Republicans at Wednesday's impachment inquiry hearing emphasized that President Trump never said the military aid to Ukraine was contingent on investigations into Burisma and Huntr Biden.



GOP Rep. Mike Turner asked witness Gordon Sondland, the US Ambassador to the EU: "No one on this planet told you that this aid was tied to investigations. Yes or no?"





Gordon Sondland: "Yes."



Turner, who called Sondland's testimony "somewhat circular," questioned the ambassador's assertion that "everyone was in the loop." "If Giuliani didn't give you any expressed statement, then it can't be that you believed this [about the connection between investigations and aid] from Giuliani," Turner said. "Is that your testimony today, Amb. Sondland? That you have evidence that Donald Trump tied the investigations to aid because I don't think you're saying that."



Sondland said he was "presuming" that is what Trump meant.



"The way it was expressed to me was that the Ukrainians had a long history of committing to things privately and then never following through, so President Trump presumably, again communicated through Mr. Giuliani, wanted the Ukrainians on record publicly that they were going to do these investigations. That’s the reason that was given to me," Sondland said.