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By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Thursday, November 21, 2019

Fiona Hill, the National Security Council’s former senior director for Europe and Russia, and David Holmes, an official from the American embassy in Ukraine, are sworn in prior to testifying before the House Intelligence Committee in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill November 21, 2019 in Washington, DC. | Getty Images/Win McNamee

Holmes says Ukraine felt pressured to stay in Trump's favor

David Holmes, a staffer at the embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, testified on Thursday that the Eastern European nation felt an implicit pressure to stay in the good favor of the Trump administration.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff asked Holmes if he was acknowledging that “Ukraine very much felt pressured to undertake these investigations that the president or Rudy Giuliani or Ambassador Sondland and others were demanding.”

“Yes, sir,” responded Holmes, as reported by The Hill. “although the hold on the security assistance may have been lifted, there were other things [Ukraine] wanted that they weren’t getting, including a meeting with the president in the Oval Office.”

“Whether the security systems hold continued or not, the Ukrainians understood that was something the president wanted, and they still wanted important things from the president, and I think that continues to this day.”