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Ambassador Volker testified that the language reflected what Mr. Giuliani deemed necessary for the statement to be “credible.”805 Ambassador Sondland noted the language was “proposed by Giuliani.”806 Ambassador Sondland explained that the language was a clear quid pro quo that expressed “the desire of the President of the United States”:


 * Mr. Giuliani’s requests were a quid pro quo for arranging a White House visit for President Zelensky. Mr. Giuliani demanded that Ukraine make a public statement announcing investigations of the 2016 election/DNC server and Burisma. Mr. Giuliani was expressing the desires of the President of the United States, and we knew that these investigations were important to the President.807

Shortly after Ambassador Volker sent the revised statement to Mr. Yermak on August 13, Ambassador Sondland called Mr. Giuliani and connected for nearly four minutes.

On August 13while Ambassador Volker, Ambassador Sondland, and Mr. Yermak were negotiating the draft statement about investigationsMr. Yermak asked Ambassador Volker “whether any request had ever been made by the U.S. to investigate election interference in 2016.” He appeared interested in knowing whether the U.S. Department of Justice had made an official request to Ukraine’s law enforcement agency for legal assistance in such a matter.808 When Ambassador Volker sent Mr. Giuliani’s approved draft statement to Mr. Yermak, he stated that he would “work on official request.”809

Ambassador Volker testified: “When I say official request, I mean law enforcement channels, Department of Justice to law enforcement in Ukraine, please investigate was there any effort to interfere in the U.S. elections.”810 Ambassador Volker explained:


 * He [Yermak] said, and I think quite appropriately, that if they [Ukraine] are responding to an official request, that’s one thing. If there’s no official request, that’s different. And I agree with that.811

According to Ambassador Volker, he was merely trying to “find out” if there was ever an official request made by the Department of Justice: “As I found out the answer that we had not, I said, well, let’s just not go there.”812

On September 25, within hours of the White House’s public release of the record of the July 25 call between President Trump and President Zelensky, a Justice Department spokesperson issued a statement, apparently confirming that no such formal request had been made:


 * The President has not spoken with the Attorney General about having Ukraine investigate anything relating to former Vice President Biden or his son. The President has not asked