House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) has released two more transcripts from U.S. diplomats as the impeachment inquiry reaches its public phase.
In releasing the transcripts, Schiff said Ambassadors Gordon Sondland and Kurt Volker "show the progression of Trump's efforts to press Ukraine into the service of his own personal political goals, in what Sondland described as a continuum of insidiousness."
Transcripts from Ambassadors Sondland and Volker show the progression of Trump's efforts to press Ukraine into the service of his own personal political goals, in what Sondland described as a continuum of insidiousness.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) November 5, 2019
Read the transcripts:https://t.co/HqqUNl25H2
Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, filed an addendum on Monday to his testimony on the issue if Ukrainian military aid was tied to a public declaration of an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
"I have reviewed the October 22, 2019, opening statement of Ambassador William Taylor. I have also reviewed the October 31, 2019, opening statement of Tim Morrison. These two opening statements have refreshed my recollection about certain conversations in early September 2019," Sondland wrote.
"I always believed that suspending aid to Ukraine was ill-advised, although I did not know (and still do not know) when, why, or by whom the aid was suspended. However, by the beginning of September 2019, and in the absence of any credible explanation for the suspension of aid, I presumed that the aid suspension had become linked to the proposed anti-corruption statement," he continued.
Sondland said he now remembers a conversation he had where he told a top Ukrainian official "that the resumption of U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that had been discussing for weeks."
In Volker's testimony, he said there was no “linkage” between a White House meeting and Ukrainian investigations. He also told lawmakers he did not view the delay in aid to be significant or unprecedented because it was eventually given.