We were all in the loop
Bombshell testimony from Trump’s EU envoy at impeachment hearing
‘No reason to go to prison’
THE top US diplomat in Europe heaped pressure on Donald Trump last night with damning impeachment evidence.
Gordon Sondland, who is ambassador to the EU, said pressure put on Ukraine came at the US President’s ‘express direction’.
The bombshell testimony implicates Mr Trump, his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a dirty tricks campaign.
The impeachment inquiry was set up to examine allegations that the President pressured his opposite number in Ukraine into digging up dirt on Joe Biden, who is expected to challenge him for the White House next year.
Mr Trump is accused of withholding £310million in military aid – and a visit to the White House – unless Volodymyr Zelensky agreed to investigate Mr Biden and Mr Biden’s son, who was on the board of a Ukrainian energy firm.
Mr Sondland’s testimony was highly anticipated because he was seen as one of the ‘Three Amigos’ working to fulfil Mr Trump’s wishes.
Any thoughts he might align himself to the White House were dismissed when he told the House Intelligence Committee: ‘Everyone was in the loop. It was no secret.’
Armed with emails supporting his case, he said that Mr Pompeo was ‘fully supportive’ of efforts to make Ukraine carry out investigations that would help Mr Trump politically in the US.
The former hotelier said he and other presidential advisers put pressure on Ukraine to launch the investigations ‘because the President directed us to do so’.
Those directions, he said, came from Mr Giuliani after they were told by the President: ‘Talk to Rudy.’
‘We did not want to work with Mr Giuliani,’ Mr Sondland told the congressional hearing. ‘Simply put, we were playing the hand we were dealt. We followed the President’s orders. Mr Giuliani’s requests were a quid pro quo.
‘We weren’t happy with the directive to talk to Rudy. I believed then, as I do now, that the men and women of the State Department, not the President’s personal lawyer, should take responsibility for Ukraine matters.’
In a chink of light for Mr Trump, Mr Sondland said he was never given direct orders by the President.
In a tetchy telephone call with Mr Trump, he said he asked ‘What do you want from Ukraine?’ to which the President replied: ‘I want nothing. I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. Tell Zelensky to do the right thing.’
That statement was immediately seized upon by Mr Trump. Before taking a helicopter flight, he was pictured on the White House lawn brandishing a notepad carrying the words ‘I want nothing’.
He has previously called Mr Sondland ‘a great American’ but during his testimony the President changed his tune, saying: ‘I hardly know the gentleman.’
Democrats argued that the Sondland testimony has bolstered their case for impeachment.
Adam Schiff, Democrat chairman of the intelligence committee, called it ‘some of the most significant evidence to date’.
David Frum, a former speechwriter for George W Bush, tweeted: ‘Successful real estate entrepreneur sees no reason to go to prison for unsuccessful real estate entrepreneur.’