at the time, holmes came to understand that the sensitive issues were the investigations that president trump demanded on the july 25th call. following the meeting with zelensky, holmes accompanied sondland to a separate meeting with one of the ukrainian president s top advisers, andriy yermak. was holmes was not allowed in the meeting and waited 30 minutes while sondland and the ukrainian met alone without any note-takers to record what they said. after the meeting, sondland, holmes and two other state department staff went to lunch at a nearby restaurant and sat on an outdoor terrace. at some point during the meal, sondland pulled out his cell phone, placed a call to the white house and asked to be connected to the president. when trump came on the line, holmes could hear the president s voice clearly. holmes recalled that, quote, the president s voice was very loud and recognizable and ambassador sondland held the phone away
of management and budget announced the flow of nearly $400 million in security assistance for ukraine was being held up. the order had come from the president and had been conveyed to omb by acting white house chief of staff mick mulvaney without further explanation. holmes, unaware of the hold prior to the call, was shocked. he thought the suspension of aid was extremely significant, undermining what he had understood to be longstanding u.s. national security goals in ukraine. one week later, on july 25th, president trump spoke with president zelensky by phone. when president zelensky brought up u.s. military support and noted ukraine would like to buy more javelin anti-tank missiles from the united states, trump responded by saying, i would like you to do us a favor, though. trump then requested that zelensky investigate the discredited conspiracy theory that ukraine interfered in the 2016 election. even more ominously, trump asked
i now recognize ranking member nunes for any remarks he d like to make. thank you. throughout these bizarre hearings, the democrats have struggled to make the case that president trump committed some impeachable offense on his phone call with ukrainian president zelensky. the offense itself changes depending on the day ranging from quid pro quo to extortion to bribery, to obstruction of justice, then back to quid pro q quo. it s clear why the democrats have been forced onto this carousel of accusations. president trump had good reason to be worried of ukrainian election meddling against his campaign and of widespread corruption in that country. president zelensky, who didn t even know aid to ukraine had been paused at the time of the call, has repeatedly said there was nothing wrong with the conversation. the aid was resumed without the
zelensky to look into the bidens. neither request had been included in the official talking points for the call prepared by the nsc staff. but both were in donald trump s personal interest and the interest of his 2020 re-election campaign. and the ukrainian president knew about both in advance, in part because of efforts by ambassadors sondland and volker to make him aware of president trump s demands. the next day, july 26th, in kyiv, holmes served as a note-taker during a meeting between acting ambassador bill taylor, volker and sondland with president zelensky and other senior ukrainian 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
there is a quorum present. we will proceed today in the same fashion as our other hearings. i ll make an opening statement, then ranking member nunes will have an opportunity to make a statement and we will turn to our witnesses for their opening statements and then to questions. for audience members, we welcome you and respect your interest in being here. in turn we ask for your respect as we proceed with today s hearing. it is the intention of the committee to proceed without disruptions. i ll take all necessary and appropriate steps to maintain order and ensure that the committee is run in accordance with house rules and house resolution 660. with that, i now recognize myself to give an opening statement on the impeachment inquiry into donald j. trump, the 45th president of the united states. yesterday morning, the committee heard from ambassador gordon sondland. the american ambassador to the european union, the de facto leader of the three amigos who had regular access to presiden