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U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland confirmed he spoke with President Trump on the phone the day after Mr. Trump's July 25 call with the president of Ukraine. "I have no reason to doubt that this conversation included the subject of investigations," he said.
Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the EU, said Wednesday that he mentioned to Vice President Mike Pence his concerns that the delay in aid to Ukraine was tied to the issue of investigations.
Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the EU, said he and his colleagues "kept State Department leadership and others apprised of what we were doing" for months, and that the "State Department was fully supportive of our engagement in Ukraine efforts and was aware that a commitment to investigations was among the issues we were pursuing."
"In your opening statement, you confirm that there was a quid pro quo between the White House meeting and the investigations into Burisma and the 2016 election that Giuliani was publicly promoting. Is that right?" House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff asked U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland on Wednesday. "Correct," Sondland replied.
U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland said it became "common knowledge that everything might be tied together" toward the end of August, meaning the release of military aid for Ukraine was tied to an announcement by Ukraine about opening investigations.
Steve Castor, senior investigative counsel for Republicans, asked U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland Wednesday why he didn't include a "vignette" about a call he had with President Trump in his opening statement at the impeachment hearing. "It was in my previous testimony and I assumed if people had questions they would bring it up," Sondland said.
Representative Jackie Speier, a Democrat from California, drew laughter and applause Wednesday for a comment she made about President Trump having "five Pinocchios on a daily basis." She made the remark while questioning Ambassador Gordon Sondland in his public impeachment hearing.
Republican Congressman Mike Turner criticized Ambassador Gordon Sondland for his "presumption" that the release of military aid to Ukraine was conditioned on announcing investigations - saying it amounted to "nothing." Watch their exchange at Wednesday's impeachment inquiry hearing.
Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Illinois, highlighted on Wednesday remarks President Trump made about Ambassador Gordon Sondland in October and November. Watch Sondland's reaction.
At Wednesday's impeachment hearing, Ambassador Gordon Sondland reacted to President Trump's comment that he doesn't know Sondland well. Sondland said he and the president were not "close friends" but have a "professional, cordial working relationship."
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff introduced the two witnesses that will testify Wednesday evening and noted that David Hale, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, was a witness to the "smear" campaign against former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. He also mentioned that Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, oversaw the military assistance package to Ukraine that was delayed over the summer.
David Hale, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, testified that he learned of the hold on aid to Ukraine on July 21, and heard from an official from the Office of Management and Budget that the directive to withhold the money came directly from the president. Hale said he "misspoke" in an earlier deposition, when he said he heard of the holdup in June.
Both Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, and David Hale, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, testified Wednesday that they did not hear from President Trump, and they were unaware of any of their colleagues hearing from the president, after he ordered a hold on the aid to Ukraine. That testimony was sparked by a question from Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell, who claimed that if Mr. Trump was so insistent on rooting out corruption in Ukraine, he would follow up to inquiry about any progress.
GOP Representative John Ratcliffe questioned any assertion that Ukraine suspected military aid was being withheld on July 25. The questioning came after Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, noted in her opening statement that her staff showed her emails from the State Department, one of which was received just hours after the July 25 call between President Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, noting concerns about security assistance.
Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, confirmed during her testimony Wednesday that $35 million in aid to Ukraine has yet to be obligated. The remaining funds have alarmed Senate Democrats, who wrote to Defense Secretary Mark Esper earlier this week, asking him to deliver the funds as soon as possible.
Ten leading Democrats faced off in Atlanta on Wednesday after a blockbuster day in the impeachment inquiry. CBS News political correspondent Ed O'Keefe and Washington Post national political reporter Sean Sullivan join CBSN to discuss the top moments in the debate.
David Holmes, a U.S. State Department official in Ukraine, described during his testimony on Thursday the call he overheard between Ambassador Gordon Sondland and President Trump. According to Holmes, he sat "directly across" from Sondland during the call, and "the president's voice was loud and recognizable." Holmes said he heard Mr. Trump ask Sondland if the Ukrainian president "was gonna do the investigation?" to which he says Sondland responded: "He's gonna do it."
In his testimony at the impeachment hearing Thursday, State Department official David Holmes described hearing President Trump and Ambassador Gordon Sondland discuss the case of rapper A$AP Rocky, who was then jailed in Sweden on assault charges. Holmes says Sondland told the president, "Let him get sentenced, play the racism card, and give him a ticker-tape when he gets home."
Fiona Hill, the former top Russia expert on the National Security Council, testified Thursday: "Some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country - that perhaps, somehow, for some reason, Ukraine did. This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves."
In her opening statement, Fiona Hill, the former top Russia expert on the National Security Council who has served under three Republican and Democratic presidents, said she has "no interest in advancing the outcome of your inquiry in any particular direction, except toward the truth."
U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland testified in Wednesday's public hearing that President Trump was involved in a quid pro quo scheme to pressure Ukraine into announcing investigations. The president and other administration officials have disputed Sondland's account. CBS News Capitol Hill producer Rebecca Kaplan joins CBSN AM to break down Wednesday's hearings and preview what's ahead Thursday.
National Security Council expert Fiona Hill confirmed during her testimony on Thursday that President Trump ignored his top advisers when they informed him that the conspiracy theory that Ukraine was involved in the 2016 U.S. election interference was indeed false. Asked if she believed President Trump "instead listened to Rudy Giuliani's views," she responded: "That appears to be the case, yes." State Department official David Holmes said Russia wanted to deflect responsibility for its own interference and drive a wedge between the U.S. and Ukraine.
State Department official David Holmes confirmed during his testimony Thursday that Ukraine felt pressure from the Trump administration to reopen an investigation into Hunter Biden. Holmes said he believes Ukraine still wanted to appease Trump even after frozen military aid was released. "I think that continues to this day," Holmes said. "I think they're being very careful. They still need us now, going forward."
National Security Council expert Fiona Hill testified Thursday that there was a "different channel" at work in the State Department with regard to Ukraine. Republican counsel Stephen Castor asked Hill why she did not think U.S. policy towards Ukraine was headed in the right direction when she left her post. Hill said she was concerned about former Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch's removal and about what she called "a different channel in operation in relation to Ukraine. ... One that was domestic and political in nature, and that was very different from the channel, or loop... that I and my colleagues were in."
National Security Council expert Fiona Hill explained during her testimony Thursday that she became frustrated with Ambassador Gordon Sondland because he did not communicate with her or her State Department colleagues about what he was pursuing in Ukraine. Hill said she now understands that Sondland was carrying out a "domestic political errand" at President Trump's orders. "What I was angry about was that he wasn't coordinating with us," Hill said. "Now, I've actually realized, having listened to his deposition, that... he wasn't coordinating with us because we weren't doing the same thing that he was doing."
