A5
THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, NOvEmbER 21, 2019
Republicans assail security
aide who reported Trump call
the administration’s push
to have Ukraine investigate
Democrats, he testified.
He highlighted a July 10
meeting at the White House
when Ambassador Gor-
don Sondland told visiting
Ukraine officials they would
need to “deliver” before next
steps — a meeting Zelenskiy
wanted with Trump.
“Ambassador Sondland
referred to investigations
into the Bidens and Burisma
in 2016,” he testified, refer-
ring to the gas company in
Ukraine where Joe Biden’s
son Hunter served on the
board.
On both occasions, Vind-
man said, he took his con-
cerns about the shifting
Ukraine policy to the lead
counsel at the NSC, John
Eisenberg.
An immigrant who came
to the U.S. as a toddler from
Ukraine, Vindman opened
his testimony by assuring
his father that in America he
would be “fine for telling the
truth.”
Yet Vindman spent long
stretches fielding Republi-
can attacks on his loyalty
and his career in public ser-
vice. The Republicans’ lead
counsel asked at one point
about an offer he got from a
Ukrainian official to become
the
country’s
defense
minister.
Vindman called it “com-
ical” and said he swiftly
reported it up his chain of
command.
“I’m an American,”
Vindman said. “And I
immediately dismissed these
offers.”
By LISA MASCARO
and MARY CLARE
JALONICK
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A
career Army officer on Don-
ald Trump’s National Secu-
rity Council testified Tues-
day he was duty-bound to
object to the president’s
clearly “improper” phone
call seeking Ukrainian inves-
tigations of U.S. Democrats.
Republicans answered him
with doubts about his loyalty
to the United States.
Arriving on Capitol Hill
in military blue with med-
als across his chest, Lt.
Col. Alexander Vindman
told impeachment investi-
gators he felt no hesitation
in reporting the president’s
request of Ukrainian Presi-
dent Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Vindman, a 20-year mil-
itary officer who received
a Purple Heart for being
wounded in the Iraq War,
was among the officials
who listened in to the July
25 call when Trump asked
Ukrainian President Volody-
myr Zelenskiy for “a favor”
— investigations of Dem-
ocrat Joe Biden and other
issues.
“It was inappropriate, it
was improper for the presi-
dent to request, to demand
an investigation into a polit-
ical opponent,” Vindman
told the House Intelligence
Committee.
Democrats say Trump’s
pressure on Ukraine to
investigate former Vice
President Joe Biden while
withholding U.S. military
Andrew Harnik/AP Photo
U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland listens as he testifies before the
House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill Wednesday.
President Trump directed Ukraine
quid pro quo, key witness says
By LISA MASCARO,
MARY CLARE
JALONICK and
ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
Ambassador Gordon Sond-
land declared to impeachment
investigators Wednesday that
President Donald Trump and
his lawyer Rudy Giuliani
explicitly sought a “quid pro
quo” with Ukraine, leverag-
ing an Oval Office visit for
political investigations of
Democrats. But he also came
to believe the trade involved
much more.
Besides the U.S. offer
of a coveted meeting at the
White House, Sondland testi-
fied it was his understanding
the president was holding up
nearly $400 million in mili-
tary aid, which Ukraine badly
need with an aggressive Rus-
sia on its border, in exchange
for the country’s announce-
ment of the investigations.
Sondland conceded that
Trump never told him directly
the security assistance was
blocked for the probes, a gap
in his account that Repub-
licans and the White House
seized on as evidence the
president did nothing wrong.
But the ambassador said his
dealings with Giuliani, as
well as administration offi-
cials, left him with the clear
understanding of what was at
stake.
“Was there a ‘quid pro
quo?’” Sondland testified
in opening remarks. “With
regard to the requested White
House call and White House
meeting, the answer is yes.”
The rest, he said, was obvi-
ous: “Two plus two equals
four.”
Sondland, the ambassa-
dor to the European Union
and a major donor to Trump’s
inauguration, was the most
highly anticipated witness
in the House’s impeachment
inquiry into the 45th president
of the United States.
In often-stunning testi-
mony, he painted a picture
of a Ukraine pressure cam-
paign that was prompted
by Trump himself, orches-
trated by Giuliani and well-
known to other senior offi-
cials, including Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo. Sond-
land said he raised his con-
cerns about a quid pro quo for
military aid with Vice Presi-
dent Mike Pence — a conver-
sation a Pence adviser vigor-
ously denied.
Pompeo also dismissed
Sondland’s account.
However, Sondland said,
“Everyone was in the loop. It
was no secret.”
The ambassador said that
he and Trump spoke directly
about desired investigations,
including a colorful cellphone
call this summer overheard by
others at a restaurant in Kyiv.
Trump himself insists
daily that he did nothing
wrong and the Democrats are
just trying to drum him out of
office.
As the hearing proceeded,
he spoke to reporters out-
side the White House. Read-
ing from notes written with a
black marker, Trump quoted
Sondland quoting Trump
to say the president wanted
nothing from the Ukrainians
and did not seek a quid pro
quo.
“I want nothing, I want
nothing,” insisted the pres-
ident, who often exhorts
Americans to “read the tran-
script” of a July phone call
in which he appealed to
Ukraine’s leader for “a favor”
— the investigations.
He also distanced himself
from his hand-picked ambas-
sador, saying he didn’t know
him “very well.” A month
ago, he called Sondland “a
really good man and a great
American.”
The impeachment inquiry
focuses significantly on alle-
gations that Trump sought
investigations of former Vice
President Joe Biden and his
son — and the discredited
idea that Ukraine rather than
Russia interfered in the 2016
U.S. election — in return for
the badly needed military aid
for Ukraine and the White
House visit.
In Moscow on Wednes-
day, Russian President Vladi-
mir Putin said he was pleased
that the “political battles” in
Washington had overtaken
the Russia allegations, which
are supported by the U.S.
intelligence agencies.
“Thank God,” Putin said,
“no one is accusing us of
interfering in the U.S. elec-
tions anymore. Now they’re
accusing Ukraine.”
Sondland said that condi-
tions on any potential Ukraine
meeting at the White House
started as “generic” but more
items were “added to the
menu including — Burisma
and 2016 election meddling.”
Burisma is the Ukrainian gas
company where Biden’s son
Hunter served on the board.
And, he added, “the server,”
the hacked Democratic com-
puter system.
Susan Walsh/AP Photo
National Security Council
aide Lt. Col. Alexander
Vindman testifies before
the House Intelligence
Committee on Capitol Hill.
aid to Kyiv may be grounds
for removing the 45th pres-
ident. Republicans have
argued both that there was
no linkage between the two
matters and that there would
be nothing inappropriate
even if there was.
In a remarkable day of
back-to-back hearings, Vind-
man testified alongside Jen-
nifer Williams, an adviser in
Vice President Mike Pence’s
office. Both said they had
concerns as they listened to
Trump speak with the newly
elected Ukrainian president
about political investigations
into Biden.
Trump insists Zelenskiy
did not feel pressured and
has cast the impeachment
probe as a partisan affair
aimed at pushing him from
office. The White House
lashed out at the Army
officer.
It wasn’t the first time
Vindman was alarmed over
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