EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland said he opposed Trump’s request to run Ukraine policy through his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. He testified that he contacted Giuliani at Trump’s direction after a May 23 meeting.
“Mr. Giuliani emphasized that the president wanted a public statement from President [Volodymyr] Zelensky committing Ukraine to look into anti-corruption issues,” Sondland said.
“Mr. Giuliani specifically mentioned the 2016 election (including the DNC server) and Burisma as two anti-corruption investigatory topics of importance for the president,” he added.
He told the committee that he didn’t realize until later that Trump and Giuliani were looking for Ukrainian cooperation in an investigation into Hunter Biden, although Trump and Giuliani had been calling for investigations publicly for weeks. He admitted any effort to seek foreign assistance in the American elections would be wrong. He also said it was wrong to withhold military assistance, and said Trump repeatedly told him there was no quid pro quo involving military aid and the Biden investigation in Ukraine.
Sondland’s attorneys say they have all the documentation to back up the story, but that the White House is blocking him from sharing it, citing executive privilege and other confidentiality requirements.