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(Cont.)
Department of Defense official Laura Cooper testified that Ukrainian officials inquired about the withheld aid on the same day as the Trump-Zelensky call.
In a blow to GOP defenses of President Donald Trump, a Defense Department official said Wednesday the Ukrainian government asked what was going on with U.S. military aid as early as July 25 the very day that Trump asked Ukraines president to investigate Democrats.

During Dr. Fiona Hill's testimony she debunked the Ukrainian election interference conspiracy theory pushed by President Trump, stating that "this is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves."
Based on questions and statements I have heard some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country. And that perhaps, somehow for some reason, Ukraine did. This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves. The unfortunate truth is that Russia was the foreign power that systematically attacked our democratic institutions in 2016. This is the public conclusion of our own intelligence agencies, confirmed in bipartisan Congressional reports. It is beyond dispute, even if some of the underlying details must remain classified. The impact of the successful 2016 Russian campaign remains evident today. Our nation is being torn apart. Truth is questioned. Our highly professional and expert career foreign service is being undermined.
U.S. support for Ukrainewhich continues to face armed Russian aggressionhas been politicized. The Russian governments goal is to weaken our countryto diminish Americas global role and to neutralize a perceived U.S. threat to Russian interests. President Putin and the Russian security services aim to counter U.S. foreign policy objectives in Europe, including in Ukraine, where Moscow wishes to reassert political and economic dominance. I say this not as an alarmist, but as a realist. I do not think long-term conflict with Russia is either desirable or inevitable. I continue to believe that we need to seek ways of stabilizing our relationship with Moscow even as we counter their efforts to harm us. Right now, Russias security services and their proxies have geared up to repeat their interference in the 2020 election. We are running out of time to stop them. In the course of this investigation, I would ask that you please not promote politically driven falsehoods that so clearly advance Russian interests.

Following GOP counsel's questioning Dr. Hill outlined how a parallel diplomatic line was established by President Trump as he had Ambassador Sondland and Giuliani carry out a domestic political errand, diverging from official U.S. policy in Ukraine. Ranking Member Nunes cut off the questioning as the answers were damaging to Trump.
What I was angry about was that he wasnt coordinating with us, Hill said, referring to the National Security Council. And what I realized was, listening to his deposition, that he was absolutely right. He wasnt coordinating with us because we werent doing the same thing that he was doing.
Hill then contrasted the kind of work that she and other NSC officials were doing and the kind of work Sondland was performing.
He was involved in a domestic political errand, she said. And we were being involved in national security foreign policy, and those two things had just diverged.
She then relayed to Sondland how she believed this divergence in policy goals was all going to blow up and then added, And here we are.

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Official nosy neighbor and gossip
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