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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3:46 p.m. ET, November 5, 2019

Volker portrays himself as out of the loop on Ukraine matters

From CNN's Jenny Hansler

Kurt Volker departs following a closed-door deposition on Capitol Hill, October 3. Zach Gibson/Getty Images

Kurt Volker at numerous points throughout his testimony acknowledged he was out of the loop on matters related the administration’s moves on Ukraine, despite his role as the US envoy for Ukraine negotiations.

Volker told House committees that he “never got a clear explanation as to what happened” with the hold in US security aid.

He said that he was not provided with “much of a readout” of Vice President Mike Pence’s meeting the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Warsaw on Sept. 1 — a fact he called “very, very sketchy.”

However, when asked whether he sought more information post readout, Volker said he didn’t.

“I figured that that's about as much as I needed to know,” he said.

Volker claimed that he did not know whether Rudy Giuliani had a role in facilitating the call between President Trump and Zelensky, telling lawmakers, “I believe he may have been helpful, but I don't know that.”

Read more from the transcript:

3:39 p.m. ET, November 5, 2019

White House: Transcripts "show there is even less evidence" for inquiry "than previously thought"

From CNN's Betsy Klein

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement today that the testimonies of US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker “show there is even less evidence for this illegitimate impeachment sham than previously thought.”

Read her full statement:

“Both transcripts released today show there is even less evidence for this illegitimate impeachment sham than previously thought. Ambassador Sondland squarely states that he 'did not know, (and still does not know) when, why or by whom the aid was suspended.' He also said he 'presumed' there was a link to the aid—but cannot identify any solid source for that assumption. By contrast, Volker’s testimony confirms there could not have been a quid pro quo because the Ukrainians did not know about the military aid hold at the time. No amount of salacious media-biased headlines, which are clearly designed to influence the narrative, change the fact that the President has done nothing wrong.”

2:57 p.m. ET, November 5, 2019

Volker told lawmakers there was no validity to Trump's Biden allegations

From CNN's Marshall Cohen

Former US special envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker said there was no validity to the allegations that President Trump pressed Ukraine to investigate — claims of corruption against former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, and allegations that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election to help Hillary Clinton.

Asked if he believed the allegations, Volker said, "No, I do not."

Read the exchange below:

2:47 p.m. ET, November 5, 2019

Sondland worked with Giuliani to press Ukraine to make public statement about investigation, suggested it could air on Fox News

From CNN's Katelyn Polantz

Former Mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani speaking in the Albanian town of Manza, on July 13, 2019. Gent Shkullaku/AFP/Getty Images

Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland said he worked with Rudy Giuliani and others to prompt Ukraine to make a public announcement about its investigation — and that any announcement would need to be on TV so President Trump would see it, according to the transcript released Tuesday.

What this means: The emphasis on getting Ukraine to make a public announcement that it was investigating a company linked to Trump political opponent Joe Biden — and not just a conduct an investigation — highlights just how politicized the President's intentions had become with Ukraine.

"I think this was the press statement had now morphed into some kind of an interview that President Zelensky would give to a TV station," Sondland told the committees.

When asked what network the statement should be made on, he answered, "I don't know, but something President Trump would obviously see."

He then mentioned Fox News and its host Tucker Carlson — prompting laughter in the committee room, according to the transcript.

2:49 p.m. ET, November 5, 2019

Sondland said he called Rick Perry the day before his deposition to refresh his memory of July 10 meeting

From CNN's Zachary Cohen

Gordon Sondland, US Ambassador to the European Union, arrives to the Capitol for his deposition on Thursday, October 17. Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/AP

US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland told lawmakers that he called Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Oct. 16, the day before his deposition, to refresh his memory of the July 10 White House meeting with National Security Council officials, including Fiona Hill.

“I have spoken with Secretary Perry on several occasions relating to non-Ukraine business, and I did ask Secretary Perry to refresh my memory about a couple of meetings. Yes,” he said, according to the transcript.

About the meeting: CNN previously reported that Hill, a former White House Russia adviser, testified about a July 10 meeting on Ukraine where Sondland discussed investigations, something that was interpreted as a reference to the President's call for investigations into the Bidens, according to a source familiar.

Former national security adviser John Bolton and Hill both were concerned about the comments, and Bolton urged Hill to report the incident to National Security Council lawyer John Eisenberg, according to the source familiar with her testimony.

2:50 p.m. ET, November 5, 2019

What Volker told Ukraine's president about Giuliani's "negative narrative"

From CNN's Jenny Hansler

Former US Special Envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker is seen after attending a closed door meeting at the US Capitol on October 16. Andrew Harnik/AP

Former special representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and chief of the Presidential Administration Andriy Bohdan that Rudy Giuliani was amplifying a “negative narrative” about Ukraine.

“I explained it to President Zelensky and Chief of Presidential Administration, Andriy Bohdan, was standing next to him. And I explained that I thought that there is a negative narrative about Ukraine that is counteracting all the good things that he is doing, and that we are officially communicating back, and that this is being amplified by Rudy Giuliani,” Volker told the House committees, according to a transcript of his testimony. “So this is a negative factor for Ukraine's image in the United States and our ability to advance the bilateral relationship.”

Volker reflected that it was “probably very helpful” that he had mentioned this to Zelensky prior to his call with President Trump on July 25.

“I actually – I hadn't thought about it, you know, in this context before, but as I think about it, it was probably very helpful that I had told this to President Zelensky when I did so that when he heard this from the President, he was forewarned, right, there's a Giuliani problem here,” Volker said.

2:28 p.m. ET, November 5, 2019

Sondland said Trump told him to "go tell the truth"

From CNN's Adam Levine

U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland arrives for a closed session before the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees on October 28, 2019. Mark Wilson/Getty Images

US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland told lawmakers that he had a brief exchange with President Trump during a White House gathering where the President told him to “go tell the truth."

White House counsel wanted to sit down with Sondland to interview him about what he knew after the whistleblower complaint was filed. That never happened, though he did speak to them on the phone for a few minutes.

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

Volker backed up a key Trump point about Ukraine military aid

From CNN's Marshall Cohen

Former Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker departs following a closed-door deposition on October 3, 2019 in Washington, DC. Zach Gibson/Getty Images

Former special envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker told lawmakers that the Ukrainians didn’t know about the holdup of military assistance until after the Trump administration stopped pressing them to announce an investigation into the Bidens.

His testimony, released today, bolsters a key tenet of Trump’s defense – that there was no “quid pro quo” with Ukraine because the new government in Kiev was not aware that military aid was being withheld.

Their position cuts against Democratic allegations that Trump used the $400 million aid package as leverage.

“To my knowledge, the news about a hold on security assistance did not get into Ukrainian Government circles, as indicated to me by the current foreign minister, then diplomatic adviser, until the end of August,” Volker said. “And by the time that we had that, we had dropped the idea of even looking at a statement.”

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.