506 Hill Dep. Tr. at 69-70.
507 Kurt Volker Document Production, Bates KV00000036 (Oct. 2, 2019).
[7/10/19, 2:26:06 PM] Bill Taylor: Eager to hear if your meeting with Danyliuk and Bolton resulted in a decision on a call.
[7/10/19, 10:26:13 PM] Bill Taylor: How did the meeting go?
[7/10/19, 10:29:44 PM] Kurt Volker: Not good—lets talk—kv
508 Kurt Volker Document Production, Bates KV00000018 (Oct. 2, 2019).
509 Hill Dep. Tr. at 70-72.
510 Hill Dep. Tr. at 126-27.
Q:
Okay. But what did you understand him to mean by that?
A:
Well, based on what had happened in the July 10th meeting and Ambassador Sondland blurting out that he’d already gotten agreement to have a meeting at the White House for Zelensky if these investigations were started up again, clearly Ambassador Bolton was referring directly to those.
511 Hill Dep. Tr. at 129.
512 Hill Dep. Tr. at 139. (“I told him exactly, you know, what had transpired and that Ambassador Sondland had basically indicated that there was an agreement with the Chief of Staff that they would have a White House meeting or, you know, a Presidential meeting if the Ukrainians started up these investigations again.”)
513 Hill Dep. Tr. at 139.
514 Hill Dep. Tr. at 146-147.
515 Hill Dep. Tr. at 158-59, 161.
Q:
What was Mr. Eisenberg’s reaction to what you explained to him had and Mr. Griffith had explained to him had occurred the day before?
A:
Yeah. He was also concerned. I mean, he wasn’t aware that Sondland, Ambassador Sondland was, you know, kind of running around doing a lot of these, you know, meetings and independently. We talked about the fact that, you know, Ambassador Sondland said he’d been meeting with Giuliani and he was very concerned about that. And he said that he would follow up on this.
516 Vindman Dep. Tr. at 37. (“Sir, I think I—I mean, the top line I just offered, I’ll restate it, which is that Mr. Sondland asked for investigations, for these investigations into Bidens and Burisma. I actually recall having that particular conversation. Mr. Eisenberg doesn’t really work on this issue, so I had to go a little bit into the back story of what these investigations were, and that I expressed concerns and thought it was inappropriate.”)
517 Vindman Dep. Tr. at 36.
518 Vindman Dep. Tr. at 38.
Q:
Did he say anything to you, that, all right, I’m going to do anything with it?
A: I vaguely recall something about: I’ll take a look into it. You know, there might not be anything here. We’ll take a look into it, something of that nature. But—and then he offered to, you know, if I have any concerns in the future, you know, that I should be open—I should be—feel free to come back and, you know, share those concerns.
Q:
Did either he or anyone from the legal staff circle back to you on this issue?
A:
No.
519 Vindman Dep. Tr. at 39-40.
520 Taylor Dep. Tr. at 29. (“In the same July 19th phone call, they gave me an account of the July 10th meeting with the Ukrainian officials at the White House. Specifically, they told me that Ambassador Sondland had connected investigations with an Oval Office meeting for President Zelensky, which so irritated Ambassador Bolton that he abruptly ended the meeting, telling Dr. Hill and Mr. Vindman that they should have nothing to do with domestic politics.”)
521 Morrison Dep. Tr. at 12.
522 House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Written Statement of Ambassador Gordon Sondland, Impeachment, 116th Cong. (Nov. 20, 2019) (“2. The call between Zelensky and Potus should happen before 7/21. (Parliamentary Elections) Sole purpose is for Zelensky to give Potus assurances of ‘new sheriff’ in town. Corruption ending, unbundling moving forward and any hampered investigations will be allowed to move forward transparently. Goal is for Potus to invite him to Oval. Volker, Perry, Bolton and I strongly recommend.”).
523 House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Written Statement of Ambassador Gordon Sondland, Impeachment, 116th Cong. (Nov. 20, 2019).
524 Sondland Dep. Tr. at 227.
525 House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Opening Statement of Ambassador Gordon Sondland, Department of State, Impeachment, 116th Cong., at 21 (Nov. 20, 2019).
526 House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Opening Statement of Ambassador Gordon Sondland, Department of State, Impeachment, 116th Cong., at 21 (Nov. 20, 2019).
527 House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Opening Statement of Ambassador Gordon Sondland, Department of State, Impeachment, 116th Cong., at 21 (Nov. 20, 2019).
528 Sondland Hearing Tr. at 27.
529 Verizon Document Production. It is unclear whether this call occurred before or after Ambassador Sondland spoke with President Zelensky, and it is also unclear whether the White House caller was an Administration official or the President himself.
530 Kurt Volker Document Production, Bates KV00000037 (Oct. 2, 2019).
531 Kurt Volker Document Production, Bates KV00000037 (Oct. 2, 2019).
532 Volker Transcribed Interview Tr. at 229-230.
533 Kurt Volker Document Production, Bates KV00000018 (Oct. 2, 2019).
534 Volker Transcribed Interview Tr. at 202-203.
535 Volker Transcribed Interview Tr. at 232.
536 Kurt Volker Document Production, Bates KV00000002 (Oct. 2, 2019).
537 Kurt Volker Document Production, Bates KV00000018 (Oct. 2, 2019).
538 Volker Transcribed Interview Tr. at 138-139.
539 AT&T Document Production, Bates ATTHPSCI_20190930_02705.
540 Volker Transcribed Interview Tr. at 139.
541 Kurt Volker Document Production, Bates KV00000018 (Oct. 2, 2019).
542 Kurt Volker Document Production, Bates KV00000002-KV00000003 (Oct. 2, 2019).
543 Kurt Volker Document Production, Bates KV00000042 (Oct. 2, 2019).
Volker:
Orchestrated a great call w Rudy and Yermak. They are going to get together when Rudy goes to Madrid in a couple of weeks.
Volker:
In the meantime, Rudy is now advocating for phone call
Volker:
I have call into Fiona’s replacement and will call Bolton if needed.
Volker:
But I can tell Bolton and you can tell Mick that Rudy agrees on a call, if that helps
Sondland:
I talked to Tim Morrison. (Fiona’s replacement). He is pushing but feel free as well.
544 Kurt Volker Document Production, Bates KV00000042 (Oct. 2, 2019).
Volker:
Orchestrated a great call w Rudy and Yermak. They are going to get together when Rudy goes to Madrid in a couple of weeks.
Volker:
In the meantime, Rudy is now advocating for phone call
Volker:
I have call into Fiona’s replacement and will call Bolton if needed.
Volker:
But I can tell Bolto
n and you can tell Mick that Rudy agrees on a call, if that helps
Sondland:
I talked to Tim Morrison. (Fiona’s eplacement). He is pushing but feel free as well.
545 Taylor Dep. Tr. at 30.
546 Kurt Volker Document Production, Bates KV000000 37 (Oct. 2, 2019).
547 Taylor Dep. Tr. at 74.
548 Kent-Taylor Hearing Tr. at 68.
549 Taylor Dep. Tr. at 177.
550 Sondland Dep. Tr. at 183.
551 Sondland Hearing Tr. at 17.
552 Sondland Hearing Tr. at 18.
553 Sondland Hearing Tr. at 19; 17.
554 Sondland Hearing Tr. at 27.
555 Sondland Hearing Tr. at 26.
556 Sondland Hearing Tr. at 27.
557 Taylor Dep. Tr. at 26.
558 Hill-Holmes Hearing Tr. at 25.
559 Hill Dep. Tr. at 420-421.
Q:
You’ve mentioned repeatedly concerns that you had about, in particular, Mr. Giuliani and his efforts. When you read the call transcript of July 25th, the call record, which you must have done just a couple weeks ago, did it crystalize in your head in any way a better understanding of what was transpiring while you were there?
A:
In terms of providing, you know, more information with hindsight, unfortunately, yes.
Q:
And in what way?
A:
The specific references, also juxtaposed with the release of the text messages by Ambassador Volker—you know, what I said before—really was kind of my worst fears and nightmares, in terms of, you know, there being some kind of effort not just to subvert the national security process but to try to subvert what really should be, you know, kind of, a diplomatic effort to, you know, kind of, set up a Presidential meeting.
Q:
This may—
A:
There seems to be an awful lot of people involved in, you know, basically turning a White House meeting into some kind of asset.
Q:
What do you mean by “asset”?
A:
Well, something that was being, you know, dangled out to the Ukrainian Government. They wanted the White House meeting very much. And this was kind of laying out that it wasn’t just a question of scheduling or having, you know, the national security issues worked out, that there were all of these alternative discussions going on behind.
560 Taylor Dep. Tr. at 174.
561 Taylor Dep. Tr. at 174.
562 Kurt Volker Document Production, Bates KV00000042 (Oct. 2, 2019).
563 Sondland Hearing Tr. at 53-55.
564 Sondland Hearing Tr. at 52-53.
565 Morrison Dep. Tr. at 30-31, 101, 247, 256.
566 Morrison Dep. Tr. at 31.
567 Morrison Dep. Tr. at 111.
568 Volker Transcribed Interview Tr. at 102-103; Kurt Volker Document Production, Bates KV00000007 (Oct. 2, 2019).
In his testimony, Ambassador Volker did not explain to the Committees what he had heard about the July 25 call put him in a position to tell Mr. Giuliani that the “right messages” were, in fact, discussed.
Ambassador Volker testified twice about the readouts that he received of the July 25 call. In his deposition, he told the Committees that he received “the same” readout from both the State Department and Mr. Yermak: that there was a message of congratulations to President Zelensky, that President Zelensky promised to fight corruption and that President Trump repeated the invitation to visit the White House. Volker Transcribed Interview Tr. at 102-103. Volker described it as a “superficial” readout. Volker Transcribed Interview Tr. at 19.
In his public testimony, Volker repeated that claim: the readouts from Mr. Yermak and Volker’s U.S. sources “were largely the same, that it was a good call, that it was a congratulatory phone call for the President winning the parliamentary election.” Volker-Morrison Hearing Tr. at 74. Volker did testify that he “expected” the call to cover the material in his July 25 text message – that the Ukrainians would “investigate/‘get to the bottom of what happened’ in 2016” – but did not receive anything more than a “barebones” description of what was said. Volker-Morrison Hearing Tr. at 87-88, 75.
If Volker is correctly describing the readouts he received, it is not clear what he heard that gave him the basis to tell Mr. Giuliani that “exactly the right messages” were discussed.
569 Williams Dep. Tr. at 37-38.
570 Hill-Holmes Hearing Tr. at 23.
571 Hill-Holmes Hearing Tr. at 25.
572 Trump and Putin Share Joke About Election Meddling, Sparking New Furor, New York Times (June 28, 2019) (online at www.nytimes.com/2019/06/28/us/politics/trump-putin-election.html) (“As he sat down on Friday with Mr. Putin on the sidelines of an international summit in Japan, Mr. Trump was asked by a reporter if he would tell Russia not to meddle in American elections. ‘Yes, of course I will,’ Mr. Trump said. Turning to Mr. Putin, he said, with a half-grin on his face and mock seriousness in his voice, ‘Don’t meddle in the election, President.’”).
573 Morrison Dep. Tr. at 41.
574 Williams Dep. Tr. at 131.
575 See Vindman Dep. Tr. at 42, 109; Morrison Dep. Tr. at 41.
576 Vindman Dep. Tr. at 18; Morrison Dep. Tr. at 15.
577 Vindman Dep. Tr. at 42-43; Morrison-Volker Hearing Tr. at 32.
578 Morrison Dep. Tr. at 39; Vindman Dep. Tr. at 45.
579 U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Italy, Secretary Michael R. Pompeo and Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio at a Press Availability (Oct. 2, 2019) (online at https://it.usembassy.gov/secretary-michael-r-pompeo-and-italian-foreign-minister-luigi-di-maio-at-a-press-availability/). Mr. Morrison testified that Dr. Kupperman was not in the Situation Room, but Mr. Morrison was informed after the fact that Dr. Kupperman was listening. Morrison Dep. Tr. at 39-40. Ms. Williams and Lt. Col. Vindman testified that they both believed Dr. Kupperman was present, but neither had a clear recollection. Williams Dep. Tr. at 64; Vindman Dep. Tr. at 45.
580 See Transcript, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, ABC News (Sept. 22, 2019) (online at https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week-transcript-22-19-secretary-mike-pompeo-gen/story?id=65778332) (Q: And I want to turn to this whistleblower complaint, Mr. Secretary. The complaint involving the president and a phone call with a foreign leader to the director of national intelligence inspector general. That’s where the complaint was launched by the whistle-blower. ‘The Wall Street Journal’ is reporting that President Trump pressed the president of Ukraine eight times to work with Rudy Giuliani to investigate Joe Biden’s son. What do you know about those conversations? A: So, you just gave me a report about a I.C. whistle-blower complaint, none of which I’ve seen….”).
581 Pompeo Took Part in Ukraine Call, Official Says, Wall Street Journal (Sept. 30, 2019) (online at www.wsj.com/articles/pompeo-took-part-in-ukraine-call-official-says-11569865002).
582 The White House, Memorandum of Telephone Conversation (July 25, 2019) (online at www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Unclassified09.2019.pdf).
583 The White House, Memorandum of Telephone Conversation (July 25, 2019) (online at www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Unclassified09.2019.pdf).
584 The White House, Memorandum of Telephone Conversation (July 25, 2019) (online at www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Unclassified09.2019.pdf). See European Union External Action Service, EU-Ukraine relations-factsheet (Sept. 30, 2019) (online at https://eeas.europa.e
u/headquarters/headquarters-Homepage/4081/eu-ukraine-relations-factsheet_en).
585 The White House, Memorandum of Telephone Conversation (July 25, 2019) (online at www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Unclassified09.2019.pdf).
586 The White House, Memorandum of Telephone Conversation (July 25, 2019) (online at www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Unclassified09.2019.pdf); Kent-Taylor Hearing Tr. at 29.
587 The White House, Memorandum of Telephone Conversation (July 25, 2019) (online at www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Unclassified09.2019.pdf).
588 Vindman Dep. Tr. at 114.
589 The White House, Memorandum of Telephone Conversation (July 25, 2019) (online at www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Unclassified09.2019.pdf).
590 See Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent U.S. Elections (Jan. 6, 2017) (online at www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf).
591 The White House, Memorandum of Telephone Conversation (July 25, 2019) (online at www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Unclassified09.2019.pdf).
592 Charges of Ukrainian Meddling? A Russian Operation, U.S. Intelligence Says, New York Times (Nov. 22, 2019) (online at www.nytimes.com/2019/11/22/us/politics/ukraine-russia-interference.html).
593 The President of Russia, Joint News Conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (Feb. 2, 2017) (online at http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/53806).
594 Hill-Holmes Hearing Tr. at 39-40.
595 President Trump’s Former National Security Advisor ‘Deeply Disturbed’ by Ukraine Scandal: ‘Whole World Is Watching,’ ABC News (Sept. 29, 2019) (online at https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-trumps-national-security-advisor-deeply-disturbed-ukraine/story?id=65925477).
596 Hill Dep. Tr. at 234-235.
597 The White House, Memorandum of Telephone Conversation (July 25, 2019) (online at www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Unclassified09.2019.pdf).
The Impeachment Report Page 30