Sondland Testimony on Ukraine Quid Pro Quo

Source: Scribd
Type: congressional-testimony

Source Text

Excerpt only. The full source text is too long to reproduce here:

THE CHAIRMAN: All right. Let’s come to order. At the outset, I want to express — I know what many of you are feeling this morning over the loss of our colleague, Elijah Cummings. There are few members, I think, that have ever served in this body who enjoyed wider respect and love among their colleagues as Elijah Cummings.

He was a dear friend to many of us. He was an inspiration to all of us. I spoke with him repeatedly while he was convalescing, and he was always offering his support and guidance and his superb example. We lost a giant among us. And I wanted to relay something that he — a poem that he cited in his, as I understand, his first one-minute as a new member of the House of Representatives more than 20 years ago by Dr. Benjamin E. Mays.

I have only just a minute. Only 60 seconds in it. Forced upon me, can’t refuse it, didn’t seek it, didn’t choose it, but it’s up to me to use it. I must suffer if I lose it. Give account if I abuse it. Just a tiny little minute, but eternity is in it.

That so typifies Elijah Cummings, who I think viewed every minute as a blessing and not to be squandered. And truly lived every minute, as if it might be his last, and gave us just an incredible legacy.

So with your indulgence, if we could pause for a moment of silence in memory of our colleague, Elijah Cummings.

THE CHAIRMAN: I don’t know if one of my colleagues in the minority might like to make a statement about Elijah.

MR. JORDAN: Thank you, Chairman. And let me just echo what you said. I think the folks in Baltimore, the whole State of Maryland, this town, and frankly the whole country are saddened by the loss of our friend. And he truly was a friend to both sides of the aisle.

And I will say, personally, I am, like all of you, I’m going to miss him, I’m going to miss just debating with him, arguing with him, he was special. And it was funny, because we would debate and go at it in committee and then I’d see him in the gym and we’d be talking about the normal things that folks talk about. He was a good man. He was a good chairman. And, like I said, I think this whole town and the whole country is saddened by the loss of Chairman Cummings. So thank you for the moment of silence and your words.

THE CHAIRMAN: I thank you, Mr. Jordan, and we did some soul searching about whether we should, or could, go forward today, but I think we felt that he was so dedicated to his work that he would want the work to continue, and so we plow forward.

Good morning, Ambassador Sondland, and welcome to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which, along with the Foreign Affairs and Oversight Committees, is conducting this investigation as part of the official impeachment inquiry of the House of Representatives. Today’s deposition is being conducted as part of the inquiry.

In light of attempts by the State Department to direct you not to cooperate with the inquiry, the committee had no choice but to compel your appearance today. We thank you for complying with the duly authorized congressional subpoena. After creating and operating a successful hotel business, the Senate confirmed Ambassador Sondland on June 28, 2019, to serve as Ambassador — oh, sorry, 2018. If it had been 2019 it would be a completely different circumstance to serve as the Ambassador to the European Union in Brussels.

Ambassador Sondland’s appearance today under subpoena, as a result of the State Department’s decision, in coordination with the White House to obstruct the impeachment inquiry by directing the Ambassador at the 11th hour not to appear on October 8th for his scheduled deposition. The committee was therefore forced to issue a subpoena for Ambassador Sondland’s appearance today.

In the intervening week, the committee has collected important evidence and learned a great deal of new information, including through powerful and detailed testimony of Ambassador Yovanovitch, Dr. Fiona Hill, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent, and Ambassador McKinley. The committee will also hear from Ambassador Bill Taylor, our Charge d’Affaires in Kyiv next week, among others.

And, Ambassador Sondland, we look forward to hearing your testimony today about your involvement in Ukraine policy and efforts to secure a White House meeting with President Zelensky, as well as the July 25 call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky, and the documentary record that has come to light about efforts to get the Ukrainians to announce publicly investigations into two areas President Trump asked President Zelensky to pursue: the Bidens and the conspiracy about Ukraine’s purported interference in the 2016 U.S. elections.

Before I turn to committee counsel to begin the deposition, and I know your counsel has some things to put on the record, I invite the ranking member to make any opening remarks.

MR. NUNES: Ambassador, welcome. Thank you for being here today. Before we begin, I’m going to yield to Mr. Jordan for our opening statement, but I just want to raise to the majority that both Foreign Affairs and Oversight were informed of these new meetings next week. I would just state that if we’re going to continue this circus, I, at least, would like to know what time the circus begins. I don’t know if that was done on purpose to the Intelligence Committee Republicans, but my colleagues from both Foreign Affairs and Oversight were notified. So I hope in the future, that we learn at the same time that other colleagues know about the start times. And with that, I will yield to Mr. Jordan.

MR. JORDAN: Thank you. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Ambassador, thank you for being here today. Thank you for your service to our country. On September 24th, Speaker Pelosi unilaterally announced that the House was beginning a so-called impeachment inquiry. On October 2, Speaker Pelosi promised that this so-called impeachment inquiry, would treat the President with fairness.

However, Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Schiff, and the Democrats are not living up to that basic promise. Instead, Democrats are conducting a rushed, closed-door, and unprecedented inquiry.

Democrats are ignoring 45 years of bipartisan procedures, procedures that were designed to provide elements of fundamental fairness and due process in past impeachment inquiries, and the majority and minority had coequal subpoena authority and the right to require a committee vote on subpoenas. The President’s counsel had a right to attend all depositions and hearings, including those held in executive session. The President’s counsel had the right to cross-examine witnesses, the right to propose witnesses. The President’s counsel also had the right to present evidence, object to the admission of evidence, and to review all evidence presented both favorable and unfavorable.

Speaker Pelosi and Chairman Schiff’s so-called impeachment inquiry has none of these guarantees of fundamental fairness and fundamental due process. Most disappointing. Democrats are conducting this so-called impeachment inquiry behind closed doors. This seems to be nothing more than hiding this work from the American people. The 330 million people who are represented by Members of Congress don’t get to see any of it.

If Democrats intend to undo the will of the American people, just a year before the next election, they should at least do so as transparently, and be willing to be accountable for their actions. With that, I yield back.

THE CHAIRMAN: I thank you, and I will yield to my counsel. I do want to point out that we are following all the deposition notice requirements, and indeed, the same requirements that the now minority observed when they were in the majority. Mr. Goldman.

MR. GOLDMAN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is the deposition of Ambassador Gordon Sondland, conducted by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, pursuant to the impeachment inquiry announced by the Speaker of the House on September 24th.

Ambassador Sondland, could you please state your full name and spell your last name for the record.

AMBASSADOR SONDLAND: Gordon David Sondland, S-O-N-D-L-A-N-D.

MR. GOLDMAN: Along with other proceedings in furtherance of this inquiry, this deposition is part of a joint investigation led by the Intelligence Committee in coordination with the Committees on Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Reform. In the room today are minority staff from the Oversight Committee. The majority staff are mourning together the loss of Chairman Cummings and will not be here today. In addition, there is majority staff and minority staff from both the Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Intelligence Committee.

This is a staff-led deposition, but members, of course, as has been the case all along, may ask questions during their allotted time. My name is Daniel Goldman, I’m the director of investigation for the HPSCI majority staff, and I want to thank you for coming in today for this deposition.

Let me briefly do some introductions. To my right is Daniel Noble, senior investigative counsel for the Intelligence Committee. Mr. Noble and I will be conducting most of the interview for the majority. Now I will let my counterparts from the minority introduce themselves.

MR. CASTOR: Good morning, Steve Castor with the Republican staff of the Oversight Committee.

MS. CASULLI: Good morning, Laura Casulli, deputy general counsel, minority, HPSCI.

MR. KOREN: Good morning, sir. Michael Koren, House Oversight Republican staff.

MR. GOLDMAN: This deposition will be conducted entirely at the unclassified level. However, the deposition is being conducted in HPSCI’s secure spaces and in the presence of staff with appropriate security clearances. It is the committee’s expectation that neither the questions asked of the witness nor the answers by the witness or witness’ counsel, which does not have security clearance, will require discussion of any information that is currently, or at any point, could be properly classified under Executive Order 13526.

Moreover, EO 13526 states that, quote: In no case shall information be classified and continue to be maintained as classified, or fail to be declassified, unquote, for the purpose of concealing any violations of law or preventing embarrassment of any person or entity. If any of our questions can only be answered with classified information, Ambassador Sondland, we’d ask that you inform us of that before you answer the question and we can adjust accordingly.

Today’s deposition is not being taken in executive session, but because of the sensitive and confidential nature of some of the topics and materials that will be discussed, as well as the House rules, access to the transcript of the deposition will be limited to the three committees in attendance. And under those House deposition rules, no Member of Congress nor any staff member can discuss the substance of the testimony that you provide today. You and your attorney will also have an opportunity to review the transcript.

Events Citing This Source

Event	Date	Category
Ukraine Quid Pro Quo	Jul-Sep 2019	Abuse of Power

People Mentioned

Person	Role
Donald Trump	45th and 47th President of the United States
Gordon Sondland	U.S. Ambassador to the EU (2018-2020); testified to quid pro quo in Ukraine affair
Rudy Giuliani	Trump’s personal attorney; disbarred in NY and DC; $146M defamation verdict
Volodymyr Zelenskyy	President of Ukraine (2019-present)

Institutions Mentioned

Institution	Description
U.S. House of Representatives	Lower chamber of the United States Congress
U.S. Senate	Upper chamber of the United States Congress

Related Sources

Source	Type	Publisher
116th Congress 1st Session H. Res. 755	congressional-record	Congress.gov
Roll Call Vote 116th Congress - 2nd Session - Guilty or Not Guilty (Article I - Articles of Impeachment Against President Donald John Trump))	congressional-record	Senate.gov