Ambassador to say quid pro quo came from Giuliani at Trump's 'express direction' [View all]
Source: CNN
Ambassador to say quid pro quo came from Giuliani at Trump's 'express direction'
By Jeremy Herb and Manu Raju, CNN
Updated at 9:51 AM ET, Wed November 20, 2019
(CNN) -- US Ambassador Gordon Sondland testified Wednesday there was a quid pro quo for Ukraine to announce investigations into President Donald Trump's political opponents that came from Rudy Giuliani at the "express direction of the President."
What's more, Sondland provided House impeachment investigators with emails and texts showing it wasn't just him and Giuliani pushing for the investigations outside government channels -- Trump's inner circle knew what was going on, too. He even said he raised concerns with Vice President Mike Pence that the freezing of $400 million in security aid to Ukraine was linked to the investigations.
Sondland's testimony is the most damning evidence to date directly implicating Trump in the quid pro quo at the heart of the impeachment inquiry. His public remarks show a link between US security aid and a White House meeting and Ukraine publicly announcing investigations that would help the President politically. From the beginning of Wednesday's hearing, Sondland's comment drag some of Trump's senior most officials -- including Pence, his chief of staff and his secretary of state -- into the scheme.
In his remarkable opening statement before the fourth day of public impeachment hearings, Sondland told House impeachment investigators that Trump "wanted a public statement from President (Volodymyr) Zelensky committing to investigations of Burisma and the 2016 election."
Read more: https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/11/20/politics/public-impeachment-hearing-day-4/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2Fpolitics%2Flive-news%2Fimpeachment-hearing-11-20-19%2Findex.html
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