InfoSearched
Published -
- November 20, 2019
- 9:24 pm
Expected soon:
Fiona Hill, Trump’s top adviser on Russia, and David Holmes, a State Department official, will testify during the House Intelligence Committee’s fifth day of impeachment hearings.
Who is Fiona Hill and what is her role in the impeachment hearings?
On November 19, 2019, the fifth day of the impeachment hearings, the House Intelligence Committee heard testimony from Fiona Hill, a former senior director for Europe and Russia at the National Security Council. Hill is the first witness to testify on Tuesday, and her testimony is highly anticipated as she worked closely with the former National Security Adviser, John Bolton.
The impeachment proceedings are centered around President Donald Trump’s alleged abuse of power regarding his supposed soliciting of foreign interference in the upcoming 2020 presidential election. Specifically, the President has been accused of withholding military aid from Ukraine in exchange for its government publicly announcing investigations into his political rival, Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Several witnesses, including US diplomats and officials, have testified to these allegations over the past week.
Distinguished academic and former government official, Fiona Hill, will testify to offer her first-hand accounts and expertise on the situation in Ukraine and Russia. Hill, who is originally from the United Kingdom, previously worked at the Brookings Institution and was a member of the National Intelligence Council. She was appointed by President Trump to serve on the National Security Council in 2017, where she worked until July 2019.
Hill is expected to testify about the former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s skepticism towards President Trump’s policy towards Ukraine, as well as her own concerns about irregular channels of communication used by Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. She cited her concerns regarding Giuliani’s involvement in the matter in her deposition last month, arguing that it could damage long-standing U.S. national security interests.
As the impeachment inquiry enters its second week, congressional investigators are tasked with gathering evidence and testimony to determine whether President Trump committed impeachable offences. Democrats are reportedly pursuing a “fast-moving” political timeline and aiming to draft articles of impeachment in early December, while the Republicans remain firmly supportive of the President.
Regardless of the outcome of the inquiry, the implications of this impeachment hearing extend far beyond American politics. The allegations of abuse of power and corruption by President Trump, and the use of foreign government to investigate a political rival, undermines the very foundations of America’s democratic process. It is therefore essential that the inquiry proceedings are conducted with impartially, transparency, and seriousness.
In conclusion, the impeachment hearing of Fiona Hill is an essential step in the ongoing investigation into the conduct of the US President Donald Trump. The expert testimony and insightful analysis provided by Hill will likely shed light on the nature of the informal channels of communication established with Ukraine by Trump’s allies, the links between U.S. policy towards Ukraine and other U.S. national security interests, and the validity of the witnesses’ allegations of abuse of power by the President. The public must pay close attention to these hearings to understand the implications of these allegations for the future of democracy and accountability in the United States.
