Hello Greg,
Thanks for posting this. Rebuttal follows.
Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, questioned Gordon Sondland, the U.S.
ambassador
to the European Union, on Nov. 20, in a public hearing as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Turner, who called Sondland's testimony "somewhat circular," questioned the ambassador's assertion that "everyone was in the loop." "If Giuliani didn't give you any expressed statement, then it can't be that you believed this [about the connection between investigations and aid] from Giuliani," Turner said. "Is that your testimony today, Amb. Sondland? That you have evidence that
Donald
Trump tied the investigations to aid because I don't think you're saying that." Sondland said he was "PRESUMING" that is what Trump meant. Sondland testified that there was a "quid pro quo" in which U.S. aid and a White
House
meeting were contingent on Ukraine agreeing to investigate the
2016 elections and the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, where the son of 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden, Hunter, sat on the board. Sondland also said he understood the prerequisites to be a reflection of Trumps desires and requirements.
(CNN)Gordon Sondland made a LOT of news in his opening statement to the
House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday. There was a quid pro quo
between the Americans and the Ukrainains. Everybody in the White House
knew about it. And the Ukrainians knew too.
But there was one piece of Sondland's testimony that didn't get as much attention as it should have. Under questioning from Intelligence
Committee chair Adam Schiff (D-California) about the specific nature of
the quid pro quo between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Sondland said this:
"He had to announce the investigations. He didn't actually have to do
them, as I understood it."
Which, to be clear, means that in order for Zelensky to get the White
House meeting he so coveted, he needed to simply announce that Ukraine
was looking into Joe and Hunter Biden -- despite there being no evidence
of wrongdoing by either of them -- as well as the whereabouts of the
hacked Democratic National Committee server.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/21/politics/gordon-sondland-testimony/index
..html
Ambassador Sondland's statement totally destroys Donald Trump's
anti-corruption argument. And I mean totally.
"He had to announce the investigations. He didn't actually have to do
them, as I understood it." ~Ambassador Gordon Sondland, 11/20/2019
The bottom line is Trump's boat is sunk.
"I want nothing." ~Donald J. Trump, 11/20/2019
--Lee
--
Big Or Small We Lay Them All
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