Ambassador Gordon Sondland testified Wednesday that he pursued political investigations in Ukraine at the direction of President Donald Trump.
Sondland also testified that a White House meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky was conditioned on Ukraine’s willingness to the launch the investigations.
“Was there a quid pro quo?” he asked. “The answer is yes.”
Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, testified that Trump instructed him other diplomats at a meeting in May to coordinate Ukraine policy with Rudy Giuliani, the president’s lawyer.
“We did not want to work with Mr. Giuliani. Simply put, we played the hand we were dealt,” he said. “We followed the president’s orders.”
Giuliani was publicly advocating for investigations into the 2016 election and into Burisma, the energy company where Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, served on the board.
Sondland emphasized that he was not involved in an “irregular” diplomatic operation. He repeated several times, “Everyone’s in the loop.”
On Sept. 1, Sondland said he told Ukraine official Andriy Yermak that a hold on military aid to Ukraine would likely not be lifted unless Zelensky publicly announced the investigations.
Sondland also admitted omitting information from his previous deposition testimony. He said that he was not able to access his notes or call records from the State Department, which made it hard to remember every conversation.