The U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland tried to make sure there was no record of President Donald Trump’s call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, a former diplomat told congressional investigators.
In testimony released on Wednesday, former United States Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor said that Sondland had plotted behind the scenes to make sure the call was not monitored or transcribed.
According to the deposition, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) asked Taylor how the call was different from other calls with heads of state.
“In the normal, regular channel, the State Department operations center that was putting the call together would stay on the line, in particular when you were having a conversation with the head of state, they would stay on the line, transcribe, take notes so that there could be a record of the discussion with this head of state,” Taylor explained.
“When he wanted to be sure that there was not, the State Department operations center agreed,” he continued. “And they told us, they said in response to [Sondland’s] request, they said, we won’t monitor and we certainly won’t transcribe because we’re going to sign off.”
Read the excerpt below from Taylor’s testimony.
Transcript of testimony by acting ambassador to Ukraine, Bill Taylor, on Gordon Sondland's efforts to make sure Trump-Zelenskiy call was not monitored or transcribed.
State Dept ops centre agreed pic.twitter.com/JJ2D0BECjU— Julian Borger (@julianborger) November 6, 2019
Links to all depositions and excerpts are available here.
