US envoy banned from testifying at Trump's impeachment hearing

US President Donald Trump’s administration Tuesday blocked the US ambassador to the European Union from giving testimony in the House of Representatives’ impeachment investigation of the Republican president.

Gordon Sondland, a Trump donor who started his diplomatic job in July, was due to meet behind closed doors with staff of three Democratic-led House committees on Tuesday morning over the role he may have played in the president’s efforts to get Ukraine to probe former Vice President Joe Biden, a political rival.

Sondland had apparently agreed to testify without a subpoena. Through his lawyer on Tuesday, he said he hoped “the issues raised by the State Department that preclude his testimony will be resolved promptly.”

“He stands ready to testify on short notice, whenever he is permitted to appear,” Sondland’s lawyer, Robert Luskin, said.

Representatives for the White House and the State Department could not be immediately reached to comment.

The impeachment probe is focusing on a whistleblower’s allegations that Trump used US military aid to secure a promise from Ukraine’s president to investigate Biden, a leading candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, and his son Hunter, who was on the board of a Ukrainian energy firm. Sondland was a key witness for the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight Committees, whose staff had been expected to ask him why he became involved in dealings with Ukraine, which is not a member of the EU.

Trump has derided the impeachment inquiry and denied he did anything wrong in a July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump pushed for an investigation of Biden and his son.

“I would love to send Ambassador Sondland, a really good man and great American, to testify, but unfortunately he would be testifying before a totally compromised kangaroo court, where Republican’s rights have been taken away, and true facts are not allowed out for the public to see,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

According to text messages released by House committee leaders last week, Sondland was heavily involved in contacts with Zelensky as he sought a meeting with Trump.

Representative Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee, which is spearheading the impeachment probe, said the State Department was withholding messages from Sondland that are relevant to the inquiry.

Schiff told reporters the failure to allow Sondland to testify and turn over his text messages or emails was further evidence of obstruction.