Trump and White House stopped Gordon Sondland from testifying to U.S Congress

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The U.S President Donald Trump and White House have blocked the U.S ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland from speaking to Congress after he was deposed by house committees investigating the president following an impeachment inquiry. Gordon Sondland didn’t appear for his closed-door meeting with the U.S Congress on Tuesday morning. His attorney Robert Luskin said he had no choice following the White House orders. The attorney said, “He is a sitting ambassador and employee of the state and is required to follow their direction”. The House Democrats announced later on Tuesday afternoon that they had issued a subpoena for the ambassador to appear on Capitol Hill following his absence from the committee hearing.

Sondland became enveloped in the president’s impeachment scandal after text messages and a whistleblower complaint announced he was a witness to allegations against Trump after his July phone call with Ukraine. The text messages released by the House Democrats show Sondland working with another one of Trump’s envoys to get Ukraine to agree to investigate any potential interference in the 2016 U.S election and of the energy company that appointed former vice president Joe Biden’s son Hunter to its board. The American officials dangled the offer of a Washington meeting with Trump for Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. There has been no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden or his son.

The messages also show Sondland was trying to reassure a third diplomat that their actions were appropriate, but that they should take precautions by limiting their text messages. He wrote, “The president has been crystal clear: no quid pro quo of any kind. The president is trying to evaluate whether Ukraine is truly going to adopt the transparency and reforms that President Zelensky promise during his campaign. I suggest we stop the back and forth by the text”. Shortly after Sondland failed to appear for his deposition, Adam Schiff and the chair of the House Intelligence Committee informed reporters the ambassador had text messages and emails that the U.S State Department was withholding from Congress.