Impeachment inquiry testimony transcripts released

By Veronica Rocha, Meg Wagner and Mike Hayes, CNN

Updated 9:32 p.m. ET, November 5, 2019

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2:20 p.m. ET, November 5, 2019

Volker said he was troubled by Trump's call with Ukraine president

From CNN's Kevin Liptak

Former special representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker told impeachment investigators he was surprised and troubled by President Trump’s phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart in July, which is at the center of the impeachment inquiry.

“Asking the President of Ukraine to work together with the Attorney General and to look into this, you can see, as it has now happened, this becomes explosive in our domestic politics,” Volker said, according to an excerpt of his testimony.

Volker said he was surprised when he read a transcript of the July 25 phone call because, in preparing for the conversation, he didn’t believe the Bidens were going to come up.

He said the request could have the effect of impeding other areas in US-Ukraine ties.

“It creates a problem again where all of the things that we’re trying to do to advance the bilateral relationship, strengthen our support for Ukraine, strengthen the positioning against Russia is now getting sucked into a domestic political debate in the U.S., domestic political narrative that overshadows that. And I think that is extremely unfortunate for our policy with Ukraine,” he said.

2:22 p.m. ET, November 5, 2019

Sondland amended his testimony to say release of US security aid was likely conditioned on public announcement of investigation

From CNN's Jeremy Herb and Katelyn Polantz

U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland arrives at a closed session before the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees on October 17, 2019. Alex Wong/Getty Images

US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland amended his previous closed-door testimony with House impeachment investigators to say that he told a top Ukrainian political aide that the release of US security aid was likely conditioned on Ukraine publicly announcing an investigation that would help the President Trump politically.

Sondland’s attorney sent the committee a letter and a three-page addition to his testimony, which said he had remembered a conversation on Sept. 1 with Andriy Yermak, an aide to the Ukrainian president, linking the aid to the investigations.

“I now recall speaking individually with Mr. Yermak, where I said resumption of U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks,” Sondland said.

Sondland’s new testimony, which was included in the public release of his closed-door deposition transcript, adds to Democrats’ evidence that the President connected the freezing of $400 million in US security aid to Ukraine to investigations into the 2016 election and former Vice President Joe Biden.

2:13 p.m. ET, November 5, 2019

Sondland told lawmakers he was eventually aware Ukraine aid held up to encourage investigation

From CNN's Katelyn Polantz

US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland admitted to House committees he eventually became aware that Ukraine aid was held up to entice Ukrainian corruption investigations, and eventually realized the investigation was linked to the Bidens, according to transcript excerpts released today.

"Finally at some point I made the Biden-Burisma connection, and then the transcript was released," Sondland said during his testimony.

He said he couldn't remember specific dates, and for some time hadn't made the connection between the Bidens and Burisma, the Ukrainian natural resources company for which Hunter Biden sat on the board.

Sondland previously had maintained he didn't make the connection to the Bidens until well after President Trump's July 25 call with the Ukrainian president.

"I did not know until more recent press reports that Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma," he had said in a prepared opening statement released before his testimony.

Sondland also gave the committees a full overview of how Trump sent him and other officials to work with his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, and how his request for help from the Ukrainians developed.

"You know, this whole thing was sort of a continuum, starting at the May 23rd meeting, ending up at the end of the line when the transcript of the call came out. And as I said to counsel, it started as talk to Rudy, then others talk to Rudy. Corruption was mentioned. Then, as time went on—and, again, I can’t nail down the dates—then let’s get the Ukrainians to give a statement about corruption. And then, no, corruption isn’t enough, we need to talk about the 2016 election and the Burisma investigations. And it was always described to me as ongoing investigations that had been stopped by the previous administration and they wanted them started up again. That’s how it was always described. And then finally at some point I made the Biden-Burisma connection, and then the transcript was released. So I can’t tell you on that continuum when, what dates, but that’s kind of what happened," he said.

He also described how the administration held up aid to Ukraine in exchange for political help.

"And then at the end of that continuum I became aware that there might be a link between the White House visit and aid to the Ukraine that was being held up when I couldn’t get a straight answer as to why the aid was being held up, both Senator Johnson and Ambassador Taylor raised the possibility that there might be a link," he said, according to the excerpts. "And then the aid was released, and then this whole thing blew up."

2:22 p.m. ET, November 5, 2019

The transcript of Kurt Volker's testimony is out, too

The transcript of the House interview with former special envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker has been released.

Moments ago, the transcript of testimony from US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland was released. Earlier today, Congress published excerpts from both interviews.

We're going through all the documents now, and we'll post highlights here when we get them.

2:02 p.m. ET, November 5, 2019

Volker advised Ukrainians to drop proposed public statement

From CNN's Jenny Hansler

According to excerpts of his testimony, former special representative Kurt Volker advised the Ukrainians to drop a proposed public statement after learning that the Justice Department had not requested investigations into Burisma or the 2016 election — despite what Rudy Giuliani was promoting.

“It died. I mean, no one—once we started seeing a tempo of engagement with Ukraine, we had first the sense that Rudy was not going to be convinced that it meant anything, and, therefore, convey a positive message to the President if it didn’t say Burisma and 2016. I agreed with the Ukrainians they shouldn’t do it, and in fact told them just drop it, wait till you have your own prosecutor general in place. Let’s work on substantive issues like this, security assistance and all. Let’s just do that. So we dropped it,” Volker said.

Some background: President Trump has repeatedly claimed that former vice president Joe Biden had called for the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor who was "investigating his son." There is no evidence Hunter Biden was ever under investigation. The investigation was into the business dealings of the owner of a Ukrainian natural gas company, Burisma Holdings, where Hunter Biden sat on the board of directors.

US Ambassador to the European Union, in a text message to Volker, had proposed that the Ukrainians put out a statement “about Ukraine’s commitment to fighting corruption and investigating things that happened in the past,” in the words of Volker.

“(That) was where we had this question that we discussed earlier about whether it would specifically mention Burisma and 2016 or not,” Volker said.

Volker testified that the statement went through various iterations, and that Giuliani wanted it to specifically mention Burisma and 2016.

Volker said Zelensky aide Yermak Andrey Yermak asked him “whether any request had ever been made by the US to investigate election interference in 2016. Volker discovered that the DOJ had not requested investigations that were being promoted by Giuliani, so he said he advised the Ukrainians not to include it in the statement.

2:00 p.m. ET, November 5, 2019

Sondland did not recall details of White House meeting with Ukrainian officials

From CNN's Alex Rogers

In an excerpt of his testimony, Gordon Sondland, the US Ambassador to the EU, did not recall the details of a July 10 White House meeting with Ukrainian officials.

“I may have chimed in on a point or two, but I remember it being a very friendly meeting,” said Sondland.

When asked if he brought up the prospect of investigations that Ukraine needed to conduct, Sondland responded, “Not to the best of my knowledge.”

Bill Taylor, the top diplomat to Ukraine, Fiona Hill, Trump's former top Russia adviser, and Lt. Col Alexander Vindman, the NSC’s top Ukraine expert, have testified that then-NSC advisor John Bolton ended the meeting after Sondland discussed investigations. Hill and Vindman then reported the incident to NSC lawyer John Eisenberg.

CNN reported that Bolton said the operation carried out by Sondland and acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney was like a "drug deal,” according to a source familiar with Hill’s testimony.

1:52 p.m. ET, November 5, 2019

The full transcript of Sondland's testimony is out

The transcript of the Congressional interview with US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland has been released.

We're going through it now, and we'll post details here.

Excerpts from the Sondland interview, as well as from an interview with former special envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker, were released earlier today.

1:45 p.m. ET, November 5, 2019

Volker told lawmakers Ukrainians asked to be connected to Giuliani to get to Trump

From CNN's Jenny Hansler

Former special representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker told the House committees that Ukrainian officials asked to be connected with Rudy Giuliani as a conduit to President Donald Trump, according to an excerpt of his testimony.

Asked why Giuliani would “have any role in dealing with the Ukrainians,” Volker replied:

“Because the Ukrainians asked to be connected to him in order to try to get across their message of being different from the past.”

“So the Ukrainians believed that by speaking to Rudy Giuliani they could communicate to President Trump?” he was asked.

“That information flow would reach the President,” Volker answered.

Because Rudy Giuliani would convey that information to the President presumably, correct?” Volker was asked. He responded, “Yes.”

Specifically, Volker testified that Zelensky aide Andriy Yermak asked to be connected with Giuliani, and Volker set up an introductory phone call with them on July 19.

“I was on that call. And it was literally, you know, let me introduce, you know, Mr. Giuliani, let me introduce Mr. Yermak. I wanted to put you in touch, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they agreed to meet in person,” Volker said.

1:40 p.m. ET, November 5, 2019

Volker rejected Giuliani's Biden-Ukraine conspiracy theory, excerpts of testimony show

From CNN's Marshall Cohen

Former US Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker rejected the conspiracy theories about Ukraine and Joe Biden that have been promoted by Rudy Giuliani, according to excerpts of his testimony to lawmakers.

Volker testified that he personally told Giuliani that the source of many of those theories was “not credible.”

Some background: Giuliani has spent much of this year spreading theories about former Vice President Joe Biden and the Democrats peddled by former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko.

The conspiracy theory alleges that Biden held up $1 billion in aid for Ukraine to pressure their government to fire a prosecutor who was investigating Burisma, an energy company where Biden’s son had a high-paid board seat.

There is no evidence of wrongdoing by Joe Biden or his son Hunter Biden.

Volker also testified that Biden didn’t do anything wrong by pushing for the ouster of that top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who was dismissed in 2016. The US and other European allies sought Shokin’s removal because he was not doing enough to crack down on corruption in Ukraine.

“(Biden) was executing U.S. policy at the time and what was widely understood internationally to be the right policy,” Volker testified.