A. We had a difficult time scheduling a bilateral meeting between President Zelensky and President Trump.
Q. Ambassador Volker, that was a yes-or-no question.
A. Well, if I—can you repeat the question then?
Q. Sure. Did President Trump ever withhold a meeting with President Zelensky or delay a meeting with President Zelensky until the Ukrainians committed to investigate the allegations that you just described concerning the 2016 Presidential election?
A. The answer to the question is no, if you want a yes-or-no answer. But the reason the answer is no is we did have difficulty scheduling a meeting, but there was no linkage like that.[1]
***
Q. So before we move to the text messages, I want to ask you a clarifying question. You said that you were not aware of any linkage between the delay in the Oval Office meeting between President Trump and President Zelensky and the Ukrainian commitment to investigate the two allegations as you described them, correct?
A. Correct.[2]
Ambassador Sondland was the only witness to allege a quid pro quo with respect to a White House meeting. However, to the extent that Ambassador Sondland testified that he believed a White House meeting was conditioned on Ukrainian actions, his belief was that a meeting was conditioned on a public statement about anti-corruption—not on investigations into President Trump's political rival.[3] Ambassador Sondland testified in his closed-door deposition that "nothing about the request raised any red flags for me, Ambassador Volker, or Ambassador Taylor."[4] In his public testimony, Ambassador Sondland clarified that he believed there was linkage, but that President Trump had never discussed with him any preconditions for a White House visit by President Zelensky.[5]
In addition, there is conflicting testimony about what occurred during a July 10 meeting between two senior Ukrainian officials and senior U.S. officials in National Security Advisor John Bolton's office. Ambassador Volker, Ambassador Sondland, Secretary Perry joined
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