WASHINGTON, Nov 16, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A US official testified Friday that he
overheard Donald Trump asking about “investigations” he had requested from
Ukraine into domestic political rivals — placing the American president at
the center of an alleged conspiracy to extort Kiev.
David Holmes said he heard a phone conversation in a Kiev restaurant in
which Trump, on the other end of the line, pressed Washington’s EU ambassador
Gordon Sondland for information on Ukrainian plans to probe former vice
president Joe Biden.
Details of the conversation were included in Holmes’s opening statement to
impeachment investigators, published by CNN.
The revelation casts doubt on a major plank of the Republican Party’s
defence against allegations that Trump led a conspiracy to seek foreign help
in the 2020 US election.
Republicans have stated that the only direct evidence is the summary of a
single July 25 phone call between Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart
Volodymyr Zelensky — which they say exonerates the US leader.
Holmes, a career diplomat, said the Trump-Sondland call took place a day
later, suggesting that the pressure on Ukraine amounted to a concerted effort
rather than just one call.
Sondland told Trump that Zelensky “loves your ass,” Holmes is said to have
testified.
“I then heard President Trump ask, ‘So, he’s gonna do the investigation?'”
Holmes testified, adding that Sondland replied that Zelensky “will do
‘anything you ask him to.”
Lawmakers who emerged from the deposition declined to provide details from
closed-door testimony, but they confirmed Holmes said he had heard the call.
“It’s a matter of public record that Mr. Holmes heard this conversation
and recognized the president’s voice loud and clear because he was so loud on
the phone,” Democratic congressman Gerry Connolly told CNN.
The call became public knowledge only on Wednesday when William Taylor,
the top envoy to Ukraine, testified that Holmes had brought it to his
attention.
Holmes, according to his reported opening statement, said he could hear
Trump’s “very loud and recognizable” voice through the earpiece of the phone.
Even though he did not take notes, Holmes testified that he has “clear
recollection that these statements were made.”
The New York Times reported that after the call ended, Holmes asked if it
was true that Trump did not care about Ukraine.
Sondland replied that Trump cared only about the “big stuff,” including
investigations pushed by Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani because they could
benefit him politically.