INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Sondland told Trump that "the Ukrainians were ready to move forward" on the investigationsA U.S
ambassador's cellphone call to President Donald Trump from a restaurant in the capital of Ukraine last summer was a stunning breach of
security, exposing the conversation to surveillance by foreign intelligence services, including Russia's, former U.S
officials said.The call, in which Trump's remarks were overheard by a U.S
Embassy staffer in Kyiv, was disclosed Wednesday by the acting U.S
ambassador to Ukraine, William Taylor Jr., on the dramatic opening day of public impeachment hearings into alleged abuse of power by the
president."The member of my staff could hear President Trump on the phone" asking U.S
Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland about "the investigations," Taylor testified, referring to the president's desire for a
probe of the son of Trump's potential political opponent in 2020, Joe Biden, and the Ukrainian energy company on whose board Hunter Biden
once served.Sondland, Taylor said, told Trump in that conversation that "the Ukrainians were ready to move forward" on the
Embassy staffer who overheard the call, political counselor David Holmes, is scheduled to testify Friday before House impeachment
investigators in a closed session."The security ramifications are insane - using an open cellphone to communicate with the president of the
United States," said Larry Pfeiffer, a former senior director of the White House Situation Room and a former chief of staff to the CIA
"In a country that is so wired with Russian intelligence, you can almost take it to the bank that the Russians were listening in on the
call."The impromptu Sondland-Trump conversation took place a day after an official call July 25 between Trump and Ukraine President
Volodomyr Zelensky, in which Trump had pressed for investigations
Zelensky at that time was anxious to secure a White House visit
The Trump-Zelensky call and the pressure on the authorities in Kyiv to conduct investigations that could aid Trump's 2020 campaign are at
the heart of the impeachment hearings.It was also noteworthy in that ambassadors typically don't just pick up the phone and call presidents
"They never do so to discuss Ukraine policy," former U.S
ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said in a tweet
"Doing so on a cellphone from Kyiv means [the] whole world was listening in."Russia already has shown its ability to monitor U.S
diplomats' calls in Kyiv, and the Kremlin has no hesitation in leaking them when it suits its interests
In early 2014, an intercepted phone conversation between then-Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland
Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt appeared on YouTube
On the call, Nuland was heard referring dismissively to slow-moving European Union efforts to address a looming political and economic
"F--- the EU,'' she said.She also was heard assessing the political skills of Ukrainian opposition figures with unusual candor
The leaked call was embarrassing to Washington and appeared to be an effort by Moscow to drive a wedge between the United States and the
The State Department acknowledged the call was authentic, and Nuland apologized to EU officials
officials also were quick to blame Russia for the leak, describing it as a form of information warfare.Calling a president from a cellphone
violates protocols set up to protect senior administration officials' communications
"It's indicative of a lack of concern for operational security," said a former senior U.S
intelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid being accused of making statements motivated by political bias
Senior officials, he said, "are routinely briefed on the threats to their communications
You could assume that talking on an unencrypted line from a foreign country would be on that list."It is also dangerous for a president to
take an off-the-books call like that, Pfeiffer said
That is why call logs are kept, he said
Without them, someone could assert that the president said something on a call, and a log "protects the president's ability to deny
something happened," he said
"Good bureaucratic record-keeping is a protection for someone in the position of the president."This is not the first time questions have
arisen over Trump's unorthodox phone use
He has been known to give his personal cellphone number to other world leaders, despite aides' warnings that his cellphone calls are not
Russia and China in particular have targeted his personal cellphone calls, the New York Times reported.In general, Trump has appeared
unusually cavalier about operational security
In February 2017, at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, on an open terrace in full view of other diners, Trump and Japan Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe had a sensitive discussion about how to respond to a ballistic missile test by North Korea.(Except for the headline, this story
has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)Get Breaking news, live coverage, and Latest
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