U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland testified during Wednesday’s hearing before the House Intelligence Committee that at the time, “no one shared any concerns” with him regarding President Trump’s July 25 call with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Sondland said during his opening statement on Wednesday that “no one ever shared any concerns” regarding the July 25 phone call at the center of the partisan impeachment inquiry.
“On July 25, 2019, Presidents Trump and Zelensky had their official call. I was not on the call. In fact, I first read the transcript on September 25, the same day it was publicly released,” Sondland said during his opening statement.
“All I had heard at the time was that the call had gone well,” he continued. “Looking back, I find it very odd that neither I nor Ambassador Taylor nor Ambassador Volker ever received a detailed read-out of that call with the Biden references.”
“Now, there are people who say they had concerns about that call. No one shared any concerns about the call with me at the time, when it would have been very helpful to know,” Sondland added:
Sondland repeatedly stated that President Trump never told him directly that security aid was contingent on an investigation into the Bidens:
Sondland’s claim that Trump never told him aid was conditioned on an investigation into the Bidens coincides with the testimony former diplomat Kurt Volker offered on Tuesday:
“Did the President of the United States ever say to you that he was not going to allow aid from the United States to go to the Ukraine unless there were investigations into Burisma, the Bidens, or the 2016 elections?” Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) asked Volker.
“No, he did not,” Volker said.
Turner continued:
Did the Ukrainians ever tell you that they understood that they would not get a meeting with the President of the United States, a phone call with the President of the United States, military aid, or foreign aid from the United States unless they undertook investigations of Burisma, the Bidens, or the 2016 elections?
“No, they did not,” Volker said.
“Pretty much, Ambassador Volker, you just, like, took apart their entire case,” Turner said.