Trump news – live: Key witness says president directed Ukraine 'quid pro quo' in bombshell testimony, leaving Republicans reeling
Gordon Sondland has implicated a number of White House officials who were "in the loop" with Donald Trump's direction to withhold aid to Ukraine in an exchange for a meeting and a public statement announcing an investigation into the president's political opponents.
Mr Sondland, a US ambassador to the EU, affirmed that there was a so-called quid pro quo, dropping a bombshell testimony into another pivotal hearing in the House impeachment inquiry into the president's alleged abuses of power in his dealings with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
According to his testimony, Mr Sondland worked under the president's order to work with Mr Giuliani "not because we liked it but because it was the only constructive path" to building a relationship with a vulnerable Ukraine. In emails and other conversations with US officials — including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Energy Secretary Rick Perry — Mr Sondland established a clear link from the president, throuh Giulani, and efforts to engage Ukraine with investigations into the 2016 election and Burisma.
Mr Trump told reporters outside the White House that he barely knows Mr Sondland, who he previously called a "great American", and that he seems like a "nice guy." The president read from a stack of papers in his hand, which included, in capital letters, his recollection of a conversation with Mr Sondland in which Trump said "I WANT NOTHING. I WANT NOTHING. I WANT NO QUID PRO QUO."
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said that "the US aid to Ukraine flowed, no investigation was launched, and President Trump has met and spoken with President Zelensky. Democrats keep chasing ghosts."
Mr Pence and Mr Perry also released statements during the hearing denying Mr Giuliani's influence in their dealings with Ukraine. They've refused to testify in the impeachment probe.
Mr Trump also lashed out at his Democratic opponents conducting the House impeachment inquiry, mocked key witnesses giving testimony for their sartorial choices and denied that the onset of a heart attack was what prompted his sudden trip to hospital on Saturday.
“These people are sick. They’re sick. And the press really in this country is dangerous. We don’t have freedom of the press in this country. We have the opposite. We have a very corrupt media,” the president ranted from the Cabinet Room of the White House.
The inquiry heard from four witnesses on Tuesday who detailed their administration’s coercion of Ukraine.
Elise Stefanik echoing other Republicans in today's hearing, accusing the Obama administration of impropriety by allowing Hunter Biden to work with Burisma under its watch.
The Independent's Andrew Feinberg, from inside the hearing: "Sondland is getting the Yovanovitch treatment — standing ovation from the audience as Schiff gavels the hearing closed."
Schiff adjourns following his most dramatic closing statement yet after an explosive hearing and makes the case that all evidence points to the president entrusting his attorney Giuliani to direct pressure on Ukraine.
Jim Jordan, speaking to reporters, says Ukraine never complained that aid was frozen from them and that they felt no pressure to pursue investigations.
Schiff: This is not an easy decision for any of us. This is not something we relish. Impeachment was made not necessary because of a whistleblower but because of the actions of the president. ... Getting caught is no defense.
Schiff: "There's no mistaking what Donald Trump's interests were. ... The question is what are we prepared to do about it? Is there any accountability? ... Are we prepared to say, in the words of Mick Mulvaney, 'get over it' or 'get used to it'? We're not prepared to say it."
Schiff now saying that those decisions ultimately rest with the president.
He says he doesn't believe Giuliani or others would lead him "by the nose." Trump decided, not anyone who worked for him, Schiff says.
Schiff: Trump is the one who refused a meeting with Zelensky, despite encouragement from people close to Ukraine, and Trump ultimately decided to withhold aid.
Schiff says Sondland's testimony is "deeply significant" and "troubling."
He's summarasing Sondland's testimony in Sondland's words, pulling key statements from his testimony that tie Giuliani to Trump and the withholding of aid for Ukraine to Giuliani's pressure for an investigation into the 2016 election and Burisma.
Maloney knocks Sondland in his third attempt to be "forthright" with Congress after amending his previous testimony while still not recalling previous key conversations.
In a follow-up round with Congresswoman Val Demings, he doesn't recall the specifics of a conversation in which Sondland talked to Trump about pursuing investigations in exchange for aid, according to a testimony from David Holmes, who witnessed the conversation.
Democratic Congressman Denny Heck calls Sondland an "American success story" and that, on some level, he's "grateful" and has instilled inside him a "sense of patriotism."
Why then, Heck asks, are Mulvaney, Pompeo and other officials including the president, not held to the same standard to "do what you have done" and appear before Congress?
Democrat Congressman Mike Quigley compares the GOP's pursuit of the whistleblower to wanting to indict the person who pulls the fire alarm during an arson.
A statement from the DOE says Sondland's testimony "misrepresented" Secretary Rick Perry's "interaction with Rudy Giuliani and direction the Secretary received from President Trump."
"As previously stated, Secretary Perry spoke with Rudy Giuliani only once at the president's request. No one else was on that call. At no point before, during or after that phone call did the words 'Biden' or 'Burisma' ever came up in the presence of Secretary Perry."
Jackie Speier, after being told that Schiff got "three Pinocchios" from the Washington Post fact-check column: "The president has five Pinocchios on a daily basis, so let's not go there."
"My colleagues seem to be under the impression that unless the president spoke the words, 'Ambassador Sondland, I am bribing the Ukrainian president,' that there is no evidence of bribery."
