READ: Deposition By Gordon Sondland, U.S. Ambassador To The European Union

NPR Staff

November 05, 2019 / 10:52 am

caption: U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland (center) heads to a secure area of the Capitol to testify on Oct. 28.

House investigators have released the deposition given behind closed doors by Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union.

Sondland, a business leader and donor to President Trump, has been described as central to Trump's strategy to pressure Ukraine's government this year.

A witness told House investigators that Sondland said Trump had asked for Ukraine's president to be put in "a public box" committing to investigations that Trump thought might help him in the 2020 election.

Sondland told investigators in his opening statement that he didn't piece together the implications of the Ukraine strategy until later and that he opposed the principle of an American president asking for political help from a foreign government.