start with the best direct evidence of any potential quid pro quo or impeachable scheme. this is president trump s phone call with zelensky for which the national security council and the white house situation room staff prepare to call summary. according to testimony from tim morrison, the summary was accurate and complete. lieutenant colonel alexander vindman testified that any omissions in the summary were not significant and that editing was not done maliciously. president trump has declassified and released the call summaries of the american people can review it and assess it for themselves. i will make a few points that seem to have gone under noticed. the call summary reflects absolutely no pressure or conditionality,
assessing the president s state of mind and understanding whether president zelensky was truly committed to fighting corruption in ukraine. the evidence shows that president trump and invited president zelensky to meet at the white house on three separate occasions all without any conditions. the first was on april 21st during the initial congratulatory phone call, the second was a letter on may 29th. this letter followed an oval office meeting on may 23rd with the u.s. delegation to the inauguration. during this meeting, president trump again expressed his skepticism about ukraine. ambassador volker recalled the president saying these are terrible people in a corrupt country. ambassador sondland similarly testified that ukraine and the president of you tried to take him down in the 2016 election. senator ron johnson to confirm this testimony in his submission to the impeachment inquiry.
foreign minister told the media november following news of ambassador sondland s written supplemental testimony that he never linked security assistance to investigations. he said i have never seen a direct relationship between investigations and security assistance. although there is some testimony that ukrainian officials from the embassy in washington made informal inquiries to the state department and defense department about these issues with security assistance in july and august, the evidence does not show president zelensky or senior advisors were aware of the pause until it was publicly reported by politico on august august 28th. of subsequent news article explained the conflicting testimony that embassy officials in washington had made informal inquiries about issues with the aid of senior officials denied awareness of the pause.
investigating former vice president biden. mr. yermak, the close advisors noted explicitly in august 2019 new york times story which was published before the beginning of the impeachment inquiry. in this article, yermak said that he and mayor giuliani did not discuss a link between a presidential meeting and investigations. witness testimony confirms yermak statement. ambassador volker testified there was no linkage between a potential meeting and investigations. although ambassador sondland testified that he believed there was a quid pro quo, his testimony is not as clear as it has been portrayed. in his deposition, ambassador sondland testified he believed the meeting was conditioned on a public anticorruption statement, not on the investigations themselves. a distinction that during his
his concern to mr. yermak, the close advisor of president zelensky. on september 1st in warsaw. mr. yermak however in a substitute news account disputed ambassador sondland s account and said he hasn t remembered any reference to the military aid. in his public testimony, he reiterated his testimony was based on a presumption acknowledging to congressman turner that no one on the planet told him that security assistance to ukraine was conditioned on investigations. ambassador taylor is the other relevant actors here. he testified in his deposition that he had a clear understanding that ukraine would not receive the security assistance until president zelensky committed to the investigations. however, in his public testimony, ambassador taylor acknowledged his clear understanding came from ambassador sondland. was merely presuming that there was a link.