Intel Democrat says Trump's Russia adviser's testimony was 'incredibly helpful' for impeachment

On Monday's edition of CNN's "The Situation Room," Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) told anchor Wolf Blitzer that President Donald Trump's former Russia adviser Fiona Hill's testimony was "incredibly helpful" for the impeachment investigation.

"You were in the room for Fiona Hill's closed-door deposition today," said Blitzer. "How helpful do you believe her testimony to your investigation will be?"

"Incredibly helpful, Wolf," said Swalwell, who serves on the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees. "Also helpful that she showed up, and, like some others, has chosen to defy orders from the president and the State Department to not show up. And when witnesses actually just show up, it advances our investigation."

"We'll wait until she's done, and I'm going to head back there before we characterize what she said," continued Swalwell. "But the arrows continue to point in just one direction, which is that a crime was committed — extortion, bribery, soliciting campaign help," said Swalwell. "It was confessed to by the president, and there's an active coverup going on right now."

"Let me just back up for a moment," said Blitzer. "You're saying the president of the United States actually committed a crime?"

"Yes," said Swalwell. "Extorting your taxpayer dollars, $300 million — $390 that was supposed to go to [Ukraine], holding that over their heads unless they investigated his political opponent the Bidens, and went back and exonerated Russia for their role in the 2016 election. In exchange for that ... Ukraine would get a presidential visit and Ukraine would get security assistance. The president has frankly admitted to that."

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