The Democrat-led House Intelligence Committee released the transcript of U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland’s closed-door Oct. 17 testimony amid complaints from President Trump and Republicans about the secretive nature of the impeachment investigation.
In his testimony, Sondland distanced himself from the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. During the call Trump asked for a “favor” from Ukraine, urging Zelensky to look into a CrowdStrike conspiracy theory and any Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 election. Trump also suggested the Ukrainians investigate allegations of corruption related to work at the Ukrainian energy company Burisma by Hunter Biden, son of then-Vice President Joe Biden, who oversaw U.S. relations with the country. Sondland said he didn’t see the transcript of the call until its public release in September.
Sondland, a Portland, Oregon-based hotel magnate and major contributor to Republicans and the Trump 2017 inaugural, testified that he was unaware of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s efforts to pressure to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden, although 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. In that meeting, Trump directed the officials to work with Giuliani on Ukraine. Some witnesses have described Sondland, Volker, and Perry as the “three amigos” who helped manage Trump’s Ukraine policy, outside of normal State Department diplomatic channels.
Sondland updated his testimony Nov. 4 with a three-page addendum after reading the opening statements of U.S. Chargé d’Affaires to Ukraine William Taylor on Oct. 22 and Trump national security official Tim Morrison on Oct. 31.
“These two opening statements have refreshed my recollection about certain conversations in early September 2019,” he said.
Sondland admitted that, by early September, he “presumed that the aid suspension had become linked to the proposed anti-corruption statement.”
Sondland told top Zelensky aide Andriy Yermak there was likely a quid pro quo associated with the military aid from the U.S. during a meeting in Warsaw the same day Zelensky and Pence met.
“I now recall speaking individually with Mr. Yermak, where I said that resumption of U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks,” Sondland wrote.
Following a discussion likely either with Giuliani or Volker, Sondland told Taylor “I had come to understand that the public statement would have to come from President Zelensky himself.”
Sondland said he was “disappointed by the president’s direction that we involve Mr. Giuliani” at their May 23 meeting but went along with it to accomplish “strengthening U.S.-Ukrainian ties.”
“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,” he said.
“You know, this whole thing was sort of a continuum, starting at the May 23rd meeting, ending up at the end of the line when the transcript of the call came out,” Sondland testified. “And as I said to counsel, it started as talk to Rudy, then others talk to Rudy. Corruption was mentioned. Then, as time went on — and, again, I can’t nail down the dates — then let’s get the Ukrainians to give a statement about corruption. And then, no, corruption isn’t enough, we need to talk about the 2016 election and the Burisma investigations. And it was always described to me as ongoing investigations that had been stopped by the previous administration and they wanted them started up again. That’s how it was always described. And then finally at some point I made the Biden-Burisma connection, and then the transcript was released. So I can’t tell you on that continuum when, what dates, but that’s kind of what happened.”
Sondland added that “it kept getting more insidious as [the] timeline went on.”
Giuliani wanted Burisma to be investigated in connection with Hunter Biden’s $50,000 per month position 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. The Biden camp and many others have countered that Shokin was widely seen by the United States and Europe — and inside Ukraine — as ineffective, corrupt, and a hindrance to Ukraine’s progress. Ukraine’s Parliament removed Shokin in 2016.
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.
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.
