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Sondland, a recap:
-no Quid pro quo!
-Taylor: Sondland told Yermak on 9/1 no aid w/o investigations.
-Sondland: oh now I remember that.
-Taylor: my aid overheard Sondland on phone on 7/26 - day after trump call w Zelensky - directly discussing investigating Bidens
-today ....
"Mr. Giuliani demanded that Ukraine make a public statement announcing investigations of the 2016 election/DNC server & Burisma. Mr. Giuliani was expressing the desires of the President of the United States, and we knew that these investigations were important to the President."
"I tried diligently to ask why the aid was suspended, but I never received a clear answer. Still haven't to this day." - Sondland
"Even as late as September 24, Secretary Pompeo was directing Kurt Volker to speak with Rudy Giuliani." - Sondland, page 11 politico.com/f/?id=0000016e…
"Was there a “quid pro quo?” ... The answer is yes." - Sondland, page 14
politico.com/f/?id=0000016e…
Sondland adds to beginning of this statement, "Curiously, and this was very interesting to me ... "

page 16 politico.com/f/?id=0000016e…
"We presumed Rudy was getting it from the president." - Sondland to Schiff

That's less certain about Trump's involvement than Sondland's opening statement at multiple points
The amazing thing in all this is that Sondland is taking great pains to distance himself from any notion that he mentioned investigating the Bidens to Ukraine, and yet the president himself is on the record as having done so
Schiff keeps coming back to the term "official act" when talking about withholding of military assistance.

that's because an "official act" is part of what he's defined as the legal definition of "briberty"
"That’s one way memory works isn’t it?"
Volker: this is getting confusing. asap or a$ap?
"I never heard from president trump that aid was conditioned on an announcement of elections." - Sondland

Said earlier it was his "personal belief based on ... two plus two equals four."
Here's what Bill Taylor, based on notes, testified in his opening statement on 11/13:

"Ambassador Sondland told Mr. Yermak [on 9/1] that the security assistance money would not come until President Zelenskyy committed to pursue the Burisma investigation."
cbsnews.com/news/ambassado…
"Ambassador Sondland told me that President Trump had told him that he wants President Zelenskyy to state publicly that Ukraine will investigate Burisma and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. election." - Taylor on 11/13
cbsnews.com/news/ambassado…
More Taylor on Trump call with Sondland on 9/7:

"Trump did insist that President Zelenskyy go to a microphone & say he is opening investigations of 'Biden and 2016 election interference,' and that President Zelenskyy should want to do this himself."

cbsnews.com/news/ambassado…
Nunes talks about Alexandra Chalupa & 2017 article - says Ukrainians were "out to get" Trump. I wrote about that here yesterday.

Volker, a Republican-requested witness, yesterday called the Ukraine meddling narrative a "conspiracy theory"

news.yahoo.com/impeachment-wi…
Trump: "They tried to take me down."
2017 article: Ukrainian ambassador to U.S. met with Democratic operative & shared information about Paul Manafort's connections to corrupt Ukrainians
politico.com/story/2017/01/…
Nunes: "russia hoax"
Intel community/Mueller/Senate investigation: Russia meddled in 2016 election, with an organized gov't effort directed by head of state
news.yahoo.com/impeachment-wi…
Yovanovitch: No evidence of “a plot by the Ukrainian government to work against President Trump.”

Fiona Hill: "It is a fiction that the Ukrainian government was launching an effort to upend our election."

news.yahoo.com/impeachment-wi…
"The allegations against [Biden] are self-serving and not credible ... Raising 2016 elections, or Vice President Biden, or these things I consider to be conspiracy theories circulated by the Ukrainians … they’re not things we should be pursuing.” - Volker news.yahoo.com/impeachment-wi…
Castor, GOP counsel, notes that Volker has been described as "a very smart guy ... Yovanovitch said he's a brilliant diplomat ... You stated he's one of those guys I'd hand my wallet to?" --> Relates to prior tweets where Volker yday undermined main Republican defense of Trump
Castor again splitting hairs on whether Trump's comment about talking to Giuliani was an "order." Earlier Castor said this to Sondland: "He didn’t even say ‘go talk.’ He said, ‘Talk to Rudy.’"
Nunes today submitted a request for a subpoena to Hunter Biden. Minority parties used to have more leverage in subpoenas, before Republicans eliminated many minority rights when they were in the majority over the past decade news.yahoo.com/republicans-en…
GOP strategy today not a long-term strategy. It's a very short-term response to more facts that fit into a larger fact pattern. Their response to this fact pattern -- of what people did -- is to point to denials. As they say, watch what they do, not what they say
Maloney I think is the first Dem to really go after Sondland hard, and boy does he:

"I really resent what you’re trying to do," Sondland says.

"All due respect sir, we respect your candor, but let’s be really clear what it took to get it out of you," Maloney says
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Jon Ward
@jonward11
Fiona Hill opening statement. Wow.
More from Fiona Hill's blistering opening statement: "I refuse to be part of an effort to legitimize an alternate narrative that the Ukrainian government is a U.S. adversary, and that Ukraine—not Russia—attacked us in 2016."
More Fiona Hill: "President Putin and the Russian security services operate like a Super PAC. They deploy millions of dollars to weaponize our own political opposition research and false narratives."
Read 38 tweets
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Jon Ward
@jonward11
This statement from Beto is very likely a massive boost for Trump's reelection chances -- the level of fear among cultural conservatives about this is primal and to have a leading Democrat actually say it is going to activate those voters like crazy
Beto's statements on guns, stripping churches of tax exempt status, etc, are also an example of what it means to have weak political parties -- Beto is untethered from any party entity that might seek to rein him in to prevent him from damaging its 2020 chances. (1/2)
In other words, there is no avenue to channel ambition through a party and its many filters. The only avenue to power & influence now (it hasn't always been thus) is through gaining attention & publicity. And that incentivizes the kind of statements Beto is making
Read 3 tweets
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Jon Ward
@jonward11
Conservatives incline to believe voter fraud stories. Liberals lean toward voter suppression. How often do we really dig into the details of a case and follow the facts where they lead? That’s what we did in a big case in Georgia. news.yahoo.com/how-a-criminal…
Soon after @BrianKempGA became GA’s Sec of State a dozen African-Americans were arrested & charged w 120 felony voter fraud counts. The case dragged on for 6 yrs, even after a jury found no evidence of wrong-doing. This is the story of the Quitman 10+2 news.yahoo.com/how-a-criminal…
We did over two dozen interviews, reviewed over 1000 pages of documents, & produced 6500 words, a 10-minute video & a podcast to let you decide what happened. It began as voter fraud but became what looked very much like voter intimidation. news.yahoo.com/how-a-criminal…
Read 16 tweets

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Teri Kanefield
@Teri_Kanefield
Sondland’s opening statement🔥

Over the Cliff Notes

Here's the statement: npr.org/2019/11/20/780…

Sondland acknowledges that his past testimony wasn’t completely accurate.

He opens by blaming the State Department for refusing to cooperate and allow him access to his records.
1/ “In the absence of these records, my memory has not been perfect,” he said.

Here he implicates Giuliani in the quid pro quo: A White House visit in exchange for announcing investigations into the 2016 server and Burisma.
2/ July 10: Sondland recalls mentioning the “pre-requisite of investigations before any White House call or meeting.”

[This was the meeting at which Bolton said he wanted no part of any drug deals being cooked up.]
Read 14 tweets
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Paula Chertok🗽
@PaulaChertok
#Sondland says it all: We were playing the hand we were dealt. We didn't want to work w Giuliani. But WE FOLLOWED THE PRESIDENT'S ORDERS. At the time we didn't think we were engaging in improper behavior. Giuliani's requests were a quid pro quo for WH visit. #ImpeachmentHearings
@HouseIntel #Sondland: I opposed withholding security aid to Ukraine. I shared my concerns of the potential quid pro quo w/ @SenRonJohnson. NSC BOLTON, Hill, Morrison all knew what we were doing. State Dept POMPEO knew & approved of all our activities, as late as Sept. #ImpeachmentHearings
@HouseIntel @SenRonJohnson #Sondland names many WH & State officials including #Mulvaney, #Pompeo… "A lot senior officials" knew. July 19 email informed everyone. "Everyone was in the loop." He slams White House & the State Dept for refusing to provide notes, call records & documents. #ImpeachmentHearings
Read 27 tweets
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Tim Mak
@timkmak
Sondland will say:

"Giuliani’s requests were a quid pro quo... Giuliani demanded that Ukraine make a public statement announcing investigations of the 2016 election/DNC server and Burisma. Mr. Giuliani was expressing the desires of the President of the United States."
Sondland: "We did not want to work with Mr. Giuliani... We all understood that if we refused to work with Mr. Giuliani, we would lose an important opportunity to cement relations between the United States and Ukraine. So we followed the President’s orders."
Sondland said his recollection and preparation has been stymied by State Dept refusing to give him phone records, files and emails.

"Should have been made available" to the committee, he said. "In the absence of these materials, my memory has not been perfect."
Read 5 tweets
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Paula Chertok🗽
@PaulaChertok
💥 #Sondland Confirms Ukraine Quid Pro Quo in NEW Updated #Impeachment Testimony: He told Ukrainian officials that US military aid was unlikely unless they publicly committed to the investigations President Trump wanted. nyti.ms/32g54V3
#Sondland discussed the linkage w/ Yermak—in Warsaw after Pence-Zelensky meeting, where Z discussed aid suspension: “I said that resumption of the US aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anticorruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks”
🔥#Sondland describes the quid pro quo creep to Trump's demands: First, talk to Giuliani. Then it was about corruption. Then corruption wasn't enough. "We need to talk about the 2016 election & the Burisma investigations…It kept getting more insidious." intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/…
Read 7 tweets
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Paula Chertok🗽
@PaulaChertok
💥First direct witness on Ukraine call >> Top WH Ukraine expert & decorated military officer will tell impeachment investigators he twice reported concerns about Trump’s pressure tactics on Ukraine nytimes.com/2019/10/28/us/… #UkraineGate #Impeachment
LtCol Vindman wasn't just worried about Trump's illegal demand. As a natsec expert AND Soviet immigrant, he understood the implications: Dragging Ukraine into partisan investigations would undoubtedly result in losing bipartisan support—bad for OUR natl security, good for Russia.
Trump propagandists smear hero Vindman b/c the truth is clear as day. His testimony is first-hand direct evidence of Trump's abuse of power, directing a campaign to pressure Ukraine to benefit himself—& Russia—at the expense of our national security goals. int.nyt.com/data/documenth…
Read 17 tweets
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Ryan Goodman
@rgoodlaw
What #Sondland OMITS from Opening Statement shows how extra-damning this is likely to get

Omissions:

1. Major media (including two NYT blockbusters) in May reported Giuliani pressure on Ukraine for Burisma-BIDEN probe

(Sondland can't credibly claim not knowing)

<thread>
2. Sondland opening remarks omits:

Content of July 10 meeting: Sondland personally pressed Ukrainians to investigate past cases, understood by US officials at Burisma-Biden (freaked out Bolton and Fiona Hill)

(Advice: believe Fiona Hill's testimony on this)
3. Sondland omits:

July 25: Mulvaney arranged for Sondland to prep Trump behind Bolton's back before call with Zelensky.

Note: prior version of WaPo story "indicated otherwise based on info provided by a person familiar with Sondland’s planned testimony"

Did he plan to lie?
Read 9 tweets

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