a plan that came to be known as the volker itrule.oo was unpopular in many circles,ut has helped restore confidence in the wake of the financial crisis. just the role volker deemed crucial as the feds celebrated it 100th anniversary in 2013. >>heisturbances demanded a response. and the point that we -- i think celebrate and look at today demanded a response that onl an institution equipped with thority and judgment could tily act inupon. any country. that role falls importantly to its central bank. >> the great inflation rider paul volker. ♪ >>> in a lawsuit unsealed today, amazon said the pentagon's recent decision to award microsoft a cloud computing contract should be revisited. the substantial and pervasive errors and president trump's improper pressure harmed its chances of winning the $10 billion de p. thetagon says the decision was made by a team of career publicnt ser withoutxternal influence. >>> somef the biggest mutual funds have invested billions of dollars in togy start-ups all in an effort to beat their respective benchm

when ambassador taylor raised the possibility of a quid pro quo to ambassador volker, volker said he replied, there is no linkage here. during his deposition, chairman schiff tried to pin him down on this point, but ambassador volker was clear there was no connection. in his public testimony, ambassador volker reiterated there was no linkage. similarly, george kent at the state department said he did not associate aid to investigations, and he relayed how ambassador taylor told him that tim morrison and ambassador sondland also believed the two were not linked. ambassador sondland's testimony, as we have seen already, is a bit more scattered. in his deposition he said that he was never aware of preconditions on security assistance or that the security assistance was tied to investigations. ambassador sondland then later provided a written statement supplementing his deposition in which he explained for the first time that in the absence of any clear explanation, he presumed a link between security assistance and an anti-corruption statement were linked. ambassador sondland also testi

when ambassador taylor raised the possibility of a quid pro quo to ambassador volker, volker said he lkreplied there's no linkage here. during his deposition chairman schiff tried to pin him down on this point but ambassador volker was clear there was no connection. in his public testimony ambassador volker reiterated there was no linkage. george kent said he did not associate aid to investigations and he relayed how tim morrison and sondland also believed the two werebe not linked. or that the security assistance was tied to investigations. ambassador sondland later provided a written statement supplementing his s deposition which he explained for the first time that in the absence of any clear explanation, he presumed a link between security assistance and an anti-corruption statement were linked. ambassador sondland also attested in his written supplement that he likely voiced this concern to yermak, a close at vi advisor of president zelensky. mr.of yermak disputed ambassado sondland's account and said he doesn't remember any reference to the military aid. ambassador sondland rei

, volker told mr. giuliani that the accusations were just wrong. mr. giuliani said that he knew that, and yet, for the next two months, he continued to push for that same investigation at the direction of president trump, who had also directed him to contact mr. giuliani. so that meeting is actually quite important to that investigation. >> and sir, you already explained that on may 23rd, the offici only thing they said was talk to rudy. he was taking his official people of ukraine and handing them over to rudy giuliani so they could work with him on issues he was focused on in reference to the tweet. is that fair? >> i agree that's what that shows, that the july 23rd meeting he put ukraine matters with ambassador sondland and perry and told them to meet with rudy. in the next few months, that's what happened at the president's direction. >> let me show you slide 22, if i may. you understood the ukranians recognized how important rudy giuliani was and organized him in order to stay together. >> they co

when ambassador taylor raised the possibility of quid pro quo to ambassador volker, volker said he replied, there's no linkage here. during his deposition, chairman schiff tried to pin him down on this point but ambassador volker was clear, there was no connection. in his public testimony, ambassador volker reiterated there was no linkage. similarly, george kent at the state department said he did not associate aid to investigations and he relaid how ambassador taylor told him that tim morrison and ambassador sondland also believed the two were not linked. ambassador sondland's testimony, as we have seen already, is a bit more scattered. in his deposition he said that he was never aware of preconditions on security assistance or that the security assistance was tied to investigations. ambassador sondland later provided a written statement supplementing his deposition in which he explained for the first time that in the absence of any clear explanation, he presumed a link between security assistance, an anti-corruption statement were linked. ambassador sondland also testified in his written

july 26, met with ambassador volker, ambassador taylor, ambassador sondland. on august 27th, he met with ambassador bolton. september 1st, vice president pence in warsaw and on september 5th, he met with senator ron johnson, senator chris murphy and in none of these meetings did he raise any concern about a linkage between security assistance and investigations. in particular, the september 5th meeting with senator johnson and senator murphy is notable because they are not part of the trump administration and he could be candid with them. what did occur during those 55 days or historic efforts by ukraine of parliament to implement anticorruption reform. vice president pence had pressed president zelensky about these reforms during their september 1st meeting. in their deposition, ambassador taylor lau did his rapid reforms and national security council official morrison testified that during the meeting that he noted everyone on the ukrainian side of the table was exhausted as they had been up all night working on these reforms. on september 11th, president tr

on c that july 19th meeting between ambassador volker and rudy giuliani, ambassador volker told rudy giuliani of the allegations of joe biden were bogus and wrong. mr. rudy giuliani said "he knew that and for the next two months he koncontinued to push the investigation at the direction of president trump." so that july 19th that mr. castor brought up is quite important to this investigation. >> sir, you explained on may 23rd where the official folks who went on the inauguration to tell the president how impressed they were, the only thing head to say to them was talk to rudy. he was taking his official government response for ukraine and handing them over. >> i agree with mr. castor. what that's what the evidence shows. president directed and delegated authorities over to sondland and perry and told them to work with rudy and over the next three months that's what happened at the president's direction. >> let me show you slide 22 if i may that you understood the ukrainians recognized how important rudy giuliani was and satisfying himrt in order to st on good terms with president tru

castor: volker never meant -- rep. nadler: the gentleman has the time. >> will this witness be able to cross-examine it like he is being able to cross-examine -- rep. nadler: the gentleman is not recognized. the gentleman will not call out in the middle of testimony. >> [indiscernible] does not make it you point you are doing it right. it was your testimony, the democrats are about blocking information when they should be seeking information. mr. castor: that is absolutely right. you said he trump administration has cooperated and facilitated congressional oversight investigations. is that correct? mr. castor: absolutely. the trump participation that has participated until it got to the impeachment inquiry. was on thisair, who call, the trump administration -- the president directed him not to appear. i am asking timothy president direct him not to appear? mr. castor: i think he was allowed to come. >> he was not allowed to, by the terms of the house intelligence committee. mr. castor: i think he would have come. admin

giuliani and ambassador sondland and volker. as ambassador sondland testified, everyone was in the loop, including mr. mulvaney, secretary pompeo, secretary perry, and their top advisors. on july 19th, ambassador sondland emailed mr. mulvaney, secretary perry, secretary pompeo and others after speaking to president zelensky. the subject was, i talked to zelensky just now. and ambassador sondland wrote, he is prepared to receive potus's call. potus is president of the united states. we'll assure him that he intends to run a fully transparent investigation and will, quote, turn over every stone, unquote. both secretary perry and chief of staff mulvaney quickly responded to the email noting that given that conversation, a date would soon be set to schedule the white house telephone call. the evidence also unambiguously shows that the ukrainians understood this quid pro quo and had serious reservations, particularly because president zelensky had won the election on an anti-corruption platform. in fact a few days before the july 25t

end of the july 25th call president selenski circled back to the pre-cooked message that ambassador volker had relayed to president selenski top aide before the call president selenski said i also wanted to thank you for your invitation to visit the united states states specifically washington d.c. on the other hand i also wanted to ensure you that we will be very serious about the case and we will work on the investigation in other words on one hand is the white house visit while on the other hand he would agree to pursue the investigations. this statement shows that president selenski fully understood at the time of the july 25th call the quid pro quo between these investigations and the white house meeting the president trump required and that ambassador sunland had testified so clearly about numerous witnesses testified about the importance of a white house meeting with the president of the united states specifically a meeting in the oval office an official act by president trump as david home senior official in the u.s. embassy embassy in ukraine said it is important to understand tha

when ambassador taylor raised the possibility of quid pro quo to ambassador volker, volker said he replied, there's no linkage here. during his deposition, chairman schiff tried to pin him down on this point but ambassador volker was clear, there was no connection. in his public testimony, ambassador volker reiterated there was no linkage. similarly, george kent at the state department said he did not associate aid to investigations and he relaid how ambassador taylor told him that tim morrison and ambassador sondland also believed the two were not linked. ambassador sondland's testimony, as we have seen already, is a bit more scattered. in his deposition he said that he was never aware of preconditions on security assistance or that the security assistance was tied to investigations. ambassador sondland later provided a written statement supplementing his deposition in which he explained for the first time that in the absence of any clear explanation, he presumed a link between security assistance, an anti-corruption statement were linked. ambassador sondland also testified in his written

ambassador kurt volker provided those terms. david holmes, of course, heard the republican concerns all the wayth over in ukraine this was n based on hearsay and he raised his hand actually i heard the he president ask ambassador sondlandam on july 26th about h investigations. so we have shown time and time again the different acts that are notts in dispute. that's a theme today. there are a number of acts that are not in dispute. not disputed that president trump fired the ambassador who was trying to clean up ukraine. not disputed that president trump pulled vice president pence back from going to ukraine. not disputed that president trump asked president zelensky to investigate the bidens. not disputed that president trump put this military aid on hold. so many of these facts are not in dispute and also there's jus an urgency to all of this because as we were doing this exercise of trying toe hold th president accountable, the president's lawyer is over in talk asking them to continue to cheat ourue elections. >> can you brin

giuliani and ambassador sondland and volker. ambassador sondland testified, everyone was in the loop. including mr. mulvaney, secretary pompeo, secretary perry and their top advisers. on july 19th, ambassador sondland emailed mr. mulvaney, secretary perry, secretary pompeo and others after speaking with president zelensky. the subject was i talked to zelensky just now. and ambassador sondland wrote, he has prepared to receive potis call, president of the united states. will assure him that he intends to run a fully transparent investigation and will, quote, turn other every stone unquote. both secretary perry and chief of staff mulvaney quickly responded to the email, noting that given that conversation a date would soon be set to schedule the white house telephone call. the evidence also unambiguously shows that the ukrainians understood this quid pro quo and had serious reservations, particularly because president zelensky had won the election on an anti-corruption platform. in fact, a few days before the july 25th call, ambas

what was thrown back in the face of ambassador volker? >> after ambassador volker suggested to mr. yermak again who is here that they should not investigate the prior president of ukraine. mr. yermak said back to him, oh, like you're encouraging us to investigate the bidens and clintons. >> during watergate, the famous phrase from senator howard baker was asked, what did the president know and when did he know it? there is a reason that no one here has repeated those questions during these hearings. 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 hold 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 saez inauguration? >> president trump. >> who ordered his own chief of staff mick mulvaney to withhold critical military assistance for ukraine? >> president trump. >> who

what was thrown back in the face of ambassador volker? >> after video volker suggested to mr.yermak again who's here, that they should not investigate the prior president of ukraine, mr. yermak said back to him, oh, like we -- you're encouraging us to investigate the bidens and clintons? >> during watergate, the famous phrase from senator howard baker was asked, what did the president know and when did he know it? there's a reason that no one here has repeated those questions during these hearings. 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 anticorruption 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 zelensky's inauguration? >> president trump. >> who ordered his own chief of staff, mick mulvaney, to withhold critical military assistance for ukraine? >> president trump. >> who refused

taylor texts ambassador volker. the person who asked for an official request was yermak. volker responds, yes. but don't cite him. taylor, i won't. you're right. this is not good. we need to stay clear. august 22nd, ambassador sondland emailed secretary of state mike pompeo and others to make clear that to break the logjam, releasing the military aid, president zelensky would have to, quote, move forward on the issues of importance to trump, again meaning the investigations. and the list goes on and on. so this claim that this is the thinnest of evidence is simply not true. there is overwhelming evidence of the scheme led by the president, led by his personal lawyer rudy giuliani to corrupt the american elections to continue to withhold military aid until such time as a public announcement was made that would sphere the president's chief political rival. and with that, mr. chairman, i yield back. >> the gentleman yields back. >> thank you, mr. chair. i move to strike the last word. >> mr. chair, it disturbed me when you again rejected the rule of the house that said that

giuliani and ambassador sondland and volker. as ambassador sondland testified, everyone was in the loop including mr. mulvaney, secretary pompeo, secretary perry and their top advisers. on july 19th, ambassador sondland emailed mr. mulvaney, secretary perry, secretary pompeo and others after speaking with president zelensky. the subject was, i talked to zelensky just now. ambassador sondland wrote, he is prepared to receive potus' call. potus, president of the united states. will assure him he intends to run a fully transparent investigation and will, quote, turn over every stone, unquote. both secretary perry and chief of staff mulvaney quickly responded to the email noting that given that conversation, a date would soon be set to schedule the white house telephone call. the evidence also unambiguously shows that the ukrainians understood this quid pro quo and had serious reservations, particularly because president zelensky had won the election on an anti-corruption platform. in fact, a few days before the july 25th call, amba

what was thrown back in the face of ambassador volker? >> after ambassador volker suggested to mr. yermak again that they should not investigat investigate, he sent back to him you are encouraging us to investigate biden's and clinton's. >> during watergate, the famous phrase from senator howard baker was asked what did the president know and when did he know it? there's a reason that no one here has repeated those questions during these hearings. 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 fire the anticorruption ambassador in ukraine yovanovitch? >> president trump. >> who told ambassador sondland to work with rudy giuliani on ukraine? who told vice president pence to not go to president zelensky's inauguration? >> president trump. >> who ordered his own chief of staff mick mulvaney to withhold critical military assistance for ukraine? >> president trump president trump. >> who refuse to meet with president zelensky in the oval office? buy president trump. >> who ignored

>> after ambassador volker suggested tomb mr. yermak again that they should not investigate the prior president of ukraine, mr. yermak said, oh, like you'r encouraging us to investigate the bidens and clintons? >> during watergate, the famous phrase from senator howard baker was asked, what did the 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 ze

both ambassador volker and ron johnson noted the disappointment raise concerns. these facts are important in assessing the president's state of mind and understanding whether president zelensky was truly committed to fighting corruption in ukraine. the evidence shows that president trump invited president zelensky to meet at the white house on three separate occasions all without any conditions, the first is on april 21st, during the congratulatory phone call and the second was a letter on may 29 and this letter followed an oval office meeting on may 23 with the u.s. delegation to the inauguration and during the meeting president trump expressed his kep skepticism abt ukraine. ambassador volker recalled the presidency these are terrible people and a corrupt country. ambassador sondland testified that ukraine and the president's view try to take them down. in the 2016 election. senator ron johnson confirmed the testimony and the submission to the impeachment inquiry. finally the third time the president trump invited zelensky to meet without any preconditions was

giuliani and abbasid are sondland and volker. testified --ndland secretary perry and their top advisers. on july 19, ambassador sondland emailed mr. mulvaney, secretary perry, secretary pompeo and others after speaking with president zelensky. the subject was i talked to zielinski just now. wrote, he sondland has prepared to receive potus' call. it will ensure him he will run a fully transparent investigation" turn over every storm -- every stone. mulvaney responded to the email, given that that conversation a date would soon be scheduled, the white house telephone call. the evidence also shows that the ukrainians understood this quid pro quo and had serious reservations, particularly because president zelensky won the election on an anticorruption platform. a few days before the july 25 call, ambassador william taylor, the acting u.s. ambassador to ukraine texted ambassador sondland and volker. rather, he stated in his testimony on july 20 i had a phone conversation during which he conveyed to me that president zelensky did not

but so although you started with paul volker.if you look back at 2018, i'll take you back to the beginning of 2018, we had an economy growing at 3%. we had inflation at 2%. and we had a trillion and a half dollars worth of stimulus arriving and the fundrate was 1.4%. we moved policy up during the course of the year. we never got policy even at the level of what we thought the neutral rate was at the time. there was no sense of it being restrictive. we took steps make it less accommodative. that seemed to be the right thing. it still seems to me to be the right thing in hindsight. the idea that we were trying to slow the economy down -- we were really just frying to get near neutral. even with the last rate increase a year ago we were meaningfully below that. policy was always accommodative during the course of that year. i think what's happened is obviously the facts on the ground have changed. you saw the global economic slowdown begin in the middle of last year, gather force, and then continue to go on this year. so you've seen

first of all, volker said all along he didn't think the statement was a good idea. volker and yarmach toyed around with the statement and both sides decided it wasn't a good plan. they didn't do it. the fact that sondland is e-mailing the secretary, talking about this statement and so forth, this doesn't show everyone is in the loop. ambassador hale testified, people at the state department, they don't just e-mail the secretary. the secretary gets e-mail but it's not like this. there's a whole secretariat that filters his e-mail and it's not e-mailing the secretary of state is not quite as simple as i think ambassador sondland made it seem here. i wanted to address that. we talked a couple times about the reliability of george kent's notes. one of ambassador volker's assistants, kathryn croft, testified, a rather startling piece of testimony, she was asked whether the notes would be reliable, a typical question and everyone expected the answer to be yes, except she said, no, i don't think kent's notes would be reliable. i think that's important to put on the record

i -- everyone respected volker now there was a second volker, the volker who came in after the greatsion. and basically said, we got to get these banks from taking on risks. very unpopular again, you know what he did? he took unpopular stances in an era where people seem to always want to please and i think that's extraordinary. if we had more leaders willing to take unpopular stands on behalf of the country, who knows what could happen. >> yes don marron also passed away suddenly this weekend at 86. we know him of course as the man who rang payne weber, built that firm and sold it at an incredible price, rewarding shareholders enormously, great investor, and great collector of art. started light -- a number of pe firms, helped to cede them to have them enormous success somewhat overlooked as a real giant in the financial services industry >> and yet extraordinarily kind. you would meet him, say at a restaurant, go in to see him, and you would always be thinking, don't you know you're a titan? don't you know that you are powerful and -- and, no, he carried himself as if he were a gre

because he simply according to volker said go talk to rudy. whether the ukrainians new of the aid was paused for 55 days. whether or not the ukrainians knew it or not, laura cooper and the dod and some state department witnesses testified about light-yea questions they perceived. they said they never knew about holding the aid until the politico article. yahrmack believed the embassy was keeping information from them. other thing he said in the november 22nd bloomberg article, he recounts the meeting with sonland which has become very significant apparently. the pool side meeting he said he doesn't recall it the way ambassador sonland recalled it. mr. yahrmack speaks english but he did not recall it. he recalls it very differently. the question of what happened with in sonland on the way to the escalator remain in dispute. >> [silence]. >> now, turning attention to the ron johnson letter, if i may. >> yes. >> on august 31st, senator johnson is getting ready to travel to the ukraine in september with murphy. johnson called the president and sou

giuliani and ambassador sondland and volker. as bad bad sondland testified, everyone was in the loop, including mr. mulvaney, secretary pompeo, secretary perry and their top advisers. on july 19th, ambassador somulvaney, secretary perry, secretary pompeo and others after speaking with president zelensky. the subject was, i talked to zelensky just now. ambassador sondland wrote, he's prepared to receive potus' call. potus, president of the you united states. will assure him he plans to run a transparent investigation and will, quote, turn over every stone, unquote. both secretary perry and chief of staff mulvaney quickly responded to the email, noting that given that conversation a date would soon be set to schedule the white house telephone call. the evidence unambiguously shows that the ukrainians understood this quid pro quo and had serious reservations particularly because president zelensky won on an anti-corruption platform. a few days before the july 25th call, ambassador william taylor, the former texted abb-- >>> i had a

volker or mr. morrison. but at least they had the ability and willingness to come and testify, unlike the chairman who wrote a report. >> gentle lady's recognized for a minute and a half. >> madam speaker, i rise today in strong opposition to the politically driven articles of impeachment that have been brought before the house of representatives today. for the past three years democrats have been unable to accept the voters' choice to elect president trump. they have used any and all undemocratic and unfair means necessary to try and remove him from office. my vote today is not only against illegitimate impeachment of our president which began not with facts but with a foregone conclusion. it is against house democrats making a mockery of due process and the rule of law. this will not go anywhere in the senate. so all democrats have accomplished is postponing the important work of the american people sent their elected officials to washington to do. this endless crusade to remove the president has put parti

>> yes. >> and on that same day state department official volker had breakfast with rudy giuliani and he reported to sondland by text message, most important is for zelensky to say he will help investigation, right? >> yes. and address any specific personnel issues. >> after giuliani spoke with yermak gave a green light to the july 25th call. on the morning of the call he texted zelensky's yermak and it said quote, heard from white house, assuming president z convinced he will investigate, get to the bottom of what happened in 2016, we'll nail down a investigation and zelensky agrees, isn't that correct. >> yes. and that text message was relayed from president trump himself. >> and then after the july 25th call, members of the administration continued to follow up with ukrainian counterparts to prepare for the announcement of investigations. sondland texted volker about efforts to schedule a white house visit knowing that potus really wants the deliverable and that is one of messages during a flurry of follow-up of meetings and calls and texts. on july 26th and july 27th and august 2n

taylor and volker said that they thought the call was crazy. and they thought what came out of it was unusual and dangerous. this september 9 call of which there's no record of. and this state department you would think seeing how it is to what you said 100% right, it's the only piece of testimony that gives the president any clearance on this. that one call. and they won't produce any sufficient evidence that it ever happened. now, if instead of september 9 it was september 7 call. that he did tell the two men about. he didn't say any of the things the president says he said. he never told sondland it was no quid pro quo. the same phrase by the way that who said? the whistleblower. which hasn't become public yet but had been taken to the white house. how odd the president used the same phrase at whistleblower. we don't know he ever said those things. sondland says he did. in a phone call that is never been proven to exist. aren't you curious? >> to believe that version of events is to believe ambassador sondland perjuried himself before the co

even ambassador volker, in his public testimony, was forced to admit that he did hear that. and he said it was inappropriate. >> and -- and, in fact, on july 19th, sondland told president zelensky directly that president trump wanted to hear a commitment to the investigations on the july 25th call. correct? >> that's right. >> that same day, sondland updated senior multiple trump administration officials that zelensky was, quote, prepared to receive potus's call and would offer assurances about the investigations. isn't that right?bo >> yes. >> and on that same day, state department official volker had breakfastl with rudy giuliani. and he reported to sondland by text message most important is for zelensky to say he will help investigation, right? >> yes. and address any specific personnel issues. >> and later that day after giuliani spoke with yermak, evidence suggested giuliani gave a green light to that july 25th call. then on the morning of the call, volkerl, texted zelensky aid yermak and that text to his aid said, and i quote, heard from white house assuming president

what was thrown back in the face of ambassador volker? >> after video volker suggested to mr. yermak again who's here, that they should not investigate the prior president of ukraine, mr. yermak said back to him, oh, like we -- you're encouraging us to investigate the bidens and clintons? >> during watergate, the famous phrase from senator howard baker was asked, what did the president know and when did he know it? there's a reason that no one here has repeated those questions during these hearings. 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 anticorruption 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 zelensky's inauguration? >> president trump. >> who ordered his own chief of staff, mick mulvaney, to withhold critical military assistance for ukraine? >> president trump. >> who refused

first of all, volker said all along that he didn't think the statement was a good idea.of volk volker and yermak toyed around with the statement and ultimately both sides decided that it wasn't a good plan. te they didn't do it. so the fact that sondland is emailing the secretaryan talkin about this t statement and so forth, it just doesn't show that everyone is int the loop. ambassadoroo hale testified. the people at the state department, they don't just email the secretary. i mean, the secretary gets emailed, of course, but it's not like this. there is a whole secretariat that filters his email. so it's not emailing the secretary of state is not quite as simple as i think ambassador sondland made it seem here. so i just wanted to address that. we talked a couple of times about the reliability of george kent's notes. one of ambassador volker's assistants, catherine croft testified and it was rather startlinging piece of testimony. shete was asked whether kent's notes would be reliable. sort of a typical question. everyone expecting the answer to be yes, except she said no, i don't th

giuliani and ambassador sondland and volker. as sondland testified, everyone was in the loop, including mr. mulvaney, secretary pompeo, secretary perry, and their top advisors. on july 19th ambassador sondland emailed mr. mulvaney, secretary perry and secretary pompeo and others after speaking with president zelensky. the subject was i talked to zelensky just now. and ambassador sondland wrote he is prepared to receive potus's call. the president of the united states. will assure him he intends to run a fully transparent investigation and will, quote, turn over every stone, unquote. both secretary perry and chief of staff mulvaney quickly responded to the email noting that given that conversation a date would soon be set to schedule the white house telephone call. the evidence also unambiguously shows that the ukrainians understood this quid pro quo and had serious reservations particularly because president zelensky had won the election on an anti-corruption platform. in fact, a few days before the july 25th call, ambassador wi

we have ambassador volker. ambassador sonland and secretary perry. you had the opportunity to talk to two of those three people, correct? >> yes. >> and the democrats' report would like us to believe that the three individuals were engaged in some nefarious venture, but that's not true, is it? >> no. >> in fact these three people were at all relevant times and even today in the best interest of the american people? >> yes, and with the highest integrity. >> that's right. i think everyone testified that ambassador volker is one of the most experienced diplomats in our foreign service. >> across the board. all the witnesses talked about integrity that ambassador volker brings to the table. >> there are a lot of people with firsthand knowledge we did not talk to, correct? >> [silence]. >> now i want to talk about the president's skepticism of foreign aid. the president is very skeptical of foreign aid, is that correct? >> he is deeply skeptical of sending u.s. tax paying dollars into an environment that is corrupt. it's as good as kissing it good-bye. >

in one text, volker told the ukranian official that a meeting with trump was basically contingent onkranian presidnet doing the investigation trump wanted >> from kurt volker to ukranian presidential advisor, andre yermak and it says, "good lunch, thanks heard from white house assuming presidnent z convinces trump he will investigate. get to the bottom of what happened in 2016 we will nail down date for visit to washington. good luck. see you tomorrow, kurt >> seth: they wrote it all down. it's all right there he even signs his name and says "see you tomorrow, kurt. [ laughter ] it's so weird. it's like if you left a ransom note cut out from magazine letters that said, "give us the money, or you'll never see your son again. have a great weekend kurt the kidnapper." [ laughter and applause but the text messages get even more -- text messages get even more explosive for example, there is an exchange between two state department officials where one of them expresses concern about what's going on, and the other one realizes they should not be texting about this at all. >> on september 1s

ambassador volker called it a drug deal. as a kingpin, president trump tried to force a foreign government to interfere in the upcoming presidential election, the evidence is undisputed and overwhelming to obtain ukrainian help for president trump in the 2020 election. this was not just a hurtful drug deal, this was an attempt to undermine the very fabric of our democracy. the framers feared most how foreign influence could turn the president into a desperate so they implemented impeachment as a backstop to protect our democracy. the facts demand so that we use that remedy today and with that i yield back. >> the gentleman yields back, mr. jordan. >> i want to go to the document that started it all, the august 12th whistle-blower complaint. a bullet .1 on page one of the whistle-blower's complaint said this, over the past four months, more than half a dozen u.s. officials have informed me of the various facts related to this effort, who are these half a dozen u.s. officials? >> we don't know. >> we had no chance to know for

volker or mr. morrison. again, i will say at least they have the ability and the willingness to come and testify. unlike the charming who wrote a report in the senate judiciary committee and didn't. with that i yield a minute and half to miss granger. >> the young lady is recognized from an and a half. >> madam speaker i rise today and strong opposition to the politically driven articles of impeachment that have been brought before the house of representatives today. for the past three years, democrats have been unable to accept the voters choice to elect president trump. they have used any and all undemocratic and unfair means necessary to try and remove him from office. my vote today is not only against illegitimate against illegitimate impeachment of our president, which began not with fax but with a foregone conclusion, it is against house democrats making a mockery of due process and the rule of law. this will not go anywhere in the senate, so all democrats have accomplished is postponing the important

taylor texts ambassador volker, the person who asked for an official request was yermak? volker replies, yes, but don't cite him. taylor, i won't. you're right. this is not good. we need to stay clear. and on august 22nd, ambassador sondland emailed secretary of state mike pompeo to make clear that to break the logjam, president zelensky will have to move forward on the issues important to trump. the list goes on and on. this claim that this is the thinnest of evidence is simply not true. there's overwhelming evidence of the existence of a scheme led by the president of the united states to corrupt the american elections, to with hold aid until such time as a public announcement that was made that would smear the chief's political rival. with that, i yield back. >> the gentleman yields back. for what purposes do you speak recognition? >> thank you, mr. chair. i move to strike the last word. >> the lady's recognized. >> mr. chair, it really quite disturbed me when you, again, rejected the rule of the house that said that we as the minority were -- it says in the rules that

and the president, volker was the to this pretty definitively. the president essentially -- he doesn't order anybody to do anything. the president says talk to rudy. volker testified both at his deposition and at the public hearing that he didn't take it as a direction. look, if you guys -- if you guys think this is important and want to work it, just go talk to rudy. very different than a direction. it's very different than the president ordering a scheme. and it's very different from the president sort of collecting up a bunch of agents to go do something because he simply according to ambassador volker said go talk to rudy. now, whether the ukrainians knew of the aide gave us pause for 55 days, whether the ukrainians knew about it or not, laura cooper from dod and, you know, some state department witnesses testified about light queries they received. there was an article in bloomberg and the zelensky administration said they never knew about the hold in the aid until august 28th politico article. they said in the article and yermak is the prin

to begin i would like to say a few words about volker. he served as federal reserve chair from 1979 to 1987. he accomplished many things during his long and distinguished career and elsewhere and best known for leading the fight to detain them placement that he inherited as chair the foundation for the prosperity and price stability we enjoy today. but what is most admirable, more than his accomplishments is his character. he believed there is no higher calling than public service and he dedicated the lion share of his life. with courage, integrity and tenacity he pursued the policy that he believed would ultimately benefit all americans. my colleagues and i draw inspiration from his example. turning to today's meeting my colleagues and i decided to leave the policy rate of lowering it three quarters of a rate of the previously three meetings. we base our decisions on judgment of how best to achieve the goal congress has given x mom employment of price stability. it remains a favorable one despite global developments in ongoing risks, wit

after those two calls totaling 20 minutes to the white house, he then texts kurt volker and says potus really wants the deliverable, which he said in testimony, meant the announcement of those investigations. that is donald trump directing, and that is hard evidence and there has been no rebuttal to that. >> shannon, thank you so much for getting up way too early to talk to us on live television, tonight our time, morning your time. is there any way to measure was this worse than what was expected if for no other reason the presence of these phone logs, which are very hard to explain away asth maya noted? >> that is a new twist that the white house and the president's advisers weren't expecting. i will note the white house has been in the dark on this process because they've not really been cooperating. they have refused to participate in this event. so that means their lawyers don't have access to what the witnesses are handing over or what these committees might have. so that could come as a surprise. the idea that the president's personal lawyer, who the president has repeatedly sai

officials on the july 25th he spoke with president trump on the phone so i 26 he met with ambassador volker that's where taylor ambassadors on one. on august 27th he met with ambassador bolton september 1st he met with vice president pence in warsaw and on september 5th he met with senator ron johnson senator chris murphy in kiev in one of these meetings the president selenski raise any concern about linkage between security assistance and investigations in particular the september 5th meeting with senator johnson and senator murphy is notable because they're not part of the trump administration and president selenski could be candid with them what did occur during those 55 days were historic effort by ukraine's parliament called the rada to implement anti-corruption reform. president pants had pressed president lenski about these reforms during their september 1st meeting in their depositions ambassador taylor lout of presidents lindsey's rapid reforms and national security council official morrison testified that during a meeting in kieve he noted that everyone in the ukrainian side of th

giuliani and sondland and volker. ambassador sondland testified everyone was in the loop including mr. mulvaney, secretary pompeo, secretary perry and the topop advisors. on july 19 ambassador sondland e-mail mr. mulvaney, secretary. , secretary pompeo and others after speaking with president zelensky. the subject was i talked to zielinski just now. in ambassador sondland row, he has prepared to receive the president of the united states call. we will assure him that he intends to run a fully transparent investigation and turn over every stone. both secretary. in chief of staff mulvaney responded to the e-mail noting inat given that conversation a gate would be scheduled on a white house telephone call. they also under biggest no-show's that ukrainians understood the quid pro quo and has serious reservations particular because president zelensky had won the election on a anticorruption platform. in fact a few days before the july 25 call ambassador william taylor, the acting u.s. ambassador to ukraine in the former am

i had seven hours with ambassador volker. and you can't just take one little sentence out of seven hours and suggest that everything that biden did was correct. he believes that biden was there working on anti-corruption. i believe that he could be. but at the same time, everybody wants to dismiss it without an investigation and if that same set of criteria applies to president trump, the democrats would be up in arms. >> so for four years, ha -- hun biden was on the board of bur he's ma and you were in the majority of the house and on the committee that oversees this, why didn't you investigate this if it was so important. >> well, one, i didn't know it at the time. >> but it was public information. >> what was public information. >> that hunter biden was on the board of this company. >> well, i don't know about you, i don't know that any of your viewers go and look through burisma notice that hunter biden was there. i think we could admit we didn't know hunter biden was getting $50,000 plus a month from a corrupt ukrainian

ambassador kurt volker texted him with president trump's direction. good lunch, thanks. heard from white house. assuming president z convinces trump he'll investigate get to the bottom ofve what happened i 2016, we'll nail down visit for -- we'll nail down for a visit to fwashington. goodsi luck. see you tomorrow. kurt. so evenmo before the phone call with president zelensky took place, president trump had directed that ukraine initiate the investigation into 2016, the debunked conspiracy theory that ukraine had interfered in the election in order for president zelensky to get the white house visit that heth desperately coveted. ambassador sondland was clear in his testimony about this quid t pro quo. >> frequently framed these complicated issues in the form of a simplete question. was there a quid pro quo? as i testified previously, with regard to the requested white house call and the white house meeting, the answer is yes. >> during this call with the ukrainian leader, president trump did notin discuss mattersf importancesc to the united stat, such asth ukraine's effo

ambassador volker claimed that this hold was not significant. is that correct? >> yes, a number of witnesses also said the same thing. >> former u.s. ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch testified that in ukraine, and i quote, corruption is not just prevalent, but frankly is the system. is that correct? >> yes. all the witnesses confirmed the environment is very corrupt. >> mr. castor, ukraine company burisma held a reputation in ukraine is a corrupt company. is that correct? >> big time. >> according to "the new york times," hunter biden was part of a bribe effort by burisma to bring in well-connected democrats during a period when the company was facing investigations. is that correct? >> yes. the new yorker also had a pretty extensive report on that too. >> obama's deputy assistant secretary of state george kent testified that he raised concerns directly to vice president biden's office about hunter biden's services on sondland burisma's board. is that correct? >> yes. >> mr. castor, on the july 25th call we all saw the video earlier today. were joe biden

and perry and sondland to talk to rudy, and, in fact, ambassador volker testified about talking to rudy so so naturally we wanted phone records to show they had those conversations and indeed they did. it is very important to point out, margaret, we did not subpoena devin nunes call records and not any journalist call records, and that is simply false information being pushed by the president's allies, but the fact that mr. nunes or giuliani or others show up in brennan: d i do want to you. explain to our viewers we are having a couple of technical issues you may have noticed there, that is going to happen with a new set but our cbs news coverage of the house impeachment hearings will continue on this network tomorrow as well. we will be back in a moment. tomorrow you should tune in to see norah o'donnell cover the hearings you just heard chairman schiff describe. stay with us and bring in congressman mark meadows. congressman mark meadows. >> (gonzo) yeah yeah. wait, what kind of sweater? (kermit) i said it's a really great sweater. (gonzo) no, what'd you say before that? (kermit) uh,

it took place on september 14 in ukraine when ambassador volker mok, the with andre yar top advisor to president zelensky. he supported the rule of law. he said, you should not investigate the last president. president por sean coe. for political reasons. you should not engage in political investigations. and you know what he said? like you want us to do with the bidens and clintons? and in that abrupt, brutal retort, we see why we should care. because what he was saying is, you, america, have forgotten what it means to uphold the rule of law. you have forgotten what it means to say that no one is above the law. we are a struggling democracy, but even we know better than hat. , what is atisk here risk here is the very idea of america. that idea holds that we are a nation of laws, not of men. we are a nation that believes in the rule of law. when we say we uphold the constitution, we are not talking about a piece of parchment, we're tuck -- we are talking about a beautiful architecture in which ambition is set against ambition, in which no branch of government can dominate another that