Like I did with the last set of excerpts, here's some big and fucking bad highlights.
Starting with the Sondland excerpts:
During an Oval Office meeting on May 23, 2019, with Ambassador Sondland, Ambassador Volker, and Secretary Perry, President Trump “just kept saying: Talk to Rudy, talk to Rudy.” (Page 61-62)
State Department officials were “fully aware of the issues” with Mr. Giuliani, but “there was very little they could do about it if the President decided he wanted his lawyer involved.” (Page 356-358)
Mr. Giuliani’s demands “kept getting more insidious” as Ambassador Sondland “became aware that there might be a link between the White House visit and aid to the Ukraine that was being held up.” (Page 91-92, 240, 253-254)
With respect to President Trump’s demand that Ukraine investigate the Bidens, “whatever the Ukrainians were going to promise in any context, he wanted it public.” (Page 142-143)
The demands that Ukraine investigate the former Vice President’s son were “improper.” (Page 308)
Despite multiple accounts that Ambassador Sondland had stated to Ukrainian officials on July 10, 2019, that it was important for Ukraine to deliver specific investigations on the 2016 election and Burisma, he did not recall if the word “Burisma” was mentioned in the meetings. (Page 223-224)
And then the Volker excerpts:
After learning that Rudy Giuliani intended to pursue allegations raised by Prosecutor General Lutsenko, Ambassador Volker warned Mr. Giuliani that “Lutsenko is not credible.” (Page 226-227)
When Vice President Joe Biden encouraged Ukraine to fire former Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, he was “executing U.S. policy at the time and what was widely understood internationally to be the right policy.” (Page 330)
On May 23, 2019, Ambassador Volker, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland recommended that President Trump schedule an Oval Office meeting with the newly elected President of Ukraine, but President Trump stated that Ukrainians “tried to take me down” and that they should “talk to Rudy.” (Page 279, 304)
On July 3, 2019, Ambassador Volker met with President Zelensky in Toronto, Canada, and explained to him that Mr. Giuliani was amplifying “a negative narrative about Ukraine” that was “counteracting” President Zelensky’s efforts. (Page 242-243)
Ukrainian officials “asked to be connected to” Mr. Giuliani as a direct conduit to President Trump. (Page 47)
On July 18, 2019, Ambassador Volker became aware that the Office of Management and Budget had placed an “unusual” hold on security assistance to Ukraine, but he was unable to obtain an explanation for the hold. (Page 79-80, 121)
On July 19, 2019, during a breakfast meeting at Trump Hotel with Mr. Giuliani and Lev Parnas, Ambassador Volker warned that allegations against Vice President Biden were “simply not credible” based on his personal knowledge. (Page 202-203, 228-231)
Ambassador Volker explained a text message exchange in which Ambassador Sondland wrote that President Trump “really wants the deliverable.” (Page 183)
Mr. Giuliani insisted that a draft statement to be issued by Ukraine had to include explicit references to “Burisma and 2016.” (Page 71-72, 113)
Ambassador Volker discovered that the Department of Justice had not officially asked Ukraine to launch the investigations being promoted by Mr. Giuliani. (Page 196-197, 45)
And finally, key excepts from the text messages between Volker and Sondland
In late April 2019, after Marie Yovanovitch was abruptly recalled from her post as the Ambassador to Ukraine, Ambassador Taylor relayed his conversation with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent about becoming Chargé d’Affaires
Nearly one month later, Ambassador Taylor continued to struggle with the decision to go to Ukraine and voiced concern about the “Guliani-Biden issue”
On May 28, 2019, Ambassador Taylor expressed concern about a “non-normal world” in which White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney is involved with an invitation to the Ukrainian President for a White House visit, but not the National Security Council
On July 7, 2019, three days before a meeting at the White House between a Ukrainian delegation and National Security Advisor John Bolton, Ambassadors Kurt Volker and Gordon Sondland discussed calling White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney
On the morning of July 10, 2019, Ambassador Volker met with President Zelensky’s top advisor, Andrey Yermak, at the Trump Hotel before the White House meeting
Just before he met Mr. Yermak for breakfast on July 10, 2019, Ambassador Volker highlighted an “opportunity” for Mr. Giuliani “to get you what you need,” and Mr. Giuliani responded that he had “some suggestions”
On the same afternoon as the meeting between John Bolton and the Ukrainian delegation, on July 10, 2019, Mr. Yermak sent a text message to Ambassador Volker noting that Mr. Giuliani was “the key for many things”
On the evening of July 10, 2019, Ambassador Volker provided an update on meetings at the White House with the Ukrainian delegation, saying it was “not good”
On July 22, 2019, Ambassador Volker and Mr. Yermak discussed a potential call between President Trump and President Zelensky and the importance of speaking with Mr. Giuliani first
On August 11, 2019, Ambassador Volker contacted Mr. Giuliani about a “statement” from President Zelensky
On August 12, 2019, Mr. Yermak sent a draft statement to Ambassador Volker announcing an “investigation,” without mentioning Burisma or the 2016 elections
On August 13, 2019, Ambassadors Volker and Sondland proposed to Mr. Yermak that the statement also include “2 key items”—“Burisma and the 2016 U.S. elections”
To borrow a phrase,
If this is too much of a longcat post, bitch at me and I'll put it into spoilers. I just know that lots of yall won't have the time to click through and read at least the excerpts for yourself so I'm verbatim copying the high points into here.
EDIT: just realized I left out one of the biggest things from this new testimony - Zelensky discussed the suspension of aid directly with Mike Pence.