A6 EZ SU K T H E W A S H I N G T O N P O S T.S A T U R D A Y, O C T O B E R 5 , 2 0 1 9
Coached by the tandem of Sond-
land and Volker, Yermak appears
to have given Giuliani the reassur-
ances he needed to secure Zel-
ensky’s phone call with Trump.
When that call happened three
days later, some White House offi-
cials who had suspicions but were
not read-in to the hidden agenda
were so alarmed by Trump’s con-
duct, and the pressure he applied
to Zelensky for a political “favor,”
that they stuffed a transcript of
the call onto a computer system
reserved for some of the govern-
ment’s most highly classified se-
crets.
Among those engaged in the
shadow diplomacy, however, the
call was regarded as a break-
through. Yermak told Volker that
the “call went well,” and that Zel-
ensky got his promised invitation
to the White House, but no specif-
ic date. “Great,” Volker wrote back,
noting that he would now set in
motion a preliminary meeting in
Madrid between Yermak and Giu-
liani.
Giuliani told Yermak that the
Ukrainian president needed to
make a public promise to pursue
the corruption investigations, ac-
cording to Volker’s testimony.
Sondland and Volker set about
revising the wording of a state-
ment proposed by the Ukrainians
that Zelensky could issue upon
announcing his trip to Washing-
ton. When the two diplomats sent
the statement to Giuliani, he was
dismayed that it wasn’t more spe-
cific, and according to Volker, he
demanded that the Ukrainians in-
sert specific references to the 2016
election and Burisma, the gas
company where Hunter Biden
served on the board.
In an Aug. 10 text message,
Volker tells Yermak that once the
statement is ironed out, they can
then “use that” to get the date for
the meeting between Trump and
Zelensky.
Yermak’s response makes the
bargain clear. “Once we have a
date, will call for a press briefing,
announcing upcoming visit and
outlining vision for the reboot of
US-UKRAINE relationship, in-
cluding among other things Bu-
risma and election meddling in
investigations,” he writes.
“Sounds great!” Volker replies.
Ultimately, Volker testified
Thursday on Capitol Hill, the
statement was shelved, because
the Ukrainians didn’t feel com-
fortable making explicit reference
to the Burisma and election inter-
ference investigations.
But by that point, Volker and
Sondland were themselves unwit-
ting to developments in Washing-
ton that would in time expose
their months-long enterprise and
trigger an impeachment inquiry
against the president.
On Aug. 12 — the day before
Volker and Sondland traded tri-
umphant texts about the state-
ment they wanted issued by Zel-
ensky — the CIA whistleblower
submitted his nine-page docu-
ment to the inspector general of
the intelligence community. Over
the next several weeks, events pro-
ceeded along two separate tracks
that finally converged this week in
the secure hearing room of the
House Intelligence Committee.
On Sept. 1, Taylor raised his
concerns again. “Are we now say-
ing that security assistance and
WH meeting are conditioned on
investigations?” That same day, at
a meeting in Warsaw, the Ukraini-
ans were hearing the same mes-
sage from Vice President Pence
when he told Zelensky that the
United States was still concerned
that Ukraine was not doing
enough on corruption.
Sondland refused to engage
Taylor on the matter by text, tell-
ing him to “Call me.”
A week later, on Sept. 8, Taylor
issued a more forceful warning,
saying that he would not be part of
coercing a public pledge from Zel-
ensky and withholding aid that
Ukraine desperately needed. “The
nightmare is they give the inter-
view and don’t get the security
assistance,” he said. If that were to
unfold, he said, “The Russians
love it. (And I quit.)”
One day later, on Sept. 9, Taylor
confronted Sondland one last time
by text, saying, “I think it’s crazy to
withhold security assistance for
help with a political campaign.”
Sondland, perhaps anticipat-
ing how this exchange would play
out if it came into the possession
of investigators or were released
to the public, replied in an earnest
tone: “Bill, I believe you are incor-
rect about President Trump’s in-
tentions. The President has been
crystal clear: no quid pro quo’s of
any kind.”
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]Birnbaum reported from Brussels.
Julie Tate and Michelle Ye Hee Lee in
Washington contributed to this report.television.
Behind the scenes, other red
flags surfaced. In a White House
meeting in early July, Sondland
surprised a room of U.S. officials
and members of a small Ukraini-
an delegation when he diverged
from U.S. talking points approved
in advance by Bolton and others.
As part of the conversation, U.S.
officials recited their desire for
Ukraine to continue seeking to rid
its government and state-run
companies of corruption.
But Sondland interjected that
the United States also had other
targets in mind for Kiev that went
beyond its active, ongoing investi-
gations. He didn’t cite Burisma or
Biden by name, but the implica-
tion of his words struck others in
the room as troubling and obvi-
ous, particularly given Giuliani’s
public comments.
“What was shocking was that
he said it in front of so many
people,” said one official familiar
with the meeting.
Such concerns in Washington
were by then already tributaries
in a stream of information flowing
to a CIA employee who shared
their dismay and would soon be-
gin compiling an extraordinary
whistleblower complaint to the
intelligence community’s inspec-
tor general.
In Kiev, William B. “Bill” Taylor,
who had served as U.S. ambassa-
dor to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009
under Presidents George W. Bush
and Barack Obama, and had
agreed to return on an emergency
basis after Yovanovitch’s removal,
was raising alarms.
Taylor, who was recruited by
Volker, had been hesitant to even
take the job.
“I’m still trying to navigate this
new world,” Volker texted him this
spring.
“I’m not sure that’s a world I
want to set foot in,” Taylor replied.
On July 21, he voiced his con-
cern about Ukraine being treated
as a pawn in America’s “domestic,
reelection politics,” only to have
his concerns dismissed by Sond-
land, who suggested that Taylor
was failing to recognize how
bending to Trump’s demands was
the only path to improving the
countries’ fraught relationship.
The next day, one of Zelensky’s
top advisers, Andrey Yermak,
spoke by phone with Giuliani.in-law and adviser, Jared Kush-
ner.
Within weeks, Sondland and
Volker were deep into their efforts
to consummate a secret political
pact between Trump and Zel-
ensky. Texts show the extent to
which they explicitly pursued a
transaction tying U.S. military aid
and a future visit to the White
House to a hard commitment
from Ukraine to revive a corrup-
tion probe of a company, Burisma,
that had employed Hunter Biden,
the vice president’s son, as a board
member making between
$50,000 and $100,000 a month,
according to people familiar with
the matter.
A July 19 exchange between
Sondland and Volker shows them
discussing the status of their ef-
forts to secure clear cooperationfrom Zelensky before the ap-
proaching Trump-Zelensky
phone call.
Sondland said that he had spo-
ken “directly to Zelensky and gave
him a full briefing. He’s got it.”
Volker replied that he had met
over breakfast with Giuliani to
apprise him of their progress, and
the two later went on to discuss
what Zelensky would need to do to
secure the Oval Office meeting.
“Most impt is for Zelensky to
say that he will help investigation
— and address any specific per-
sonnel issues — if there are any,”
Volker wrote.
Officials in Washington and
Kiev were increasingly alarmed
by developments that were out in
the open, including the mysteri-
ous suspension of aid and Giu-
liani’s penchant for revealing his
schemes in appearances on cableD.C.,” a former White House offi-
cial said. “People would say, ‘Does
he spend any time in Brussels?’ ”Trump’s man
Sondland’s approach to the job
was seen more as a source of
irritation than trouble until May,
when he moved to stake his claim
to the U.S.-Ukraine relationship.
After Zelensky’s election, White
House officials began making
plans for who would take part in
the U.S. delegation to attend Zel-
ensky’s inauguration.
National security adviser John
Bolton removed Sondland’s name
from the list, only to see it rein-
serted, a clear indication that Bol-
ton had been overruled by the
Oval Office.
Photos of the event show a
beaming Sondland alongside Zel-ensky, as well as other U.S. officials
including Volker and Energy Sec-
retary Rick Perry.
In the ensuing months, Sond-
land maneuvered to cement a po-
sition of influence in the relation-
ship between Trump and the new
Ukrainian president. In early
June, Sondland threw a lavish In-
dependence Day reception — a
month ahead of the U.S. holiday —
at a cavernous antique car mu-
seum in central Brussels.
An enormous U.S. flag was pro-
jected onto a wall. Jay Leno —
whom Sondland billed as a per-
sonal friend — delivered a stand-
up routine whose U.S.-focused
patter fell flat on the ears of Euro-
pean officials. At a private dinner
afterward, Sondland hosted an
eclectic mix of guests. Among
those at the candlelit table were
Zelensky, Leno and Trump’s son-alluded to aid and arms promised
to Ukraine while telling Zelensky,
“I would like you to do us a favor.”
Among other things, Trump ex-
plicitly asked Zelensky to initiate
an investigation of Biden and his
son.
Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer, be-
came similarly entangled in webs
of unfounded accusations. By the
time the Russia investigation con-
cluded without uncovering clear
evidence that Trump’s campaign
had conspired with Moscow, Giu-
liani and Trump had both turned
their attention to Ukraine as a
potential ally that could both help
validate their theories and pro-
vide ammunition against political
adversaries.
To advance this shared agenda,
Trump began exploiting the pow-
ers of the executive branch.
Trump enlisted Attorney Gen-
eral William P. Barr to launch
investigations into the origins of
the Russia probe, searching for
proof that the work of the FBI and
special counsel Robert S. Mueller
III were politically tainted. As
part of that effort, The Washing-
ton Post revealed this week, Barr
traveled to Britain and Italy, hop-
ing their security services could
expose improprieties by Ameri-
can intelligence agencies.
Trump also began circumvent-
ing his own National Security
Council at the White House and
deploying trusted allies to pursue
political dirt and re-litigate the
history of the 2016 election. His
target was a country that
Manafort had long said was out to
get Trump in 2016: Ukraine.
Sondland, 61, appears to have
never held a position in govern-
ment before being named U.S.
ambassador to the European
Union in June 2018. He amassed
much of his wealth by acquiring
and managing luxury hotels in
cities including Seattle and Port-
land, Ore.
Sondland sought to distance
himself from Trump in 2016, back-
ing out of a Seattle fundraiser for
the GOP candidate over what a
company spokesman described as
concerns with Trump’s “anti-im-
migrant” policies.
But Sondland didn’t stay away
for long, later routing $1 million to
the president-elect’s inaugural
fund through a collection of shell
companies that obscured his in-
volvement.
In Brussels, Sondland garnered
a reputation for his truculent
manner and fondness for the trap-
pings of privilege. He peppered
closed-door negotiations with
four-letter words. He carried a
wireless buzzer into meetings at
the U.S. Mission that enabled him
to silently summon support staff
to refill his teacup.
Sondland seemed to chafe at
the constraints of his assignment.
He traveled for meetings in Israel,
Romania and other countries
with little or no coordination with
other officials. He acquired a rep-
utation for being indiscreet, and
was chastised for using his per-
sonal phone for state business,
officials said.
Sondland also shuttled repeat-
edly back to Washington, often
seeking face time with Trump.
When he couldn’t gain entry to the
Oval Office, officials said, he
would meet instead with White
House Chief of Staff Mick Mulva-
ney, preferring someone closer to
Trump’s inner circle than national
security officials responsible for
Europe.
“He always seemed to be inhoped would deliver damaging
information on former vice presi-
dent Joe Biden and undermine
the origins of the investigation
into Russian interference in the
2016 election.
Rather than official State De-
partment email, the text exchang-
es between the diplomats took
place over WhatsApp, a U.S. offi-
cial said.
Only if Zelensky can convince
Trump that he will “ ‘get to the
bottom of what happened’ in
2016 ” will he be granted a meeting
with the president, Volker tells
one of Zelensky’s top advisers in
late July in a text that alludes to
Trump’s belief that Ukraine
sought to sabotage him in the
presidential election. In a sepa-
rate message weeks later, Sond-
land emphasizes that the presi-
dent “really wants the deliver-
able.”
The exchanges reveal the direct
participation of State Department
officials sworn to serve the coun-
try in events that increasingly
bear the markings of a multi-
pronged political conspiracy.
At the same time Sondland and
Volker were using diplomatic
channels to press Trump’s de-
mands, the president and his per-
sonal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giu-
liani, were using other channels to
deliver the same message. At the
center of the scandal is a July 25
phone call between Trump and
Zelensky that was exposed by a
government whistleblower and
triggered an impeachment inqui-
ry.
On the receiving end of these
demands was a country turning to
the United States for help with
legitimate desperation. Over the
past five years, Ukraine has en-
dured incursions by Russian para-
military forces, the loss of the
Crimean Peninsula after its sei-
zure by Moscow, and a deadly and
ongoing conflict with Russian-
backed separatists — not to men-
tion its own internal political and
economic problems, and corrup-
tion.
Against this backdrop, Ukraini-
an officials cited in the texts re-
leased by House committees late
Thursday come across as feeling
abused by their American coun-
terparts. Zelensky “is sensitive
about Ukraine being taken seri-
ously, not merely as an instrument
in Washington domestic, reelec-
tion politics,” a U.S. official, dis-
patched to Kiev after former am-
bassador Marie Yovanovitch was
removed on May 7, said in a text.
Sondland brushed aside his
counterpart’s apprehension. “We
need to get the conversation start-
ed and the relationship built,” he
wrote back, “irrespective of the
pretext.”
Although brief and cryptic, that
exchange captures a more perva-
sive divide within the Trump ad-
ministration between career na-
tional security officials disturbed
by what they perceived as a dan-
gerous decoupling of U.S. foreign
policy from core national inter-
ests, and political appointees who
became complicit in the presi-
dent’s use of American influence
to advance his electoral interests.
This account is based on inter-
views with more than two dozen
current and former U.S. officials,
as well as documents released in
recent days by congressional com-
mittees involved in the impeach-
ment inquiry against the presi-
dent. The officials interviewed
spoke on the condition of ano-
nymity, citing the sensitive nature
of the subject as well as fear of
retaliation. Sondland did not re-
spond to requests for comments.
Re-litigating 2016
Trump’s preoccupation with
Ukraine traces back to the 2016
U.S. presidential race, when a fi-
nancial ledger surfaced in Kiev
linking Trump’s campaign chair-
man, Paul Manafort, to millions of
dollars in secret payments from a
pro-Russian, Ukrainian political
party he advised. The disclosures
forced Manafort to resign his
campaign position and fueled sus-
picions that Trump’s candidacy
was being assisted by interference
from Moscow.
Trump came to see the ensuing
investigations of his campaign’s
possible ties to Russia as part of an
effort to delegitimize his presi-
dency. In his July 25 call with
Zelensky, Trump complained
about the Russia probe and recy-
cled discredited conspiracy theo-
ries, including that Russia had not
really hacked the computers of the
Democratic National Committee,
and that the proof of that sup-
posed hoax — the DNC hard drives
— had been smuggled into
Ukraine for hiding.
There is no evidence to sub-
stantiate any of these allegations.
“A lot of it started with
Ukraine,” Trump said at a point in
the conversation where he also
UKRAINE FROM A
the impeachment inquiry
Texts lay bare U.S. diplomats’ direct pressure on Ukraine
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
From left: U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic speak to
reporters aboard Air Force One on May 14. Sondland took over the Ukraine portfolio under request by President Trump, officials said.MELINA MARA/THE WASHINGTON POST
Former U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker departs the U.S. Capitol on Thursday. Volker worked with
Sondland and others to cement a secret pact between the U.S. and Ukrainian presidents, officials said.Newly released texts make clear that Ukraine’s
new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, would not get
military aid or the Oval Office invitation he coveted
until he committed to investigations that President
Trump hoped would deliver damaging information
on former vice president Joe Biden and undermine
the origins of the investigation into Russian
interference in the 2016 election.