Group, a gas company where former Vice President Joe Biden's son once sat on the board.

"This whole thing was sort of a continuum, starting at the May 23 meeting, ending up at the end of the line when the transcript of the call came out," Sondland testified, referring to a summary of Trump's July 25 phone call with Zelensky. "And as I said to counsel, it started as talk to Rudy [Giuliani], then others talk to Rudy. Corruption was mentioned. Then, as time went on — and, again, I can't nail down the dates — then let's get the Ukrainians to give a statement about corruption. And then, no, corruption isn't enough, we need to talk about the 2016 election and the Burisma investigations."

Sondland noted that he wasthere was no "quid pro quo" with Ukraine because the government in Kyiv was unaware that military aid was being held up. He said Ukraine only found out that military aid was being withheld after the administration stopped pressing Ukraine to launch investigations.

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"To my knowledge, the news about a hold on security assistance did not get into Ukrainian Government circles, as indicated to me by the current foreign minister, then diplomatic adviser, until the end of August," Volker said. "And by the time that we had that, we had dropped the idea of even looking at a statement."

He said he was "surprised" and "troubled" by Trump's phone call with Zelensky, and said the president's requests could hinder U.S.-Ukraine relations.

"It creates a problem again where all of the things