Washington - Gordon Sundland, Washington's ambassador to the European Union and an ally of President Donald Trump, has admitted to informing Ukrainian officials that his country's military aid depends on Kiev opening an investigation into Trump's Democratic opponent Joe Biden, according to a statement published on Tuesday.
Sundeland's lawyers gave House investigators a new sworn statement in which he made a major update to his previous testimony last month.
Sundeland said his memory recovered when he saw two statements by two key witnesses. He now remembers a conversation in Warsaw with a senior aide to the president that a resumption of military aid would probably not happen until Ukraine made a public statement on fighting corruption.
Sundland said he had told a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinsky that Kiev was unlikely to give US military aid until it made clear it would investigate Biden and his son's relations with Ukrainian energy company Borissma.
Mutual accusations
US House of Representatives committees conducting an investigation into Trump's impeachment prelude to his removal on Tuesday said they had asked White House chief of staff Mick Mulvani to testify on November 8.
"Based on the evidence gathered in the accountability and media coverage investigation, we believe you have important first-hand knowledge and information relevant to the investigation," the heads of the three committees, the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Intelligence Committee and the Oversight Committee, said in a letter to Mulvani.
Malvani is the most senior White House official to be called by the investigation to isolate Trump, although he is unlikely to testify, given the US presidency's refusal to cooperate with the investigation.
The House of Representatives voted last week by 232 votes to 196 to launch the dismissal process and formally open an investigation.
Democrats accuse Trump of using his influence for personal purposes in a call in which he asked his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate the front-runner to face him in the next presidential run-off, Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who was a board member of Ukrainian energy company Borissma.
The Republican president asserts that his contact was "legitimate" and accuses Democrats of orchestrating a "coup".