Posted on 11/05/2019 11:05:24 AM PST by Mariner
WASHINGTON — A critical witness in the impeachment inquiry offered Congress substantial new testimony this week, revealing that he told a top Ukrainian official that the country likely would not receive American military aid unless it publicly committed to investigations President Trump wanted.
The disclosure from Gordon D. Sondland, the United States ambassador to the European Union, in four new pages of sworn testimony released on Tuesday, confirmed his involvement in essentially laying out a quid pro quo to Ukraine that he had previously not acknowledged.
The testimony offered several major new details beyond the account he gave the inquiry in a 10-hour interview last month. Mr. Sondland provided a more robust description of his own role in alerting the Ukrainians that they needed to go along with investigative requests being demanded by the president’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani. By early September, Mr. Sondland said, he had become convinced that military aid and a White House meeting were conditioned on Ukraine committing to those investigations.
...
“I presumed that the aid suspension had become linked to the proposed anticorruption statement,” Mr. Sondland said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
He presumed.
Nothing here.
Presumed? Unfit for diplomatic service.
How did the Ambassador to the EU, based in Belgium know about conversations in Ukraine +3000 miles away?
He’s an Ivy Leaguer and they know everything; just ask one.
So what?
I presumed!!!!
This is an exoneration.
Not that diplomatic tying of aide to anti-corruption efforts is unusual or even impeachable, but I don’t see how you can twist his words to mean Trump asked for a quid pro quo. It is intrinsically the opposite concept. He took it upon himself to do so.
I don’t read or believe anything coming out of these closed door meetings.
Adam Schiff can change, edit, falsify anything he wants and the NY Slimes will willingly report it as truth. It’s all bullshit.
He should read the transcript.
This is the NYT twisting what Sondland said.
“he had become convinced”...that the moon was made of green cheese.
Next!
So this guy revised his testimony under fear of perjury? Now he is saying that he threatened Ukraine by ‘presuming’ that aid would be cut off if they did not investigate. He had no absolute knowledge that the two things were connected, so he independently started a quid pro qou. So let’s hang this guy
In September!! The phone call that started this BS was in in July
If quid pro quo is so bad, why is Bernie campaigning that he will withhold aid money to Israel unless they do what he wants? Sounds like a classic quid pro quo.
He presumed...
But even if there was a quid pro quo, which there obviously was not, it wouldn’t have been wrong.
The president is sworn to uphold the law. And requesting an investigation of corruption into past events is his sworn duty. It’s not like he did what Schiff claimed and asked him to make up stuff. We have Biden on tape discussing his own quid pro quo. But Biden’s quid pro quo was to hide his own corruption.
Raises two questions: 1) Is Sondland being blackmailed or induced by Schiff? 2) Ukraine got their aid. Are they investigating Biden?
Look into something does not mean dig up dirt! If Joe Biden and his son are innocent then they should welcome the Ukrainians looking into the entire Burisma affair.
If no one told Sondland to offer a “quid pro quo” then he acted on his own. He and only he is then criminally responsible for his actions. Thanks for the sworn statement, that will make your trial go quicker.
The left keeps saying this is why we need secret hearings so Trump can’t interfere, but sees no problem who having no oversight to make sure Dems won’t interfere. Go figure.
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