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(CNN) - Fiona Hill, Russia's former chief ex-advisor to President Trump, and David Holmes, political affairs advisor to the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, testify together publicly this Thursday before the Intelligence Commission of the House of Representatives in the investigation of political trial against President Donald Trump.
This is what we know about Hill and Holmes.
Fiona Hill and David Holmes testify before the House Intelligence Commission in the political trial investigation against Donald Trump on November 21, 2019. (Credit: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
About Hill: She is a former national security officer. Hill served in the Trump administration from April 2017 to July 2019. During his time at the National Security Council, he oversaw the rocky ties between Washington and Moscow, and his views sometimes seemed to disagree with Trump's desire. to improve relations with the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, whom he has praised on multiple occasions.
In his previous statement, Hill said the US ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, told Ukrainian officials, in meetings on July 10, that they would have to open an investigation to secure a meeting between Trump and the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky.
About Holmes: Holmes is a foreign service career official who arrived in Ukraine in 2017, according to a source who knows him and describes him as an "intelligent guy." He joined the foreign service in 2002, according to the American Foreign Service Association, and has previously served in Kabul, New Delhi, Kosovo, Bogota, Moscow and Kosovo.
He told lawmakers during a closed-door statement that he heard a conversation between President Trump and Ambassador Gordon Sondland the day after Trump spoke by telephone with the Ukrainian president in July, CNN reported earlier.
Holmes said he heard Trump ask Sondland on the call if the Ukrainians were going to "do the research," and Sondland replied: "He will."
Donald Trump political trial