Not only did one American diplomat overhear a bombshell phone call in which Donald Trump expressed interest in "the investigations" by Ukraine, but a second U.S. embassy staffer in Ukraine also heard the conversation, according to the Associated Press.
The July 26 call between Trump and Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland ties Trump directly to the investigations his emissaries sought into his political rivals and came just one day after Trump repeatedly pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to look into the Bidens on a phone call that formed the basis for the impeachment inquiry. Ambassador William Taylor first revealed that Trump-Sondland call during public testimony Wednesday in which he said that a member of his staff had been present when Sondland called Trump from Ukraine on his cell phone and could hear Trump asking about "the investigations." Sondland told Trump the Ukrainians were “ready to move forward.” Following the call, the staffer asked what Trump thought of Ukraine, and Sondland replied that Trump cared much more about the investigations into the Bidens that Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani had been seeking.
The second staffer is reported to be Suriya Jayanti, a Ukraine-based U.S. Foreign Service officer. The other U.S. embassy staff member in Ukraine who overheard the call is reportedly David Holmes.
Democrats plan to depose Holmes behind closed doors in the coming days.
Trump has recently sought to distance himself from Sondland, saying that he doesn’t know him and adding that he never heard of the July 26 phone call. But testimony has revealed that Sondland had a direct line of communication with Trump, and the July 26 phone call adds evidence to that testimony.
