Trump’s “No Quid Pro Quo” Defense Falls Apart with Sondland Testifying on the Ukraine Scandal

Trump’s ambassador to the EU flips.
gordon sondland
Win McNamee

Since the Ukraine scandal broke, Donald Trump and his supporters have argued that there was "no quid pro quo." At the heart of the scandal is whether Trump withheld military aid to the Ukrainians and would only release it in exchange for Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, publicly announcing that he would investigate Trump's political rival, former vice president Joe Biden, and his son Hunter's involvement with Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Trump has repeatedly asserted that there was "no quid pro quo," as have his defenders, including Vice President Mike Pence, Texas senator Ted Cruz, Ohio representative Jim Jordan, and many, many, many more. That defense was always shaky.

Last week, as the public hearings began in the House, acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor testified that one of his staff members heard a call between Trump and Gordon Sondland, Trump's ambassador to the European Union, in which Sondland said, "Trump cares more about the investigations into the Bidens." And so the testimony of Sondland has been highly anticipated. On Wednesday, Sondland flipped, stating that Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Guiliani, was explicitly trying to arrange a "quid pro quo."

From Sondland's prepared remarks:

Fourth, as I testified previously, Mr. Giuliani’s requests were a quid pro quo for arranging a White House visit for President Zelensky. Mr. Giuliani demanded that Ukraine make a public statement announcing investigations of the 2016 election/DNC server and Burisma. Mr. Giuliani was expressing the desires of the President of the United States, and we knew that these investigations were important to the President.

He continued: "Fifth, in July and August 2019, we learned that the White House had also suspended security aid to Ukraine. I was adamantly opposed to any suspension of aid, as the Ukrainians needed those funds to fight against Russian aggression. 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."

Sondland also made it explicit that the quid pro quo was directed by Trump. "As a presidential appointee, I followed the directions of the President," his remarks state. "We worked with Mr. Giuliani because the President directed us to do so."

Republicans have been experimenting with a lot of different defenses for Trump over the course of the hearings, and one of their most recent tactics has been to go after the Democrats' use of synonyms. In his opening statement at Tuesday's hearing, Devin Nunes, a Republican and the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said, "After trying out several different accusations against President Trump, the Democrats have recently settled on 'bribery'—according to widespread reports, they replaced their 'quid pro quo' allegation because it wasn’t polling well." Representative John Ratcliffe demanded, "The American people are asking, if the facts are the same, why do the crimes the president of the United States are accused of keep changing? Why do we go from quid pro quo to extortion and now to bribery?”

Sondland's testimony would appear to cut the legs out from under this latest spin.


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