Sondland Sells Out Everyone in Opening Testimony

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Sondland

The witness everyone has been waiting to hear from just finished his opening testimony and opening majority questioning.

The most devastating comments made by Sondland affirmed that quid pro quo was in place, but it hardly ends there and it did NOT implicate Trump but rather Rudy Giuliani.

The Implications

Sondland took the stand today with the obvious intention of covering his own butt.

He went out of his way to implicate everyone in the administration other than himself.

The one person that was clearly implicated here is Rudy Giuliani, who, according to Sondland, told him the investigations were required for the White House meeting and aid to be freed up.

Sondland also fed the narrative of obstruction by saying the White House has blocked him from getting documentation from his files that would have helped him jog his memory as to what happened during the timeframes in question.

Democrats are going to jump all over this as yet another charge of obstruction and more than likely allow them to go forward with articles of impeachment.

The Questions

The one thing that Democrats did not get that they wanted was a direct link to Trump.

Democrats, to this point, have portrayed Sondland as someone that had direct contact with Trump all the time, something Sondland dismissed during his testimony.

Sondland reiterated many times that quid pro quo never came from Trump, that it came from Giuliani.

However, when there was a direct conversation with Trump, the President flat-out told Sondland he wanted nothing and to tell Zelesnky to do the right thing.

Sondland did, however, implicate both Mike Pompeo and Mike Pence as being knowledgeable in the alleged scheme.

My personal impression of Sondland is that he is not completely believable.

I think some of his statements were damaging but ultimately, again, it was his perception of what people were thinking.

The fact that Trump told him personally no quid pro quo and that he did not want anything should be the most important thing to come from this hearing, but we all know that will not be the case. 

We can also see some real problems for Giuliani down the road from this, as he clearly made some questionable requests, possibly acting on his own in a rogue fashion in an effort to try to help President Trump (but there is still no proof Giuliani was told to do this directly from Trump).

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