The fifth – and final? – day of public impeachment hearings is drawing to a close. Here are five key takeaways:
1 Ukraine scheme ‘very clear’
In perhaps the most meticulous testimony yet, Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council official, testified it was “very clear” that US officials had made a White House meeting for the Ukrainian president contingent on an announcement of investigations into Joe Biden and 2016 election interference.
“It became very clear the White House meeting itself was being predicated on other issues, namely investigations and the questions about the election interference in 2016,” she said.
2 A ‘domestic political errand’ in Ukraine
Hill said she clashed with Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, who was one of the officials working to consummate the scheme. Sondland “was being involved in a domestic political errand, and we were involved in national security policy, and the two had diverged,” she said.
“I did say to him, ‘Ambassador Sondland, Gordon, this is going to blow up’. And here we are.”
3 ‘It was obvious what the president was pressing for’
David Holmes, a state department aide in Kiev, described a cell phone conversation at a restaurant in which he overheard Trump ask Sondland about “investigations” and heard Sondland tell Trump the Ukrainians had agreed to them.
Everyone in the embassy in Kiev came to understand that Rudy Giuliani and Trump were pressing Ukraine to announce an investigation related to Joe Biden, Holmes said: “It was obvious what the president was pressing for.”
4 Hill warns Republicans not to spread Russian propaganda
Hill warned Republicans to stop peddling Russian propaganda in the form of conspiracy theories that Ukraine tampered in the 2016 presidential election. “I would ask that you please not promote politically driven falsehoods that so clearly advance Russian interests,” she said.
Nevertheless the top Republican on the committee, Devin Nunes, and others pursued lines of questioning to advance various strands of the theory.
5 What comes next
After five days and 12 public witnesses, the public phase of impeachment hearings appeared to draw to a close. In concluding remarks, Nunes called the hearings “a show trial.”
But House intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff said that the mountain of witness testimony added up to a compelling and urgent case that “Trump put his personal and political interest above the United States”. The committee was expected to begin work immediately on a report to be submitted to the judiciary committee, which could then draft and vote on articles of impeachment.
