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CNN says they have Holmes’ opening statement. @mkraju is reading it on the air:

I’m going to read to you a portion of this opening statement that details the lunch that Gordon Sondland had… in which the president was calling for these investigations. 1/
@mkraju It says this: During the lunch, Ambassador Sondland said that he was going to call President Trump to give him an update. Ambassador Sondland placed a call on his mobile phone, and I heard him announce himself several times 2/
@mkraju along the lines of, “Gordon Sondland, holding for the president.” It appeared that he was being transferred through several layers of switchboards and assistants. I noticed that Ambassador Sondland’s demeanor changed & understood that he had been connected to President Trump. 3/
@mkraju While Ambassador Sondland’s phone was not on a speaker phone, I could hear the president’s voice through the earpiece of the phone. The president’s voice was very loud and recognizable, and Ambassador Sondland held the phone away from his ear for a period of time 4/
presumably because of the loud volume.

Raju: So that explains, Wolf, how these people were able to overhear what the president was saying.

Now, he goes on to say this:

I heard Ambassador Sondland greet the president, and explain that he was calling from Kyiv. 5/
I heard President Trump then clarify Ambassador Sondland was in Ukraine. Ambassador Sondland said yes, he was in Ukraine. He went on to state that President Zelensky, “Loves your ass.” I then heard President Trump ask, “So he’s gonna do the investigation?” 6/
Ambassador Sondland replied that, “He’s gonna do it,” adding that President Zelensky will do, “anything you ask him to.”

Even though I did not take notes of these statements, I have a clear recollection that these statements were made. 7/
I believe that my colleages who were sitting at the table also knew that Ambassador Sondland was speaking with the president. 8/
Raju: So before I go on, I just want to reiterate what he says here, Wolf. He says that, “I then heard President Trump ask, ‘So he’s gonna do the investigation?’” referring of course to the investigation that the president asked for the day before with President Zelensky, 9/
the investigation of his political rival. Ambassador Sondland said, “He’s gonna do it,” adding that President Zelensky will do “anything you ask him to.”

Raju: So, I’ll read a little bit more from this statement that discusses more about the conversation 10/
that the European Union ambassador had with President Trump.

The conversation then shifted to Ambassador Sondland’s on behalf of the president to assist a rapper who was jailed in Sweden. I could only hear Ambassador Sondland’s side of that part of the conversation. 11/
Ambassador Sondland told the president that the rapper was kind of [F-ed] here, and should have pled guilty.

Raju: This is referring to another episode, of course.

He recommended the president wait until after the sentencing or it will make it worse 12/
adding that the presidnet should let him get sentenced, play the racism card, get him a tickertape when he comes home. Ambassador Sondland further the president that Sweden should have released him on your word, but that you can tell the Kardashians you tried. 13/
Raju: So then he starts talking about towards the end of this phone call:

After the call ended, Ambassador Sondland remarked that the president was in a bad mood, as Ambassador Sondland stated was often the case early in the morning. 14/
Then he says, I then took the opportunity to ask Ambassador Sondland for his candid impression of the president’s views on Ukraine. In particular, I asked Ambassador Sondland if it was true that the president did not give an “S” about Ukraine. 15/
Ambassador Sondland agreed that the president did not give an “S” about Ukraine. I asked, “Why not?” And Ambassador Sondland stated that the president only cares about the “big stuff.” I noted that there was big stuff going on in Ukraine, like a war with Russia 16/
And Ambassador Sondland replied that the “big stuff" that benefits the president, like the Biden investigation that Mr. Giuliani was pushing. The conversation moved on to other topics.

17/
Raju: Very significant there, Wolf. He’s saying that the president only cared about the “big stuff” — the investigation into the Bidens, and did not care about Ukraine. 18/
This corroborates what Bill Taylor testified to earlier this week, when he said his aide had overheard that phone call. He’s making it clear. He heard Gordon Sondland make clear that the president only cared about Ukraine investigating his political rival, Joe Biden. 19/
So then it closes with this. It says:

Upon returning to the embassy, I immediately told the Deputy Chief of Mission and others at the embassy about the call with the president and my conversation with Ambassador Sondland. 20/
I also emailed an embassy official in Sweden regarding the issue with the U.S. rapper that was discussed on the call.

So July 26 was the last day in the office ahead of a planned vacation, and he talks about how he told Ambassador Taylor about the July 26th call. 21/
And he repeatedly referred to the conversation with Sondland in meetings, the conversation that he had thereafter.

So then he says, At that time Ambassador Sondland’s statement of the president’s lack of interest in Ukraine was a particular focus. 22/
We understand that to secure a meeting between President Trump and President Zelensky, we would have to work hard to find a way to explain Ukraine’s importance to President Trump in terms that he found compellingl. 23/
So here you go, Wolf. This is a person who heard the president of the United States say to the European Union ambassador that Ukraine needed to investigate his main political rival, and that’s what he cared about. “Big stuff.” 24/
according to what Gordon Sondland told him in the aftermath of this phone call. So, very revealing testimony being delivered behind closed doors. This opening statement we obtained that details exactly what David Holmes, this official, is testifying about right now 25/
and corroborating this key detail that came out as the Democrats pushed to learn more about the efforts by the president to pursue this investigation into his political rival. 26/26
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