president zelensky, did you prepare talking points for the president to use during that call? yes, i did. and did those talking points include rooting out corruption in ukraine? yes. that was something the president was supposed to raise in the conversation with president zelensky? those were the recommended talking points that were cleared through the nsc staff for the president, yes. did you listen in on that call? yes, i did. the white house has now released the record of that call. did president trump ever mention corruption in the april 21st call? to the best of my recollection, he did not. on april 21st call, president trump told president zelensky that he would send a high-level u.s. delegation to
committee may ask me about. on april 21 zelensky won the ukrainian presidential election. on april 23 the vice president called to congratulate president elect zelensky. during the call, which i participated in, the vice president accepted an invitation to attend president elect zelensky s upcoming inauguration providing the scheduling worked out. the vice president had only a narrow window of availability at the end of may and the ukrainian parliament would not meet to set a date for the inauguration until after may 14th. as a result, we did not expect to know whether the vice president would be could attend until may 14th at the earliest and we made only preliminary trip preparations in early may. on may 13th an assistant to the vice president s chief of staff called and informed me that president trump had decided that the vice president would not attend the inauguration in ukraine. she did not provide any further
democrats pushing ukraine to support some of their efforts it would weaken support from republicans and they want ukraine to be above politics. i just want to two other quick points if i may. one is that ken starr said it is premature and will hurd said that in the preceding moments. it should be done by the f.b.i. and justice department. the whistleblower complaint went to the justice department and said there is no crime or foul here which is why the whistleblower complaint was brought by the inspector general to the intelligence committee and second this question of president trump who laid out the possibility he was going to testify. i would think that would be akin to prince andrew testifying about his relationship with jeffrey epstein which one critic said was like an airplane crashing into an oil tanker causing a tsunami that set off a nuclear explosion. entertaining thing and got us all talking but my guess is it s not going to happen. if it did it would be a very
president reviewed my update or the transcripts. i did not discuss the july 25th call with the vice president or any of my colleagues in the office of the vice president or the nfc. on august 29th i learned that the vice president would be traveling to poland to meet with president zelensky on september 1. at the september 1 meeting which i attended president zelensky asked the vice president about news articles reporting a hold on u.s. security assistance for ukraine. the vice president responded that ukraine had the united states unwavering support and promised to relay their conversations to president trump that night. during the september 1 meeting, neither the vice president nor president zelensky mentioned the specific investigations discussed during the july 25th phone call. thank you again for the opportunity to provide this statement. i would be happy to answer any questions.
officer for nearly 14 years working for three different presidential administrations, two republican and one democratic. i joined the state department in 2006 after serving in the department of homeland security under secretary. i swore an oath to uphold and defend the constitution administered by former secretary of state condoleezza rice. as a career officer i am committed to serving the american people and advancing american interests abroad. in support of the president s foreign policy objectives. i have been inspired and encouraged in that journey by the thousands of other dedicated public servants so i m proud to call them colleagues across the foreign service, civil service, military, and federal law enforcement. i ve served overseas terns in