WASHINGTON (AP) — Portland hotel magnate Gordon Sondland donated $1 million to Donald Trump’s inauguration committee. Five months later he was nominated to be the US Ambassador to the European Union.

Now he’s right in the thick of a formal impeachment proceeding of Trump by the House of Representatives. And it all centers on the text messages he sent and received with US envoys about Ukraine, Congressional aid, investigations into Joe and Hunter Biden and setting up meetings with Trump.

The text messages convey a distinct campaign among Sondland and diplomats Kurt Volker and Bill Taylor, who — apparently against some of their stated better judgment — appear to be trying to help Ukraine reset its relationship with Trump by pushing his interest in investigating his Democratic rival and the 2016 election.

Read: Text messages between US diplomats over Ukraine, released by US Congress

Volker, Taylor and Sondland discussed the statement Ukraine President Volodmyr Zelenskiy would issue in support of the investigation into the Bidens. As the negotiations progressed, Sondland said Trump “really wants the deliverable.”

In this Sept. 18, 2018 file photo U.S. special representative to Ukraine Kurt Volker (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Then, Trump put a hold on $250 million in military assistance to Ukraine, which was depending on the funds as part of its defense against Russia.

The text messages released Thursday show that within a month of the now infamous July 25 call, Trump has canceled the visit with Zelenskiy, sending the diplomats into an effort to salvage a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence or possibly Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

What followed was the scramble, and finger-pointing, to apparently fix what had been launched.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks to media during his press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

Taylor told Sondland he was “counting on you to be right,” and Sondland snapped back, “Bill, I never said I was right.”

Sondland early on had texted that he wanted to get the conversation started with Ukraine “irrespective of the pretext” because he was “worried about the alternative.” Now, he was saying, they have identified the best path forward, and “let’s hope it works.”

Taylor then texted, “As I said on the phone, I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”

After a more than four-hour pause, Sondland texted Taylor that he was incorrect, and wrote that Trump “has been crystal clear, no quid pro quos of any kind.”

Senior Advisor to the President of the United States Jared Kushner, center, and US Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland, right, are greeted by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker prior to a meeting at EU headquarters in Brussels, Tuesday, June 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys)

He also wrote, “I suggest we stop the back and forth by text.”

In releasing the exchanges Thursday, the Democratic committee chairmen said they are “still only a subset of the full body of the materials” provided by Volker, which they hope to make public later.

KOIN 6 News contributed to this report