Rats abandoning ship

Some would like to stay out of jail.

Now that it's out Sondland called Trump after Taylor's text to him specifically voiced the fact that Trump was holding Ukraine's aid money hostage in return for dirt on Biden, Sondland would like to come clean.

The U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, intends to tell Congress this week that the content of a text message he wrote denying a quid pro quo with Ukraine was relayed to him directly by President Trump in a phone call, according to a person familiar with his testimony.

  WaPo

What a surprise.

Sondland plans to tell lawmakers he has no knowledge of whether the president was telling him the truth at that moment. “It’s only true that the president said it, not that it was the truth,” said the person familiar with Sondland’s planned testimony, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters.

[...]

The White House and its defenders have held up Sondland’s text, which included “no quid pro quo’s of any kind,” as proof that none was ever considered.

[...]

The person familiar with Sondland’s testimony said the ambassador “believed Trump at the time and on that basis passed along assurances” that Trump was not withholding military aid for political purposes.

Yes, he would say that.

Hours before Sondland called the president, he received a text message from the acting ambassador to Ukraine, William B. Taylor, raising questions about the aid holdup. “I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign,” Taylor texted Sondland.

Taylor's obviously no dummy. Get it in writing.

That’s when Sondland, according to the person’s understanding, called Trump, who then told him he didn’t “want a quid pro quo . . . didn’t want anything from Ukraine.” The call lasted less than five minutes, and Trump appeared to be in a foul mood, according to the person, who spoke to The Post with Sondland’s permission, an intermediary said.

Hmmmmm...Is that like James Comey giving his notes to a friend to disseminate? A leak and a breach of executive privilege?

Sondland, who has emerged as a central actor in Trump’s efforts to persuade Ukraine to open investigations, will be deposed before House investigators on Thursday.

[...]

Sondland is expected to say that for months before the Sept. 9 message, he worked at the direction of Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, to secure what he would call in another text message the “deliverable” sought by Trump: a public statement from Ukraine that it would investigate corruption, including mentioning Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, by name. In exchange for the statement, the president would grant Ukraine’s new president a coveted White House audience.

“It was a quid pro quo, but not a corrupt one,” the person familiar with Sondland’s testimony said.

There it is. The last phase in GOP/Trump defense: He did it, and that's okay. We always go from "he didn't do it" to "he didn't do it, but he had every right to do it" to "he did it but it wasn't illegal."

Sondland appears poised to say that he and other diplomats did not know that the request to mention Burisma was really an effort to impugn the reputations of Biden and his son Hunter, who had served as a Burisma board member.

They were too ignorant to have a job. (Which, in Sondland's case, may be true. He was a hotelier and Trump inaugural committee donor to the tune of $1M before getting his diplomat's position in the administration.)

Sondland contends that he didn’t know about the Biden connection until a whistleblower complaint and transcript surfaced in late September.

But after he found out, he went along with it. Until those texts got out.

For months, Sondland’s deep involvement in issues related to Ukraine struck diplomats in Brussels and Washington as highly unusual, given his role as envoy to the European Union, a large trade bloc that does not include Ukraine. Former U.S. officials have said Sondland viewed the Ukraine assignment as critical to winning Trump’s favor and auditioning for a more senior job in the administration.

[...]

Besides working with Giuliani, Sondland also partnered with Kurt Volker, special envoy to Ukraine, and Energy Secretary Rick Perry. The three men were all part of the U.S. delegation to Zelensky’s inauguration in May and left that ceremony excited about the prospects for a vibrant new American partner in Ukraine, according to Sondland’s perspective.

The three returned to Washington intent on pressing Trump to meet quickly with Zelensky. But instead of receiving a positive reception, the idea was met with a “buzz saw” in the Oval Office, the person said. Trump was disgruntled about Ukraine, blaming opponents in the country for attempting to undermine his 2016 victory.

“Trump was saying Ukraine ‘tried to do me in,’ ” the person said.

Reminds me of Dubya's "He tried to kill my dad!" reason for invading Iraq, while pretending it was because they had WMD.

The three surmised that Giuliani had filled Trump’s head with a number of baseless conspiracy theories, including that a hacked server belonging to the Democratic National Committee was spirited away to Ukraine.

Laying more groundwork to make Rudy the scapegoat. Trump follows enough right-wing conspiracy theories on Twitter. He doesn't need Rudy's help.

Perry, Sondland and Volker each took a turn trying to move Trump to no avail. The president ended the meeting saying: “If you want to do something you have to talk to Rudy.”

Because Rudy was doing his bidding on Ukraine and Trump didn't want to talk about it any more.

Sondland is prepared to say he had a very limited role over the summer.

There's another surprise.

He did not speak directly to Giuliani until Aug. 1, the person said. And because of his job in Brussels, he “was not the central connection.”

I didn't plan the heist. I only procured the explosives.

Giuliani, in conversations with The Washington Post, has described Sondland’s role as more expansive, saying he spoke with Sondland about six times this summer about Ukraine. “He seemed to be in charge. It just seemed like he was more decisive,” Giuliani said.

Giuliani acknowledges seeking a statement in which the Ukrainians would have publicly committed to investigating Burisma, but he says Volker and Sondland drafted it, not him.

Sondland, while acknowledging a close relationship with Trump, viewed Volker as more of a presence on the Ukraine issue. “The fact that he had some relationship with Trump did not put him in the vanguard of dealing with Rudy, that was Volker,” the person said.

No honor among thieves.

“The statement that Rudy was demanding was a quid pro quo for a White House visit, there was no doubt about that. But it was about corruption, which from their perspective wasn’t particularly problematic, it’s an issue the U.S. had been dealing with there for years.”

Like Junior's Trump Tower meeting was about adoption.

The fact that Trump was specifically naming Joe and Hunter Biden, and no one else didn't clue them in. I can sell you a nice bridge in Brooklyn.

By Sept. 9, Sondland, however, had grown increasingly concerned, as military funding for Ukraine now appeared tied to the statement as well. The person said Sondland was never briefed about Biden being part of the issue and was not aware of it until the transcript of the phone call was released. “If he had known earlier, he never would have touched this.”

He's innocent, I tell you.

Sondland “somehow wants all of us to believe that he is ‘shocked, shocked’ that anything he was wrapped up in was aimed at the Bidens. That beggars belief,” said Andrew Weiss, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “After all, he is a political appointee who prided himself on having direct access to Trump during this period.”

Yes, but an ignorant one.

Sondland is expected to testify before three House committees on Thursday, defying an order from the State Department not to comply with Democrats' impeachment inquiry.

"Ambassador Sondland believes strongly that he acted at all times in the best interests of the United States, and he stands ready to answer the Committee’s questions fully and truthfully," his attorney said in a statement this week.

  The Hill

Under subpoena, it should be noted.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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