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EU Ambassador Sondland To Face Tough Questions In Impeachment Hearings

VOA News

   WASHINGTON - The U.S. House Intelligence Committee is set to hear
   impeachment inquiry testimony Wednesday from a key actor in President
   Donald Trump's alleged effort to pressure Ukraine for incriminating
   information on his political rivals as Democrats continue to build
   their case for impeaching the U.S. leader.

   U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland will become the
   first witness with a direct line of communication to the president to
   testify in public to the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry.

   According to the testimony of other witnesses, Sondland spoke to Trump
   multiple times from mid-July to mid-September and could shed light on
   whether Trump abused his power by making U.S. security aid to Ukraine
   contingent on Kyiv's agreement to investigate Burisma, an energy
   company on which the son of former Vice President and political rival
   Joe Biden had served as a board member.

   Sondland will likely face tough questioning from Democratic and
   Republican lawmakers after he revised his previous closed-door
   testimony to say there was a link between the withholding of $391
   million in aid to Ukraine and the investigations Trump wanted. He
   testified in October that he knew of no preconditions to the
   assistance.

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