Beforehand. Including recommendations to encourage president zelensky to continue to promote anticorruption reforms in ukraine. The National Security staff understood what was in the u. S. National security interests, and that was rooting out corruption. They encourage the president to talk about it. But as you see from the record of the call, and i joined the president saying read the call, that topic was never addressed. The word corruption never escapes his lips. Instead, President Trump openly pressed president zelensky to pursue the two investigations that would benefit him personally. In response to president zelenskys gratitude for the significant military support, the United States has provided to ukraine, President Trump said i would like you to do us a favor, though, because our country has been through a lot and ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with ukraine. They say crowd strike. I guess you have one of your wealthy people, the server, they say ukraine has it. Thats that crazy Conspiracy Theory i talked about earlier, that there is this server somewhere in ukraine that shows that in fact it was ukraine that hacked the dnc, not the russia russians. Thats a russian propaganda Conspiracy Theory, and here it is being promulgated by the president of the United States. More than promulgated, he is pressuring an ally to further this russian propaganda. Because he was referring to this extensively discredited Conspiracy Theory that ukraine was the one who really hacked the dnc, the Democratic National committee servers in 2016 and that reference to crowd strike, that is an American Cybersecurity Firm and the theory is, this kooky Conspiracy Theory is that crowd strike moved the dnc service to ukraine to prevent u. S. Law enforcement from getting them. If ukraine announced an investigation into this fabrication, President Trump would remove what he perceived to be a cloud over his legitimacy, the legitimacy of his last election. Russias assistance with his campaign. And suggest it was the Democratic Party that was the real beneficiary of help. On the call, President Trump told zelensky, whatever you can do, its very important that you do it if thats possible. President zelensky agreed that he would do the investigation, saying yes, its very important for me and everything that you just mentioned earlier. President trump then turned to a second request, asking president zelensky to look into the sham allegation against former Vice President biden. President trump said to president zelensky the other thing, theres a lot of talk about bidens son, that biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you could look into it, it sounds horrible to me. Theres no question President Trump intended to press the ukraine leader to look into his political rival. Even after the impeachment inquiry began, he confirmed his desire on the south lawn of the white house, declaring not only that ukraine should investigate biden but that china should do the same. Lets see what he said. Reporter what exactly did you hope zelensky would do . I would think that if they were honest about it, they would start a Major Investigation into the bidens. Its very simple answer. They should investigate the bidens because how does a company that is newly formed, and by the way, likewise china should start an investigation into the bidens. Because what happened in china is just about as bad as what happened with ukraine. The day after that july 25 phone call, President Trump sought confirmation that president zelensky understood his requests to announce the politically motivated investigations and that he would follow through. After meeting with ukrainian officials, president zelensky and his top aide, the president s handpicked ambassador to the european union, gordon psalm, called President Trump from an outdoor restaurant in kiev to report back. This was the second conversation between the two about ukraine in as many days. David holmes, an american diplomat dining with sondland overheard the call, including the president s voice during the cell phone. I described part of that call. David holmes testified that President Trump asked sondland, so he is going to do the investigation . And sondland replied hes going to do it, adding that president zelensky will do anything you ask him to. After the phone call, holmes asked ambassador sondland for his candidate impression of the president s views on ukraine. According to holmes. I asked ambassador sondland if it was true that the president did not give an expletive about ukraine. Ambassador sondland agreed that the president did not give an expletive about ukraine. I asked why not and ambassador sondland said the president only cares about big stuff. I noted that there was big stuff going on in ukraine, like a war with russia. Ambassador sondland replied that he meant big stuff that benefits the president , like the biden investigation that mr. Giuliani was pushing. The conversation then moved onto other topics. Those three days in july, the 24th, the 25th, and the 26th reveal a lot about President Trumps effort to solicit help from a foreign country in assisting his own reelection. On the 24th, special counsel mueller testifies that russia interfered in our 2016 election to assist the Trump Campaign which knew about the interference, welcomed it, and utilized it. That is the 24th. The 25th is the day of the call. When President Trump, believing he had escaped accountability for russian meddling in the first election and his welcoming of it, asked the ukrainian president to help him undermine the special counsels conclusion and help them smear a political opponent, former Vice President biden. And then the third day in a row in july, President Trump sought to ensure that ukraine had received his request and understood it and would take the necessary steps to announce the investigations that he wanted. Three days in july. In many ways, those three days in july tell so much of the story. This course of conduct alone should astound all of us who value the sanctity of our elections and who understand that the vast powers of the presidency are reserved only for actions which benefit the country as a whole rather than the political fortunes of any one individual. President trumps effort to use an official head of state phone call to solicit the announcement of investigations helpful to his reelection is not only conduct unbecoming of a president that its conduct of one who believes that the powers of his high office or political tools to be wielded against his opponents, including by asking a Foreign Government to investigate a United States citizen and for a corrupt purpose. That alone is grounds for removal from office of the 45th president. But these three days in july were neither the beginning or the end of this scheme. President trump acting through agents inside and outside the u. S. Government, including his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, sought to compel ukraine to announce the investigations by withholding the head of state meeting in the oval office until the president of ukraine complied. Hosting an Oval Office Meeting for a foreign leader is an official act available only to one person, the president of the United States. And it is an official act that President Trump had already offered to president zelensky during their first phone call on april 21 and in a subsequent letter to the ukrainian leader. Multiple witnesses testified about the importance of a white house meeting for ukraine. For example, Deputy Assistant secretary george cant explain a white house meeting was very important for ukrainians to demonstrate the strength of their relationship with ukraines strongest supporter. Dr. Fiona hill of the National Security council of slain a white house meeting would supply the new Ukrainian Government with the legitimacy it needed, especially visavis the russians. And that the ukrainians the unit white house meeting as a recognition of their legitimacy as a sovereign state. This white house meeting was also would also prove to be important for three handpicked agents whom President Trump placed in charge of u. S. Ukraine issues. Ambassador sondland, ambassador volker, Energy Secretary rick. The socalled three amigos. They hoped President Trump would hold an Oval Office Meeting with president zelensky. During the meeting with the three amigos on may 23, President Trump told them ukraine had tried to take him down in 2016. He then directed them talk to Rudy Giuliani about ukraine. It was immediately clear that giuliani, who was pursuing the discredited investigations in ukraine on the president s behalf was the key to unlocking an Oval Office Meeting with president zelensky. Giuliani by then had said publicly he was actively pursuing investigations President Trump corruptly desired and planning it trip to ukraine. Giuliani admitted we are not meddling in an election. We are meddling in an investigation. On may 10, however, giuliani canceled the trip to ukraine to dig up dirt on former Vice President biden and the 2016 Conspiracy Theory, justice president zelensky won elections for the presidency and parliament. Faced with a choice between working with giuliani to pursue an Oval Office Meeting, understanding it meant taking part in a corrupt effort to secure the political investigations or abandoning efforts to support our ukrainian ally, the president s agents fell into line. They would pursue the white house meeting and explained to ukraine that announcements of the investigations was the price of admission. As ambassador sondland made clear. I know members of this committee frequently framed these complicated issues in the form of a simple question, was there a quid pro quo . As i testified previously, with regard to the requested white house call and the white house meeting, the answer is yes. This quid pro quo was negotiated between the president s agents, Rudy Giuliani and ukrainian officials throughout the summer of 2019 and numerous telephone calls, Text Messages and meetings, including during a meeting hosted by then National Security advisor john bolton on july 10th. Near the end of that july 10 meeting, after the ukrainians again raised the issue of a white house visit, ambassador sondland blurted out that there would be agreement for a white house meeting once the investigations began. At that point, bolton immediately stiffened and abruptly ended the meeting. During a subsequent discussion that day, sondland was even more explicit. Lieutenant colonel alex inman, director for europe and ukraine on the National Security council testified that sondland began to discuss the deliverable required to get the white house meeting with specifically mentioning investigation of the bidens. This is again in that meeting in the white house with ukraine, the ukrainian delegation and an american delegation. Sondland explained in that meeting, he had an agreement with acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney whereby president zelensky would be granted the Oval Office Meeting if he went forward with the investigations. After the meeting, dr. Hill reported to bolton. She reported her concerns, as did vindman. Its unclear what actions were taken once they were aware of mulvaney and sondlands drug deal. Dr. Hill understood that mr. Eisenberg informed mr. Cipollone about her concerns about the deal. If this body is serious about a fair trial, one thats fair to the president and the American People, we again urge you to allow the house to call both eisenberg and bolton as well as other key witnesses with firsthand knowledge who refused to testify before the house on the orders of the president. Additional testimony and documents are particularly important because according to sondland, everyone was in the loop when it came to the president s selfserving effort. In part relying on email excerpts, sondland explained the president s senior aides and cabinet officials knew that the white house meeting was predicated on ukraines announcement of the investigations beneficial to the president s Political Campaign. Hill characterize the quid pro quos distinctly. It struck me when you put up on the screen ambassador sondlands emails who was on these emails and he said these are the people who need to know that he was absolutely right because he was being involved in a domestic political errant and we were being involved in National SecurityForeign Policy and those two things are just diverged. In effect, president zelensky was being drawn into this domestic political errant. He grew wary of becoming involved in another countrys election and domestic affairs. Bill taylor, acting u. S. Ambassador to ukraine at the time, described a conversation he had with a senior aide to the ukrainian leader. He said. Also on july 20, i had a phone conversation with president zelenskys National Security advisor who emphasize that president zelensky did not want to be used as an instrument in a u. S. Reelection campaign. Remember that conversation when you hear council say that the ukrainians felt no pressure to be involved in the u. S. Reelection campaign. That concern did not deter President Trump. In his conversation with sondland shortly before the 25 july call, the president made clear that he not only wanted ukraine to do the investigation or announce them but also a white house meeting would only be scheduled if president zelensky confirmed these investigations, as volker communicated less than 30 minutes over the phone call between trump and zelensky and again, we are talking about juls before the trumpzelensky phone call, heres what is said. With volker texting andriy yermak, top aide to president zelensky, good lunch, thanks. Heard from white house. Assuming president z convinces trump he will investigate, get to the bottom of what happened, in 2016, we will nail down date for visit to washington. Good luck. See you tomorrow. Those words couldnt be much clearer. Assuming president z convinces trump he will investigate, get to the bottom of what happened in 2016, we will nail down the visit to washington. That is a text 30 minutes before the call. Counsel for the president would like you to think this is just about that call. You dont get to look outside the four corners of that call. They dont want you to look at the months that went into preparing for that call or the months of pressure that followed it. But you can just look at right now what happen 30 minutes before that call. In this text message. Heard from white house. Assuming president z convinces trump he will investigate and get to the bottom of what happened in 2016. If you are wondering how it seemed president zelensky was aware of what he was going to be asked on the call, this is how you can tell. He was prepped. Of course he was prepped. In fact, the missing reference in the call record to burisma was a signal colonel vindman recognized that clearly he had been prepped for that call. Why else would the name of this particular Energy Company come up in that conversation . Well, president zelensky clearly got the message. Toward the end of the call with President Trump, president zelensky said i also want to thank you for your invitation to visit the United States, specifically washington, d. C. On the other hand, i also want to ensure you wanted to ensure you that will be very serious about the case and we will work on the investigation. Thank you for the invitation. On the other hand, i want to assure you we will be very serious about the case and work on the investigation. President zelensky clearly understood the quid pro quo for the white house meeting on july 25. His reticence to be used as a political pawn kept President Trump from moving forward with the promise to schedule the meeting. And so the president and his agents pressed on. In august, giuliani met with a top ukrainian eight and made it clear ukraine must issue a Public Statement announcing the investigations in order to get the white house meeting. Fearful of getting involved in u. S. Domestic politics and having entered office with a promise to clean up government and corruption, president zelensky and his aides preferred a generic statement about investigations but giuliani insisted. No, the statement must include two specific investigations that would benefit President Trump. Lets look at the comparison between the statement the ukrainians preferred and the one giuliani required. On the left, and i will read it in case you cant see the screens, that draft, the ukrainian draft says we intend to initiate and complete a transparent and unbiased investigation of all available facts and episodes which in turn would prevent the recurrence in the future. Here is the giulian giulianivolkersondland response. We intend to initiate and complete a transparent and unbiased investigation of all available facts and episodes come up to that point its exactly the same until you get to including those involving burisma and the 2016 elections and then it goes back to the ukrainian draft which will in turn prevent the recurrence of this in the future. You can see such graphic evidence, ukrainians did not want to do this. They didnt even want to mention it. Giuliani had to insist no, no, no. We are not going to be satisfied with some generic statement. After all, i think we can see this isnt about corruption. Its about announcing investigations to damage biden and promote this fiction about the last election. So here in these texts, you see giuliani, volker, sondland have added these references to burisma, thinly veiled reference to former Vice President biden and the 2016 election. They wish to ensure the ukrainians mentioned the sham investigations President Trump required. The ukrainians recoiled at the new statement, recognizing that releasing it would run directly counter to the anticorruption platform that zelinsky campaigned on and would embroil them and u. S. Election politics. As a result, zelensky didnt get his white house meeting. He still hasnt gotten his white house meeting. Senators, witness testimony, Text Messages, emails and the call record itself confirm a corrupt quid pro quo for the white house meeting, an official act available only to the president of the United States in exchange for the announcement, political investigations, the president and his allies have offered no explanation for this effort. Except the president can abuse his office all he likes and theres nothing you can do about it. Cant indict him, cant impeach him. That is because they cannot seriously dispute that President Trump corruptly used unofficial white house visit for a foreign leader to compel the ukrainian president into helping him cheat in the next election. The white house meeting of course was not the only official act President Trump commission on the announcement of investigation into biden in the Conspiracy Theory meant to exonerate President Trump from russias interference on behalf in last election. In a farmer recounting step, the president withheld 391 million in military aid. Several weeks before the phone call with president zelensky, but after giuliani was already pressing ukrainian officials to conduct the investigations his clients sought, President Trump ordered the hold on ukraines military aid. Significantly this was after congress had already been notified that most of it was prepared to be spent. Ukraine had met all the critical conditions for anticorruption and defense reforms in order to receive the funds. We conditioned the funds. They met the conditions. The funds were ready to go. At the time and even today, witnesses uniformly testify that the order to hold the funding came without explanation to the foreigForeign Policy and nationl Security Officials responsible for ukraine. The only message from the office of management and budget was that the hold was implemented at the direction of the president. Since russias illegal incursion in ukraine in 2014, the u. S. Has maintained a bipartisan policy of delivering hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid to ukraine each year with several senators here have personally invested significant time and effort to ensure. It was President Trump himself who originally authorized additional Financial Support for military assistance to ukraine in 2017 and 2018 without reservation. Making his abrupt decision to withhold assistance in 2019 without explanation all the more surprising to those responsible for ukraine policy. That confusion however would soon disappear. The president used the hold on military aid as leverage to pressure the ukrainians to announce the investigations that he hoped would help his reelection campaign. The only difference between the prior years when the president approved the aid without question and the inexplicable aid on hold in 2019 was the emergence of joe biden as a potentially formidable obstacle to the president s reelection. These funds with president withheld, these funds dont jus. They benefit the security of the United States. By ensuring ukrainian ukraine id to defend its own borders against russian aggression. As ambassador taylor noted, the United States provides ukraine with radar and weapons and sniper rifles, communications that save lives, it makes ukrainians more effective. It might even shorten the war. Thats what our hope is, to show the ukrainians can defend themselves and the russians in the end will say okay, were going to stop. That is in our interests. This isnt just about ukraine or its National Security. Its about our National Security. This isnt charity. Its about our defense as much as ukraines. Ambassador taylor also said the american aid was a concrete demonstration of the United States commitment to resist aggression and to defend freedom. Thats what this country is supposed to be about, right . Resisting aggression, defending freedom, not exporting corrupt ideas. Thats what we are supposed to be about, right . It was against this backdrop that american officials responsible for ukraine policy sat in astonishment, according to ambassador taylor, when they learned about the hold. Officials immediately stressed concerns about the legality. Their concerns were well warranted as the Government Accountability office which was just last night poohpoohed by the president s counsel, thats just some institution of congress. They are going to be inherently biased, right . They are a Nonpartisan Organization that both parties have come to rely upon. Im not surprised they dont like the conclusion of the gao because the Defense Department warned them that this was going to be the conclusion and the conclusion was the hold on it was not only wrong, not only immoral, it was illegal, it violated the law. Along we pass their president s could not refuse to spend money that we allocated for the defense of others and ourselves. The impoundment control act prevents the president and other officials from unilaterally making funding decisions when congress has made its intent clear. The act exists precisely because of previous president ial abuses of congress power, the purse, during the nixon era. The nonpartisan gao ruled that the hold on military aid is not only illegal but that holding underscores the president s efforts to go to any lengths to ensure his own personal benefit rather than take care that the laws be faithfully executed. As he swore he would do when he took his oath of office. Because of recent freedom of information act responses and media reports, we now know Additional Details about how senior officials expressed serious reservations about the legality of the hold at the time. Its not like some new surprise. Its not like something just came out of the blue. Oh, independent Watchdog Agency found it was illegal. No, they knew it was illegal at the time. These concerns were raised at the time. Certain individuals who may have further information about the hold have refused to testify. At the president s direction. Including his chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, his Deputy Robert blair, michael duffy, all of them, all of them. Defied congressional subpoenas. But were included in important email Communication Center been made public only recently. As you know, these and many other categories of documents from the white house, Defense Department, omb, were subpoenaed by the house and none was produced, none, at the president s direction and through mr. Cipollones intervention. Although the investigation developed an overwhelming body of evidence that clearly proves that the president implemented the hold to pressure ukraine to announce investigations, the full story behind the hold, the full and complete story is within your power to request. As you consider the evidence we present to you, ask yourselves whether the documents and witnesses that have been denied by the president s complete and on president obstruction unprecedented obstruction could shed more light on the topic. You may agree with the house managers that the evidence the president s withholding military aid to force ukraine is overwhelmingly supported by evidence and no further insight is necessary to convict the president. But if the president s lawyers and attempt you are left with no choice but to demand hearing from each witness, a fair trial requires nothing less. Lets look at some of the evidence we gathered, notwithstanding this obstruction. First, the president withheld the aid without explanation and against the advice of his own agencies, cabinet officials, National Security experts, including secretary pompeo, secretary esper, ambassador bolton, and others, only Mick Mulvaney, a central figure in this effort, reportedly supported the hold and he told us why. During a press briefing, mulvaney acknowledged the hold was ordered as part of a quid pro quo designed to get ukraine to undertake the investigation President Trump sought. Second, the reason for the Security Assistance hold was undoubtedly on the president s mind during the telephone call with president zelensky on jul july 25. Near the beginning of the conversation, president zelensky expresses gratitude for u. S. Military assistance, noting the United States great support in the area of defense. Immediately after president zelenskys reference to defense and military support, President Trump responded by saying i would like you to do us a favor, though. Because our country has been through a lot, and ukraine knows a lot about it. President trump then proceeded to openly press ukraine to conduct these investigations. Third, numerous officials were aware that President Trump was withholding the white house meeting until the ukrainian president announced the investigation. That the president would ratchet up pressure on ukraine to compel its actions stunned ukraine experts like ambassador taylor but followed logically for those engaged in the president s corrupt scheme. Fourth, by the end of august, there was still no explanation for the hold despite ongoing efforts from numerous officials to persuade the president to release the money. And the leverage of the white house meeting had not succeeded in coursing ukraine to announce investigations, providing the president and his agents every reason to use the most aggressive lever of influence, hundreds of millions of dollars of military support, to compel ukraine to act. If they didnt feel pressure, they would have done it. They would have done it. But of course they did. Imagine that this were dependent on a more powerful country for our defense. Imagine we were at war. Imagine we are waiting for weapons to defend ourselves. Something our framers couldve understood. Imagine we found ourselves in those circumstances and much to our astonishment, we couldnt even get a meeting with our ally. Much to our astonishment, they were withholding aid from us. Do you think we would feel pressure . Of course we would. The framers had common sense and so must we. Are we to accept the president said there was no quid pro quo . I guess that closes the case. In every court room in america, jurors, and i know youre not just jurors. Your jurors and judges. Jurors all over america are told you dont leave your common sense at the door. We dont have to leave our common sense at the door. Two plus two equals four. The eight o aid is withheld. We are all asking for it. No one can get an explanation. Ukrainians cant get an explanation. All the ukrainians get is we want you to do these investigations. They are promised a white house meeting. They want a white house meeting. They need a white house meeting. They are going into negotiations with putin. They want to show strength. They cant get in the door. They see the Russian Foreign minister get in the door of the white house. We see the photos of the president and the Russian Foreign minister, the ambassador, what a great time theyre having but no, the president of ukraine, our ally, cant get in the door. They are not stupid. They know whats going on. Theyre not stupid. That conversation i referenced yesterday when the ukrainians threw it right back in our face, when ambassador volker said to his ukrainian counterpart, you shouldnt investigate the former president , shouldnt engage in those political investigations, the ukrainian response was you mean like the one you want us to do of the bidens and the clintons . They are not stupid. By the end of august, there was still no explanation for the hold despite efforts by numerous people to seek the release of the funding. The leverage hadnt succeeded in getting the president to force ukraine to announce investigations and so the aide was withheld. Two witnesses privy to the scheme testified the only logical conclusion to reach about the president s continued hold on the aid was that it was intended to put more pressure on ukraine to announce the investigations. As i said, they testified it was as simple as two plus two equals four. We can do math and more importantly, so can the ukrainians and maybe even more portly than that, so can the russians. Multiple senior officials, including President Trump himself have confirmed this logical conclusion. On some cover seven, ambassador sondland spoke directly to President Trump who by that point was aware that a whistleblower complaint was circulating that alleged the contours of his scheme and that congress and the public were beginning to ask probing questions about the hold on aid, including whether the withholding of the aid was in exchange for reelection help. During the call, september 7, so july youve got muellers testimony. Youve got the call itself. Youve got the followup called the next day where the president is speaking to sondland and wants to make sure theyre going to do the investigations. August, they are trying to hammer out a statement in the ukrainians are still resisting, and then you have september. September 7. Ambassador sondland on the phone with President Trump. At that point hes aware that a whistleblower has filed a complaint alleging the contours of the scheme and congress and the public are beginning to ask questions about the hold on aid, including whether this was to get help in his reelection. During this call between the president and ambassador sondland, without a prompt, President Trump told sondland there is no quid pro quo. Now, why would he do that . Thats not something that comes up in normal conversation, right . Hello, mr. President. How are you today . No quid pro quo. Thats the kind of thing that comes up in a conversation if youre trying to put your alibi out there. If you heard about a whistleblower complaint, if youve seen allegations, if you know congress is starting to sniff around, no quid pro quo. But and i know this is astonishing, so much of the last few years has been a combination of shock and yet no surprise and even while the president is saying no quid pro quo, what does he say . Zielinski must publicly announce the political investigations and he should want to do it. No quid pro quo except this quid pro quo. Sondland relayed the message to president zelensky, informing that without the announcement of the political investigations, they would be at a stalemate. Sondland made clear this reference to a stalemate meant the release of the Security Assistance. President zelensky, after hesitating for weeks to join the president s corrupt scheme, finally relented. President zelensky informed sondland that he agreed to do a cnn interview and sondland understood he would use that occasion to mention these items, meaning the two investigations at the heart of the scheme. The candidate zelensky who was swept into office with a landslide victory on a promise of fighting corruption would be forced to undertake just the same kind of corrupt act he had been elected to clean up. Upon learning this, ambassador taylor called sondland to register his deep concern, telling him that it was crazy, crazy. Taylor later texted sondland to reinforce the point as i sat on the phone, i think its crazy to withhold Security Assistance for help with a Political Campaign. As i said on the phone. Clearly they had discussed it. As i said on the phone. Taylor testified about the message and the events leading up to it. Taylor said that Security Assistance was so important for ukraine as well as our own national interests. To withhold the assistance for no good reason other than help with a Political Campaign made no sense. It was counterproductive to all of what weve been trying to do. It was illogical. It could not be explained. It was crazy. Whats more, ambassador taylor also came to learn President Trump wanted zelensky in a public box. He testified, mr. Goldman asking the question. You referenced a Television Interview and a desire for President Trump to put zelensky in a public box which you also have. Was that in your notes . This was reference to his written testimony. Was that reference to in a public box in his notes . Taylors answer, it was in my notes. And what did you understand to mean to put zelensky in a public box . And taylor responds i understood that to mean that President Trump, through ambassador sondland, was asking for president zelensky to publicly commit to these investigations that it was not sufficient to do this in private, that this needed to be done, this needed to be a very Public Statement. So we saw earlier the sidebyside comparison of what the ukrainians wanted to say. They wanted to make no mention of the specific investigations, and how giuliani insisted no, this isnt going to be credible unless you mention the specific investigations. This is what its going to take. Now you see ambassador sondland has acknowledged to ambassador taylor that is not enough to use even the right language. Has to be done public. Not going to take any private commitment. Has to be done in public. As we later understand, its because President Trump didnt care about the investigations being done. He does want of them announced. He wanted zelensky in a public box. He wanted it announced publicly. Ambassador taylor also testified that he understood from sondland that because President Trump was a businessman he would expect to get something in return before signing a check. During our call on september 8, ambassador sondland tried to explain to me that President Trump is a businessman and one a businessman is about to sign a check to someone who owes him something, the businessman asks that person to pay up before signing the check. Ambassador volker use the same language several days later while we were together at the european strategy conference. I argued to both that the explanation made no sense. The ukrainians did not owe President Trump anything. This is very telling. Ambassador taylor, vietnam veteran, west point graduate, ukrainians didnt always anything. Clearly donald trump felt the ukrainians owed him. Right . This is not about ukraines National Security. Its not about our National Security. Its not about corruption. No, its about whats in it for me . Those ukrainians only. Before i sign a check in by the way thats not his money, thats your money. The American Peoples money for their defense. But here we see ambassador sondland explain know, President Trump is the businessman pay before hes going to sign a check, he wants to get something. Of course he was going to make that payment with our tax dollars, the thing he was going to buy with those tax dollars was the smear of his opponent. And an effort to lift whatever cloud he felt was over his presidency because of the russian interference on his behalf in the last election. The president has offered an assortment of shifting explanations after the fact the hold on aid, including he withheld the money because of corruption in ukraine or concerns about burden sharing with other European Countries but those arguments are completely without merit. First, the president s own administration had determined by the time of the hold that ukraine had undertaken all necessary anticorruption and defense reforms in order to receive the funds. The Defense Department and state Department Officials repeatedly made this clear as the hold remained and threatened the ability of the agencies to spend the money before the end of the fiscal year. Second, the evidence revealed that the president only revealed about foreign contributions to ukraine in september, nearly two months after the president implemented the hold and as it became clear that the public, congress, and a whistleblower will becoming aware of the president s scheme. The afterthefact effort to come up with a justification also belies the truth, the European Countries provide far more Financial Support to ukraine than the United States. Their support is largely economic. Ours also includes a lot of military support. But europe is a substantial financial backer of ukraine. Something else remarkable about this. Yesterday as we were going through the importance of the witness testimony and looking at some of those redacted emails in which the administration sought to hide his misconduct. In those redactions one we got to see what was beneath them, and there was an indication this is very close hold. This is a needtoknow basis only. Remember that . We will show you that again. One of those emails that only came to light recently and not because the administration wanted you to see this information, we see there is a desire not to let people know about this hold. If the president was fighting corruption, if you wanted the europeans to pay more, why would he hide it from us . Why would you hide it from the ukrainians or the rest of the world . If this was a desire to get europe to pay more, why wouldnt he charge sondland to go ask europe for more . Why wouldnt he be proud to tell the congress of the United States im holding up the aid and im holding it up because im worried about corruption. Why wouldnt he . Because of course it wasnt true. There is no evidence of that. And whats more, the white house admitted why the president held up the money. The president s own chief of staff explain precisely why during an october 17 press conference. Lets see what he had to say. Those were the driving factors. He also mentioned the corruption of the dncs server, and that said, thats why we held up the money. Sold the demand for an investigation was part of the reason that he the look back into the 2016 was part of the corruption to the nation. But will but mulvaney didnt just admit that the president held the crucial aid appropriate by congress to apply pressure to do the president s political dirty work. He also said that we should just get over it. Lets watch. Lets be clear. At what you just described is a quid pro quo. Its funding if the investigation into the democratic server had happened as well. We do that all the time with Foreign Policy. If you read the news reports, what did mckinney say yesterday . He said he was really upset with the political influence and Foreign Policy and that was one of the reasons he was so upset about this. I have news for everybody, get over it. There will be political influence in Foreign Policy. Should the Congress Just get over it . Should the American People come to expect that our president s will corruptly abuse their office to seek the help of a foreign power, to cheat in our elections . Should we just get over it . Is that what we have come to . I hope and pray that the answer is no. We cannot allow a president to withhold military aid from an ally at war or illicit help in an early election campaign. I hope that we dont have to just get over that. I hope that we dont have to get accustomed to that. Is that what we want to tell our constituents . Yeah, the president withheld the aid from allies. Yeah, it damaged our National Security and yeah, you wouldnt meet with a foreign leader that was opposed to us unless you got help in the next election and yeah, its hard to try to get a foreign power to help, its kind of cheating if were going to be honest about it. Americans are supposed to decide american elections but you know, i guess we just need to get over it. I guess thats what we should now expect of the president of the United States. I guess there is really no remedy for that anymore. The impeachment. Maybe that was a good idea twoyears ago but i guess we just need to get over it. I guess maybe the president really is above the law because they say you cant incite the president. The president says, you cant even investigate the president. The president is in court saying, you cannot only not indict the president but you cant even investigate the president. The attorney general says you cant even investigate the president. Are we really prepared to say that . The only answer to the president s misconduct is, we just need to get over it. What are we going to say with the next president . What will we say with a president who was from a different party, who refuses the same kind of subpoenas, and the president says to you or the chief of staff says to you, just get over it. Im not doing anything different than donald trump data, just get over it. He asked for help in the next election, im asking for help in the next election. Peoples commitment to their good, without having us confirm it for them. I think its more than crazy, i think that was ambassador taylors word. I think its more than crazy, its a gross abuse of power. I dont think impeachment power is a relic. If it is a relic, i wonder how much longer a republic can succeed . For months, President Trump and his agents have pressured ukraine to announce investigations and president zelensky finally yielded. As previously noted, he scheduled a cnn interview and plan to publicly announce the politically motivated investigations. During a september 7th phone call, sunderland said the dash make the public announcement in order to get the critical know terry aid. President trumps corruption had finally worn down president zelensky, overcoming his effort to reac remained tuto his anticorruption platform. Before president zelensky could do the interview, President Trump learned that his scheme had been exposed, facing public and congressional pressure on september 11, the president finally released the hold on the aid to the ukraine. Just like the implementation to the hold, he provided no reason for the release. In late august President Trump learned about a whistleblower complaint that was winding its way through intelligence agencies on the way to congress. On september 9, 3 house committees announced an investigation into President Trumps ukraine misconduct and that of his proxy, Rudy Giuliani. Later that day on september 9th, the Inspector General notified the senate and house intelligence committees of the existence of the complaint and of the fact that it was being withheld from congress contrary to law. And in an unprecedented fashion, facing significant public pressure on september 11, the president gave up and release the money to the ukraine. One week later president zelensky canceled the cnn interview. And rather than demonstrate contrition or acknowledge wrongdoing, the president instead has continued his effort even after the impeachment presentation began. He not only continue to call on the ukraine to investigate has put a call upon it but called on china to do the same. This should concern all of us. Its a confirmation not only of a scheme to pressure the ukraine to help his Political Campaign but a clear sign that the president believes that these corrupt acts are acceptable. The president , this unapologetic, this unbound to the constitution, and the oath of office must be removed from that office lest he continue to use the vast president ial powers at his disposal to seek advantage in the next election. President trump abuses the powers of his office, undermine the integrity of our free and Fair Elections and compromise National Security. If we dont stand up to this peril today, we will write the history of our decline with our own hand. President trump is not held to the account, can fairly take precedent over those of the nation. In the rule of law in the study decline of the spread of Democratic Values throughout the world. So how can the Country Trust the United States as a model of governance if its the one that sanctions precisely the political corruption and invitation to foreign meddling that we have long sought to help eradicate in burgeoning durham accuracies the world. To protect interference in our elections we have guardrails built into our democratic system. We have Campaign Finance laws to ensure that political systems can come only from domestic actors and we take seriously the need to shore up the integrity of our voting systems so the government or actor cannot change vote tallies