Mean, thats the appropriate way to raise an issue with the ukrainian president , correct . Its appropriate for the Justice Department and the Prosecutor General to cooperate and to exchange information, yes. To the extent the president has concerns and to the extent the Attorney General is having u. S. Attorney durham look into it, isnt it entirely appropriate for the president to flag this for president zelensky and say youn touch with our official channels . Mr. Castor, i dont know the precise appropriateness of these kinds of relations. Now, were either of you involved with the preparation for the 7 25 call . I was not. I was not. How do you account for that . I mean, you were two of the key officials with responsibility for ukrainian policy. If the president of the United States is going to have a call with the leader of ukraine, why
wouldnt you ordinarily be involved with the preparation . Sir, we work for the Department Of State in an embassy overseas. Preparation for a president
with mr. brektbul. that was a june 28th call, i believe? that is correct. in your opening statement you expressed some concerns about what ambassador sondland had said. but then once zelensky got on the phone, it proceeded in a very regular channel way, correct? that is correct. so the june 28th call, at least in and of itself, didn t ultimately as it played out present any problems for you? the call with president zelensky did not. the preparation for that call, the preparation included maybe 15 minutes of just the americans that would stay on the call. again, that was a little irregular in that it didn t have the staff. it was always in that pre-call in that 15 minutes before president zelensky got on the phone where ambassador volker told the rest of the participants that he was
giuliani s statements and involvement in the ukraine policy, yes. okay. so when it genuinely became, you know, a concern for you, what did you do to either engage sondland and volker and perry, giuliani by the way, have you ever met rudy giuliani during these times relevant? not during the times relevant. mr. giuliani visited ukraine one time when i was there, i think in 2007 or 2008. that s the only time i ve met him. so you ve never had any communications with rudy giuliani as part of these irregular channel business that is correct. that is correct. okay. anyway, getting back to my question, did you try to engage brektbul or the secretary during this time period?
i know you said you had, i believe, an august 21 or 22nd phone call with brekt bul, you had a july 10th telephone call with brektbul, then you sent a first person cable on august 29th. that is correct. is that sort of the universe of initiatives you took inside the state department to raise your concerns about the irregular channel? i also raised my concerns with deputy secretary george kent, in particular early on when i think i may have mentioned this phone call that was odd in that it did not include the normal staff. indeed, ambassador sondland s staff. and that struck me as unusual. i consulted with mr. kent and at his suggestion made a note of this and also had i think at that point i had a conversation