Trump didn't require investigations by Ukraine into U.S. elections for meeting Zelensky – Volker
Former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, while testifying in Congress, said that U.S. President Donald Trump did not require the Ukrainian authorities to conduct an investigation into the 2016 U.S. elections as a condition for meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
"We asked Amb. Volker, Special Envoy to Ukraine, 'Did @POTUS ever withhold a meeting with President Zelensky... until the Ukrainians committed to investigate the allegations... concerning the 2016 election?' Volker: 'The answer to the question is no... there was no linkage," Republican Congressman Jim Jordan said on Twitter.
In turn, U.S. Permanent Representative to the EU Gordon Sondland, during a testimony in Congress, said that the condition for the meeting between President Donald Trump and the Ukrainian leadership was an investigation into former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and his son.
Sondland said in his testimony that he did not know about the relationship between the gas company Burisma and the Biden family until July. Burisma is a Ukrainian gas company in which Joe Biden's son, Hunter, was a board member.
When asked if he considered it illegal for Trump that lawyer Rudi Giuliani to get an investigation into the Biden family, he replied: "I don't know the law exactly. It doesn't sound good."
"I'm not a lawyer, but I assume so," Sonland said.
The three House committees on Tuesday published transcripts of evidence obtained through impeachment of the U.S. president from Sondland and former U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker.
On Monday, the committees published the first transcripts related to the impeachment procedure. So, the testimony of former U.S. State Department advisor Michael McKinley, who resigned in October, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch were published. Conversations with officials took place behind closed doors