POOL

Washington, DC - 19 November 2019

+++EDIT INCLUDES VARIOUS CAMERA ANGLES+++

1. SOUNDBITE: (English) Daniel Goldman, Democratic Counsel

"Mr. Morrison, you listened to this call on the 25th? Is that right? (Tim Morrison: I did.) Where did you listen from? (Tim Morrison: The White House Situation Room.) In your deposition, you testified that the call was not what you were hoping to hear. What did you mean by that?"

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Tim Morrison, Former National Security Council Staff Member

"I was hoping for a more, more full-throated statement of support from the president concerning President Zelenskiy's reform agenda."

+++WHITE FLASH+++

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Adam Schiff, (D) California / Committee Chairman

"I take it you didn't know until the call record was released that the president in that call doesn't raise Burisma, he asked for an investigation of the Bidens. Is that right?

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ambassador Kurt Volker, Former Special Envoy to Ukraine

"That is correct."

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Adam Schiff, (D) California / Committee Chairman +++OFF CAMERA+++

" I take it, since you say that you acknowledge that asking for an investigation of the Bidens would have been unacceptable and objectionable, that had the President asked you to get Ukraine to investigate the Biden's, you would have told him so."

6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Kurt Volker, Former Special Envoy to Ukraine

"I would have objected to that, yes, Sir."

+++WHITE FLASH+++

7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Daniel Goldman, Democratic Counsel

"Now, in a second meeting with Mr Eisenberg, what did you recommend that he do to prevent the call record from leaking?"

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Tim Morrison, Former National Security Council Staff Member

"I recommended we restrict access to the package. (Daniel Goldman: Had you ever asked the NSC legal adviser to restrict access before?) No. (Daniel Goldman: Did you speak to your supervisor, Dr. Kupperman ((a supervisor on the National Security Council)) before you went to speak to John Eisenberg?) No. (Daniel Goldman: Did you subsequently learn that the call record had been put in a highly classified system?) I did. (Daniel Goldman: And what reason did Mr. Eisenberg give you for why the call record was put in the highly classified system?) "It was a mistake. He said it was just a mistake. It was an administrative error."

+++WHITE FLASH+++

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Daniel Goldman, Democratic Counsel  

"So, just so we're clear, you reported two concerning conversations that you had with Ambassador Sondland to the lawyers in early September, in which you understood from him that the president was withholding security assistance as additional leverage to get Ukraine to publicly announce the specific political investigations that President Trump had discussed on the July 25th call. Is that accurate?"

19. SOUNDBITE (English) Tim Morrison, Former National Security Council Staff Member

"I was concerned about what Ambassador Sondland was was saying were requirements, yes.  

(Daniel Goldman: And you understood, though, that the investigations that Ambassador Sondland was referring to were the two that President Trump referenced on the July 25th call, correct?) By this point, yes."

FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: apus126984

A former top national security adviser to President Donald Trump says a rough transcript of Trump’s July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was placed on a highly classified system by mistake.

The official, Tim Morrison, is testifying Tuesday in the House impeachment inquiry. He says he and a top White House lawyer, John Eisenberg, agreed that access should be restricted to officials with high-level security clearances.

But Morrison says he later learned that the rough transcript of the call was placed on a highly classified server typically reserved for national secrets.

Morrison says the placement on the more secure server "was a mistake. It was an administrative error.”

Morrison was joined in the afternoon session by Ambassador Kurt Volker, the former special envoy to Ukraine who testified that he should have realized that President Donald Trump was holding up military aid to Ukraine as a way to pressure the country to investigate his political rivals.

Later, Morrison also told the committee that in early September, he had a phone conversation with  Ambassador Gordon Sondland in which Sondland described an earlier phone conversation that he had with the president.

Morrison told lawmakers that Sondland said on the call, "there was no quid pro quo, but President Zelenskiy had to make the statement that he had to want to do it."