The exchange is a crucial piece of firsthand evidence of Trump's effort — aided by a shadow diplomacy campaign led by his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani — to pressure Ukraine to launch an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and other Democrats. That effort is at the center of Democrats' impeachment inquiry, along with questions about whether Trump withheld $400 million in military assistance and a White House visit from Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in order to force Ukraine to do his bidding.

Holmes said after the exchange he reported the call to his supervisor, Kristina Kvien. He also noted that two other officials, whose names were redacted from the transcript, were at the lunch with him. Under questioning from Republicans, Holmes said he wasn't sure whether the other two participants heard the president's voice or were focused on the call when it happened.

Holmes said he recognized the significance of the call part way through and began taking notes, but the Ukraine portion was brief, so his notes only reflected the latter part of the call, in which Trump and Sondland discussed efforts to free A$AP Rocky from criminal charges in Sweden.

The release of Holmes' transcript — just three days after he testified — is a reflection of Democrats' attempt to keep their impeachment inquiry moving apace. They scheduled Holmes for public testimony on Thursday alongside former Trump adviser Fiona Hill, who handled Russia policy on the National Security Council until her departure in July.

Like Holmes, Hill worried that Sondland presented a "counterintelligence risk" in part because of his frequent cell phone use in sensitive settings.

"Ambassador Sondland was using his own personal cell phone at all times, as well as his government-issued cell phone, I became extremely concerned that his communications were not going to be secure," Hill said, also raising concerns that Sondland had given out her personal cell phone number and interacted with Ukrainians on sensitive matters even though they might be Russian targets.

The Intelligence Committee also released testimony Monday from David Hale, the No. 3 official at the State Department, who described failed efforts to issue a statement of support for Marie Yovanovitch, who Trump removed as ambassador to Ukraine amid a smear campaign led by Giuliani and several allies and associates.

Hale said there were discussions about issuing a statement of support for Yovanovitch at the highest levels of the State Department but ultimately they decided against it. Among the considerations was that a statement might provoke those spreading the smears to ratchet up their attacks. But Hale said there was another argument against the statement as well.

"I mean, one point of view was that it might even provoke a public reaction from the president himself about the ambassador," he said.

Yovanovitch testified on Friday, at the same time Holmes was behind closed doors, and in fact was on the receiving end of a Twitter attack from Trump, who criticized her three-decade career.

Hale said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, at one point, called Fox News host Sean Hannity to emphasize that there was no validity to the accusations that Yovanovitch, a widely respected career diplomat, had spoken in a derogatory way about Trump.

Hale also described his offer to Yovanovitch to extend her tour in Ukraine, which came just weeks before the smear campaign erupted to an untenable degree. Hale recalled saying that Yovanovitch was “doing a very good job," but soon the atmosphere had changed, driven in part by Giuliani's efforts.

“Well it just became more and more obvious that this was an unusual set of things that were happening and that the mayor was involved,” he said. “Over time, it became much more confusing to me what was happening.”

Hale said Giuliani’s offensive against Yovanovitch implied a “roundabout way” for Trump to get rid of the ambassador through a “smear campaign.” But the State Department’s final decision not to publicly support Yovanovitch “most likely” rested with Pompeo, Hale said.

Hale also weighed in on the unexpected hold on military aid to Ukraine, which he said he first heard rumblings about on June 21, weeks earlier than the word had spread through much of the administration.

Hale said he “advocated strongly for resuming that assistance” but didn’t have confidence that would happen: The OMB “had guidance from the President and from Acting Chief of Staff Mulvaney to freeze the assistance," he said.

