What to know about Wednesday's impeachment hearing
- Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, is testifying before the House Intelligence Committee as part of the impeachment inquiry on Wednesday morning.
- In his opening statement, Sondland implicates President Trump and Secretary of State in a "quid pro quo" arrangement to pressure Ukraine.
- Read and watch highlights of the Tuesday's hearings here and here.
- Download the free CBS News app to stream live coverage of all the impeachment hearings.
Washington -- In the most high-stakes testimony in the impeachment inquiry yet, the U.S. ambassador to the EU is implicating the president and secretary of state in efforts to pressure Ukraine to open politically motivated investigations to benefit President Trump.
Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the EU, is appear before the House Intelligence Committee Wednesday morning. In his opening statement, he said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was aware of the campaign to get Ukraine to open investigations into the 2016 and a company that had employed former Vice President Joe Biden's son, an effort he said came "at the express direction of the president of the United States."
Sondland, a major Trump donor, initially told the committees conducting the impeachment probe that he was not aware that a delay in military aid to Ukraine was connected to their willingness to announce the investigations. But in revised testimony earlier this month, Sondland recalled telling a high-level Ukrainian official that the aid "likely" wouldn't be released until an announcement was made.
A U.S. embassy staffer in Kiev testified behind closed doors last week that he had overheard Sondland speaking to the president on the phone on July 26, the day after Mr. Trump's call with Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine. The staffer, David Holmes, said he could clearly hear Sondland and Mr. Trump discussing "investigations," with Sondland assuring the president that Zelensky would follow through.
Sondland's hearing is the first of two on Wednesday, with officials from the Pentagon and State Department testifying in the afternoon.
Sondland implicates Pompeo and Giuliani in opening statement
9:00 a.m.: Sondland will say in his opening statement that there was a "quid pro quo" scheme to arrange a White House meeting in exchange for opening investigations, contradicting testimony from witnesses on Tuesday. He also said the desire for Ukraine to open investigations into the Bidens was "no secret," and that "everyone was in the loop."
"I know that members of this Committee have frequently framed these complicated issues in the form of a simple question: Was there a 'quid pro quo?' As I testified previously, with regard to the requested White House call and White House meeting, the answer is yes," Sondland said. He laid the blame for masterminding the quid pro quo at the feet of Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal attorney.
"Mr. Giuliani conveyed to Secretary Perry, Ambassador Volker, and others that President Trump wanted a public statement from President Zelensky committing to investigations of Burisma and the 2016 election," Sondland said, adding that Giuliani also conveyed these messages to Ukrainian officials. "We all understood that these prerequisites for the White House call and White House meeting reflected President Trump's desires and requirements."
Sondland said he informed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that he had spoken to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky before the July 25 call between Mr. Trump and Zelensky, relaying that he had told Zelensky he should mention his intention "to run a fully transparent investigation and will 'turn over every stone.'"
Sondland said he did not know the reason aid was withheld to Ukraine, but that he "later came to believe that the resumption of security aid would not occur until there was a public statement from Ukraine committing to the investigations of the 2016 election and Burisma, as Mr. Giuliani had demanded." Sondland said he shared these concerns with Republican Senator Ron Johnson and Ukrainian officials.
Sondland mentioned the July 26 call he had with Mr. Trump, one day after Mr. Trump's call with Zelensky. David Holmes, a State Department staffer who overheard the call, testified that Sondland told him Mr. Trump "didn't give a s--- about Ukraine." Sondland said in his opening statement that he has "no reason to doubt" the accounts of witnesses who heard the call but does not recall the specifics of the conversation.
"While I cannot remember the precise details -- again, the White House has not allowed me to see any readouts of that call -- the July 26 call did not strike me as significant at the time. Actually, I would have been more surprised if President Trump had not mentioned investigations, particularly given what we were hearing from Mr. Giuliani about the President's concerns," Sondland said. He also acknowledged that Mr. Trump occasionally uses "colorful language."
Sondland implicated Pompeo and State Department leadership in his testimony, saying that "throughout these events, we kept State Department leadership and others apprised of what we were doing."
"State Department was fully supportive of our engagement in Ukraine affairs, and was aware that a commitment to investigations was among the issues we were pursuing," Sondland said. -- Grace Segers
How Wednesday's hearings will play out
7:15 a.m.: Wednesday's proceedings will follow the same format as the previous hearings, and adhere to the rules adopted by the full House several weeks ago.
At the beginning of each hearing, Chairman Adam Schiff and Ranking Member Devin Nunes will deliver opening statements. The witnesses will then be sworn in and allowed to read a statement of her own.
Schiff and Nunes will then each control a period of 45 minutes, when they can ask questions or delegate to staff members to do so. Last week, Schiff turned to Daniel Goldman, senior adviser and director of investigations on the committee, to ask question the witnesses. Nunes designated Steve Castor, the general counsel for the Republican minority on the House Oversight Committee.
After that, the hearing will move to questioning from individual members, alternating periods of five minutes between both parties. Schiff can add additional rounds at his discretion.
Witnesses can also request breaks in questioning if needed. -- Stefan Becket
Who is Gordon Sondland?
6:30 a.m.: Sondland is the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, a role he has held since his confirmation in June 2018. Prior to becoming ambassador, Sondland had a long career as a successful hotel magnate and banker. He was also a major donor to the Trump campaign in 2016 and Mr. Trump's inaugural committee, to which he contributed $1 million.
In a shocking reversal earlier this month, Sondland revised his original closed-door testimony because he said reading other witnesses' accounts "refreshed my recollection about conversations involving the suspension of U.S. aid."
Sondland said he now remembers telling a top Ukrainian official that the release of delayed military aid was "likely" dependent on the foreign country announcing investigations that would benefit Mr. Trump politically.
What happened at Tuesday's second hearing
5:45 a.m.: At the afternoon hearing on Tuesday, the former special envoy to Ukraine told lawmakers he was unaware that efforts to pressure the Ukrainian government to opening anti-corruption investigations were targeting the Bidens, but said he would have raised objections if he knew then what he knows now.
Kurt Volker, the former special representative, and Tim Morrison, a former National Security Council official, testified about their knowledge of the events at the center of the impeachment inquiry.
"In hindsight, I now understand that others saw the idea of investigating possible corruption involving the Ukrainian company Burisma as equivalent to investigating former Vice President Biden," Volker said, referring to the energy company that had employed Hunter Biden. "I saw them as very different -- the former being appropriate and unremarkable, the latter being unacceptable. In retrospect, I should have seen that connection differently, and had I done so, I would have raised my own objections."
Read more here.
What happened in Tuesday's first hearing
At Tuesday's first session, two top White House aides told the House Intelligence Committee they found the president's July 25 phone call with the president of Ukraine "improper" and "unusual."
Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, a National Security Council expert on Ukraine, and Jennifer Williams, an adviser on Russia and Europe to Vice President Mike Pence, both listened in on the call with Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine.
In the first of two hearings in the impeachment probe on Tuesday, Williams said she found the call "unusual" because "it involved discussion of what appeared to be a domestic political matter." Vindman said he reported his concerns to his superiors "out of a sense of duty."
Read more here.
How to watch Wednesday's impeachment hearings
"House" - Google News
November 20, 2019 at 09:06PM
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Impeachment hearing live: Stream testimony from Gordon Sondland to House Intelligence Committee today - CBS News
"House" - Google News
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