David Holmes: Beginning in March 2019,..our diplomatic policy that had been focused on supporting Ukrainian democratic reform & resistance to Russian aggression became overshadowed by a political agenda being promoted by Rudy Giuliani..with a direct channel to the White House 
Holmes: In mid March,..Lutsenko had complained Amb. Yovanovitch had “destroyed him” w refusal to support him until he followed thru w his reform commitments & ceased using his position for personal gain. In retaliation, made series of unsupported allegations against her
Holmes: While Sondland’s mandate did not cover individual EU member states let alone non member countries like Ukraine, he made clear he had direct & frequent access to Trump & Mulvaney & portrayed himself as the conduit to President & Mulvaney for the group (him, Perry, Volker)
Holmes: On April 25 (day after Yovanovitch abruptly told to leave Ukr), Ivan Bakanov, Zelensky childhood friend/campaign chair, indicated to me he had been contacted by Giuliani who said he was an advisor to VP. reported Bakanov’s message to George Kent.
Holmes: When Z did not get WH meeting, he made plans to attend Sondland indy day reception in Brussels June 4-5, attended by Jared Kushner, Perry, Brechbuhl, etc. Wk before event, Sondland, Perry, Perry staff taking v active & unconventional role in formulating our priorities
Holmes: ... for the new Zelensky admin and personally reaching out to Pres. Zelensky and his senior team.
Holmes says by June 27/28, Sondland already pressing Zelensky for “investigations” Holmes understood to be Burisma/Bidens that Giuliani & associates had been speaking about in media since March. Was made clear some action on Burisma/Biden inv’ns was precondition for WH meeting
Holmes: Upon reading July 25 call summary when released sept 25, was deeply disappointed to see the President raised none of our agreed upon foreign policy priorities in Ukraine and instead raised the Biden/Burisma investigation & theory about Crowdstrike/2016 election
