Democratic debates: Democrats prepare for fifth debate after key impeachment witness says Trump directed Ukraine 'quid pro quo' in bombshell testimony
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Your support makes all the difference.Gordon Sondland has implicated a number of White House officials who were “in the loop” with Donald Trump's direction to withhold aid to Ukraine in an exchange for a meeting and a public statement announcing an investigation into the president’s political opponents.
The testimony came as Democrats were preparing to hold their fifth debate of 2020 in Atlanta, where they will undoubtedly be asked about the freshly sprung impeachment inquiry that has dominated headlines.
Mr Sondland, a US ambassador to the EU, affirmed that there was a so-called quid pro quo, dropping a bombshell testimony into another pivotal hearing in the House impeachment inquiry into the president’s alleged abuses of power in his dealings with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
According to his testimony, Mr Sondland worked under the president’s order to work with Rudy Giuliani “not because we liked it but because it was the only constructive path” to building a relationship with a vulnerable Ukraine. In emails and other conversations with US officials — including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Energy Secretary Rick Perry — Mr Sondland established a clear link from the president, through Giuliani, and efforts to engage Ukraine with investigations into the 2016 election and Burisma.
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Mr Trump told reporters outside the White House that he barely knows Mr Sondland, who he previously called a "great American", and that he seems like a “nice guy".
The president read from a stack of papers in his hand, which included, in capital letters, his recollection of a conversation with Mr Sondland in which Trump said "I WANT NOTHING. I WANT NOTHING. I WANT NO QUID PRO QUO."
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said that "the US aid to Ukraine flowed, no investigation was launched, and President Trump has met and spoken with President Zelensky. Democrats keep chasing ghosts."
Mr Pence and Mr Perry also released statements during the hearing denying Mr Giuliani’s influence in their dealings with Ukraine. They’ve refused to testify in the impeachment probe.
Mr Trump also lashed out at his Democratic opponents conducting the House impeachment inquiry, mocked key witnesses giving testimony for their sartorial choices and denied that the onset of a heart attack was what prompted his sudden trip to hospital on Saturday.
"These people are sick. They’re sick. And the press really in this country is dangerous. We don’t have freedom of the press in this country. We have the opposite. We have a very corrupt media," the president ranted from the Cabinet Room of the White House on Tuesday.
The inquiry heard from four witnesses on Tuesday who detailed the administration’s coercion of Ukraine.
Before a meeting in Warsaw, Sondland told officials that he had concerns that a delay in aid would become tied to investigations.
Zelensky asked Pence about it, he says, and Pence said he would speak to Trump about it.
Sondland says he regrets Ukrainians were put in that predicament but does not regret he did what he could to break up the "logjam" in aid dispersement.
Sondland says Pompeo later told him in an email, "You’re doing great work. Keep banging away."
State department officials expressed support in Sondland's efforts to strengthen efforts in Ukraine, Sondland says. His efforts were in "good faith" and "not once do I recall encountering an objection."
That's the end of his opening statement. We're moving on to questions.
From inside, The Independent's Andrew Feinberg captured Republicans watching Sondland wrap up his statement.
Schiff asks whether Sondland can corroborate David Holmes' testimony from late last week, which revealed that Sondland spoke with Trump from a restaurant in Kiev. Holmes said Trump only cares about "big stuff" and that Zelensky would do "anything" when asked by Trump if Zelensky would pursue an investigation.
Sondland: "The only part of Mr Holmes’ recounting that I take exception with is I do not recall mentioning the Bidens. It was Burisma, 2016 election. ... I don’t recall saving Biden. I never recall saying Biden."
From The Independent's Andrew Feinberg, who's watching the hearing on the ground.
Joel Rubin, who served as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for two years during the Obama administration, says of Sondland: “He’s a hand grenade.”
“Pompeo has some explaining to do, but clearly Trump understands how to manage multiple channels.What stands out is how Volker, Morrison and now Sondland don’t think they were doing anything wrong.”
Wrapping up his questions, Schiff asked Sondland if Zelensky's announcement of investigations "were valued by the president" and if Giuliani had "insisted on them."
Sondland: "Through Giuliani, that’s what we were led to believe he wanted."
Schiff reminded Sondland that his own testimony said Giuliani “was expressing the desires of the president of the United States."
Perhaps the first mention of A$AP Rocky in the public impeachment hearings, so far?
(Trump had been speaking with Sondland in the restaurant phone call about Rocky's arrest in Stockholm.)
Does Sondland remember saying to Trump that Zelensky "loves your ass"?
Sondland, laughing: "That sounds like something I would say."
He says they often speak in "four-letter words" or in this case "three-letter words."
Putting that in Trump-speak meant Zelensky would "work with us" on a number of issues, he says.
Former Watergate deputy special prosecutor Nick Akerman to The Independent's Andrew Feinberg: “I don’t think [Sondland] has come completely clean."
"He admits to having the conversation with Trump in front of Holmes but does not recall Trump expressly referencing the Bidens. That seems odd. For example, in Watergate John Dean testified before the Senate Select Committee that the reason he could recall the details of his meetings with Nixon was because you don’t forget a conversation with the President of the U.S. This was the type of call about which most people would not forget the details. You certainly would not forget the reference to the Bidens."
"This is a major event like the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Kennedy assassination, or the 9-11 attacks, where most people can detail what they were doing at the time of hearing about these events. It was not like a mundane matter such as what color of socks Sondland was wearing the day he had lunch with Holmes.”
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