President of Ukraine ‘agreed to Trump request’, inquiry is told

AN AMBASSADOR told Donald Trump that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy would do “anything you ask him to”, impeachment investigators have been told.

The claim was made by David Holmes, a political counsellor at the US Embassy in Kiev, as the inquiry looks into whether the US president wrongly held up military aid to Ukraine until it committed to investigating his Democratic political rival Joe Biden.

Mr Holmes says he was at a lunch with Ambassador Gordon

Sondland and others when Mr Sondland spoke to the president on his mobile phone.

Mr Holmes said he overheard Mr Sondland talking with Mr Trump about President Zelenskiy because Mr Trump’s voice was loud.

He said he heard Mr Trump ask: “So he’s going to do the investigation?”

According to Mr Holmes, Mr Sondland replied that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy “will, quote, ‘do anything you ask him to’”.

Mr Holmes has told investigators the call he overheard “was so remarkable that I remember it vividly”.

Mr Trump tweeted during Mr Holmes’s testimony that he has never been able to overhear anyone talking through a phone. He said: “I’ve even tried, but to no avail. Try it live!”

Mr Holmes also expressed concern about the role of Rudy Giuliani in Ukraine policy.

He says he recognised last spring that the Kiev embassy’s priorities had become overshadowed by a political agenda driven by Mr Giuliani – who is Mr Trump’s personal lawyer, “and a cadre of officials operating with a direct channel to the White House”.

The campaign by Mr Giuliani involved public statements attacking the ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, as well as a push for Ukraine to investigate interference in the 2016 presidential election and the Bidens.

Mr Sondland, a wealthy hotelier and donor to Mr Trump’s inauguration, appeared before politicians on Wednesday in a marathon session. He declared

(The call) was so remarkable that I remember it vividly.

Embassy staffer David Holmes overheard a call between President Trump and an ambassador.

Mr Trump and Mr Giuliani explicitly sought a “quid pro quo” with Ukraine, leveraging an Oval Office visit for political investigations of Democrats. But he also came to believe the trade involved much more.

Mr Sondland testified it was his understanding the president was holding up nearly $400m in military aid, which Ukraine badly needs with an aggressive Russia on its border, in exchange for the country’s announcement of the investigations.

Mr Sondland conceded Mr Trump never told him directly the security assistance was blocked for the probes, a gap in his account that Republicans and the White House seized on as evidence the president did nothing wrong.

Also giving evidence to the impeachment inquiry yesterday was Fiona Hill, a former White House analyst on Russia. She has denounced as “fictional” the contention from some Republicans that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 US election.

In prepared opening remarks, she also urged politicians not to “promote politically-driven falsehoods that so clearly advance Russian interests”.

She added: “I have no interest in advancing the outcome of your inquiry in any particular direction, except toward the truth.”