This archive report was first published on 20 November 2019.
Published on November 20, 2019, a House impeachment inquiry revealed that U.S. Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland was in negotiations with a top Ukrainian official, Andriy Yermak, in August about a public statement committing to investigating Mr. Biden and the energy company Burisma, which had placed Mr. Biden's son Hunter Biden on its board.
Mr. Sondland and the special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt D. Volker, sought to get the Ukrainians to release the statement to satisfy Mr. Giuliani and, by extension, President Trump, and to reset relations between the two countries. However, the Ukrainians never did it.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said little publicly about what he knew about the pressure campaign on Ukraine, but he has publicly criticized the Democrats' impeachment investigation, claiming that it has been unfair to President Trump and the State Department.
It is not clear what Secretary Pompeo knew, or when, about the freeze over the summer of $391 million in United States military aid to Ukraine, which was tied to an agreement by Ukraine to make a commitment to the investigations sought by President Trump.
Mr. Sondland's testimony is especially important for Democrats, as he is one of the few witnesses who spoke directly with President Trump about Ukraine. Republicans are expected to try to undercut his credibility by laying out an array of discrepancies in his testimony.
