Q. (Steve Castor, Minority Counsel, House Oversight Cmte.):Mr. Morrison told us both in his deposition and in his public hearing that you had related concerns about Colonel Vindman's judgment?
Dr. Hill: I did not relate any concerns in general terms about Colonel Vindman's judgment. So I was somewhat surprised when I heard Mr. Morrison make that assertion when I read his deposition.
There was a very specific point that was made. And again, these are personnel issues, and I'm sure that nobody here would like to have their private personnel issues put before a committee, but you've asked me about this.
So I had a couple of very short transition meetings with Mr. Morrison. And, again, Mr. Morrison did not work in our directorate. He was taking over the position, which he held for 3 months. I had worked as the director, the senior director for Europe and Eurasia, it was at the time, for more than 2 years at this point, and I'd been working for a year with Colonel Vindman, with Mr. Vindman.
And in the course of one of the meetings, sometime in the June timeframe, I sat down with Mr. Morrison and with a deputy referred to him in his deposition, John Erath, who was also working, and we went through our organizational charts. We went through who was staying, who was rotating out and leaving in the summer, and we talked about everybody's strengths and weaknesses.
And I always asked my staff to do upward feedback as well, to talk about what I wasn't doing right either. I would like to learn, too. And I said that I was concerned about the way things were trending in Ukraine policy.
So Colonel Vindman is a highly distinguished, decorated military officer. He came over to us from the Chairman's office in the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And we were evaluating and looking at him in the context of what his future positions would be in the context of the U.S. Army.
And I was concerned that if, for example, Colonel Vindman might decide to leave the military, that perhaps he wasn't as well suited for something that would be much more political. I did not feel that he had the political antenna to deal with something that was straying into domestic politics. Not everyone is suited for that.
That does not mean in any way that I was questioning his overall judgment, nor was I questioning in any way his substantive expertise. He is excellent on issues related to Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova, on Russian defense issues.
He had been in charge of the Russia campaign, thinking through at the Chairman's office and in the Pentagon. This is a very specific issue. Because by June, we saw that things were diverging and needed a completely different sensitivity.
Some people in my office have worked at the highest levels of advisory positions, and Mr. Morrison had come from Capitol Hill. He knew politics inside out. And we said that Colonel Vindman did not, and we were concerned about how he would manage what was becoming a highly charged and potentially partisan issue which had not been before.
