David Hill says he overheard Donald Trump asking about Ukraine investigation into the Bidens
A former White House national security aide claims another top official described Donald Trump’s personal lawyer as “hand grenade”, saying he pushed issues that would come back to haunt the administration as the impeachment inquiry rolls on.
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A foreign service officer says he overheard a phone call between US President Donald Trump and a US ambassador in which they discussed investigations requested of Ukraine.
David Holmes testified in a House impeachment inquiry into whether Mr Trump wrongly held up military aid to Ukraine until the president committed to investigating Mr Trump’s Democratic political rival.
Mr Holmes said he was at a lunch with Ambassador Gordon Sondland and others and Mr Sondland got on his mobile phone to speak with the president.
Mr Holmes says he overheard Mr Sondland talking with Mr Trump about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Mr Trump’s voice was loud.
He overheard him ask about “doing the investigation” and Mr Sondland told him Mr Zelenskiy would do it and would do “anything you ask him to.”
Mr Holmes says he asked Mr Sondland if it was true that Mr Trump didn’t care about Ukraine.
He says Mr Sondland replied that he only cared about the “big stuff.”
He says the “big stuff” included the Biden investigation.
Mr Sondland has said he had no recollection of having discussed the Bidens with Mr Holmes.
Mr Trump tweeted during Mr Holmes’ testimony that he has never been able to overhear anyone talking through a phone.
He said: “I’ve even tried, but to no avail. Try it live!”
Dr Hill said in her opening statement that the theory that Ukraine, not Russia, was responsible for the 2016 election interference “is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves.”
She said Russia’s security services are gearing up to repeat their interference in the 2020 election.
“We are running out of time to stop them,” she said. “In the course of this investigation, I would ask that you please not promote politically driven falsehoods that so clearly advance Russian interests.”
Dr Hill said Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani had been making “incendiary” remarks on television about Ukraine.
She said former national security chief John Bolton said “Rudy Giuliani was a hand grenade that was going to blow everybody up.”
She said that Bolton was referring to Giuliani’s many TV appearances floating conspiracy theories on the 2016 election and the Bidens.
She says that Mr Giuliani was “clearly pushing forward” issues that would “probably come back to haunt us.”
“That’s where we are today,” she said.
‘TELL THE KARDASHIANS YOU TRIED’
Mr Holmes also testified that during the July 26 phone call Mr Sondland updated Mr Trump on the status of A$AP Rocky, who had been jailed in Sweden after a street fight.
“The conversation then shifted to Ambassador Sondland’s efforts, on behalf of the President, to assist a rapper who was jailed in Sweden, and I could only hear Ambassador Sondland’s side of that part of the conversation,” Mr Holmes told politicians. “Ambassador Sondland told the President that the rapper was ‘kind of f**ked there,’ and ‘should have pled guilty,’” he said
Mr Holmes testified that Mr Sondland “recommended that the President ‘wait until after the sentencing or it will make it worse,’” adding that the President should “let him get sentenced, play the racism card, give him a ticker-tape when he comes home.”
“Ambassador Sondland further told the President that Sweden ‘should have released him on your word,’ but that ‘you can tell the Kardashians you tried.’’’
Kim Kardashian lobbied Mr Trump to help free A$AP Rocky, a friend of hers who dated her sister Kendall Jenner for a period.
A$AP Rocky was released from jail in August and returned to the US.
DEMOCRATS DEBATE
The potential impeachment of US President Donald Trump loomed large over the latest showdown between his many political enemies last night.
Ten Democrats faced off in Atlanta for the fifth debate to compete for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination.
Health care, immigration and a potential billionaire tax were the anticipated hot topics in Georgia, but candidates couldn’t help but turn their attention to Mr Trump’s challenging day in Washington.
Earlier yesterday, a key witness at the impeachment inquiry had said he pressured Ukraine to investigate Mr Trump’s political rivals “at the express direction” of the US President.
Gordon Sondland, US ambassador to the European Union, told the House Intelligence Committee hearing on Wednesday local time that he understood he was asking for a “quid pro quo” from Ukraine to investigate meddling in the 2016 election and a company tied to Mr Trump’s political rival.
At last night’s debate, host Rachel Maddow opened by asking second-placed Senator Elizabeth Warren if she would vote to impeach if the process moves from the House of Representatives to the Senate.
“Of course I will,” the Massachusetts law professor answered.
“We have to establish the principal that no one is above the law.”
But fellow far left candidate Bernie Sanders warned his colleagues that “we cannot simply be consumed by Donald Trump. If we do, we are going to lose the election”.
Senator Kamala Harris, the former top prosecutor from California said: “We have a criminal living in the White House … Justice is on the ballot.”
SONDLAND’S TESTIMONY
In about six hours of charged testimony yesterday, Mr Sondland quoted from emails with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about the negotiations and said that he told Vice President Mike Pence he “had concerns” the military aid to Ukraine “had become tied” to the investigations.
“Everyone was in the loop,” Mr Sondland said. “It was no secret.”
Democrats accuse Mr Trump of withholding $US390 million ($A572 million) of military aid to Ukraine in return for a White House visit for its newly installed leader as well as investigations into the 2016 election and the family of former Vice President Joe Biden’s business dealings in the Eastern European nation.
Mr Sondland emphasised that while he understood there was a “quid pro quo”, at the time there was no discussion of the military aid.
He also said he wasn’t aware at the time he was asking Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to investigate the corrupt energy company Burisma, that Mr Biden’s son Hunter served on its board.
Mr Sondland emphasised the pressure he felt was not directly applied by Mr Trump, but his personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani.
But while Democrats seized on Mr Sondland’s evidence as proof Mr Trump used his office for personal gain, the President declared Mr Sondland’s testimony had cleared him.
Speaking to reporters, Mr Trump quoted Mr Sondland’s recollection of a conversation the pair had over the phone, where Mr Sondland had called the President to find out what he wanted from Ukraine.
“I want nothing, I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. Tell (President) Zelinksy to do the right thing,” Mr Trump said. “This is the final word of the president of the United States: I want nothing.”
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Under questioning from Republicans, Mr Sondland said he had no direct conversation with Mr Trump about the military aid, the withholding of which in return for the Biden probes is central to the Democrat’s impeachment inquiry.
“My testimony is I never heard from President Trump that aid was conditioned on an announcement (of investigations),” Mr Sondland said. “I don’t recall ever talking to President Trump about any security assistance, ever.”
“The President never told you about any preconditions for the aid to be released?,” asked Republican counsel Steve Castor.
“No,” said Mr Sondland. “The President never told you about any preconditions for a White House meeting?”
“No,” Mr Sondland said.
Originally published as David Hill says he overheard Donald Trump asking about Ukraine investigation into the Bidens