David Holmes, a State Department official at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, acknowledged during his impeachment testimony Thursday that Ukraine needed U.S. support during the period earlier this year when military aid was frozen — and that environment continues to this day.
"Whether the security assistance hold continued or not, Ukraine understood that [investigations were] something the president wanted and they still wanted important things from the president. So I think that continues to this day, I think they're being very careful. They still need us now going forward."
The big picture: EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland testified that he never heard directly from President Trump that the military aid was conditioned on an announcement of investigations, saying that assumption was his "own personal guess."
- He later added, "By the 8th of September, it was abundantly clear to everyone that there was a link."
- Sondland refused to say whether he believed Trump's assertion in a Sept. 9 phone call that there was no quid pro quo involving the military aid: "I was just trying to convey what [the president] said on the phone."
Go deeper: Live updates on Fiona Hill and Holmes' impeachment testimony