Democrats dubious as Trump dangles impeachment testimony offer

Wednesday, 20 November 2019 00:47 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

WASHINGTON (Reuters): Democrats responded skeptically on Monday to President Donald Trump’s declaration that he might be willing to testify in his impeachment inquiry and also said they were examining the truthfulness of his testimony in the Russia 2016 election interference probe.

Trump said on Twitter that he would “strongly consider” House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s suggestion that he testify in the House impeachment inquiry into whether he pressured Ukraine to investigate domestic political opponent Joe Biden.

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on honesty and transparency in healthcare prices inside the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, U.S - Reuters

House Democrats saw his participation in the inquiry as unlikely.

“President Trump should testify,” Representative Don Beyer said in a tweet. “He should allow top White House aides to testify. ... He should turn over the documents Congress subpoenaed. He should end his illegal coverup. I’m not holding my breath.”

Trump has come under increasing pressure as public hearings have started in the impeachment probe, and the Democratic-led committees conducting the investigation have released transcripts of interviews conducted in closed sessions that contain potentially damaging allegations against him.

Late on Monday, they released a transcript of an interview with David Holmes, a top aide from the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, who will testify at a public hearing on Thursday.

Holmes testified that he had overheard on 26 July a call, held on the outdoor terrace of a Kiev restaurant, between Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union, and Trump.

In the call, he testified, Trump asked Sondland whether Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy had agreed to announce an investigation into the son of former US Vice President Joe Biden, a rival in Trump’s race for re-election next year.

Holmes, an aide to acting US Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor, said he could hear the conversation and believes two others at the table could as well.