did not want to have the call because he thought it was going to be a disaster. He thought that there could be some talk of investigations or worse on the call.”561
Before the call took place on July 25, Ambassador Volker had lunch with Mr. Yermak in Kyiv. Ambassador Volker followed up with a text message to Mr. Yermak approximately 30 minutes before the call, noting that a White House visit was still on the table if, during the call, President Zelensky convinced President Trump that Ukraine would “investigate” and “get to the bottom of what happened” in 2016:
| 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
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