Donald Trump ‘can’t remember’ phone call at centre of bombshell new testimony

Donald Trump has claimed he does not remember a phone call at the centre of bombshell new testimony at the first televised impeachment hearing.

“I don’t recall, not even a little bit,” the President said about the call in which he allegedly quizzed US Ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, over Ukraine’s willingness to investigate former vice-president Joe Biden.

William Taylor, the top US diplomat in Ukraine, yesterday told the impeachment inquiry in Washington that one of his aides overheard the phone conversation and was told Mr Trump cared more about “investigations of Biden” than Ukraine policy. Mr Sondland was said to have told Mr Trump over the phone from a restaurant in Kiev “the Ukrainians were ready to move forward” with an inquiry into Mr Biden, a Democrat frontrunner for next year’s US presidential campaign. The July 26 call came a day after Mr Trump’s conversation with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky that triggered a whistleblower’s concerns that led to the impeachment inquiry.

The testimony, televised live to homes across America, was seized on by Democrats who said it provided further evidence that Mr Trump asked a foreign power for help to discredit an election rival and boost his own political fortunes. “I know nothing about that, first time I’ve heard it. In any event, it’s more secondhand information, but I’ve never heard it,” Mr Trump said after being asked about the new testimony.

“The one thing I know about Sondland is that he did speak to me for a brief moment, and I said no quid pro quo under any circumstances. And that’s true,” he added. Mr Trump denies freezing a military aid package to Ukraine to pressure Mr Zelensky to launch an inquiry into the business dealings of Mr Biden and his son, Hunter.

Mr Taylor told the inquiry about his alarm after he learned that $391 million in US aid to Ukraine was being held up. “To withhold that assistance for no good reason other than help with a political campaign made no sense. It was counter-productive to all of what we had been trying to do. It was illogical. It could not be explained. It was crazy,” he said.

Democrat Congressman Adam Schiff, chairman of the House intelligence committee that is leading the inquiry, said: “If this is not impeachable conduct, what is?”

David Holmes, the aide who allegedly overheard the President’s conversation with Mr Sondland, will appear at the public inquiry next Wednesday. He is certain to be quizzed over the phone call and his decision last week to reverse his earlier testimony and admit there was a quid pro quo.

Before a White House meeting yesterday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Mr Trump said of the inquiry: “It’s a hoax. I’m too busy to watch it.”

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