The Sondland opening statement is another bombshell. This guy was a huge Trump donor and the diplomat most sympathetic to the White House when all of this went down.
He really turns against Trump/Giuliani to save his hide here. It’s short, so just a few key takeaways:
He really turns against Trump/Giuliani to save his hide here. It’s short, so just a few key takeaways:
Right off the bat, he regrets that the State Dep’t prevented him from testifying & thanks the Committee for issuing the subpoena. That has to be tough for Trump-loyal Republicans to hear.
He also quickly goes to bat for both Yovanovitch and Taylor, who have been sharply critical of the White House and who both had serious concerns about the presence of a quid pro quo. Trump & RW Trump-media has tried to discredit them, but Sondland throws cold water on that line.
This is troubling. Sondland says he had no clue what Giuliani’s official role was and that he was “disappointed” the President’s personal attorney was representing the US in these matters. He also makes it clear Giuliani was “key to changing Trump’s mind on Ukraine.”
Sondland knows this was bad news. He bends over backwards to confirm he was *not* on the July 25 call w/ Zelenskyy & that he heard no mention of Biden until the transcript.
Note he saw multiple call summaries, none of which had the bits about Burisma or Biden. Why the omission?
Note he saw multiple call summaries, none of which had the bits about Burisma or Biden. Why the omission?
These two are the most critical admissions. Sondland confirms the “deliverable” was a public statement from Z in exchange for a WH mtg. He then explains how Rudy made clear, at Trump’s direction, that the statement had to mention the DNC server & Burisma/Biden.
Smoking gun.
Smoking gun.
Sondland seems to now realize that he’s in a precarious legal position—and wants to make sure he’s protecting himself. He reiterated to the Committee several times that he had no knowledge of Biden and “did not participate in” a quid pro quo b/c it “would be wrong.”
The testimonies, transcripts, and texts here continue to tell the story of a corrupt bargain being put to Zelenskyy, w/ Rudy QB’ing in an attempt to keep the dirty work one step removed from the President & official channels.
They failed—and our nat’l interest was the victim.
They failed—and our nat’l interest was the victim.
