An embassy officer who overheard President Trump and Ambassador Gordon Sondland discussing a push for Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden claimed the ambassador to the EU told the president that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “loves your ass” and “will do anything you ask of him.”
“President Trump clarified that Ambassador Sondland was in Ukraine. Ambassador Sondland replied, yes, he was in Ukraine and went on to state that President Zelensky ‘loves your ass,'” David Holmes, the counselor for political affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, said of the phone call in his opening statement to House lawmakers, according to CNN.
He went on to claim that he heard “President Trump ask, ‘So, he’s going to do the investigation?’ Ambassador Sondland replied, ‘He’s going to do it,’ adding that ‘President Zelensky will do anything you ask of him.'”
Holmes also stated he overheard the call while sitting at a restaurant in Kyiv with Sondland and two other staffers. He said Sondland called Trump on his cellphone and appeared to connect with him through the White House switchboards. Although the call wasn’t on speakerphone, Holmes said he could overhear what Trump was saying because Trump was apparently speaking so loudly that Sondland had moved the phone away from his ear. There are concerns that foreign actors, such as the Russians, may have been able to eavesdrop on a call such as that.
Sondland’s discussion with Trump took place just after a closed-door meeting earlier that day with Zelensky’s top aide, Andriy Yermak, who had been in contact with Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others about the Trump administration’s desire for investigations.
The opening statement comes two days after William Taylor, the top American diplomat in Ukraine, testified Wednesday during a public impeachment hearing that a member of his staff overheard the conversation between Sondland and Trump.
“The member of my staff could hear President Trump on the phone, asking Ambassador Sondland about ‘the investigations,” Taylor said. “Following the call with President Trump, the member of my staff asked Ambassador Sondland what President Trump thought about Ukraine. Ambassador Sondland responded that President Trump cares more about the investigations of Biden, which Giuliani was pressing for.”
That exchange took place on July 26, one day after Trump urged Zelensky to investigate 2020 Democrat and former Vice President Joe Biden during a phone call.
In the call, immediately after Zelensky expressed interest in purchasing anti-tank weaponry, known as Javelins, from the United States, Trump asked Zelesnky “to do us a favor though” and to look into CrowdStrike and any possible Ukrainian election interference in 2016. The president also urged Zelensky to investigate “the other thing,” referring to allegations of corruption related to Joe and Hunter Biden stemming from the younger Biden’s lucrative position on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company. Trump told Zelensky to speak with Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr.
“Yes it is very important for me and everything that you just mentioned earlier,” Zelensky said in response to Trump’s CrowdStrike request.
And in response to Trump’s request that he investigate the Bidens, Zelensky told him that his next prosecutor general would “look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue,” in reference to Burisma.
“I also plan to surround myself with great people and, in addition to that investigation, I guarantee as the President of Ukraine that all the investigations will be done openly and candidly,” Zelensky said. “That I can assure you.”
House Democrats launched impeachment proceedings into Trump last month after a whistleblower filed a complaint about the July call between world leaders, and lawmakers are investigating whether military aid to Ukraine was conditioned on the investigations. The White House has maintained that Trump was attempting to help root out corruption in the country.
