Trump impeachment: Witness denounces ‘fictional’ Ukraine election interference
WASHINGTON: Key impeachment witnesses said on Thursday it was clear that US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani was pursuing political investigations of Democrats in Ukraine. Their testimony undercuts the President’s argument he only wanted to root out Ukrainian corruption.
State Department official David Holmes said he understood that Giuliani’s push to investigate “Burisma,” the Ukraine gas company where Joe Biden’s son Hunter served on the board, was code for the former Vice President and his family. Former White House adviser Fiona Hill warned that Giuliani had been making “explosive” and “incendiary” claims. “He was clearly pushing forward issues and ideas that would, you know, probably come back to haunt us and in fact,” Hill testified. “I think that’s where we are today.”
Testimony from Hill and Holmes capped an intense week in the historic inquiry.
The House probe focuses on allegations that Trump sought investigations of Joe Biden and his son — and the discredited idea that Ukraine rather than Russia interfered in the 2016 US election — in return for US military aid that Ukraine needed to fend off Russian aggression, and for a White House visit the new Ukrainian President wanted that would demonstrate his backing from the West.
Hill, a former White House Russia analyst, sternly warned Republican lawmakers — and implicitly Trump
— to quit pushing the “fictional” Ukraine-interference narrative as they defend Trump in the impeachment inquiry.
Holmes, a late addition to the schedule, testified that he came forward after overhearing Trump ask about “investigations” during a “colourful” phone call with Ambassador Gordon Sondland at a Kyiv restaurant this summer.
I’m exonerated: Trump
Trump sought to distance himself from US envoy Gordon Sondland as he made an explosive appearance before an impeachment hearing, while also asserting that his testimony had exonerated him entirely.
In testimony that also put Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the centre of the Ukraine controversy, Sondland said Pompeo was “fully supportive” of the efforts to push
Ukraine into carrying out investigations that would benefit Trump politically at home. Sondland said he came to believe military aid that Ukraine relied on to counter Russia was also being held up until the investigations were launched.
Financial statement next year Trump, facing lawsuits and political demands to release his US tax returns and other financial information, said he will release a statement on his finances before the presidential election, and said that it was his call on providing the information.
“I’m clean, and when I release my financial statement (my decision) sometime prior to election, it will only show one thing - that I am much richer than people even thought - And that is a good thing,” Trump said, providing no details on his claims of wealth.