'The Answer Is Yes': Trump's Ambassador Further Confirmed An Attempt To Extort Ukraine

"I expect that few Residents of the United States have heard my name before these events," Gordon Sondland, the United States Ambassador to the European Union, said in his starting statement to the Residence Intelligence Committee on Wednesday (November 20). Given that about 70 percent of registered voters are paying attention to the impeachment inquiry currently being conducted by the Residence, that anonymity is likely set to change: While in his appearance, Sondland confirmed in no uncertain terms that President Donald Trump engaged in "quid pro quo" in a try to force Ukraine into investigating potential 2020 rival former Vice President Joe Biden and his family.


"I know that members of this Committee have frequently framed these complex issues in the form of an eas question: Was there a 'quid pro quo?' As I testified previously, with regard to the requested White Home call and White Residence meeting, response The reply is yes," Sondland mentioned, referring to the July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that sparked a whistleblower complaint, widespread politician outrage, and Speaker of the Home Nancy Pelosi formally establishing an impeachment inquiry into the President's conduct.


Although Sondland's expertise doesn't center on that call specifically. While there were plenty of participants in the call outdoors of Trump and Zelensky — including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Senior Director for European Affairs Timothy Morrison, Top Ukraine expert Alexander Vindman, Vice President Mike Pence's Adviser for Europe and Russia Jennifer Williams, and more — Sondland wasn't one of those. What he lacks in phone call attendance, though, he comprises of for in experience: His testimony, and the attached documents including emails and text messages, show that he personally helped arrange the "quid pro quo" between the U.S. And Ukraine. And he was authorized to do so at the highest levels of this administration.


As NPR points out, the Latin phrase "quid pro quo" essentially means "something for something," and is fried into almost every human interaction. Where things get messier is the inherent power dynamic that can be caused by, mention, the president of one of the most powerful countries in the world withholding millions of dollars in military aid from the president of another, far less powerful nation. In lay man's terms, that's bribery. Or, as Senator Kamala Harris tweeted, extortion.


As Sondland explained on Wednesday, key members of Trump's circle coordinated in advance of the July call, including Trump's personalized lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who has never been a formal member of the Trump administration. He mentioned that he tried converse with Trump about the connection between Ukraine and the U.S., Although Trump routinely directed him to Giuliani.


“President Trump directed us to ‘talk with Rudy.’ We understood that 'talk with Rudy' meant talk with Mr. Rudy Giuliani, the President’s personalized lawyer,” Sondland said. “We could abandon the efforts to schedule the White Residence phone call and White Residence visit between Presidents Trump and Zelensky, which was unquestionably in our foreign policy interest — or we may do as President Trump had directed and ‘talk with Rudy.’ We chose the latter course, not because we fancied it, although because it was the only constructive path open to us.”


Sondland testified that Giuliani had explained to Perry, Volker, and other officials that "President Trump wanted a public statement from President Zelensky committing to investigations of Burisma [a Ukrainian company on whose board Hunter Biden, Joe Biden's son, served] and the 2016 election. Mr. Giuliani expressed those requests directly to the Ukrainians. Mr. Giuliani also expressed those requests directly to us." He added that Pence and Pompeo were aware of the bribery attempt, and mentioned that neither of these ever objected to it.


"Mr. Giuliani was expressing the desires of the President of the United States, and we knew that these investigations were essential to the President," Sondland added.


While his testimony counters the closed-door testimony he gave on October 17, in which he mentioned he "never" imagined there were strings attached to unfreezing the aid that had been previously promised to Ukraine, it does echo the four-page memo he attached to the transcript of that testimony once it was released on November 5. He chalked up his course-correction to a claim that he isn't a note-taker, nor a memo-writer," and further that he was denied access by the State Department and the White Home to "all of my phone records, State Department emails, and other State Department documents" that would have helped him remember the bribery sooner.


Sondland was nominated by Trump to serve as Ambassador to the European Union in March 2018. He previously worked as a successful hotelier and donated much of his cash to political candidates, including a whopping $1 million to the President's inauguration committee. His résumé doesn't explain why he could be a good fit for a role in U.S. Foreign policy with Ukraine, although, despite that, the "lifelong Republican" was elected to the position with bipartisan support.


Nevertheless no matter how the remaining public hearings shake out, it may not make a dent in the public consciousness: A FiveThirtyEight poll noticed that almost all people believe the events in the whistleblower's complaints happened just because the whistleblower mentioned they did, and that such dealings could be impeachable offenses.