In a stark departure from previous impeachment witnesses, Timothy Morrison, a former deputy assistant to the president and the National Security Council’s former senior director for Europe and Russia, delivered an opening statement of fewer than two pages on Tuesday.
Morrison, who listened in on the call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that formed the central part of the intelligence community whistleblower complaint sparking the Democrat-led impeachment investigation, said, “I feared at the time of the call on July 25th how its disclosure would play in Washington’s political climate. My fears have been realized.”
The former NSC official, who resigned his post on the same day he spoke behind closed doors with congressional investigators, seemed to believe the impeachment proceedings were a distraction.
“I understand the gravity of these proceedings, but I beg you to not lose sight of the military conflict underway in Eastern Ukraine today, the ongoing illegal occupation of Crimea, and the importance of reform of Ukraine’s politics and economy,” Morrison testified. “Every day that the focus of the discussion involving Ukraine is centered on these proceedings instead of those matters is a day when we are not focused on interests Ukraine, the United States, and Western-style liberalism share.”
During the call, Zelensky expressed interest in purchasing anti-tank weaponry known as Javelins from the U.S., but Trump asked Zelensky “to do us a favor though” by looking into CrowdStrike and possible Ukrainian election interference in 2016. The president also urged Zelensky to investigate “the other thing,” referring to allegations of corruption related to Joe and Hunter Biden. Trump told Zelensky to speak with Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr about it.
Morrison previously testified he immediately spoke with lawyers on the NSC, asking them to review the call, and said NSC legal adviser John Eisenberg decided to move the call transcript to a highly classified server, which he characterized as a “mistake” that hadn’t been fixed as of late September.
Morrison said U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland briefed Trump about the call before it happened and said then-national security adviser John Bolton later advised him to report any issues to lawyers. He also described a Sept. 7 phone call where he said Sondland said that “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 Sondland, along with Giuliani, was helping lead a “second track” of U.S. foreign policy than the one being carried out by Chargé d’Affaires for Ukraine William Taylor and former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, who testified alongside him Tuesday.
Morrison’s Tuesday afternoon appearance followed morning testimony from Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, one of Morrison’s subordinates on the NSC, who also heard the Trump-Zelensky call. While behind closed doors, Morrison testified he had concerns about Vindman’s judgment and noted others on the NSC team, including the NSC’s former senior director for Europe and Russia, Fiona Hill, were wary of Vindman, too.
Morrison previously testified that, although he never suspected Vindman of leaking, others brought the concern about Vindman to him. Vindman testified he doesn’t know who the whistleblower is, though it’s speculated Vindman is cited as a source in the whistleblower complaint. Vindman’s lawyer and congressional Democrats blocked questions into who he spoke with about the July 25 call.
“I do not know who the whistleblower is, nor do I intend to speculate as to who the individual may be,” Morrison said Tuesday.
