transcripts of two more pivotal witnesses are released. first you have special envoy to ukraine kurt volker. there on the left side of your screen, and ambassador to the european union gordon sondland on the right. this is key today. volker quit before testifying and released text messages inkaeding some of ambassador sondland the involvement in u.s. policy. get to volker in a second but focus on sondland who denied a quid pro quo when confronted about it in released text messages. and told house committees in amended testimony that there was a quid pro quo. that there was a quid pro quo involving military aid to ukraine. sondland reveals more details, how having a presence in rudy giuliani was in the u.s. policy with ukraine. sondland speaking here, "again people usually smiled when they heard rudy's name because he was always swirling around

somewhere. question, i mean causing serious issues in the u.s. relationship with ukraine. were you raise those with sondland? listen the state department was fully aware and little they could do about it if the president decided he wanted his lawyer involved. question, does that include secretary pompeo and his counselor? sondland, my speculation is yes, they hit a brick wall when it came to getting ready of mr. giuliani." first to manu raju up on drill, senior congressional correspondent. you've been reading through the sondland testimony. what are your key takeaways. >> reporter: yes. significant development here. this amended testimony saying that aid was likely linked to the public declaration by ukraine of investigations that could help the president politically. investigations into joe biden, joe biden's son that served on a board of the company burisma in ukraine. also 2016 elections. looking into this theory, this conspiracy theory of sorts that

ukraine was the one interfering in the u.s. elections's that was part of what rudy giuliani had been seeking, and what gordon sondland here is testifying in this amended statement to the committee is that this aid, nearly $400 million or so was essentially held up until those investigations had been announced, and he also testifies that it was rudy giuliani who was pushing it, and it was also the ask of president trump to deal with rudy giuliani as it came to ukraine. now, in this amended statement, he talks about meeting with andrew yermak, top aide to silence. talks about it in a phone call. i now recall speaking individually to mr. yuermak saying assistance could nwould

not occur until ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks." this into investigation into the bidens and the 2016 election and later said it was tied to release of aid. something isn't what was alleged he. the quid pro quo, what democrats alleged and something denied to gordon sondland. sondland told a separate individual there was no quid pro quo based on what the president said, but based on what he's privately telling ukraine officials, it's different than what the president was saying. also, brooke, significant in this testimony was him acknowledging that a meeting that had been sought by president zelensky of ukraine with president trump in washington essentially had been put on ice until rudy giuliani's demands were met for these investigations. so two key matters here. the aid, $400 million withheld, as well as this meeting in ukraine. essentially it went nowhere until those investigations were

announced publicly. that's the core of what democrats have been investigating in the impeachment inquiry and you have the president's top diplomat at a european union makes this case in a dramatic way and amending testimony to make clear military aid was likely tied to these investigations. >> thank you very much. unpack this. cnn legal an vist jennifer rogers, former prosecutors and melissa murray professor at nyu law school and gloria borger a chief cnn political analyst. on the legal, explain to us watching honing in on this word "refresh "refreshed." how can someone -- shouldn't you tell the truth the first time? what is this refreshed testimony? because we're learning new details about how he went and chatted with the secretary of energy, chatted with the president. told him to go tell the truth. round two goes back, says, okay. yes. essentially quid pro quo not just with regard to this meeting with zelensky at the white house

also with regard to the $400 million in military aid? how does that work? >> you should, of course, tell the truth the first time and prepared for your testimony using documents and any other means to refresh your recollection the first time, but oftentimes if what you really want is the information. what you really want is what sondland new and when and what people told him et cetera. he gets another chance. i think they'll want him back in person. they'll give him another chance to come in, correct the record, all of those times said he wasn't sure, i can't remember. now he remembers. get the real answer and he likely won't face any consequences for that. >> come back to that in a second. gloria to you in washington. two pieces of reporting have been out in the last couple minutes. number one, that sondland said he called rick perry. energy secretary. the day before his deposition to refresh his memory of that july 10th meeting at the white house. number two, that sondland told the committee he had a brief

exchange with president trump during a white house gathering where the president told him to go tell the truth. and, again, come back to the man was under oath, and the president of the united states says, tell the truth. your thoughts? >> you presume you would tell the truth if ounder oa erunder ? >> correct. >> correct. correct. i don't think donald trump will be very happy with the truth. >> the truth he told. >> and with the truth he told. which effectively outlines a quid pro quo, and gives a very different timeline from the one where we were told originally, and which said that as of september 1, the ukrainians were very well aware of what was holding up the military aid, because he told them. sondland makes it very clear as manu pointed out he told the ukrainians aid would likely not occur until ukraine provided and

anti-corruption statement we discussed for weeks. that was about biden and burisma, and, of course, that statement never occurred and ambassador volker told them to drop it, because he thut ought was ridiculous. but the clear here the ukrainians knew there was a quid pro quo. and that they were being asked to do something they felt very uncomfortable doing, because they didn't want to get involved in domestic politics over in this country, and, also, they thought it had been investigated at one point and it was ridiculous. >> melissa, why does this point on, yes, there was a quid pro quo, yes, the president did withhold this money in order to do this investigating on a political opponent and into 2016, why does it matter big picture? >> a lot of reasons. the question of the quid pro quo is the central question of the impeachment inquiry. obstruction of justice, the witnesses. ancillary to this.

figuring out a quid pro quo and for what is the key question. if i were a republican strat jit now caucusing with this white house i would say, yes quid pro quo only about anti-corruption not getting dirt on bliden to use in a 2020 election. a democrat strat united states i -- strategizing, prospectively not retrospectdive to the 2020 election. >> and getting on the same page, sounds, gloria, kind of did. "washington post" reporting yesterday it pivoted during last wednesday during lunch, all republicans, okay, okay, there wag quid pro quo but minimizing it. it wasn't corrupt intent. but two key people, correct me, but two key people have said there was no quid pro quo. number one, secretary of state mike pompeo. two, the president of the united states. >> and don't forget, mick mulvaney who said there was a quid pro quo but then said there

wasn't a quid pro quo. >> right. >> so i think what republicans are trying to do is say, it was inappropriate, but not impeachable. and you can think it was inappropriate without believing that it's an impeachment offense. that is a problem for the president of the united states who continues to say that what occurred in that, in his phone call and now as we find out ak this foreign policy, was perfect. so you have republicans who are looking for a way to defend the president, and the president saying, you can't use that defense, because i don't agree with it. defend me on what was said in that phone call. where i asked about joe biden. and there are lots of republicans not willing to do that, in the end it doesn't matter much, because if they're not going to vote for impeachment they won't vote for impeachment and on the president's side no matter what, but there is a difference in kind about how they're going to

go about doing that and whether that will make the president feel any better or not i have no idea, pivot to rudy giuliani. the president's personal attorney. to my legal ladies, and his role in all this. read the initial bits of the sondland transcript he is asked how much did you talk about him with secretary of state mike pompeo? and paraphrasing, a line i thick about rolls his eyes and swirling everywhere. the other point, sondland worked with giuliani and othering to prompt ukraine to make a public announcement about its investigation and any announcement would lead to be on tv so that president trump would see it. what's your impression of rudy giuliani's role in all of this foreign policy? why are you smiling? >> the whole transcript paints a picture of rudy giuliani as the tasmanian devil swirling around in this, like, cloud of dust making a mash of everything, and the truth is error clear. these were career foreign professionals absolutely aghast how this administration has run

roughshod over every protocol. having foreign policy conducted through the president's personal lawyer who is doing the work pro bono? none of this makes sense to any of these career people and they are absolutely aghast to all of this. >> did secretary pompeo allow for this. >> sure. absolutely. look the other way. rolled lis eye eed his eyes. from sondland the testimony he said, pompeo rolled his eyes and said yes, it's something we have to deal with. fk in, they didn't really deal with it as far as we know, because nobody was willing to go to the president of the united states as far as we know and say, mr. president, this is inappropriate. the conspiracy theories are ridiculous, and had been debunked. you are getting in the way of important foreign policy of the united states of america. which, by the way, has been, the money for military aid to ukraine to use against the russians had already been

appropriated by the united states congress, and you cannot do this. so far as i can tell, pompeo just rolled his eyes, not to mention the fact he also lied on television a couple of times. well, you know, that's not a criminal act as we all know, but so he wasn't being truthful with the american public about all of this, because he was not willing to confront the president. and i just think that rudy giuliani who had no security clearance, who was doing this on behalf of the president, maybe to line his own pockets in ukraine. we don't have any idea about that. it's absurd on the face of it. it's just absurd. >> okay. i have so many more questions. nobody move a muscle. we are seeing the other transcript as well today from the other key witness who testifies that there was no validity to the conspiracies involving the bidens and ukraines. what kurt volker testified. you're watching cnn live special

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doors, blunt reserve lakeses from kurt volker. special envoy to ukraine. one exchange volker told lawmakers there was no individually to trump's biden allegation. from the transcript, question, you did not believe there was any validity to the two allegations? volker, i did not. question, called them earlier yet that's what president trump wanted zelensky to commit to investigating before he could get volker. right. question, a visit to the white house. cnn's lauren fox with me now with more on what she is gleaning from these transcripts. lauren, what's yujumping out at ought? >> one talking point we're hearing from republicans in the last moments the fact in this closed door deposition volker told them he wasn't aware of a quid pro quo. when pressed, "you asked what conversations did i have about a quid pro quo." "none, because i didn't know there was a quid pro quo." this isn't all good news for republicans. as pointed out. volker was very concerned about that july 25th phone call and

surprised and troubled that the president was trying to push for investigations into his political rivals that as you read he didn't believe there was any have a lvalidity to those a and also said he was concerned about rudy giuliani's role and what it would do to the u.s. relationship between the u.s. and ukraine. in part because of bipartisan support on capitol hill to give ukraine the aid and belief from the ukrainians if they got involved in u.s. politics it could damage their relationship with the u.s. a few highlights from volker's testimony. of course, we're still going through what a several hundreds of pages. >> keep reading. lauren fox, thank you very much. and back with me, my panel. jen, surface level after reading through this whole volker thing. how does he come across? >> not that well to me. on one hand, yes, he did resign and came in and presumably told the truth.

on the other hand, what you get from at least the excerpts i've seen is this whole thing is amateur hour including with volker. he's talking about how as they get to the end of the process of negotiating, this statement, rudy giuliani says these two things have to be in a public statement. you have to put in the biden investigation, you have to put in the 2016 election interference investigation and you have ukrainians telling him, well, is that actually an official department of justice request for these assistance on investigations? where this is coming from? he says, i don't know. let me find out. comes back, says, no, it's not. then actually volker says, probably actually you shouldn't put them in. never mind. because that is totally inappropriate. so, know, what is volker doing over there? seems like -- >> ukraine say, this go through doj? >> exactly. >> he didn't know enough or not with the program enough to ask that question in the first place before he even approached them. >> melissa, your impression?

>> not just amateur hour for kurt volker but all the way up to the president. seems completely fixated trying to show russia did not hand him the 2016 election and so he's buying into this ukrainian stuff and then pompeo is also letting it go down. even though earlier as cia chief he suggested there had been russian interference in the 2016 election. we just get, like, the idea that there are a lot of different pots on the fire in this administration, but nobody is actually watching the stove. >> hmm. which is a problem. which is a problem. gloria, volker told zelensky about the quote/unquote giuliani factor. rudy giuliani was amplifying a negative narrative about ukraine. what's the significance in that? >> well, i think it just amplifies the chaos that was surrounding the whole policy which should have been pretty much cut and cry since congress

had already appropriated money, and rudy giuliani was somebody who was representing the president, himself, who knows what. never wanted to be secretary of state at one point. never became secretary of state, but was certainly acting as secretary of state here. and these were people -- i want to be a little bit more positive towards volker. i think they were trying to figure out a way to work around giuliani. i think volker wanted to do the right thing but not quite sure how to do it so he played along a little bit with giuliani trying to kind of figure out what he could get out of giuliani that he could tell ukrainians about, open up a dialogue with them so that they could get their aid. because i believed he thought that this is an existential issue for the country and that that was most important, and he did whatever he had to do, only in the end it was volker who

said, just bag it. we're not going to do this statement. forget it. let's just move on. >> yeah. ladies, thank you. more breaking news as we go through the transcripts. house democrats calling on the white house chief of staff mick mulvaney to testify this week and also while other administration officials refused to show up to answer questions, the vice president's senior adviser will likely testify in this impeachment investigation. you're watching cnn. we'll be right back. ng? prevagen is the number one pharmacist-recommended memory support brand. you can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. anyoonly marco's can deliver america's most loved pizza. hot and fresh, and right to your door. dough made from scratch, every day. sauce from our original recipe. and authentic toppings like crispy, old world pepperoni™. because the italian way is worth celebrating.

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in other news today, house impeachment investigators are ratcheting up their investigation into one of the president's top aides. they've requested acting white house chief of staff mick mulvaney to testify on capitol hill this coming friday. it appears unlikely that mulvaney will comply with that request. this is coming as sources tell cnn that a seen area adviser to vice president mike pence is likely to comply with a request later this week. cnn kaitlan collins is at the white house. start with mulvaney here. what are the chances that he shows up? >> pretty much slim to none but notable, because he's the

closest aide to the president so for house democrats want to speak with and called to speak with. right now they've scheduled his deposition to happen friday we are told it's not likely he's going to show up. though that's not definitive yet. we'll know friday whether or not he shows up, but, of course, they say he has firsthand knowledge and substantial information. why they want to speak with him and of course recently found himself at the center of this scandal because he gave that briefing to reporters where he admitted and then later denied that the president did tie the hold up that military aid to his political motivations. right now we're not expecting to see mulvaney. while he's the more interesting name here, someone else may not be as well known equally at notable. that's senior aide to the vice president mike pence who we should note jennifer williams is not a political appointee. career official who worked at the state department now working in the vice president's office, detail to him, handles ukraine, europe, other affairs for the vice president. she is someone also scheduled to testify on thursday and we are

being told she is expected to show up. that's notable, because she was on that july call with the ukrainian president. something we should note, mick mulvaney wasn't on the call. she was on in addition to mike pence the chief security adviser not called to testify and she's more likely to go than a political appointee. that's notable. so far a lot of questions what the vice president knew and that role part of this scandal and so far the vice president in the most recent interview done with cbs refused to answer several questions about what he knew about these conditions, this deal that the president wanted the ukrainians to move on before he released ta aid. that's something we could find out as soon as thursday. jennifer williams is a potential possible witness that people need to keep their eye on. >> we will. thank you very much. also keeping in mind this inquiry began after that whistle-blower complaint that the president and his allies escalated demands that that individual be unmasked despite a

right to an minute anonymity ul law. and joining the call for the whistle-blower's name to be released. >> the whistle-blower needs to come before congress as a material witness, because he worked for joe biden at the same time hunter biden was getting money from corrupt oligarchs. i say tonight, to the media, do your job and print his name! >> an expert on whistle-blower protections. director of public policy, project and government oversight. liz, thank you for being with me and start with what we just heard there from senator paul. this notion that he's asking the press, do your job, because he wants to unmask this whistle-blower. just first and foremost, is that against the law? >> that's a difficult question to ask but i would -- to answer. i would say the identity of the

whistle-blower is irrelevant. i don't know what senator paul was talking about saying he must be a fact witness. we know that the facts he alleged in his complaint have been corroborated. then corroborated by this white house and by the acting chief of staff mick mulvaney. corroborated by testimony given to the house already. i'm not quite sure what more light the whistle-blower can shed on this and i think it's really dangerous to focus on his identity as if it's something relevant here. >> i guess one other question to ask listening to the senate is, if he thinks it's so important, why wouldn't he out the whistle-blower himself? why call on the media to do it? >> right. a great question. he said he needed identity of the whistle-blower but calls on the press to do it. answering your earlier question, i apologize. i think it is technic little illegal and would constitute reprisal against this whistle-blower who kwufs for protections under the law, because he followed the procedures laid out by congress to afford himself those legal

protections. one says you can't do anything that would cause a substantial change in working conditions of a whistle-blower. i think outing them would first of all greatly increase the chance of them suffering more reprisal and also constitute reprisal in and of itself as a change in working conditions. >> you are the expert. it's my understanding that it's actually only illegal if the intelligence community inspector general cannot identify the whistle-blower. is that true? >> no. that's true. that's explicitly, the inspector general can't release identity of the whistle-blower. my point, under the protections this individual has, you can't do anything that would constitute a significant change in working conditions. while it doesn't explicitly say in the law you can't release their identity, i think, i do think that this individual will have a strong case to make that that would be a significant change in working conditions. >> got it.

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all this discussing the last nearly two hours, the white house weighed in responding to release of these testimonies and in the impeachment investigation. back to you kaitlan collins at

the white house. what exactly is the white house saying? >> reporter: so, brooke, read you stephanie grisham's statement and point to what we saw in the testimony released today from gordon sondland, ambassador to the european union. stephanie grisham press secretary says beth transcripts released shows less evidence for this illegitimate impeachment sham than previously thought says ambassador sondland squarely says he does not know and still does not know when aid was suspended presumedals a link to the aid but can't identify a solid source for that assumption and points to other testimony from kurt volker released today. brooke, looking at gordon sondland's testimony today you see he updated that testimony and it is a pretty exclusive acknowledgement a statement they wanted made by the ukrainians especially the ukrainian president was tied to the release of that military aid by this white house. so in sondland's addendum,

updated from when he testified, "i do now recall a conversation had with a top aide to the ukrainian president september 1, 2019 where he says in that one on one with the top aide to the ukrainian president, i said the resumption of u.s. aid was would likely not occur until ukraine provided the anti-corruption statement we have been discussing for many weeks." that's september 1st gordon sondland saying he recalls a conversation with a top aide to the ukrainian president saying the statement about investigating joe biden and hunter biden and that manager board, the company he sat on the board of, was tied directly to release of that military aid. seems to refute what exactly the press secretary is saying in this statement as they are trying to dismiss the transcripts that come out today, brooke. >> all right. kaitlan, thank you for that. talk about this family of nine americans. nine. all live in mexico. murdered traveling in the northern state of sonora. the victims include little

babies, not even a year old. several other children, three women, killed. the family was traveling in a three-car caravan when mexico authorities say they were ambushed, some burned alive. the fbi offered to investigation. and our correspondent from mexico city, mexico's president says it looks like a possible case of mistaken identity. is that what they're saying? >> reporter: well, yes, and looking at context clues as well, brooke. consider what this region is known for. this is one of the most lucrative drug smuggling routes in all of mexico. as a result you have had drug cartels essentially waging war over those routes in the state of sonora and chihuahua, directly to its east, for decades now. except it's gotting worse over the paeft several years. authorities are saying might have happened, as these families were traveling down the road, this could be a case of mistaken

identity where cartel gunmen see a caravan mistake it for a rival group and open fire as a result. however, i've talked, brooke, today to family members of the people who have been killed, and one of them specifically told me, look, it wouldn't surprise me if we were specifically targeted. this communities, where hundreds live in sonora, people who are both american and mexican citizens, they don't always toe the cartel line and make the cartels upset from time to time. maybe targeted, ultimately we just don't know. >> awful to this family. talked to an aunt of several of the children and the lives lost. talking how they were such, such good people. several kids i know are in the hospital recovering from all of this. we'll stay on it. matt, thank you very much. just in to us on the very first day of his trial, roger stone asked to be excused explaining of food poisoning. we will tell you what happened inside court today. billions of mouths.

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we are learning more today about the suspect accused of plotting to bomb an historic colorado synagogue.

the fbi says 27-year-old richard holzer espoused white supremacist ideology. feds say they first spotted him online talking about killing jews. undercover agents reached out in september. by october feds say they met with him to plan bombing this 119-year-old temple emmanuel synagogue in pueblo, colorado. the individual allegedly visited there multiple times after hashing his plot with these undercover agents. the defamation league says this plot marks the 13th time the past year of a white supremacist targeting the uchjewish commun. thank you for joining me, and goodness. when did you first learn that the fbi had stopped this plot to bomb your synagogue and what was your reaction, sir? >> well, i first found out about

it at 10:00 in the morning when the fbi contacted me that they wanted to meet with me regarding something involving the temple but they didn't disclose to me exactly what that was. so we scheduled a meeting for 2:00 that same day, which was yesterday, and then when they told me, i guess my first thought was that it's amazing that they stopped this from happening. so complete gratitude to the fbi. >> yes. >> and the pueblo police department from keeping this from happening. that was my first thought. >> do you have an indication as to why this person wanted to do this? >> i mean, obviously, this individual is, has looked into the white sprimist, hooked into the white supremacist ideology, and we don't have that kind of atmosphere here in pueblo. this guy was a transplant in california and had only been here a very short time. so i feel like this is a bad an

that this individual had visited your synagogue several times, what did you think? >> well, i guess i hear that he had visited but we don't recall ever seeing him. we know who comes in through the door. our congregation is only 35 families so we know who comes through the door. and i doan -- none of us recall seeing him unless he changed the way he looks. >> i was reading, michael, there is a sign in the front of your synagogue that reads "this is not a gun-free zone." why do you feel that sign is necessary? prior to all of this? >> well, i think it's necessary because of the very obvious churches and synagogues have been shot up and i think for somebody to put a sign that said this is a gun-free zone is

asinine. you're only asking for trouble. and we refuse to be a soft target so we'll defend ourselves and have the security that we need, we have armed guards and i come to find out that after the pittsburgh occurrence that a lot of our members -- not a lot, but several of our members are carrying weapons. so i just think we have to defend ourselves. >> wow, and that is where we are. >> that is not -- i know that is not a popular stance with a lot of people. but that is a realize we live in today. >> michael atlas acuna, thank you so much and i'm so glad we're talking on tv about how the fbi stopped it and that you and your 35 families are okay. >> thank you so much. >> thank you very much. >> you're welcome. just into us here at cnn on the very first day of the trial, roger stone asked to be excused from court. hear why. people, our sales now apply to only 10 frames.

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so we were expecting the unexpected in this raes trial but on the very first day, that is exactly what we got. of course you remember roger stone, the long time trump ally and former adviser charged with obstructing justice and making false claim to congress investigating russian interference. so with that we go to shimon

prokupecz following this for us. day one, food poisoning? >> yeah. apparently roger stone ate something, we don't know when, maybe this morning, maybe last night but he walked into court today not feeling well. and was around 10:15 or so that he was excused to go to the bathroom and he came back after lunch not feeling well. he asked the judge if he could be excused. the judge wanted to let him know, it is important that you're here. we're starting the trial today. the jury selection part of the trial. he understood that and he said that is fine. you can go ahead. i don't want to delay this any further. you could go ahead and proceed and with that he was excused for the day. and the judge continued with jury selection. we don't know what this means for tomorrow. we don't know how he's doing today. but that wasn't the only thing that happened in court today. you talk about what a way for this trial to get started. there was a juror -- a potential juror that got sick as well. they had to call an ambulance for that person. >> they passed out sick. >> passed out.

>> hit the floor. >> hit the floor. and may have had seizures and they were taken away and outside of all of that there was an argument between two roger stone associates in the hallway. they were arguing over something. so it is going to be interesting. i'll be there every day and i'm sure every day we'll have something interesting that occurs because roger stone, of course, as he does with most things, it is always dramatic. he's been quiet in courtment we haven't heard from him. he was there yesterday. he sat there with his attorney. a lig big, large legal team, about four or five attorneys so hopefully by today they have the jurors an then tomorrow we get underway with opening statements and perhaps the prosecutors first witness. >> okay. so witnesses. who should we expect to hear from? >> so a lot of people we know and have heard of during the mueller investigation. people who have worked at the white house and know the president like steve bannon, other folks michael caputo

another friend of roger stone. someone who obviously involved in the campaign, knows roger stone very well. we'll hear names like paul manafort and rig -- rick gates in this trial he's cooperating with investigators so we may hear from him. we'll hear a lot about julian assange and wikileaks that will come up a lot. and then randy credico who is a comedian, someone that the government has charged roger stone with trying to intimidate during the congressional testimony during the congressional investigation. that is someone that roger stone, the government said, tried to intimidate and tried to obstruct justice to get him not to cooperate so we'll hear from him. he certainly is a colorful character. so it is going to be interesting. we may hear from a manhattan madam. she's a close friend of roger stone. she had come in and testified in the grand jury. so we're going to have quite a list of characters come in and

out of this courtroom in the next few days. the trial is expected to go on for about three weeks. >> okay. well, lucky you. we'll be talking a lot. day one is any indication, we'll be talking a lot. shimon prokupecz, thank you very much my friend. thank you for being with me. i'm brooke baldwin. "the lead" starts now. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. welcome to "the lead." i'm jake tapperment a and break news. an admission by a top trump aide that he told the ukrainians if they wanted $400 million in aid from the u.s. they would need to publicly announce they were investigating the ukrainian firm bur he's -- burisma and as he p burisma equals biden. after two explosive transcripts, kurt volker for ukraine and gordon sondland the ambassador to the