With other diplomats, "I worked with Rudy Giuliani", the personal lawyer of Donald Trump, "on the Ukrainian file at the express request of the President of the United States," said Wednesday Gordon Sondland, the ambassador with the European Union. He claims to have followed Donald Trump's "orders" in the Ukrainian case at a public hearing in Congress. This hearing is part of the impeachment investigation that threatens Donald Trump.
"We did not want to" include it, but "we followed the orders of the president," added the ambassador, a wealthy businessman appointed to the post after giving a million dollars to the inauguration ceremony Donald Trump. Gordon Sondland pointed out that the White House and the State Department had been kept informed of the "efforts" made in this framework.
"Give and take"
"The idea that we were engaged in a shady or irregular diplomacy, is absolutely false," he insisted, in response to other witnesses who accused the parallel channel of acting "against" official networks of American diplomacy. According to him, Giuliani wanted the Ukrainian government to publicly announce the opening of investigations on the American Democrats and in particular on the Ukrainian gas group Burisma, which employed the son of Joe Biden, a potential presidential candidate of 2020.
He had proposed a "give and take", conditioning an invitation of President Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House at the opening of these investigations. On this subject, Rudy Giuliani "expressed the desires of the President of the United States". Democrats suspect the president has also frozen aid of nearly $ 400 million to Ukraine to put pressure on Kiev.
Donald Trump should escape dismissal
"In the absence of a credible explanation for its suspension, I have reached the conclusion that the resumption of security assistance would not occur until there is a public declaration from Ukraine committing to conduct the investigations, "he testified, noting that he was open to Ukrainian officials.
Sondland is before the Democrat House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, which is holding public hearings this week to quickly move to a vote on an indictment of the president. It will then come back to the Senate to judge him, and, given the Republican majority in this chamber, he should escape an impeachment.