Vice President Mike Pence’s Chief of Staff Marc Short said in a statement that the purported conversation between him and Sondland “never happened.”

“The vice president never had a conversation with Gordon Sondland about investigating the Bidens, Burisma, or the conditional release of financial aid to Ukraine based upon potential investigations,” the statement reads.

“Ambassador Gordon Sondland was never alone with Vice President Pence on the September 1 trip to Poland. This alleged discussion recalled by Ambassador Sondland never happened.”

Rudy Giuliani is firing back at Sondland’s testimony, tweeting: “I came into this at Volker’s request. Sondland is speculating based on VERY little contact. I never met him and had very few calls with him, mostly with Volker. Volker testified I answered their question sand described them as my opinions, NOT demands. I.E., no quid pro quo!”

https://twitter.com/RudyGiuliani/status/1197205261297082372

Gordon Sondland said he never talked to Trump about “preconditions” for the Ukraine aid to be released, but his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani made “demands” that came from Trump.

“When the President says, ‘talk to my personal attorney’ and then Mr. Guiliani, as his personal attorney, makes certain requests or demands, we assume it’s coming from the President,” Sondland said.

Sondland said:

“I know that members of this Committee have frequently frames these complicated issues in the form of a simple question: ‘Was there a quid pro quo?’ As I testified previously, with regard to the requested White House call and White House meeting, the answer is yes.”

BREAKING: As Sondland hearing goes on – Republicans have sent a letter to Chairman Schiff, informing him that they intend to subpoena both the whistleblower and Hunter Biden for sworn testimony in closed-door depositions.

“Because witnesses explained that Hunter Biden’s presence on Burisma’s board raised concerns during the Obama administration and President Trump briefly raised this issue during his phone call with President Zelensky, this information is directly relevant to the Democrats’ ‘impeachment inquiry.'”

Sondland goes on to say that he “never received a clear answer” as to why the military aid was suspended, and “later came to believe that the resumption of security aid would not occur until there was a public statement from Ukraine committing to the investigations of the 2016 election and Burisma, as Mr. Giuliani had demanded.”

He says he “shared concerns of the potential quid pro quo regarding the security aid with Senator Ron Johnson” and with the Ukrainians.

Sondland says that “Giuliani’s requests were a quid pro quo for arranging a White House meeting 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 United States and we knew that these investigations were important to the President.”

House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff called for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to turn over documents from the State Department.

“Finally, I want to say a word about the President and Secretary Pompeo’s obstruction of this investigation. We have not received a single document from the State Department, and as Ambassador Sondland’s opening statement today will make clear, those documents bear directly on this investigation and this impeachment inquiry.

US Ambassador to the EU will testify that he — alongside Energy Secretary Rick Perry and US diplomat Kurt Volker — worked with Rudy Giuliani on Ukraine matters “at the express direction of the President of the United States.”

“Secretary Perry, Ambassador Volker and I worked with Mr. Rudy Giuliani on Ukraine matters at the express direction of the President of the United States. We did not want to work with Mr. Giuliani. Simply put, we played the hand we were dealt. We all understood that if we refused to work with Mr. Giuliani, we would lose an important opportunity to cement relations between the United States and Ukraine. So we followed the President’s orders”

In his opening statement, US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland will testify that President Trump directed him to talk to Rudy Giuliani, and he wasn’t happy about it.

“We weren’t happy with the President’s directive to talk with Rudy. We did not want to involve Mr. Giuliani. I believed then, as I do now, that the men and women of the State Department, not the President’s personal lawyer, should take responsibility for Ukraine matters,” according to his opening statement.