New testimony raises concerns over Sondland’s credibility, says Wasserman Schultz
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) on Tuesday said testimony from a White House official is raising “more concerns” over the credibility of U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland’s testimony from earlier this month.
The lawmaker said information provided in the closed-door deposition of White House National Security Council official Alexander Vindman raises new questions for Sondland.
{mosads}“His lapses in memory of specific events, conversations weren’t credible, and now I have heard a lot of detail about the same meetings that he described in which I have more questions,” she told reporters Tuesday as she left the Vindman deposition.
“I’d like to hear more from [Sondland] because what I’ve subsequently heard from other witnesses causes concern about his veracity and his testimony — causes more concern than I already had,” she added.
She said she found Vindman’s testimony to be credible, adding that it “filled in more puzzle pieces” and corroborated the testimony given by some other witnesses in the impeachment probe.
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) earlier said he believed Sondland committed perjury based on Vindman’s opening statement.
Vindman said in his opening statement that he told Sondland comments made by President Trump about about pressing Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son were “inappropriate.”
Sondland had testified in his opening statement that “nothing was ever raised to me about any concerns regarding our Ukrainian policy.”
Wasserman Schultz also said Republicans used their questioning to try to get Vindman to reveal the whistleblower’s identify, despite the Army veteran saying he did not know the identify and was not comfortable speculating.
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