“Let me state clearly, inviting a foreign government to undertake investigations for the purpose of influencing an upcoming election would be wrong,” said Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, in his sworn deposition before congressional investigators on October 17. “Withholding foreign aid in order to pressure a foreign government to take such steps would be wrong. I did not and would not ever participate in such undertakings.”
But on November 4, Sondland had a change of heart.
“I now recall speaking with [Andriy] Yermak,” he wrote in an appendix to his testimony, referring to one of the top advisers to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. “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.”
That “anti-corruption statement” pertained to President Donald Trump’s push to have Zelenskiy investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. The House is currently conducting an impeachment inquiry into Trump after revelations surfaced that he allegedly withheld congressionally-authorized military aid from Ukraine this summer in order to strongarm Zelenskiy into carrying out the request.
Trump has repeatedly denied that he ever held the aid package over Zelenskiy’s head in exchange for his assistance, although he seemed to allude to it multiple times on a July 2019 call with the Ukrainian president. “False stories are being reported that a few Republican Senators are saying that President Trump may have done a quid pro quo, but it doesn’t matter, there is nothing wrong with that, it is not an impeachable event,” Trump tweeted on Sunday. “Perhaps so, but read the transcript, there is no quid pro quo!”
With Sondland’s admission, that defense seems flimsier.
The transcript of his deposition was released on Tuesday, along with that of Kurt Volker, the former special envoy to Ukraine. Their testimonies entered the public record a day after House Democrats released the depositions of Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and Michael McKinley, a former top aide to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Both testified about the rank partisanship pervading the State Department, as Trump allies, spearheaded by his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, successfully worked to remove Yovanovitch from her post. According to Giuliani et. al, she stood in the way of the end-game: convincing Zelenskiy to investigate Joe Biden.
Founded in 1968, Reason is the magazine of free minds and free markets. We produce hard-hitting independent journalism on civil liberties, politics, technology, culture, policy, and commerce. Reason exists outside of the left/right echo chamber. Our goal is to deliver fresh, unbiased information and insights to our readers, viewers, and listeners every day. Visit https://reason.com