Although Ambassador Sondland said he was discouraged by the President's viewpoint, he was pleased and surprised that the President later agreed to invite President Zelensky to the White House.[1]
Senator Johnson recalled that in this meeting, President Trump "expressed strong reservations about support for Ukraine. He made it crystal clear that he viewed Ukraine as a thoroughly corrupt country both generally and, specifically, regarding rumored meddling in the 2016 election."[2] Senator Johnson further explained:
It was obvious that [the President's] viewpoint and reservations were strongly held, and that we would have a significant sales job ahead of us in getting him to change his mind. I specifically asked him to keep his viewpoint and reservations private and not to express them publicly until he had a chance to meet [President] Zelensky. He agreed to do so, but he added that he wanted [President] Zelensky to know exactly how he felt about the corruption in Ukraine prior to any future meeting.[3]
Senator Johnson recounted that he did not recall President Trump mentioning Burisma or the Bidens, but it was "obvious" that President Trump was aware of "rumors that corrupt actors in Ukraine might have played a part in helping create the false Russia collusion narrative."[4]
On May 29, President Trump wrote to President Zelensky to invite him to Washington, D.C. "as soon as we can find a mutually convenient time."[5] President Trump's letter did not mention any investigations and placed no conditions on President Zelensky's invitation to the White House. On July 25, during their phone conversation, President Trump reiterated his invitation to President Zelensky, again without conditions.[6]
6. Despite difficulty scheduling a face-to-face presidential meeting, senior Ukrainian officials interacted often with senior American officials between May and September 2019.
By late May 2019, President Trump had formally extended an invitation for President Zelensky to visit the White House. Although the two presidents did not meet face-to-face until September 25, the Democrats' witnesses testified that presidential meetings can often take time to schedule and that senior Ukrainian officials met frequently with American counterparts in the
- ↑ Id. at 74, 81, 85-87.
- ↑ Letter from Sen. Ron Johnson, supra note 138, at 4.
- ↑ Id.
- ↑ Id.
- ↑ Letter from President Donald J. Trump to His Excellency Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine (May 29, 2019). Dr. Hill testified that Ambassador Sondland claimed he had dictated the paragraph inviting President Zelensky to the White House, see Hill deposition, supra note 12, at 74; however, Ambassador Sondland testified that he had no role in drafting the letter. Sondland deposition, supra note 51, at 81.
- ↑ Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, supra note 15.
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