U.S. ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland on Wednesday delivered an “explosive” opening statement for his impeachment testimony in which he confirmed there was a quid pro quo in which the president made Ukrainian aid conditional on that government’s cooperation with investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son.
Sondland testified that under Trump’s orders and against his own wishes, he worked with Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, last summer on matters involving Ukraine.
The president and other top administration officials were “in the loop,” said Sondland, regarding an effort to threaten military aid to Ukraine unless the country agreed to investigate Burisma, the oil company where 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son was a board member.
WOW. Sondland flipped. From his opening statement today: "They knew what they were doing and why… Everyone was in the loop. It was no secret."
— Indivisible Guide (@IndivisibleTeam) November 20, 2019
Sondland dropping bombs out here. #ImpeachmentHearings pic.twitter.com/nbEGXAXOT9
— Indivisible Guide (@IndivisibleTeam) November 20, 2019
After State Department officials expressed positive views of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s new administration last spring, Giuliani and Trump expressed skepticism that the new president would reform the country’s corruption issues.
The president’s lawyer confirmed to Sondland that “the president wanted a public statement from President Zelensky committing Ukraine to look into corruption issues — specifically “the 2016 election (including the DNC server) and Burisma as two topics of importance to the president.”
The statement, he confirmed, was conditional for “the resumption of U.S. aid.”
Ambassador Sondland just confirmed:
"The resumption of security aid would not occur until there was a public statement from Ukraine committing to the investigations of the 2016 election and Burisma." pic.twitter.com/Tcb4D2uNmd
— Mike Quigley (@RepMikeQuigley) November 20, 2019
Sondland named Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Vice President Mike Pence, and White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney as three top Trump administration officials who knew the president and Giuliani wanted to threaten Ukrainian aid if Zelensky did not publicly announce the investigation.
“Everyone was in the loop,” Sondland said. “It was no secret. Everyone was informed via email on July 19, days before the Presidential call. As I communicated to the team, I told President Zelensky in advance that assurances to ‘run a fully transparent investigation’ and ‘turn over every stone’ were necessary in his call with President Trump.”
“I know that members of this Committee have frequently framed these complicated issues in the form of a simple question: Was there a ‘quid pro quo?’ As I testified previously, with regard to the requested White House call and White House meeting, the answer is yes,” the ambassador added.
On social media, political observers compared Sondland’s testimony to that of John Dean, the White House counsel who told Congress and the U.S. public in the 1974 Watergate hearings that President Richard Nixon was directly involved in the Watergate cover-up.
Holy cow Gordon Sondland going full John Dean in opening statement:
Confirms his view the WH plot was “quid pro quo” bribery
Implicates Giuliani
Shows Pompeo in the loop with new evidence
Implicates Trump, testifies this was on his orders
Adds new emails and evidence
— Ari Melber (@AriMelber) November 20, 2019
Gordon Sondland's "Everyone was in the loop" is the Ukrainegate version of John Dean's, "There's a cancer growing on the presidency."
— Jonathan Alter (@jonathanalter) November 20, 2019
In his own opening remarks, House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), a vehement defender of the president, appeared unaware that Sondland was moments away from implicating Trump, as he warned the ambassador that he and the administration would be “smeared by the Democrats” at the hearing.
Devin Nunes treated Sondland like he’s still onside and an ally of the president in his opening statement. So either he’s about to be very surprised or we are.
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) November 20, 2019
How is Nunes going to respond to this after telling Sondland he was in front of congress to get smeared by the Dems?
— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) November 20, 2019
ProPublica noted that aside from Sondland’s clear indication that the president was involved in a plot to bribe Ukrainian officials into investigating alleged corruption linked to Biden, the ambassador also said that the White House is currently keeping the ambassador’s records from being publicly released.
There's an early moment in Sondland's testimony that might not make headlines, but it's remarkable.
He says the White House is stonewalling and refusing to release his own records, over his own objections.https://t.co/yNnXXCvhTg pic.twitter.com/4qMzcIAucI
— ProPublica (@propublica) November 20, 2019
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