'You can tell the Kardashians you tried': Trump consoled by US ambassador over A$AP Rocky case, impeachment inquiry hears
Diplomat recounts phone call as part of testimony
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Your support makes all the difference.The Kardashians have been mentioned in the impeachment hearings as part of a broader exchange regarding Donald Trump and rapper A$AP Rocky.
David Holmes, a career diplomat who was questioned on Thursday in front of the House Intelligence Committee, brought up Mr Trump’s support of A$AP Rocky at a time when the rapper was jailed in Sweden.
A$AP Rocky was detained in July over an alleged attack in Stockholm. Mr Trump said that month that he was trying to help free the rapper. Kim Kardashian was also said to have contacted Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in an attempt to solicit the White House’s help on the case.
In his opening statement on Thursday, Holmes testified that he recalled the A$AP Rocky case being brought up in a phone call between US Ambassador Gordon Sondland and Mr Trump.
“The conversation then shifted to Ambassador Sondland’s efforts, on behalf of the president, to assist a rapper who was jailed in Sweden, and I could only hear Ambassador Sondland’s side of that part of that conversation,” Holmes said.
He added: “Ambassador Sondland told the president that the rapper was “kind of f***** there” and “should have pled guilty.’”
According to Mr Holmes, Mr Sondland told Mr Trump he should “let [the rapper] get sentenced, play the racism card, give him a ticker-tape when he comes home”.
“Ambassador Sondland further told the president that Sweden ‘should have released him on your word’, but that ‘you can tell the Kardashians you tried,’” Holmes added.
The July 26 phone call is part of a larger line of inquiry into whether Mr Trump asked Ukraine to conduct an investigation into the Bidens while withholding crucial military aid that had been approved by Congress and the Pentagon.
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