6:43 p.m. ET, November 14, 2019
A diplomat who overheard a call between Trump and the EU ambassador is scheduled to testify tomorrow
From CNN's Kylie Atwood and Nicole Gaouette
A US diplomat who overheard President Trump ask the US Ambassador to the European Union about the status of "investigations" during a
cellphone conversation in a Kiev restaurant is
set to appear before the House impeachment inquiry behind closed doors tomorrow.
David Holmes, the counselor for political affairs at the US Embassy in Ukraine, overheard the conversation between Trump and Gordon Sondland the day after Trump spoke with the Ukrainian president by phone in July, according to testimony Wednesday from
Bill Taylor, the top US diplomat in the country.
Taylor did not name Holmes, but sources tell CNN that he is the member of the embassy staff Taylor was referencing.
What we know about Holmes: He is a career foreign service officer who arrived in Ukraine in 2017, according to a source who knows him and describes him as a "sharp 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 and Moscow.
Holmes has also served as a special assistant for South and Central Asia to former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Bill Burns and spent time on the National Security Council staff at the White House as director for Afghanistan from 2011 to 2012.
"He is a decent guy and a smart, competent foreign service officer," said a second source who has worked on US policy in Ukraine and knows Holmes.
As political counselor, his main job is to determine what is going on in Ukrainian politics.
Holmes often accompanied top US officials to meetings with Ukrainians as the note-taker in the last few years. It would not be unusual for him to accompany Sondland to these meetings, or for the two grab a meal in-between or after, the second source said.