If there was one person who could directly tie president Donald Trump to the alleged quid pro-quo with the Ukrainians, it was Gordon Sondland. The multimillionaire hotel executive-turned-ambassador had a regular channel of communication with Trump and was a central driver of Washington’s Ukraine policy. As Rep. Mark Meadows, one of Trump’s most committed defenders, said, “The impeachment effort comes down to one guy, Ambassador Sondland.”
The White House was likely preparing for a rough day, and Sondland rose to the occasion. His opening statement was a damning indictment of Trump’s role in the entire scheme, where a meeting between the president and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy was conditioned on Kiev announcing an investigation into the energy company Burisma and supposed 2016 U.S. election interference. Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, was the enforcer carrying out the president’s wishes. And everybody in the national security bureaucracy knew what was going on.
“Mr. Giuliani demanded that Ukraine make a public statement announcing investigations of the 2016 election/DNC server and Burisma,” Sondland testified to the impeachment committee.
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