Gordon Sondland, a key witness in the impeachment probe into President Trump, changed his testimony this week to say there was a quid pro quo - that Trump did withhold aid to Ukraine in exchange for an investigation into his political rival
WASHINGTON - U.S. diplomat Gordon Sondland told a Ukrainian official his country would likely not get nearly $400 million in security aid unless they pursued investigations demanded by President Donald Trump, revising earlier testimony to the Trump impeachment inquiry.
The impeachment inquiry is focused on a July 25 phone call in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to open an investigation into former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. “No amount of salacious media-biased headlines, which are clearly designed to influence the narrative, change the fact that the president has done nothing wrong,” Grisham said in a statement.U.S. ambassador to EU saw quid-pro-quo in call for Ukraine corruption probe: excerptsSondland sent a text message in September in which he said Trump insisted there was “no quid pro quos.”
Much of the early parts of the investigation by the committees, which include Democratic and Republican lawmakers, were conducted behind closed doors, but now the inquiry is moving into a public phase. Democrats accuse Trump of misusing taxpayer dollars destined for a vulnerable U.S. ally for personal political gain. The security aid was approved by Congress to help Ukraine curb Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Volker and Sondland, with Trump’s secretary of energy, Rick Perry, were known as the “three amigos,” responsible for Trump’s unofficial channel to Ukrainian government officials, witnesses testified.“I didn’t think I would be able to go to Ukraine or meet with Russians and be able to carry out those duties in that way anymore,” he said. He also said he wanted to provide testimony “with as much candor and integrity as I possibly could.
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