Article snippet: A senior White House official told House impeachment investigators last month that MORE's hand-picked ambassador to Europe had pushed — on behalf of Trump himself — for Ukraine's president to launch two investigations that could help Trump politically. Tim Morrison, a top aide at the National Security Council (NSC) who has since departed the agency, said MORE, U.S. ambassador to the E.U., had huddled with a top Ukrainian representative on Sept. 1, when he relayed the message that the release of U.S. military aid to the besieged country hinged on Kyiv opening the investigations Trump sought. “What he communicated was that he believed … what could help them move the aid was if the prosecutor general would go to the mic and announce that he was opening the Burisma investigation,” Morrison testified privately on Oct. 31, according to the transcript released Saturday by Democrats leading the impeachment investigation. “Ambassador Sondland believed and at least related to me that the president was giving him instruction,” Morrison added. On Sept. 7, the marching orders changed, Morrison said, after Sondland spoke directly with Trump, who insisted that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky himself should announce the investigations into Vice President MORE and the 2016 elections — both of which could help Trump politically heading into 2020. Even while Trump was insisting vocally that there was no quid pro quo, Morrison testified, he was demanding that Sondland co... Link to the full article to read more