NATION/WORLD
Friday, October 18, 2019
East Oregonian
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U.S. envoy says Giuliani was given role on Ukraine policy
By ERIC TUCKER
AND MARY CLARE
JALONICK
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The
U.S. ambassador to the
European Union said Thurs-
day that President Donald
Trump directed him and
other envoys to work with
his personal lawyer, Rudy
Giuliani, on Ukraine policy
and that he disagreed with
the directive.
Gordon
Sondland’s
closed-door testimony to
House impeachment investi-
gators was aimed at distanc-
ing himself from Trump and
Giuliani’s efforts to pressure
Ukraine into investigating
Democratic rival Joe Biden
and his son Hunter.
Sondland said he was dis-
appointed Trump instructed
him to work with Giuliani,
a directive that sidestepped
the role of the State Depart-
ment and the National Secu-
rity Council. He also said
he believed it was wrong
to invite a foreign govern-
ment to conduct investiga-
tions to infl uence American
elections.
The ambassador was the
latest in a series of witnesses
to be privately interviewed
by three House committees
conducting the impeachment
investigation. He was one of
several current and former
Trump administration offi -
cials who have provided new
information — and detailed
diplomats’ concerns —
about Trump and Giuliani
and their attempts to infl u-
ence Ukraine.
The investigators will
continue apace next week,
when they have tentatively
scheduled at least eight addi-
tional interviews with a mix
of State Department dip-
lomats and White House
aides. Democrats believe
those witnesses can shed
more light on Trump’s deal-
ings with Ukraine. One of
the scheduled witnesses is
the current top offi cial at the
U.S. embassy in Ukraine,
Bill Taylor, who exchanged
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland arrives Thursday for a joint inter-
view with the House Committee on Foreign Aff airs, House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence, and House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Capitol Hill in Washington.
text messages with Sondland
this past summer as diplo-
mats attempted to navigate
Trump’s demands.
Sondland’s attempts to
stand apart from Trump and
Giuliani are notable since,
unlike other career civil ser-
vants who have testifi ed in
the impeachment inquiry,
he is a hand-picked political
appointee of the president
who contributed $1 million
to Trump’s inaugural com-
mittee. His appearance was
especially anticipated since
the text messages and other
witness testimony place him
at the center of a foreign pol-
icy dialogue with Ukraine
that offi cials feared circum-
vented normal channels and
is now at the center of the
House impeachment inquiry
of Trump.
In prepared remarks
obtained by The Associ-
ated Press, Sondland aimed
to untether himself from
any effort by the Republi-
can president or Giuliani to
have a political rival investi-
gated, joining other current
and former administration
offi cials who have commu-
nicated to Congress misgiv-
ings about the administra-
tion’s backchannel dealings
with Ukraine.
But Sondland’s pivotal
role in the dialogue, includ-
ing discussions about a quid
pro quo in which Ukraine’s
leader would get a cov-
eted White House visit in
exchange for satisfying
Trump’s push for corrup-
tion-related investigations,
may make those assertions
tough for House Democrats
to accept.
Sondland said he was
disappointed by a May 23
White House meeting with
Trump, who spurned calls
by the ambassador and oth-
ers to arrange a phone call
and White House visit for
the new Ukraine leader,
Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The president was skep-
tical that Ukraine was seri-
ous about reform and curb-
ing corruption and, instead
of arranging the meeting
his envoys wanted, directed
them to talk to Giuliani,
Sondland said.
“We were also disap-
pointed by the President’s
direction that we involve
Mr. Giuliani,” Sondland
said. “Our view was that
the men and women of the
State Department, not the
President’s personal lawyer,
should take responsibility
for all aspects of U.S. foreign
Turkey has agreed to cease-fi re
By ZEKE MILLER
Associated Press
ANKARA,
Turkey
— Vice President Mike
Pence announced Thurs-
day that the U.S. and Tur-
key had agreed to a fi ve-
day cease-fi re in northern
Syria to allow for a Kurd-
ish withdrawal from a secu-
rity zone roughly 20 miles
south of the Turkish border,
in what appeared to be a
signifi cant embrace of Tur-
key’s position in the week-
long confl ict.
After more than four
hours of negotiations with
Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, Pence said
the purpose of his high-
level mission was to end the
bloodshed caused by Tur-
key’s invasion of Syria, and
remained silent on whether
the agreement amounted
to another abandonment of
the U.S.’s former Kurdish
allies in the fi ght against the
Islamic State.
Turkish troops and Turk-
ish-backed Syrian fi ghters
launched their offensive
against Kurdish forces in
northern Syria a week ago,
two days after Trump sud-
denly announced he was
withdrawing the U.S. from
the area.
Pence and Secretary of
State Mile Pompeo lauded
the deal as a signifi cant
achievement, and Trump
tweeted that it was “a great
day for civilization.” But
the agreement essentially
gives the Turks what they
had sought to achieve with
their military operation in
the fi rst place. After the
Kurdish forces are cleared
from the safe zone, Turkey
has committed to a perma-
nent cease-fi re but is under
no obligation to withdraw
its troops.
In addition, the deal
gives Turkey relief from
sanctions the adminis-
tration had imposed and
threatened to impose since
the invasion began, mean-
ing there will be no penalty
for the operation.
Kurdish forces were not
party to the agreement,
and it was not immediately
clear whether they would
comply. Before the talks,
the Kurds indicated they
would object to any agree-
ment along the lines of what
was announced by Pence.
But Pence maintained
that the U.S. had obtained
“repeated assurances from
them that they’ll be mov-
ing out.”
Ankara has long argued
the Kurdish fi ghters are
nothing more than an exten-
sion of the Kurdistan Work-
ers Party, or PKK, which
has waged a guerrilla cam-
paign inside Turkey since
the 1980s and which Tur-
key, as well as the U.S. and
European Union, designate
as a terrorist organization.
policy towards Ukraine.”
The envoys, he said, had
a choice: They could aban-
don the goal of a White
House meeting with Zelens-
kiy, something they saw as
important in fostering U.S.-
Ukraine relations, or they
could do as Trump asked
and work with Giuliani. He
said he did not know until
much later that Giuliani
intended to push for the
Biden probe.
When the phone call
fi nally did occur, on July
25, Trump repeatedly prod-
ded Zelenskiy to investigate
the Bidens at the same time
that the U.S. was withhold-
ing hundreds of millions of
dollars in military aid from
Ukraine. Sondland said he
was not on the call.
“Let me state clearly:
Inviting a foreign govern-
ment to undertake investiga-
tions for the purpose of infl u-
encing an upcoming U.S.
election would be wrong,”
Sondland said. “Withhold-
ing foreign aid in order to
pressure a foreign govern-
ment to take such steps
would be wrong. I did not
and would not ever partici-
pate in such undertakings.”
Sondland, whose name
surfaced in a whistleblower
very short call. And I recall
the President was in a bad
mood.”
Sondland testifi ed three
days after Fiona Hill, a for-
mer White House aide, said
his actions so unnerved
then-national
security
adviser John Bolton that
Bolton said he was not part
of “whatever drug deal
Sondland and Mulvaney are
cooking up,” a reference to
White House chief of staff
Mick Mulvaney.
But Sondland said that
neither Hill nor Bolton per-
sonally raised concerns
about the Ukraine work
directly with him.
In addition to Taylor,
impeachment investigators
have invited several other
offi cials to testify next. It is
unclear how many of them
will show up, as Trump
has said his administration
won’t cooperate. Several
witnesses, including Sond-
land, are appearing only
after the committee issued a
subpoena.
Among the witnesses
invited for testimony next
week, according to a person
familiar with the commit-
tees’ schedule: State Depart-
ment offi cials Philip Reeker
and Suriya Jayanti; Offi ce
of Management and Budget
Offi cials Russell Vought and
Michael Duffey; National
Security
Council
offi -
cials Alexander Vindman
and Timothy Morrison and
Defense Department offi cial
Kathryn Wheelbarger.
The person was not
authorized to discuss the
committees’ plans and was
granted anonymity.
complaint in August that
helped spur the impeach-
ment inquiry, is certain to
be asked about text mes-
sages that were provided to
the committees earlier this
month by former Ukrainian
envoy Kurt Volker.
The messages show
Sondland, Volker and Taylor
discussing an arrangement
in which Ukraine’s leader
would be offered a White
House visit in exchange for a
public statement by Ukraine
committing to undertake
investigations into the 2016
U.S. presidential election
and into Burisma, the gas
company linked to Hunter
Biden. Sondland said he
did not know until recently
that Hunter Biden sat on the
company’s board.
One
text
exchange
that has attracted particu-
lar attention involves Tay-
lor telling Sondland he
thought it was “crazy” to
withhold military aid from
Ukraine “for help with a
political campaign.” Sond-
land replied that Trump had
been clear about his inten-
tions and that there was no
quid pro quo.
Now, Sondland told law-
makers that Trump told him
by phone before he sent the
text that there was no quid
pro quo and that he was sim-
ply parroting those reassur-
ances to Taylor.
“I asked the President:
‘What do you want from
Ukraine?’” Sondland said.
“The President responded,
‘Nothing. There is no quid
pro quo.’ The President
repeated: ‘no quid pro quo’
multiple times. This was a
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Next G-7 to be held at Trump golf resort
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The
White House said Thurs-
day it has chosen President
Donald Trump’s golf resort
near Miami as the site for
next year’s Group of Seven
summit.
The announcement to
hold the event at Trump
National Doral comes at the
same time the president has
accused Joe Biden’s fam-
ily of profi ting from pub-
lic offi ce because of Hunter
Biden’s business activities in
Ukraine when his father was
vice president.
The G-7 summit will
be held June 10-12. The
idea of holding the event at
Trump’s resort has been crit-
icized by government ethics
watchdogs.
Trump has touted his
resort, saying it’s close to
the airport, has plenty of
hotel rooms and offers sep-
arate buildings for every
delegation.
A team looking at the
sites reported it was “the
perfect physical location to
do this,” acting Chief of Staff
Mick Mulvaney said.
He said about a dozen
potential sites were narrowed
to a list of four fi nalists before
Doral was selected.
“It became apparent at the
end of that process that Doral
was by far and away, far and
away, the best physical facil-
ity for this meeting,” Mul-
vaney said.
Mulvaney said holding
the event at Doral would be
dramatically cheaper than
other sites and that Trump
would not be profi ting from
the event.
“There’s no issue here
on him profi ting from this
in any way, shape or form,”
Mulvaney said.
Some watchdog groups
disagreed with Mulvaney’s
assessment.
Trump “no longer sees
fi t even to pretend that he is
constrained by the law or the
Constitution,” said Robert
Weissman, president of Pub-
lic Citizen.
“The president is now
offi cially using the power
of his offi ce to help prop up
his struggling golf business,”
said Noah Bookbinder, exec-
utive director of Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in
Washington.
When the United States
has hosted the summit
before, it has been held in
Puerto Rico; Williamsburg,
Virginia; Houston; Denver;
Sea Island, Georgia; and
Camp David, the presiden-
tial retreat in Maryland.
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