FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2019, file photo, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent leaves Capitol Hill after appearing before a joint House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and Committee on Oversight and Reform for a deposition on Capitol Hill in Washington. House impeachment investigators released a transcript from Kent, a career official at the State Department on Nov. 7. He testified that he was told to "lay low" on Ukraine policy as the Trump administration, and the president's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, were interacting with Ukraine outside of traditional foreign policy channels. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - There were three words President Donald Trump wanted to hear from the Ukraine president: Investigations, Biden and Clinton.
That's according to the transcript, released Thursday, of an impeachment inquiry interview with career State Department official George Kent.
"Potus wanted nothing less than President Zelenskiy to go to the microphone and say investigations, Biden and Clinton," Kent testified.
"That was the message. ... Zelenskiy needed to go to a microphone and basically there needed to be three words in the message, and that was the shorthand," he said.
Kent told investigators that that was his understanding of what Trump wanted Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to say in public, based on conversations relayed to him by others in the administration who were in contact with Ambassador Gordon Sondland.
Clinton, he clarified, was "shorthand" for the 2016 election. It was a reference to Trump's view, pushed by his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani but outside of mainstream U.S. intelligence, that Ukraine played a role interfering in the U.S. presidential election.
House investigators are releasing key transcripts from hours of closed-door interviews in the impeachment inquiry as they prepare for public sessions with witnesses next week.
Kent, a career official at the State Department, testified that he was told to "lay low" on Ukraine policy as the Trump administration and Giuliani were interacting with Ukraine outside of regular foreign policy channels.
Kent also raised concerns about the Trump administration's recall of its Ukraine ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch. Kent, Yovanovitch and diplomat William Taylor are expected to appear in the public sessions
First to testify next Wednesday will be Taylor, the top diplomat in Ukraine, who relayed in a closed-door session his understanding that there was a blatant quid pro quo, with Trump holding up military aid to Ukraine, a U.S. ally facing threats from its giant neighbor Russia.
That aid, at the heart of the impeachment inquiry, is alleged to have been held hostage until Ukraine agreed to investigate political foe Joe Biden and the idea of Ukraine interference in the 2016 U.S. campaign.
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Associated Press writers Colleen Long, Ben Fox, Laurie Kellman, Michael Balsamo, Matthew Lee and Matthew Daly contributed to this report.
FILE - In this Oct. 22, 2019, file photo, Ambassador William Taylor is escorted by U.S. Capitol Police as he arrives to testify before House committees as part of the Democrats' impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump, at the Capitol in Washington. Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, told lawmakers last month that President Donald Trump was withholding military aid for Ukraine unless the country's president agreed publicly to investigate Democrats, according to a transcript of his closed-door testimony released by impeachment investigators on Nov. 6. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
The Associated Press
Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, walks to a secure area at the Capitol to interview a witness in the House impeachment inquiry on President Donald Trump's efforts to press Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
The Associated Press
President Donald Trump listens to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speak during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House where Trump spoke about his judicial appointments, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
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House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., followed by Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., walks out to talk to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019, about the House impeachment inquiry. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The Associated Press
FILE - In this Aug. 1, 2018, file photo,Rudy Giuliani, personal attorney for President Donald Trump, speaks in Portsmouth, N.H. Giuliani, says he's being represented by three lawyers as federal prosecutors in New York look into his business dealings. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
The Associated Press