Impeachment witness Fiona Hill said she thought Gordon Sondland's testimony about Biden wasn't 'credible'
- Fiona Hill, the former director for Europe and Russia on the National Security Council, said part of US Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland's testimony was "not credible" to her.
- Sondland testified that he hadn't realized over the summer that Hunter was on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma and that an investigation into Burisma involved investigating the Bidens.
- But Hill testified on Thursday that Sondland's claim is "not credible to me."
- Both Sondland and former US Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker testified that they were ignorant of the Biden-Burisma connection despite news reports and Rudy Giuliani's public statements.
- Follow along with our live coverage of the hearings here.
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Fiona Hill, the former director for Europe and Russia on the National Security Council, said part of United States Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland's testimony was "not credible."
Sondland testified on Wednesday that he hadn't realized prior to July that Hunter, the former vice president's son, was on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma and that an investigation into Burisma involved investigating the Bidens.
Sondland said he only learned of the connection between the Ukrainian company and the president's political opponent much after the infamous July 25th phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He didn't give a specific date or the month during which he learned of the connection.
"Are you saying that all this time up until the call you never made the connection between Burisma and the Bidens, you just thought the president and Rudy Giuliani were interested in this one particular Ukrainian company?" Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff asked Sondland on Wednesday. "You never put Burisma together with the Bidens?"
Sondland replied, "I didn't."
But Hill, who dealt with Sondland as he and others worked to pressure Ukraine to investigate Burisma and baseless allegations that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 US election, said on Thursday that Sondland's claim is "not credible" to her.
"It's not credible to me at all that he was oblivious to this," Hill told the Intelligence Committee during her public hearing.
Hill said Sondland's pressure campaign on Ukraine "was improper, and it was inappropriate, and we said that in real time."
Both Sondland and former United States Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker testified that they were ignorant of the Biden-Burisma connection despite the fact that the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, spent months discussing the Bidens and Burisma on national television prior to the July call.