Top Trump ally admits tying Ukraine aid to Biden investigation

Atopallyof President DonaldTrumpadmitted he told aUkraineofficial that US militaryaidwas contingent on Kyiv investigatingTrump's Democratic rival JoeBiden, testimony released Tuesday showed.

In some of the most damning evidence yet to the House impeachment inquiry ofTrump, Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union, said he told a seniorUkraineofficial that militaryaidwould likely not be released until Kyiv made clear it would investigateBidenand his son's ties toUkraineenergy firm Burisma.

Sondland, in amended testimony that reversed his earlier denial, admitted he laid out the allegedly illegal quid pro quo in a September 1 discussion with AndriyYermak, atopadvisor toUkrainianPresident Volodymyr Zelensky.

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Sondland said it was the culmination of months of pressure placed on Kyiv, primarily viaTrump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, to open "anti-corruption" investigations into the Bidens and intoTrump's unfounded belief thatUkraineassisted the Democrats in the 2016 election.

Sondland told Yermak "that resumption of USaidwould not likely occur untilUkraineprovided the anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for weeks," he told investigators.

The White House has repeatedly denied there was any link between theaidand any demands byTrump, despite the evidence from the summary of a July 25 phone call,just one week afteraidwas frozen,in whichTrumpsought a "favor" from Zelensky and referred directly toBidenand the 2016 issue.

Sondland, appointed ambassador byTrumpafter donating $1 million to his inauguration, said he was fully aware of the linkage made between the $391 million in US militaryaidandUkrainehelpingTrumpprepare to fight for reelection next year.

"I presumed that theaidsuspension had become linked to the proposed anti-corruption statement" Zelensky was told to make regardingBidenand 2016 probes.

Sondland admitted to impeachment investigators that he understood the linkage was "improper."

Asked if it was illegal, Sondland responded: "I'm not a lawyer, but I assume so."Sondland's testimony, and that of Kurt Volker, the former US Special Representative toUkraine, appeared to strengthen Democrats' charges thatTrumpabused his office by seeking foreign help for his 2020 election campaign and should be impeached and removed from office.

The testimony, taken in private last month, was released as the House prepares for the second phase of the impeachment inquiry, open hearings that could within several weeks lead to articles of impeachment being passed by the House.

The White House, in a statement, said their testimony offered no new evidence for "this illegitimate impeachment sham."

The White House continued to block senior officials from testifying, and was expected to do the same in response to a Democrats' Tuesday request toTrump's chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and be interviewed by investigators.

Other witnesses have said that Mulvaney was responsible for freezing theUkraineaidin mid-July, and that he told others it was done atTrump's command.

"No amount of salacious media-biased headlines, which are clearly designed to influence the narrative, change the fact that the president has done nothing wrong," said White House spokesperson Stephanie Grisham in a statement.

Yet, according to the transcripts, both Sondland and Volker describedTrumpas being transfixed by the wholly unsubstantiated idea, popular in Republican circles, thatUkraineassisted Democrats in their efforts to defeatTrumpin the 2016 presidential election.

They also describe Giuliani as beingTrump's point man for pushing Zelensky's government into finding dirt onBidenand the Democrats.

"He just kept saying: talk to Rudy, talk to Rudy," Sondland said of a May meeting withTrumponUkraine.