Those who had better things to do may have received the impression, watching the (((controlled media))) news recaps, that the big shock of the day was former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch choking up when told that Still-President Trump had said nasty things about her, and was doing so, on Twitter, even as she spoke!The chief reason for Ms Yovanovitch's appearance seemed to be to give her an opportunity to vent about the shock and dismay she felt when she was fired by President Trump "for no reason". She didn't actually try (as Tucker Carlson had predicated) but did appear terribly, terribly hurt.
Ms Yovanovitch gave no evidence, not even hearsay, about telephone calls made by President Trump to Ukrainian President Zelensky or to other US State Department hacks. Nor did she say anything about "quid pro quo" or "bribery". None of the allegations which the House Intelligence Committee [sic] is supposed to be investigating happened on her watch.
But she did spill the beans about something that happened while she was still Ambassador to the Ukraine, namely the firing of that country's top prosecutor, who, according to Ms Yovanovitch, was investigating the affairs of Burisma Holdings, thereby causing some embarrassment for one of its directors -- Hunter Biden -- and his father, Old Joe Biden, the presidential wannabe.
The HIC asked Ms Yovanovitch about the status of the Ukrainian government's probe into corruption at Burisma when Joe Biden pushed for the ouster of Viktor Shokin, the country’s prosecutor general, in 2016. In response, she admitted that conflicts of interest between the former vice-president and his youngest son were topics of concern for Obama administration officials during her confirmation as ambassador to Ukraine in 2016.
Her admission that Mr Shokin was looking for a "hook" with which to prosecute Burisma and its founder, Mykola Zlocvesky, undermines a central argument Biden père has made to defend his conduct. Since the story became central to the impeachment inquiry, Old Joe and his allies have tried to argue that the investigation into Burisma was dormant at the time of his firing and therefore the ouster of Mr Shokin actually improved the chances that the company would face stricter scrutiny. Besides, that was all done while the Prez was in office, so it was OK... nothing like the kind of meddling in the affairs of a foreign country of which President Trump is accused. Got it?
Not televised for some reason [nudge-nudge, wink-wink. Ed] was the testimony of David Holmes, the aide who claims that, while eating at a restaurant in Kiev, he overheard President Trump talking on the phone with Gordon Sondland, US Ambassador to the European Union. See "Impeachment hearings: a word about hearsay", WWW 15/11/19 (includes video). Mr Trump's end of the conversation must have been difficult for Mr Holmes to hear, but (he says) he clearly overheard Mr Sondland telling President Trump that President Zelensky "loves your ass."We can only speculate as to whether Mr Sondland was revealing an aspect to the Trump-Zelensky relationship which no-one would ever have suspected. Perhaps Mr Holmes didn't hear a key word. Perhaps Mr Sondland told the President that "Zelensky loves your wife's ass." [Makes more sense to me! Ed.] Or perhaps Mr Sondland was just speaking figuratively.
Other than that, Mr Holmes' testimony added little, serving to confirm only that Mr Trump was indeed interested in Ukraine undertaking "investigations" into 2016 election interference and the circumstances in which former Vice-President Joe Biden forced the ouster of prosecutor Shokin. Mr Holmes' testimony may also have violated rules around classified and privileged communications, but since Donald Trump is the target, that's OK with Adam Schiff and the other Dumbocrats on the HIC.
That's enough drivel for this week. Enjoy your weekend.
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