they saw officials from the ukrainian embassy in august and they believe that the question of the hold came up at some point. they told me they did not find any corresponding email or any record of those meetings. consequently neither they nor i knew precisely when or what additional discussions may have occurred with the ukrainians in the month of august. if i have more details on these matters, i would offer them to the committee but this is the extent of additional information i have received since my deposition. mr. chairman, i welcome your questions and i will answer them to the best of my ability. thank you. >> thank you for your testimony. for this hearing, we will forgo the first round of questions by committee counsel and proceed to member questions under the five minute rule, i do want to respond to the comments of my ranking member however that i think suggested since it was as apprised of the minority. we informed the minority last