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Impeachment inquiry committee adds aide who overheard Trump asking for Ukraine probe

WASHINGTON — The House Intelligence Committee, adding to its roster of public impeachment officials, Monday added a U.S. Embassy official in Kyiv who overheard President Donald Trump ask a top American diplomat if Ukraine would go forward with investigations he wanted, The New York Times reported.

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David Holmes, who testified Friday in a closed-door session with House investigators, will be questioned in public Thursday during the committee's final hearing, the newspaper reported.

Update 9:22 p.m. EST Nov. 18: Ukrainians "came to understand what was required" to procure a meeting with President Donald Trump and receive military assistance, a U.S. Embassy official told Congress in closed-door testimony Friday, The Washington Post reported.

During a cellphone call at a Kyiv restaurant between the president and Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, David Holmes said he overheard the conversation, the newspaper reported.

During the call, Holmes told members of the House Intelligence Committee the president pressed Sondland about whether Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy would "do the investigation" of former vice president Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, the Post reported.

Holmes said that after the call, Sondland said Trump did not care about Ukraine and was more concerned about possible probes against Biden and his son, the newspaper reported.

Original report: Holmes said during Friday's testimony that Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the EU, had told the president during a July cellphone call that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy would move forward with the investigation Trump sought, according to CNN.

Holmes will be the ninth witness this week to testify before the impeachment inquiry committee.

Holmes said during his testimony Friday that Sondland called the president, and he could hear Trump because the call was so loud, CNN reported.