+ A
A -
AFP
Washington
A US diplomat told Congress on Thursday that President Donald Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani injected US domestic electoral issues into talks with Ukraine, adding explosive fuel to Democrats’ impeachment probe of Trump.
Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union, testified that Trump ordered diplomats in May to involve his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani in talks between Washington and the new administration of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Giuliani, he said, sought to pressure Zelensky to investigate Trump’s Democratic rival Joe Biden, and Biden’ son, over ties to a Ukraine energy company, Burisma, as well as to find evidence for a popular but widely discredited conspiracy theory that Ukraine helped Democrats in the 2016 election.
“Mr Giuliani emphasised that the president wanted a public statement from President Zelensky committing Ukraine to look into anticorruption issues,” Sondland said in a prepared statement.
“Mr Giuliani specifically mentioned the 2016 election (including the DNC server) and Burisma as two anti-corruption investigatory topics of importance for the president,” Sondland said.
“I did not understand, until much later, that Mr Giuliani’s agenda might have also included an effort to prompt the Ukrainians to investigate Vice President Biden or his son or to involve Ukrainians, directly or indirectly, in the president’s 2020 campaign,” he said.
Washington
A US diplomat told Congress on Thursday that President Donald Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani injected US domestic electoral issues into talks with Ukraine, adding explosive fuel to Democrats’ impeachment probe of Trump.
Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union, testified that Trump ordered diplomats in May to involve his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani in talks between Washington and the new administration of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Giuliani, he said, sought to pressure Zelensky to investigate Trump’s Democratic rival Joe Biden, and Biden’ son, over ties to a Ukraine energy company, Burisma, as well as to find evidence for a popular but widely discredited conspiracy theory that Ukraine helped Democrats in the 2016 election.
“Mr Giuliani emphasised that the president wanted a public statement from President Zelensky committing Ukraine to look into anticorruption issues,” Sondland said in a prepared statement.
“Mr Giuliani specifically mentioned the 2016 election (including the DNC server) and Burisma as two anti-corruption investigatory topics of importance for the president,” Sondland said.
“I did not understand, until much later, that Mr Giuliani’s agenda might have also included an effort to prompt the Ukrainians to investigate Vice President Biden or his son or to involve Ukrainians, directly or indirectly, in the president’s 2020 campaign,” he said.
