A leading witness in the 2019 impeachment inquiry of then-President Donald Trump registered as a foreign agent representing Ukraine and the European Union on Thursday.
Gordon Sondland served as the U.S. Ambassador to the European Union from 2018 to 2020 and testified against Trump before the House of Representatives Select Committee on Intelligence in 2019, claiming that Trump sought to withhold foreign military aid to Ukraine unless it launched an investigation into then-former Vice President Joe Biden regarding his son's business dealings in the country; Biden was running against Trump for the presidency at the time of the impeachment hearing.
Sondland filed a registration statement with the U.S. Department of Justice, declaring himself a foreign agent of Ukraine and the E.U. in order to legally represent their interests in the country, according to a document obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Sondland's registration is required under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a 1938 law that governs how foreign governments and other entities may lobby U.S. officials.
During his government service, Sondland personally dealt with high-ranking Ukrainian government officials such as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Before joining the Trump administration, Sondland was a developer and served as the chairman of Provenance Hotels, which owns a network of hotels across the United States.
The Trump campaign, Sondland, the Ukrainian mission to the United States and the European External Action Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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