Shared their recollection of overhearing this call. For g this call. For the most part, i have no reason to doubt their accounts. Its true that the president speaks loudly at times, and its also true i think we primarily discussed a ap rocky. Its true that the president likes to use color of language. Anyone who has met with him for any reasonable amount of time knows this. While i cannot remember the precise details, again, the white house has not allowed me to see any readouts of that call, and the july 26th call did not strike me as significant at the time. Actually actually, i would have been more surprised if President Trump had not mentioned investigations, particularly given what we were hearing from mr. Giuliani about the president s concerns. However, i have no recollection of discussing Vice President biden or his son on that call or after the call ended. I know that members of this committee frequently framed these complicated issues in the form of a simple question. Was there a quid pro quo . As i testified previously, with regard to the requested white house call and the white house meeting, the answer is yes. Mr. Giuliani conveyed to secretary perry, ambassador volker and others that President Trump wanted a Public Statement from president zelensky committing to investigations of burisma and the 2016 election. Mr. Giuliani expressed those requests directly to the ukrainians and mr. Giuliani also expressed those directly us to. We all understood that these prerequisites for the white house call and the white house meeting reflected President Trumps desires and requirements. Within my state department emails, there is a july 19th email. This email was sent this email was sent to secretary pompeo, secretary perry, Brian Mccormack who is secretary perrys chief of staff at the time, miss kenna who is the acting pardon me. Who is the executive secretary for secretary pompeo. Chief of staff mulvaney, and mr. Mulvaneys Senior Adviser, rob blair. A lot of senior officials. A lot of senior officials. Heres my exact quote from that email. I talked to zelensky just now. He is prepared to receive potus call. Will assure him that he intends to run a fully transparent investigation, and will turn over every stone. He would greatly appreciate a call prior to sunday so that he could put out some media about a friendly and productive call, no details, prior to ukraine election on sunday. Chief of staff mulvaney responded, i asked the nsc to set it up for tomorrow. Everyone was in the loop. It was no secret. Everyone was informed via email on july 19th. Days before the president ial call. As i communicated to the team, i told president selzelensky in advance to insurance is to run any investigation, and turn over any stone necessary in his phone call with trump. On july 19th in a Whatsapp Message between ambassador taylor, ambassador volker and me, ambassador volker stated, had breakfast with rudy this morning. Thats ambassador volker and Rudy Giuliani. Teeing up call with yermak monday. Thats Senior Adviser andriy yerm yermak. Must have helped. Most important is for zelensky to say that he will help investigation, and address any specific personnel issues if there are any. On august 10th, the next day, mr. Yermak texted me. Once we have a date, which is a date for the white house meeting, we will call for a press briefing, announcing upcoming visit and outlining vision for the reboot of the u. S. ukraine relationship including among other things, burisma and election meddling in investigations. This is from mr. Yermak to me. The following day, august 11th, and this is critical. I sent an email to counselor brechbuhl and lisa kenna. Lisa kenna was frequently used as the pathway to secretary pompeo as sometimes he preferred to receive his emails through her. She would print them out and put them in front of him. With the subject ukraine, i wrote, mike, referring to mike pompeo, kurt and i negotiated a statement from zelensky to be delivered for our review in a day or two. The contents will hopefully make the boss happy enough, the boss being the president , to authorize an invitation. Zelensky plans to have a big presser press conference, on the openness subject including specifics next week. All of which referring to the 2016 and the burisma. Miss kenna replied, gordon, ill pass to the secretary. Thank you. Again, everyone was in the loop. Curiously, and this was very interesting to me, on august 26th, shortly before his visit to kyiv, ambassador boltons office requested mr. Giulianis Contact Information from me. I sent ambassador bolton the information directly. They requested mr. Giulianis Contact Information on august 26th. I was first informed that the white house was withholding security aid to ukraine during conversations with ambassador taylor on july 18, 2019. However, as i testified before, i was never able to obtain a clear answer regarding the specific reason for the hold whether it was bureaucratic in nature which often happens, or reflected some other concern in the inner agency process. I never participated in any of the subsequent dod or dos meetings that others have described so, i cant speak to what was discussed in those meetings. Nonetheless, before the september 1st warsaw meeting, the ukrainians have become aware that security funds had yet to be dispersed. In the absence of any credible explanation for the hold, i came to the conclusion that the aid like the white house visit was jeopardized. In preparation for the september 1 warsaw meeting, i asked secretary pompeo whether a facetoface conversation between trump and zelensky would help to break the log jam, and this is when President Trump was still intending to travel to warsaw. Specifically on august 22nd, i emailed secretary pompeo directly, copying secretary kenna. I wrote, this is my email to secretary pompeo. Should we block time in warsaw for a short pullaside for potus to meet zelensky . I would ask zelensky to look him in the eye and tell him that once ukraines new justice folks are in place in mid september, that zelensky he, zelensky, should be able to move forward publicly and with confidence on those issues of importance to potus and the u. S. Hopefully that will help break the logjam. The secretary replied, yes. I followed up the next day asking to get 10 to 15 minutes on the warsaw schedule for this. I said we would like to know when its locked so that i can tell zelensky and brief him. Executive secretary kenna rep replied, i will try for sure. Moreover, given my concerns about the security aid, i have no reason to dispute that portion of senator johnsons recent letter in which he recalls conversations he and i had on august 30th. By the end of august, my belief was that if ukraine did something to demonstrate a serious intention to fight corruption and specifically addressing burisma and the 2016, then the hold on military aid would be lifted. There was a september 1st meeting with president zelensky in warsaw. Unfortunately President Trumps attendance of the warsaw meeting was canceled due to hurricane dorian. Vice president pence attended instead. I mentioned to Vice President pence before the meetings with the ukrainians that i had concerns that the delay in aid had become tied to investigations. I recall mentioning that before the zelensky meeting. During the actual meeting, president zelensky raised the issue of Security Assistance directly with Vice President pence, and the Vice President said that he would speak to President Trump about it. Based on my previous communication with secretary pompeo, i felt comfortable sharing my concerns with mr. Yermak. It was a very, very brief pullaside conversation that happened within a few seconds. I told mr. Yermak that i believe the resumption of u. S. Aid would likely not occur until ukraine took some kind of action on the Public Statement that he we had been discussing for many weeks. As my other state Department Colleagues have testified, this security aid was critical to ukraines defense and should not have been delayed. I expressed this view to many during this period, but my goal at the time was to do what was necessary to get the aid released, to break the logjam. I believe that the Public Statement we have been discussing for weeks was essential to advancing that goal. You know, i really regret that the ukrainians were placed in that predicament, but i do not regret doing what i could to try to break the logjam and to solve the problem. I mentioned at the outset that throughout these events we kept state Department Leadership and others apprised of what we were doing. State department was fully supportive of our engagement in ukraine efforts and was aware of commitment to investigations was among the issues we were pursuing. To provide just two examples, on june 5th, the day after the u. S. eu mission hosted our independence day, we did it a month early, acting assistant secretary phil reeker sent an email to me, secretary perry and to others, forwarding some positive Media Coverage of president zelenskys attendance at our event. Mr. Reeker wrote, and i quote, this headline underscores the importance and timeliness of zelenskys visit to brussels, and the critical and the critical perhaps historic role of the dinner and engagement gordon coordinated. Thank you for your participation and dedication to this effort. Months later, on september 3rd, i sent secretary pompeo an email to express my appreciation for his joining a series of meetings in brussels, following the warsaw trip. I wrote, mike, thanks for schlepping to europe. I think it was really important and the chemistry seems promising. Really appreciate it. Secretary pompeo replied the next day on wednesday, september 4th, quote, all good. Youre doing great work. Keep banging away. State Department Leadership expressed total support for our efforts to engage the new ukrainian administration. Look. I have never doubted the Strategic Value of our alliance with ukraine, and at all times, at all times, our efforts were in good faith and fully transparent to those tasked with overseeing them. Our efforts were reported and approved, and not once do i recall encountering an objection. It remains an honor to serve the people of the United States as their United States to the european union. I look forward to answering the committees questions. Thank you. We will now proceed the first round of questions as detailed in the memo provided to committee members. There will be 45 minutes of questions, followed by 45 minutes for the Ranking Member minority council. Following that, unless i specify additional equal time for questioning, we will proceed under the fiveminute rule, and every member will have chances to ask questions. I recognize myself or Majority Council for the first round of questions. Mr. Sondland, theres a lot of new material in your Opening Statement for us to get through, but i want to start with a few top line questions before passing it over to mr. Goldman. In your deposition, you yo de what you meanhi continu s insidiousness . Well, mr. Chairman, when we left the oval office, i believe on may 23rd, the request was very generic for an investigation of corruption in a very vanilla sense, and dealing with some of the oligarch problems in ukraine which were longstanding problems, and then as time went on, more specific items got added to the menu including the burisma and 2016 election meddling specifically. The dnc server specifically, and over this over this continuum, it became more and more difficult to secure the white house meeting because more conditions were being placed on the white house meeting. And then of course, on july 25th although you were not privy to the call, another condition was added, that being the investigation of the bidens . I was not privy to the call, a and i did not know the condition of investigating the bidens was a condition, corr oit wasot inyt yes. Correct. I saw it in september, correct. When the beginning of the continuum begins when the president instructs to you talk to rudy . Correct. You understood that from the president you needed to satisfy the concerns that Rudy Giuliani would express to you about what the president wanted in ukraine . Not to me, to the entire group. Volker, perry and myself, correct. Now in your Opening Statement, you confirm that there was a quid pro quo between the white house meeting and the investigations into burisma and the 2016 election that giuliani was publicly promoting. Is that right . Correct. And, in fact, you say that other senior officials in the state department and the chiefs of staffs office including mick mulvaney, secretary pompeo were aware of this quid pro quo that in order to get the white house meeting, they were going to have to have these investigations that the president wanted. Correct. Those again are investigations into 2016 and burisma the bidens . 2016 burisma. The bidens did not comeisma mea bidens when you is a you the call record, correct . Of course. Today, i know exactly what it means. I did not know at the time. Then on july 26th, you confirmed you did indeed have the conversation with President Trump from a restaurant in kyiv, that david holmes testified about last week, is that right . Correct. You have no reason to doubt mr. Holmes recounting of your conversation with the president . The only part of mr. Holmes recounting that i take exception with is i do not recall mentioning the bidens. That did not enter my mind. It was burisma in 2016 elections. You had no reason to believe he would make that up if thats what he recalls you saying . You have no reason to question that . I dont really saying biden. I never recall saying biden. But the rest of mr. Holmes recollection is consistent with your own . Well, i cant testify as to what mr. Holmes might or might not have heard through the phone. I dont know how he heard the conversation. Are you familiar with his testimony . Vaguely, yes. And the only exception you take is to the mention of the name biden . Correct. And i think you have said in your testimony this morning that not only is it correct that the president brought up with you investigations on the phone the day after the july 25th call, but you would have been surprised had he not brought that up, right . Right, because he had been hearing about it from rudy, and we presumed rudy was getting it from the president , so it seemed like a logical conclusion. Mr. Holmes also testified that you said mr. Trump doesnt care about ukraine. He only cares about things that affect him personally. I take it you dont dispute that part of the conversation . Well, he made that clear in the may 23rd meeting that he was not moreparticularly fond of ukraine, and we had heavy lifting to do to get him engaged. You dont dispute that part of mr. Holmes recollection . No. In august when you worked with Rudy Giuliani and a top ukrainian aide to draft a Public Statement to include the announcements of investigations into burisma, you understood that was required by President Trump before he would grant the white house meeting to president zelensky . Thats correct. And the ukrainians understood that as well . I believe they did. And you informed secretary pompeo about that statement as well . I did. Later in august, you told secretary pompeo that president zelensky would be prepared to tell President Trump that his new justice officials would be able to announce matters of interest to the president which could break the logjam. When you say matters of interest to the president , you mean the investigations that President Trump wanted. Is that right . Correct. And that involved 2016 and burisma or the bidens. 2016 and burisma. And when you are talking here about breaking the logjam, youre talking about the logjam over the Security Assistance, right . I was talking generally because nothing was moving. That included the Security Assistance, did it not . Correct. And based on the context of that email, this was not the first time you had discussed these investigations with secretary pompeo, was it . No. He was aware of the connections that you were making between the investigations and the white house meeting and the Security Assistance . Yes. Did he ever take issue with you, and say no that connection cannot there or youre wrong . Not that i recall. You mention that you also had a conversation with Vice President pence before his meeting with president zelensky in warsaw, and that you raised the concern you had as well that the Security Assistance was being withheld because of the president s desire to get a commitment from zelensky to pursue these investigations. What did you say to the Vice President . I was in a briefing with several people, and i just spoke up and i said, it appears that everything has stalled until this statement gets made. Something or words to that effect, and thats what i believe to be the case based on, you know, the work that the three of us had been doing, volker, perry and myself, and the Vice President nodded, like, you know, he heard what i said, and that was pretty much it as i recall. And you understood that t