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Witness confirms Trump wanted an exchange of favors with Ukraine president

A witness at the impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump said Trump indeed committed a “quid pro quo,” or asking for a favor in exchange for money or support.

“Under questioning from Democrats, Tim Morrison, the former top National Security Council official for Russia and European affairs, was asked to recall a September 1 conversation between US Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland and Ukraine official Andriy Yermak,” VOX reported. “That discussion has become central to the question of whether US military assistance to Kiev was conditioned upon Ukraine opening investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden’s family and other Democrats. According to Morrison, it clearly was.”

But other witnesses testified that they had never bribed or pressured the Ukrainian government for favors and that Trump had never asked them to engage in such acts.

Nancy Pelosi, the top-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, quoted Morrison in a tweet on Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning, she followed up, writing, “Today, the American people hear from EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland — a Trump appointee who confirmed he ‘followed the President’s orders’ to pressure Ukraine into investigating Trump’s political rival.”

But Trump hit back with his own take on the impeachment hearings, tweeting, “Nancy Pelosi will go down as the least productive Speaker of the House in history,” and quoting witnesses who testified there was no bribery, no extortion, and no quid pro quo.