President , correct . Its appropriate for the Justice Department and the Prosecutor General to cooperate and to exchange information, yes. But to the extent that the president has concerns and to the extent that 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 that you should be in touch with our official channels . Mr. Castor, i dont know the precise appropriateness of these kind of relations. Now, were you involved, either of you involved with the preparation for the 7 25 call . I was not. I was not. And how do you account for that . I mean, you were the 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 the ukraine, why wouldnt
you ordinarily be involved with preparation . Sir, we work for the Department Of State in an embassy overseas and in preparation for a president ial phone
Government and the Justice Department, thats the perfect way to raise an issue with the ukrainian president , correct . It is appropriate for the Justice Department and the prosecutor again to cooperate and exchange information, yes. To the extent the president had concerns and the Attorney General is having u. S. Attorney durham looking into that. Is that entirely appropriate for the president to flag this for should be in touch with our official challenge . I dont know the precise appropriateness of these kinds of relations. Now, were you involved, either of you involved in the preparation for the 7 25 call . I was not. I was not. How do you account for that . I mean you were the two officials responsibility with ukrainian policies. If the president of the united
states having a call with the leader of ukraine, why would you not ordinarily be involved with the preparations. In preparations for a president ial phone call that lies within staff of the National Security council. If ther
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
zelensky to look into the bidens. neither request had been included in the official talking points for the call prepared by the nfc staff but both were in donald trump s personal interest and the interests of his 2020 reelection campaign. and the ukrainian president knew about both in advance in part because of efforts by ambassador sondland and volker to make him aware of president trump s demands. the next day july 26, in kiev, holmes served as a note taker during a meeting between acting ambassador bill taylor, volker and sondland with president zelensky and other senior ukraine officials. zelensky said on the previous day s call said that on the previous day s call president trump had quote three times raised some very sensitive issues that he would have to follow up on those issues when they met in person. although he did not realize it
issue of the biden investigation that i had been hearing about. just to summarize during the phone call that you overheard ambassador sondland have with president trump, you heard president trump himself ask the only question that you really heard him ask i believe is whether he was going to do the investigation. to which ambassador sondland responded that he would and he would do anything that president zelensky wants, is that an accurate recitation of what happened? that s correct. and then after that call you had a subsequent conversation with ambassador sondland where he in sum and substance told you that the president doesn t care about ukraine, he only cares about big stuff related to himself and particularly the biden investigation that giuliani was pushing? correct. now, a day before your lunch with ambassador sondland, president trump did speak with