and authorized by the president of the United States. It just was not aimed at a foreign policy or national security concern but, rather, as Hill pithily put it, a “domestic political errand.”

On May 23, Trump met with Sondland, Volker, Perry, Sen. Ron Johnson and others, including then-Deputy National Security Adviser Charles Kupperman. The group had just returned from Ukraine after attending Zelensky’s inauguration and requested to meet with the president. According to Williams’s testimony, Vice President Pence had originally been scheduled to attend on behalf of the United States, but he had been directed not to do so by President Trump shortly after Giuliani had complained that Ukrainian officials had forced him to cancel meetings there. Instead, they sent the lower ranking delegation led by Perry. SondlandSecretary.” On June 18, in the meeting described by Hill in the passage quoted above, Sondland told Hill that he was in charge of Ukraine policy on orders of the president.

But the normal diplomatic and policymaking channels were not dead. On May 28, Taylor—who had retired from government service and was working at the U.S. Institute for Peace—met with Pompeo about taking over the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine temporarily after Yovanovitch’s departure. Taylor was reticent after what happened to Yovanovitch and was concerned that the Trump administration was not actually committed to Ukraine. But Pompeo assured him that the policy of strong support for Ukraine would continue and that Pompeo would support Taylor in defending that policy. With that assurance, Taylor agreed to serve as charge d’affaires on