Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland affirmed that no one told him President Trump tied foreign aid to the investigations Trump allegedly wanted the Ukrainians to do.
GOP Rep. Mike Turner questioned Sondland‘s answers about the aid during his testimony in front of the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday. There have been reports that, in return for a meeting with him and aid, Trump demanded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, as well as potential interference into the 2016 presidential election.
“After you testified, Chairman Schiff ran out and gave a press conference and said he gets to impeach the president of the United States because of your testimony,” Turner said to Sondland. “And if you pull up CNN today, right now their banner says, ‘Sondland ties Trump to withholding aid.’ Is that your testimony today, Ambassador Sondland? That you have evidence that Donald Trump tied the investigations to the aid? Because I don’t think you’re saying that.”
Sondland said that he was “presuming” those things.
“No one told you?” Turner asked. “Not just the president, Giuliani didn’t tell you, Mulvaney didn’t tell you, nobody, Pompeo didn’t tell you? Nobody else on this planet told you that Donald Trump was tying aid to these investigations. Is that correct?”
He added, “No one on this planet told you that Donald Trump was tying this aid to the investigations? If your answer is yes, then the chairman is wrong, and the headline on CNN is wrong. No one on this planet told you that President Trump was tying aid to investigations. Yes or no?”
Sondland replied “yes” and then said that he has no testimony “other than my own presumptions.”
