Richard Burr: “Mr. Chief Justice, I send a question to the desk for counsel to the President. The CHIEF JUSTICE. Senator Burr asks: We…”

“Mr. Chief Justice, I send a question to the desk for counsel to the President. The CHIEF JUSTICE. Senator Burr asks: We have seen the House managers repeatedly play video clips of Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney's press conference, in which they claim he said there was a quid pro quo. How do you respond to the House managers' allegation that Mr. Mulvaney supported their claims in his press conference? Mr. Counsel PURPURA. Mr. Chief Justice, Members of the Senate, Senator, thanks for the question. We respond as Mr. Philbin did earlier today with that, which is Mr. Mulvaney has issued two statements--one after his press conference and then one Monday after the New York Times article concerning Mr. Bolton's alleged manuscript--alleged statements in his manuscript. So I think the easiest thing is just to read them to understand what he said and to put it into context for everyone in the Chamber. This is from--this is the day of the press conference. Once again, the media has decided to misconstrue my comments to advance a biased and political witch hunt against President Trump. Let me be clear, there was absolutely no quid pro quo between Ukrainian military aid and any investigation into the 2016 election. The president never told me to withhold any money until the Ukrainians did anything related to the server. The only reasons we were holding the money was because of concern about lack of support from other nations and concerns over corruption.…”