They were not going to issue that statement that Rudy Giuliani wanted to include burisma and the 2016 elections there was no white house meeting. It soon became clear to them that the Security Assistance was also at risk and that took on a renewed importance for them. Well, following the 25th call, the July 25th Call, ambassador sondland and volker worked closely with mr. Giuliani and the ukrainians to help draft a statement that the president could make, president zelensky. Wasnt that right . Yes. And the report say they were closely and then also there were phone calls with the white house around the same time they were working closely do you know what that statement was supposed to say, according to mr. Giuliani and the u. S. Officials. The key difference is that it had to include that ukraine would do the investigations of burisma which equaled the Biden Investigation and the 2016
ukraine interference. Was there concern about doing the investigations or what . Just make a statement
a russian consulate in miami when there isn t. it said that michael cohen had a meeting in prague, when he didn t. the dossier said that michael cohen s wife was russian, she s, in fact, ukrainian. so as we sit here today, where you guess i got a tweet mentioning a pee tape presenting yourself not as a partisan hired by the democrats to pursue the president, do you regret this tweet? sir, i would be happy to put my this investigation up with any of the nonpartisan investigations i did i just want to know about the tweet, mr. mr. goldman? do you regret it. i hope you read the evidence and you could judge for yourself [ overlapping speakers ] earlier in the hearing you said in your opening statement that there is no nothing more urgent than impeachment right now. this is the most urgent thing we could possibly do. well you know what, if you re a senior right now and you can t afford your prescription drugs that s more urgent than this.
other inner agencies certified that ukrainian was making the necessary progress on anti-corruption efforts to merit the aid. and yet the aid was not released, correct. the aid was subsequently held. it was supposed to be released. d.o.d. announced the release and then president trump held the aid without explanation. mr. goldman, based on the evidence and testimony that you have reviewed, is there any reason to believe that the president cared about corruption in ukraine? no. the evidence really supports the fact that president trump views corruption in ukraine to be synonymous with the two investigations that he wants. what the president did care about was a political favor from the ukrainian government and that is why he withheld the military aid, true? he told ambassador sondland himself that that is the only thing that he care cares
conclude that the president violated the empowerment control act of 1974 which congress passed as a response to president nixon s abuse of power. so i d like to explore that a little further with you mr. goldman. in this case. congress with bipartisan support had appropriated taxpayer funds for the specific purpose of aiding ukraine and the war against russia, is that right? yes. and not only had that money been appropriated, the money had been released to the department of defense, is that right? they were about to release it, yes. and then suddenly without explanation the president demanded the taxpayer funds be withheld from an ally who desperately needed the aid. right. mr. goldman, did the president notify congress about liz decision to withhold aid. no, he did not. and so the empowerment control act was designed to prevent the president from taking congressionally appropriated funds and doing whatever he wants with them. so is it true that in your intelligence rep
president without allowing a single question to be asked of a single witness to get an explanation for why the inspector general was not told the truth about contacts between the whistle-blower and chairman schiff. the bottom line is we should all be held accountable and next november every member of the house will be asked this question, did you vote to impeach the president without allowing any investigation into why the whistle-blower that started it all did so by making statements in writing and verbally under penalty of perjury that were not true. democrats may not care if that question ever gets answered but the voters will. i yield back. gentleman yields back. mr. richmond. thank you, mr. chairman. mr. goldman, i want to start off with facts that you uncovered during the investigation and i want to pick up where mr. beauch and bass left off. they walked through how the