WASHINGTON - In riveting testimony, a former national security official testified Thursday that a U.S. ambassador clearly carried out a `domestic political errand` for Donald Trump on Ukraine, undercutting a main line of the president´s defence in the impeachment inquiry.Fiona Hill told House investigators she came to realize Ambassador Gordon Sondland wasn´t simply operating outside official diplomatic channels, as some assumed, but carrying out instructions from Trump,`He was being involved in a domestic political errand. And we were being involved in national security policy,` she said after a blistering back-and-forth during questioning from Republicans at the House hearing.`And here we are,` Hill said.Testimony from Hill and David Holmes, a State Department adviser in Kyiv, capped an intense week in the historic inquiry and reinforced the central complaint: that Trump used foreign policy for political aims, setting off alarms across the U.S. national security and foreign policy apparatus.Democrats allege Trump was relying on the discredited idea that Ukraine rather than Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election as he sought investigations in return for two things: U.S. military aid that Ukraine needed to fend off Russian aggression, and a White House visit the new Ukrainian president wanted that would demonstrate his backing from the West.One by one, Hill took on Trump´s defences.She and Holmes both told House investigators it was abundantly clear Trump´s lawyer Rudy Giuliani was pursuing political investigations of Democrats and Joe Biden in Ukraine.`He was clearly pushing forward issues and ideas that would, you know, probably come back to haunt us and in fact,` Hill testified. `I think that´s where we are today.`And Hill stood up for Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the Army officer who testified earlier and whom Trump´s allies tried to discredit. He is at the White House National Security Council, where she worked until this summer.At one point, Republican ...
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