State Department staffer David Holmes, the aide who claims to have overheard President Donald Trump talking to U.S. Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland the day after his July 25 conversations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, testified in a closed-door impeachment inquiry hearing at the House Intelligence Committee Friday afternoon that he overheard Sondland telling President Trump that President Zelensky “loves your ass.”
The fact that Holmes claimed to have overheard the conversation was revealed on Wednesday, during the first public hearing in the impeachment inquiry, when Charge d’affaires William Taylor updated his own closed-door testimony from last month. The testimony added little, but confirmed Trump was interested in Ukraine undertaking “investigations” into 2016 election interference and the circumstances in which former Vice President Joe Biden forced the ouster of a prosecutor overseeing a probe into Burisma, where his son Hunter was a board member. (The testimony may also, as Breitbart News noted, have violated rules around classified and privileged communications.)
Rubio says US has no plan to use force in Venezuela — but warns ‘imminent threat’ could change that
FBI agents search election hub in Fulton County, Georgia
Op-Ed: How Pro-Life Republican Leaders Are Delaying the End of Abortion
Watch: As Chants Ring Out About Lynching Kristi Noem, Clueless Lib Protesters Realize to Their Horror Who They’re in Bed With
Anheuser-Busch praised for patriotic Budweiser Super Bowl ad after Bud Light controversy
Child Sex Abuse Material Made with AI Surges to Shocking New Levels
Tom Homan Issues Statement After Meeting with Tim Walz and Jacob Frey
Ilhan Omar backed by House Republicans after Minnesota town hall attack
Vandals hit Yosemite National Park with graffiti on boulder, more
Privacy concerns, discrimination, doctor pushback: the compliance traps looming behind sex-separated sports
Trump threatens attack on Iran worse than ‘Midnight Hammer’ with military buildup in the region
90-year-old woman who wandered outside during winter storm among 10 dead in New York City
Trump endorses Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s son-in-law for Congress
Xi Jinping’s purge of generals sets grim tone for annual Communist Party meetings
Democrats request money while consoling after Minneapolis deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good
Though Holmes’s hearing was meant to be behind closed doors, a copy of his prepared statement was leaked — as many statements have been, when Democrats believe witnesses will help their case against the president. He said (via CNN):
While Ambassador Sondland’s phone was not on speakerphone, I could hear President Trump’s voice through the earpiece of the phone. The President’s voice was very loud and recognizable, and Ambassador Sondland held the phone away from his ear for a period of time, primarily because of the loud volume.
I heard Ambassador Sondland greet the President and explain that he was calling from Kyiv. I heard President Trump then clarify that Ambassador Sondland was in Ukraine. Ambassador Sondland replied, yes, he was in Ukraine, and went on to state that President Zelenskyy “loves your ass.” I then heard President Trump ask, “So, he’s gonna do the investigation?” Ambassador Sondland replied that “he’s gonna do it,” adding that President Zelenskyy will do “anything you ask him to.” Even though I did not take notes of these statements, I have a clear recollection that these statements were made.
It is not yet clear whether Homes will be called to testify in public.
Story cited here.
