Sondland: Trump pushed for Ukraine probe of Biden's firm
A US diplomat has told Congress that President Donald Trump directed administration officials to work with his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, on Ukraine matters, including seeking a probe of a Ukrainian company with ties to Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
On Thursday, Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union, told congressional committees investigating Trump for impeachment that Trump ordered diplomats in May to involve Giuliani in discussions about Ukraine policy.
"Mr. Giuliani emphasized that the president wanted a public statement from President (Volodymyr) Zelensky committing Ukraine to look into anticorruption issues," Sondland said ia prepared testimony to the Democratic-led inquiry.
"Mr. Giuliani specifically mentioned the 2016 election (including the DNC server) and Burisma as two anti-corruption investigatory topics of importance for the President," he said.
Biden's son Hunter once was a member of the board of Burisma.
Sondland argued that foreign policy should be the work of the State Department, and not the president's personal lawyer.
Sondland added that "inviting a foreign government to undertake investigations for the purpose of influencing an upcoming US election would be wrong."
House Democrats, spearheaded by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, launched last month the impeachment inquiry of Trump after a whistleblower’s disclosure of the president’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in which Trump allegedly sought Ukraine’s help to smear Biden.
Trump reportedly urged Zelensky about eight times during the phone call to work with his lawyer Giuliani to investigate government corruption involving Biden and his son, Hunter.
The US president dismissed the Ukraine allegations as another witch-hunt attempting to smear his already tarnished reputation and damage his popularity as the Americans get closer to the 2020 presidential election.
But Biden says Trump has “betrayed” the nation and “should be impeached.”
"Donald Trump has violated his oath of office, betrayed this nation and committed impeachable acts," Biden told a crowd of supporters in Rochester, New Hampshire, last week. "He should be impeached."
Read full text of Sondland's opening statement here.
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