Since public impeachment hearings began last week, Republicans have responded to damning testimony concerning Donald Trump’s attempt to extort Ukraine by insisting that none of it is relevant because the people delivering it are relying on “hearsay.” That defense will become significantly more difficult this week, with multiple government officials who have firsthand knowledge of the scheme set to testify before the House Intelligence Committee. On Tuesday that includes Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and Mike Pence aide Jennifer Williams, both of whom listened in on the July 25 call. Also on the lineup for later this week is David Holmes, a counselor in the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine. And if his closed-door remarks are anything to go by, his public testimony will be a highlight for Trump. A transcript of Holmes’s testimony was released Monday evening, and strongly indicates that shit is about to hit the proverbial fan:

Holmes is an important witness in part because he overheard a phone call between Trump and Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, then chatted with Sondland afterward about Trump’s attitude toward Ukraine. The encounter, Holmes testified, was so “extraordinary” that he immediately told his direct supervisor at the embassy, “You’re not going to believe what I just heard,” according to the transcript of his testimony.

Sondland, Holmes said, had assured Trump that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky “loves your ass” and “will do anything you ask him to,” including conduct an investigation that Trump seemed to want. When the call was over, Holmes asserted, Sondland said that a probe of Biden was of greater interest to the president than other matters having to do with Ukraine.

Holmes told lawmakers that he was shocked Sondland would discuss such matters in Ukraine, where the assumption is that calls are being monitored by at least one foreign government at all times. Afterward Holmes asked the ambassador if it was true that Trump “doesn’t give a shit about Ukraine,” as it had been “very difficult for us to get the president interested in what we were trying to do” there. According to Holmes, Sondland responded that Trump “only cares about big things,” like “this Biden investigation that [Rudy] Giuliani is pushing,” as opposed to, say, Ukraine’s war with Russia. Holmes also testified that Ukraine officials “gradually came to understand that they were being asked to do something in exchange” for a White House meeting or military aid, which was held up as Trump and his associates pushed for an investigation into his political rivals.

On Monday, Mitch McConnell insisted that none of this—this being the president committing an impeachable offense—matters, and that he “can’t imagine a scenario” that would end up leading to Trump’s removal from office. Stay tuned!

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