Ukraine aid tied to Biden probe
A top ally of President Donald Trump admitted he told a Ukraine official that US military aid was contingent on Kiev investigating Trump’s Democratic rival Joe Biden, testimony released Tuesday showed.
In some of the most damning evidence yet to the House impeachment inquiry of Trump, Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union, said he told a senior Ukraine official that military aid would likely not be released until Kiev made clear it would investigate Biden and his son’s ties to Ukraine energy firm Burisma.
Sondland, in amended testimony that reversed his earlier denial, admitted he laid out the allegedly illegal quid pro quo in a September 1 discussion with Andriy Yermak, a top advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Sondland said it was the culmination of months of pressure placed on Kiev, primarily via Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, to open “anti-corruption” investigations into the Bidens and into Trump’s unfounded belief that Ukraine assisted the Democrats in the 2016 election.
Sondland told Yermak “that resumption of US aid would not likely occur until Ukraine provided the anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for weeks,” he told investigators.
The White House has repeatedly denied there was any link between the aid and any demands by Trump, despite the evidence from the summary of a July 25 phone call -- just one week after aid was frozen -- in which Trump sought a “favor” from Zelensky and referred directly to Biden and the 2016 issue.
Comments