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
counter sensical arguments but they do it. sondland is the one who can say no, no, no, i was talking to trump. we know that from the phone call, from trump being on the front lawn saying it, but sondland is the one witness who can sit in the chair and say i had these conversations. and right now i think they re trying to put it all on sondland. and potential bribery himself if he doesn t say what s going on. er for if i m his lawyer i d tell him come clean and don t let that happen. what i look at is what has the conversation been with the lawyer already? because all of this stuff he s having to res havvise, they shot
chris: none of them ever had any direct contact with the president, which brings us to gordon sondland. doesn t your case, essentially are, depend on sondland who s the only witness that you re going to put up in these public hearings who met with the president? yes, he did meet with him a number of times, but if he doesn t say that the president set this condition, this quid qd pro quo, doesn t that blow a hole in your case? well, you know, i don t think it blows a hole in the case. why do i say that in there is now ample evidence out there, you know, that there was a corrupt deal being cooked up. for example, the statement by the former national security adviser john bolton that he didn t want any part of this, as he called it, drug deal that was being cooked up. but we will hear from at least two firsthand witnesses, right? ambassador sondland, as you talked about. we know what he s already said in his revised testimony when he refreshed his recollection. he basically said, yeah,
direct contact with the president, which brings us to gordon sondland. doesn t your case, essentially are, depend on sondland who s the only witness that you re going to put up in these public hearings who met with the president? yes, he did meet with him a number of times, but if he doesn t say that the president set this condition, this quid qd pro quo, doesn t that blow a hole in your case? well, you know, i don t think it blows a hole in the case. why do i say that in there is now ample evidence out there, you know, that there was a corrupt deal being cooked up. for example, the statement by the former national security adviser john bolton that he didn t want any part of this, as he called it, drug deal that was being cooked up. but we will hear from at least two firsthand witnesses, right? ambassador sondland, as you talked about. we know what he s already said in his revised testimony when he refreshed his recollection. he basically said, yeah, that s what was happening. we ll
direct contact with the president, which brings us to gordon sondland. doesn t your case, essentially are, depend on sondland who s the only witness that you re going to put up in these public hearings who met with the president? yes, he did meet with him a number of times, but if he doesn t say that the president set this condition, this quid qd pro quo, doesn t that blow a hole in your case? well, you know, i don t think it blows a hole in the case. why do i say that in there is now ample evidence out there, you know, that there was a corrupt deal being cooked up. for example, the statement by the former national security adviser john bolton that he didn t want any part of this, as he called it, drug deal that was being cooked up. but we will hear from at least two firsthand witnesses, right? ambassador sondland, as you talked about. we know what he s already said in his revised testimony when he refreshed his recollection. he basically said, yeah, that s what was happening. we ll