Tied to public pledge of anti-corruption....

Diplomat revises his earlier testimony to say U.S. aid to Ukraine was tied to public pledge of anti-corruption

John Wagner and Colby Itkowitz

As part of the House's push to make the impeachment probe public, House investigators on Tuesday released testimony from closed-door depositions taken from Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special envoy for Ukraine, and Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union

Both are key witnesses in the probe. They were questioned last month about President Donald Trump pressuring Ukraine to dig up dirt on his political rivals.

Volker testified Oct. 3, while Sondland appeared Oct. 17.

Volker worked with Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, the White House and Ukrainian officials to arrange the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a potential White House visit by Zelensky while pushing for investigations into Trump's political foes. Later, Volker would release revealing text messages of the exchanges.

Sondland sought to broker an agreement that would have included Ukraine announcing an investigation of the Bidens. He testified that Trump urged him to work with Giuliani on matters related to Ukraine.

In excerpts of Sondland's deposition, the ambassador revised his earlier testimony. He said he acknowledged telling one of Zelensky's advisers in Warsaw that "resumption of U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks."

Meanwile, House impeachment investigators are seeking a deposition of acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Thursday, targeting the highest-ranking White House official to date in the Democratic-led inquiry.

In a letter sent Tuesday afternoon, the House Democrats leading the impeachment inquiry said they want to learn what Mulvaney knows about Trump's efforts to press for an investigation into former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who sat on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.

Mulvaney is not expected to honor the request.

"Based on evidence gathered in the impeachment inquiry and public reporting, we believe that you possess substantial first-hand knowledge and information relevant to the House's impeachment inquiry," the Democratic chairmen of the three committees conducting the inquiry wrote to Mulvaney.

The House investigators said they are interested in particular in Mulvaney's involvement in an effort by Trump, Giuliani and others to withhold a White House meeting from Ukraine's president and nearly $400 million in U.S. military aid at a time when Trump was pressing investigations that could benefit him politically.

On Monday, transcripts of two other witnesses were made public: Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine, and P. Michael McKinley, a former adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

On Tuesday, Republicans said they were considering installing Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a boisterous Trump supporter, on the House Intelligence Committee as it prepares to hold public hearings.

"We'll see. That's a call for Leader McCarthy," Jordan said, referring to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in an interview on Fox News.

"I just want to help our team," Jordan said. "I want to help the country see the truth here, that President Trump didn't do anything wrong, and that what the Democrats are doing is partisan, it's unfair and frankly it's ridiculous."

Trump went on Twitter on Tuesday morning to retweet some of his previous commentary on the impeachment inquiry. Among other things, he advocated that the whistleblower whose complaint sparked the inquiry testify publicly.

Mark Zaid, a lawyer for the whistleblower whose complaint sparked the impeachment inquiry, suggested Tuesday that Republicans who have called for his client to testify publicly should follow the counsel of Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

A morning tweet by Zaid was aimed at two Republican senators: Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky.

"Perhaps @LindseyGrahamSC & @RandPaul should listen to their senior colleague," Zaid tweeted. "He understands how & the need to protect #whistleblowers."

Zaid attached a news story about comments made Monday by Grassley about whether the whistleblower should come forward.

"That's strictly up to the whistleblower," Grassley said. "A person like me that has advocated for whistleblowers for a long period of time, including this whistleblower, I want maximum protection for whistleblowers."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., chastised Paul and Trump for their calls to unmask the whistleblower.

"I cannot stress just how wrong this is," Schumer said. "We have federal whistleblower laws designed to protect the identity and safety of patriotic Americans who come forward to stand up for the Constitution.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., sought to draw attention to an op-ed by House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., that argues that Trump's call to Zelensky was "just one piece" of broader wrongdoing.

In a tweet, Pelosi referred to Schiff's op-ed in USA Today as a "must read."

"We now know that the call was just one piece of a larger operation to redirect our foreign policy to benefit Donald Trump's personal and political interests, not the national interest," Pelosi quoted Schiff as writing.

Trump and his Republican allies have sought to focus attention on the rough transcript of the call, arguing that Trump did nothing wrong because he does not explicitly condition the resumption of U.S. military aid on investigating the Bidens.

"In the past few weeks, and despite the White House's continued obstruction, we have learned a great deal about what occurred from those with firsthand knowledge of the call, and those who witnessed the president's actions preceding and following it," Schiff wrote in the op-ed.