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Impeachment Hearing Updates: Gordon Sondland Heads to Capitol Hill Impeachment Hearing Live Updates: Gordon Sondland Ties Trump to Ukraine Pressure Campaign
(about 2 hours later)
Who: Gordon D. Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, will appear by himself in the morning session. Laura K. Cooper, a deputy assistant defense secretary, and David Hale, the under secretary of state for political affairs, will testify together in the afternoon session. Gordon D. Sondland, the Republican megadonor turned ambassador to the European Union, plans to tell the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday that he and other advisers to President Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate Democrats “because the president directed us to do so.”
What: The House Intelligence Committee, led by its chairman, Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California, will continue to examine the case for impeaching President Trump. The Republican minority, led by Representative Devin Nunes of California, will again work to poke holes in testimony implicating the president. In much-anticipated testimony opening the fourth day of public impeachment hearings, Mr. Sondland said that he, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Kurt D. Volker, the special envoy for Ukraine, were reluctant to work with Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney, on the pressure campaign and agreed only at Mr. Trump’s insistence.
When and Where: The morning proceedings start at 9 a.m. Eastern in the vaulted, columned chambers of the House Ways and Means Committee, and could last until the early afternoon. The second set of hearings is scheduled to start around 2:30 p.m., depending on when the morning session is finished. “Secretary Perry, Ambassador Volker and I worked with Mr. Rudy Giuliani on Ukraine matters at the express direction of the president of the United States,” Mr. Sondland said in his prepared opening statement delivered in writing to the committee as he made his appearance on Wednesday morning. “We did not want to work with Mr. Giuliani. Simply put, we played the hand we were dealt.”
How to Watch: The New York Times will stream the testimony live, and a team of reporters in Washington will provide real-time context and analysis of the events on Capitol Hill. Follow along at nytimes.com, starting a few minutes before 9. While Republican lawmakers have derided other officials who have testified in the impeachment hearings because they had only secondhand information and had not spoken with the president, Mr. Sondland had direct contact with Mr. Trump and cannot be easily dismissed as a hearsay witness. But in his written opening statement, Mr. Sondland gave away few details of any conversations with Mr. Trump.
Mr. Sondland, the diplomat at the center of the House impeachment inquiry who is to testify on Wednesday, kept Secretary of State Mike Pompeo apprised of his efforts to pressure Ukraine’s leaders to commit publicly to investigations Mr. Trump wanted, two people briefed on the matter said. Mr. Sondland rejected the notion that he was part of an illicit shadow foreign policy that worked around the normal national security process. “The suggestion that we were engaged in some irregular or rogue diplomacy is absolutely false,” he said, pointing to messages and phone calls in which he kept the White House and State Department informed of his actions. He added: “Any claim that I somehow muscled my way into the Ukraine relationship is simply false.”
Mr. Sondland informed Mr. Pompeo in mid-August about a draft statement that Mr. Sondland and another American diplomat had worked on with the Ukrainians that they hoped would persuade Mr. Trump to grant Ukraine’s new president the one-on-one meeting he was seeking, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the discussions were intended to be private. Mr. Sondland acknowledged that he told a senior Ukrainian official that to get Mr. Trump to release $391 million in American security aid suspended by the president, the Kyiv government would likely have to publicly commit to investigating a debunked conspiracy theory involving Democrats in the 2016 election as well as former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son’s ties to Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.
Later that month, Mr. Sondland discussed with Mr. Pompeo the possibility of arranging a face-to-face meeting in which President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine would promise Mr. Trump that he would pursue investigations Mr. Trump sought. But the ambassador did not attribute that linkage to any explicit direction by Mr. Trump, instead saying he came to that conclusion on his own based on the fact that the money had been held up for so long.
Mr. Pompeo approved of the plan, which was meant to break a logjam in relations between the two countries, the people said, but the meeting between the two leaders never happened. “In the absence of any credible explanation for the suspension of the aid,” Mr. Sondland said, “I later came to believe that the resumption of security aid would not occur until there was a public statement from Ukraine committing to the investigations of the 2016 election and Burisma, as Mr. Giuliani had demanded.”
The disclosures tie Mr. Pompeo more directly than was previously known to the Trump administration’s pressure campaign on Ukraine. Mr. Sondland said in his opening statement that he told Vice President Mike Pence in late August that he feared the military aid being withheld from Ukraine was tied to the investigations Mr. Trump sought into his political rivals and that he kept Secretary of State Mike Pompeo apprised of his efforts to pressure Ukraine.
The revelations suggested that Mr. Sondland is prepared on Wednesday to implicate the senior-most members of Mr. Trump’s administration in the matter. In addition to the suspension of the aid, Mr. Sondland in his written statement described what he called a clear “quid pro quo” tying a White House meeting for Ukraine’s president to his willingness to undertake the investigations that Mr. Trump wanted.
“Everyone was in the loop,” he said in the statement. “It was no secret.”
The striking account — a major departure from Mr. Sondland’s initial closed-door testimony in the impeachment inquiry last month also indicated that the ambassador who played a central role in the pressure campaign was eager to demonstrate that he did so only reluctantly with the knowledge and approval of the president and top members of his team.
“I mentioned to Vice President Pence before the meetings with the Ukrainians that I had concerns that the delay in aid had become tied to the issue of investigations,” Mr. Sondland said in his written testimony. He said the conversation occurred shortly before Mr. Sondland and Mr. Pence traveled to Warsaw for a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.
At that meeting, Mr. Zelensky brought up the issue of the withheld aid and Mr. Pence said he would discuss the matter with Mr. Trump. Afterward, Mr. Sondland said he informed Andriy Yermak, a top Ukrainian official, that the money would probably not flow without the public commitment to the investigations.
Mr. Sondland is expected to face tough questions on Wednesday about gaps and misleading statements in his initial closed-door interview with impeachment investigators on Oct. 17, an account that he has already been forced to revise once in response to other witness testimony.Mr. Sondland is expected to face tough questions on Wednesday about gaps and misleading statements in his initial closed-door interview with impeachment investigators on Oct. 17, an account that he has already been forced to revise once in response to other witness testimony.
After initially testifying that he “never” thought there was any precondition on $391 million in American security aid to Ukraine frozen by Mr. Trump, Mr. Sondland later submitted a three-page declaration saying “I do now recall” telling a senior Ukrainian official that “resumption of the U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anticorruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks.”After initially testifying that he “never” thought there was any precondition on $391 million in American security aid to Ukraine frozen by Mr. Trump, Mr. Sondland later submitted a three-page declaration saying “I do now recall” telling a senior Ukrainian official that “resumption of the U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anticorruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks.”
The “anticorruption statement” would commit Ukraine to investigating Mr. Biden and the 2016 conspiracy theory involving Democrats, a statement that Ukrainian officials had resisted making.The “anticorruption statement” would commit Ukraine to investigating Mr. Biden and the 2016 conspiracy theory involving Democrats, a statement that Ukrainian officials had resisted making.
In the statement, Mr. Sondland said that he did not know why Mr. Trump suspended the aid and that he “presumed” the connection after weeks went by without the money being released. Democrats will certainly press him about whether the president himself ever linked the aid to the investigations the way Mr. Sondland did in his Sept. 1 conversation with the Ukrainian official.In the statement, Mr. Sondland said that he did not know why Mr. Trump suspended the aid and that he “presumed” the connection after weeks went by without the money being released. Democrats will certainly press him about whether the president himself ever linked the aid to the investigations the way Mr. Sondland did in his Sept. 1 conversation with the Ukrainian official.
Mr. Sondland only offered this new account after William B. Taylor Jr., the top American diplomat in Ukraine, and Timothy Morrison, then the top Europe adviser at the National Security Council, told House investigators about it.Mr. Sondland only offered this new account after William B. Taylor Jr., the top American diplomat in Ukraine, and Timothy Morrison, then the top Europe adviser at the National Security Council, told House investigators about it.
Mr. Sondland in his prepared testimony confirmed a conversation with Mr. Trump that he did not volunteer during his original testimony, one that came at a key moment in the timeline and that House investigators also learned about from other witnesses, although he said he did not recall the details.
David Holmes, the political counselor at the American Embassy in Ukraine, told investigators last Friday that he was at lunch with Mr. Sondland and a couple of other officials on the outdoor patio of a Kyiv restaurant on July 26, the day after Mr. Trump’s phone call asking for “a favor” from Mr. Zelensky in the form of investigations of Democrats.
“So, he’s going to do the investigation?” Mr. Trump asked, according to Mr. Holmes, who could overhear the conversation because the president was speaking so loudly that Mr. Sondland held the cellphone away from his ear.
Mr. Sondland told him yes. Mr. Zelensky “loves your ass” and would do “anything you ask him to,” Mr. Sondland said, according to Mr. Holmes’s statement.
After the phone call, Mr. Holmes said he asked Mr. Sondland about the president’s feelings toward Ukraine. The ambassador said that Mr. Trump did not care about Ukraine but was interested only in “big stuff that benefits the president” like the “Biden investigation.”
In his testimony, Mr. Sondland did not challenge the account, while insisting that they did not discuss classified information.
“It is true that the president speaks loudly at times,” he said. “It is true that the president likes to use colorful language,” he added. The call did not strike him as significant at the time. “Actually, I would have been more surprised if President Trump had not mentioned investigations,” he said.
Mr. Trump and his advisers repeatedly pressured Mr. Zelensky and his aides to investigate people and issues of political concern to Mr. Trump, including the former vice president. Here’s a timeline of events since January.Mr. Trump and his advisers repeatedly pressured Mr. Zelensky and his aides to investigate people and issues of political concern to Mr. Trump, including the former vice president. Here’s a timeline of events since January.
A C.I.A. officer who was once detailed to the White House filed a whistle-blower complaint on Mr. Trump’s interactions with Mr. Zelensky. Read the complaint.A C.I.A. officer who was once detailed to the White House filed a whistle-blower complaint on Mr. Trump’s interactions with Mr. Zelensky. Read the complaint.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced in September that the House would open a formal impeachment proceeding in response to the whistle-blower’s complaint. Here’s how the impeachment process works, and here’s why political influence in foreign policy matters.Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced in September that the House would open a formal impeachment proceeding in response to the whistle-blower’s complaint. Here’s how the impeachment process works, and here’s why political influence in foreign policy matters.
House committees have issued subpoenas to the White House, the Defense Department, the budget office and other agencies for documents related to the impeachment investigation. Here’s the evidence that has been collected so far.House committees have issued subpoenas to the White House, the Defense Department, the budget office and other agencies for documents related to the impeachment investigation. Here’s the evidence that has been collected so far.
Read about the Democrats’ rules to govern impeachment proceedings.Read about the Democrats’ rules to govern impeachment proceedings.