In this Tuesday, July 10, 2018, file photo, President Donald Trump is joined by Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union. Pablo Martinez Monsivais | AP

Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, revised his original testimony in the House impeachment probe into President Donald Trump to add that he conveyed to a Ukrainian counterpart that Trump would not release nearly $400 million in foreign aid until the country agreed to launch specific investigations sought by Trump. "I said that resumption of the U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anticorruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks," Sondland said in a document released Tuesday by the three House committees carrying out an impeachment probe, describing his conversation on Sept. 1 with a top Ukrainian official. Sondland went on to say that the Ukrainian official had pressed him for details about exactly what Trump wanted in exchange for releasing the aid, which had been appropriated by Congress.

Sondland said he recalls telling the official that if Ukraine wanted the U.S. military aid, then the country's newly elected president, Volodymyr Zelensky, would need to deliver a public statement in person announcing the launch of investigations intended to benefit Trump politically. The four pages of written revisions to his October testimony were submitted on Monday, just a day before the entire testimony was released by House impeachment investigators. The new testimony from Sondland, who is still employed as Trump's ambassador to the EU, threatens to undermine claims by Trump and his political allies who have repeatedly denied that congressionally mandated foreign aid to Ukraine worth nearly $400 million was ever used as leverage by Trump to try and pressure the country into launching investigations. White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham responded to the new testimony Tuesday afternoon, saying in a statement, "Both transcripts released today show there is even less evidence for this illegitimate impeachment sham than previously thought." In explaining his change of heart, Sondland claimed that it was the testimony of other current and former administration officials who spoke to House investigators after he did, and who contradicted Sondland's original testimony, that "refreshed my recollection" and prompted Sondland to write an addendum to his original deposition. In addition to conditioning military aid on the two investigations Trump sought, Sondland said it was clear that the Trump administration was also conditioning a White House visit for Zelensky on Ukraine doing what Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani wanted.