U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland testified Thursday he was unaware of Rudy Giuliani’s efforts to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden.
But Giuliani’s public advocacy of a Ukrainian investigation into the Bidens had been widely reported before May 23, the date of a White House meeting with Sondland, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker where President Trump directed the officials to work with Giuliani, his personal attorney.
In the opening statement for his closed-door congressional testimony, text of which was released ahead of his appearance Thursday, Sondland said he was “disappointed by the president’s direction that we involve Mr. Giuliani” at that meeting but went along with it to accomplish “strengthening U.S.-Ukrainian ties.”
“But I did not understand, until much later, that Mr. Giuliani’s agenda might have also included an effort to prompt the Ukrainians to investigate Vice President Biden or his son or to involve Ukrainians, directly or indirectly, in the president’s 2020 reelection campaign,” Sondland testified.
Giuliani publicly advocated for Ukraine to investigate allegations of corruption related to the Bidens for months, including in May, both on Twitter and in numerous television appearances and news articles, with a focus on Hunter Biden’s $50,000-per-month position on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company. Conservative outlets published stories on the Bidens and Burisma as early as April, and Giuliani’s proposed trip became national news in early May, with the New York Times reporting Giuliani was pushing the Ukrainian government to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and the Bidens and Burisma.
At the time, Giuliani said, “We’re not meddling in an election, we’re meddling in an investigation.” Dozens of articles and television segments made it clear Giuliani was part of an effort to push Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.
Explain to me why Biden shouldn’t be investigated if his son got millions from a Russian loving crooked Ukrainian oligarch while He was VP and point man for Ukraine. Ukrainians are investigating and your fellow Dems are interfering. Election is 17 months away.Let’s answer it now https://t.co/FT34kX7Pst
— Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) May 10, 2019
New Pres of Ukraine still silent on investigation of Ukrainian interference in 2016 election and alleged Biden bribery of Pres Poroshenko. Time for leadership and investigate both if you want to purge how Ukraine was abused by Hillary and Obama people.
— Rudy Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) June 21, 2019
Giuliani’s public calls for Ukraine to investigate the Bidens continued throughout the summer and the fall.
Sondland also testified that while Giuliani did mention Burisma, he only knew it was “one of many examples of Ukrainian companies run by oligarchs.”
“I did not know until more recent press reports that Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma,” Sondland said, adding he did not take part in any effort to encourage an investigation into the Bidens.
But Giuliani previously told the Washington Examiner “it was certainly understood” that Giuliani wanted Burisma to be investigated in connection with Hunter Biden’s position with Burisma and because of Joe Biden’s actions in Ukraine threatening to withhold $1 billion in loans while pushing for then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to fire Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin. Shokin was widely seen by the United States, Europe, and the International Monetary Fund — and inside Ukraine — as a hindrance to fighting corruption, and Ukraine’s Parliament removed him in 2016.
Text messages provided by Volker, who made similarly unlikely claims of ignorance about Giuliani’s actions, include an August discussion where Sondland makes it clear the U.S. was pushing Zelensky to make a statement promising to investigate issues related to 2016 and to claims of Biden corruption.
In his testimony, Sondland distanced himself from the controversial July phone call between Trump and Zelensky in which Trump asked for a “favor” from Ukraine, urged Zelensky to look into a CrowdStrike conspiracy theory and any Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 election, and suggested the Ukrainians investigate allegations of corruption related to the Bidens. Sondland said he didn’t see the transcript of the call until its public release in September.
