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NEWS: A person with knowledge of the situation confirms to NBC that Gordon Sondland spoke by phone with Pres. Trump on Sept. 9 before responding to acting Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor’s text about it being “crazy” to link Ukraine assistance to help with a political campaign.
NBC: U.S. officials and others with knowledge of their relationship also say that Sondland is part of a small cadre of ambassadors who enjoy direct and frequent access to Trump. They say the two speak frequently by phone and have spoken extensively about Ukraine in the past.
NBC: Volker, Sondland & diplomat Bill Taylor used WhatsApp in addition to regular text messages to communicate about Ukraine, according to multiple sources. The use of WhatsApp has raised questions about problems it poses for complying with federal record-keeping requirements.
Reporting by @JoshNBCNews @HeidiNBC @LACaldwellDC @JuliaEAinsley @albamonica and me
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Geoff Bennett
@GeoffRBennett
EXCLUSIVE from @JuliaEAinsley and me: President Trump has for months now urged his administration to reinstate large-scale separation of migrant families crossing the border, according to three U.S. officials with knowledge of meetings at the White House.
Kirstjen Nielsen resisted, setting her at odds with the president. According to 2 of the sources, Nielsen told Trump that federal court orders prohibited DHS from reinstating the policy & that he would be reversing his own executive order from June that ended family separation.
Trump has been pushing this policy since January, the sources said.

A senior administation official says they believe Trump is convinced that family separation has been the most effective policy at deterring large numbers of asylum seekers.
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Geoff Bennett
@GeoffRBennett
Kanye West’s comments today about African Americans and welfare were as objectively false as they were dangerous in perpetuating stereotypes that position low-income blacks as the face of America’s welfare system.
His divisive rhetoric has its roots in 1970s GOP politics. It was then-candidate Ronald Reagan who introduced the public to the myth of the "welfare queen." Fictional as it was, the legend lives on -- with West amplifying remnants of the derogatory trope from the Oval Office.
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Rep. Don Beyer
@RepDonBeyer
The President is now obstructing Congress by intervening to prevent Amb. Sondland from testifying.

To understand why the House will fight to get Sondland's testimony, it's important to consider what we already know about his role in the Ukraine affair— 1/
Sondland, Trump's Ambassador to the European Union, was read in on Rudy Giuliani's attempts to get dirt on the Bidens this spring.

One outstanding question is what he told State Department officials, including Secretary of State Pompeo, about those efforts, and when. 2/
Giuliani has no position in the US government, yet the whistleblower complaint stated that US officials expressed alarm that he was effectively running diplomacy between the President and Ukraine. The whistleblower said Sondland met with Ukrainian leaders during this period. 3/
Read 13 tweets
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Heidi Przybyla
@HeidiNBC
NEW to NBC:
EU Ambassador Sondland spoke directly with Trump on Sept. 9 before responding to acting ambassador to Ukraine who was protesting the withholding of military assistance to Ukraine, calling it "crazy."

Several hours after Amb. Taylor's protest 1/
Sondland said it is "crystal clear" there's no quid pro quo (Trump was pressing Ukraine to investigate the Bidens). Reminder: Ukraine is NOT part of the EU and Sondland is among a small cadre of ambassadors who have direct access to Trump. 2/
In a July 25 interview on Ukrainian TV, Sondland said he'd spoken directly with Trump before the president's phone call with Ukraine President Zelensky in which Trump pressured Zelensky to investigate the Bidens.
Read 4 tweets
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Seth Abramson
@SethAbramson
The consciousness of guilt of US ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland is jawdropping. On two occasions US ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor accuses Trump of a quid pro quo; the first time Sondland says "call me" to avoid creating a record; then, "stop the back and forth by text."
1/ Sondland then tries to "launder" the text record by making one of his texts (in response to the quid pro quo accusation) a formal and elaborate statement of Trump's innocence; it reads like a press release. This is the moment Sondland realizes his texts are criminal evidence.
2/ Sondland is a hotelier, like Trump, and is a Trump donor. Whatever his relation to Trump, his texts reveal a man who just realized he's being implicated in a *criminal conspiracy* and is flailing about to protect himself from culpability. Doing so requires him to defend Trump.
Read 5 tweets
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Michael McFaul
@McFaul
THREAD. House and Intel Committees released some incredibly damaging texts, which make clear Trump's wrongful attempt to leverage his public office for personal election gain. But now we know that he had a lot of help ! /1
I read the disclosed information closely and provided some context so you don't have to. BLUF: Trump had help in leveraging an Oval office visit and military assistance to seek Ukrainian government's help for Trump's reelection in 2020. /2
The quid pro quo bluntly stated by Ambassador Kurt Volker: "Heard from White House—assuming President Z convinces trump he will investigate / "get to the bottom of what happened" in 2016, we will nail down date for visit to Washington." CLEAR AS DAY. /3
Read 12 tweets
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Zev Shalev
@ZevShalev
<<THREAD>> . Trump spun his corrupt "missiles for dirt" deal as a corruption test for Ukraine's new administration, according to the newly released text messages. The spin didn't work on Trump's acting ambassador to Ukraine, Bill Taylor. /1 #corruption #FridayMotivation
Trump and his envoys framed their demand as an investigation into Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 U.S. elections, a reference to Bill Barr's 'origins' probe and not the real 2016 corruption: a Russian-engineered interference campaign to benefit Trump. /2 #Ukrainegate #Corrupt
Giuliani has made millions of dollars lobbying on behalf of Ukrainians and couldn't even clear security to become Trump's secretary of state, yet he was still dictating terms to U.S. state department officials. /3 #corrupt #UkraineAffair
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Paula Loves Children ❤️ #SaveTheChildren
@paulacblades001
👉🏻#Ukraine👈🏻 in This Thread, I will Attempt to explain how #Migration & #WorkVisa’s are used by Globalists to enslave “Women & Children” into “Organized” International #SexTrafficking Rings #Biden #Burisma #QAnon @realDonaldTrump @RudyGiuliani
2/ This Study on #Ukraine’s #SexTrafficking issue is one of the most accurate breakdowns I have ever read... I will be using this report as a guideline... I highly recommend reading it, in full...
👉🏻 ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/…
h/t @FederalistNo78 #QAnon @realDonaldTrump @GenFlynn
3/ For Organized International #HumanTrafficking Rings to remain Fully operational, Corrupt Officials are used to help orchestrate ways that enable & cover-up these horrendous “Crimes Against Humanity”. Before we take a look at #Ukraine, let us first look at a similar scenario...
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