Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland arrives to testify before a House Intelligence Committee hearing as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on November 20, 2019.
- US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland in his testimony to impeachment investigators on Wednesday implicated the highest levels of the Trump administration - including the president.
- "We followed the President's orders," Sondland said.
- Sondland also testified there was an explicit quid pro quo involving a White House meeting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky desired and investigations into Trump's political rivals.
- Sondland is a documented Trump loyalist who donated $1 million to the president's inauguration committee.
US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland threw President Donald Trump under the bus in his opening statement during the fourth day of impeachment hearings on Wednesday.
"Secretary Perry, Ambassador Volker and I worked with Mr. Rudy Giuliani on Ukraine matters at the express direction of the President of the United States, We did not want to work with Mr. Giuliani," Sondland said.
He added: "We followed the President's orders."
Sondland, 62, a wealthy hotelier from Oregon, also implicated Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former National Security Adviser John Bolton.
"They knew what we were doing and why," Sondland said in the statement. "Everyone was in the loop. It was no secret."
Additionally, Sondland testified there was an explicit quid pro quo involving a White House meeting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky desired and investigations into Trump's political rivals.
"Members of this Committee have frequently framed these complicated issues in the form of a simple question: Was there a 'quid pro quo? As I testified previously, with regard to the requested White House call and White House meeting, the answer is yes," Sondland said.
Witnesses who've offered testimony that's damning to Trump have been dubbed "Never Trumpers" by the president, but this label cannot be applied to Sondland.
Sondland is a documented Trump loyalist who donated $1 million to the president's inauguration committee.
This article will continue to be updated.
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