benefit in exchange for an official act. is that a fair summary? in your hypothetical, that s correct. it s not hypothetical, sir. it s real life. it where they asked to give him a personal benefit in exchange for an official act? sir, i m not going to go around in circles. please be clear about what you re asking. my time has expired. ms. demings. good afternoon, ambassador. it s good to see you again. thank you. do you have any knowledge of a possible meeting on or around may 7 involving then president-elect zelensky and several of his aides to discuss how to handle pressure from president trump and mr. giuliani about investigating the bidens? i don t recall such a meeting. you don t recall such a meeting.
place in ambassador volker believed should take place, who was the one standing the way of the meeting? who was the one refusing to take the meeting? there s only one answer to that question and it is donald j. trump, 45th president of the united states. who was holding up the military assistance? wasn t you, ambassador sondland? was it ambassador volker, ambassador taylor, deputy secretary kent? no. was it secretary of state pompeo? no. who had the decision to release the aid, one person. donald j. trump, president of the united states. my colleagues seem to think unless the president says the magic words, i hereby bribed the ukrainians, but there s no evidence of bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors. let s look to the best evidence of what s in the president s head. what s his intent? what s the reason behind the
i want nothing. i want nothing. i want president zelensky to do what he ran on. clearly anticorruption. the facts remain ukraine received the aid. there was no investigation before the meeting, no investigation before the aid was released, no investigation before the call or after the call. the facts remain the same. despite adam schiff continuing his political wishful thinking. do you think it s a coincidence that the aid was released after congress began an investigation. after the white house learned about the whistle-blower complaint. is it a coincidence it happened days before it got released. it got released because so many senior government officials met with president zelensky and determined that this new kid in town, he is legit, he s a real reformer. remember what also happened, the same day the senators are meeting with president zelensky,
corruption. correct? correct. lastly, on october 2nd in a random in-person meeting you had at an event for the finnish president, he ran into president trump and advised him that you had been called to testify before congress. he said to you, good, go tell the truth. that s correct. and that is the entirety of your recollection of your direct communications with president trump about these matters. i may have had another call or meeting or two. again, i wish, mr. ratcliffe, that i have the record. i understand. but this is what you recall. that s what i recall. stop me if there s anything sinister or nefarious in any of this. if vanilla request about corruption, a call to see your on your way to ukraine, five-minute call you didn t remember as significant, but the primary purpose was to discuss a rapper. i want nothing, i want no quid pro quo, i want zelensky to do the right thing, i want him to do what he ran on. and i m telling you to go tell congress the truth. a
of aid, i later came to believe that the resumption of security aid would not occur until there was a public statement from ukraine committing to the investigations, correct? correct. and you acknowledge that this is speculation, right? it was a presumption. okay. it was a guess, in fact, i think you even said this morning. well, i want to say that it goes back to mr. goldman s point or mr. schiff s, two plus two equalled four at that point. but you didn t have evidence? other than the aid wasn t being released and we weren t getting anywhere with the ukrainians. but did ambassador volker clue you in this is the issue? that was i mean, this is a pretty serious conclusion you have reached without precise evidence. well, i sent that email to secretary pompeo to set up a potential meeting between