being withheld at the time of the call even though that doesn t even matter. but and then finally, there was no white house meeting ever provided. so the the third or fourth fact. so i ith do think that that just needs to be clarified, particularly as we re focusing on what direct evidence is. well, let s let s get some more examples. weso also heard the testimony o three of the individuals who participated in the july 25 call. is their testimony direct evidence of what happened during that call? yes,ju although i would say e call record is better evidence than b their and the day after that call, david holmes testified july 26th he t overheard the president as ambassador sondland whether president zelensky was, quote, going to do the investigation. is that direct evidence? that is direct evidence. and after the july 25 call record was released, the president got on the white house lawn and, again, declared that ukraine should investigate ala potential political o
we should be here hearing from hunter biden. we should be hearing from schiff s staff. we know that schiff s staff coordinated with the whistle-blower. and, again, we need to hear from the whistle-blower. last week, i offered a motion to subpoena the whistle-blower to testify in executive session. meaning that he or she could testify behind closed doors. my democrat colleagues voted my motion down in a partisan fashion. mr. castor, can you walk us through the inaccuracies in the whistle-blower s complaint? well, the first thing about thetl complaint that troubles u is that it s clearly from an outsider who received information secondhand. the information presented in the complaint is clearly distorted. and it it s from a person who is it f seems to be making an a case. like an advocate about what happened on the call. the whistle-blower references a number of individuals inside the white house and at the state department that he or she has
his call notes weren t being referenced by thees president. and a lot of the interagency officials i think became very sad that the presidentca didn t revere their policy making apparatus. is it safe to say there s another reason the president s skeptical ofas relying on some these individuals to carry out his foreign policy goals, like rooting out corruption in ukraine? i think the president is is skeptical of the interagency bureaucracy. is that maybe why he instead reliedhy on secretary perry, ambassador volker, ambassador sondland and others? correct. and by the way,nd all three of those officials are not that far outside of the chain of the u.s. government. would it be appropriate in any investigation of corruption in ukraine to exempt or remove, say, a political supporter? certainly, would be. would it be inappropriate to remove a political opponent? that s correct. yeah. would it be t inappropriate
we ll take a look at it. should i make a motion to insert instead, mr. chairman?ma before i recognize before i recognize ms. mcbath, i want to announce that with respect to scheduling, that this hearing will proceed until the votes are called. it may end before votes are called, which would be nice. if it does not end before votes are called, then we will recess for the votes and we ll reconvene here as soon as the votes on the floor are over. it s going to be a close call. we ll see. it was further announced that i m not prepared to say anything further about the schedule of the committee beyond today s hearing. point of order, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, point of order. , who seeks recognition for point of order? iog do, mr. chairman. who iso, i? w to your right, mr. chairma.
i quote, no quid pro quo on september 7th in a call with ambassador sondland. mr. goldman, did you receive testimony about the september 7th call? yes. we received testimony from three witnesses about it. and it gets a little complicated. but that that that was a consistent refrain through all of the witnesses is that the president did say no quid pro quo. let s try to clarify it a little bit. ambassador sondland described that call to mr. morrison that same day, correct? that s right. and mr. morrison then reported it to ambassador taylor. correct? that s correct. yes. and both mr. morrison and ambassador taylor took notes of those discussions. they did. were those notes produced to the committee? they were not produced to us but the witnesses said they relied on their notes to provide their testimony. that set of notes was blocked consistent with the president s direction?