Sondland said he contacted Giuliani anyway at Trump’s direction, and that Giuliani drew a direct link between scheduling a White House visit for Ukraine’s newly elected president and demands that Ukraine prioritize an investigation involving former Vice President Joe Biden as well as one connected to the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Story Continued Below
“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 will say. Biden’s son Hunter sat on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that had faced international scrutiny.
But Sondland added that he did not realize “until much later” that Giuliani was seeking a Ukrainian-led investigation into Biden and his son. He said any effort to solicit foreign assistance in an American election — an allegation central to the House’s impeachment inquiry — “would be wrong.”
He also said military assistance to Ukraine “should not have been delayed for any reason” — a rebuke of the president’s decision to put a hold on those funds in August — but added that Trump repeatedly told him there was “no quid pro quo” involving the aid or the investigation of Trump’s political rivals.
Sondland’s testimony has the potential to be the most devastating yet for Trump’s defenders, who say he did not apply inappropriate pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate a 2020 rival. It was Sondland’s text messages denying the existence of a quid pro quo, obtained by Congress earlier this month, that Trump pointed to as proof he did nothing untoward.
Sondland’s testimony also underscores the outsized influence Giuliani had on Trump, even though the former New York City mayor is not a government official.
“It was apparent to all of us that the key to changing the president’s mind on Ukraine was Mr. Giuliani,” Sondland said.
The House’s impeachment inquiry has centered on Trump’s July 25 phone call with Zelensky, during which Trump asked his counterpart for a “favor” involving an investigation of Biden. Democrats have pointed to the ask as evidence that Trump abused the power of his office.