Iran Press/ America: The US ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland on Wednesday detailed the US President Donald Trump’s active participation in the Ukraine controversy. Sondland depicted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as engaged in the efforts to get Ukraine to carry out the investigations, including one targeting Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, and described Vice President Mike Pence as being aware of the efforts.
Testifying publicly to the House Intelligence Committee, Sondland went much further in describing the sweeping involvement of administration officials than he did in prior testimony behind closed doors, Reuters reported.
“Everyone was in the loop. It was no secret,” Sondland said in an email he sent to top administration officials ahead of the July 25 telephone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that triggered the impeachment inquiry.
Meanwhile, officials from the US Defense and State Departments are testifying in the impeachment probe.
Longtime Pentagon official Laura Cooper and David Hale, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, will testify. This hearing is expected to be a technical exploration of how the aid was held up and how US policy in Ukraine was hijacked by the President's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.
There was a quid pro quo in Ukraine scandal
According to CNN, the US Ambassador Gordon Sondland testified Wednesday there was a quid pro quo for Ukraine to announce investigations into President Donald Trump's political opponents that came from the President's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani at the "express direction of the President."
The ambassador said in a statement he read in the testimony: "I know that members of this Committee have frequently framed these complicated issues in the form of a simple question: Was there a 'quid pro quo?' As I testified previously, with regard to the requested White House call and White House meeting, the answer is yes."
Sondland added that he “followed the president’s orders” to work with Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who was pushing Ukraine to carry out two investigations that would benefit Trump politically as he runs for re-election in November 2020.
His testimony was among the most significant in the four days of public hearings in the Democratic-led House of Representatives impeachment inquiry that has captivated Washington and threatens the presidency of Trump, a Republican.
Pompeo, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and White House acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney were among the recipients of the email in which Sondland discussed Zelenskiy’s willingness to “run a fully transparent investigation.” In the July 25 phone call, Trump asked Zelenskiy to carry out two investigations. One involved Biden and his son Hunter, who had worked for Ukrainian energy company Burisma. The other involved a debunked conspiracy theory promoted by some Trump allies that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 US election.
Trump has been facing an accusation of abusing his power by using $391 million in U.S. security aid to Ukraine and an offer to Zelenskiy of a prestigious visit to the White House as leverage to pressure a vulnerable US ally to dig up dirt on domestic political rivals.
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