This archive report was first published on 21 November 2019.
On July 26, 2019, a pivotal moment in the Ukraine scandal unfolded in a Kyiv restaurant, where David Holmes, a U.S. Embassy official, was having lunch with Ambassador Gordon D. Sondland and two other staff members.
According to Holmes' testimony, Sondland called President Trump on his cellphone, telling him that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 'loves your ass' and would do 'anything you ask him to.'
Trump's loud voice was so intense that Sondland had to hold the phone away from his ear, Holmes testified. Trump then asked, 'So, he's going to do the investigation?' Sondland replied, 'He's going to do it.'
At the same lunch, Sondland acknowledged that Trump cared only about 'big stuff,' like the 'Biden investigation' that his lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani was pushing for because it affected him personally, Holmes testified.
David Holmes, a career diplomat, has a reputation for outspokenness, having received an award for 'constructive dissent' in 2014 for raising concerns about President Barack Obama's policies toward South Asia.
He arrived in Kyiv in August 2017 and worked closely with Marie L. Yovanovitch, who has since been ousted as ambassador to Ukraine. Holmes developed a 'respect for her dedication, determination, and professionalism.'
However, in March 2019, Holmes noted a major shift in the diplomatic policy, which became 'overshadowed by a political agenda being promoted by Rudy Giuliani and a cadre of officials operating with a direct channel to the White House.'
Holmes' account sheds new details on how Trump administration officials leveraged political power, including a White House meeting and hundreds of millions of dollars in military assistance, to bend Ukrainian officials to Trump's will.
