privately on Oct. 31, according to the transcript released Saturday by Democrats leading the impeachment investigation.

"Ambassador Sondland believed and at least related to me that the president was giving him instruction," Morrison added.

On Sept. 7, the marching orders changed, Morrison said, after Sondland spoke directly with Trump, who insisted that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky himself should announce the investigations into Vice President Joe Biden and the 2016 elections — both of which could help Trump politically heading into 2020.

© C-SPAN

Tim Morrison

Even while Trump was insisting vocally that there was no quid pro quo, Morrison testified, he was demanding that Sondland convey to Kyiv that very thing.

"[Sondland] related the president told him there was no quid pro quo, but President Zelensky had to do it and he should want to do it," Morrison said.

Morrison was among the national security officials on the now-famous July 25 phone call between Trump and Zelensky, in which Trump asked his Ukrainian counterpart for "a favor" in the form of the investigations.

And while Morrison's opening statement asserts he was "not concerned that anything illegal was discussed" on that call — for which Trump thanked him earlier this month — the full transcript offers a more fulsome picture, particularly his concerns about Sondland, who at one point he described as a "problem."

"My concern was what Gordon was proposing about getting the Ukrainians pulled into our politics," he said.

The new details came as Democrats on Saturday released a pair of witness transcripts guiding their impeachment investigation, opening the latest window into the closed-door interviews that have dominated their examination of Trump's dealings with Ukraine.

Jennifer Williams, a top aide to Vice President Mike Pence whose deposition transcript was also released Saturday, separately testified that during a Sept. 1 meeting between Zelensky and Pence, Zelensky emphasized that, with Ukraine at war with Russia, "the symbolic value of U.S. support in terms of security assistance that was just as valuable to the Ukrainians as the actual dollars."

Morrison — who Republicans put on their witness list — and Williams are slated to testify at a joint public hearing on Tuesday. Sondland is scheduled to appear, by himself, the following day.

Sondland, who also testified privately last month, had initially denied that Trump had dangled nearly $400 million in U.S. aid in exchange for the politically tinged investigations.

Sondland has since corrected his closed-door testimony to corroborate Morrisons's account, saying that other witness testimonies refreshed his recollection about meeting with top Zelensky aide Andriy Yermak. Sondland said in an addendum that he "presumed" the security assistance to be tied to Ukraine making a public statement about investigations sought by Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.

Comment: Presume: To take for granted as being true in the absence of proof to the contrary.

Apparently Sondland thinks he can read the president's mind?

Trump's Republican allies have largely dismissed Sondland's revisions, arguing they're merely the ambassador's interpretation of Trump's intentions, while some have also suggested that he may have carried this policy out on his own volition.

But Morrison's transcript appeared to pull the knot tying Trump and Sondland together even tighter.

Comment: Oh how badly the Hill wants this to be true.

Morrison described how Sondland would brag about his access to Trump, including being the one to help set up the July 25 phone call between the two foreign leaders.

"He bragged that he could call the President whenever he wanted," said Morrison, who was brought on to the NSC by former White House national security adviser John Bolton.

And where NSC officials typically brief the president ahead of a call with a foreign leader, Sondland took hold of that process and notified NSC and White House officials he briefed Trump in advance of the Zelensky call.

Morrison listened in on the July 25 call with Zelensky and said that he became concerned about it in particular when Trump brought up the DNC server. He said that the call reaffirmed fears expressed by Fiona Hill, Trump's former top Russia expert, about a "parallel process" regarding U.S. policy making towards Ukraine.

"I heard issues related to the server. And I was concerned that Dr. Hill was correct about this parallel process. And I grew concerned that the call was not the full-throated endorsement of the Ukraine reform agenda that I was hoping to hear," Morrison told investigators.

Comment: 1. The president makes foreign policy. What Morrison 'hoped to hear' on behalf of Ukraine is irrelevant. 2. That was not all he said. See the excerpts from Breitbart's report below.

Morrison also said that he approached NSC lawyer John Eisenberg because he wanted them to "have eyes" on the call and he was afraid that leaks about it could be "damaging."

"I was concerned about whether or not they would agree that it would be damaging for the reasons I outlined in my statement if the call package — if the call mem-con or its contents leaked," Morrison said, using shorthand to describe the memorandum of conversation.

Morrison said he became aware that the call transcript was placed on a system reserved for highly-classified material — against normal protocol — but that he was told by Eisenberg that it was done by "mistake."

Morrison said that Trump's discussion of DNC server and the Bidens was not consistent with U.S. official policy toward Ukraine.

Comment: What does that have to do with anything? Morrison sounds miffed that Trump wasn't following the script the Ukraine team prepared. That script has been revealed to be suspect. Perhaps Trump was right to ignore it.

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Rather, Morrison said Hill had also "advised" him to stay away from the issue of Burisma, which he said he had to Google in order to understand her meaning.

"I googled 'What is Burisma?' and I saw Hunter Biden, I said, okay, yeah, that sounds right, I'll stay away," he testified.

Comment: Gateway Pundit summarizes what is know about Mr. Morrison's testimony:

Here are the key points (PDF) to Tim Morrison's testimony.

1. Mr. Morrison did not believe anything improper occurred on the July 25 call. (p. 60)

2. Mr. Morrison testified that the memorandum of conversation (a phrase used to describe the call transcript) of the July 25 call was complete and accurate. (p. 60)

3. Mr. Morrison, who listened to the July 25 call, testified that he was not concerned about the substance of what was discussed on the call - only that the transcript might leak. (p. 46-47)

4. Mr. Morrison was told by National Security Council lawyer John Eisenberg that the July 25 call record mistakenly ended up on the highly classified system, debunking the Democrats' allegations of an attempted "cover up."

5. Mr. Morrison repeatedly testified that he purposefully kept Lt. Col. Vindman out of the loop on this matter because he had concerns about Vindman's judgment, which were also raised to him by Fiona Hill and others.

6. Mr. Morrison testified that, as the final clearing authority for any edits made to the 7/25 call package, he accepted all of Lt. Col. Vindman's proposed edits. (p. 61-62)

7. Mr. Morrison testified that he does not believe Burisma came up on the call or that anyone suggested edits to the mem-con to include the word Burisma. (p. 64)

8. Mr. Morrison testified that Lt. Col. Vindman relayed two concerns to him about the July 25 call: that the call did not get into the subject matter they had hoped, and the fidelity of the translation. (p. 72-73)

9. Mr. Morrison testified that Lt. Col. Vindman never reported to Morrison any of the "light queries" that he received from Ukrainian officials in August regarding the hold on aid. (p. 93)

10. Mr. Morrison confirmed that President Trump generally does not like foreign aid generally, and specifically held concerns that corruption in Ukraine may cause U.S. aid to be "misused."

Breitbart reports on the selective editing the Democrats employed in their 'key excerpts" release:

In the Morrison case, Democrats released "key excerpts" that highlighted the few facts in his testimony that, they believe, help push the case for impeachment. Chief among these is that Morrison confirmed that he heard U.S. Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland claim that he told a Ukrainian official, in a private "sidebar" meeting, that aid would be released if the Ukrainian prosecutor general would publicly announce an investigation into Burisma.

But that is just hearsay evidence, as is Morisson's confirmation of Charge d'affairs William Taylor's testimony (repeated in public last week) that Sondland, after speaking to President Trump, "there was no quid pro quo, but President Zelensky must announce the opening of the investigations and he should want to do it."

Sure enough, CNN and other networks highlighted these and other supposedly damaging sections of Morrison's testimony.

These are the top news results on Google for the search "Tim Morrison," as of Sunday morning, November 17:

• CNN: "Ex-NSC official corroborates Sondland said he was directed by Trump on Ukraine"
• NPR: "NSC Official Faults Sondland's Role In 'Shadow' Ukraine Policy"
• USA Today: "Morrison said he was 'not comfortable' with Ukraine President Zelensky being involved in US politics: the latest"
• Daily Beast: "National Security Official Tim Morrison Feared Leaks of Trump's Call to Ukraine President Would Be Damaging"
• Politico: "Sondland said he was acting on Trump's orders, aide told investigators"

But these reports downplay or omit the most important parts of Morrison's testimony for Trump's defense:

• Morrison testified "I was not concerned that anything illegal was discussed" on the July 25 phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, to which he himself listened. That statement does not appear anywhere in the Democrats' "key excerpts" document. He also testified that he "did not have a view" on whether President Trump's comments to Zelensky on the phone call were "improper."
• Morrison testified that he was afraid that the conversation would leak — not because he thought the president had done anything wrong, as Democrats' "key excerpts" document implies, but because he knew about what would happen, given "Washington's polarized environment." The Democrats' summary of the document omits this telling exchange between Morrison and chairman Adam Schiff — no doubt, because it damages their case:

THE CHAIRMAN: Okay. I just wanted to follow up a bit on this.

One of the concerns, and there may be an overlap between the first two concerns you mentioned about the caII, and if the call became public. First, you said you wene concerned how it would play out in Washington's polarized environment and, second, how a leak would affect bipartisan support for our Ukrainian partners.

Were those concerns related to the fact that the President asked his Ukrainian countenpart to look into on investigate the Bidens?

MR. MORRISON: No, not specifically.

THE CHAIRMAN: So you didn't think that the President of the United States asking his counterpart to conduct an investigation into a potential opponent in the 2020 election might influence bipartisan support in Congress?

MR. MORRISON: No.

THE CHAIRMAN: And you weren't concerned that the President bringing up one of his political opponents in the Presidential election and asking a favor with respect to the DNC server or 2016 theory, you weren't concerned that those things would cause people to believe that the President was asking his counterpart to conduct an investigation that might influence his reelection campaign?

MR. MORRISON: No.

THE CHAIRMAN: That never occurred to you?

MR. MORRISON: No.

THE CHAIRMAN: Did you recognize during the — as you listened to the call that if Ukraine were to conduct these investigations, that it would inure to the President's political interests?

MR. MORRISON: No.

• Morrison contradicted Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the Democrats' star witness in the closed-door hearings, who reported to Morrison directly. Morrison testified that while he admired his subordinate's patriotism, he was irritated that Vindman failed to report concerns about the call directly to him. He said Vindman never raised concerns that something illegal had happened. He also said he accepted all of Vindman's proposed edits to the call record, contrary to Vindman's testimony. And while he did not think that Vindman was a leaker, he testified: "I had concerns that he did not exercise appropriate judgment as to whom he would say what." He said that Vindman's sloppy practices were partly the result of his own predecessor at the NSC, Dr. Fiona Hill — another one of the Democrats' star witnesses, who, like Morrison, is due to testify publicly this week.
• Morrison testified that other foreign aid being offered by the U.S. at the time was reportedly under review — not just to Ukraine. And he confirmed earlier testimony that the aid being held up did not include the essential Javelin anti-tank missiles, which were being delivered to Ukraine through a separate procurement process.
• Morrison testified that he had no concerns that President Trump asked President Zelensky, during the July 25 phone call, to meet with his personal attorney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
• Morrison kept NSC lawyers informed about what was going on — not because he was concerned Trump had done anything wrong, but because he wanted "to protect the president" from whatever Sondland was doing.

All of these facts are missing in the Democrats' "key excerpts." The Democrats do acknowledge a few exculpatory moments, but downplay them.

For example, the "key excerpts" document includes Morrison's testimony that the transcript of the July 25 call was placed on a more secure server by "mistake" — but focuses on the fact that it was not removed from the more secure server after that.

Morrison also confirmed that the Ukrainians did not know that the aid was being held up until a Politico article appeared on August 28, and he said that Sondland's side conversation with a Ukrainian official in September was "the first time something like this [investigations] had been injected as a condition on the release of the assistance." Democrats include that latter quote, but downplay it.

Similarly, Democrats distorted the testimony of Jennifer Williams, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence, whose testimony was also released on Saturday. Democrats highlighted the fact that Williams testified that she was told by another aide that Trump told Pence to skip Zelensky's inauguration in May — though she did not hear that first-hand.

They quote her as saying the July 25 call "for me shed some light on possible other motivations behind a secunity assistance hold." But they leave out her saying she "didn't have any firsthand knowledge as to the reasoning."

Both Morrison and Williams are scheduled to testify in public hearings before the committee on Tuesday.