WASHINGTON - A US ambassador nominated by President Donald Trump who provided key testimony in his impeachment hearings was accused Wednesday of sexual misconduct by three women.
Gordon Sondland, the US envoy to the European Union, denied the allegations, with his lawyer alleging that the accusers were trying to taint his credibility in the inquiry.
The Portland Monthly published named accounts by three women who said that Sondland, a wealthy hotel owner from Seattle, retaliated against them professionally after they rejected him sexually.
One of the women, Jana Solis, said she met Sondland in 2008 when she was seeking work in her position as a safety expert for hotels.
She said Sondland met her for lunch and offered her a job as "my new hotel chick" before slapping her rear.
She said Sondland later invited her to his Portland home to evaluate his personal art collection -- which included a picture of himself with then president George W. Bush -- and that he exposed himself in the pool house.
She said Sondland at a later meeting also forcibly kissed her.
Another woman, Nicole Vogel, said she met Sondland in 2003 over dinner to seek investment in a new magazine.
He then took her to a hotel he owned and invited her to see a room, where he requested a hug and then "grabs my face and goes to kiss me," she said.
Vogel said she refused and left. She pointed to an email afterward in which Sondland declined funding for her project.
Sondland in a statement rejected all the accusations and accused Vogel of "underhanded journalism" out of anger that he did not invest in the magazine.
"These untrue claims of unwanted touching and kissing are concocted and, I believe, coordinated for political purposes," he said.
"They have no basis in fact and I categorically deny them," he said.
Vogel owns the Portland Monthly, which published the article. The magazine said that, due to her implication in the story, it teamed up with ProPublica, a respected non-profit news group known for investigations.
A lawyer for Sondland told the magazine the article was timed to damage the ambassador's credibility in the impeachment inquiry.
Sondland donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration and was afterward named ambassador to the European Union.
Despite his support for Trump, Sondland, testifying last week under oath before lawmakers, said he was following the president's orders in demanding that Ukraine investigate domestic rival Joe Biden before he would agree to a White House summit.
The accusation is key evidence for House Democrats as they look to impeach the tycoon turned president.
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WASHINGTON, United States—An irate Donald Trump said Friday he welcomes the prospect of an impeachment trial, as the US leader lashed out at "crazy" and "corrupt" opponents probing potential abuse of presidential power.
After a week of dramatic impeachment testimony from current and former administration officials, an embattled Trump took to a favorite broadcaster to air a long, occasionally incoherent list of grievances—against the FBI, his political adversaries, impeachment inquiry leaders, the "deep state," and more.
"These people are sick," Trump raged down the telephone line to Fox at the start of a 53-minute tirade that showed how angered and unsettled he has been by an impeachment inquiry that threatens his presidency.
Multiple witnesses, in often damning testimony under oath, buttressed charges the president conditioned much-needed military aid and a coveted White House meeting on Ukraine investigating his political rivals.
But with many Republicans seemingly unmoved, Trump bashed the testimony as "total nonsense" and said he relished the chance to defend himself.
"Frankly, I want a trial," Trump told morning show Fox and Friends.
Impeachment in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives appears increasingly likely in the coming weeks or months.
But removing him from office would require conviction by a two-thirds majority in the Republican-controlled Senate.
'CRAZY AS A BEDBUG'
The increasing prospect of becoming only the third US president formally impeached, after Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, has riled the brash New York billionaire, and he fired off multiple attacks against rivals leading the effort.
His main Democratic nemesis in Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is "crazy as a bedbug" for pressing a "scam" impeachment, he fumed.
House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, who has presided over the public phase of the inquiry is a "nutjob" and a "sick puppy" who should be sued for having "lied" about the president's "flawless" Ukraine call, Trump added.
Trump was quick to say he "hardly" knows several of the witnesses, including his own ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, who said Trump sought a quid pro quo from Ukraine.
But he rushed to the defense of his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who has emerged in many accounts as having orchestrated the shadow policy to pressure Ukraine.
"Rudy is a great crime fighter," Trump said, giving an unqualified endorsement to one of the most controversial figures in the Ukraine saga.
"He is a friend of mine. He is a great person, an iconic figure in this country," he said of the former New York major.
Trump also repeated the conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 US election—just a day after a former National Security Council expert, Fiona Hill, denounced that in testimony as a "fictional narrative" advanced by Russia to harm the United States.
"They have the server from the DNC—Democratic National Committee," Trump said of Ukraine, claiming that Democrats gave the computer to "a company owned by a very wealthy Ukrainian."
The claim appeared to alarm Fox hosts, including Steve Doocy.
"Are you sure they gave it to Ukraine?" a skeptical Doocy asked Trump.
"That's what the word is, and that's what I asked actually in my phone call," Trump responded, referring to his July 25 conversation with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.
Trump mentioned his political rival Joe Biden to Zelensky and pressed the new president to investigate a Ukrainian firm where Biden's son worked while his father was vice president.
Democrats argue that Trump's demand that a foreign leader investigate his potential adversary in the 2020 presidential election is impeachable conduct.
Trump has said he was merely pressing Ukraine to ramp up its anti-corruption efforts. But he also claims the Bidens were involved in corruption.
There is no evidence to back up the assertion, but Trump nonetheless repeated it on Fox, saying "you have to say Joe Biden is corrupt."
Biden, who leads the Democratic 2020 nomination race, has said Trump has smeared him with corruption allegations because he fears a Biden candidacy.
Polls show American voters believe Biden would have the best shot at defeating Trump.
But Trump seized on polling released this week that shows him winning in hypothetical matchups against Biden and other Democrats in battleground Wisconsin, a state Trump flipped in 2016 but which Democrats aim to retake.
"I'm going through the roof," Trump boasted.
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WASHINGTON — Gordon Sondland had not even finished his testimony Wednesday before it was being called the “John Dean moment” of the President Donald Trump impeachment drama. With the presidency on the line, a once-trusted lieutenant pointed the finger at Trump in a proceeding that could lead to Watergate-style charges of high crimes and misdemeanors.
For the first time, Trump’s critics got the sort of viral moments they have craved, crisp accusatory cancer-on-the-presidency lines uttered on camera that can now be played over and over on social media and cable television, making clear just who was in charge of the campaign to pressure a foreign power to help bring down the president’s domestic political rivals.
“We followed the president’s orders.”
“The president directed us to do so.”
“At the express direction of the president of the United States.”
Even John Dean thought it was a bit of a John Dean moment for Sondland, the million-dollar Trump donor turned ambassador to the European Union. “He decided to put the truth over party and president, because the president really can’t be pleased with it,” Dean said in an interview after the hearing. “It’s going to change the dynamics of the proceedings.”
The testimony before the House Intelligence Committee energized Democrats, who called it their smoking gun, and seemed to take back Republicans, who struggled at first to undercut his account. Sondland made a point of stressing that he was no rogue operator but in fact at key moments had kept everyone “in the loop,” including the vice president, secretary of state, acting White House chief of staff and national security adviser.
But Sondland was more of a flawed witness than Dean, who was the former White House counsel when he testified against President Richard Nixon in 1973. While Dean described many meetings about the Watergate cover-up with Nixon, Sondland could recall the details of only one conversation in which Trump made his wishes clear and even then the words uttered by the president were somewhat elliptical.
Sondland recounted an Oval Office meeting May 23 when Trump told him and other advisers who aspired to improve relations with Ukraine to “talk with Rudy,” passing them off to Rudy Giuliani, his personal lawyer, who was busy trying to extract damaging information about Democrats from the former Soviet republic. What the president meant was clear, Sondland said: They had to help Giuliani press Ukraine for political help. Giuliani was the president’s proxy.
Republicans on the committee eventually rallied to press Sondland about his direct communications with Trump. Under questioning, Sondland acknowledged that the president never explicitly told him that $391 million in suspended security aid was tied to Ukraine’s publicly committing to investigate Democrats; that was a connection he “presumed.”
Likewise, Republicans prompted Sondland to recall a Sept. 9 telephone conversation when he asked the president what he wanted from Ukraine and Trump responded: “I want nothing. I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo.”
Democrats pointed out that the phone conversation came after the White House had been notified about a whistleblower complaint, meaning the president had reason to deny any quid pro quo whether it was true or not. Nonetheless, it was a useful line for Republicans that they quickly turned into their own viral moment played over and over on television and social media.
The president then stepped out onto the White House lawn with notes in large, thick block letters on Air Force One stationery to remember the points he wanted to make to reporters as he headed to a waiting helicopter: “I WANT NOTHING. I WANT NOTHING. I WANT NO QUID PRO QUO.”
Still, Sondland thought he did and he was the witness Democrats had hoped he would be. In their quest to impeach Trump, Democrats have been looking for a John Dean figure all year without success. Michael Cohen, the president’s personal lawyer who turned on him before heading to prison on charges stemming from a hush money scheme, was too damaged. Robert Mueller, the special counsel in the Russia investigation, would not play along.
Sondland seemed perfectly happy to play the role. “Sondland was supposed to be Trump’s guy, the one Trump had repeatedly pointed to in the past to exonerate him,” said Neal Katyal, a former acting solicitor general under President Barack Obama who will publish a book next week advocating Trump’s impeachment. “Yet today, Sondland testified that there was a quid pro quo. Indeed, a whole section of his testimony was devoted to it.”
John Barrett, a former associate independent counsel who investigated the Iran-Contra scandal, said Sondland’s conclusion that there was in fact a quid pro quo “was powerful and shocking testimony — yes, very reminiscent of John Dean’s testimony.”
That gave renewed energy to Democrats, who predicted a burst of momentum that may make it harder for Senate Republicans to look away if it gets to a trial. “Biggest day ever,” said Rahm Emanuel, a former congressman, mayor of Chicago and senior aide to President Bill Clinton and Obama. “It changes everything. There is no line of defense left.”
Republicans dismissed that as wishful thinking. In the end, they argued, Sondland was at least as damaging to the Democrats’ case as he was helpful to it. Other officials like Vice President Mike Pence and Energy Secretary Rick Perry rushed out statements through aides disputing portions of his testimony.
“They have yet to point to a shred of evidence when it comes to impeachable offenses,” Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., told reporters outside the hearing room. Asked the most important piece of exculpatory evidence that lawmakers had heard, she said, “the president’s own words.”
In some ways, Sondland’s testimony reoriented the debate. He noted that when it came to a quid pro quo, there were two separate questions — whether a White House meeting coveted by President Voldymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine was conditioned on his willingness to announce that he would investigate Democrats and whether the security aid was.
Sondland confirmed text messages released weeks ago that made clear that a White House visit was certainly contingent on the investigations. No linkage with the security aid has been definitively outlined in documents released so far, and other officials have testified that they did not know if the two matters were directly connected, although some thought so. Sondland said he originally did not think they were but could come up with no other explanation for the aid freeze.
He also put his finger on a distinction often overlooked: For the president, it seemed more important that Ukrainian officials announce that they were investigating Democrats than for them to actually follow through on doing it.
“I never heard, Mr. Goldman, anyone say that the investigations had to start or had to be completed,” Sondland told Daniel Goldman, the top Democratic counsel who questioned him. “The only thing I heard from Mr. Giuliani or otherwise was that they had to be announced in some form.”
Jill Wine-Banks, a Watergate prosecutor, said Sondland reminded her less of Dean than of Jeb Magruder, a top Nixon campaign official who was convicted of perjury and spent seven months in prison. “Jeb was always sort of weaseling out of full admissions,” said Wines-Banks, who worked on Magruder’s case. “John, when he came clean, he really came clean.”
Dean created a sensation when he told a Senate committee in June 1973 that Nixon was directly involved in the Watergate cover-up, one of the most important moments leading to the president’s resignation in August 1974 rather than face impeachment by the House and a trial in the Senate. Dean pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and served four months in a former Army base.
Dean, who spent much of Wednesday watching Sondland from a CNN studio, said afterward that there was indeed a limit to the comparison. Sondland implicated his president and many other top officials too but still said he could not remember many specific moments, perhaps resisting the fullest possible account.
“I’d call it a modified limited hangout,” Dean said, recalling a phrase made famous during Watergate, “which means he protected himself, nailed a few other people and gave limited insights into what’s really going on.”
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WASHINGTON - A top ally of President Donald Trump admitted he told a Ukraine official that US military aid was contingent on Kiev investigating Trump's Democratic rival Joe Biden, testimony released Tuesday showed.
In some of the most damning evidence yet to the House impeachment inquiry of Trump, Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union, said he told a senior Ukraine official that military aid would likely not be released until Kiev made clear it would investigate Biden and his son's ties to Ukraine energy firm Burisma.
Sondland, in amended testimony that reversed his earlier denial, admitted he laid out the allegedly illegal quid pro quo in a September 1 discussion with Andriy Yermak, a top advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Sondland said it was the culmination of months of pressure placed on Kiev, primarily via Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, to open "anti-corruption" investigations into the Bidens and into Trump's unfounded belief that Ukraine assisted the Democrats in the 2016 election.
Sondland told Yermak "that resumption of US aid would not likely occur until Ukraine provided the anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for weeks," he told investigators.
QUID PRO QUO
The White House has repeatedly denied there was any link between the aid and any demands by Trump, despite the evidence from the summary of a July 25 phone call -- just one week after aid was frozen -- in which Trump sought a "favor" from Zelensky and referred directly to Biden and the 2016 issue.
Sondland, appointed ambassador by Trump after donating $1 million to his inauguration, said he was fully aware of the linkage made between the $391 million in US military aid and Ukraine helping Trump prepare to fight for reelection next year.
"I presumed that the aid suspension had become linked to the proposed anti-corruption statement" Zelensky was told to make regarding Biden and 2016 probes.
Sondland admitted to impeachment investigators that he understood the linkage was "improper."
Asked if it was illegal, Sondland responded: "I'm not a lawyer, but I assume so."
DEMOCRATS BUILD IMPEACHMENT CASE
Sondland's testimony, and that of Kurt Volker, the former US Special Representative to Ukraine, appeared to strengthen Democrats' charges that Trump abused his office by seeking foreign help for his 2020 election campaign and should be impeached and removed from office.
The testimony, taken in private last month, was released as the House prepares for the second phase of the impeachment inquiry, open hearings that could within several weeks lead to articles of impeachment being passed by the House.
The White House, in a statement, said their testimony offered no new evidence for "this illegitimate impeachment sham."
The White House continued to block senior officials from testifying, and was expected to do the same in response to a Democrats' Tuesday request to Trump's chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and be interviewed by investigators.
Other witnesses have said that Mulvaney was responsible for freezing the Ukraine aid in mid-July, and that he told others it was done at Trump's command.
"No amount of salacious media-biased headlines, which are clearly designed to influence the narrative, change the fact that the president has done nothing wrong," said White House spokesperson Stephanie Grisham in a statement.
Yet, according to the transcripts, both Sondland and Volker described Trump as being transfixed by the wholly unsubstantiated idea, popular in Republican circles, that Ukraine assisted Democrats in their efforts to defeat Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
They also describe Giuliani as being Trump's point man for pushing Zelensky's government into finding dirt on Biden and the Democrats.
"He just kept saying: talk to Rudy, talk to Rudy," Sondland said of a May meeting with Trump on Ukraine.
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WASHINGTON - Democratic White House hopeful Joe Biden called Wednesday for Donald Trump's impeachment, saying the president "betrayed" the United States, but Trump dug in, predicting that the Supreme Court would have to resolve the fight.
"To preserve our constitution, our democracy, our basic integrity, he should be impeached," Biden told supporters at a rally in New Hampshire, adding his voice to that of other Democratic contenders.
"He's shooting holes in the constitution, and we cannot let him get away with it," added Biden.
Meanwhile a poll by Fox News, a TV channel generally viewed as sympathetic to the president, showed that "a new high" of 51 percent of voters want Trump impeached and removed from office.
Trump, however, gave no sign of buckling under pressure from the Democratic party probe into his alleged bid to damage Biden by strong-arming Ukraine to investigate the former vice president.
Having threatened a constitutional crisis by refusing to cooperate with the congressional investigation, Trump predicted that the row would end up "being a big Supreme Court case."
He told reporters in the White House that his Republican party was being "treated very badly."
Democrats accuse Trump of stonewalling and obstruction.
"No one is above the law, not even President Trump," the Democratic majority leader in the House, Steny Hoyer, said Wednesday.
IMPEACHMENT BECOMES CAMPAIGN MESSAGE
On Twitter, which Trump is using to bombard the public with conspiracy theories about a "deep state" aiming to eject him, the president argued that the whistleblower behind the impeachment case had been shown to be partisan and inaccurate.
"The Whistleblower's facts have been so incorrect about my 'no pressure' conversation with the Ukrainian President, and now the conflict of interest and involvement with a Democrat Candidate, that he or she should be exposed and questioned," Trump tweeted.
In another tweet, Trump dismissed the impeachment process as a Democratic bid to influence the election, saying "their total focus is 2020, nothing more."
But Trump, who broke with precedent by campaigning for reelection almost from the moment he took office in 2017, is himself pouncing on the impeachment as the new cornerstone of his 2020 effort.
He and the Republican Party have pushed hard to raise funds off the back of their accusation of unfair treatment from the Democratic lower house in Congress.
And on Thursday and Friday, Trump will take that message to his core supporters when he holds campaign rallies in Minneapolis and in Louisiana.
Even if the House impeaches Trump, it remains unlikely that the Republican-led Senate would convict him in the subsequent trial.
However, Trump's already turbulent presidency would be forever associated with the impeachment.
UKRAINIAN PHONE CALL
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi formally launched the impeachment inquiry last month after revelations Trump pressured Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky in a July 25 phone call.
In the call, Trump asked Zelensky to look into what the US leader said were corrupt business deals involving Biden.
Democrats say that Trump tried to coerce Zelensky by holding back US military aid to Ukraine. Trump says there was no quid pro quo and that his only desire is to combat corruption.
He subsequently said publicly he would also like China to investigate Biden, something critics say bolsters the allegation that Trump is seeking foreign help to discredit opponents.
On Tuesday, the Trump administration blocked a potentially major witness, ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, from testifying before Congress. Democrats then slapped Sondland with a subpoena to appear on October 16.
"The failure to produce this witness, the failure to produce these documents" was "additional strong evidence of obstruction," House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff said.
Later the same day, the White House announced in a lengthy legal statement that it rejected any cooperation with the Democrats at all.
Lawmakers want to hear on Friday from another key witness: former US ambassador to Kiev Marie Yovanovitch, who is scheduled to appear before the House Intelligence Committee.
US media has reported that Trump removed her from her post because she opposed his efforts to get Ukraine to investigate Biden.
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