Page 108 - Perry News Today

Overall secretary perrys involvement, do you think the delegation was ready? >> yes. and we dont try to make these delegations large. it is on the taxpayers time, and it is pretty expensive if you have to get military air and we try to keep them small. if we had a longer lead time we would have made other arrangements but four days is not a lot of time to make an arrangement. >> and secretary perry was interested? >> i recommended he be the lead along with others. >> what can you tell us about t...

You subsequently said, he was sort of like, i dont want to talk about want this. so it wasnt an order or a direction to talk to mr. guiliani. correct? >> our conclusion and the conclusion of the three of us was that if we did not talk to rudy, nothing would move forward on ukraine. >> okay. then that was may 23rd. and then you never had any personal communications with guiliani until august. right? >> thats correct. >> and volker was handling, ambassador volker was -- >> volker, perry and others...

Attributed to you the terminology that the president has given you a large remit. are you familiar with that assertion? >> i didnt understand what she was talking about. >> okay. but you have and we got into this a little bit in your deposition. you know, you said that the president gave you a special assignment with regard to ukraine, correct? >> well, when the president appointed me as the u.s. ambassador to the european union, ukrainian was part of my port fo portfolio. the unique circumstanc...

When he came to post, i know i called him or he called me. i think he spoke with secretary perry and ambassador volker separately. in the course of the first few weeks he was highly appreciative that a new ambassador coming to post like himself was getting the kind of support he was getting from all three of us, having a cabinet member, a special envoy and a fellow ambassador all helping to raise the profile of ukraine. he was highly appreciative and highly complimentary. >> you maintained an op...

Conversations, plus, mr. castor, ive had pa lot of conversations with the president about completely unrelated matters that have nothing to do with ukraine. >> okay. so, but you dont think were missing any material conversations you had with the president? >> i dont recall any material conversations today as im sitting here. >> or with rudy guiliani? >> yeah. my memory about the conversations with rudy guiliani whether they were direct, whether they were conference calls with ambassador volker o...

>> did you retire to the ward room? >> i think secretary perry asked to use the ward room to continue the conversation. the real subject that was under debate -- and i wasnt an angry debate -- should the call from president trump to president zelensky be made prior to the parliamentary elections in ukraine or after the parliamentary elections. and there was good reason for both. we felt, ambassador perry, ambassador volker and i felt it would help president zelensky to have president trump speak...

That you reference in your opening statement that is a july 19th e-mail. who is this from? >> looks like its -- is it from me? i dont know. >> its from you i believe. >> its from me to the group. >> now, who is the group? >> people mentioned on the e-mail, blair, mccormack, kenny, pompeo. >> whos robert blair? >> i believe hes a deputy chief of staff or an advisor to the chief of staff. >> youve already told us that lisa kenna is the executive secretary for pompeo. whos brian mccormick? >> he wa...

>> i dont think he is, no. >> you were asked by mr. castor if there are any other key witnesses who might be able to help with our investigation. you mentioned brian mccormick, the chief of staff for secretary perry. >> i did. >> you are aware that the committee subpoenaed him? >> i was not aware of that. >> are you also aware that mr. mulvaney was subpoenaed by the committee and refused to testify. >> i did read that, yes. >> are you also aware that robert blair was subpoenaed and refused to co...

Next day, is that right? >> thats what it says. >> now, lets go to that press statement that you were discussing in august. you testified, i believe, that you understood that rudy giuliani was representing the presidents interests with regard to ukraine, is that right? >> thats what we all understood. >> who do you mean we all? >> secretary perry, ambassador volker, myself. >> in august you and ambassador volker were coordinating with andre yermak, the zelensky aide, about a press statement. i w...

Assure president trump that he would do these investigations in a phone call. >> in my e-mail i obviously had just spoken with him, he being zelensky, and he said that he was prepared to receive the call and he would make those assurances to president trump on that call, and then presumably that would then lead to the white house meeting. >> you had been discussing this phone call for several weeks now, is that right? >> yes, with volker, with perry, with giuliani through volker and perry. >> an...