This archive report was first published on 19 November 2019.
On November 15, 2019, the House Intelligence Committee released transcripts of the testimony of two key witnesses: David Holmes, a US diplomat, and David Hale, the under secretary of state for political affairs.
According to the transcripts, David Holmes described a cellphone conversation he overheard in July between US President Donald Trump and Gordon D. Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union. During the conversation, President Trump asked Ambassador Sondland if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would move forward with investigations that President Trump sought.
Mr. Holmes called the conversation 'remarkable' and testified that it was clear to him that officials in Ukraine 'gradually came to understand that they were being asked to do something in exchange for the meeting and the security assistance hold being lifted.'
Mr. Holmes' account contradicts President Trump's claim that Ukraine's leaders never knew American aid was being withheld. Instead, top officials in Ukraine were well aware that aid was being withheld and that they had to do what President Trump wanted before receiving it.
Mr. Holmes also described a subsequent conversation with Ambassador Sondland, in which the ambassador told him that President Trump did not care about Ukraine, only about 'big things,' such as investigations of the Bidens.
