Posted on 11/20/2019 7:27:46 AM PST by pilgrim
“At all times, I was acting in good faith,” Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland told Congress in his opening statement at Wednesday’s hearing of the House intelligence committee:
“As a presidential appointee, I followed the directions of the president. We worked with Mr. Giuliani because the President directed us to do so. We had no desire to set any conditions on the Ukrainians.”
But Giuliani did set conditions, Sondland said in his statement.
On the question, was there a quid pro quo? Sondland answered, “yes.”
“As I testified previously, with regard to the requested White House call and White House meeting, the answer is yes.”
Sondland said Giuliani told Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Ambassador Kurt Volker and others “that President Trump wanted a public statement from President Zelensky committing to investigations of Burisma and the 2016 election.
“Mr. Giuliani expressed those requests directly to the Ukrainians. Mr. Giuliani also expressed those requests directly to us. We all understood that these prerequisites for the White House call and White House meeting reflected President Trump’s desires and requirements.”
Sondland said his personal view, which he “shared repeatedly with others,” was that the White House meeting and military assistance should have proceeded without preconditions.
“Our only interest was to advance longstanding U.S. policy and to support Ukraine’s fragile democracy.” Sondland said he learned “in July and August” that the White House had suspended security aid to Ukraine:
“I was adamantly opposed to any suspension of aid,” he said. “I tried diligently to ask why the aid was suspended, but I never received a clear answer. In the absence of any credible explanation for the suspension of aid, I later came to believe that 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, as Mr. Giuliani had demanded.
“I shared concerns of the potential quid pro quo regarding the security aid with Senator Ron Johnson. And I also shared my concerns with the Ukrainians,” Sondland said.
Sondland also described President Trump’s skepticism toward Ukraine: “He expressed concerns that the Ukrainian government was not serious about reform. He even mentioned that Ukraine tried to take him down in the last election.”
Sondland confirmed he made a call to President Trump from a Kiev restaurant on July 26.
“I remember I was at a restaurant in Kiev, and I have no reason to doubt that this conversation included the subject of investigations.”
Sondland said he knew that investigations were “important to President Trump.”
However, Sondland said he has no recollection of discussing the Bidens on that phone call. He did not dispute other witness accounts of the call, which Trump said he does not remember.
“I know nothing about that,” Trump told a news conference on Nov. 13.
Ken Starr now on Faux news citing Schiff trying to link the third article of impeachment against Nixon - obstruction
Basis. Sondlands I couldn’t get info I needed to refresh my memory.
Starr weasels enough to make it sound like its doomsday.
if he’s being paid to be on Faux , its probably what they wanted him to say as
they still think we take Faux as being “ fair and balanced”
Its all about viewership at this point. Any show that has Cris Wallace commenting I discount.
I like Hemmer, but he has to follow whatever the show directors put in front of him
so lets see how the rest of the day plays out....
Will be very interesting to see Republicans cross on this and how they counter Schiff and Sonderland
Quid Pro Quo = This for that. Unless I missed something; isn’t that how negotiations are made? At the very least it’s a starting point to something that’s mutually beneficial to both sides.
I’m not seeing a problem here. A whole lot of mountains being made from a single tiny molehill.
To know so much before,
Nunes shows he did not know much!!
True!
Giuliani is a hero
You’re morons to by the MSM LIES
He’s got sworn affidavits by eight or more Ukrainian officials about all the corruption that the Democrats did there
that’s called evidence that’s not called hearsay
He didn’t like Rudy being involved and didn’t like the fact that Rudy was going around him and others. From what Rudy has said, comms were being blocked by the standard channels(obama holdover commies) so Rudy went around them for Trump.
President Trump seemed not to trust the system.
I wonder why? (Not really!)
He said ,she said ,they said who said and i’m clear on that!
He seems to need a lot of water. Dry mouth?
Seems to be learning a lot of information he did not know, even he knows more than anyone!
“I’m very clear” LOL!!
Still can’t get the records and I could answer your questions. Guess his memory is not very good?
Obama spied on the Trump campaign and interfered in the election and changed department rules after the election.
Whole lot of projection from the criminal Left.
Obama also turned the loyalties of the federal law enforcement from being loyal to the country to being loyal to the dimrat party.
Is there any evidence to back his “rememberance”?
All the Democrats are just auditioning for biggest scapegoats.The Democrats don’t know how this will play out so they are just lining up the bodies for the firing squad.This is just the first act that they will be using for their 2020 Fall narrative.
This guy is not making sense. The President told them to work with Giuliani and they did....not the President. Giuliani supposedly tells Perry, Volker and others he wanted the Ukranian President to issue a statement re: investigations into Burisma and Biden. Then he says Giuliani expressed that stipulation to the Ukrainians and “us”. This is all over the place. He also says it was in the call, which it wasn’t. If you read through this, it’s almost as if this guy is changing his testimony so badly he wants you to know it’s not true.
Ozerden leans moderate
Poor choice
If this is their “bombshell”... good luck.
This mans opinion, does not an impeachment make...
But we all know the press will run with it like its the word of God.
One of the fundamental rules about leftists..
if you want to know what they are up to... look at what they accuse their opponents of doing.
The only thing left after all this is for Trump’s masterful Tweet to wrap it all up.STRIKE
After an acquittal by the Senate, Mitch McConnell won’t obey Pelosi’s orders to hold such a vote.
Excellent points.
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