Volker: Good lunch — thanks. Heard from White House—assuming President 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
Ambassador Volker later informed Ambassador Sondland that he had relayed this “message” to Mr. Yermak, which Ambassador Sondland had conveyed to Ambassador Volker earlier that day:
Volker: Hi Gordon - got your message. Had a great lunch w Yermak and then passed your message to him. He will see you tomorrow. Think everything in place562
Ambassador Sondland testified that the “message” that Ambassador Volker conveyed to Mr. Yermak in advance of the July 25 call likely originated from an earlier conversation that Ambassador Sondland had with President Trump:
Q: So is it fair to say that this message is what you received from President Trump on that phone call that morning?
A: Again, if he testified to that, to refresh my own memory, then, yes, likely I would have received that from President Trump.
Q: But the sequence certainly makes sense, right?
A: Yeah, it does.
Q: You talked to President Trump.
A: Yeah.
Q: You told Kurt Volker to call you. You left a message for Kurt Volker. Kurt Volker sent this text message to Andriy Yermak to prepare President Zelensky and then President Trump had a phone call where President Zelensky spoke very similar to what was in this text message, right?
A: Right.
Q: And you would agree that the message in this—that is expressed here is that President Zelensky needs to convince Trump that he will do the investigations in order to nail down the date for a visit to Washington, D.C. Is that correct?
A: That’s correct.563
Ambassador Sondland testified that he spoke with President Trump before the call with President Zelensky.564 Mr. Morrison also confirmed that President Trump and Ambassador Sondland spoke before President Trump’s call with President Zelensky.565 Mr. Morrison stated that Ambassador Sondland emailed him on the morning of the call and listed “three topics that he was working on, the first of which was ‘I spoke to the President this morning to brief him on the call.’”566 According to Mr. Morrison, Ambassador Sondland “believed” that he helped to facilitate the July 25 call between President Trump and President Zelensky.567
On July 26, the day after the call between President Trump and President Zelensky, Ambassador Volker acknowledged his role in prepping President Zelensky for the call with
