let's release all the remaining transcripts including mark sandy, david holmes because mark sandy answer that he gave yesterday made for a very bad day and for those who are pushing the impeachment. >> you say what you heard yesterday is going to blow away the adam schiff narrative? >> yeah, they had the quid pro quo narrative and that reached the dead in and then they changed excursion last sunday and during the week they changed to the bribery and stopped using quid pro quo and extortion. so there was a hole in the facts, we are to have the whole but this is a deeper bigger hole because this is mark sandy who is a political appointee and a career employee who has been in the government for decades and his answer was candid, genuine, believable and he asked why there was a hold on to ukraine and it does not fit the narrative of adam schiff. >> you want these transcript were free ask questions or going to the public hearings next week. congressman, you've had such courage and leadership since you took the job in congress. you are also one of two who have voted against the inquiry to begi

"the post" reports that mark sandy was among the career staffers who raised questions about the hold up on the aid. and speaker pelosi kicked her rhetoric up a notch today using the word bribery to describe trump's actions towards ukraine going further than she ever has before. >> the devastating testimony corroborated evidence of bribery uncovered in the inquiry and that the president abused power and violated his oath by threatening to withhold military aid in a white house meeting in exchange for an investigation into his political rival. the bribe is to grant or with hold military assistance in return for a public statement of a fake investigation into the elections. that's bribery. >> that's bribery. pelosi's remarks come just days after house intelligence committee chairman adam schiff told npr that trump's potentially impeachable offenses include bribery. and notably the u.s. constitution explicitly names two impeachable offenses, treason and bribery. and as "the new york times" writes pelosi's use of the word bribery is significant because it's suggested that democrats are in

mark sandy is saying he's going to testify. and he given his job would appear to be super important to the story because he appears to be the nonpartisan technocrattic expert career official who did noilgsally sign-off on holding up this aid to ukraine on the president's orders and we believe expressing what the president orders was illegal, he appears to be the guy they had to push out, who they had to replace with the former executive director of the wisconsin republican party, the guy who would be happy to sign-off on keeping ukraine from getting its military assistance even if the career expert staff thought that was illegal to do so. now the acareer expert staff guy has agreed to testify. his lawyer telling "the washington post" tonight, quote, if he is subpoenaed he will appear. quote, mr. sandy was among the career staffers who raised questions about the hold up on the aid, and his role gave him responsibility for signing the documents required to hold it up. sandy's signature appears on at least one of these so-called a

well obviously they're stepping up to build upon, including the testimony from mark sandy. abigail, your take on that? >> here's a career official, similar to george kent, bill taylor and marie yovanovitch. he's one of the individuals who actually signed one of the appropriation documents about the hold on this military aid. and interestingly, over you know last week, on wednesday evening democrats had a closed-door meeting where they went over some polling. what they found was that the american public sort of understands what is going on in the impeachment inquiry in broad terms. but they don't quite understand this military aid portion of it. so what democrats need to do is make that more salient. make them understand it and show them mark sandy who had this up-close relationship to the information and the hold to make that point and try to get that out into the public discourse around impeachment. >> okay, guys i want to go through a second headline we have. that being the take-aways from marie yovanovitch's testimony. among them were the consistent gop effort to counter

well, mark sandy's deposition gives us more color about what was happening behind the scenes at omb. he testified he told omb lawyers and leadership the order which came without explanation may very well have violated the law. and two staffers left after expressing frustrations about the hold on ukrainian aid. he spent it last several hours combing through these transcripts. josh, i think there were 400 pages -- speed-reader. what did you learn? what was the most important detail? >> a lot of reading to go through tonight, katey, but it was worth it because we had new information we did not have before. the new information being we now know there was not one but two officials within the white house budget office who resigned at least in part because they were so concerned about what was happening with the suspension in ukraine aid. and i want to she you exactly what mark sandy said about one of those people who resigned, a legal advisor, someone who was an attorney in the white house budget office. and he was asked in his deposition are you aware of any individual in the legal divisi

let's release all the remaining transcripts including mark sandy, david holmes because mark sandy answered that he gave yesterday to the question made for a very bad day for those who are pushing impeachment. >> the view is that sandy said duffy one to go through the appropriation that's why this was held on. >> that's the difficulty that he outlined, some officials are testifying and they have not seen what other people have said such as gordon sondland, they find themselves having a little bit of trouble, gordon sondland had to go back and amend his testimony reflecting he did recall certain details that he earlier said that he did not have any knowledge of. without those transcripts, people could be getting that the lawmakers already know the answer to that will happen behind closed doors but the person being asked does not kn know. >> witnesses this coming week gordon sondland basic with a big star of the whole week. wilson see what happens. >> be sure to stick around after our newscast, "fox news sunday" will be on, chris wallace has an exclusive interview and will sit down with house

the first letter withholding of funds was signed by mark sandy. by july 30th, five days later, sandy says his boss took over responsibilities for allocating that aid. duffy, his boss is not a career official like sandy. duffy is a political appointee. sandy testified all throughout the month s of july and august, why aid was being withheld. and it was not until the time the hold on aid was lifted in early september that mark sandy heard for the first time, the rational for the home that you are familiar with. the president was concerned about other countries not providing as much aid to ukraine as the u.s. does. finally, two budget staffers at the office of management and budget expressed frustration about the unexplainable on this ukrainian aid. one official told sandy there were legal agency at least in part because of their concerns over the whole. >> joining us now our leig leigh ann caldwell and jill wine-banks. welcome both of you. jill, i want to start with the newest information we have. the reporting that the president was being looked at

it's my understanding you know mark sandy. michael, can you tell me about him? >> sure. yeah. i mean, mark -- i've worked -- we didn't overlap at omb but he came right over and i've worked with mark. she a dedicated career official. one of the highest level career officials at omb. you have to understand they're 92%, 93% career. look, he was trying to do the right thing. i think there are questions about -- it's odd that he was asked to execute this portion or this hold on the ukraine aid but not given any explanation of why. >> hmm. >> and, look. i think that's -- that is -- you know, it raises questions about the whole process. >> sure. sure. and you know, looking at your resume, you have crazy extensive experience when it comes to congressional investigations. you know, the white house is weighing not as jeremy reported, weighing not participating in the first impeachment hearing with the judiciary committee next week. would you advise that? >> look, i think that the american people and congress want to hear from the president's team, and want to hear their perspective. i d

>> mark sandy is as career official at the office of management and budget. he's not as political appointee of president trump. he decided to defy the order, trying to present all of these lawyers testifying. it was the omb that was involved and stopping the $400 million aid from flowing into ukraine. the aid went to ukraine but there was a delay, it was ordered according to reporting by the president, sets forth by mulvaney and the omb director and mr. sandy should shed much more light and details in the process inside. and what the system was for documenting that. >> we should repeat these witnesses that have come forward are about to appear in these hearings. they are not limited in their testimony to what's on the deposition indeed, mr. taylor, gave us new details we did not know. what is yovanovitch likely able to add to the story tomorrow? >> well, what she does not know a lot about is what happened after she left. so she does not have a lot of visibility on july 5th phone call. she knows a lot about what happens leading up to her firing and the campaig

a career official sandy mark sandy raises concerns with a senior omb official in the middle of july about is this legal, can we do this. july 30th, 12 days after sandy raised some concerns, a political aide michael duffy takes over the process. duffy signs documents holding up the aid. the white house will say nothing wrong here, we just decided to have michael duffy take over. but if you track what happened with ambassador yovanovitch and the career people being shoved aside in the earlier dispute, here's another case where somebody raises his hand, says i think this is wrong and a political person comes in and does what the president wants. >> and this new revelation by the "new york times" that the president was actually aware of the whistleblower complaint, which begs the question would they have released the aid had the president not known? was this something that made them concerned and prompted them to release the aid? this is very important to answer. >> it's the democrats' argument that they got caught. the president has a chance to counter that. he won't let any of these people

up next, mark sandy testifying behind closed doors. what we know about his testimony and how it could affect the impeachment hearing. office of management and budget will join us next. will join us next. ♪ exxonmobil is growing algae for biofuels. that could one day power planes, propel ships, and fuel trucks... and cut their greenhouse gas emissions in half. algae. its potential just keeps growing. ♪ (groans) hmph... (food grunting menacingly) when the food you love doesn't love you back, stay smooth and fight heartburn fast with tums smoothies. ♪ tum tum-tum tum tums high protein. low sugar. tastes great! high protein. low sugar. so good! high protein. low sugar. mmmm, birthday cake! pure protein. the best combination for every fitness routine. (honk!) i hear you sister. that's why i'm partnering with cigna to remind you to go in for your annual check-up, and be open with your doctor about anything you feel - physically and emotionally. but now cigna has a plan that can help everyone see stress differently. just find a period o

that's why democrats wanted mark sandy up here on the hill a top budget official. they hope he can show them something, some piece of evidence that no other witness could. tonight, another crack in the white house impeachment firewall, with career budget official mark sandy defying the white house, spending more than five hours behind closed doors with house investigators. >> we want to know exactly how the president translated his political objective to shake down the ukrainian government for the favors he wanted, translated into the budget process. >> reporter: sandy on the hill to offer insight into the decision to delay military aid to ukraine. aid that included weapons like this, anti-armor systems and mor tars, and u.s. military trainers which were eventually delivered but democrats allege the $400 million of military aid was held up by the president who tried to use it as leverage to pressure ukraine to investigate former vice president joe biden and his son, hunter. republicans today digging in in defense of the president. >> you know, that's a thing about

. >> a closed door deposition with omb official mark sandy just finishing. new transcripts just coming out at the top of the hour about 20 minutes ago, that of testimony given by timothy morrison, that's one we have, as well as jennifer williams. we are looking at about 20 pages that we are going through right now. >> according to congressman adam schiff, the testimony shows that president trump's july 25th phone call with ukrainian president zelensky immediately set off alarm bells throughout the white house. >> democrats are now gearing up for a busy week of public hearings of what could be pivotal testimony from eight witnesses. >>> so our reporters and analysts they are ready to go through all the new developments in this impeachment inquiry. so the first big headline to address this hour, brand-new transcripts released of closed-door testimony from jennifer williams an aide to vice president mike pence and tim morrison the former national security council's russia and europe director. williams telling investigators that the call was, quote, unusual and

his name is mark sandy. he's expected to talk about the holdup, brief holdup of military aid to ukraine. our senior capitol producer is on the hill. chad you've been working around the clock and now a rare time on saturday they're working behind closed doors. what do we know how it's playing out. >> that tells you a lot just the fact that you'd have someone come up on a saturday morning for a deposition underscores the importance of this official. central to the democrats' argument about impeachment here is there's a reason why aid to ukraine was held up. this whole idea of trying to investigate the bidens, there's a reason why they want to hear from mark sandy today. keep in mind they've been trying to get other omb officials in the door including the actor director, and the acting director of omb, mick mulvaney, he was subpoenaed, so far no dice on that, ed. ed: interesting. late last night after everything, we'll talk in a moment about what happened in public yesterday. in private, after the hearing ended

now, as i say, they have just concluded the deposition of the omb official, mark sandy here, and i talked with eric swail sws well, he was in the room for the deposition this morning. he said what is remarkable about the investigation is that it is driven by witness accounts. someone who was not in the deposition this morning is adam schiff, the chairman of the intelligence committee. he was at a democratic nominating convention in long beach, california. he had a lot to say about this week of testimony and depositions. listen. >> you will forgive me if i'm a bit exhausted. it's been an eventful week. there is a reason he pressed the president of ukraine to interfere in our election on july 25th and that is because he listened to the testimony of robert mueller on july 24th. there is nothing more dangerous than an unethical president who believes he is above the law. >> reporter: i was checking my phone while we were listening to adam schiff to see if there's any more information that's come in on the transcripts. nothing yet. they released 3 yo 3,075 pages f those transcripts so far. i'v

that official is named mark sandy, and he spoke with impeachment investigators. why? all right. we'll get into that in just a bit. but the time line is what matters. tonight the "times" is reporting that in late august, before it was known to the public -- that's key -- white house lawyers told the president about the whistle-blower complaint. now, we had heard that there had been communication interagency about the whistle-blower and what to do and what they had, but not this far, that the president himself knew. they didn't yet know what the information would come to, whether it would go to congress or not. it wasn't until september 9th when congress launched the investigation. that same day, trump's million dollar donor turned eu pa ambassador called the president. reeve this? >> i believe i just asked him an open ended question. what do you want from ukraine? i keep hearing all these different ideas and theories and this and that. what do you want? it was a very short, abrupt conversation. he was not in a good mood. he said, i want nothing. i want nothing. i want no quid pro

mark sandy. that of course is one the offices that mulvaney runs along with being acting chief of staff. he said he had never before seen an official do that. and he raised questions about whether that violated the control act of of 1974. >> you know the sad thing is this is supposed to be delivered. wh why wasn't it delivered? i think rank and file officials are wondering what is the hold up? this is not a normal process. er it wasn't delivered and apparently for domestic political reasons. the president wanted some leverage over ukraine to get dirt on joe biden. >> that point is an important one. because part of the argument to justify the hold is that'ser the natural part opolicy, which isn't persuasive at all. it was signed into law by the president. dotting the i's, crossing the t's and cutting the check. >> that's why mulvaney to get back the original question. because he is the act omb director. and this is the kujal. the leverage trump had to extract what he wanted from the president off

sandy. sandy was involved in implementing the president's hold back of security aid to ukraine last summer, and he's the only budget official to testify in the house inquiry. he testified he received the order to freeze aid to ukraine by e-mail, noting the e-mail did not mention any other country nor any other aid package. it targeted just ukraine. he testified that throughout all of july and august he could get no explanation for why the hold was put in place. it wasn't until early september that sandy received an e-mail that attributed the hold to the president's concern about other countries not contributing more to ukraine. his testimony appears consistent with the reporting from "the washington post" that the white house had engaged in extensive efforts to generate an after the fact justification for the decision to freeze that money to ukraine. sandy also testified he's aware of the two former staffers who left the omb at least in part from concerns related to that aid freezing in ukra

. >> take a look at the private deposition yesterday from mark sandy, and you were at, and he is the first omb official to testify, and this what congressman lee zelden said after. >> in order to put out a new shiny object with the moving goalpost, and the speaker started to use bribery, because extortion fizzled out, and quid pro quo fizzled out before that, and the answer today, and the answers given today as it relates to that only further drives a bigger hole into that argument. this is a great day for our country, and i mean, it is a bad day for democrats. >> i am going to guess that you disagree with that. and can you tell me the impact that sandy's testimony had on the democrat's arguments? >> well, we have been asked not to specifically cite exchanges and questions and answers in depositions until such time as the depositions are released. as evidenced by our behavior, the depositions are being produced and as timely a fashion as possibly, and made available to the public as was the case yesterday and that is the case with mr. sandy's deposition as well. i would however in a

. >> and a few hours from now, white house budget first mark sandy is expected to testify. he's expected to talk about what he knows about the decision to hold up ukraine. >>> and roger stone found guilty on seven counts including lying, witness tampering, and obstruction. >> and the lawyers are taking a matter to the supreme court asking to block riis returns on two cases now. >>> covering the impeachment from all angles now. our reporters are spread out across washington. good to see you. we warrant to start out with kristen holmes out on capitol hill. david holmes' testimony, talk about what we've learned, and good morning. >> good morning, christi. we talked to a lot of democrats who think this testimony is critical. let's take a step back and look at who david holmes is. he's a staffer at the ukrainian embassy and earlier this week he overheard a conversation between president trump and the ambassador to ukraine gordon sondland about the investigations. i want to set the scene. he says he was at a meal with sondland and two other staffers when sondland placed a call to

sandy from the office of management and budget is intentionally withholding key information from the american public. the transcript should have been released before this morning's hearing even kicked off. >> and he said that there was a -- >> the house intelligence committee breaking for 30 minutes after four hours of testimony this morning from the u.s. ambassador to the european union's gordon sondland. when they come back the chair, adam schiff, says they'll begin the five-minute rounds with the members of the committee. there are 22 lawmakers on that committee. we are looking at another hour and a half, two hours of testimony with the u.s. ambassador to the e.u. we want to get your reaction to what you have heard so far. numbers are on the screen. we'll get your calls in just a minute. first here's president trump earlier today with his reaction to mr. sondland's testimony. president trump: just quick comments on what's going on in terms of testimony with ambassador sondland. i just noticed one thing and i would say that means it's all over. what do you want from ukraine? he ask

he is mark sandy, a veteran of the white house budget office. and a source familiar with his testimony says sandy told lawmakers he was confused, didn't know why the 400 million in military funds to ukraine were suddenly frozen, but sandy did provide a possible clue. he said a political appointee, michael duffy, insisted on taking over the ukraine account and signed some documents putting that security assistance on holiday. sandy toughed that duffy's actions were an unusual departure from the normal budget process. here's cnn's lauren fox with details of those deposition transcripts that just dropped. >> reporter: on saturday, we got new details about timors morris who testified last month that he came to understand that eu ambassador gordon sondland was getting direction from trump. morrison testified behind closed doors that he believed that sondland and president trump had spoken approximately five times between july 25th, the date of that phone call between president zelinsky and president trump and september 11th, when nearly $400 million

who exactly is mark sandy and why is his testimony considered to be so key right now? >> reporter: kendis, he's a career official at the budget office. the way one democrat explained, nos providing sexy testimony but the person that can take a political plot by donald trump to withhold this money from ukraine and translate it through the bureaucracy in actual action. someone whose desk the paperwork would have had to pass to send the $400 million, a portion of it to ukraine or stop it. explaining the government machinery behind the scenes that put this plot into action. it speaks to the importance we're standing here on a saturday and that now having already started the public phase of the inquire, a step back making sure they get information from all potential witnesses behind closed doors first. >> sandy is testifying after receiving a subpoena. right? from congress? >> reporter: this has become commonplace here even for witnesses who probably would have come without them, but, yes. sandy received a subpoena overnight. remember, the administration put up a firewall a

mark sandy. an attorney for the omb says that he'll testify behind closed doors on saturday if he is subpoenaed. breaking ranks with the acting director and two others who have refused to testify. this is all new information. and this is a big deal. let me tell you why, because omb is responsible for releasing that $400 million in aid for ukraine. aid that multiple officials say was held up to pressure ukraine into giving the president investigations that would benefit him politically here at home. that as he is holding a rally in alabama tonight. you can almost set your watch by it. he feels threatened then he holds a rallied. the president's republican defenders grasping at some pretty flimsy straws right now. they would have you believe that there is no there, there. there's senator lindsey graham who in a previous life was clinton impeachment manager, but now says the whole thing is over and done with for him after just one day of hearings. >> i'm really over with this. this whole thing is a

mark sandy told lawmakers that two officials at the office of management and budget had left jobs and both had concerns that military aid to ukraine was held up. back with jeffrey gergen appear jeffrey koob toobin a devastated urban process. it's not a big deal says the. but when two government officials quit over concerns that's kind of a big deal. >> again it's a cumulative set of facts. this alone doesn't prove anything. but it's yet another fact that shows how out of the ordinary in was, how improper it was, and how the people responsible to actually follow the law were upset about it. >> and mick mulvaney gave the famous news conference mot just acting chief of staff but still has authority over omb. he told the country we should all get over it. but people within his agency, omb they clearly weren't getting over it, kirsten. >> no, and i mean it's not, the fact that you had multiple people quit over this i think is important information. but there was also a lot of concerns, a memo written, you know concerns that this violates the law, that the -- there was pretty much nobody ot

a transcript of mark sandy's transcript was released yesterday. he told his boss withholding the aid may actually violate federal law. according to the testimony, two people left their job in part because of this. >>> there's one big difference this time, president trump and his lawyers have been cordially invited to attend. let's bring in cnn senior politics adviser. good morning to you. on the front page of "the new york times," a story that is maybe not something the president is going to be giving thanks for. it shows sort of this timeline and what might have been going on when the president finally decided to unfreeze that aid. there were questions there about the legality and the timing of withholding that military aid. what do we know? >> we already know the aid was released essentially just after the congress found out about the whistle-blower report, so it was already kind of fishy. but now if this "new york times" report is correct, we know that president trump actually knew about the whistle-blower long before, which makes it that much

"the washington post" reports that mark sandy, a career employee over at the office of management and budget will appear in a closed door session with lawmakers on saturday if subpoenaed. this has been confirmed by nbc news. "the post" writes he would be the first omb employee to testify in the inquiry after omb acting director russell t. vought and two other political appointees at the agency defied. some $400 million in military and security aid to ukraine was held up. they go onto add he was among the career staffers who raised questions about the hold-up on the aid. this comes ahead of the public hearing of this investigation of course which begins in less than 12 hours now. tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. the former ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch will appear before the house intel committee. she was abruptly removed from her post earlier this year. while it is not unusual in that line of work for ambassadors to be recalled, in her closed door testimony, she told investigation investigators there was quote "a certain campaign against me and that the department had been under pressu

but also the idea that mark sandy, this career official, signed off on the initial letter holding the aid. but he did not sign off on future letters holding the aid. his portfolio was essentially taken over by a political appointee. that was a concern from a lot of lawmakers. one thing democrats who released the summary document today said is there was basically an egregious abuse of power by the omb to implement this hold. it's one of the open questions we've had throughout the course of this process. >> cnn's phil mattingly reporting from washington. with the next round of public hearings set for next week, democrats are renewing their calls for top administration officials to testify. cnn's jim acosta has that. >> reporter: any response to jerry nadler? >> reporter: leaving the white house to spend thanksgiving in florida, president trump ignored questions about what's waiting for him after his holiday break. house judiciary committee chairman jerry nadler's plans for new hearings in the impeachment inquiry. while acknowledging in a tweet that he stalled military aid to ukraine as

let me move to mark sandy, the career employ at the omb. the profile of someone sign off on the documents related take the military aid to ukraine saying a political appointee was brought in to sign some of the documents. white house omb spokesperson said the idea that administration officials would not be involved in budget execution is absolutely ludicrous. what do we learn from the addition of this political appoint i did nee to this proce? >> if you believe the allegations this was some conspiracy to get ukraine to do personal political investigations for the benefit of the president and in order to accomplish that, they, one, had to move the ambassador out of ukraine so that she was not a road block. and then, two, they had to sort of decrease the value of the career people in omb to put a political person in there to do the bidding of the president. so you have potentially this consistency between the removable of the ambassador, a krerl person who was not about to do their bidding, the removal from the front line of the omb people to

sandy testified that two budget officials left their jobs, at least in part over concerns about the freeze in ukraine military aid lester >> kristen welker, at the white house, thank you. >>> there is an urgent search forvirthqke rocked albania the death toll has climbed to at least 23 hundreds are injured richard engel now with the video of the dramatic rescue mission. >> reporter: this 11-year-old boy had been sleeping when the quake struck at 4:00 a.m. his legs trapped under the rubble rescuers today were eventually able to free him he survived because his grandmother reportedly sheltered him from the falling debris at the cost of her life this video inside a store in albania's capital showing the moment the magnitude 6.4 quake struck 20 miles away from the epicenter, the quake was powerful enough to pancake many buildings, including this hotel the boy plucked from the broken concrete is expected to recover. rescue workers say searching for more maryland men will get to have thanksgiving with their families after they were released from prison, cleared of a murder they didn't com

in just hours, mark sandy, a long time career employee at the white house office of management and budget is expected to break ranks and appear on capitol hill for a rare saturday closed door deposition. his testimony could fill in important details on the holdup of military aid to ukraine. it follows closed door testimony late yesterday from david holmes, the staffer in ukraine who overheard the president's phone call with ambassador gordon sondland which came one day after the infamous july 25th call with ukraine. according to his opening statement obtained by nbc news, holmes said i then heard president trump ask, so he's going to do the investigation? ambassador sondland replied that he's going to do it, added that president zelensky will do anything you ask him to do. joining me now is national politics reporter at news day and dave leventhal, he'll be joining me in just a minute. emily, i want to go to you. how does the holmes testimony fit into this impeachment narrative democrats are trying to build, and how damaging is this piece of the story line to the president? >> it really u

his name is mark sandy, the first person from the office of management and budget to defy president trump's instructions not to testify. he was expected to talk about the administration's decision to withhold military aid to ukraine. deputy assistant to the president timothy morrison testified last month that ukraine officials were told u.s. military aid depended on their public announcement of investigations the president wanted. the president maintains he did nothing wrong. the president was at walter reed hospital today for his annual checkup. the white house has not indicated anything is unusual president trump typically gets his yearly physical in the winter time. the president reportedly had a quick exam and lab tests done. he had an early checkup in anticipation of a busy 2020. >>> two officers are being called heroes after saving a woman from a burning car. the footage right found this car engulfed in flames early thursday morning. this happened in farmville, virginia. watch as they quickly run to the car, open the driver's door. the woman is sitting inside and was unconscious. the

. >> another crack in the white house impeachment firewall with career budget official mark sandy defying the white house spending more than five hours behind closed doors with house investigators. >> we want to know how the president translated his political objective to shake down the ukrainian government for the favors he wanted translated into the budget process. >> sandy on the hill to offer insight into the decision to delay military aid to ukraine. aid that included weapons like this. systems and mortars. u.s. military training which were eventually delivered. but democrats allege the 4$400 million of military aid, to investigate joe biden and his son hunter. republicans digging in in defense of the president. >> that's the thing about facts, they don't change. we have the call transcript, we have the two individuals on the call. president trump, president zelensky who said there was no lirngage, no pressure, no pushing whatsoever. >> dara, it's washington scandal 101 to try to follow the money. that's why democrats brought mark sandy to the capitol on a rare saturday session. >> g

behind closed doors, mark sandy received about the president's order to freeze merely $400 million in military aid to ukraine last summer. meanwhile, house speaker nancy pelosi is calling on president trump to testify before congress. she spoke to face the nation's margaret brenna in an interview that will air tomorrow morning. >> the president could come speak all the truth he wants. he has every opportunity to present his case. but it is really a sad thing. what the president did was so much worse than even what richard nixon did. at some point, richard nixon cared about the country enough to recognize that this could not continue. >> transcripts of another closed door testimony have been released. the subject is jennifer williams. aide to mike pence. she was on the call between president trump and president zelensky. williams testified she found the call "unusual." and inappropriate. and said it shed some light on other possible motivations behind a security assistance hold. including president trump's personal political agenda. >>> tonight, city leaders in contra costa and alameda

mark sandy is the most interesting. this is the one budget official who chose to testify who talks a little bit in his deposition about how the hold was placed on ukraine aid. you can combine his testimony with some other reporting i've been able to do today. he was the official who signed off on that first hold and then had the ukraine defense aide essentially taken out of his portfolio and handed over to a political appointee who declined to testify despite being subpoenaed. george wreaker's testimony expected to largely buttress the testimony of other officials in that same lane. the interesting thing of your quote, unquote, depositions that were released from these other folks who were called but did not appear, this is putting it on the record all of the officials who were called but chose not to comply with subpoen subpoenas. mcgahn's not relevant to the impeachment inquiry, but all of these other officials are and that same court hearing democrats hope perhaps might shake loose the testimony of some of those who

. >>> meanwhile, freezing security aid for ukraine during closed-door testimony, omb director mark sandy explained to impeachment investigators earlier this month that he received an email from the white house chief of staff mick mulvaney's office july 12th directing a hold on aid. on july 26th, sandy testified that the omb office, the white house budget office did not know why the money was being withheld. sandy then raised legal concerns that the unexplained hold could violate appropriations laws and explained that to his higher up who was michael duffy. duffy who is a political appointee took the lead on pointing funds on aid. mark sandy testified it was not until around september 9th, and it's days before the money was ultimately released, that he was told that the reason for the initial hold was because of president trump's desire to see other countries contribute more aid to ukraine. during that leadup time, sandy added that two career officials at the white house resigned surrounding, quote, their frustrations of the aid. >>> and a top state department official described a frantic

mark sandy said pele resignedtly usrae was kept on hold. >> will you participate in the impeachment hearing next week? >> there be its own public hearings next week. >> reporter: the president jokes about the in quarry and the pardoning of thanksgiving turkeys but he complained in the past about not being involved. >> you have a kangaroo court. >> reporter: that will change when he is invited to attend the next week's hearing. jerry nadler will invite legal expert toss discuss the constitutionnal grounds for impeachment. laura podesta, cbs news of the >> it is unlikely that the president will attend next week's hearing because he will be in london for a nato r summit. he has until sunday to say if he whirl show up. >>> the ceo of sole cycle is stepping down and the e. coli outbreak is growing. marc liverman has those reports and more in today's money watch report. >> reporter: more record highs for wall street. on tuesday the dow closed up 55 points. the nasdaq added 15. the s&p 500 gained 6. the u.s. and china are again saying progress is being made in trade negotiations. president trump t

ame what does mark sandy bring to the investigation, bring to the conversation? remind us the omb role in this story. >> yeah, so markb sandy, brian is a career official at the office of management and budget, which means he's not a political appointee of presidentol trump' and therefore, he's decided to defy the order, or the wishes, rather, from the white house counsel and the president himself, trying to prevent all of these executive branch employees from testifying. he could provide important information to congress because the omb that was involved in stopping that aid, that $400 million in aid from flowing into ukraine. the aid eventually went to ukraine, but theretu was a dela. it was ordered, according to reporting by the president, set forth by mick mulvaney, the acting white house chief of staff and the omb director, and mr. sandy, the omb staffer, could shed much more light and detailmo on the process inside that office for how that aid was stopped, what concerns were raised by w himself and other career employees at the time and what the system was f

mark sandy, who gave a deposition on saturday. it's the first time someone from omb has testified. that of course is one of the offices that mulvaney runs along with being the acting chief of staff. sandy testified that he had never in his career seen a senior omb official assume control of a portfolio in such a fashion. that's referring to his boss, michael duffy. he raised questions to the general counsel about whether it violated the act of 1974. there are questions for the omb staff. >> the sad thing is this is not supposed to be a politicized process. congress approved this aid. it was supposed to be delivered. why wasn't it delivered? so i think omb officials, rank and file career officials, are wondering what is the holdup here? this is not a normal process. this should have been delivered, it wasn't. and apparently it wasn't for domestic political reasons. the president wanted some leverage over ukraine to get some dirt on joe biden. you know, that doesn't sit well with some people. >> that point is an important one because part of the argument to justify the hold as a kind

now a new witness will like ly the testify on saturday, tomorrow morning, this is mark sandy who works for the office of management and budget. he willd tokraine was held up. >> all right. thank you very much. we know that we'll continue hearing more analysis throughout the day. >>> be sure to stay with nbc news for continued coverage of the impeachment inquiry hearing. nightly news will have live team e,ound e at 5:30. guilty in federal court. he is now the sixth trump aide or adviser to be convicted of charges brought as part the mule rer investigation. the d.c. trial lasted for near ly two weeks. prosecutors painted the 67-year-old stone as a serial liar who tried to bully witnesses, coercing them to not cooperate with authorities. he faced charges of lying to congress, witness tampering and ab instruction of justice. stone did not testify, but instead, the jury heard nearly an hour long video clip of his intelligence committee testimony. stone's sentencing is set for february 6th. he could face up to 20 years in prison. >crat presidential co oakland today. where national nurses uni

mark sandy, the official who testified, did not say it was absolutely the only reason they left their jobs. but he was clearly aware that they were frustrated. it's another piece of information the democrats are assembling to say that there was a concern about why the president held up military aid. he says it was because he wanted other countries to contribute more. kristen. >> certainly something the democrats are going to be paying attention to. thank you, i know it's holiday duty, but i have the sense that you're going to be quite busy over the next few days. i want to bring in lee ann kald well who is on capitol hill for us. i know there are question marks about what we're going to see and hear next week on capitol hill on this december 4th hearing that has been set. what do we know so far? >> kristen, we know that the first hearing in this new phase of the impeachment inquiry is next wednesday. they haven't announced who the witness or witnesses are, but we do know that it's not going to be a fact witness or someone like ambassador sondland or yovanovitch. instead, it's going to

mark sandy is his name. according to congresswoman jackie speier, he's wufone of t people who signed the withhold on the assistance to ukraine and that lies at the center of the case against the president. sandy may be equipped to testify to that. he'll testify behind closed doors on saturday. tomorrow it will be the ousted ambassador to ukraine, marie yovanovitch, who president trump told ukraine's president was bad news. the most important witness may turn out to be david holmes on the phone call he allegedly overheard. that came to light in surprise testimony yesterday from his boss, bill taylor, the top diplomat in ukraine. here's what he said. >> a member of my staff could hear president trump on the phone asking ambassador sondland about the investigations. mr. sondland told president trump the ukrainians were ready to move forward. following the call with president trump, the member of my staff asked ambassador sondland what president trump thought about ukraine. ambassador sondland said president tru

mark sandy is the first person from the office of management and budget to defy president trump's instructions not to testify. he's expected to talk about the administration's decision to withhold military aid to ukraine. more depositions also made public today. deputy assistant to the president timothy morrison testified last month that ukraine officials were told u.s europe and russia, testified the president's request the president's request was unusual. the president was at walter reed hospital today for his annual checkup. the white house has not indicated anything was unusual. president trump typically gets his yearly physical in the wintertime. reportedly the president had a quick exam, lab tests done, he and the first lady greeted staff and met a special forces soldier injured in afghanistan. >>> a strange twist this afternoon in the colin kaepernick saga. the nfl has lined up an open tryout for the former 49ers quarterback. at the 11th hour it all fell apart and kaepernick held his instead. nbc bay area roz shraeder has those details. >> reporter: apparently a sticking point, kaeperni

sandy and he works for e office of management and budget involved in the holding up of these funds for ukraine's defense. >>anthis is the dynamic? we are hearing nancy pelosi use different language like bribery and not just quid pro quo. is that a pr change or do you think it could impact the vestigation? is impeachment >> the language of the constitution says treason, bribery, high crimes and no one since medieval times had a sharp sense of what was meant by high crimes and s sdemeanors. there phrase that used to get it done at the convention in 1787 when they wrote onthe constitu. it is a phrase that has some utility then and it doesn't mean much to people now. if they haveto impeac president trump using language of that kind, seems vague and hard to understand for most people. if they can indefine somehe was doing as bribery and the republicans rejected that out of hand d there could be cast in that , kind oterminology it would theoretically be more powerful. >> you mentioned mark lowe store testimony. what do we expect nextweek? >> tuesday, wednesday,ayand thurhearings with eight w