(Washington) The tug of war between Donald Trump and the congressional Democrats has tended on Tuesday as the executive is banning the US ambassador to the European Union from testifying before the elected officials in the course of the proceedings. of dismissal against the Republican President.
Donald Trump justified this decision by calling the opposition's congressional hearings into the "bogus court" case in Ukraine.
"I would love to send ambassador (Gordon) Sondland, a very good man and a great American, to testify, but unfortunately he would testify in a bogus court totally biased," he tweeted.
The absence of the ambassador on Tuesday morning, a "key player" in the Ukrainian affair, and the fact that he did not deliver the expected documents represent "new strong evidence of an obstacle to the constitutional missions of the country. Congress, "responded Adam Schiff, chairman of the powerful Intelligence Committee in the House of Representatives.
The White House has clearly gone on the counter-offensive in this explosive investigation, refusing to follow up on many Democrats' demands it accuses of conducting a biased investigation, aimed at harming Donald Trump as he approaches the presidential election of November 2020.
Democrats, on the other hand, argue that preventing Congress from moving forward in its investigation could be an obstacle to justice. In a clear warning, they recall in the same breath that this was one of the three reasons for dismissal against President Richard Nixon in 1974, prior to his resignation.
A close friend of Trump
It was the US State Department that asked Ambassador Sondland "not to appear today" in the House's scheduled testimony, according to his lawyer Robert Luskin.
Coming from Brussels to Washington to voluntarily participate in the hearing, Mr Sondland "hopes that the problems raised by the State Department" to prevent him from testifying "will be resolved quickly," added his lawyer.
A successful businessman in the hospitality industry, Gordon Sondland helped fund the campaign and the inauguration ceremony of Donald Trump, whom he became close to.
Since his post in Brussels, he has participated this year in SMS exchanges between diplomats who are at the heart of the Ukrainian business.
Returned to Congress last week, these messages have confirmed the Democrats in their suspicions: the US president has lobbied this summer on his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to seek compromising information on his rival Democrat Joe Biden, they believe.
The Democrats accuse Donald Trump of having abused his power for personal electoral purposes and then of trying to quash the affair.
Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on September 24 the launch of an investigation into Donald Trump's impeachment.
Giuliani invited to the Senate
"We know that Ambassador Sondland has been a key player in efforts to get Ukraine's commitment to investigate a fallacious conspiracy theory regarding the (presidential) election of 2016 as well as Joe Biden and his son Hunter, according to Schiff.
He also said that the ambassador had "SMS or e-mails" that would be "absolutely relevant" for their investigation, but that the US diplomacy refused to deliver them.
In the SMS exchanges revealed by the Democrats last week, a career diplomat posted in Kiev is shocked to see military aid to Ukraine put in the balance, according to him, to put pressure on Kiev: "I is crazy to suspend security assistance in return for a helping hand for a political campaign, "wrote Bill Taylor on 9 September.
Gordon Sondland then runs the conversation: "Bill, I think you are wrong about President Trump's intentions. The president has been very clear, no counterpart, of any kind. A phrase picked up by Donald Trump on Tuesday morning.
Lindsey Graham, a great ally of the Republican-majority Senate Speaker, announced shortly afterwards that he intended to invite Donald Trump's flamboyant personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to testify on alleged cases of "corruption" in Ukraine.
Understand: Republicans now plan to give a media platform to the suspicions that the lawyer spreads for months on the Biden.
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