Breaking from the NYT:
Gordon D. Sondland, the Republican megadonor turned ambassador to the European Union, plans to tell the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday that he and other advisers to President Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate Democrats “because the president directed us to do so.”
Mr. Sondland acknowledged that he told a senior Ukrainian official that to get Mr. Trump to release $391 million in American security aid suspended by the president, the Kyiv government would likely have to publicly commit to investigating a debunked conspiracy theory involving Democrats in the 2016 election as well as former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son’s ties to Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.
[…]
“In the absence of any credible explanation for the suspension of the aid,” Mr. Sondland said, “I later came to believe that the resumption of security aid would not occur until there was a public statement from Ukraine committing to the investigations of the 2016 election and Burisma, as Mr. Giuliani had demanded.”
