President zelensky decided that they were not going to issue thatt statement that Rudy Giuliani wanted to include burisma in the 2016 elections, there was no white house meeting. It soon became clear to them that the Security Assistance was also at risk. And that took on a renewed importance for them. Well, following the 25th call, the t july 25th call, ambassador sondland and volker worked closely with mr. Giuliani and the ukrainians to help draft a statement that the president could make, president zelensky. Wasnt that right . Yes. And the report said they worked closely and there were also phone calls with the white house around the same time that they werear working closely. Do you know what that statement was supposed tou say according to mr. Giuliani and the u. S. Officials . Well, the key difference is that it had to include that ukraine would do the investigations of burisma which equalled theic Biden Investigatn in the 2016 ukraine
interference. But was there concern about doi
president know and when did he know it. there is a reason that no one here has repeated those questions during these h hearin. we know what the president did. and we know when he knew it. mr. goldman, who sent rudy giuliani to ukraine to smear joe biden? president trump. who fired the anti-corruption ambassador in ukraine, marie yovanovitch? president trump. who told ambassador sondland and ambassador volker to work with rudy giuliani on ukraine? president trump. who told vice president pence to not go to president zelensky s inauguration? president trump. who ordered his own chief of staff mulvaney to withhold critical military assistance for ukraine? president trump. who refused to meet with president zelensky in the oval office? president trump. who ignored on july 25 his own national security council s
going on today. so president zelensky is meeting with putinin today. and because of president trump s actions, zelensky is in a weakened position to negotiate with thea leader of the nation that invaded his country. if our military assistance had been providedy as congress ordered it and the white house meeting, president zelensky would be meeting with putin from a position of strength. if you want the support what we have to realize is that the message this sends to our allies and to our standing in the world. if you want the support of the united states beg y prepared t help with president trump s election. president trump s abuse ofpr por has injured our nation. thank the chairman. the 299-page democratic majority report mentions the intelligence community inspector general michael atkinson on pages 140 and 143. mr. goldman, you were present for the october 4, 2019
pro quo allegation? well, we have not gotten to the bottom of that from a direct evidence standpoint. how about tieing aid to investigations. that s correct too. how about political motives inbo asking for investigations? um, the facts surrounding that are ambiguous. in a nonlegalistic world, when we talk about nonspeculation we use words like gossip, rumors and innuendos, right? and isn t it true that the only direct evidence that we have is ukraine received aid without giving anything in return. no problem with the phone call in the relationship with and that the president had a legitimate concern about ukraine corruption? it did. and the burdensharing of european allies. so much has been made about the alleged desire for an announcement of ansi investigation. but, again, there is no direct evidence that supports the allegation that president trump wanted merely the announcement of an investigation. like i said, there is eight lines in the call transcript to go to
let s explore this phony justification. donald trump first spoke to the president of ukraine on an april 21st call, correct? that s right. president trump never used the word corruption on that april 21st call, true? that is true. and the readout from the white house after the call did say that president trumpid talked about corruption. that readout was inaccurate. in a may 23rd letter, trump s department oftt defense conclud that ukraine met the anti-corruption m benchmarks required to receive military aid from united states, true? yes. just take a d second to talk about that because that s very important.se and this goes back to what mr. collins wasba talking about with vice president biden. there is absolutely conditionality on aid, and routinely in all sorts of different ways. butff it s done through officia policy. andci these anti-corruption benchmarks that you are was a condition of ukraine getting the aid. but inti may the department of